I used to consider the Trinity as a footnote to the Christian faith. After further study, I've decided it's foundational to a understanding in even a small way much God truly loves us. The videos and blog posts below are good resources to grasp the what and why of the Trinity.
The Trinity is one example of God's radical love for us. He's a relational being who created us from His love, so that He could love us and we could be loved by Him and others, and love Him and others.
Watch for one minute:
The Trinity explained in a minute-long video by a recognized Christian apologetics expert and philosopher Dr. William Lane Craig.
Read or listen for 7 minutes:
How to explain the Trinity to a child? Use one What, and three Who's
https://www.jonathanmorrow.org/30-how-to-explain-the-trinity-to-a-child/
I don't think it gets simpler than that. To delve a bit deeper on this topic, this video from Dr. Frank Turek that lasts just shy of four minutes gives a little more context I found helpful, along with a visual.
Watch for 11 minutes:
In this short answer to a question, Abdu Murray of RZIM does an excellent job explaining the how of the Trinity, but also the reason why we need the Trinity if we're going to consider God to be the greatest God.
Go Deeper:
This this three-hour 2015 debate, which runs nearly three hours Qureshi illustrates:
Why the Trinity is logical and how it's interwoven throughout the Bible.
That if Muslims are going to claim they need a full explanation of the mystery of the Trinity, it's important to explain the Islamic concept of Tawhid, which is just as much a mystery as the Trinity and challenging to explain, but not something Muslims can clearly explain.
Qureshi describes the doctrine of Tawhid as teaching that Allah is absolutely one, which means he cannot have attributes that have not been with him eternally. If that's the case, and the Quran is the word of Allah, his attribute of speech, then there would have to be two eternal entities, Allah and the Quran, but that doesn't make sense, because God is one. The concept also is not in the Quran or Hadith (a collection of the traditions and saying of the prophet Muhammed) and took a century to decide, similar to the Trinity. He argues that while neither group can fully grasp the concepts, Muslims tend to just decide the concept is unknowable, but Trinity for the Christian can be logically explained.
Obviously Ally makes the opposite argument, but the debate is thankfully very cordial, and neither man I feel is trying to "gotcha" the other one, but instead seems focused on providing clarity to the overflow audience at the event and online.
I've marked spots I found most interesting:
8:25 - Qureshi starts his 25-minute opening statement, which includes:
Us not fully grasping a lot of things in life, such as what energy actually is.
Some Muslims accept that the Tawhid is mysterious and can't fully resolve it.
The Trinity is mysterious and can't be fully comprehended either, but that is not a reason to fully discount it.
15:35 - The heart of his argument.
18:18 - Lack of agreement among Muslims over Tawhid.
20:35 - Definition of the Trinity.
33:19 - End of Qureshi's opening statement.
35:30 - Ally gives his opening statement, explaining what Christians and Muslims both believe. Then he build his argument around three concepts:
37:50 Text of Scripture explains Tawhid more than Trinity.
45:10 History - all faiths have mysteries.
48:10 Reason - Muslims say God is loving. He provides several rationals for alternative takes for the Trinity which are in the Bible, such as that Peter had a different take on the Trinity that wasn't kept in the scripture, and the Ebonities. He felt Qureshi didn't prove that each person is completely God, especially the Holy Spirit.
1:05:58 - Qureshi rebuts Alley's 3 key points, arguing the earliest references are to three gods and the evidence as to who the Beonities ever were let alone believe is pretty shaky.
1:16:23 - In Ally's rebuttal, he mentions one spot in the Hadith where a similar word to Tawhid is used, and argues Christians needed a way to worship both Jesus and God, so they Trinity was what they created, something not found in the Bible.
1:27:50 - 5 Questions each speaker asked, cross examining the other:
The pair discuss the importance of the debate over Tawhid, and Qureshi contends the evidence does not point to a perfectly preserved Quran.
1:48:15 - Closing statements - The Quran has not been perfectly preserved, but Christians worship Jesus as God starting shortly after his death.
1:53:36 - Ally's closing statement.
2:20:07 - Audience questions.
2:49:26 - Closing remarks from the moderator.
This debate helped solidify my belief in the Trinity beyond reasonable doubt, yet also made me want to understand more of what the early church really thought about the Trinity, and whether Peter really had a materially different take on how he framed Christianity vs. Paul, as some scholars contend. So you can look forward to future newsletters delving into those subjects.