The three Persons of the Trinity are the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All of these Persons are co-equal in all their
10 attributes. They are also co-eternal, which means they never did not exist. They have no beginning, and no
end. God (refering to all three Persons of God), is absolute, as opposed to our human condition, which is temporal.
God is also infinite, as opossed to our finite beings.
As humans, we have a difficult time "imagining" God, for the best we can do, in terms of understanding Him in the
extremes of His nature, is "imagine". We cannot know, except what He has told us of Himself, and even then we can
only imagine many of God's charactaristics.
Let's take "absolute", for example. There is only one entity in our entire existence which is absolute, and that is
God's Word, so declared in the scriptures. God's Word is His thinking, or more precisely, the thinking of one of the
Persons of God, The Son. The Bible calls this body of knowledge "The Mind of Christ", and mandates us to aquire this
thinking and begin processing it in our own finite minds.
But to continue in the vein I started in, to try and grasp this singular charactaristic of God, let's state some
comparisons. Some of the aspects of our world, like gravity, are as near as we can come to the absolute. Gravity remains
roughly the same in intensity everywhere on the earth, it is always present, and it always produces the same effect...
to pull us down against the surcace of the earth.
But gravity, nor any other feature of our earth, nor any of the components of the universe, is absolute. Where gravity is
concerned, there is something called centrifugal force which works in opposition to it. The logic at work here should be
readily understood, for if gravity was absolute, we would weight a million pounds and be crushed by our own mass. So these
elements, gravity and centrifugal force, are finely tuned forces which enable us to conduct our daily lives with relative
ease, and yet remain "stuck" on the ground, rather than flying off into space.
Gravity, then, is constant, ever present, and produces the same effect 24 hours a day. But the fact that there is an
opossing force which alters it, diminishes it's effect, is proof that it is far from absolute. To our way of thinking,
though, gravity, and thousands of other aspects of nature, are as close to absolute as we can come. God, on the other
hand, is 100% absolute, unique, without parallel, and thus we can only understand this dimension of His being in principle.
We know, because He has revealed Himself to us, that there is no force, no power, that alters His exsitence.
By the way, this fine balance between gravity and centrifugal force is one of the gazillion or so arguments that prove
there is an intelligent designer of our environment, contrary to the popular opinion that all things just happened to
turn out this way, ala Darwin's rinky dinky idea called "evolution", one of the dumbest theories ever entertained by
the meager mind of man.
But I digress...
So, because we, the human race, have none of the charactaristics of God, and only His explanations of His world to fuel our
thinking, it is difficult for us to completely understand Him in all His dimensions. Back to the subject at hand, the absolute,
God is unchangable, not capable of variation or deviation. From the beginning, which is not a beginning, what we will call
"eternity past", He is the same now as He ever was, and He will remain the same, down to the most infintesimal detail, forever.
The absolute nature of God is a source of great comfort to us, for it assures us that what He has given us, our salvation,
is permanent, even beyond any principle of permanance as we understand it. What we have in way of His eternal life, His
righteousness, and the 37 other irrevocable absolutes which He has given us, will never be taken from us, can never fade or
diminish, become obsolete, or even be lost by our own disfunction or error. Once we have them, they are an absolute,
integral part of our existence.
Any time we contemplate God, on any subject, we must always remember that He is beyond our range of thought, and as such,
can not be reduced to human parameters. We are able to have a limited knowledge of Him, but this does not imply that we
are at liberty to force God into a human mold. Humanize Him. In every single aspect of His Person, He exceeds the boundaries
of our mentality, and thus, it is wise that we simply assign any matter which escapes our understanding to this concept.
Let me expand on this principle.
One assinine comment I've heard abroad in the land is that God is vindictive and violent, ideas arrived at by certain parties'
in their perusal of the Old Testement, to wit; God commanded Saul, at one point, to destroy an entire nation, leave no living thing,
including women and children...even the animals. There are many scriptures which find The Almighty issuing orders to
kill this person, or go to war against that nation, etc.
Granted, if these same commands were issued by a human being, regardless of his stature or nobility, he would be a barbarian,
inhumane and blood thirsty. But our base motivations and the working of our mind is infinately limited as compared to God's.
He is absolute, infinite Righteousness, Justice, and Love. All He does are the manifestation of all His 10 known attributes.
Therefore, His commands to commit these seeming atrocities are not subject to our judgement or evaluation. It is enough to
know, when we encounter a difficult matter such as this, that God's reasons are above reproach, immaculate, and originating
from His perfection.
There are explanations for almost all of these incidents in the scriptures that we can grasp, and I have gone into many of them
in other sections of this site, so I will not do so here, for the purpose of this page is to examine the unexaminable,
delve into a subject so vast that we are pitifully inept, unable to do it justice. But we can understand the principle
of perfection, and we must apply it whenever doubt or any other dark thought of God enters our thinking.
Suffice it to say, there will come a time, beyond this existence, when we will have a mind which is expanded a million times
greater than our present comprehension, and THEN we will know, and perhaps understand, the divine acts which elude our
understanding in this life. This is one of the important aspects of faith, that we trust God no matter what appearances may
be, for his grace is more real than even the circumstances that confront us.
God has given us names by which we can identify the individuals of the Trinity, but none of them actually have a name. Even
"God" is a humanistic invention of His for the purpose of our understanding. We must have finite terms, definable concepts,
in order to think, and God has provided those things in what we call "language of accomodation". Any parent can identify this
form of communication, and the principle behind it, right? When our kids are little we use a "language of accomodation" of our
own design in order to tell them things, explain things on a level they can grasp.
It amounts to simplifying terminology, or using "invented" words, that are on the child's level so that the concept the
parent has in mind can be understood, in part, by the baby. If my wife wanted to warn one of our daughters not to touch a
breakable object while they were yet 1 or 2 years old, she wouldn't say, "Kathryn! That vase is very delicate! Please
refrain from touching it!" Her admonition would come out more like; "Baby no no!". Just so, God phrases his communication
to us is terms far beneath His mentality, words and concepts that we can comprehend.
The names of the Trinity not only convey a sense of relationship, but also the roles which each of them are carrying out
in human history. These responsibilities were stated, and accepted by the Trinity, before creation.
God the Father is the Person of the Trinity who assumed the role of the authority, the planner of history, and the unique
plan for each of His adopted children, us. The Son and Spirit accepted this arrangement, and thus they submit to Him in
all things regarding the whole of history. Beyond this, we know nothing of the relationship between the members of God.
In fact, we don't know precisely what thought or particular condition caused them to decide to create the universe,
except that Love played the key role. God is pleased to share the wealth of His being with His creatures. The nuances of
this decision will probably never be known to us, except for the principles I have already stated; we do know that whatever
the reason, it is just, right, and an expression of His love...perfect.
So The Father is the authority, which relegates the Son to a subordinate role, the executor, or "doer" of the plan. Ironically,
it is The Son who is given the glory, all of the glory, while the Father and Spirit remain in the background. This is a
manifestation of God's Justice, for The Son is the one who suffers the pain and humiliation, and thus the one who is
honored by the remaining members of God. Please note, that a MAN, the Nazarene, Jesus, shares the glory of The Son.
But the burden of responsibility that The Son accepted goes far beyond the 1st Advent. As God, He also had to perform many
tasks which the Father's plan called upon Him to do. He is the Creator of Heaven and Earth, The Creator of man, and the
party responsible for the maintenance of the universe, a chore which doubtless requires what would be, to us, limitless
power.
Even in the period of the 1st Advent, The Son maintained the heavens and the eco-systems of Earth. I hesitate to jab the
evolution crowd again, so this time I'll add the environmentalist crowd as well; Here is a principle for you to ponder (fat
chance!), God keeps the heavens and earth going, and I mean every aspect of this planet and the stars. I suppose there are
those (in the millions) who think the sun just stays in it's position, and the rest of the solar system follow their well
defined orbits through space only because natural laws govern them. NOT!
God the Son keeps our solar system functioning properly, and the only reason our puny planet doesn't go hurling off into
deep space is because He prevents it. The same goes for the eco-systems, and that includes the ozone layer! We humans, with
our vast arrogance, actually believe that we can do something to destroy our environment! Well, saying that is more than a
manifestation of extreme stupidity, but a blasphemy against The Creator! Who are we to suggest that our hair spray cans,
and vehicle exhaust, or oil dumps into the sea, will annhialate this planet? Here's a news flash, folks; God the Son is the
dynamic force behind all the wonders of this place, and nothing we can do will mess up His work unless He allows it!!!
Once again, I digress...
That leaves The Holy Spirit; His responsibility in history is to reveal the plan of the Father, and the subsequent work of
The Son. He is our "Mentor", our teacher, and The One who guides us, comfort us, encourages us, motivates us, and resides
within our souls (so long as we remain in fellowship) to bring to memory the thinking of God that we have stored in our
souls.
The precise role that The Spirit plays in our lives was first demonstrated in the life of Christ, for Jesus Christ is the
pattern, the prototype, of the spiritual life we are given. His every thought, word and action were meticulously staged
with this precedent in mind. It is The Spirit's job to open our consciousness to these sublime truths, and bring us to
the pinnacle of the spiritual life, "pleroma", which means "fullness". There is far, far more to this process than I could
include here, if I took ten years to do it, for reaching pleroma is the quest of a lifetime, the divine purpose for placing
us here.
In this very brief treatment of the most worthy of biblical topics, The Holy Trinity, I have done little more than explain
what manner of presentation God has decided to employ in revealing Himself to us. I have explained that there are three
persons who hold the official classification of "GOD", what temporal names they have assumed for our beneift, and the
certain responsibilities which each of them recognize, and execute, in regards to man, and the history of our race.
But the subject of God is one that, like the Persons themselves, has thousands of principles, concepts and nuances beyond
counting. Almost any page, regardless of the subject, you select to read next, will augment what I have said here, for all
of the information on this site pertains to Him, and His work.
Theime's Doctrinal Notes: Trinity