How The Trinity Explained?
The Roman Catholic Church says:
"The Trinity is the term used to express the central doctrine of the
Christian ...
So, in the words of the Athanasian
Creed: 'the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, yet
there are not three Gods but one God.' In this Trinity ... Personal-personality
is equally eternal and equal: everything is uncreated and omnipotent. "-
The Catholic Encyclopedia.
Nearly all other churches in
Christendom agree. For example, the Greek Orthodox Church also calls the
Trinity "basic doctrine of Christianity," even saying:
"Christians are those who accept Christ as God."
In the book Our Orthodox Christian
Faith, the same church said: "Allah is a triad unity ... the Father is
fully God. Son is fully God. The Holy Spirit is fully God. "
Thus, the Trinity is regarded as
"one God in three Persons." Each is said to have no beginning, there is
from everlasting to everlasting. Each is said to be omnipotent, and each no
larger or smaller than others.
Does the idea of so elusive? Many
sincere believers find it confusing, contrary to common sense, really elusive.
How is it possible, the Father is
God, Jesus is God, and the holy spirit is God, yet there are not three Gods but
one God?
"Out of Reach of Human
Intellect"
CONFUSION is widespread. The
Encyclopedia Americana says that the Trinity is considered "beyond the
reach of human reason."
Many people who accept the Trinity
think so. Monsignor Eugene Clark says: "God is one and God is three.
Because there are no creatures like this, we can not understand it, but accept
it. "
Cardinal John O'Connor said:
"We know this is a very deep mystery, which we did not understand."
And Pope John Paul II said about the "mystery that can not be understood
about the Triune God." So, A Dictionary of Religious Knowledge said:
"Precisely what that doctrine, or how it should be explained, Trinitarians
did not reach agreement among themselves."
So, we can understand why the New
Catholic Encyclopedia says: "Only a few among teachers of Trinitarian
theology in seminaries Roman Catholic at a time is not cornered by the
question," But how are we going to preach about the Trinity? 'And if the
question is symptoms of confusion on the part of the students, possibly it is
also a symptom of similar confusion on the part of their teachers. "
The truth of the above statement can
be verified by visiting a library and check out books that support the Trinity.
Countless pages written in an attempt to explain it. However, after laboriously
examine theological terms are confusing and explanation, the researchers are
still not satisfied.
Of these, the Jesuit Joseph Bracken
said in his book What Are They Saying About the Trinity ?: "Priests were
quite a lot of effort has been studying ...
Trinity during their years in the
seminary of course not hesitate to pass it on to their congregations from the
pulpit, even on Sundays. Trinity ... For what a person will make his people get
bored with something that in the end they will not understand it right? "
He also said: "The Trinity is a
matter of formal belief, but it has little or no [effect] in the Christian life
and worship everyday." Nonetheless, this is a "primary doctrine"
of the churches!
Catholic theologian Hans Kung stated
in his book Christianity and the World Religions that the Trinity is one reason
why churches are not managed to make significant progress among non-Christians.
He said: "Even educated Muslims, completely unable to understand, as well
as the Jewish people so far can not understand, the idea of a Trinity ... The
difference is made by the doctrine of the Trinity between one God and three
hypostase [substance] is not satisfy Muslims, who instead find an explanation,
but it was confused, by theological terms derived from Syriac, Greek, and
Latin.
Muslims take this all the pun ...
Why would someone want to add something to the notion of God's oneness and
uniqueness that can only dilute or nullify that oneness and uniqueness? "
"It is not God's Love In
Chaos"
HOW doctrines such as the Trinity
appeared so confusing? The Catholic Encyclopedia states:
"Prior to the unveiling of the
Divine, it takes a mysterious dogma like that."
Catholic scholars Karl Rahner and
Herbert Vorgrimler state in their Theological Dictionary: "The Trinity ...
in the real sense ..., is a mystery that can not be understood without divine
revelation, and even after the disclosed can not be fully understood."
However, with adamant that the
Trinity is a mystery that is so confusing because it comes from divine
revelation, they created another big problem. Why? Because of the divine
revelation itself does not exist such a view of God: "God ... not a God
who likes to chaos." - 1 Corinthians 14:33, Bible in Indonesian Everyday
(BIS).
Given that statement, maybe God will
trigger the doctrine about himself that is so confusing that even scholars
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin can not explain?
Moreover, if people have to be
theologians to be able to 'know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He
sent?' (John 17: 3) If so, why so little of the Jewish religious leaders were
educated admit Jesus as the Messiah?
In contrast, the loyal disciples,
are farmers, fishermen, tax collectors, mother-housewife simple. Simple people
are so confident with what Jesus taught about God so that they can teach it to
others and even willing to die for their beliefs-Matthew 15: 1-9; 21: 23-32,
43; 23: 13-36; John 7: 45-49; Acts 4:13.