Ch. 35 A Trinity Analogy
As mentioned earlier, the Trinity is the concept that God is one God,
and He exists as three eternal persons: God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. Three persons yet one nature. Some people
try to use water as an analogy for the Trinity saying water can exist
as a solid, liquid, or gas. But other people will quickly point out
that water cannot exist in all three states at the same time and
therefore using water as an analogy is actual guilty of modalism –
which is the heresy of saying the Father becomes the Son and the
Son becomes the Holy Spirit. However, I have never seen anyone
point out the fact that many substances can exist in multiple
states at the same time – this is referred to as the triple
point of a substance. For example, water can exist as a solid,
and a liquid, and a gas
all at the same time when the
temperature is 273.16 K (0.01 °C) and the pressure is 0.611657 kPa (0.00603659 atm)
which is known as the
triple point of water
.
Another example is titanium which can exist as a solid, and a liquid,
and a gas all at the same time when the temperature is 1,941 K (1,668 °C)
and the pressure is 5.3×10−3 kPa (5.2×10−5 atm) which is known
as the
triple point of titanium
. There are dozens of other substances
I could have used to provide additional examples. So, since water can
exist as a solid, and a liquid, and a gas
all at the same time,
using water as an analogy for the Trinity is valid. However,
I have come up with what I feel is a better analogy for the Trinity:
The Three Fingers Through Two Dimensions
analogy.
I thought of this analogy many years ago and I have never seen or heard of anyone else using it. Although the analogy is not contained in any book I have read, it was inspired by a short book. In 1884, a teacher named Edwin Abbott, wrote a short novel titled
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
.
In it, Abbott describes a fictional two-dimensional world called
Flatland
. People living in Flatland are simple geometric shapes such as triangles, squares, polygons, and circles. Residents of Flatland determine who they meet by feeling their way around the perimeter of the other person. For example, a triangle could deduce that they are interacting with another triangle or perhaps they met a square or a circle. A particular square in Flatland encounters a sphere which is a three-dimensional person from Spaceland. But since the square is from Flatland, he can only perceive the three-dimensional sphere as a circle because that is a two-dimensional “slice” through the sphere. Spoiler: Even though the square comes to believe that there really are three-dimensional people and a real place called Spaceland, the square is unable to convince his fellow Flatlanders of the existence of three-dimensional people or of their home, Spaceland. The residents of Flatland are simply unable to conceive of a three-dimensional world even though it can be logically explained to them; all they know is a two-dimensional existence. They simply cannot conceive of a three-dimensional world. I was thinking about the ideas portrayed in Abbott’s book when I thought of an analogy.
The Three Fingers Through Two Dimensions Analogy
Imagine four circles living in a two-dimensional world which is really just a flat piece of paper in our three-dimensional world. None of the circles have any idea that we exist outside of their two-dimensional world. Now imagine I poke one of my fingers through the piece of paper. How would the circles react? Initially, they react with complete surprise because a circle just materialized in their presence. They investigate by feeling all the way around my finger and they confirm I am a circle just like them. Next, I poke two more fingers through their 2-D world. Again, the residents are initially shocked but then they come over and feel around each of my fingers and confirm that two new visitors have just materialized out of nowhere. Then, I remove two of my fingers from their world and I use the remaining finger to explain to the residents that the other two visitors are me. The residents are immediately confused. I tell them that the three of us share the same nature. They respond by saying “But you are three separate individuals. Do you mean you have similar natures?” I tell them “No, you perceive me as three separate persons which is true from your perception but in addition to that, I in fact share one nature.” They say “That is not logical. You cannot say you are three separate persons, and you are the same nature at the same time.” So, what do I do? I try to explain by telling them “There is another dimension in which my three separate persons are connected.” Eventually I convince two of the residents that it is logically possible to have an additional dimension and my three persons can in fact be connected as part of my one nature. But though convinced that it is logically possible to have three dimensions they quickly point out that they cannot imagine or conceive of such a three-dimensional world. The other residents of the 2-D world refuse to believe there is a third dimension because they cannot conceive of it; because they cannot imagine what such a 3-D world would look like. You, as a fellow member of this 3-D world, can easily see why the 2-D residents cannot conceive of our 3-D world. Until the 2-D residents are transformed into 3-D residents they will never truly be able to conceive how my three persons in their 2-D world actually share one nature in the 3-D world.
The fingers through the 2-D world analogy is useful to help you make one simple conclusion: The existence of a fourth dimension would allow the three persons of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit to share one divine nature. We can know three equally divine persons in this 3-D world and believe that they are connected as one God by the simple addition of one dimension. We cannot conceive of what the fourth dimension looks like, but something can logically and actually exist even if we cannot conceive of what it looks like.