THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY

 

Ask A Muslim

18 س  · 

THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY

The most popular belief, promoted by the vast majority of churches in the world, is that God has a triune nature. This is the doctrine known as the Trinity, which defines God as one Being who exists eternally as three distinct persons — the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Put simply, it is “one God in three persons”. All three persons of the Trinity are said to be co-equal and co-eternal, and “each is God, whole and entire.”

The doctrine teaches that the second person of the Trinity, the Son, took on human flesh in the bodily form of Jesus. Thus, God entered into the creation. Jesus is said to be both fully God and fully man. A common way of trying to explain the Trinity is the use of elaborate analogies such as:

The Trinity is like the three parts of an egg: the shell, the white and the yolk.

this analogy doesn’t work because the doctrine of the trinity states that each person (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is fully God. One wouldn’t say that the shell, white or yolk is fully an egg.

The Trinity is like a man who can exist as a father, a son and a husband, all at the same time.

This analogy also fails to encompass the doctrine of the Trinity.

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit aren’t simply three functions or roles of God, they are said to be three distinct persons.

The simple fact is that no analogy will ever be complete. This is something that is fully acknowledged by Christian theologians who freely admit that the Trinity cannot be explained and have resigned themselves to classifying it as a holy mystery.

The Catholic Church states: “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life”.

If Trinitarians embraced the polytheism that is inherent in the doctrine and explained it for what it really is – three Gods and not one – then there would be no confusion. The doctrine is inexplicable because Trinitarians try to reconcile a concept of threeness into a monotheistic context which does not fit. The trinity is something that believers must accept on blind faith; it cannot be rationalised.

The Purpose of revelation is guidance. If guidance results in confusion (or misguidance), then it defeats the purpose of revelation. If the Trinity were some inconsequential aspect of Christian theology, then perhaps its mystery wouldn’t be an issue. But it isn’t; Evangelical scholar Harold Lindsell and seminary professor Charles Woodbridge wrote: The mind of man cannot fully understand the mystery of the Trinity. He who has tried to understand the mystery fully will lose his mind; but he who would deny the Trinity will lose his soul.

There you have it, “deny the Trinity and you lose your soul.” This reveals a fundamental paradox with the doctrine: why would God reveal something that cannot be fully comprehended, and yet tie our salvation to it? Revelation is an opening up, an uncovering. How can the Trinity be a revelation when the most learned of biblical scholars write that it is a mystery? Today faith and trinity are so intertwined that you would think the Trinity must have always been the dominant belief going all the way back to the early Church. As we are going to see, this could not be further from the truth.

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