__________________________________________________________________________________

ABORTION, at whatever stage and for whatever reason, IS HUMAN SACRIFICE to INHUMAN SELFISHNESS. Remember Biblical Canaan and South American pre-Columbian civilizations which were notorious for offering human sacrifices to their false gods.
_________________________________________________________________________________

ON THE TRINITY (September 28, 2009)

Isabelo S. Alcordo, Ph.D.

President and Founder of
“Lay Advocacy for Christian Unity,” Philippines

As a layman, unable to comprehend the “What and the Why” of the concept of the “Trinity” as explained by Bible scholarship, I have here attempted to conceptualize the what and why of the “Trinity” based on the Bible so as to explain it to myself and to the lay people. I will appreciate your critiques/comments.

Let me start by saying that Christianity, standing on the Old Testament as its pedestal, declares, on the nature of God, with the Jewish people and with all monotheists that:

(1) “God is one.” This is the First Biblical-Christian Truth.

Jesus declared this himself in Mk 12:29, saying, "The most important one is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one."

Paul, in Gal 3:19-20, also confirmed the oneness of God: "The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one."

Drawing from New Testament revelations, from which Christianity draws most of its spiritual truths, Christianity must declare as its Second Biblical-Christian Truth on the nature of God the revelation in 1 Ti 6:15-16 (NIV):

(2) "God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see (NIV)."

Now, almost all other versions have “. . . no man can see. . .” and so does the Greek Interlinear. But this contradicts what Jesus himself said in Matt 5:8 (Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God), unless Timothy and Jesus were talking about two different “Gods.” Despite the contradiction, we must accept both Jesus and Timothy as telling us undeniable spiritual truths.

How then to make of the situation so that both, what Jesus said and what was revealed to Timothy, would be acceptable to Christians as “spiritual truths?”

Here, we are forced to interpret “God” in “God is one” as referring to the  “Godhead” Who in His “Oneness” is absolutely beyond human (and, possibly, angelic) sight and, therefore, beyond the human faculty of apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind, unless He reveals Himself to His creations in some way or ways without compromising His being as “. . . one no one (man) has seen or can see.”

The third Biblical-Christian truth, deducible from the OT and the NT and demanded by B-C Truths (1) and (2) is:

(3) “The One God, ‘whom no one has seen or can see’ revealed Himself in His acts of CREATION and to His CREATURES, including the angels in heaven, in Three persons: ‘Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’”.

Since the Godhead, in His Oneness, is beyond human sight and  perception, His manifestation as “The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:17-19) manifesting and working separately but always acting “ONE IN WILL AND PURPOSE,” is called “THE TRINITY.”

Thus, the "Trinity" is the Godhead’s REVELATION OF HIMSELF TO HIS CREATIONS. Hence, even though the word “TRINITY” does not appear in the Bible, the concept is forced into the minds of God’s thinking creatures to allow His creations to “see and perceive Him” without violating his being “... one no one can see or has seen” in His “Oneness.”
 
Finally, the fourth Biblical-Christian Truth is:

(4) "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are True God."

Col 2:9-10 said of Jesus, the incarnated “The Son”: "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power."

If in Jesus dwells the fullness of the Godhead, the more reason that both the Father and the Holy Spirit manifest the fullness of the Godhead. Therefore, all three, each having the fullness of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are true God.

Even Jesus, as the incarnated God the Son, in the flesh, was true God. Thus, the Roman Catholic Church’s declaration about Mary as the "Mother of God" should be given serious consideration and thought by those who believe in the TRINITY.

Thus, the One Godhead, unknowable and unseeable in His Oneness, allowed Himself, in His mercy to His creatures, to be seen and perceived in creation and history as "The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit" each having the "fullness of the Godhead" and acting in creation and history as One in Trinity, as the Godhead is one, so as to remain unknowable, pristine in His nature, and untainted by His creations.

As I see it, its not the Trinity that is the greatest mystery of Orthodox Christianity but the unknowability of the Godhead. But the unknowability of the One God is demanded by His being God, for for man to know God would make man equal, if not above, God. 

AMEN!

PASS THIS WEBSITE ON TO YOUR FRIENDS AND TO YOUR CHURCH!

SEND US YOUR COMMENTS:  layadvoc@layadvocacyforchristianunity.org