Beyond Reason

By Keith Relf,

It is beyond God-given reason and biblical revelation, provided for us in logical language, to commit one’s intelligence and allegiance to a proposition that cannot be described with normal grammar and violates logic. To surrender to logical nonsense is the hallmark of deception as experienced by Eve. I am referring to the proposition that God is one and three at the same time. If the Father is Yahweh and Jesus is also Yahweh that makes two Yahwehs. But the Bible asserts that there is only one Yahweh.

Once we accept a proposition which defies the laws of language we automatically suspend our critical mental functions, in effect cauterizing our God-given capacity to think logically. This in turn allows us to read and discuss or imagine that we can resolve conflicting ideas while actually believing complete nonsense. And as Peter Berger wisely observed: “The capacity of people to accept evident nonsense increases, rather than decreases, with advanced education.” This strange tendency, I believe, comes about by doing what Jesus advised against—offering to other parsons an attitude of undue intellectual awe. Being “star-struck” may simply demonstrate our own mental laziness or the fear of being different. Often fear of reprisal or rejection disables our intellectual integrity. Voltaire (1751) remarked, “It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.”

Sometimes it is the sense of mystery that overwhelms and persuades us. On the doctrine of the Trinity, Tertullian, and early Christian theologian and moralist, (150-c. 225), said, “I believe because it is absurd.” Much later the brilliant mind of Sir Isaac Newton gave us this comment on the Trinity: “The human race is prone to mysteries, and holds nothing so holy and perfect as that which cannot be understood.” He went on to say that he opted for biblical interpretations, which “without straining reduce things to the greatest simplicity . . . Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”

The wise British commentator Henry Alford, speaking of Luke’s report that Mary did not consummate her marriage until after the birth of her firstborn, noted how prejudice and preconception could block a reader’s understanding of the obvious: “the prima facie impression on the reader (Matt. 1:25) certainly is that ‘Joseph did not know her until . . .’ was confined to the period of time here mentioned . . . There is nothing in the scripture tending to remove that impression . . . On the whole it seems to me that no one would ever have thought of interpreting the verse any otherwise than in its prima facie meaning, except to force it into accordance with a preconceived notion of the perpetuity of the virginity of Mary.” A billion Roman Catholics have been persuaded to twist this obvious fact and believe in the perpetual virginity and even sinlessness of Mary.

We might note that no one could have understood John 17:3, “You, Father, [are] the only one who is truly God” until the Trinity concept intervened to destroy plain logic and language.

The zeal some exhibit on behalf oaf a doctrine they admit they cannot explain is amazing. Trinitarian apologist Millard Erickson quotes, “Try to understand it [the Trinity] and you will lose your mind.” In contrast, the Apostle Paul assured Timothy that “God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7). And, Peter said, God has given to us, “all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who has called us to glory and virtue” (2 Pet. 1:3). Moses assures us that “The secret things belong to YHVH our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever” (Deut. 29:29). We must decide if our doctrine is indeed “revealed” or whether it is a convoluted construction based on post-biblical tradition.

Perhaps, as Paul did on Mars Hill, we might use some secular philosophy to help make our point. Arthur Schopenhauer said, “There is no opinion, however absurd, which men will not readily embrace as soon as they can be brought to the conviction that it is generally adopted.” Winston Churchill observed, “Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth. Most jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business as if nothing had happened.” George Orwell said, “We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.” Orwell said “obvious” not “obtuse.”

It is the purpose of this short writing to remind us that we need to evaluate what we hold as truth, and as Isaac Newton said of scripture reading, “without straining, reduce things to the greatest simplicity . . . Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” If the prophets, Jesus or the Apostles never mentioned the Trinity, how could it possibly be so important? Could the bible writers, reading the words of God some 11,000 times, have believed in the triune God when not one of those 11,000 appearances of “God” ever meant the triune God?

Today most hold tenaciously to doctrines of doubtful provenance because they are constantly and sometimes threateningly endorsed by the pulpit, espoused by the academic elite, or hallowed by history and famous names. Few do as the noble Bereans. They took time to think and “searched the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). “Because of this,” Luke adds, “they became true believers” (17:12). He commended and recommended their noble approach to truth.

Today, many are questioning the authority of those who claim “special knowledge.” Eminent and conservative theologians are pointing out the doctrinal errors that have been mainline orthodoxy for 1600 years. People who would “know their God” need to give heed and time to examine prayerfully what they think they believe. If in the process, there is a wreckage of earlier “faith,” as is certainly very possible, there will be a great need for sound biblical teaching to rebuild genuine faith replacing the indoctrination from which we have all suffered.

When we find that our earlier conviction was neither biblical nor true, it may come as a devastating shock. Those who by the grace of God know better must prepare their hearts to be servants to the broken-hearted. Those who have loved theology, scholarship and the tradition of the Church more than the truth of God’s revelation in Scripture and who cannot conceive the possibility that they could be wrong are in for a drastic rearrangement of their faith. It has been well said that when a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, either he ceases to be mistaken or he ceases to be honest. This may well be the choice for those honestly examining the creed of Jesus and the Trinity. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, in order to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled . . . reserved in heaven for you” (1 Pet. 1:3-4). One God, the Father. One man Messiah and one Gospel of the Kingdom.

That precious inheritance of the Kingdom will be ours when Jesus comes back to give us immortality and place us in his worldwide Kingdom on a renewed earth. In Jesus’ very Jewish mind, all the great things of the future are planned in advance in heaven by God. They will be revealed in the future on earth, with the return of the Messiah to sit on the restored throne of Israel. This great promise is lucidly simple and clear in Matthew 19:28. The apostles trained by Jesus and thoroughly understanding the Kingdom (Matt. 13:51; cp. Acts 1:3; Matt. 5:5; Rom. 4:13;  Rev. 5:10) asked the appropriate ‘last question” in Acts 1:6: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the Kingdom to Israel?” They were eagerly awaiting their Christian destiny in the Kingdom to come.

All this comes as a shock to those raised on a diet of “heaven” as a vague location for disembodied souls at death. Why not exchange all that “heaven” language for the Kingdom of God to come? And why not embrace the creed of Jesus that the Lord God is one Lord (Mark 12:29), and certainly not two or three.