Testimony of Lost Sheep

[aron]

A word on the trinity - when I was in the LC, I avoided the subject because it seemed so hard to "get right" and the payoff was so small. We sang, "It's not for doctrine, it's for dispensing", but regardless, the dispensing occurred whether you "got it" or not. By analogy, the infant needs to drink, not examine the concepts of calcium in milk.

But in the past couple of years the subject has somewhat settled, and conceptually coalesced. So what follows is my opinion, as of today.

The key is the principle of agency. God is like a very rich and powerful actor who can send others to act on his behalf; when you see the sent agent you see the sender. The King sends his Ambassador to Spain; the Ambassador says, "When you see me, you see the King"; even though the Ambassador is not ontologically the King he is operationally the King's extension, his "right arm".

I learned this from the Centurion, who said, "I also have servants under me"; when the Centurion spoke, the servants heard Caesar. The Centurion, like Jesus, was "a man under authority", who could by his obedience function as the extension of Caesar's will. (But the Centurion was not ontologically Caesar). (Matt 8:5-13 & Luke 7:1-10)

Likewise, Jesus could pray to the Father who was (still) in heaven, while saying, "When you see me, you see the Father". Nobody has ever seen God (the Father); yet the Son has declared him - if the Son was the Father, then the first half of that statement would be untrue. ~John 1:18