Trinity - The One God Problem
If you have trouble explaining the Trinity, you are not alone.
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel." And John testified, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God." - John 1:29-34
It took four centuries to get the concept down, and even then, it has evolved over the years.
God doesn't always make it easy for us to understand Him or Them, and this is a perfect example of confusing what started out as a simple statement in the Commandments.
You shall have no other gods before me.
The presence of Jesus causes a problem. And when you add The Holy Spirit, it makes the matter even more complicated. No wonder atheists have a field day with Christianity.
In business, when we prepare a presentation for a large audience, we try to hear it from their perspective so that we are ready to answer the questions we believe we will get.
The first time you go into a conference room and everyone laughs at your presentation, you learn. Maybe I should have been more prepared.
But we Christians don't make presentations of our faith. We leave that to others.
When asked, "What does this mean, Mommy?" We say, "Look it up," or at least we used to before Google and ChatGPT. Now we can't be sure what they will learn when they look it up.
So, maybe we should take a moment this Sunday to brush up on the concept of One Triune God.
Yes, it's messy.
It would be so much easier to say that God is in Heaven, Jesus is a good guy God sent to show us how to love one another, and The Holy Spirit is our invisible friend who listens to us complain.
It took years of debate and the First Council of Nicea in 325 to even come up with the word, Trinity.
You can say it is a concept, our best understanding of what is almost impossible to grasp, and that would be true, but after so many centuries of teaching and preaching, we kind of wound up where we are, still confused and unable to talk about it.
It's a shame, too, because it is so much better than thinking of God as an old man sitting on a throne with grey hair down to his knees, dispensing judgment on everyone for just about everything.
Maybe the pronoun debate will make this a bit easier to understand.
You know, we have this problem with singularity in our own identities now, and that may be a good thing, since so many are adopting We and They as their preferred pronouns.
God did that in Genesis when he said we make man (and women) in our own image.
Who would have thought God would be so far ahead of His time?
If fluidity is the new norm, maybe it is time for everyone to grasp the possibility of a single God that has three identities.
We can simplify our creed. I believe in God, Them.
More to come...