Hi @heymike3,
First of all, let me say that I appreciate your attempt to grapple with the central mysteries of the Christian faith. I don’t think it’s at all a bad thing that you seek to explain them in simple language. Indeed, I would argue that we need to do this, because whatever explanation we adopt, it needs to be translatable into every language in the planet, since the Gospel of Matthew records that Christ commanded his followers to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I live in Japan, and I can tell you that Japanese doesn’t even have a word for “person.” “Human being,” yes, but “person,” no. The Japanese words for “Trinity” (三位一体) and “hypostatic union” (位格的結合) translate literally as “three ranks one body” and “rank [grammatical case] union.” We need to do better than that.
Re the Incarnation, you explain it thus: “Jesus, as truly God and truly man, could do things that only God could do, and do things that only man can do.” Fine, but that leaves out Jesus’ mind(s) and says nothing about his consciousness(es). Jesus was someone. What does it even mean to say that someone has two minds, one divine and one human, as orthodox Christians have traditionally believed? (And if you’re asking me what I mean by “mind,” here’s my answer: where thoughts come from.)
Re the Trinity, you say that God is not alone. I can understand where you’re coming from: the Trinity is commonly spoken of as a Divine family. And yet there are Bible verses that refer to “God alone” or “You alone.” And there is only one divine Mind: what Scripture refers to as “the mind of God.”
I’m not sure what you mean when you say that Jesus “became sin,” but I understand your reference to Jesus being alone. I appreciate your honesty in acknowledging the difficulty here.
Hi Tim,
The Trilemma rests on acceptance of the veracity of (at least some of) the Gospels. Those who accept the veracity of the Gospels are, by and large, already believing Christians. Skeptics have no particular reason to accept the veracity of the Gospels. Therefore the Trilemma seems to lack a meaningful audience.
You make an excellent point, but there’s no denying that Paul is an early source. In Philippians 2, Paul speaks of Jesus being raised to divine status and being given God’s name. However you interpret that, it’s a pretty tall claim.