LOOKING AT CRITICISM OF THE HOLY TRINITY WHERE GOD IS EFFECTIVELY THREE GODS IN ONE
The Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity says that there is one God and that
God is three persons. The persons are not three Gods but one God. God is not
three persons in one person but three persons in one being. The persons are God
the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God the Son became a man. Jesus
Christ was God the Son.
FROM A CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY BOOKLET
From pages 50, 51,
CTS EXPLANATIONS, Jehovah’s Witnesses, by John Wijngaards, Catholic Truth
Society, London, 1998
Three “Persons” in the Blessed Trinity
Watchtower Argument
Christians say that there are three Persons in God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
They profess at the same time that there is only one God. But these two
statements are completely contradictory.
To be a true “person”, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit must be able to act
independently. Each person has his own mind and takes his own decisions. But
this means that there are really three Gods. The old Trinitarian gods of the
pagan world have been reintroduced into Christianity in a new guise.
Response
The objection would be valid if the word “Person” used in the Trinitarian
formula were to have the same meaning as the word “person” in modern English.
But such is not the case.1
The use of the term “Person” in the Trinity was introduced by the Greek Fathers
of the Church as an equivalent to hypostasis subsistence. What they were trying
to express is that somehow, though God is One, God is not solitary. Within the
One God there are mutual relationships, as it were different faces that reflect
one another. 2
In human language this is sometimes expressed as the Father reflecting on
himself and thus giving birth to the Son, and the Father and Son reflecting on
their mutual love which becomes the Holy Spirit. Since we are talking about
God’s deepest essence, we are dealing with first –class mystery, and human terms
will always remain inadequate.
Using the term “Person” is not a fortunate turn of phrase when we speak of the
Trinity today. For in present-day usage, a “person” refers to an individual who
can independently think, decide and act. This is not how it is in the Trinity.
The early Church Councils clearly expressed that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are
One God. They have one intelligence, one will, and one combined external action,
3 if we may use such human terms about God.
Father, Son and Spirit possess one divine nature are not distinct in anything
else except their mutual relationship to each other.
If we may sum up the meaning of our Christian belief in the Trinity in
non-theological terms, it comes to this. God, cosmic Mind and uncreated Love, is
so intensely personal that we experience God as caring Parent, intimate Brother
and inner Spark in us, all at the same time. The personal dimensions in God are
inexhaustible.
1 The Church admits that there would be a contradiction between saying there
were three persons in God and that there was only one God so it denies that
persons is the right word. This contradicts Jesus in John 8:17, 18. There he
says that the law of Moses declares that the testimony of two people is true. He
says that he testifies for himself and the Father testifies for him making up
the two. This certainly implies that Jesus and the Father are two completely
separate persons or centres of consciousness. If it was not two persons in one
being but two "persons" in one being, the fact that they are the one being would
mean that Jesus has not two witnesses but one.
2 We see that the Church denies that there are three literal persons for this is
absurd. But then it says that there are mutual relationships in God. Why is it
absurd to say there are three persons and then not absurd to say that though God
is one he has relationships in himself? It makes no sense. First we are told
that God is one and then that there are three distinctions in him, Father, Son
and Spirit, so he’s not one after all. For a relationship to exist there has to
be more than one person. A God who has a relationship with himself like he is
three different people
The Church says that when it speaks of the three persons of the Trinity it
doesn’t mean there are three individuals in God for that would be contradictory.
God can’t be one God and also be three individuals. But he can be three
whatevers and the Church is clear that the Father is not the Son or Holy Spirit
and the Son is not the Holy Spirit or the Father and the Holy Spirit is not the
Father or the Son. The Church tries to avoid the charge of contradiction by
saying that God is not made up of literal persons but this is a trick to obscure
the obvious contradiction between God being one individual and undivided being
and his having separation in him. The Church likes to distract from the real
issue. The Trinity is really three Gods pretending to be one God or the Church
believing in three Gods and denying it. God couldn’t reveal the Trinity to us
even if it were. We think in terms of either one or three not both. To honour
the Holy Trinity then is to unavoidably honour three gods. It is the way we are
made, we have no choice. God then has forced us into apostasy and polytheism by
revealing the doctrine. Christianity is a polytheistic religion, it has more
than one God.
The book by Brian Davies, a Dominican, The Reality of God and the Problem of
Evil, states that the doctrine of the Trinity does not say that there are three
distinct centres of consciousness in God (page 60). What it is saying that
though God is undivided and one there are distinctions in him meaning that the
Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit and the Son is not the Holy Spirit. One
wonders how God can be undivided and be one consciousness not three have these
differences in himself when one person cannot be three persons or three persons
one person.
3 If God is a personal relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit then if the three always act together and have one intelligence and one
will then there is no relationship. How could there be when relationships take
place only between separate beings who have separate wills and intelligences.
They can will and know the same things but nevertheless though the content of
the will and the intelligence may be the same they are separate. If John and
Jack intend to steal a pound sitting on a table they will the same things but
the wills are separate faculties or powers.
The Church says that God became man in Jesus Christ. However Jesus is not the
Father or the Holy Spirit but he is the Son. He is the second person of the
Trinity. But if the Trinity is so close that we can deny the three are literal
persons then how come Jesus is God the Son only? Surely he would have to be the
Father and the Holy Spirit as well? The Church has never accepted the doctrine
of treble incarnation that the three persons became the one man. It regards it
as a heresy for it says the title Son of God indicates that Jesus was God the
Son. Also Jesus when he prayed to God prayed to the Father so he couldn’t be the
Father for you can’t pray to yourself. The Church says the three persons pray to
each other for pray means have relationship with. Jesus said that nobody knows
the Father but the Son indicating they are not the same person or being and that
the Holy Spirit is certainly either the Father or not God at all. To say Jesus
is God the Son only, implies that he is indeed a separate person and so the
Trinity does consist of three individuals or Gods.
The Church admits that it doesn’t clearly know what the Trinity means and has no
understanding of it. Words don’t help much and are only employed as an
alternative to silence. The Church however claims that God revealed the doctrine
to give us intimate knowledge of him and to tell his most intimate secret to us.
All this sweet talk is sheer nonsense. It doesn’t really reveal anything. A God
who gives us an unintelligible secret is giving us nothing at all. He is a
cheat.
The doctrine of the Trinity was and still is just an
invention of the Church.
CONCLUSION
The doctrine of the Trinity has no rational or biblical support. There is no
evidence in its favour. It is just another Catholic concession to pagan trends
and fashion to get members.
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