The misappropriation of analogies is far too common. Failed analogies confuse what they attempt to explain, but undergirding the issue is the lack of awareness regarding the intended purpose for an analogy. When communicating the Trinity, analogies are used not as accurate representations of the doctrine, but as methods of pinpointing various components of the doctrine. An attempt to discern the perfectly accurate analogy of the Trinity will always end in futility; they do not exist. Analogical flaws are inevitable due to the limitations of human language and experience. Such that the literal application will result in heretical beliefs about God. If one insists on employing analogies, proceed with caution and clearly identity the objective for its application to the Trinity, although it may be more beneficial to avoid them altogether.
Notwithstanding, analogies can prove to be useful. Analogies typically resonate well with lay audiences because they present a visual representation of the occasional complex philosophical conclusions. For instance, it will be much easier to comprehend a view called Modalism or Sabellianism if we unitize the analogy of a single person wearing different masks, or perhaps one actor playing different roles in a play. Scholars can likewise use analogies for conceptual analysis, that is, in analyzing another scholars’ view, analogies may help better represent their view without setting up a straw man.
For one reason or another, Christians enjoy positing analogies of the Trinity. One of the most common analogies is how water can be ice, liquid, or steam while maintaining the same inner substance. Unfortunately this analogy does a better job explaining Modalism than it does biblical trinitarianism. While the chemical structure may remain the same, the water is merely changing form, progressively from one form and to another; liquid which then becomes ice, or steam which then becomes liquid. This is not what we mean by three persons. God does not change in the form of one person to another. God is eternally three persons. Now the analogy could be more accurate if one adds that from the same cup of water came ice, liquid-water, and steam or water-vapor simultaneously, as in they all exist from the same cup of water at the same time. In this case we are closer to arriving at the biblical doctrine of the trinity.
A similarly flawed analogy is that God is like one man who is a father, a son, and a husband. The error is painfully obvious, for God is not like one man. God is not one person with various attributes of personhood. This again is to explicate Modalism. Rather, God is three persons—who share attributes.
Possibly the most inaccurate common-analogy is the egg analogy: there is one egg with three parts, the shell, the egg whites, and the yoke. The problem arises in that the three components of the egg are not the same substance. The shell is not of the same substance as the yoke, even though one may refer to all three components collectively as one egg. Taken Individually, none of the components is an egg. If you take a yoke by itself, you do not have an egg, rather you have a yoke. If you take the shell apart from the egg, all you have are broken egg shells. ‘The egg’ is not an attribute that we can apply to all three as in saying the Son is God, the Father is God, and the Spirit is God. At best this analogy would tell us that there are three persons with different natures who are each parts of the whole of the Trinity. It is difficult to salvage anything from that conclusion.
The analogy that probably comes closest to accurately representing the Trinity is the three-headed dog, Cerberus, from Greek mythology. There is one substance or dog, and concurrently three persons or heads. Of course, this analogy is quite anthropomorphic in that God is not a single body. But it does show how there is one substance providing unity for the three distinct personalities, which closely resembles the biblical doctrine.
Analogies may help in showing what God is not like. Human consciousness may be useful here to show how God is similar but also unlike us. For just as human beings are one body or substance and one unique consciousness, so God is one substance with three consciousnesses—giving each individual divine person a unique self-identity. Use analogies wisely or drop them altogether.
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