The Blessed Trinity
Objection: “The doctrine of the Trinity is not found in the Bible. It is
really a disguised form of pagan polytheism––the worship of three
gods in one!”
The Blessed Trinity is God, one and undivided, in three distinct divine
Persons. It is the most fundamental doctrine of Christianity. Unaided
human reason could never have known of the Blessed Trinity. It is a
supernatural mystery fully revealed only by Jesus Christ Himself.
Early Christian Fathers of the West grappled with trying to understand the
Blessed Trinity through the notion of the “mental word” in God. The
argument runs as follows: As humans, we know and love ourselves
according to the idea we have of ourselves in our minds, but this idea is
limited and imperfect. God also knows and loves Himself in the idea He
has of Himself. But God’s idea of Himself is utterly unlike any human idea.
His knowledge of Himself is infinite and perfect. Furthermore, as there are
no parts in God, this idea, or “mental word,” is not separate from God and,
therefore, is divine in essence.
Being divine, it follows that the mental word is eternal, and therefore
uncreated. This mental word St. John calls “the Word,” or Second Person
of the Blessed Trinity. God the Father knows Himself in the Word and the
Word knows God the Father. This mutual knowledge brings forth mutual
love. This mutual love the New Testament calls the Holy Spirit, or the
Third Person of the Blessed Trinity.
Those who claim to be Christian yet attack the doctrine of the Blessed
Trinity initially base their objections on the fact that the word “Trinity” is
not found in the Scriptures, and conclude that it is an unscriptural teaching.
According to groups such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, early Christian
theologians slowly incorporated the doctrine of the Trinity from paganism,
and being unable to adequately explain it cloaked it in the term “mystery”:
 |
 |
 |