My little brother is quite a musician. No, not that one…the youngest. He can (or could at one time) hear a song and then go play it on the piano or saxophone. Music is intriguing to me, and I love to listen to it, but it frustrates me as well since it is almost completely beyond my ability to reproduce. There are sharps, flats and sevenths and lots of other musical terms of which I do not fully comprehend.

The Triune God is infinitely more complex and difficult to understand. In God’s Word, he is described as being One God. At the same time, He reveals himself as being of three distinct persons as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All three were on display at the baptism of Jesus when the Spirit descended like a dove and the Father audibly spoke his great approval of His Son.

But this is a difficult concept to understand. Perhaps the analogy of a musical chord could help us understand the idea of the trinity with more clarity. I got this idea from Truthbomb Apologetics (who apparently got it from bethinking.org) and I thought I’d share a little bit of the idea here with my readers. I hope it is helpful as you grow in your faith and as you come to understand how much the Creator of the universe loves you.

“…A musical chord is essentially composed of three different notes (to be a chord all three notes must be present), namely the first, third and fifth notes of a given musical scale. For example, the chord of C major is composed of the notes C (the root of the chord), E (the third from the root) and G (the fifth from the root). Each individual note is ‘a sound’, and all three notes played together are likewise ‘a sound’. Hence a chord is essentially three sounds in one sound, or one sound essentially composed of three different sounds (each of which has an individual identity as well as a corporate identity). By analogy, God is three divine persons in one divine personal being, or one divine personal being essentially composed of three divine persons. Moreover, when middle C (the root of the chord) is played it ‘fills’ the entire ‘heard space’. When the E above middle C is played at the same time, that second note simultaneously ‘fills’ the whole of the ‘heard space’; yet one can still hear both notes distinctly. When the G above middle C is added as well, a complete chord exists; one sound composed of three distinct sounds: