Trinity

I had an enlightening thing happen to me this weekend; picture this:

Three teenage boys, 16, 18, and 19, in a cabin somewhere off the map, warming themselves in front of a fire, drinking hot chocolate, eating creamsticks, enjoying eachother's company and... reading philosophy.

It actually took place. This past weekend, Chris, Micheal, and I spent Fri. evening and Sat. morning together at a small cabin in the middle of nowhere (and when I say nowhere, it's 4 miles east of New Bedford, that sprawling metropolis built around the 600-643 intersection). When morning came, the fire was out, and the boys were cold. So I got some starter shavings, some dry logs and a match, and warmed that little cabin right up.

While we were all sitting around warming up, it was my bright idea to begin reading from Fracis Schaeffer's book, He is There and He is Not Silent. The boys were agreed, so I began; ended up reading the whole chapter, in fact, and I'll probably never be quite the same.

All that to introduce tonight's subject (if indeed it is night when you're reading this, if not... never mind):


The Holy Trinity.

First of all, why does the Trinity exist? What is the need fulfilled by the Trinity? Let's go back a little, to the days of Aerostotle, Socrates (not "SO-crates" as in a movie I recently wasted my time on), and all those guys. The Greek philosophers had this troubling thing; actually, we see it in most Eastern religions who had any brains. The trouble was this:

You know how the Greeks had so many gods? The reason they did this was because the had to have gods in order to be over everything that exists, or as Schaeffer put it, "to be a sufficient reference point for all the particulars." Their dillemma was that they kept thinking of stuff they didn't have a god for, so they'd make another, and another, and another.... We actually see an bit of this in the bible, on Mars Hill, where there was the alter to the unknown god. They always knew they were missing something, so they just made a god they didn't know about to account for their missing stuff.

We know who that God is, but what makes Him a sufficent reference point for all existence and for all our morals? What is special about God that makes Him able to be such a huge thing? Two things: No. 1, He's infinite, No. 2, He's not alone.

No. 1
Of course God is infinite. Just that fact makes him almost sufficient to be our reference point, our validation.

No. 2
He's not alone, for he is Three! He, alone, communes as Three; Three Who loved and communed with eachother before time, before the world began. The reason for this is: if He were alone, He would need the universe as much as the universe needs him! He would have needed the love and adoration of all things as much as they needed His sustaining hand! And if that were the case, He wouldn't be completely sufficient! He would be dependant upon us, humble humans to validate Him! There is no way that my God is not sufficient to live without the earth. It is peaceful to know that my God is completely self-sufficient.

So Jesus intercedes for us, communing with His Father, and the Holy Spirit moves, the catalyst of Christian motion.


Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Amen.