Trinity.

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baron

Puritan Board Graduate
Not sure if this is right place to post this question but here goes.

I was reading Jonathan Edwards, Essay on the Trinity he states: The Father is as the substance of the Sun. (By substance I don't mean in a philosophical sense, but the Sun as to its internal constitution.) The Son is as the brightness and the glory of the disk of the Sun or that bright and glorious form under which it appears to our eyes. The Holy Ghost is the action of the Sun which is within the Sun in its intestine heat, and being diffusive, enlightens, warms, enlivens and comforts the world. The Spirit as it is God's Infinite love to Himself and happiness in Himself, is as the internal heat of the Sun, but as it is that which God communicates Himself, it is as emanation of the sun's action, or the emitted beams of the sun.

Is this a good example to use when talking to unbelievers about the Trinity, or to other Christians who are asking about the Trinity? Is there a good analogy that one can use regarding the Trinity. I'm meeting more Christians that do not believe in the Trinity. Also can one be a Christians and not believe in the Trinity? Christians are saying they have dropped the Trinity because its illogical and hinders witnessing to the unsaved especially Muslims.

I'm not that good in Apologetics (always get confused with all the philosophical terms) and regarding the Trinity I feel like a dog chasing his tail. I usually tell them which of us mortal beings can fully understand all that God is.

Thank you for any help on this topic.
 
It's an analogy that has often been used; but like all analogies regarding the Trinity it has as much potential to mislead as to inform.

If someone denies the doctrine of the Trinity they can't be a Christian in any meaningful use of the term. If you do not know that the one God is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, then what God exactly do you know, worship, confess? People can be more or less clear in their minds, so we can be somewhat charitable about formulations that aren't very good if the intention is clearly to say that God is one, but that there are three who are God. But that is who God is - if you deny that, you are denying God himself, because there isn't any other.
 
When talking to believers about the Trinity, I look to 2 Cor. 13:14 to start the conversation. It's a short message but I believe Paul gives a great synopsis of their separate roles even though they are equally divine.
 
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It has some okay parts, like linking Holy Spirit and divine action. Reformed philosopher Oliver Crisp has given a penetrating critique of Edwards' essay in Engaging the Doctrine of God
 
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