Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Holy Mystery: Taking Apart the Trinity
    A Holy Mystery: Taking Apart the Trinity
    A Holy Mystery: Taking Apart the Trinity
    Ebook60 pages57 minutes

    A Holy Mystery: Taking Apart the Trinity

    By Chris Eyre

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A pastor says, "If you think you understand the trinity, you've probably fallen into heresy." An expert in biblical studies says, "The trinity is one of the best ways ever invented to say, 'We don't have a clue!'" Many people say the trinity is not found in the Bible, so what is it doing as a doctrine?

    This lively and challenging book asks you to think about the trinity, what it means, how it came to be, and what value it might have in Christian conversation today. If you don't want to have your thinking challenged, or you'd rather just go on saying, "I believe in the trinity," without knowing what you're saying, then definitely stay away from this book!

    To the rest of you, "Enjoy!"

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEnergion Publications
    Release dateMar 27, 2019
    ISBN9781631996771
    A Holy Mystery: Taking Apart the Trinity

    Related to A Holy Mystery

    Titles in the series (52)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: The Myth Of Redemptive Violence

      Oct 28, 2021

      Several million dollars’ worth of fiction exploded the other day, leaving cinematographer Halyna Hutchins — age 42, a wife, a mom — dead, and plunging actor Alec Baldwin, who accidentally shot her, into a state of unimaginable hell. This happened on

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Three English Graces

      Oct 20, 2021

      The English cathedral is one religious institution in rude good health. Parish churches die by the week. Congregations shrink. The young are vanishing. But, lockdowns apart, most cathedrals are booming. Their worshippers have increased by a third ove

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Ancient Template Of Antisemitism

      Jul 16, 2020

      Recently, a well-educated man – the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, one of America’s most successful corporate entities – attended a seminar I gave on antisemitism. After my presentation, he asked in a perplexed tone: “Jews are so smart… How is it that

      10 min read

    • Article

      No Man Is An Island

      Sep 15, 2017

      No Man Is An Island
      9 min read

    • Article

      Voyager

      Nov 27, 2023

      Voyager
      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Sep 24, 2021

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      Red Alert

      May 20, 2019

      Why does the Church today appear to be so powerless? Why are so many churches emptying? Why have young people fled the church? Why do some Christians consider ‘gathering together as the church’ to be irrelevant? What is happening in our generation?

      5 min read

    • Article

      Ask Val

      Nov 18, 2019

      Ask Val
      2 min read

    • Article

      Theology: Why Do We Need It?

      Nov 27, 2020

      Theology: Why Do We Need It?
      3 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Aug 19, 2019

      Thank you for your wonderfully illustrated Biblical series of articles that you regularly publish. I find that I can’t concentrate like I used to, and love the short, precise, and factual articles. I have learnt so much from reading them. I was fasci

      7 min read

    • Article

      A New Day Of Pentecost

      Jul 21, 2023

      A New Day Of Pentecost
      2 min read

    • Article

      THE WAR FOR OUR YOUTH Why creation still matters

      Dec 30, 2019

      We’re being told by public education systems, universities, media, some parents, and unfortunately many church leaders, that parts of the Bible are not relevant anymore and that we need to reinvent God’s word. So, with this situation, in order to und

      3 min read

    • Article

      Evangelism

      Apr 5, 2024

      In Acts 3, we read about a lame man. This man was a representation of the state of the Church in the early days. During the man’s 40 years of lying at the entrance of the church, they could not raise or heal him. The lame man also represents the enti

      2 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Jul 30, 2021

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      Why Study Church History?

      Jun 15, 2020

      Why Study Church History?
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Holy Mystery

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Holy Mystery - Chris Eyre

      9781631996733f.jpg

      A HOLY MYSTERY

      Taking apart the Trinity

      Topical Line Drives

      Volume 34

      Chris Eyre

      Energion Publications

      Gonzalez, Florida

      2019

      Copyright © 2019, Chris Eyre

      Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®

      Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM

      Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

      ISBNs:

      Print: 978-1-63199-673-3

      Electronic: 978-1-63199-677-1

      Energion Publications

      PO Box 841

      Gonzalez, FL 32560

      https://energion.com

      pubs@energion.com

      Table of Contents

      The Problem with the Trinity 1

      How We Got Here 4

      Trinity in Scripture 4

      Father and Son 6

      Other Possibilities; the Road not Travelled 11

      From Two to Three (or Where does the Spirit come into the picture?) 12

      From Scripture to Doctrine 13

      Why Stop There? 15

      Some Philosophical Difficulties 19

      Moving Forward 24

      Unitarianism? 25

      Something to Be Avoided 26

      Some Possibilities 26

      Temporal Modalism 28

      Objective, Subjective and Relational 28

      Invited into Relationship 29

      Bridging the Gap 31

      Other Potential Three-nesses 31

      Conclusion 32

      The Problem with the Trinity

      I’m starting to write this shortly after Trinity Sunday, one of the few days in most mainstream churches where a doctrine is associated with the day and almost always preached on, including the Anglican communion which is my current home.

      All over the country, and probably the world, vicars will have been getting lay readers or fresh-faced curates to preach the sermon. Some of those vicars will have sat quietly at the back of the congregation and listened as their less experienced or less educated colleagues flounder in an attempt to talk about Trinity in a way which doesn’t fall into any of the many heresies available. I like to think that for the most part they do this to offer an important learning opportunity. I suspect, however, that many do it because they fear they themselves can’t make the concept accessible to the layperson without falling into one of the positions defined in the past as heretical. Or they just appreciate Schadenfreude¹. I have myself in the past been known to take in two or three sermons on Trinity Sunday, and while my excuse is that I’m hoping to steal a new and wonderful idea for expressing the Trinity, actually I’ll admit that I too enjoy a bit of Schadenfreude.

      If you want an introduction to the pitfalls of the situation, a fine piece of humour from Lutheran Satire can be found at the footnoted address². In it, two comic Irishmen ask St. Patrick to explain the Trinity to them, but claim that they are simple people without learning, and he should try to keep it simple. Faced with the bald statement of three persons, but one God, they ask Patrick to use an analogy. Patrick starts with water, which can be found as liquid, solid (ice) or vapour (steam). Their immediate answer? This is modalism, condemned by Canon 1 of the Council of Constantinople of 381.

      He suggests the sun, which produces light and heat, and is accused of Arianism, a heresy which states that Christ and the Holy Spirit are creations of the Father in the way that the sun produces light and heat but is not either. A three leaf clover is partialism, which denies that there are three distinct persons and claims each is part of a greater whole. Finally, Patrick tries a man being a father, a husband and an employer, and is again accused of modalism.

      Exasperated, Patrick says

      "The trinity is a mystery which cannot be comprehended by human reason but which is understood only through faith and is best confessed in the words of the Athanasian Creed."

      and goes on to quote the relevant section of that creed. This states:-

      That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the Persons;

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1