Reddit mentions of Across the Spectrum: Understanding Issues in Evangelical Theology

Well the metaphor of Water fails to correctly describe the holy spirit because it falls into a mistake called "Modalism"
In which God is one person, but wears three masks, thus denying the individuality, and uniqueness of the triune members. Water is water. But it has three states of exsisting (or modes). Where as God, exists separately but in three persons.

The other two common mistakes are subordinatism and tritheism.

Subordinatism is where one or more members are thought of as only semi divine or less powerful as the other part(s)

Tritheism says that there are three gods.

The best (orthodox) explaination i've herad is the Nicene Creed. which christians have been using for centuries.

I'm no expert, and there are whole books dedicated to this subject. I recomend Across the Spectrum it's an easy read and it covers a whole bunch of issues in Christian theology. it's pretty even handed with respect for different perspectives :)

I cannot recommend this book enough - check out The Lost World of Genesis One. This book will help you to understand that a literal interpretation of Genesis chapter one as if it were a scientific textbook completely misses the whole point this passage is trying to make.

Additionally, it seems to me that you don't have an understanding of the variety of theological viewpoints out there in the vast world of Christendom. Another book you might want to check out is Across the Spectrum.