On the Pointy End of the Fence Part 2: Counting to One Three Times

It is always a challenge to teach about something that lies beyond human reason or experience.  It's even more of a challenge to teach something when it is never explicitly stated in scripture.  However challenging, it is still necessary, and the fact that it is beyond human reason or experience and never explicitly stated may make it uncomfortable but does not make it untrue.  This challenge goes a long way toward explaining why the Athanasian Creed is so much longer than the others, and why it is spoken in church once a year, if ever.  Repetitive, almost song-like in nature, its many verses go something like this:  "The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; and yet there are not three gods but one God."

Formally called the doctrine of the Trinity, this one point goes a long way toward dividing the orthodox from the heterodox, the true from the false, the Christian church from the cult or sect. Many heresies (false teachings), both ancient and modern, result from wrong-headed attempts to reconcile what scripture teaches about the godhead with human reason. 

In its simplest form, teaching about the Trinity can be summarized in four simple statements, offered here with a few places where the ideas can be found in Scripture.  And so begin many wrong paths and one right one.

1. The Father is fully God.  On this one point scripture and reason agree so thoroughly that it requires no list of passages or arguments beyond the most basic. (1 Cor. 8:4-6) If you believe that God exists and that the Bible is at least in some sense God's word, you acknowledge God as Father.  It is the most instinctive and primitive presence, the starting point, and the one person of the Trinity clearly accepted by Jews and Christians alike.   

2. The Son is distinct from the Father, but is fully and equally God. The Father shows the distinction between Father and Son at Jesus' baptism and again at the transfiguration, "This is my beloved son with whom I am well-pleased." (Mt. 3:16-17, Mt. 17:1-5) Jesus not only claimed to be separate from, distinct from the Father, he demonstrated it simply by teaching and praying. "Father, if it be your will, let this cup pass from me." (Mt. 26:36-46) "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Lu. 23:34) And finally, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." (Lu. 23:46)

That Jesus is "very God of very God" requires a little more study.  Because Jesus was fully human, and because scripture describes him as "begotten," (Jn. 1:18, Jn. 3:16-18) it is tempting to view Jesus as a second-tier deity, a created being, or merely a prophet. However, Paul emphatically rejects this (Col. 2:9), and Jesus' own statements don't leave us that option. Multiple times, Jesus claims to be God. (Jn. 8:48-59, Jn. 10:25-34, Jn. 14:1-14) Indeed, as he stood before the Sanhedrin on trial, the high priest questions him and declares his response blasphemous because he claimed to be God. (Mt. 26:62-66) How can Jesus be a prophet if his claims about himself are false?

3. The Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father and the Son, but is fully and equally God. That the Spirit is God is rarely a matter of debate. Peter explicitly calls the Holy Spirit God. (Acts 5:3-4) Rather, detractors commonly argue that the Holy Spirit is no separate thing at all. Is your spirit separate from you? They maintain that it is that unseen spiritual aspect of God, part of God, just as your spirit is part of you.

Unlike with humans, however, the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit being sent and acting independently (though always in perfect harmony with the Father and the Son). We can't send our spirits to go lead or teach. We don't talk about what our Spirit will do when he comes, but Jesus told his disciples what the Holy Spirit would do when he "arrived." (Jn.14:26, Jn. 15:26) Whether you, like the Eastern church, say he proceeds from the Father, or whether, like the Western church, you confess that he proceeds from the Father and the Son, in that statement you declare that the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father and the Son and is truly God.

4. There is one God. On this point the canonical books leave no room for doubt. Old Testament and New Testament, the Scriptures are unambiguous. From the singular "us" and "we" of creation (Gen. 1:26-27) to the great declaration in Deuteronomy ("Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One." - Deut. 6:4), from the one Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the great commission (Mt. 28:18-20) to Paul's majestic proclamation of, "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all," (Eph. 4:4-6) both Jews and Christians (and even Muslims) are absolutely monotheistic. Those who stray from this, such as the Mormons (LDS), either change the very words of the Bible to suit them or add books that say what they want to believe.

Here is not the place to detail all the myriad ways people get this wrong.  The topic is too complex and there are too many to cover. That said, every one of the ways this goes awry begins with the same mistake -- putting human reason above Scripture.  Reason is an invaluable and indispensable tool, to be sure, but deity, by its very nature, surpasses human understanding.  If we can fully comprehend God, our God, as Phillips once said, is far too small.

Almost without exception, attempts to logically harmonize these four statements within the confines of human understanding involve undermining or rejecting one or more of them. Three of the most common examples are subordinationism, modalism, and polytheism.

• Subordinationism: Belief that one person of the Trinity (generally the Son) is a created being or somehow inferior to the Father.  (Ex. Jehovah's Witnesses)
• Modalism: Belief that the Father, Son, and Spirit are three faces or "modes" of the one God, rather than three separate persons.  (Ex. Oneness Pentecostals)
• Polytheism: Belief that the Father, Son, and Spirit are all gods, and that while we may worship only one god, there exists more than one god.  (Ex. Mormons)

It's clear from the examples given that these are not merely ancient heresies.  In each case, the group named self-identifies as Christian (it isn't) and actively tries to draw people out of orthodox churches and into their heterodox group.

The larger lesson, however is the danger of setting even reason over God's word.  While C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity does a wonderful job of helping the reader get their mind around the notion of the Trinity, even his incredible intellect can't fully explain or prove it.  God's being and nature are far beyond our merely human minds, and insisting that everything must make sense to our human intellect is putting ourselves in the place of God -- creating an idol out of our intellect.

Make no mistake: This is not an argument for check-your-brain-at-the-door-Christianity. Reason is a precious tool God has given to help people understand what he would have us know from nature and his word. But, as with any good thing, when we set it in the highest place, the place that belongs only to God, we make it into an idol and we become idolaters.

So, like scientists, honest theologians will sometimes have to simply report observations they can't explain. Sometimes, like scientists, honest theologians must confess that there are limits to their understanding and they just don't have all the answers. Sometimes honest theologians, like scientists, have to admit that what they are saying is theory (adiaphora) and not law. In the end, we are obligated to teach what is in the Scriptures whether or not we can explain it, prove it, or even fully understand it.

Like grace alone and universal grace, this is another point of theology where we must not take one side or the other, but must remain, as it were, on the fence. Trying to make God's nature conform to human reason by rejecting the unity or the trinity of God won't work. God's word doesn't make it comfortable for us to explain the truth to those who worship human intellect, but Scripture demands that we take the logically uncomfortable position of maintaining both that the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God ... and that God is one.