So far, we have discussed
the question of Jesus the so-called Son and also God the supposed
literal Father of Jesus. Yet there is a third person by the name of ‘The
Holy Ghost’ who according to Christian dogma, despite having a distinct
individual personality, is still amalgamated and so completely and
eternally fused with the ‘Father’ and the ‘Son’ that their merger
creates a singleness in three. Now we turn our attention to this
question by enquiring whether the Holy Ghost has an ego separate from
the God or Jesus, or do they share one single ego? Ego can be described
here as the ultimate of consciousness, which in the final analysis, is
indivisible and specific to each individual. The same ultimate awareness
of one’s being as distinct from others gives birth to ‘I’, and ‘my’ and
‘mine’, as against ‘he’ and ‘his’ and ‘you’ and ‘yours’.
Bringing
into focus the three parts of Divinity, we must resolve whether the
three have distinct egos of their own or not. If they do not have
distinct separate egos, then to attribute to them personages would
become inconceivable. Each person, however close he may be to another,
has to enjoy a separate individual consciousness of his being.
The
official position of most churches is very clear and well defined,
claiming that each of the three entities of God’s personage had a
distinctly separate personage of its own. So it is not just ‘Three in
One’ it is three persons in one person. The bitter encounter of Jesus
with death and all its fateful consequences must have been equally
shared by the Holy Ghost. So also, he should have been included in the
sacrifice along with Jesus. Again, he must have suffered hell in the
company of Jesus and God the Father. If not, then one cannot escape
drawing the inevitable conclusion that not only were they three distinct
and different persons but also their emotions and faculties relating to
head and heart must have been different, separate and insulated from
each other.
In trying
to further our vision of the Trinity we should attempt to visualize the
fact of three persons merging together or existing as merged together
eternally as one. So far we have failed to see how they could have
merged in their emotions and thought processes.
The
only option left, therefore, is a merger in the body. It reminds us of a
hydra headed monster on a different scale, mentioned in the Greek
mythology, which possessed many heads that grew again when cut off. Of
course, man cannot understand the true nature of God and how His
attributes function within, but it is very easy and simple to believe in
one single entity without specific areas to which certain functions are
attributed and confined, like head, heart and kidneys etc. But the
scenario of separate individual thoughts and feelings is certainly at
variance with the afore mentioned scenario of a single entity. It
creates an image of God which is very difficult to believe and conceive
for human beings, many of whom have lived long with Christian dogma
without questioning it and have somehow shut their eyes to such glaring
violations against the human intellect, supposedly created by God
himself.
We do not observe any role played by the Holy Ghost in the divine plan of creation and also for that matter of Jesus Christ.
Obviously
it is God the Father who is referred to in the Old Testament without
any hint of a reference to Christ or the Holy Ghost. In the entire
pre-Christian era, among all the Jews who believed in the Old Testament
and must have heard this verse hundreds of thousands of times, there was
not one who could read the name of Christ in the creation of the
Universe or that of the Holy Ghost. In his Gospel, St. John suggests
‘Word’ to stand for Jesus. It is strange that such an important subject
has been taken up by author of only one Gospel; by someone who was not
even a disciple of Jesus.1 Even if one
accepts his word to be the word of God, still it can only be understood
to mean the Will of God; a concept that is common to many religions with
reference to Creation.
Surprisingly,
the age long secret of Christ’s and the Holy Ghost’s participation in
the Creation, remained a secret to Jesus himself. We read not a single
statement of Jesus Christ where he claims to be the Word. Therefore,
neither had any part to play in the shaping and making of Creation.
Again it was God the Father alone, we are told, who fashioned man from
dust with his own hands. I have never read anywhere in any Christian
writings that the two hands belonged to Jesus and the Holy Ghost. Hence
God created everything without the slightest help from, or participation
of, Jesus or the Holy Ghost. Were they passive observers generally in
agreement with what God was doing or did they actually participate? If
the latter is more acceptable to Christian theologists then immediately
the question arises whether each of them was individually capable of
creating, without the help of the others, or were they only capable in
their totality. And again, if all three were essentially needed to pool
their functions together to create, then was their share equal, or did
one have a larger share of the labour put into the process of creation?
Were they three persons with different powers both in intensity and kind
or did they share them equally? One has to admit that whichever of the
two options is taken, each of the components of Trinity becomes
incompetent to create anything in itself.
If
the same argument is extended to other Divine functions, the same
question will continue to plague the Christian theologists. At the end
of the day Christianity will have to admit that it does not believe in
one simple entity of God, with three aspects and expressions of one
single central power and majesty. But rather that they believe in three
complementary components of Godhead that are three segments of the body
of God. The question of being equal or unequal would then be assigned a
relatively minor status.
Take,
for instance, the attribute of Justice and Forgiveness. The Son appears
to be more compassionate whereas God the Father appears to be less Just
than the Holy Ghost, who took no part in the injustice on the part of
God the Father.
The
second possibility we mentioned was that Jesus and the Holy Ghost played
an inert role in the processes of creation and the government of the
laws of nature. That being so, it raises many other questions. First of
all what is the assigned role of the two partners of God in the
discharging of their Divine functions? If they are passive silent
observers, like sleeping partners, then they are automatically relegated
to a secondary, inferior position where they coexist with God but
without, in practicality, sharing His powers. This concept of God having
two non-functional appendices is very bizarre to say the least. I
wonder whose conscience it can satisfy. Rationally it is, of course,
unacceptable and does not harmonize with the Christian concept of ‘Three
in One’ and ‘One in Three’. The oneness in three cannot be reached or
even remotely conceived without there being a total merger of will, of
powers and of whatever experience of life that can be attributed to a
single living entity.
In
the case of Holy Ghost, being a separate person, unless that person
merges completely and irrevocably, losing all its identity in the other
two, there remains no future hope of the emergence of a hydra headed-god
with single thoughts, single will and a single body.
It
is acceptable for a person to believe in something not fully
understandable to him because of some irrefutable evidence in its
favour. For example, many people do not understand the phenomena which
collectively make it possible to create radio transmission and receptor
sets, and also the transmission of electrical audio video pulses that
are converted to televised pictures and sound. Yet even the most
unlettered person would have to believe in the reality of radio and
television. Similarly, most of us do not understand how computers work,
yet very few in this contemporary age would dare to deny the existence
of computers simply for this reason. Such cases may be classified as
mysteries but there is no question of denying their existence or
deriding those who believe in them, provided of course, that they are
fully backed up and supported by irrefutable evidence.
We
also accept that a much more lenient attitude can be and is exercised
regarding many mysteries which exist in the form of religious dogmas. A
very large number of human beings believe in such dogmas without being
able to understand or to explain them. They seem to inherit such
doctrines through generations and acquire a ‘taken for granted’ attitude
towards them. But when the elements of contradiction and paradox find
their way into religious dogmas, no excuse in their favour can be
accepted on the plea that belief in perplexing mysteries also provides
justification for believing in paradoxes. It is here that the problem
becomes complicated. I can believe in something that I do not
understand, but I cannot believe in something that is contradictory in
itself, nor I hope, can any other person in his senses. For instance, I
cannot understand how a watch is made, that is all right, but I have no
right to believe that a watch is simultaneously a live barking and
kicking dog. This is not a mysterious dogma but simply a glaring
contradiction.
When
there is any contradiction between two or more attributes of God or when
there are inconsistencies between the word of God and the act of God,
then the limits of mystery are transgressed by a large margin and one
finds oneself drifting out of the sphere of mystery and into a world of
fantasy. When so proved, it is but natural to expect that the believers
in contradictions should make amends in their beliefs and accordingly,
effect a reform in their faith. Unfortunately however, in our dialogues
with some Christian ministers, we find them tenaciously holding the view
that belief in Jesus as a god and simultaneously as a man is not
contradictory. Nor does it appear contradictory to them that one person
can be three persons simultaneously without there being the slightest
difference in their character. They insist that to believe in one God
and also to believe in a three pronged godhead, of God, the Holy Ghost
and the Son, is not a paradox but simply a mystery. They shut their eyes
to the contradictions in their claim that God remains a single entity
despite the fact that the person of God, ‘The Father’, is distinctly
different from the person of Jesus, ‘The Son’, and the Holy Ghost. When
we point out to them in amazement that we are talking of three persons,
and not about different aspects, moods and attributes of a single
person, and that God being ‘One in Three’ and ‘Three in One’ is
certainly not a mystery but a glaring contradiction, they would nod
their heads in sympathy with us and politely ask us to step into
contradictions operating in another area of discussion. They require us
to first believe in the unbelievable and then to progress from there, to
develop a faith in contradictions, or mysteries as they would much
rather call them. A non-Christian therefore cannot understand the
contradictions of Christian dogmas and to understand what he cannot
believe in, he must believe without understanding. This is the world of
Christian fantasy into which we non-Christians are advised to enter. But
this magic flying carpet of fantasy refuses to take its flight if a
non-believer steps onto it.
REFERENCES
- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
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