Posted on 03/14/2019 5:44:11 AM PDT by Gamecock
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.”
- Isaiah 55:8
Historically, as we have seen, there have been many formal heresies that have confronted the church’s confession of God as the Holy Trinity. Modalism and Arianism plagued the church during its earliest years, and even now many cults teach these heresies. Yet formal heresies have not been the only issues that people have raised with respect to Trinitarian doctrine. The church has had to deal with other accusations made against the doctrine as well.
Many people, for example, reject the doctrine of the Trinity as a contradiction. However, once we understand what actually constitutes a logical contradiction, we see that Trinitarian doctrine is not contradictory. Logical contradictions violate the law of noncontradiction, which says that A cannot be both B and non-B at the same time and in the same sense or relationship. It would be a contradiction to say that Robert is a father and Robert is not a father if we were talking about his relationship to the same set of children, but it would not be a contradiction to say that if we were talking about his relationship to other kids. Robert can be the father of Leah and Mary and not the father of Claire and Elizabeth; he cannot be the father of Leah and Mary and at the same time not the father of Leah and Mary.
The doctrine of the Trinity is not a contradiction because while God is both one and three at the same time, He is not one and three in the same sense. God is one in essence but three in person. We are not saying that God is “one in essence” and “not one in essence” or “three in person” and “not three in person.” Now, we cannot completely understand how it is that God can be both one in essence and three in person, but that makes the Trinity a mystery, not a contradiction. A mystery, in theological terms, refers to something God has revealed but that escapes our full comprehension. A mystery is not logically incoherent, and while we cannot fully understand the mystery of the Trinity, God can and does. But even God cannot understand a contradiction because a contradiction is by definition nonsensical, and God is not the author of nonsense or confusion (1 Cor. 14:33).
Others have objected to the doctrine of the Trinity because the word Trinity is not found in Scripture. It is true that the term Trinity is not found in Scripture, but the concept it represents suffuses the Bible. And the term usefully summarizes biblical teaching in a way that allows us to confess the biblical teaching and identify those who deny it. This helps us teach truth and reject error.
Coram Deo
Because God is God and we are not, we should expect some things about Him to escape our full comprehension. But our failure to understand something completely does not make it a contradiction. We are called to study God’s Word and to grow in our knowledge, but there will be points where we can go no further because God is infinite. At those points especially, we must bow our heads and worship our Lord.
Passages for Further Study
Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Job 11:7 7 “Can you find out the deep things of God?
Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? 8 It is higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?
9 Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.
Psalm 147:5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.
Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Ping
Amen!
I can see both sides of the issue and neither side bothers me, I believe in Jesus and look forward to him raising me up at the last day.
Consider also that we are triune beings, body, soul and spirit.
What’s the difference between soul and spirit?
Well...His word identifies soul and spirit here.....“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even ‘to the division of soul and spirit’, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12.
Through the soul – through our senses and feelings – we are is earthly/human ..Through our spirit we are in contact with God.....which he wakens at salvation...The result is a life of faith in which we hold fast to the Word against our own human reasoning.
It’s obviously human nature to go beyond just understanding or accepting His word rather we seem to think we have to know it all and we never will. The triune individual is...and he’s identified us as human beings with body and soul and spirit and that’s good enough for me and makes perfect sense
By the way...if one denies the tri-une God, they are either left with atheism or polytheism.
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