Happy Easter.

A few weeks ago I listened to an online pundit criticizing the Trinity. I realized that the pundit clearly did not understand the thing he was criticizing.

While I do not claim to understand the mind of God, I thought I should write down my understanding of The Trinity. I suspect that that this idea originated in theological debates in the ancient world. So, I will investigate this background.

Background Essays

Multiplicity and Monism

Before starting I would like to note that the Christian Bible was written in Greek; So it is likely that the authors of The Bible had passing familiarity with Greek Philosophers.

Greek philosophers were obsessed with the concept of multiplicity. Multiplicity discusses the relation between the many and the one. It is still important in computer programming.

Pythagoras (570 BC - 490 BC) was interested in numerology. Claims are that he was driven to distraction by proofs showing that the hypotenuse of the unit square could not be represented as a ratio of whole numbers. This is called the Pythagorean Theorem

Early Greek and Egyptian mathematicians had a special fondness for triangles. Triangles have three sides and three angles.

Of course, there are irrational elements to the circle as well.

Parmenides of Elea was born in the late 6th century BC. He was perplexed by the paradoxes that frustrated Pythagoras. He concluded that the multiplicity of things we see around us is an illusion and that everything is one. Radical monism is a precursor to monotheism.

Socrates and Plato had numerous ideas. Plato's student Aristotle developed the foundations of logic.

Philip of Macedonia hired Aristotle to teach his son Alexander.

Alexander of Macedonia conquered Egypt and Persia. His friend Ptolemy I Soter (367 BC – 282 BC) became the King of Alexandria. It is likely that Ptolemy was friends with Aristotle. Euclid was a early leader of the Library.

The Library of Alexander commissioned the translation of Jewish Torah into Greek.

The Hebraic source material were lost to history. It is likely that scholars embellished the Torah during this translation.

I know that this will tweak many readers, it appears that philosophers were discussing the nature of God before the writing of the Bible.

From Monism to Monotheism

There are many philosophical arguments that hint at the idea that there is one god.

For example, if there was a pantheon (or council of Gods) than the force behind the pantheon is a god ... one god.

Philosophers who contemplated chains of cause and effect often concluded that there one primal cause that set the chain of cause and effect into motion.

Aristotle called this primal cause the unmoved mover.

Valid statements in formal logic must evaluate to TRUE or FALSE. This is the law of non-contradiction. This leads to the idea that the universe must be ruled by one truth. Since God is intimately entwined with truth, the claim that there is one truth leads to the claim that there is one God.

I admit, I am attracted to the notion that Truth and God are closely related.

Can Man Become God?

It was common for warlords in the ancient world to declare themselves gods. The Pharaohs of Egypt did it. Alexander did it and the Caesars did it.

The people who claimed to be god were often violent warlords.

The plethora of people claiming to be gods makes one question: Just exactly how does man become a god?

A corollary of this question is: Can God become a man?

The Biblical God

The Bible presents two creation stories. In the first creation story, God creates the universe. In the second God Creates man.

The creation of the Universe

The concept of a God of Creation brings up fun ideas: If the God of Creation created the universe; then who created the God of Creation? The God of Creation must be some primal source that exists outside the creation.

The God of Creation could not be part of the creation as that would mean that God created himself.

Plato wrote of a creative spirit called the demiurge that worked inside of creation. This demiurge could well be a tool of The God of Creation.

The Creation of Man

In the second creation story God created and interfaced with man.

Man is clearly inside the creation.

The unchanging God of Creation must have some sort of mechanism to communicate with beings inside the creation.

The Bible hints that the God that created the universe is the same being that created man.

God is somehow both inside and outside of creation.

My Understanding of the Trinity

My understanding of the Bible is that the God of Creation has a mechanism to interact in the creation. This God of Creation created some sort of entity to interact with man

While this entity could interact with people it could not fully understand humanity without becoming human. This is where Jesus comes in.

The Christian Bible hints that The God of Creation took on human form to experience humanity.

Jesus roamed the earth for a bit to experience humanity.

If Jesus became a man; then Jesus would experience the things that man experienced. As man, Jesus experienced negative things like temptation, doubt and even despair.

As man, Christ would have experienced the limitations of humanity. Without having this experience, it would be unjust for God to judge humanity.

It is interesting to note that Jesus became a man of peace. This was a direct rebuke to the many warlords who declared themselves gods.

Man is Mortal

Remember a defining attribute of humanity is that people suffer and die. Human life is finite.

If Jesus was doomed to die; then why not make a show of it?

Religious authorities claim that their authority comes from God.

Jesus's trial was interesting. As you see, religious authorities claim that their authority comes from God.

When the authorities were faced with a man who might be God, they balked. Seeing Jesus as a threat to their authority, the religious authorities condemned and crucified Jesus.

In addition to exposing the hypocrisy, the crucifixion fulfilled many of the prophecies in the Old Testament.

After the trial Jesus said: "Forgive them for they know not what they do."

A primary reason that people fail to obey God is that the limited human mind cannot comprehend the unlimited mind of God.

The Resurrection and Pentecost

The Bible tells us that three days after the crucifixion, Jesus revealed his divine nature by rising from the dead.

Jesus's resurrection is a revelation not a miracle. The resurrection revealed Jesus's divine nature.

This Resurrection reveals that Jesus was both fully man and fully God.

There is one huge problem with this story.

Man, by nature is mortal. A man experiences only a finite life.

The resurrected Christ could not hang around forever. While the divine aspects of Christ are immortal, the human aspect were still mortal.

The Bible tells us that Jesus appeared to his disciples several times after the crucifixion. Seven weeks after the crucifixion, Christ ascended to heaven and a spirit combining the divine and human nature of Christ entered the earth.

NOTE: Church fathers used inclusive counting. Seven times seven plus the offset is 50. Scholars call this day Pentacost. They call the entity the Holy Spirit.

So, now we have the full Trinity. The Trinity says that God became man as Jesus. Jesus was fully man and fully God. Jesus revealed his divine nature on Easter. The resurrected Jesus hung around for seven weeks. One Pentecost, Jesus ascended and the Holy Spirit infused the earth with the combined nature of the Creator and Jesus.

Church fathers used the strange term "personages" for these three aspects of God.

It is a wonderful idea which combines multiplicity and numerology to describe the oneness of God.

Summary of My Understanding

My understanding starts with the recognition that people were discussing the nature of God and the problem of multiplicity before the Bible.

The Trinity explains how the God of Creation could become man. This is a far more interesting story than the numerous warlords who claimed to become gods.

It is a wonderful story that emphasizes the oneness of God.

The big question now is: "Do I believe that my understanding of The Trinity is true?"

My answer to this question hinges in the term "my."

My understanding of the world exists inside of my brain and I know that my mind is finite.

I am reluctant to claim that my understanding of any issue is the truth.

I am far more interested in expanding my understanding of issues than declarative statements about what is true and what is not true.

So, I will end my Easter Post by saying that people who want to understand history should develop an understanding of the Trinity as it is an elegant exploration of the problem of multiplicity.

The Image

I asked Night Cafe for a trinity of eggs for this Easter post.