General The Mystical, Illogical, Anti-intellectual Trinity Experience

[benadam1974]

By carlos@thehumanjesus.org

The problem that continues to plague Christendom is people leaving their brains at the church door. In particular when it comes to telling the world who God is!
For example, we all know that singular personal pronouns and verbs are used according to the laws of grammar. And they usually are meant to convey objective facts about how many persons "He," "Himself," etc., is. Yet, many trinitarians insist that words and phrases like "Myself" (Isa 44.24), "one LORD" (Mar. 12.29) or "only one God" (John 5.44) can mean more than one single person!

The fact is that the doctrine of the Trinity can only make "sense as a mystical or spiritual experience....It was not a logical or intellectual formulation but an imaginative paradigm that confounded reason. [For many] the Trinity is simply baffling." (Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 1994, p 117)

The Oxford Companion to the Bible is right to state "the NT offers no new doctrine of God. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is now the God and Father of Jesus Christ. Thus, all OT theology is implied in the NT." (1993, p 87)

These words from Catholic and Protestant notables are supported by the words of Jesus himself, in his prayer to the one God, his Father in John 17:

3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

(NOTE the following prophetic last words in this chapter, as paraphrased by The Amplified Bible, Classic Edition)

25 "O just and righteous Father, although the world has not known You and has failed to recognize You and has never acknowledged You, I have known You [continually]; and these men understand and know that You have sent Me. 26a I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your character and Your very Self, and I will continue to make [You] known."

 

[LeeB]

The trinity is called a mystery by Catholics and other churches that have this doctrine . Even the best explanations come up short to describe a three person God as monotheistic. They say that God is so great, so infinite that we cannot truly fathom Him. This seems to be at odds with how Jesus explained his God and Father and how that through Jesus the love and righteousness of God was demonstrated to us. We also have the words of the Father through the prophets. Jeremiah 9:24 , 1 Corinthians 1:31 , 2 Corinthians 10:17 , Exodus 34:6-7 , Psalm 34:2 How can we boast in someone we claim to not know ? An accurate description of those have lost the truth of God is , Romans 1:18-25 , 2 Kings 17:15 , Isaiah 44:20 , Jeremiah 2:5 , Jeremiah 4:22 The ancient nation of Israel went after strange Gods , it seems old habits are hard to break.