Topic: The Holy Trinity
Beer: Bell's Sparkling Ale
First of all, the beer was good. I get teased by my friends for my supposedly feminine drink selection, so when I heard they had a "sparkling" beer how could I not get it? It actually wasn't carbonated, but it was a nice sweeter beer.
Regardless, the topic of discussion was the Holy Trinity. What is the Trinity? The Trinity is the common Christian term for the three representations of God in general Christian doctrine: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity has been treated differently by various forms of Christians. For instance, many Evangelical churches have used the water comparison to demonstrate the essence of the Trinity: while drinking water, ice, and steam are all water, they are still different. This, however, is a heresy to the Catholic church known as Sabellianism.
What's wrong with this analogy? The problem is the notion of the nature of the Trinity. Sabellianism falls into a branch of heresy called Monarchianism, emphasizing the existence of one god and denying the independent existence of Jesus (or the logos). In other words, the water metaphor implies that each form of water is a "mode" of God, as oppose to them all having distinct existences. It is believed Jesus was not simply a form of God for a small time on Earth, but was actually existing and functioning with God from the beginning as it states in John 1.1-3. Therefore the Trinity is made up of three independent pieces that make up one omnipotent, all-powerful God. Ice can become water or steam, but the Father cannot become Jesus or the Holy Spirit. They are distinct.
So how does this make sense? How can three equal 1? Great question. And Christians have been asking this for a long time. Does this make Christians polytheists? Generally speaking, no. Part of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is that these three persons equal one God. While this might not make a lot of sense to many of us, it is part of that piece of doctrine.
A great question posed by the leader of the study was: why was this doctrine important? The big reason that this piece of doctrine is required is to explain how Jesus is God AND that he interacts with God, yet to still call Christians monotheists. Christianity stemmed from Judaism and Judaic scripture, therefore monotheism was clearly important to maintain. However, Jesus was used to parallel Caesar, who also claimed divinity. The doctrine of the Trinity helped keep both of these ideas alive within Christianity.
While it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of logical sense, we must remember that if we are to believe in a concept like God, his nature and mechanics won't make a whole lot of sense to us. I've talked to Christians today who reject Jesus' divine status, Christians who believe in all three parts of the Trinity still functioning today, Christians who believe that all three parts of the Trinity are physical beings who were once born and work together (Mormonism), and many evangelicals who fully support Sabellianism. What we think about the Trinity reflects on what we value, whether that be traditional thought, cultural acceptances, personal experiences, or modern thought. While people will disagree on the subject, it is a great subject to talk about over a beer.
