A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL WORLD VIEW


 
 

11. IS THE TRINITY BAD MATHS?






What's Interesting About Three
As a child I was introduced to the principle of building with triangle structures  when I was playing with meccano, the metal strips and sheets construction set. I later put it into practice in simple farm constructions. It’s the simplest stable structure. It’s the basis of any structure which may have a greater number of sides. Three legs on a stool provides stability in all directions. It has an economy of strength and balance.

A balance of three's occur commonly in nature. Sky, land and water. Animal, vegetable and mineral. Caterpillar, pupae, and butterfly. Ice, water and steam. Three colours of ink in my printer. Mother, father and child.

Logically, three's are important also. Three is the first prime number. That it is indivisible by another whole number gives it some logical strength. From driving on the road to politics, left, right and centre, seem to be helpful. Dialectic process occurs in three's when a force creates an equal and opposite reaction which then results in change. Or a thesis sparks an idea of the antithesis, which then creates a synthesis.

I like the simple three step logic of:   a =b
                                                      b=c
                                                      therefore a=c

In each case, the three's have the function of being a creative base for building something greater, either a construction, an idea or a relationship.

A Puzzling Doctrine
I'm not sure when it first happened, but one day in the early church someone used the word ‘Trinity’ in their language to describe God. They unleashed a huge debate that has gone on since then.

It may have been a shock to Jewish Christians who had always thought of God as one. One God was no problem to picture in their minds. The pagans believed in many Gods but the Jews had always believed there was only one. Only one can be supreme after all.

There had been this amazing man Jesus who was divine himself. But how could there be two Gods? Were they mistaken about who Jesus was? The Pharisees picked it up pretty quickly and accused Jesus of being blasphemous [John 11:33]. They could not accept that Jesus could be fully God as he seemed to be claiming.

But the problem only got worse. On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit anointed the disciples with power. Who was the Holy Spirit? God himself was in their midst. Did they now have three Gods? They knew that their heavenly Father was God, and that Jesus was God from his own claims, and also that the Holy Spirit gave them experiences of God.

The early church took hundreds of years to decide how they were going to define the Trinity. The Nicene Creed (325AD) expresses the trinity but does not mention that name. The Athanasian Creed (381-428AD) states, "We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance." [New International Dictionary, art 'Trinity']
 

The doctrine of the trinity states that God is and reveals himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is one, and at the same time he is three persons, who each have integrity in being fully and equally persons of the Godhead.

The Problem
How can three be one, and one be three? Many people have puzzled over this one. Because we all know that one and three are not the same, and if you tried it in a maths exam you wouldn't get any marks. In maths terms it simply doesn't work.

The most intractable problem faced by Christians has been to find a reasonable explanation of the Trinity. The doctrine is the central doctrine of the Christian faith, and yet it has not been able to demonstrate its truth. No wonder the Jews and Moslems cannot accept the doctrine. Christian faith distinguishes itself from these faiths precisely on this point.

For nearly 2,000 years Christianity has claimed to be based on truth, and yet it has not been able to demonstrate the truth of this doctrine. One person wrote to me, "I have a feeling that there can be no perfect illustration of the mystery of the Trinity." I guess after 2000 years there is not much hope for an answer left! Some people feel that a perfect God can have no perfect analogy.

Jesus used illustrations to explain the truth he brought. Illustrations have the function of showing us if our thinking makes sense. They don't prove what is true, but they show if it is logical. If something can't be illustrated then it may not be true.

Also why would a God who wants to reveal himself to mankind still want to shroud himself in mystery. The purpose of the gospel is to reveal what has been secret. "God's plan is to make known his secret to his people, this rich and glorious secret which he has for all peoples." [Colossians 1:27]

Illustrations of the Trinity
What are the criteria that are necessary for a perfect illustration of the trinity as I have defined above?

1. There is full unity in one God
2. Each person of the trinity is fully expressed separately
3. Each person of the trinity has the full nature of God

 There are many illustrations. I include a few representative ones here.

Triangle. I like the illustration of the trinity as being like the three points of a triangle, with the points indicating 'Father', 'Son', and 'Holy Spirit', and the full triangle indicating 'God'. It shows the unity well. It could be argued that it shows that each person has the full nature of God, by being part of the 'God triangle. But what is wrong with it? It falls short by not showing that the three persons of the trinity are distinct.

A three leaf clover. It helps those who like nature, and the three sections are better presented and more distinctive than in a triangle. The problem is that we still do not fully see the three parts.
 

Water. The three forms of water, ice, liquid and gas – each water, but in different forms at different times. We see here the three expressions clearly as each phase of water is separately demonstrated. But it is not such a clear picture of unity. Above all the problem is that the three phases of water do not exist at the same time. God the Father didn't leave his form as father to become Son and leave the Father's position vacant, and then became the Holy Spirit, so that there was only one at a time.

Three primary colours. Imagine a source of light being beamed through a prism and separated into the three primary colours, red, yellow and blue. The problem here is that another agent is required to make  the light produce different colours, and there is a gap between the light source and the colours, so that there is separation between the unity and the threeness. The biggest problem is that requirement no 3 is not fulfilled, because the three coloured lights seen by the observer have had some of the light wavelengths removed, and are no longer the same as the source light.

Three roles of a person – Father, Son and Teacher – all at the same time. A good picture to show the relational nature of the Godhead. However although each role is distinct, each person is not distinct. In the trinity we are not talking about three roles in one God, but three persons in one God. Jesus prayed to the father, and said, ‘Not my will but yours be done’, ‘Father why have you forsaken me’. They had distinct wills.

None of these illustrations as with many others, succeed in showing the trinity. They all have some value, but because they all fall down, the doctrine of the trinity lacks reasonable support.

But it is different if we apply multi-dimensionality to the doctrine. This illustration came to me as I was reflecting on the Easter message recently.

The Cube
Is it mere chance that we have three dimensions of space: length, width and height? I demonstrated the trinity to the people in my church with a gift wrapped cube box- equal length, width and height. This illustration would work with a cube of any size.

The argument related to each of the criteria above:
1. There is full unity of the cube. There is just one space. The dimensions do not take away anything from each other or the expression of the cube as a whole. To get the volume simply multiply.

This is why simple one-dimensional adding doesn't work for the trinity. '1' will never be '3' if you use addition. But in three dimensions you don't add - you multiply.

2. Each dimension is fully expressed separately. Each dimension illustrates a
person of the trinity. Each of these dimensions is real on its own. They can each be measured independently, and express a different role from each other. They have their own integrity and are necessary for the cube as a whole to be what it is.

 3. Each dimension on their own shows the full nature of the whole. Length for example is not just an axis in one part of the cube, but can be measured over all parts of the cube. So also for width and height. Another way of saying this is that any point in a cube has a location specified by the axes of length, width and height.

Therefore thinking dimensionally allows us to have a perfect illustration of the unity of both three and one.

The reason why other illustrations fail is because they are trying to explain a 3-dimensional reality in terms of one or two dimensions. The problem has been our bad maths, not God's.

Applying The Illustration
That is the illustration, and even by going no further it can be used as such. But we can take an extra step and apply it to the trinity Godhead.

It works if we think of God as having three dimensions of Spirit. It would still work if God had more than three spirit dimensions, but because three dimensions gives complete freedom, there would seem to be no need for there to be more. I had assumed that the spirit realm was one dimension, but it looks as if that is not the case because the truth of the trinity can only be understood in terms of three dimensions.

The way we see dimensions has to be in terms of their direction, at least that it how it seems to work with space dimensions. How can we apply that in terms of the spirit dimensions?

God the Father works in the dimension of the spirit that points towards the transcendent, heavenly and sovereign God.
God the Son works in the dimension of spirit that points towards incarnation into our space-time-nature, and a God who reveals himself out of his love.
God the Spirit is the dimension of spirit that points towards the immanent, our present, in order for God to work in and through us.

Transcendent, incarnate and immanent - three dimensions of the spirit realm.

The trinity refers therefore to three spirit dimensions of one God. It helps us to see more clearly the significance of the multi-dimensional nature of God. In his multi-dimensional nature he is not closed to us, but reaches out to us and deeply involves himself with our history and with us personally to achieve his purposes.

I'm interested in Karl Barth's definition of the trinity as "ways of being". That terminology fits in quite well with what dimensions are, as long as it is not understood as ways of being that are less than the whole.

Can we now link up our logical proof of God's existence (refer back to the last section) with this presentation of the trinity? We asked what God the proof referred to. Is there a spirit trinity God anywhere else, other than the trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Has there been any other than Jesus Christ who has come into our world who can possibly be God? Is there any other spirit of God than the Holy Spirit? The presentation of a multi-dimensional trinity fits perfectly with our proof of a multi-dimensional God.

By the way, the gift wrapping in my presentation was to show that God's revelation of himself as trinity is a gift to us.

But how do these relate to us? I realise that this is opening up a huge area, but I want to briefly outline some pointers to see if this is a useful area of study..

The Human Spirit
My first question when I realised that there were three dimensions of spirit was, 'which dimensions of spirit are in us as humans?'. Did we have just one dimension of spirit as we have only one dimension of time, mass-energy, and knowledge? If so, which one?

I quickly realised that it had to be the 'incarnate' spirit. This is the dimension that Jesus limited himself to in order to come into our universe and to become like us. In other words, he expressed himself by the same spirit as we do - our human spirit.

As humans we are made in the image of God - bear the reflection of his spirit in us. We are spiritual beings because of this, in a way that other creatures on earth are not. The Bible says, "Then the Lord God took some of the soil from the ground and formed a man out of it; he breathed life-giving breath into his nostrils and began to live." [Genesis 2:7] The life-giving breath was the 'ruarch' or Spirit of God. Out of both the natural dimensions of the universe, and the spirit dimensions of God himself, we were formed. In the creation of humans, God was unfolding a dimension of his own spirit for us and the universe.

What was this incarnation or human dimension of spirit able to do? What were its characteristics?

 It enables awareness of the transcendent. Adam and Eve had fellowship with God. There was a common dimension that provided a communication link. No  wonder all people, Christian or not, are religious and do things like pray,  worship and seek God. We are able to discern a transcendent realm even if we  cannot go there.
It gives us freedom to choose to obey God or not. That freedom was given to  Adam and Even before the fall, otherwise God would not have needed to  command them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
It opens up the knowledge of ultimate values - love, truth, and right. Adam  and Eve fell in love. They were tested out about truth by a deceiving snake.  They felt guilt when they did wrong, their conscience was awakened.

Implied in all this is a sense of self-awareness, that we have individuality of  spirit, and we are accountable and responsible for our own actions and lives.  The human spirit gives us a sense of 'I-Thou'.

Apart from God though, and because of human sin, the Bible indicates that our spirits are dead, "While we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ." [Ephesians 2:5] So we do not necessarily use or even recognise this dimension of spirit in us. The potential is there in this dimension of God's spirit in us, but it is obviously up to us whether we make use of it. Evil in us and around us will do its work of trying to spoil our relationship with God.

Jesus limited himself to our human spiritual experience except that he did not suffer spiritual death or spiritual blindness as we did. It didn't stop him from being tempted by Satan.

Was Jesus Really God?
What happened when Jesus died? Did he cease being God? He experienced in his human spirit all the suffering for us, but also separation from God. "My God, my God, why did you abandon me?" [Mark 15:34] How can God in Jesus die?

As he died, Jesus gave up his human spirit to the Father, "Father! In your hands I place my spirit." [Luke 23:46] At the moment of death, he would have received back again from God his full dimensions of the spirit. There was no point in which he was not God, just different dimensions of the spirit involved. Dimensionality helps us to see that Jesus was God on earth as much as in heaven.

This is much the same as when any of us dies. Our human spirit, because spirit does not die, goes back to God to receive our destiny in his plan for us.

Multi-dimensionality helps us to see how Jesus was fully God in his incarnation. The expression of the incarnate spirit of God in him was fully God. But also there was another dimension of the spirit we need to take account of.

The Immanent Spirit
This is an additional dimension of the spirit that is not in all people, but in those who are open to receive this from God. This is God who is with us in the present, who we know as the Holy Spirit. There are additional characteristics and freedoms of the spirit dimension that come with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is a completely additional dimension to the human spirit in us. Yet there are strong links between the two spirit dimensions. As the Holy Spirit in us grows, so the human spirit is enlivened, and our experience of worship, prayer and so on will be enhanced. Recognising the human spirit dimension in us and others will also help us to encourage others to take the next step of opening their lives to the Holy Spirit.

In Jesus we see the perfect expression of the Holy Spirit at work. The miraculous in his life was more evident than any anyone else in history. This is another reason why Jesus is unique in history as being fully God. But Jesus also revealed the transcendent dimension.

The Transcendent Spirit
Transcendence simply means above. It is the supernatural nature of God. It is also his Lordship, Creativeness, Glory and Holiness. He is the source of reality, including the purpose of the universe and of all its dimensions and everything in them. He is supreme over all other things, laws, or concepts in the universe. The whole of the spirit dimensions depend on this transcendent dimension for its nature. The transcendent dimension is the main characteristic of heaven, where God shares with those in heaven in his transcendent spirit nature.

We do not have this transcendent dimension of spirit in us. But we can be aware of it through our human spirit, and certainly experience it through the Holy Spirit.

Our relationship with the transcendent dimension however is to receive from it, and live under its love, truth, goodness and authority.

We see this dimension perfectly in Jesus' life. We see God the Father speaking to Jesus at his Baptism, "You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you." [Mark 1:11] The transcendent glory was upon Jesus in the transfiguration [Matthew 17:1-13]. It was also present in the appearance of angels at both Jesus birth and resurrection. Jesus also taught the truth of God in a clearer way than any other person ever has. He claimed a special relationship of complete oneness with the Father, "The father and I are one." [John 10:30]

This transcendent dimension reminds us that we have yet to share fully ourselves in this dimension. But that time will come for those of us who will receive our human fulfillment in heaven. There we will be sharers with God in his transcendent glory.

Heaven and the Millennium
Understanding the three dimensions of spirit also helps us to understand what future we can expect? The Bible seems to indicate two possibilities for what happens to a believer when we die.

Firstly there is heaven. This is the picture we have from Jesus' story of the rich man in hell and Lazarus the beggar in heaven [Luke 16:19-31] It is also indicated by Jesus to the thief crucified alongside of him, "I promise you that today you will be in Paradise with me." [Luke 23:43] There are many other pictures in the scriptures also which indicate an eternal heaven and hell. In this picture we would enter the eternal heaven when we die.

Secondly there is a future Kingdom on earth, the Millennium, followed by a uniting of heaven and earth. Jesus said to Martha before the raising of Lazarus from the dead, "Your brother will rise to life". "I know, "she replied, "that he will rise to life on the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" [John 11:23-25] In this picture the rising to life is on the last day, and there seems to be a time gap between now and the future.

So what do we experience when we die? Will our first experience on the other side be of heaven with God? Or will it be to meet Jesus on his return to earth in setting up his Kingdom?

If we understand the three dimensions of spirit, then both scenarios are possible. Heaven is the full dimensions of the spirit including the transcendent dimension, but the Kingdom on earth is the gradual unfolding of further dimensions, including the gradual unfolding of the transcendent spirit dimension on earth. We could think of it as a greater breaking into spacetime of the transcendent spirit dimension. It could be imagined as the windows of the spacetime universe being opened wider to let the air of the transcendent spirit dimension come in. It is really one picture we are talking about, rather than two contrasting scenarios.

As far as the time gap between when a person dies and the future return of Jesus to set up his Kingdom, that is no problem in eternity, for there is really no time gap in eternal terms. One day in eternity really is the same as millions of earth years. In eternity time travel is normal. There is complete freedom of movement in time in three dimensions of eternity just as we have complete freedom of movement in three dimensions of space..

Where We Are Up To
In the previous chapter we showed the nature of the spirit dimension is demonstrated, and we have now seen that it is a realm of three spirit dimensions.

We have now covered all the seven dimensions, and in the process discovered that each dimensional realm can exist in three dimensions. That was an unexpected discovery for me. It was only as I studied each dimension that I came to see that each of them could be threefold dimensions. But this result is added confirmation, because of the principle of symmetry, of the validity of the multi-dimensional world-view.[]
 

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