God In a Box: A Comprehensive look at problems and solutions concerning the Tri-une Nature of God

God: In A Box?

A Comprehensive look at problems and solutions concerning the Tri-uneNature of God

INTRODUCTION

For over 1600 years, the doctrine of the Trinity has been one of the main puzzles andsources of conflict of the Christian faith. People could just never seem to reallyunderstand or explain how "three could be one", but most accepted it "in faith", whilevarious men and sects throughout the centuries arose to tackle the problem, and devisedall kinds of proposed solutions and alternatives. There has even been bloodshed over theissue! Were any of these people right? Is the Godhead "balled up", or "boxed up" into aneat "three-in-one" formula?" Does salvation even depend on accepting this formula?"Are all the other ideas just satanic attacks against a faithful, pure "orthodoxy"? Or is it theTrinity itself that is the satanic deception, creeping into the Church from paganism; andone of the other alternatives promoted by a particular sect the truth? Or is there justanother way to express it that no one has thought of? And most importantly, just whatdoes the Bible really say, or not say on the entire matter?These are some of the questions we shall explore. First, we shall look at the various major alternatives, and then the history of the matter.

1 THE VARIOUS CONCLUSIONS

TRINITARIANISM

: The basic doctrine states that "God the Father", "God theSon"(Jesus Christ), and "God the Holy Spirit", are three "co-equal", "co-eternal""persons" making up one God. It is accepted by the majority of all professing Christianchurches beginning with the Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox church, and all of theProtestant bodies that came out of it. It is based primarily on the interpretations of a few

Old Testament scriptures that seem to indicate a plurality within the one God of Israel(Genesis 1:26, 11:7), and a

triadic scheme

in several New Testament scriptures, wherethe Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are mentioned together in conjunction with each other:(Matthew 28:19, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Titus 3:4-6, Ephesians 4:4-6, Revelation 1:4,5;etc.), and various scriptures where the Three are referred to as God or are credited withdivine titles, functions or characteristics. But the big problem with this is the use of theword "persons". Even though there are all these "hints" (as scholars call them), the Biblenever puts them together as such a precise formula of "three Persons", and the conceptseems to hopelessly divide the divine unity. This is what has caused much confusion anddissent over the centuries, and has led to the various reinterpretations of the scriptures,and either the rejection or reformulation of the doctrine. These we shall now look at.

TRITHEISM

: One solution was to just go on and say that the three persons are threeseparate Gods acting in unity. This was taught by some early Gnostic groups, and by theMormons today. But it should be obvious that this just does not go along with scriptureswhich emphasize that there is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4, Exodus 20:3, Isaiah 44-46, 1 Cor.8:6, etc.). The main problem with the Trinity to its critics is that it seemed toimply more than one God, so to say that it is in fact such is to go in the wrong direction.For this reason, the remaining solutions all involve the subtraction of 'persons', one wayor the other from the Godhead. We shall now follow this downward progression, to two persons, and then to one.

BINITARIANISM

: The quickest and easiest way to start, is to subtract the Holy Spirit,which is then said to be an impersonal extension of the divine essence,— the "Power of God"(Luke 1:35). That then only leaves the Father and Son. This position isn't verycommon. Early adherents may have included the so-called "pneumatomachians" (Spirit-fighters) or "Macedonian heresy" in the fourth century. There is speculation thatShepherd of Hermas and other early Christian works mentioning the Father and son, butnot clearly the Spirit, may have been binitarian. The only groups that teach it today, andwhom the theology is most known by are the Sabbath-keeping Church of God groups(Denver, Salem, offshoots). They find support in the

dyadic scheme

of the majority of scriptures, where only the Father and Son are mentioned in personal roles. A big exampleis the fact that the Holy Spirit is

NEVER

pictured as sitting on a throne like the Father andSon are in several scriptures, (Rev. 3:21, 5:13, 7:9,10, 12:5, 22:1,3, Eph.1:20, Col.3:1,Ps.110:1, etc.) and all three are in some representations of the Trinity. Still, there areseveral examples of the Holy Spirit speaking and doing other "personal" things, asTrinitarians point out. They seem to find their position completely in harmony with allthe personal activities of the Spirit, but still, can an "extension" or "projection" of God'sessence or power really be "grieved", for example?

Variation: Armstrong's "God Family":

An offshoot of the 7th day Church of Godmovement, the late Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God taught that God(Heb. plural

Elohim

)

, is not one being, but a

family

of beings, consisting now of the