B-TV: Trinity

On this voyage of B-TV, Connie Kendall hosts the show from aboard a deep-sea submarine with Dr. Jacqueline Cusco of the Oceanographic Institute and the salty old sea captain Melville Quid. The expedition is supposed to explore the deepest trench in the ocean, but as soon as Jacqueline snaps one photo from the sub's outboard camera, she orders the crew back to the surface, even though they are only ten feet underwater. Meanwhile, Captain Quid recites his sailor's prayer, ending with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and Jacqueline asks a question he cannot quite answer: how can there be only one God, but also God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit? Connie announces that today's show will dive into exactly that mystery, the Trinity.

A "Did You Know" segment explains that the word Trinity comes from a Latin word meaning threefold, and that Theophilus of Antioch first used the term around 170 A.D. A quote from C.S. Lewis compares God to a cube that is six squares yet remains one cube, a being we cannot fully understand but can begin to imagine. When Jacqueline asks whether the Trinity is actually in the Bible, Connie explains the difference between explicit verses, which state things directly, and implicit truths, which take a little detective work to piece together. No verse says outright that God is a Trinity, but the idea runs all through Scripture.

That calls for a detective, and Harlow Doyle, Private Eye, pops out of a sea chest where he has been hiding the whole voyage. In his "Doyle Report," he travels back to the first century to interrogate three biblical writers. John shows him the opening of his gospel, where the Word, who is Jesus, was both with God and was God from the very beginning. Matthew points to his account of Jesus's baptism, where the Son stands in the water, the Father speaks from heaven, and the Spirit descends like a dove, three persons, yet one God. Paul quotes his blessing from Second Corinthians naming the grace of Jesus, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Doyle concludes that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are eternally three distinct persons but one God, a mystery for sure, but one the Bible clearly talks about.

Doyle also notices the submarine still is not diving, and Jacqueline admits she is nervous that the old sub cannot handle the pressure of the deep, even though Quid insists he and her father took it to the bottom of the sea many times.

Next, a Storyteller reads from a book of things the Trinity is definitely not like. In one silly story, three separate gods bicker over whose image mankind should bear; in another, one god swaps between Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit masks; in a third, an all-powerful Father god keeps the Son and Spirit as lesser helpers. Each idea is declared complete nonsense. Flipping the wrong ideas around, the crew works out the truth: the Trinity is one God, in three distinct persons, who are all equally God.

But why does it matter? Jacqueline wonders why she needs to complicate her simple faith with all this Trinity business, and Quid wonders again why the sub is not going deeper. That is when Jacqueline confesses her secret: the world-renowned ocean explorer is afraid of the ocean. On her eleventh birthday, her father, the legendary explorer Jacques Cusco, sent her a letter from sea, but before she could read it, the news reported that he had been eaten by a jaguar shark while filming a documentary. His last words over the radio were, "Bring the camera over here. I just found a jaguar shark!" Ever since, Jacqueline has studied the waters only from the safe surface, and she has carried her father's letter all these years without ever daring to read it.

Connie gently points out that the letter is like the Bible, a letter from Someone who loves us, telling us about Himself, including the Trinity. Shouldn't we want to read it? A comic sketch drives the point home: a fellow named Rick waits at a train station for his pen pal Clementine, but because he never read her letters closely, he greets stranger after stranger, and finally embraces a trash can. "You're hugging a trash can, Rick," Clementine sighs, wishing he had paid attention to all she had told him about herself.

Moved, Jacqueline finally opens her father's letter. In it, Jacques wishes her a happy birthday, dreams of their next father-daughter ocean exploration, and writes that exploring the depths of the sea always reminds him how deep the majesty and glory of God goes. He prays she will grow up to explore both deep oceans and the deep love of God. Jacqueline orders Quid to take the submarine down at last. When Connie asks if she is no longer afraid, Jacqueline answers, "I am terrified. But I'm facing that fear head on," just as her father faced the jaguar shark.

As the sub finally dives, Connie shares one more reason the Trinity matters, seen in John 3:16 and the life of Jesus: because God loves us, the Father gave His Son to die for our sins, and Jesus sends the Holy Spirit so we can accept God's gift of grace, one God working in three persons to show His amazing love. It is all right not to understand everything now, Connie says, because God is deeper than the ocean, and exploring deeper draws us closer to Him. Quid realizes his old prayer is no longer just words, Jacqueline is glad God invites her to go deeper, and the crew takes the yellow submarine down into the colorful deep as Connie signs off, inviting everyone watching to dive deep into learning about God too.