Recently I had the pleasure of visiting Albania for a seminary class that I took through Cru. The premise of the course was fascinating to me and the location of the class was another attractive draw. I’ll break this blog post up into two segments, one will be on the class and the other on the country of Albania. I hope you enjoy them both.
The Class
The class was about contrasting Trinitarian Monotheism with Monadic (think mono - only one) Monotheism. Most of the world religions that believe in a god believe in Monadic Monotheism. That is to say they believe that God is one and only one and that there is no distinction within God. Islam believes in this as do Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons. Christianity is unique in many ways, but notably in its understanding of the nature of God. In Christian theology God is one...in three persons. There is only one God, but he exists eternally in a triune relationship consisting of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each member of the trinity is distinct yet all three are one God. When we contrast the Monadic God with the Triune God the differences are enormous and have major practical consequences in matters of doctrine and practice.
This is what the class was about and I can’t tell you how enjoyable it was and how much I learned about God as a result. It left me worshiping the Father, Son and Holy Spirit more and marveling in his nature.
The teacher of the course was a godly man whose ultimate aim in the course was to lead us into deeper worship and love of God. The thing that most blew my mind was when he pointed out the logical conclusions of what happens depending on what is believed about the nature of God. If God is only one, he cannot eternally possess the attribute of love. The reason for this is that in order to experience love there must be the lover and the beloved. If there was nothing for God to love before the creation of the world then he does not eternally possess the attribute of love, therefore it is not a character trait of God. Thus, a Monadic God is not a loving God.
On the other hand if God is eternally triune, as Christians believe, then one could argue that he was in a relationship with himself before the creation of the world. That relationship is marked by a self-giving, concern-for-the-good-of-the-other love which overflows into the creation of the world. Because God has always expressed, received, given and observed love from before the creation of the world it can be said that a Triune God really is loving.
The consequences of this are amazing. If love is not an attribute of God, merely an action he sometimes uses then his love is arbitrary and unreliable. Likewise if mercy, goodness, justice and wrath are actions or characteristics he sometimes employs then they are not always employed by him and he cannot therefore be described as merciful, good, just or wrathful.
Yet if he possesses these characteristics or the potential for them as attributes since the foundation of the world then he can be described as merciful, good, just, wrathful and so on. The result is either a God whose will is capricious and arbitrary or a God whose will is based on his nature and is reliable and trustworthy even if it doesn’t seem that way.*
*(I recognize there are some flaws in this logic and I’m doing my best to paraphrase the ideas taught in class, if you’d like to help me refine this reasoning I’d love your feedback.)
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