General Logical Problem of the Trinity

[benadam1974]

Classical Christian orthodoxy insists that God is Triune: there is only one God, and this God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (381) states that the Father and Son arehomoousios (of one substance). The Athanasian Creed expresses this central Christian conviction starkly: “So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; and yet they are not three Gods, but one God.” Belief in both the distinctness and the divinity of the persons, on one hand, and belief in the oneness or unity of God, on the other hand, are essential to orthodox Christian belief. But what does this really mean? And how could it possibly be true?

What theologians sometimes refer to as the “threeness–oneness problem of the Trinity,” and what philosophers call the “logical problem of the Trinity” is well-known. It arises from the conjunction of three central tenets of the doctrine:
(T1) There is exactly one God.
(T2) Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not identical.
(T3) Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are consubstantial.

The logical problem is that the conjunction of T1–T3 appears to be flatly inconsistent. This problem may be expressed as follows:
(LPT1) There is exactly one God, the Father Almighty (from T1).
(LPT2) The Father is God (from LPT1).
(LPT3) The Son is consubstantial with but not identical to the Father (from T2 and T3).
(LPT4) If there are x and y such that x is a God, x is not identical to y, and y is consubstantial withx, then it is not the case that there is exactly one God (premise).
(LPT5) Therefore: It is not the case that there is exactly one God (from LPT2, LPT3, and LPT4).

[Thomas McCall, Michael Rea, Philosophical and Theological Essays on the Trinity (2010, Oxford University Press)]

 

[LeeB]

If only the second member of the trinity came to Earth what about the other two. Jesus is not the Holy Spirit and not the Father but yet it takes all three to make their one God then only the Son alone was on Earth. Jesus then, being alone, would violate the condition of three in one. This shows Jesus could not have been God. To support the trinity Jesus would have to be Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the flesh, so when Jesus died they all had to die thus according to their own teaching God is dead because their would be no one to resurrect God.

 

[LeeB]

Someone convinced against their will is of the same opinion still. Even those who stumble upon the truth that there is only one God, the Father, yet are in error on other doctrine. The truth is like a chain with links, each link touches the other and if any link is broken so is the truth. Jesus said the scripture cannot be broken but the false churches have smashed truth to pieces. On every topic they are wrong. A little evil destroys much good and a little leaven leaven’s the whole lump. This is the confusion and chaos prophecy said would exist in the end time. Only God through Christ the mediator can teach anyone the truth and if God does not teach someone then they will remain ignorant. Many are called but few are chosen to receive the truth the rest are ever learning but never able to find it. Not many wise men now are called, not many noble brethren in this evil age and this is done by God in order that each may have the best opportunity to realize the truth and not commit the unpardonable sin and perish, for God is not willing that any should perish but rather come to repentance. Today the few, followed by an innumerable multitude, then the millennium and finally the second resurrection. God determines who will be and when they will be.