John Eliot was an early missionary to the First Nations of North America. This was during the 1600s. He lived in present-day Massachusetts, on the east coast of the United States. John Eliot’s missionary work involved the Algonquian First Nations people. He was instrumental in the conversion of many of them.
The story is told of an occasion where John Eliot was teaching some native people about the Trinity. He was trying to tell them how there is one God, but three persons. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are those three persons in the one God.
One of the men was listening carefully. He thought about what the missionary was saying. He said, “I believe I understand you, Mr. Minister. The Trinity is like water, ice, and snow. The water is one, the ice is another, and the snow is another. Yet they are all one water.” It sounds like a good illustration of the Trinity.
When I was in seminary, one of our professors taught us how every illustration of the Trinity involves a heresy. This one of the water, ice, and snow is no different. This illustration involves a heresy known as modalism. Of course, the native man responding to John Eliot couldn’t have known that. He knew nothing about the Bible, about Christian doctrine, or church historical struggles over doctrine. I’m not blaming him, not at all. He’d have to be taught further about who God is. Yet that doesn’t change the fact that this illustration involves or leads to the heresy of modalism.
In church history modalism was associated with figures like Sabellius, Praxeas, and Noetus. Their form of the heresy is often referred to as “modalistic monarchianism.” Whatever name we apply, the heresy is still around today. Most prominently it’s held by oneness Pentecostalism. The United Pentecostal Church is the most well-known example.
Modalism says God manifests himself in three different ways. It’s like the one God has three different masks that he wears. Sometimes you see his Father mask, sometimes his Son, and sometimes his Holy Spirit mask. Similarly, a given quantity of water can only be one thing at one time. If I have a glass of water, it can only be water. It can’t be a glass of snow or ice at the same time. But with the Trinity, the one God is always Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the same time.
That’s why it’s better to stay away from illustrations of the Trinity. They can mislead us about the truth of who God is. It’s better just to stick with the facts. God is one and three. There are three persons in one being. There’s no contradiction in that, because God is three in a way that’s different to the way he’s one. He exists in three persons and he exists in one being. That’s what the Bible teaches. Though we might struggle to understand it, it’s the truth of how God has revealed himself. There’s no need to go beyond that.
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