As I mentioned yesterday, through the ages, many spiritual issues have been clouded by man’s legalistic, controlling, and compulsive nature. It happened between the time of Moses and Jesus during the rise of the Pharisees and Essenes. It happened prior to Martin Luther and his Ninety-Five Theses, when church leaders decided that the Bible was “beyond the common man’s understanding.” I am reminded of some of my college and seminary professors, who appeared to enjoy complicating issues to ensure that we (the students) understood that they had already grasped the “deeper” meanings that we were beginning to uncover. Perhaps that is how you have felt at times.

Let me share an example. Some time ago, I was blessed by reading the Disputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity by St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan Bishop who lived from 1221 to 1274. He was incredibly insightful for his time and, for that matter, all times. From his surviving body of work, it is obvious that he committed great time and thought to spiritual matters. In Disputed Questions, he revealed that his “primary concern was to uncover an intelligible connection between the one divine essence and the trinity of persons.” Upon examining a commentary of the founder of his order (St. Francis, 1182-1226) which included St. Francis’ insight into Luke 18:19, Bonaventure concluded that goodness and love required plurality, and could not exist within a single person. Bonaventure found that the word for God in Luke 18:19, Theos, was plural, which equated it to the Old Testament word for God, Elohim. He reasoned that the natural outgrowth of this usage was that the Father’s and Son’s love for each other produced the Spirit, the outgrowth of Their love and goodness.

Up to this point, I felt like I was following Bonaventure’s analysis, since I could compare it to a marriage where the outgrowth is a child. However, the subsequent chapters consisted of topics like, “Whether the Trinity exists together with the highest infinity,” and “Whether the Trinity can exist together with eternity.” At that point, my brain started to shut down. I could not relate those concepts with how I am supposed to live my life before God and man. The material seemed too complicated for my mind and possibly other’s too. My main interest was the three individuals and getting my mind about their differences and how we are supposed to respond to them individually.

As a layperson, you may consider yourselves to be naïve or unqualified to understand “deep” Scriptural concepts, including your purpose in the Kingdom. While this self-concept is frequently perpetuated by those among us with formal religious educations, it is simply NOT TRUE. The Bible says that if we seek, we will find. It also promises that the Holy Spirit will help us understand what we need to understand. (2 Corinthians 1:13) So, nothing God wants you to know will be beyond your understanding.  

Christ identified his Family as three individuals in Matthew 28:19. He did not refer to just one other person. So, let us consider this concept and see if we can remove any confusion. Twenty times in the New Testament alone, Christ is referred to as “sitting at the right hand of The Father” in verses like Luke 22:69. To sit next to someone, there must be at least two individuals. We should also consider the 20 references in the Gospels and 69 references by the apostles that the Holy Spirit is a separate individual with His own individual directives, performing a unique function. A good example is John 14:26.

So, tomorrow we are going to dig deeper into those individualities and what that means to you. Don’t be overly concerned, you will get it – trust me!

Love Dad