Time Travel with Marty McFly and Deanna Troi: One Possible Explanation for the Christian Trinity

I’ve been thinking lately about the existence of the Trinity Godhead outside of our time and dimension.  I think it comes close to some concepts found in Science Fiction stories pertaining to time travel and alternate realities.  

In the movie Back to the Future Part 2, the characters Marty McFly and Doc Brown encounter other versions of themselves when they fly back in time again to the year 1955.  Each Marty and Doc are the same, but different.  In the first movie, Marty traveled from 1985 to 1955, and met a much younger Doc Brown from that moment in time.  In the second movie, both the Marty and Doc from the future travel back to 1955 again and meet their doppelgangers: The Marty that traveled back in time the first time, from the first film, and the Doc who lived during that time.  Both the Martys are equally Marty McFly, both from different times, and merely coexisting temporarily at the same time and place along the timeline.  The only difference is that the second Marty is further along in time, having already experienced everything the other Marty is currently experiencing.  But that doesn’t mean one or the other is an imposter – they are both Marty McFly, and both are equally Marty McFly.

     In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Parallels,” the Klingon character Worf begins experiencing other realities, shifting from one to another.  The android Data explains that each instance in time has thousands of possible outcomes, and that all possible outcomes that can occur do occur, and with each outcome “creating” a new dimension or universe, and that Worf is, for some strange reason, shifting in and out of some of these alternate universes created by some of these outcomes.  This particular quantum theory is mind boggling, yet I believe that God’s existence is more akin to this rather than our limited four dimensions.  In the episode, Worf encounters several different versions of Deanna Troi.  In one existence, she and Worf are living together.  In another, they are married with two children, and his first son Alexander doesn’t even exist.  Yet just because she is not the Deanna Troi from his universe doesn’t mean that she is any less real, or any less “Deanna Troi” than the one that exists in his universe.  All the different Deanna Trois that Worf encounters, or could encounter, all that could possibly exist in any universe, are all equally valid, all equally Deanna Troi.  Even though every single one of them is different from the others, existing in different universes or dimensions, with different experiences causing them to travel down different paths in their lives, they are all still 100 % Deanna Troi.

     Now, Marty McFly and Deanna Troi are fictional characters, yet, at least in these particular instances, they can become windows into comprehending in the smallest possible way the manner in which God might exist, or be able to exist.

     In a similar way that these different versions of Marty and Deanna are all different, yet all equally Marty and Deanna, and all equally valid, so too is God.  In this same respect, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit can each be separate and different, yet all the same, all equally God, and all valid, especially when you stop to consider that God is not constrained by our dimensions of space and time.

     Yet even this fantastical, Science Fiction-like explanation is lacking in describing what God is.  This explanation is merely one of thousands of possible explanations for the different ways of understanding and perceiving God.   God’s actual existence is probably very different than the one I just tried to describe, but I’m hoping that this model based on a popular movie series and science fiction television series at least scratches the surface of what may be possible with God.  Traveling backwards and forwards through time is something only fictional human characters can do, but in reality, God exists outside of time.  If I can use this silly, trivial movie and TV episode to explain one possible model for the existence of the Triune Godhead, and their differences and at the same time their similarities as God, then something similar must be possible in the real world as well... because with God, all things are possible.


From my journal, July 1999