The subject of the trinity is a difficult one, even for those that endorse it. It is hard to wrap one’s head around any paradox, especially on that involves things that are Gods being one God, something that we have no empirical evidence for.

The paradox is this:

• There is one God¹.
• The Father is God².
• Jesus is God³.
• The Holy Spirit is God⁴.
• The Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are distinct from each other^{5 6}.

It would seem that there is no possible way for the Father, the Son, and the Spirit to be one and yet distinct from one another. Yet, Christianity maintains it is so. This is our paradox. Another way of putting it, in a more snide form, is to ask, “Did God talk to himself when Jesus prayed to the Father? Was He schizoid? (or for the sake of argument, have dissociative identity disorder?” While at first this might be offensive to Trinitarians, it is a problem that must be solved, even if the answer is yes.

It is because of this difficulty that Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, and Jews have a primie facie complaint against Christianity. To the Muslim and to the Jew, the idea that God can be compartmentalized is one of the greatest insults one can heave at Allah or Jehovah. Major tenets of each faith maintain that God is unified. This idea is referred to as Tawhīd in Islam.

Thus is the Christian problem of the Trinity; the Christian answer to this problem will be addressed in a later post.

References:

<sup>1. Deuteronomy 4:35 (English Standard Version)
2. John 17:1-3 (English Standard Version)
3. John 1:1-20 (English Standard Version)
4. Acts 5:1-5 (English Standard Version)
5. Matthew 28:19 (English Standard Version)
6. Luke 3:21-22 (English Standard Version)</sup>