Is the "Trinity" a Contradiction?

Question: How can God be one and three? Is this not a contradiction?

Answer: There is no contradiction because though the Bible presents God as one and three, it does not present Him as one and three in the same sense. He is one in a sense and three in a different sense.

The Bible itself does not explain the concept of the Trinity. It gives the facts—1) there is one God, 2) there are three distinct persons: the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and 3) each is fully divine. Yet the biblical authors don’t go out of their way with much explanation beyond that (though those facts are themselves clear enough). In my estimation the historical Trinity doctrine is the best explanation of those facts. Below is the historical explanation, and I find it agreeable to the scriptures and as understandable as is possible.

Solidly, the Bible teaches monotheism, that is, there is only one God. Thus God is one being (Deuteronomy 6:4; Malachi 2:10; Isaiah 44:6). Being means that which something is, i.e., its essence. Light, for instance, has being. It has that which makes it light by nature. God has being. It’s the “what” of God—what makes Him what He is.

Additionally, New Testament revelation further presents three divine persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Who each share this same nature or essence. Person refers to that which is personal, possessing thought, self-consciousness, and will, etc.

So the apparent contradiction of God being three and one vanishes in knowing this difference between being and person. We may not realize it, but we all recognize this difference. Think about it. Wood has being—that which makes it wood—yet it has no personhood. Water has no personhood, but it has being. My phone has being, but it is not a person (even though I talk to it). I, on the other hand, have both personhood and being. My being is human, and unlike God, who is unique, I am finite in time and space. The whole of me is limited to one person and one space. God’s being is infinite and is tri-personal.

The New Testament presents the Father, Son, and Spirit as distinct from one another (Matthew 28:19; Acts 7:55; 16:13; 17:5; 1 Corinthians 15:23-24). Moreover, all three persons are revealed in the New Testament as possessing the attributes unique of deity, such as eternality (John 1:1; Hebrews 9:14), omniscience (1 Corinthians 2:10-11; Revelation 2:23), immutability (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 1:12; 13:8), etc. In other words, all three persons share the same essence or nature. There is One Divine Nature that is shared by three persons.

There is no doubt that God’s nature is difficult to grasp, and, realistically, why wouldn't it be? If God is an infinite being, then finite creatures can never fully comprehend Him. But it is important not to equate incomprehensibility with irrationality—the two are not the same. It isn’t correct to conclude, as many do, that because the triune nature of God is hard to comprehend, it is therefore irrational. In fact, we accept other attributes of God’s nature as hard to understand without thinking they're illogical. We accept that God never had a beginning even though we cannot wrap the arms of comprehension around it. God is self-existent, which is incomprehensible, but it is not nonsense. He created everything from nothing, and that is hard to think about, but it is not illogical. Incomprehensible but not illogical. There are things that are beyond comprehension though there is nothing illogical about them, such as the immensity of the ocean when you stand on the shore gazing at it, the size of the universe as you stare into the night stars, your own mind and consciousness, the speed of light, the infinite amount of numbers, and on goes the list.

• The Bible presents monotheism (one God)

• The Bible presents three distinct persons—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

• The Bible presents each person with the unique attributes of deity

• The Bible presents the above facts but doesn’t fully explain them

• The “Trinity” may be difficult to comprehend but it isn’t irrational

• God is “one” in one sense and “three” in another sense