Is it like ice cream or water?

I saw someone online use Neapolitan ice cream, as an analogy, to explain the Trinity to someone who isn’t a Christian. If you don’t know what Neapolitan ice cream is, it’s made up of one part chocolate flavour, one part strawberry flavour and one part vanilla flavour. I could kind of see where he was trying to go with this but he was actually explaining partialism which isn't what Christians believe. Christian theologians call partialism heresy, which means it’s a belief that goes against the principles of the religion. Partialism is the belief that God is made up of different parts. This isn’t God, God is three co-equal and co-eternal persons, who are fully God, not gods plural but one God. 

I personally think this ice cream example would bring more confusion to non Christians about what the Trinity is, even more because some already think we worship 3 gods! 

I know this is very hard for non-Christians to get their head around the Trinity and God being three co-equal and co-eternal persons, who are a fully single God. This is because they are limiting God’s existence to how humans exist. We know that it’s impossible for a person, let's call her Simone, to be made up of three different people, let's call them Lisa, Carole and Michelle, and still only be one person called Simone. That’s why it’s important to remember that God isn’t human and His existence surpasses the limitation of any human. 

The Trinity

If anyone asks me to explain the Trinity to them. I always use H₂O as the analogy. If you've never heard the H₂O analogy then keep reading.

H₂O

So H₂O which is the chemical name for water, ice and steam. For the purpose of this analogy H₂O represents God. There is only one God. Christians do not believe in 3 different gods or a God made up of three parts and each part being only a fraction of God.

H₂O: Water

Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.- Isaiah 64:8

Water is the liquid form of H₂O. For the purpose of this analogy water represents God the Father who is in Heaven. The Father is the creator of the universe and continues to maintain it.

He loves and cares for humanity like a protective father. He forgives our sins, which determines if all humans get to heaven or not. 

Christians mainly call Him the Father, others use the Old Testament name YHWH (pronounced Yahweh) or Jehovah.

H₂O: Ice

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”". - John 14:6

Ice is the solid form of H₂O. For the purpose of this analogy ice represents God the Son. This is Jesus Christ. Christians also call Jesus, Lord or Yeshua. Jesus is the Greek translation of Yeshua because the New Testament was written in the Greek. Yeshua is an Aramaic name. Jesus and his family spoke Aramaic.

An interesting fact, the Hebrew translation of Yeshua is Yehoshua and they both have the same meaning, which is “God is salvation” and “Yahwah (God) saves”. The English translation for Yeshua/Yehoshua is Joshua. So, if you know someone called Joshua, or your name is Joshua. Then their name (or your name) means “God is salvation” and “God saves”. Also know that in Greek their name is Jesus!

Jesus Christ came down to earth as fully 100% human and fully 100% God. I know you are thinking but that’s not mathematically correct, shouldn’t that be 50% each to make 100%? No, again that is thinking in human terms. God surpasses our limitations and our maths! If Jesus was part human and part God then that would be partialism and limiting Christ’s divinity. 

Jesus died on the cross, rose from the dead, stayed on earth for another 40 days, visiting his disciples, talking to them and showing them his wounds from the crucifixion. During this time Jesus was seen by over 500 different people. After 40 days, He went to Heaven, where He currently is and is at the right hand side of God the Father, until He returns to Earth for a second and final time.

The Father said that the penalty for our sins in death. Jesus Christ never committed a sin, so when He died on the cross, He came back to life and defeated death because there was no sin to give him permanent death. 

Jesus is the only person to defeat death. Now before you say that’s not true Lazarus was brought back to life by Jesus and Elijah went straight to heaven. Lazarus did eventually die and wasn’t brought back to life again. Elijah couldn’t defeat death because he didn’t die. He was taken straight to heaven alive by the Father. Jesus  defeated death because he died for 3 days, became alive again AND will never die again because He is divine. 

So because Jesus was sinless but chose to die for our sins, anyone who confesses that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Saviour, and repents of all their sins will spend eternity with God. They will not go to hell when they die and they will defeat the second permanent death which is the lake of fire. The lake of fire is a fiery lake that Jesus will throw the following into: 

• Satan and his demons, 

• all people who have died and are currently in hell

• all the people who are still living and didn’t confess Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and repent of their sins by the time Jesus returns to Earth. By the way, only the Father knows when Jesus is coming back. 

Just a quick note, repenting of your sins doesn't just mean saying sorry and continuing to do the same sinful action like nothing happened. Repenting means saying sorry to God and turning away from that bad habit by telling God that you will try really hard not to do it again and meaning it.

Jesus is the link between us and God the Father. When we repent of our sins, Jesus takes these to The Father and because it has come through sinless Jesus. The Father forgives our sinful action and forgets it. It’s like we have been wiped clean by the perfect pure blood that Jesus shed on the cross. 

When we accept Jesus as Lord we also accept His love that He has always given us but we rejected in the past. He also cleans us on the inside and cleans our hearts. It is like we are born again because the old version of us dies and the new version of us wants to live a life filled with God’s love and living a life in the way Jesus set out in the Bible. It's a truly freeing felling.

If you want to understand more about the part Jesus plays in wiping away our sins and why only Jesus can do this for anyone who accept Jesus as Lord and asks Him,  then read my other post It’s Story Time here.

God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” - Exodus 3:14

Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” - John 8:58

H₂O: Steam

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” … But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. - Acts 1:4-5, Acts 1:8

Back to good old H₂O. Steam is the gas form of H₂O. For the purpose of this analogy steam represents God the Holy Spirit. Just before Jesus went back up to heaven after He rose from the dead, He left his followers with a special gift from the Father. The reason for this gift was to guide them and help them to make the right decisions, the decisions that the Father wanted them to make. This was because Jesus wouldn’t be around as a human for them to ask Him questions or ask for advice on what the Father wants. This gift was the Holy Spirit. We can see the Holy Spirit as their very own advocate, alerting them to dangers and guiding them in the right directions in life. 

Jesus Christ and the Father also give the gift of the Holy Spirit to any person who:

• Confesses that Jesus Christ, is the Son of the Father and is their personal Lord and Saviour

• Repent all their sinful actions to God the Father, through Jesus and continue to do this for the rest of their life. 

• Fully surrenders to Jesus and the Father. 

Remember Jesus said that no one can get to the Father except through Jesus. 

When you get a sudden feeling about a person or a thing and you think it’s intuition. It’s not intuition, it’s a spirit guiding you or telling you something, whether you realise it’s a spirit or not.

When Lucifer and one third of God’s rebellious angels were cast out of heaven onto earth,  Lucifer became Satan and these fallen angels became demons or to use another term demonic spirits. These demonic spirits need a house to operate from and houses they love the most are in… wait for it… humans. We are mind, body and spirit, therefore all humans have to house a spirit within them, whether it’s the Holy Spirit or (gulp!) “another” spirit. People who have fully surrendered to Christ and the Father, have the Holy Spirit living in them. 

It is obvious when someone is filled with the Holy Spirit they have a type of presence that radiates from them. The Holy Spirit is always going to point you to Christ and guide you to live your life in the way the Bible says. The Holy Spirit, within a fully surrendered Christian/follower of Christ, will make them feel terrible at the mere thought of sinning. This is to try and stop them from doing a bad habit, for example manipulating someone or gossiping. Even if you give in to the sinful action, the Holy Spirit will make you feel even worse after. You won’t feel bad for yourself, you will feel bad for disappointing God. This is called being convicted by the Holy Spirit.

God

So that’s God in a nutshell. To recap, H₂O is like God. Water is the liquid form of H₂O and represents the Father. Ice is the solid form of H₂O and represents Jesus Christ. Steam is the gas form of H₂O and represents the Holy Spirit. This is God, co-equal, one isn’t more important than the other, we need them all. They are co-eternal, they have no beginning and no end. Importantly they are not three separate gods. 

When we think of H₂O we usually think of water. However H₂O doesn’t stop being H₂O when it's ice. H₂O doesn’t stop being H₂O when it becomes steam. If you take running water and pour it in a cup, pour it in an ice cube tray and put it in the freezer and put the running water on hot stones so it produces steam. You then place a cup of water, the ice cubes and the steaming stones on a table, they all have the exact same chemical composition- H₂O, neither is more powerful than the other. They look different, they are their own individual item and have different functions but they are all H₂O. They are not a part of H₂O. It’s not the case that water cannot fully be H₂O without ice and steam. No, water is still fully H₂O without ice and steam. Ice is still fully H₂O without water and steam and steam is still fully H₂O without water and ice. 

H₂O is like God. God is the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. The Father without Jesus and the Holy Spirit is still fully God. Jesus without the Father and the Holy Spirit is still fully God. The Holy Spirit without Jesus and the Father is still fully God. They look different and have different functions in our lives but to use the H₂O analogy one more time, they have the exact same “chemical composition”, they are one God. 

We need water to drink for basic survival but for a life that is more than basic survival, a life that is good quality not just for yourself but for the rest of humanity we need H₂O. We need water to keep us alive, to clean us, to grow plants and trees and to sustain the seas. We need ice to cool us down when we get too hot and bothered and to control the temperature of the Earth. We need steam to warm us up when we get too cold, we need it to provide electricity, to run factories and to sterilise our environments. 

This is the same with God, to have more than just basic survival, we need God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We need the Father to love us, correct us, protect us, sustain us and the universe and forgive our sins. We need Jesus Christ to love us, save us from our sins, clean us up from the inside, and keep us connected to the Father. We need the Holy Spirit to love us, guide us, warn us, protect us, cool us down when we get too angry, warm us up so we are passionate about the Lord and keep us connected to Jesus Christ. 

We need God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit to develop a truly indescribable relationship with God, which is the best feeling in the world, He lets you know, through your prayers to Him, that He will never leave you alone. We need God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit to make us be as close as the person that God designed us to be before sin entered the world. We need God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit to bring light into our darkness. We need God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit to help us through our struggles and suffering. We need God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit because it’s the only way to get salvation and spend eternity with God. We need God like we need H₂O.

I hope this has helped you and if anyone ever asks you to explain what Christians mean by the Trinity, please feel free to use the H₂O analogy. It might help it make more sense to them. 

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. - Matthew 28:19

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