In order to escape the contradictoriness of the doctrine of the Trinity, most of its advocates argue that it is a mystery and must simply be “taken on faith.” We are sometimes told that our minds are too small to comprehend it. What many Trinitarians fail to recognize is that mystery is one thing, contradiction is quite another.
Trinitarians have been of the opinion that Unitarians will believe something only if we have complete knowledge of it. Robert Bowman, a Trinitarian, in making this very point, writes: “Trinitarians are willing to live with a God they cannot fully comprehend.”1 So are Unitarians, and we do every day. The debate is not whether or not God is fully comprehensible under either system of beliefs. The debate is whether or not Trinitarians have reasonably made the leap from God being one to Him being three-in-one. The debate is also about whether or not Trinitarians have justifiably made the leap from Jesus being a man to him being both man and God. In both cases the use of reason is trivialized in order to “enable” people to receive both doctrines more comfortably. The trivialization of reason is absolutely essential for the reception of the doctrine of a triune god. Many of the trinitarianism’s advocates have not spent much time studying this system of beliefs, and perhaps take the easy route by referring to the age-old claim that it is a mystery. They are probably right in this, insofar as the doctrine is a mystery to them because they have not spent much time getting familiar with the doctrine they claim to embrace. But fleeing to the claim of mystery demonstrates the doctrine is one that is not and cannot be understood. If the doctrine and its development were better understood, fewer would place so much confidence in it. R. S. Franks, a Trinitarian, writes:
It is best to recognize that the doctrine of the Trinity has been a matter of debate throughout the Christian centuries and still is so. It is therefore necessary that the issue should be discussed with the best means at our disposal. It is not satisfactory to take refuge in the common notion that it is a mystery. It is the result of a rational and intelligible process, and its value can only be appreciated through a study of this process.2
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Author: Don Snedeker
Keywords: trinity, trinitarian, triune, three persons, three persons in one God, trinitarianism, trinity is a mystery, mystery, contradiction
Bible reference(s): Isaiah 1:18, Matthew 13:15, John 12:40, Matthew 28:19, Ephesians 5:32, 1Tim 3:16, 1 John 5:7-8, 1 Timothy 1:4, 2 Timothy 2:23, 1 Timothy 6:4
Source: “Mystery vs. Contradiction,” Our Heavenly Father Has No Equals Unitarianism, Trinitarianism and the Necessity of Biblical Proof.
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