Triple Triangle Defense

Some things are a mystery. We understand what we picture in our head to be the way a thing is without really understanding the way that thing is. Our vocabulary in defining spiritual things is limited and so we use phrases such as "it’s like" or "can be compared to." This does not make the mystery not true, but it sure helps in keeping it a mystery.

Our children were in a variety of sports and if we ever got involved at home in a discussion of tactics Jackie, my wife, would always inform us that we should use the "Triple Triangle Defense". Didn’t matter what the sport was, the "Triple Triangle Defense" was always the answer. Exactly how it works, though, remains for me a mystery.

We believe in God as one God with three persons in the God-Head, and that is called the Trinity. It took the early church many years to settle on what the Trinity was and what were the characteristics of each part. For hundreds of years the church was beset by differing views, both within and without, especially concerning the divine nature of Christ. One of the main causes of the split between the Eastern Church and the Western Church was on defining the procession of the Holy Spirit. Was it from the Father, the Son, or from both? So I’m going to briefly address the concept of God being understood as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and if they remain a mystery after that, great.

Consider God at creation. Genesis starts with "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" and right away we have in verse 2; "And the Spirit of God was moving over the waters." As we saw in the last post, the 1st chapter of John says, talking about Jesus, that He was with God at the beginning and that all things came into being through Him. So this is how I understand the Trinity at creation. It was the desire, the intention, the plan of God the Father to have creation, which is both a material and a spiritual world. It was the Son who carried out the will of the Father, calling all created things into existence. And when the Son called out (speaking the Word) it was the Spirit of God who accomplished the work.

This is somewhat like the famous Triangle Offense. The Triangle Offense is a basketball system perfected by a guy named Tex Winter, and used by coach Phil Jackson who won a boat load of NBA championships with it. A star player in that system was Michael Jordon, who flew through the air doing amazing things. So even with this Triangle Offense we have a group of three. One was the designer, one implemented what was designed, and one insured the success of the design. Being a Piston’s fan I still don’t understand how or why it worked, so it must be a mystery.

There is a lot of scripture to confirm the three persons of the Trinity being active at the same time, and I’ll leave you with two. In the 3rd chapter of Matthew Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist, and after He came out of the water "Suddenly the sky opened and he saw the Spirit of God descend like a dove and hover over him. With that, a voice from the heavens said, "This is my beloved Son, My favor rests on him." And in the 3rd chapter of John it says: "For the One whom God has sent speaks the words of God; he does not ration his gift of the Spirit. The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him. Whoever believes in the Son has life eternal."