Sunday, April 17, 2005

I am a polytheistic idolator

I am a polytheistic idolator. No, really, I am. Not by confession--I believe firmly in the Trinity revealed in Scripture and confessed by the great creeds of the Christian faith. The Athanasian Creed is particularly good on this matter.
No, my problem is not that I don't know that God is one-in-three. I do. I just can't begin to comprehend that, and it affects my thinking about Him. I suppose there are two tendencies of the mind of finite man when he tries to think about the Trinity: either to think of God as one indivisible Being with no distiguishable parts or personalities (like the God of Judaism or Islam), or to think of three separate God beings, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who are each God, but more or less separate beings.
I find myself, when I'm not careful, slipping into the latter tendency. When I hear someone talk about "God," I usually, unthinkingly, assume he's speaking of God the Father. I never, for some reason, think of the Godhead. When I hear someone speak of "the Lord," I think of Jesus Christ. Whenever I'm not actively thinking about and affirming the particulars of the Trinitarian God, the three members of the Godhead are separate beings to me. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I can't reconcile using singular pronouns to describe three persons, as we often do when we say "He" and "Him" in reference to God.
I think this tendency is sinful. When you get down to brass tacks, it is idolatry, because it makes God out to be less than--or at least other than--He has revealed Himself to be in His Word. I don't know how to explain why I think this way, other than that my finite mind isn't able to understand the stunning truth of the Trinity. I don't know what to do about it, either--except simply to pray that God will reveal Himself to me more fully and open my mind to see the beauty of the truth of His divine perfections.