How Do You Explain the Trinity to Children?
— Monday, September 10th, 2012 —
Yesterday a journalist friend emailed to ask a question I think many Christian parents have asked. How does one explain the concept of the Holy Trinity to children?
I think the reason this question resonates with so many parents is precisely because we adults can’t adequately explain the doctrine ourselves. We can teach children the inerrancy of Scripture by simply saying, “The Bible Is True.” We can explain something of the atonement by saying, “Jesus paid for our sins and is alive forever.” The Trinity, though, is another matter.
I think much of our fear and stumbling here comes with a misunderstanding of what the Christian gospel is all about. Yes, Christianity is reasonable and intelligible (Carl Henry stands affirmed).
But Christianity is not merely about reason and intelligence. The gospel points to a different kind of wisdom, one that silences human mouths (Isa. 55:8; Jer. 8:9; 1 Cor. 1:19-20).
God is one God, and God is three persons in an everlasting relationship with one another, a relationship into which we are invited. That’s not contradictory. God is not one in the same way he is three, or vice-versa. But who can reduce this to some sort of formula or easy analogy?
Sometimes we seek a quick analogy for children because we want to put our kids out of their mystery. If the Trinity is an easy explanation (it’s like a shamrock; it’s like water, ice, and steam), we can “move on.” We’re afraid if we say that the Trinity is in some ways beyond comprehension that our kids won’t trust us to tell them with confidence about the truth of the gospel.
But Jesus tells us there’s something about a child’s way of believing that ought to be true of all of us. We must, he tells us, become like them if we’re going to enter the kingdom of God at all. In one sense, it’s true, children are often hyper-literal. I remember thinking as a child that a “soul” was a little version of myself located in one of the chambers of my heart (and wearing a soldier’s uniform, for some reason).
But, in the more important ways, children are open to mystery and paradox in ways adults often aren’t. Children explore the world around them with a wide-eyed sense of wonder. They don’t comprehend it all, and they know they don’t comprehend it all.
That’s the kind of blessed ignorance I believe Jesus commends. In order to believe, you must trust everything God has said to you, but you must also see him, not your own comprehension, as Lord. To see at all we must know that we “see through a glass darkly” (1 Cor. 13:12).
With that the case, we ought to boldly say to our children, “God is One and God is three. I can’t fully explain all of that because that’s how big and mysterious God and his ways are. Isn’t that wonderful?” When your child says, “That boggles my mind,” don’t respond with a worried handwringing but with a twinkle in your eye. “I know!” you say. “Me too! Isn’t that wild, and great!”
That doesn’t end the conversation, of course. It only begins it. But we’ve got several trillion years and beyond to explore the depths of the Trinitarian reality. A start is what we need.
And learning of God’s oneness and threeness in terms of wonder and awe is a good place, I think, to start vaccinating our children from the kind of sterile rationalism, Christian or atheist, that can lead to a boring, despairing, tragically normal sort of life.
14 Responses to “How Do You Explain the Trinity to Children?”
Trackbacks
- Moore to the Point – How Do You Explain the Trinity to Children? « Think Biblically
- How Do We Talk About the Trinity With Our Kids « The Fleming Files
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- How Do You Explain the Trinity to Your Children?-Russell Moore | First Baptist Student Ministry
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- Theology Round-Up –September 2012 | Cheesewearing Theology
This parent of three (soon to be four) is very grateful for your words of wisdom. As always, well said. Thank you.
There are two analogies I use that, on a logical level, work very well. One works well for children: a name.
I only have one name. I have a first, middle, and last name. Each of which on their own are completely correctly called my name. My first name is completely distinct from my middle and last names, and my middle and last names are completely distinct from one another.
The other is even better, but children aren’t likely to understand it: the truth in a logical system in reality. By Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem, in any logical system in reality that’s consistent with reality, there are three kinds of truth: axioms, necessary truths implied by the axioms, and things that are true that cannot be proven by the axioms. They are all the truth and none is more or less true than any other. They are all distinct from one another.
Furthermore, the Bible refers to each Person of the Trinity as Truth.
Some analogies I stay away from as much as possible: mainly the H2O one. That’s pure, 100% modalism.
@Peter, While I appreciate your desire to bring the concept of the Trinity within grasp, and your concern about heresy, your Trinity illustrations also present a form of modalism. Your illustrations miss the whole point of Moore’s blog. For example, your name illustration: I may be Dad, Rick & Grandpa, but those are three names for one person, three ways of thinking about the same person. God is three persons. Dad, Rick & Grandpa don’t communicate with each other; they don’t love each other; they don’t submit to one another; nor do they ever say, “Let us make …”
When I am talking with someone who is wrestling with the mystery of the Trinity I will often say, “Look, I can’t explain what the Trinity is, but I can explain what it’s not. You share your illustration of the Trinity with me and I’ll show you the heresy it expresses. The Trinity is a mystery. How can we expect finite individuals to understand an infinite God?”
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Created in His image, 3 in 1.
We are a spirit, which has a soul, and lives in a body. He not only lives in your spirit and soul but in your body as well.
Just as God is a Trinity, three in one, He created man in this same image, three in one. Just as God is a Spirit, man is also first and foremost an eternal spirit, that has a mind and a temporary body.
Without understanding this, one will never appreciate not only God’s creation, but one’s complete self, nor to “know no man after the flesh” (2Corninthian 5:17).
“For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:11)
“The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. Genesis 1:26
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesying. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:18-23
But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty gives them understanding. Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment. Therefore I said, Hearken to me; I also will show mine opinion. Job 32:8-10
The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly. Proverbs 20:27
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Ecclesiastes 12:7
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. James 2:26
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 1 Corinthians 6:19
Has He been permitted to manifest Himself to your body as He has to your spirit and soul? (John 14 & 16)
More at: http://www.earstohear.net/Kingdom/trinity.html