#trinitarian

There's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

The Father is not the Son, nor vice versa, and neither are the Spirit.

These aren't three separate deities.

If Jesus wasn't God, then how could he have lived the perfect and pleasing life God required of him? If Jesus could have worked his way towards full and total holiness, then that is a doctrine of works and defeats the purpose of the crucifixion and resurrection.

Speaking of which, who else but God could take God's wrath? Who else, even with the Holy Spirit, couldn't be held by death? Only God defies death.

Saint Felix of Valois

Cofounder of the Trinitarians

1127-1212

Feast Day: November 20

Saint Felix of Valois was a member of the French royal family. He was ordained a priest and wanting to live a solitary life he became a hermit. St John of Malta joined him as a hermit. One day in devout discourse, a stag, bearing a blue and red cross between its antlers, burst from the bushes. St. Felix, greatly amazed, didn’t know what to say, but St. John recalled this same vision while saying his first holy Mass. When they requested to form the Trinitarian order to ransom captives from the Moors, Pope Innocent III had the same vision during his Mass and approved the order. St Felix died of natural causes at 85.

San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane

Francesco Borromini

Italian Baroque/1638

(Inspired by Ecclesiastes 9)

+ Glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Loving Master, in harmony with your wise sage Solomon, we affirm these truths:

Where there is breath, there is life. Where there is life, there is hope.

Where breath and life may cease, there is You.

May we always carry that hope, for to live is Christ and to die is gain.

In this post I am going to show that one is faced with a very obvious Three part God written into the pages of the old Testament.  This is a powerful apologetic as it is so often accused that European Christians invented the trinity.  This is obviously not the case.  The first Christians, who were 1st century Jews, knew these scriptures and saw the things I am going to highlight.  They were not the only ones.  The idea of a Binary Godhead was very common in 2nd temple Period Judaism.  it was not until 100 a.d. that this view receded.  Obviously, this binary view receded in response to the rise of Christianity.

this is something that all Christians can get behind, Catholic and Protestant alike.  

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TL: DR:  YHVH manifests physically as the Angel of the LORD and the Word. YHVH has a presence often referred to as the Name. YHVH also exists as the Glory which cannot be viewed by men. Verse list:  Genesis 19: 24, Amos 4:11 ,Exodus 3: 1-4,  Genesis 22:11,12 w/  Genesis 22: 1. Genesis 31:11-13,  Judges 6: 11-18,  Exodus 23:20-22,  Deuteronomy 12:4-11,  Isaiah 30:27,  Deuteronomy 4: 34-37,  2 Samuel 6:2,  Exodus 33:17-23,  Genesis 15:1-4,  1 Samuel 3:1-10, Jeremiah 1:4-9

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Genesis 19: 24 Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.

Wait…what?

Amos 4:11 I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brandplucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD.

Wait…so God overthrew them as when God overthrew Sodom?

The Angel of the Lord

Exodus 3: 1-4 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.  And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”  When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

So both the Angel and the Lord are in the bush, or, are they one in the same?

Genesis 22:11,12 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”  He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

Wait…who told Abraham to go sacrifice Isaac?

Genesis 22: 1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him….

So…the Angel of the LORD and God are indeed one in the same. Interesting…

Genesis 31:11-13 Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’  And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’”

The Angel is the God of bethel? Wow.  

Judges 6: 11 Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites….  …14 Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”…   …16-18 The LORD said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”  Gideon replied, “If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the LORD speaking to me. Don’t go away until I come back and bring my offering to you.” He answered, “I will stay here until you return.”

Wait…who was under the tree?  The Angel or the LORD? Oh yeah, they are one in the same.

The Angel and the Name

Exodus 23:20-22 “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

Hmmm….

Deuteronomy 12:4-11 You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way. But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitationthere. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you. “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you. But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, then to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the LORD.

Wait, why does his name need a place to dwell?  Do they need to make a little house for the letters YHVH?  Probably not, so, the Name must be more than just that.

Isaiah 30:27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire;

So the name has anger, a “tongue” and can move around.  Hmmm…

Deuteronomy 4: 34-37 Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?  To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him.  Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.  And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after themand brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power,

Wait…did God send an Angel with his NAME in it to lead them out of Egypt? Didn’t we just see that?

2 Samuel 6:2 And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the LORD of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim.

Why is the Ark called the Name of the Lord?  Could it be due to the Ark being where the PRESENCE sat in the Temple?  It is sure looking like the NAME and the PRESENCE are the same thing.

Exodus 33:17-23 And the LORD said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

Now, think about this.  There are two manifestations of God here.  One with a hand that covers Moses’ eyes while the GLORY passes by. Keep that hand in mind.

The Word

Genesis 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great… …4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.”  And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”  And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

So the WORD is a visible manifestation that can take Abraham outside and show him things?

1 Samuel 3:1 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD in the presence of Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision…. ….8-10 And the LORD called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the LORD came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.”

Did you catch that?  The Lord, who is the WORD, came and STOOD.

Jeremiah 1:4-9 Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” But the LORD said to me,

“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD.”

Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me,

So the WORD, who is the LORD put out his HAND to touch Jeremiah. Remember the hand covering Moses’ eyes?

So put this all together and what do we have?  We have a God whose GLORY men cannot look upon, but who manifests with a physical form (The Word and the Angel), and whose presence is the Name. Does any of this sound familiar? Here, right in the Old Testament can be found a triune Godhead, a Trinity.  

At this point, don’t forget the opening verses of the Gospel of John.

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4In him was life,a and the life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it….

…. 14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Sond from the Father, full of grace and truth….

Why the Trinity Is Three Persons

Full Question

        Why is the Trinity three persons instead of one, two, four, or more persons?        

Answer

One can respond simply that God has revealed himself as three persons—and that is that. We must remember that God is not merely a bigger version of us and that unless he explains himself, any attempt to fully understand him is like trying to contain an ocean in a thimble.

We know from Church teaching that the Trinity is at the heart of Christianity. St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us that while it is possible to reason to the existence of God, we can know the Trinity only because of what Jesus has revealed to us about it.

However, Aquinas reflected on how we might gain some insight into the mystery of the Godhead. Even though we refer to the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit as persons, the reality of such terminology far outstrips anything we understand by the word person. So the divine persons are not separate individuals as in a father, a son, and a dove but are essentially distinct by their relationships with each other. Relationship is the key.

For St. Thomas, the Trinity is the relationship of self-knowledge and love that exist in God. We can identify with this in that we know that we exist as the persons that we are. But we can also reflect on who we are. We have knowledge about ourselves. Now, this self-knowledge proceeds from ourselves as a separate and yet definite part of who we are. There is a relationship between us and our awareness of who we are.