Monthly Archives: January 2012

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part I

As we ended yesterday with our thoughts on the Miracles of Jesus and in particular on the biblical ideas of baptism, we stopped at the saying at the end of the sentence which is the basis for much of what is understood as the Trinity of God. The Master says “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). This saying, combined with the various references to the Father, the Son and to the Holy Spirit throughout the New Testament gave rise to the concept of a Triune God which is nowhere explained nor spoken of in discernible terms. The concept of the Trinity, as it is understood by the majority of the Christian faith is not accepted by all denominations and sects; aside from the Trinitarian Churches, which are by far the majority of Christian Churches, there are Unitarian Churches, and well as some few Binitarian ones. There are also many differences in the doctrines concerning the Godhead within each of these divisions. Like much else in Christianity, differing doctrines on the Trinity have been a reason for the spawning of the multiplicity of denominations and sects and, like much else in Christianity, the Trinity is not at all understood. It is more a compromise of ideas from the early church as the Church Fathers came to the basic understanding among them that still prevails until today.

The word that would be translated as Trinity or Triune does not appear at all in scripture but is a term coined in the early church and which came into favor among scholars and Church Fathers in the second, third and fourth centuries; the term Trinity as regards God eventually became the established doctrine through the First Council at Nicaea in the year 325. It took then until the end of the fourth century for the overall doctrine of the Trinity of God to take a final form which has more or less survived through the centuries⁹. In its final form the Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial⁹.

The Trinity is considered to be a mystery of Christian faith and so it is; it is not understandable in human terms although humanity has given to the concept of the Trinity some specifically human traits calling it as being of three persons and assigning to them ideas like begotten and proceeded. Much the same is done with God Himself by using the personal pronoun as reference and perhaps this is necessary to whatever basis of understanding we may be able to gather to ourselves concerning the Awesome Presence that we call God. It is unfortunate that when dealing with an issue that is so difficult to understand, humanity has consistently made any understanding ever more difficult by the strong opinions of men at odds with one another and often at odds with the essence of Truth. We have discussed the ideas inherent in this theme On God and of the Trinity before and we will be using some of this same dialogue here again in an effort to shine some Light on what we will consider the reality. Although this will all remain much a mystery, it will take on a form that shows the order and the logic of this Grand Creation of which we are a part. Too much time has been spent in human thought of a God who is likened to a man, sitting somewhere on His throne with His Son at His right hand. There is a reality to this but it is not found in that mental picture that one will get in thinking in this way. Let us start here by looking as the revelations of the gospels regarding the Three Persons of God and their interrelationship.

First, the Fatherhood of God; this is well established and it makes up a large part of the primary part of the teaching of the Master. This subject is covered throughout our blog posts and is specifically covered early on in In the Words of Jesus parts 6 and 7. We speak frequently also about the Aspects and the Attributes of God and it would be good for us to try to understand how we are using these words. What we call the Aspects of God are what the church calls the Trinity; in Christian terms these are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The word ASPECT means to us in this context the QUALITY and the NATURE of God rather than Persons of God. The dictionary gives us these ideas on aspect:

• From Webster’s 1828 Edition: 1. Look; view; appearance to the eye or the mind; as, to present an object or a subject in its true aspect, or under a double aspect. 2. Countenance; look, or particular appearance of the face. 3. View; sight; act of seeing. [This sense is now unusual.] 4. Position or situation with regard to seeing, or that position which enables one to look in a particular direction¹.
• A more modern look: 1. appearance to the eye or mind; look. 2. nature; quality; character. 3. a way in which a thing may be viewed or regarded; interpretation; view. 4. part; feature; phase. 5. facial expression; countenance. 6. bearing; air; mien. 7. view commanded; exposure. 8. the side or surface facing a given direction⁷.

There are here a number of terms that can be used to further one’s understanding of Aspect in relation to God and which will fit well with our understanding of Aspect as the NATURE or the QUALITY of God. We can view this concept then as One God that has Three Qualities of Being, Three Natures,  that of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and these are for us the Three Aspects of God. The Father is the foremost and for our purposes we can consider that the Father is the One God, all three Aspects resolved into the One. This is unlike the general view of the Trinity but it is a rational and realistic one and it is not unlike the Christian view that “it is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds” which is from the Fourth Lateran Council of the thirteenth century⁹. It is also not unlike the view from the Gospel of John that tells us:

• Jesus Speaking of the Christ: “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father” John 16:28).
• Jesus speaking of the Holy Spirit: “But when the Comforter is come , whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me” (John 15:26).

So then we take our view that the Father is the ONE GOD, and from this ONE proceeds the Son and the Holy Spirit as Two Aspects of the Godhead which, when combined with the Father make the Three of the Trinity. Of the Father we can say many things insofar as to His unique relationship and correspondence to man and we will get to these things once we have outlined each of the Aspects of God. We should however try to get for ourselves a firm understanding of the Fatherhood of God as the Master taught us so that we can come to look a the Father as the Master did. Jesus gives us this:

• Telling us why we should play our spiritual part in this Life the Master says: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16).
• Telling us of the Omnipotence of the Father and the oneness of ALL with Him Jesus tells us: “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45)
• Telling us of the overall Goodness and Greatness of God and our ability to be like Him, the Master says: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) and He tells us also that: “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” (Luke 6:36) and “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)
• Acknowledging that it is the Will of the Father that prevails in the heavens and alluding to the destiny of things on Earth Jesus says: “When ye pray , say , Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.” (Luke 11:2)
• Attesting to our relationship with the Father being in Spirit and in the Power of the Spirit the Master tells us: “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” (John 4:23)
• Giving us a clue to the unmanifest Nature of the Father, that the Father is beyond the ken of our being on the Earth and that He is as much our Father as He is the Master’s, Jesus says: “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” (John 20:17).

These are some thoughts from scripture on the Fatherhood of God and from this there should be no question as to man’s proper understanding of his relationship. As we said earlier, we, as humans, have a tendency to portray God as a man, as a person, and this according to the many allegories that we find in scripture. However, can we see the truth of the Nature of the Father in these sayings above? The Apostle Paul gives us what is perhaps the best view of our Father God in his dissertation to the Greek scholars when he says: “….Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring” (Acts 17:22-28).

There is a real wealth of understanding in this saying by Paul and much of it goes unappreciated by the Christian world. In speaking of the Oneness of God, Paul takes up the theme that it does not matter who or what you consider to be God or what you may call His name, there is but ONE and this is who he preaches. Even to the atheist this would ring true for even these consider that the world was made and the things in the world were made by some Power called by some name; be it Nature or Happenstance, all was and is continually created by some Power. Paul tells us here that that Power is the same God that we worship, that we consider to be our God. Paul goes on to tell of the unity of all men within this Awesome Creation, being created by the Same Awesome Power that is our God and, as a testimony to His Fatherhood, Paul tells us that we are all His Children; not believers only, not by race or background, not by religious affiliation but ALL. Most importantly, at least from our perspective, is the Truth that it is IN God that we Live, it is IN God that we Move, and it is IN God that we have our Being. We should see in this phrase the ideas inherent in our very nature in that we Live as Spirit, we Move in form and we have our Being in the Soul. And in this we should understand it is the Soul that is given Life by the Spirit and it is the Soul that gives Life to the form.

There is a great debate regarding the concept of Pantheism which, briefly explained means: 1913: The doctrine that the universe, taken or conceived of as a whole, is God; the doctrine that there is no God but the combined force and laws which are manifested in the existing universe; cosmotheism. 1828: The doctrine that the universe is God, or the system of theology in which it is maintained that the universe is the supreme God¹. This is a view of the Father God that is alien to the ideas of mainstream Christianity but, at the same time, can be seen as inherent in Paul’s saying that “in him we live and move, and have our being“. The Catholic Church says this of Pantheism: The Church has repeatedly condemned the errors of pantheism. Among the propositions censured in the Syllabus of Pius IX is that which declares: “There is no supreme, all-wise and all-provident Divine Being distinct from the universe; God is one with nature and therefore subject to change; He becomes God in man and the world; all things are God and have His substance; God is identical with the world, spirit with matter, necessity with freedom, truth with falsity, good with evil, justice with injustice” (Denzinger-Bannwart, “Ench.”, 1701). And the Vatican Council anathematizes those who assert that the substance or essence of God and of all things is one and the same, or that all things evolve from God’s essence (ibid., 1803 sqq.)¹³. This sentiment is rather typical of the general view of all Christianity but it fails to recognize ought but this physical manifestation and it fails to take into consideration that in manifestation all things are subject to change; there seems to be a confusion between the True Nature of God as Spirit and this, His manifest creation.

Considering the objection, where then might God be? Looking at this creation itself which has some of the properties of Deity in that it is infinite; there are no boundaries. Looking out into space can we see even the possibility of an end point and, should there be one, what would be on the other side of it? Seeing also the intimate relationship between time and space, how do we define eternity and, looking at these concepts, infinite and eternal, how is it that we as men on this Earth believe that we are somehow the center of it all. It is not our time to get involved in this type of esoteric discussion but just to leave open this question of Pantheism as it relates to the saying of the Apostle Paul and as it relates to this saying by the Master: “.….believe the works: that ye may know , and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him” (John 10:38) and this knowing of the Master that “as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).

This then is the beginning part of our exploration of the concepts and ideas and the Truths that are inherent in the Master’s words “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost“. As we have before said: God is One and Christ and the Holy Spirit are One with Him. From this perspective we have a Trinity that is a Trinity of Aspects of God and not three separate persons as many see this; God cannot be divided.

Note on the Quote of the Day