Understanding the Trinity: Paradox, Essence, and Mystery

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I said, “I grant that the formula for the Trinity is paradoxical, but it is by no means contradictory. Now let me show you why. The historic formula is that God is one in essence and three in person.” Now I said to my philosophy professor friend, I said, “Certainly you can see that what this formula is saying is that God is one in one thing and three in something else. [00:01:42]

Now, to break the law of contradiction, one would have to say that God is one in essence and only one in essence, and God is three in essence; or saying God is one and only one in person, and at the same time say that God is three in person, because the simple definition of the law of non-contradiction is that something cannot be what it is and not be what it is at the same time and in the same way or in the same relationship.” [00:02:43]

Now, I can be a father and a son at the same time, but not in the same relationship. I cannot be my own son or my own grandson. That’s obviously impossible, and so when we look at the formal categories of rational thought, we see, objectively, I hope, that this formula is not contradictory. [00:03:06]

And this was one of the things that the church struggled with profoundly in the first four centuries in order to be faithful to the clear teaching of Scripture that on the one hand God is one and on the other hand that Christ is divine, that the Father is divine, and that the Holy Ghost is divine. [00:03:42]

Now, so from those words, we get the idea of a paradox is something that when placed alongside of something else seems or appears to be contradictory, but when you look at it more closely and subject it to careful scrutiny, you see that, in fact, it is not a contradiction. [00:06:18]

It may seem to be contradictory because we’re saying God is one essence and three persons, and we are accustomed in our vantage point as human beings to see one being is one person; we can’t conceive of how one being could be contained three persons and still only be one being. [00:06:44]

Now, we also have to talk about the meaning of these two terms, because again, why this seems to be contradictory is because we have a tendency to see these terms, essence and person, as virtual synonyms. Because this man is a being, he’s a human being, but he’s also a person, and we, again, as I said, we are accustomed to thinking one person per being. [00:07:23]

Now, the concept of essence is the – comes from the Greek word – again, another Greek word – it comes from the Greek participial form of the verb, ‘to be’, which is the word, ‘ousios’, which means, ‘being’ or ‘substance’, or my favorite translation of this in the vernacular is the word, ‘stuff’. [00:08:18]

And what the church was saying is that God is one essence; there is only one stuff. There’s not part of God here and then separated from that is another part of God over here. That would be two beings, and God is only one being. [00:10:29]

Now, in technical theology, in order to make the distinction in the godhead among the persons of the Trinity, other terms have been used. My favorite one, which I think is most helpful, and I hope is not confusing to you, is the word, ‘subsistence’. Subsistence; now that’s probably not a word you’re too familiar with in terms of its theological use. [00:15:03]

Now, the point I’m saying is is that we don’t want to think of God like this. If you ask me, ‘Is God?’ I say, “Yes, of course God is.” But does He exist? Not in this sense, because that would make Him what? A creature, a dependent derived existence. But rather, we say God is here. God is being, not becoming, not changing. He is eternally the same, and so we say there’s one being. [00:20:45]

And so we can say that the distinction among the three persons is a necessary distinction because the Bible makes the distinction, and it is a real distinction, but we say it’s not an essential distinction. Uh oh, what do you mean it’s not an essential distinction? You mean – to mean by that it’s not important that we make a distinction and it doesn’t matter? [00:22:22]

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