The Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit share one nature, one essence, one substance. That
is why the Three Faces are the Trinity, one-in-substance. Humans also have one
nature, one substance.
But while God
is the Indivisible Trinity, divisions occur in mankind constantly… The Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit have common thought, common will, common actions.
What the Father desires, the Son also desires, and the Holy Spirit also
desires. Whatever the Son loves, so do the Father and the Holy Spirit also love.
Whatever is pleasing to the Holy Spirit, is pleasing to the Father and Son.
Their actions are also common among them, all act in conjunction and in accord.
This is not
so with man. We are in constant disagreement, we have differing desires. Even a
small child expresses his own wishes, willfulness, disobedience to his loving
parents. As he grows older, he separates from their more, and so often in our
day becomes completely alienated from them. People simply don’t share identical
opinions, on the contrary, there are perpetual divisions in all things,
quarrels and conflicts between individuals, wars between nations.
Adam and Eve,
before their Fall, were in full accord and of common spirit with one another at
all times. Having sinned, alienation was immediately sensed. Justifying himself
before God, Adam blamed Eve. Their sin divided them and continues to divide all
of mankind. Emancipated from sin, we approach God, and, filled with His grace,
we sense our unity with the rest of mankind. Such unity is very imperfect and
lacking, since in each person some portion of sin remains. The closer we
approach God, the closer we approach each other, just as the closer rays of
light are to each other, the closer they are to the Sun. In the coming Kingdom
of God there will be unity, mutual love and concord. The Holy Trinity remains
eternally unchanging, all-perfect, united in essence and indivisible.
The One,
Indivisible Trinity ever remains the Trinity. The Father always remains the
Father, the Son remains the Son, the Holy Spirit remains the Holy Spirit.
Besides Their personal Properties, They all share all in common and in unity.
That is why the Holy Trinity is One God.
If you are interested in some new ideas on the Trinity and religious pluralism, please check out my website at www.religiouspluralism.ca. It previews my book, which has not been published yet and is still a “work-in-progress.” Your constructive criticism would be very much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteMy thesis is that an abstract version of the Trinity could be Christianity’s answer to the world need for a framework of pluralistic theology.
In a constructive worldview: east, west, and far-east religions present a threefold understanding of One God manifest primarily in Muslim and Hebrew intuition of the Deity Absolute, Christian and Krishnan Hindu conception of the Universe Absolute Supreme Being; and Shaivite Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist apprehension of the Destroyer (meaning also Consummator), Unconditioned Absolute, or Spirit of All That Is and is not. Together with their variations and combinations in other major religions, these religious ideas reflect and express our collective understanding of God, in an expanded concept of the Holy Trinity.
The Trinity Absolute is portrayed in the logic of world religions, as follows:
1. Muslims and Jews may be said to worship only the first person of the Trinity, i.e. the existential Deity Absolute Creator, known as Allah or Yhwh, Abba or Father (as Jesus called him), Brahma, and other names; represented by Gabriel (Executive Archangel), Muhammad and Moses (mighty messenger prophets), and others.
2. Christians and Krishnan Hindus may be said to worship the first person through a second person, i.e. the experiential Universe or "Universal” Absolute Supreme Being (Allsoul or Supersoul), called Son/Christ or Vishnu/Krishna; represented by Michael (Supreme Archangel), Jesus (teacher and savior of souls), and others. The Allsoul is that gestalt of personal human consciousness, which we expect will be the "body of Christ" (Mahdi, Messiah, Kalki or Maitreya) in the second coming – personified in history by Muhammad, Jesus Christ, Buddha (9th incarnation of Vishnu), and others.
3. Shaivite Hindus, Buddhists, and Confucian-Taoists seem to venerate the synthesis of the first and second persons in a third person or appearance, ie. the Destiny Consummator of ultimate reality – unqualified Nirvana consciousness – associative Tao of All That Is – the absonite* Unconditioned Absolute Spirit “Synthesis of Source and Synthesis,”** who/which is logically expected to be Allah/Abba/Brahma glorified in and by union with the Supreme Being – represented in religions by Gabriel, Michael, and other Archangels, Mahadevas, Spiritpersons, etc., who may be included within the mysterious Holy Ghost.
Other strains of religion seem to be psychological variations on the third person, or possibly combinations and permutations of the members of the Trinity – all just different personality perspectives on the Same God. Taken together, the world’s major religions give us at least two insights into the first person of this thrice-personal One God, two perceptions of the second person, and at least three glimpses of the third.
* The ever-mysterious Holy Ghost or Unconditioned Spirit is neither absolutely infinite, nor absolutely finite, but absonite; meaning neither existential nor experiential, but their ultimate consummation; neither fully ideal nor totally real, but a middle path and grand synthesis of the superconscious and the conscious, in consciousness of the unconscious.
** This conception is so strong because somewhat as the Absonite Spirit is a synthesis of the spirit of the Absolute and the spirit of the Supreme, so it would seem that the evolving Supreme Being may himself also be a synthesis or “gestalt” of humanity with itself, in an Almighty Universe Allperson or Supersoul. Thus ultimately, the Absonite is their Unconditioned Absolute Coordinate Identity – the Spirit Synthesis of Source and Synthesis – the metaphysical Destiny Consummator of All That Is.
For more details, please see: www.religiouspluralism.ca
Samuel Stuart Maynes