Beyond The Grasp Of Human Reason

Welcome readers to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth! We’re going to be continuing our look tonight at the Jehovah’s Witness booklet “Should You Believe In The Trinity?” I don’t see much difficulty with the section where the Trinity is defined, so let’s skip to the section with the head title of our blog title tonight.

The Watchtower says there is much confusion when it comes to the Trinity and in a sense, they’re right, because the church has grown lazy in explaining this doctrine. I used to follow Greg Koukl in making the joke that I have only heard one sermon in church on the topic of the Trinity, and I was the one who preached it. I have done a sermon on the Trinity before and it was certainly the first one I ever heard on it.

However, this kind of thinking is the thinking that creates several atheists in response to theology and philosophy. “There’s so much confusion out there so surely no one has it right!” Now I know not all atheists think like that as some do take philosophy seriously, but a lot are saying that we need to abandon philosophy and go straight to science, which is itself a philosophical statement about what we ought to do.

Keep in mind the bad referencing that the Witnesses do. First, they say that the Encyclopedia Americana notes that the doctrine of the Trinity is to be “beyond the grasp of human reason.” What edition of the encyclopedia? We don’t know. What page? We don’t know. Does anyone? Do you think your average Witness at the door knows where this quote can be found or has bothered to look it up?

We have then some quotes. Monsignor Eugene Clark says “God is one and God is three. Since there is nothing like this in creation, we cannot understand it, but only accept it.” Then there’s a quote of Cardinal John O’Connor with “We know that it is a very profound mystery, which we don’t begin to understand.” Finally, there’s a quote of Pope John Paul II.” The Watchtower says that he speaks of “The inscrutable mystery of God The Trinity.”

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