I was talking with a Jehovah’s
Witness who challenged the idea that Christians can believe in a monotheistic
God given that we claim God exists as a Trinity. Since this is a topic I think every Christian
should think through I decided to blog on it in hopes provoking some of you to
thought and perhaps making it intelligible to others So, understandably this JW I encountered
could not help but see that there might be a glaring contradiction with our
doctrine. If we believe God is three,
then logically we are a polytheistic people, right? Not so fast.
First, the Trinity is a doctrine
formed about God based on what Scripture points to. Granted, the model for it has taken some
different shapes over the years which suggests that it has been an ongoing work
rather than a consistent set of presuppositions.[1] Nevertheless, the most agreed upon model of
our day reads something like God is of one being shared by three co-equal,
co-eternal persons: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
1)
There is one and only one God
eternal, inflexibly-holy and all powerful.
2)
There are three eternal persons
described in Scripture – The Father, Son and The Holy Spirit. These persons are never identified with one
another – that is, they are carefully differentiated as persons.
3)
The Father, Son and Spirit are
identified as being fully Deity---that is to say that the Bible teaches the
Deity of Christ and the Deity of Spirit.
Ergo, the question is raised if they are distinct than how
can we claim monotheism? The most
crucial aspect to my argument for this is begins with the ancient world’s representations
polytheism.
The vast amounts of texts recovered
throughout Egypt and the Mesopotamian world reveal Israel was indeed surrounded
by a polytheistic people (Egyptians, Hittites, Sumerians, Akkadians and so
forth). These texts always present
similar portraits about their gods (because the ancient world had a congruent
worldview) which illustrate a very chaotic power struggle within the heavens,
specifically in their creation myths.
These are often epics that include a combative conflict motif between
primordial deities which always results in one winning out and usurping cosmological
control. Subsequently, many other
deities more or less embraced the hierarchy in the heavens, though there were
instances of coups being plotted against the god. Nevertheless, a good portion of
the gods were subordinate to the reigning deity even when they did not
particularly agree with that god. Thus, when
unity did exist among the god’s cosmological government it was never out of absolute
agreement and unity with that deity, but was more often a coerced outward
conformity because the reigning god was simply more powerful.
With the Trinity, as we saw, this
is not the case and I would propose that monotheism may not be as simple as
just the worship or belief of one God (though this was the traditional thought
in Second-Temple Judaism’s understanding of the Shema: Deut. 6:4-8) but it
could be that monotheism on another level can be found in undividable unity and
equality shared between more than one God like in the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit. Perhaps my phraseology makes
them sound uncomfortably distinct, but it gets the point across and I do not
think it undermines their sacred-shared substance. Even so, as far as I know this type of
harmony and interconnectedness never was said to have occurred between any other
deities in those ancient histories and myths.
Yet, the God revealed in Israel’s history and Messiah shows each persons
of the Trinity equally participated from the initial act of creation and sustaining
of life (Gen. 1:1-2; Jn. 1:1-4) to the outworking of a new creation and new
life (2 Cor. 5:17-19) in the face of anti-creational forces (Jn. 10:10-29).
With all this said, I am not going
to claim that I have it completely right or figured out and I am okay with
that. Sometimes it is alright to let
things about God remain a mystery, though that is a hard thing for the Western mind
to do. No matter how it works out I
believe the evidence behind it points to a God that is outside our realm of
total comprehension for the time being, but if nothing else offers us a glimpse
of his complex vastness and his unique commitment to stay involved in the human story.
[1] Some notable Trinitarian models have been the “psychological
model” (I believe this to be erred) which sees three forms of God’s one
self-image revealing the heart, mind and will of God in different periods of
history. The model I am a appealing to
is what is considered the “social model” which as I illustrate finds unity in
the mind, heart and will of three deities/persons.
Awesome content!
ReplyDeleteI was confronted by a JW some years ago and was knocked off my confidence by a single verse that they were sure proved that Jesus wasn't God. I was unaware of their beliefs and actually had no idea how to express mine using the scriptures.
I love that you make me think of topics that, unless expressed, I would not even know of my ignorance. Most committed Christians know all the basics of salvation but don't have the answers to respond to naysayers. It's good to be prepared. You obviously were.
Your discussion of the polytheistic understanding of the gods sounds like the movies we see of space aliens. They seem to always look like something familiar, whether man, plant or animal. They seem to see their gods in what they saw in the familiar context of the rulers of cities and nations.
Anyway, thank you for expressing this in such a concise manner. I have a friend who I've been praying for for years who is a JW. I'm waiting for the "Go" so I can talk to her again.
Sorry, I might have worded the beginning of my post in a misleading way, but at the time, as this was a while back, I was actually not as prepared as I thought I was to answer this JW (and to be honest I do not think that this would sell them on the Trinity, but could at least help them understand it better than I did). Anyway, we met several times over the course of a two week period and the first two times it quickly became a scripture battle and there was little focus on just one topic. We both realized we were not getting anywhere with each other and decided to discuss one topic the last time we met. Then it went much better and though we walked away agreeing to disagree, we more or less had become friends. In fact they will still stop by to say hi when in the area. Nevertheless, it was an encounter that taught me a lot and always stuck with me because, you are right, it was not so easy to convey my faith to someone who did not believe what I believed yet I felt compelled to engage in dialogue with them because this was one of the few times someone came to me to discuss of faith, doctrine and Biblical interpretation. So, I agree with you that Christians need to be more prepared with good responses by moving beyond the basics and aiming deeper at what it is we believe and why we believe it. Anyway, thank you for your response; those situations can certainly be discouraging, but it is good that you did not let it defeat you.
ReplyDeleteI'm still waiting for the "Go". The Lord has to prepare the hearts before anything we say can effect change, He did, after all, set up the opportunity for us to get to share with them so I'm sure he has been working to prepare their hearts to hear. I love that there are no coincidences with God.
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