Musings in Writings

The Grammar of God

Some people find the concept of Holy Trinity hard to accept. How can a God be 3 persons? The problem I muse may be that people tend to not see the word "god" in the collective sense, but instead, see it in the non collective sense.

Think of these singular words "fly, dog, Roman god, employee, girl, book"

Now think of these words that are collective nouns "swarm, bevy, company, library, family". We know these are collective words because we can use them this way : "a swarm of flies, a bevy of girls, a company made up of many employees, a library of books".

"A company" is singular noun, but yet it is made up of many employees.

In Roman and Greek mythology, the word "god" is non-collective, because each god is one person. However, in Christianity, the word "god" is a collective noun, just like "family". Just as the family consists of father/mother/child, so the Christian God consists of Father/Son/Spirit.

An example of a word that can be both collective and non collective is "department" (many employees in a department/many departments in a company).

So the word "god" can be collective or non collective, depending on the usage.

How God became 3 persons

This is due to the development of human's revelation with God. In Judaism (the roots of Christianity), early on, humanity knew very little about God. because God didn't want to reveal more of himself. The Jews only knew God as Yahweh and nothing more. So they thought of God as one person, singular noun. But later Jesus revealed more of God's nature to his disciples and Christians came to know the 3 distinct persons in this God. Yet Jesus said to his disciples "Go baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". Note that Jesus said "name" a singular, not plural, word. Thus He referred to God as a single entity.

The Unity in God

The 3 persons are so united, that they are one God, not just 3 gods. They are one entity. Why not just have 3 gods?

E.g. ABBA the music group. ABBA is made up of 4 persons. It rocked the world with its wonderful music. To know the band better, indeed we try to get to know about the band members individually. Yet, we cannot forget that it is ONE LEGENDARY BAND that created the music. IT is like that, we don't care who in the group made the music, but we just know these groups (U2, F4, BoyzIIMen, Kiroro) made the music. We identify it as a singular thing, because they made the music TOGETHER.

Just like 3 persons in One God created the world together.

God is a Family

God is a family of 3 persons... They are 3 persons but they are so united in thoughts that their 3 minds are like one. That's why they are one God.

An analogy is a married couple. Have you seen a husband and wife who know each other so well, that they can read each other's minds? They are two persons yet they love each other and seek to understand each other so much that they are seem to have one mind. Instead of just two persons, it is really ONE couple united in thoughts and love.

God is the perfect epitome of this. The difference is that because they (Father/son/spirit) are God, they are a family where the family members are perfect in the unity of thought and love.

Also instead of referring to the neighours next door as Mr Tan, Mrs Tan and Liling, we often refer to them as the "Tan family". We see them as one entity rather than just 3 persons. Thus similar is the way we can refer to God, as a family unit, rather than 3 units, the Father, and Son and the Holy Spirit.

I wonder, if we don't have such difficulty with the usage of the word "god", will there be less problem with accepting the Holy Trinity?