3d) How Many Persons are
there in God and why?
This is a recap and expansion of section 2b. We start by explaining the observable facts in terms of the known. We know that we can all imagine; and in our thoughts we can "create" an entire universe in our minds. It is not infinite, but it is as large as we imagine it to be. Nothing exists in this universe until we think about it, so our thoughts are everywhere in it, and we know all about everything in this universe. We can see the end from the beginning if we wish to. We can choose to intervene or we can sit back and watch things unfold, as we wish. Our thoughts themselves, influence this universe and give it life. When we want to relate directly to our thought characters, we think ourselves into our imagined world. If they see our thought image of ourselves, they see us, because we are creating that image to be us. And yet, they can never really see us from that imagined world.
The same goes for God, on a different scale. He creates by thinking. His thoughts, which I equate with His Holy Spirit, create our reality. That is, God “Imagines” or visualizes His thoughts and then they exist. Imagination is Creative Thought. He can do anything in our universe as easily as imagining it. He knows everything about our universe. His thoughts are everywhere in our universe, but He is physically outside of it. He put Himself into this particular thought - our reality - when He “sent” Christ to live with us for a while as another human. God merely imagined Himself as another human being living in this 3D world as one of us - totally human as we are. Because Christ was human, He could die like the rest of us. No human can work miracles, and neither did Christ the human. He asked the Thinker to work the miracles through Him, as He told His disciples they could do. Yet, He was still God - If you saw Him, you saw the Thinker. Totally human and totally God - two distinct Persons in one God.
We are indeed made in the “Image” of God. We too unlike other thinking animals are capable of “Creative Thought” – we have the ability to Imagine. We like God can imagine a situation and put ourselves in it. That image of us in our thoughts is us but on a lower order of dimension. We can visualize ourselves as anything we like and it’s still an image of us. Two distinct persons in one being. Yet God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts, since He is the Thinker and we are His thoughts. The difference is that we go away if God stops thinking of us, while the reverse is not true.
Consider something else, next. The sum total of a person's thoughts at any moment completely defines them. We're not talking about any one thought, but all their thoughts. A person's thoughts are their "spirit".
We all have "three persons in ourselves". What we see in the mirror is us - the "father". Our thoughts are our "spirit". When we think ourselves into our thought world, that image of us is us, but in a lower order of dimension. If it works for us we can extrapolate it to the extreme and see how it works for God. But notice that there is no room in this concept for our mothers. Likewise Mary, the human mother of Christ, is not a Person in God. It's not all that complicated after all.
Please refer to this short paper on this subject, where we attempt to explain the Mystery of the Trinity in terms of a Thinking God.
Also, you can find a letter to one of the Tele-evangelists regarding this theory of the Trinity, which the author sent many years ago.
Here is a bit of
dialogue from our email discussions on the subject of whether or not Christ was
a created being:
- A Pastor and I were debating about whether or not Christ was a
created being.
I believe we both agreed finally that the person we call Christ
was indeed created as a human as are all of us.
There was a time before and after His life when that human being did not
exist. However, God at any time has
exactly three distinct Persons - all in the same single God. I've explained how this works for every being
who can imagine/think.
As such, God has always had an image of Himself in His mind, whatever
form it may take. God is eternal, so
that Image of Himself is also eternal; but it can take any form He
imagines. The Bible records it taking
many forms throughout our story of Mankind:
a voice from heaven, burning bush, pillar of smoke or fire, Michael the
archangel, the back of God, the glorified Christ, … These have all depended on how God wanted to
relate to some of His created beings. However,
even before there were any created beings, God has always had an Image of Himself
in His mind, ie the Second Person of God always
existed. Therefore, I would say that it
is technically incorrect to say that "Christ" the human always
existed, even though the Second Person in the Godhead was never "created". Because no one ever clarified this before,
there have been many lingering debates between Adventists and others on the
question. This is exactly why we need to
get the word out now.
-
Christ as the human does indeed explain the Trinity to me at
least. If I can understand it, then so
can everyone. EG: The concept that God
is thinking and creating all else in His mind, does explain how Christ is
talking to the Father and still saying that He and the Father are one. Likewise, that He does not work the miracles,
which are impossible for any human to do, but the Father does them through Him
and He will do the same through the apostles.
-
Also I note a distinction between the Second Person in the
Godhead and the Son of God. Michael the
archangel and Christ the human were each the Second Person in the Godhead. However, only Christ (ie
Jesus of Nazareth was actually born. He
was born of a human woman and the Spirit of God and not created solely by the
Spirit of God (ie by fiat s were the angels). Hence, Christ was actually the one and only
Son of God. This distinction was foretold as a major difference, because by
being actually born of a human, God was really getting into this human
condition as one of us. This is part of
God’s plan to show us how much He cares for us even as we humans must go
through this Vale of Tears. (
see section 3g)
24 Aug 2001: Updated 25 Oct 2003, 30 January 2007, 30 March 2007
For more on this and a response to any questions, please email any comments to nasamike@nasamike.com