The Divine Trinity
By Rev. Paul Booth
Isaiah 7: 14; 11: 1, 2 | Matthew 3: 16, 17 | True Christian Religion 164e
By Rev. Paul Booth
Isaiah 7: 14; 11: 1, 2 | Matthew 3: 16, 17 | True Christian Religion 164e
"The Holy Spirit is the Divine Truth, and also the Divine Virtue and Operation proceeding form the one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity, thus from the Lord God the Savior."
(True Christian Religion 138 (1))
Every Christian knows God is Triune, that is, He is God the Creator, Lord the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit as the Divine Operation. The Christian knows and believes there is a Divine Trinity, but it is not the same doctrine that is known by the Christian New Church. In the idea of the trinity can a right or wrong idea of God be acquired and known. Only when the right idea of God is known, can the quality of good and truth that a man has can be tested, for as the Word says, "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" (True Christian Religion 163). Everyone who is Christian will tell you that the Trinity is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and that these are the three essentials of one God. Thus, in addition to God being a triune God, He is a God in unity or one. And, probably some few will tell you that there was no Trinity before creation and that only in God incarnate is a there a Trinity.
Though most will probably not say the trinity is in the Lord God the Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, they understand He is one person of the Trinity. Most will say that there is a Trinity of Divine Persons, thus believing the Trinity was from eternity, or from before the creation of the world. This idea of a Trinity of Persons cannot be obliterated simply by one saying they believe in one God as Christians do. The idea of a Trinity of Persons can be traced back to the Nicene Council through the Catholic Church. Thus, from the Nicene and the Atheanasian Trinities, the Christian Church was perverted. Such a perversion has been an abomination and a tribulation upon the Church. It is for this reason that a new Heaven and a new Church was established by the Lord.
Let us examine the following statements. We read from Luke 1: 35. "The angel Gabriel said unto Mary, The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you; therefore that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God." The Most High, who is God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Son of God are all mentioned here. One can see this trinity - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit also in Matthew 3: 16, 17 and in the other Gospels - Mark and John. Jesus Himself says, "Go you and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28: 19). And, of course, the Lord spoke to the Father, and said He would send the Holy Spirit. Even the apostles mentioned in their Epistles these three. Thus, it is clear that there is a divine Trinity.
Still, from this, one cannot tell if these are three Gods who in essence and name are one God. Likewise, neither can these verses determine if they mean three objects belonging to one subject, that is, the qualities or attributes of one God. The only way to know this would be that the Lord enlightens us so that reason will acknowledge.
A person can read the Word and from it understand that there is a Divine Trinity and a unity, but has understood that there are three Divine persons, each one singly being a God. If the Lord were alive today, a person could approach to Him and ask Him what He meant. The early Christians knew that this idea of three persons and, thus, three Gods was repugnant even to the rest of the world. Their answer was to invent the notion that although in truth that there were three Gods they will say openly that they believe there is only one, and today the posterity of those Christian Churches continues teaching this doctrine of three persons, but say with their lips that there is one God.
The problem with this is that such an idea is from their self intelligence. We know that a person can read the Word, but he is to go to the Lord and asks Him that he be enlightened as to what is true - One God seen in three qualities or attributes or three persons in one God, each being God Himself. Thus, he needs to approach the Lord in order to see the truth that the Word has reported and reveals that there an internal sense in the Word not understood without being enlightened. For, you only have to recall that the disciples, when they didn't understand what the Lord meant, that they asked Him to explain. Would the Lord give us the truth without clearly revealing it to those who truly love Him? So why didn't He just explain what He meant in His Word - New Testament? Why didn't He inspire the Apostles to make this and other mysteries in the Word of the New Testament clear?
The reason is that His work of defeating evil, of redeeming man was, then, not completed and, so, man would still become succumbed to evil and would have profaned the Word. You only have to read 'Revelation' to see this was true.
The question then is: how does one approach or communicate with the Lord that he knows the Lord? In this case, how He is a Triune God. How does a man understand spiritual truths and not understand through and from his own intelligence? Man of himself cannot communicate with Heaven or the Lord directly, after all, man was sent out of Paradise where he had communication with God. After the Lord had glorified His Human the Lord, who was God come on earth, returned to His Father, which is to the Divine within and was one with the Divine becoming the Human Divine.
Now, before the Lord had came on earth the first time all the prior churches had waited for Him to come and for His redemption and salvation. Sill, while the Lord was on earth, He told the disciples that He would go and prepare a place for them and then would come again and get them that they could be with Him. It is obvious that His work of redemption and salvation was not finished or He would have told them and not that He could come again or that He would send the Holy Spirit to help them. Nonetheless, during His absence He was with man in His Word, thus with him in a man's external thoughts and not internally, that is, celestially or even spiritually with him, like the angels are or like Adam or man was when he lived in paradise. So, the Christian Church and the world had to wait again for the Lord to come so that they could be with Him and live with Him to eternity. However, like the Israelites, they, too, reject the Word that now has come on earth, rejecting, as the Israelites did, the Lord's coming again, though, this time to them in a new Word that makes clear those mysteries such as the Divine Trinity and, has thus, they rejected His coming to the spiritual world as is revealed in 'Revelation'. They believe that the Lord is to come personally to this world, and not spiritually to the spiritual world, for they reject that the Word has an internal or spiritual sense and, so too, the Lord's coming in Word again to earth.
It was in His coming to the spiritual world that the evil spirits were subjugated in hell and that the Heaven was returned to order. Thus, a place was prepared for His Church in Heaven as He had told to His disciples. No longer was it necessary to speak in parables or proverbs as the Lord did and is reported in the New Testament, no longer was it necessary for the written Word to have hidden the spiritual sense to man who lives in the natural state. So, like in the past, when the Israelites were given the Word -the Old Testament - God led them according to their state had provided them with His Word that He could be present with man on earth, and like He provided His Word through the New Testament for the first Christians, the Lord again provided another written Word that would lead His New Church on earth. The Lord had come and redeemed them - those Christians; He had defeated the evil spirits that had reigned over mankind; He could now reveal to man the spiritual truths that had so long had been hidden to him.
Man is free to choose to follow the Lord or not; His freedom is not just for this world, but he had spiritual freedom as well, and thus, he now has the ability to reject evils that influence as had prior and had rule over man. Thus, he can rationally come to understand the secrets that have been so long hidden from him because of his fall from God's grace. Not only has the Lord defeated the evils and kept them in subjugation, He has clearly spoken to man and is thus conjoined with him rationally, that is, if man chooses to, for he can now become enlightened and see these spiritual truths through the Lord's help.
Thus, the Word of the Divine Human that is now revealed to man, if accepted, opens the understanding or gives him a new understanding of those mysteries such as the Trinity. In the new Word - in the Third Testament - as some like to call it, can be read, "These three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are the three essentials of the one God, and they make one as soul, body, and operation make on in man" (TCR 166). Anyone can see that the soul is not separate from the body, nor are the efforts or operation that a man does; they are three essentials making man one, for one is from the other and is for the other's sake. This can be understood when you see that man gets his beginning from the soul and that the body come from the soul and it is through the body from the soul that there is operation of the body or its influence. So it is that these three - soul, body, and operation - are one essence called three essentials.
Therefore, since the Lord, when He came on earth, was born as any man with a soul, body, and operation. Only the Antichrist would deny that His soul was not from the Father, for in the Word of both Testaments He is called the Son of Jehovah, the Son of the Most High God, the Only-begotten and is, thus, the Divine of the Father and like the soul in man, is His first essential. His body was brought into the world through Mary through birth as is any body when conceived and in the mother's womb. And, since the body of itself cannot act, that is, that there can be any operation, except it do so from the soul it can be understood that these three essentials - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - in the Lord are one, like soul, body, and operation in man. And, when we recall that the Lord said that the Father is in Him and He in the Father and that He and the Father are one, and that the Holy Spirit that goes forth out of the Lord from the Father, we come to see that in the Lord is a Trinity of three essentials and, thus, one God. In the Word of the Divine Human, who is now one with the Divine and the Divine is in Him - the Third Testament - is this written, "The Divine of the Father, which constitutes the soul, and the Divine of the Son, which constitutes the body, and the Divine of the Holy Spirit or the proceeding Divine, which constitutes the operation, are three essentials of the one God" (TCR 168).
To call these three Divine essentials persons, and to attribute to each His own property, such as to the Father imputation, to the Son mediation, and to the Holy Spirit operation a person then divides God and, thud, none of the three is God in fullness, and each has but a sub-triple power. Paul in his Epistle, has said that ". . .in the Lord dwells all the fullness of Divinity bodily" (Col. 2: 9). Reason has no part when it sees God in three persons, each being God himself, even though with the lips one says there is one God, though with his mind he thinks three persons.
Such reasoning is of man alone and the Lord is not with such a man, and this, in fact, is the state a man has come into because of his sin. However, when the Lord is approached by doing well or living good as is taught in the Word, the Lord enters and dwells in him and, so, the Lord enters and is conjoined with his reason when the Word is read in love.
Amen.
(True Christian Religion 138 (1))
Every Christian knows God is Triune, that is, He is God the Creator, Lord the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit as the Divine Operation. The Christian knows and believes there is a Divine Trinity, but it is not the same doctrine that is known by the Christian New Church. In the idea of the trinity can a right or wrong idea of God be acquired and known. Only when the right idea of God is known, can the quality of good and truth that a man has can be tested, for as the Word says, "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" (True Christian Religion 163). Everyone who is Christian will tell you that the Trinity is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and that these are the three essentials of one God. Thus, in addition to God being a triune God, He is a God in unity or one. And, probably some few will tell you that there was no Trinity before creation and that only in God incarnate is a there a Trinity.
Though most will probably not say the trinity is in the Lord God the Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, they understand He is one person of the Trinity. Most will say that there is a Trinity of Divine Persons, thus believing the Trinity was from eternity, or from before the creation of the world. This idea of a Trinity of Persons cannot be obliterated simply by one saying they believe in one God as Christians do. The idea of a Trinity of Persons can be traced back to the Nicene Council through the Catholic Church. Thus, from the Nicene and the Atheanasian Trinities, the Christian Church was perverted. Such a perversion has been an abomination and a tribulation upon the Church. It is for this reason that a new Heaven and a new Church was established by the Lord.
Let us examine the following statements. We read from Luke 1: 35. "The angel Gabriel said unto Mary, The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you; therefore that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God." The Most High, who is God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Son of God are all mentioned here. One can see this trinity - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit also in Matthew 3: 16, 17 and in the other Gospels - Mark and John. Jesus Himself says, "Go you and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28: 19). And, of course, the Lord spoke to the Father, and said He would send the Holy Spirit. Even the apostles mentioned in their Epistles these three. Thus, it is clear that there is a divine Trinity.
Still, from this, one cannot tell if these are three Gods who in essence and name are one God. Likewise, neither can these verses determine if they mean three objects belonging to one subject, that is, the qualities or attributes of one God. The only way to know this would be that the Lord enlightens us so that reason will acknowledge.
A person can read the Word and from it understand that there is a Divine Trinity and a unity, but has understood that there are three Divine persons, each one singly being a God. If the Lord were alive today, a person could approach to Him and ask Him what He meant. The early Christians knew that this idea of three persons and, thus, three Gods was repugnant even to the rest of the world. Their answer was to invent the notion that although in truth that there were three Gods they will say openly that they believe there is only one, and today the posterity of those Christian Churches continues teaching this doctrine of three persons, but say with their lips that there is one God.
The problem with this is that such an idea is from their self intelligence. We know that a person can read the Word, but he is to go to the Lord and asks Him that he be enlightened as to what is true - One God seen in three qualities or attributes or three persons in one God, each being God Himself. Thus, he needs to approach the Lord in order to see the truth that the Word has reported and reveals that there an internal sense in the Word not understood without being enlightened. For, you only have to recall that the disciples, when they didn't understand what the Lord meant, that they asked Him to explain. Would the Lord give us the truth without clearly revealing it to those who truly love Him? So why didn't He just explain what He meant in His Word - New Testament? Why didn't He inspire the Apostles to make this and other mysteries in the Word of the New Testament clear?
The reason is that His work of defeating evil, of redeeming man was, then, not completed and, so, man would still become succumbed to evil and would have profaned the Word. You only have to read 'Revelation' to see this was true.
The question then is: how does one approach or communicate with the Lord that he knows the Lord? In this case, how He is a Triune God. How does a man understand spiritual truths and not understand through and from his own intelligence? Man of himself cannot communicate with Heaven or the Lord directly, after all, man was sent out of Paradise where he had communication with God. After the Lord had glorified His Human the Lord, who was God come on earth, returned to His Father, which is to the Divine within and was one with the Divine becoming the Human Divine.
Now, before the Lord had came on earth the first time all the prior churches had waited for Him to come and for His redemption and salvation. Sill, while the Lord was on earth, He told the disciples that He would go and prepare a place for them and then would come again and get them that they could be with Him. It is obvious that His work of redemption and salvation was not finished or He would have told them and not that He could come again or that He would send the Holy Spirit to help them. Nonetheless, during His absence He was with man in His Word, thus with him in a man's external thoughts and not internally, that is, celestially or even spiritually with him, like the angels are or like Adam or man was when he lived in paradise. So, the Christian Church and the world had to wait again for the Lord to come so that they could be with Him and live with Him to eternity. However, like the Israelites, they, too, reject the Word that now has come on earth, rejecting, as the Israelites did, the Lord's coming again, though, this time to them in a new Word that makes clear those mysteries such as the Divine Trinity and, has thus, they rejected His coming to the spiritual world as is revealed in 'Revelation'. They believe that the Lord is to come personally to this world, and not spiritually to the spiritual world, for they reject that the Word has an internal or spiritual sense and, so too, the Lord's coming in Word again to earth.
It was in His coming to the spiritual world that the evil spirits were subjugated in hell and that the Heaven was returned to order. Thus, a place was prepared for His Church in Heaven as He had told to His disciples. No longer was it necessary to speak in parables or proverbs as the Lord did and is reported in the New Testament, no longer was it necessary for the written Word to have hidden the spiritual sense to man who lives in the natural state. So, like in the past, when the Israelites were given the Word -the Old Testament - God led them according to their state had provided them with His Word that He could be present with man on earth, and like He provided His Word through the New Testament for the first Christians, the Lord again provided another written Word that would lead His New Church on earth. The Lord had come and redeemed them - those Christians; He had defeated the evil spirits that had reigned over mankind; He could now reveal to man the spiritual truths that had so long had been hidden to him.
Man is free to choose to follow the Lord or not; His freedom is not just for this world, but he had spiritual freedom as well, and thus, he now has the ability to reject evils that influence as had prior and had rule over man. Thus, he can rationally come to understand the secrets that have been so long hidden from him because of his fall from God's grace. Not only has the Lord defeated the evils and kept them in subjugation, He has clearly spoken to man and is thus conjoined with him rationally, that is, if man chooses to, for he can now become enlightened and see these spiritual truths through the Lord's help.
Thus, the Word of the Divine Human that is now revealed to man, if accepted, opens the understanding or gives him a new understanding of those mysteries such as the Trinity. In the new Word - in the Third Testament - as some like to call it, can be read, "These three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are the three essentials of the one God, and they make one as soul, body, and operation make on in man" (TCR 166). Anyone can see that the soul is not separate from the body, nor are the efforts or operation that a man does; they are three essentials making man one, for one is from the other and is for the other's sake. This can be understood when you see that man gets his beginning from the soul and that the body come from the soul and it is through the body from the soul that there is operation of the body or its influence. So it is that these three - soul, body, and operation - are one essence called three essentials.
Therefore, since the Lord, when He came on earth, was born as any man with a soul, body, and operation. Only the Antichrist would deny that His soul was not from the Father, for in the Word of both Testaments He is called the Son of Jehovah, the Son of the Most High God, the Only-begotten and is, thus, the Divine of the Father and like the soul in man, is His first essential. His body was brought into the world through Mary through birth as is any body when conceived and in the mother's womb. And, since the body of itself cannot act, that is, that there can be any operation, except it do so from the soul it can be understood that these three essentials - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - in the Lord are one, like soul, body, and operation in man. And, when we recall that the Lord said that the Father is in Him and He in the Father and that He and the Father are one, and that the Holy Spirit that goes forth out of the Lord from the Father, we come to see that in the Lord is a Trinity of three essentials and, thus, one God. In the Word of the Divine Human, who is now one with the Divine and the Divine is in Him - the Third Testament - is this written, "The Divine of the Father, which constitutes the soul, and the Divine of the Son, which constitutes the body, and the Divine of the Holy Spirit or the proceeding Divine, which constitutes the operation, are three essentials of the one God" (TCR 168).
To call these three Divine essentials persons, and to attribute to each His own property, such as to the Father imputation, to the Son mediation, and to the Holy Spirit operation a person then divides God and, thud, none of the three is God in fullness, and each has but a sub-triple power. Paul in his Epistle, has said that ". . .in the Lord dwells all the fullness of Divinity bodily" (Col. 2: 9). Reason has no part when it sees God in three persons, each being God himself, even though with the lips one says there is one God, though with his mind he thinks three persons.
Such reasoning is of man alone and the Lord is not with such a man, and this, in fact, is the state a man has come into because of his sin. However, when the Lord is approached by doing well or living good as is taught in the Word, the Lord enters and dwells in him and, so, the Lord enters and is conjoined with his reason when the Word is read in love.
Amen.
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