Oz,
Yes, whatever example of the Trinity we use,,,it turns out to be modalism. The best example I've used is the triangle....it is ONE but has THREE equal sides, or points.
All of the above examples could be used with younger children.
For "real" teens (which I have never taught, although I would have liked to but these classes are not present here)... I would have remained with explaining God and trying not to use examples...except perhaps for the triangle which you and I both are familiar with (will post it at bottom).
God can reveal Himself as He will to us in order to make us understand Him. God Father is spirit and is the creator.
God Son or the 2nd person of the Trinity will become Jesus who comes to us to show us in person who God is and what He desires of us. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of God made person and dwells within us since our spirit is one with God's spirit.
We can also find fault with the above...but at some point we have to begin to understand it in some way that makes sense to our brain without fully understanding since we are finite.
A 10/11 yr old once asked me:
When Jesus was on earth...was He still in heaven?
Kids come up with better questions than adults.
(The Trinity always remains in tact).
Anyway...GOOD LUCK!!
View attachment 9435
I was discussing ideas about God and eternity with a muslim.
In the discussion it became apparent that whatever is eternal, that has no beginning or end, is actually part of God.
It then becomes each eternal thing or expression, is not the whole of God, yet is an expression of God Himself.
I realised that in my own thinking all of Gods expression I felt had to include every aspect or reality of the whole. But scripture appears to express that Jesus could exclude various expressions of himself as He chose.
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!
Phil 2:5-8
In some discussions, there appears to be a miss-understanding of Gods ability to express Himself, and be separate from the whole, yet still be the same. In our human terms, our possession of two arms and legs, does not mean losing an arm makes us less than who we are, but does limit how we can express ourselves.
So Jesus is Gods message, His creative force, His nature and His essence, but placed in human form. So everything Jesus feels, expresses, reacts is the same as the Father, so if you have met Jesus you have met the Father, though they are separate, they are the same. Now Gods nature or essence is to never change, to not vary, and to be consistent totally.
What confused me for a time, is with Gods nature, and His response, why would He participate with man and partake in interactions where responses are needed. But on considering free will, for God to express His reaction to a changing situation, with appropriate free will interaction, the discussion needs to happen, along with the emphasis that a free will response is required to bring about Gods will, requires the interaction to achieve this appropriate response.
Jesus had to be God, to be the expression of Gods love and willingness to sacrifice everything He could on our behalf and then forgive us, to provide the healing remedy for our hearts.
I wonder if what we experience as identical twins having identical bodies is similar to the trinity, if the very heart and reactions of both were identical. Jesus and the Father are both different individuals yet show the same heart that drives actions and reactions.
As humans we are bound to the idea though two can look the same but they react differently, because they choose how to develop, how to sow and reap as they grow.
In a sense an eternal being does not develop or grow, but rather expresses the same approach and aptitude through differing situations.
So eternal beings, expressing the same nature, and are yet the same, are one God, yet three expressions. Without the separateness they could not operate independently, yet each agree with the nature of their response, being one God. Because they are eternal their oneness is infinite, yet their separateness is within their own permission.
Without Jesus being a man, our relationship and our belief we could be friends or have communion with the Lord, would be the blasphemy and denial of Gods otherness that otherwise is obvious.
David expressed this when the man who held out his hand to steady the Ark on a wagon died, he got angry, yet it was their own sin towards the Ark that was at fault. The Pharisees legalism also missed the relationship with God from the heart.
