THE DIVINE TRINITY

Deep within the human heart and mind is a desire to know and understand God. We want to know our Creator and Savior, and for thousands of years the best minds have been searching for God. That search today is just as important as in the past. People are seeking new ideas about God. In striving for a new and fuller concept of God, one condition must always be recognized: the power that created the universe will of necessity be greater than the created work. The greater our knowledge and conception of the universe the bigger must be our idea of him who produced it.

We can never get more than a partial glimpse of the Creator. One difficulty that confronts us when we seek for an idea of God that shall be adequate for modem thought arises from the different ideals by which we are actuated. The scientist wants a God in whose existence can be resolved all the problems presented by a mighty universe and an apparently limitless store of cosmic energy, a God of Law and Power.

The average person wants a God whose essence is love and who can be known as a Divine Person, a Helper, a Healer, a very present help in trouble. One individual wants to see in God an infinite source of wisdom and creative force, a God “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance”

Another individual wants God as a personal Savior, one whose voice can be heard in the loving invitation, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls” Any new conception of God must, to be acceptable, satisfy both of these demands.

It must put before us a picture of the Divine immeasurably greater than the created universe, and at the same time knowable as a personal Savior, Father, Helper and ever-present Friend. Much of our present-day difficulty in understanding God centers on the orthodox doctrine of the Divine Trinity. And on this subject Swedenborg has a most illuminating chapter.

Swedenborg commences his discussion on the Divine Trinity with the following paragraph: “God the Creator, together with creation, has been treated of; also the Lord the Redeemer, together with redemption; and lastly the Holy Spirit, together with the1 Divine operation. Having thus treated of the Triune God, it is necessary to treat also of the Divine trinity, which is known and yet unknown in the Christian world.

Only through this can a right idea of God be acquired; and a right idea of God in the church is like the sanctuary and altar in a temple, or like the crown upon the head and the scepter in the hand of a King on his throne. On a right idea of God the whole body of theology hangs, like a chain on its first link, and, if you will believe it, every one is allotted his place in the heavens in accordance with his idea of God. That idea is like a touchstone by which the gold and silver are tested, that is, the quality of good and truth in a person.

For there can be no saving good in man except from God, nor any truth that does not derive its quality from the bosom of good.” From this introduction Swedenborg goes on to tell us that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three persons but three essential characteristics of the One God. They are not separate individuals, but are three aspects of one Divine Being, three manifestations of the Divine activity in the universe. Here for a moment we may leave Swedenborg and take an illustration from ecclesiastical history.

The idea of three persons in the Godhead comes to us from the Athanasian Creed, formulated in the fourth century, which asserts that “there is One person of the Father, One person of the Son, and One of the Holy Ghost.” But it may reasonably be questioned if the theologians who drew up the Athanasian Creed had in their minds any idea of three separate individuals when they spoke of three persons. The word “person” comes from the Latin “per”—through, and “sonare”— sound.

It was applied to the mask worn by actors. Literally the actor's “persona” was the mask through which he spoke, and which marked the character he represented. It is highly probable that the theologians used the word “person” as meaning the characters manifested by the Divine Being. But the common people, and also the descendants of the theologians, accepted this word “person” as the equivalent of “individual.” And when they spoke of three persons in the Godhead they got the idea of three Divine individuals, each separate from the others, and each functioning in a special manner.

Now let us turn back to Swedenborg who illustrates his concept of the trinity by the soul, body, and operating activity of the human being. In every person there are these three characteristics: soul, body, and operative, energy. Take the Apostle Paul as an example. He had a fiery, indomitable soul. He possessed a weak and probably emaciated body. His missionary zeal and energy carried Christianity to the Gentile world.

To us, looking back on his missionary triumphs, the soul, body and operative energy appear undoubtedly as one. There is a similar trinity in every human being. It is this that enables us to be in the image. and likeness of God. Now listen to Swedenborg as he says, “Every one acknowledges that these three essentials, namely soul, body, and operation, both were and are in the Lord God the Saviour...That his soul was from Jehovah the Father cannot be denied... consequently the Divine of the Father, like the soul in man, is his first essential.

From this it follows that the Son whom Mary brought forth is the body to that Divine soul; for in the mother's womb nothing is furnished except the body that has been conceived and derived from the soul; this, therefore is his second essential. Operations constitute the third essential, since these proceed from soul and body together, and what proceeds is of the same essence as that which produces it.

That the three essentials, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the Lord are one, like soul, body and operation in man, is clearly evident from the Lord's words, that the t Father and he are one; that the Father is in him and he in the Father; and in like manner he and the Holy Spirit is the Divine that goes forth out of the Lord from the Father...” Specially to be noted is Swedenborg's statement that a belief in three persons in the Godhead is destructive of a rational conception of God. For to speak of one and think of three brings doubt and confusion into the mind.

It puts fetters upon human reason. The Old Testament speaks of God as One. It contains no mention of a Trinity of persons; indeed it is emphatic in proclaiming Jehovah as the only possible Savior of mankind. 'There is no God else beside me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me. Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else”

A number of texts might be quoted from the Old Testament giving similar statements that Jehovah is the one and only God. During all the progressive revelation given to the Israelites and their descendants, the Jews, there is not a single reference to a trinity of persons in the Godhead. And the idea that one God left his throne in heaven and came to earth to be a propitiatory sacrifice whereby the wrath and justice of another God might be appeased and satisfied is a human invention and a parody of the truth. Swedenborg likens this idea to some of the ancient fables of the transmigration of the soul.

Tb people who have been taught to believe in a Tri-personal God, and who have never questioned the idea that these three Divine Persons have existed from eternity, it will come as something of a shock to hear Swedenborg's statement that prior to the incarnation the Trinity did not exist. People did not even think about it. They thought of God as One, and worshiped him as One.

That in God there was from eternity, Love, Wisdom and Operative Energy is true, but the concept of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit was unknown. Not until God had incarnated himself did man receive the idea of the Son of God. Not until Jehovah manifested himself as the Lord Jesus Christ was it possible for man to think of the Almighty otherwise than as one. During the first two centuries of the Christian Church its members worshipped Christ as God. To them he was the manifestation of the Father.

They accepted the teaching of the Apostle Paul who declared of the Savior, “In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” and who also declares, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” And as a direct appeal to the one and only God, this approach to God in Christ was an unconquerable missionary force.

It transformed a hard pagan world. It brought about the conversion of whole nations to the Christian faith. It exercised a power that the modem Christian Church has almost entirely lost. Today the church carries on widespread missionary work. Its achievements in India, China and other lands are noteworthy. But it does not set the world aflame with a new religion as the Apostolic Church did in the first two centuries. Swedenborg's teachings on the Divine Trinity restore to us the belief of the Apostolic Church and give us a rational idea of the Triune God.

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