Christianity asking you to accept the trinity is asking you to accept a logical impossibility. There’s no point in trying to figure it out, the entire exercise is to make you accept it on faith and not question it. It’s not big and profound, it’s a stupid waste of time like that mind trap they made for the Borg on star trek where they would get stuck thinking about it so much they’d die.
It’s like a fantasy author that wrote himself into a corner.
"Hmm, i can’t have Jesus and God be different people because i already said there was only one god, but i can’t have them be the same person because then he’ll be sacrificing himself to himself.
Hm… Demigod maybe? Nah, too cliché, i’ll just leave it really vague and let the fans come up with something, maybe add a third character to make it seem intentional" - Some charlatan, 0BC
because then he’ll be sacrificing himself to himself.
Erm. Only Odin can do that:
I ween that I hung | on the windy tree,
Hung there for nights full nine;
With the spear I was wounded, | and offered I was
To Othin, myself to myself,
On the tree that none | may ever know
What root beneath it runs.
None made me happy | with loaf or horn,
And there below I looked;
I took up the runes, | shrieking I took them,
And forthwith back I fell.
Nine mighty songs | I got from the son
Of Bolthorn, Bestla’s father;
And a drink I got | of the goodly mead
Poured out from Othrörir.
Then began I to thrive, | and wisdom to get,
I grew and well I was;
Each word led me on | to another word,
Each deed to another deed.
Runes shalt thou find, | and fateful signs,
That the king of singers colored,
And the mighty gods have made;
Full strong the signs, | full mighty the signs
That the ruler of gods doth write.
If you want a boring, materialist interpretation it’s a description of a psychological trial caused by the tree of life (the genome), with the result of gaining access to intuitive abilities from precisely there.
Jesus isn’t sacrificed to God he’s sacrificed to carry away original sin
The ancient ritual it’s theologically compared to is the literal origin of the idea of a scape goat. It was a sacrifice that was either driven out of town or killed with the intent that it would carry away the sins of the village
And so Jesus was “sacrificed” and in that act absolved humanity of original sin. This is VERY IMPORTANT to understand, it is why most Christians don’t practice Jewish covenant or tradition, because in Christian canon, Jesus abolished the conditions that made the covenant made by God’s people necessary. AKA “look you cool and all guys but if we want this religion to go anywhere we need to recruit people who don’t want to be circumcized to the faith, so we’re just gonna say the old law was overthrown.”
And that’s why Christians who cite leviticus to continue being terrible to queer people are in fact practicing heresy against the literal roots of the faith and ergo are open season for public burnings and stonings.
There’s actually an even more progressive interpretation here that what Jesus did wasn’t just opening the door to heaven to more than just “god’s people”, but also abolishing the concept of the sins of the father, as the ancient world was known for legal codes where you could receive punishments for crimes a family member committed.
It didn’t exactly take hold for a long while legally but there’s definitely a moral sense now that killing a man’s kids as revenge for him killing yours is well beyond the pale of justified payback.
Christianity asking you to accept the trinity is asking you to accept a logical impossibility. There’s no point in trying to figure it out, the entire exercise is to make you accept it on faith and not question it. It’s not big and profound, it’s a stupid waste of time like that mind trap they made for the Borg on star trek where they would get stuck thinking about it so much they’d die.
It’s like a fantasy author that wrote himself into a corner.
"Hmm, i can’t have Jesus and God be different people because i already said there was only one god, but i can’t have them be the same person because then he’ll be sacrificing himself to himself.
Hm… Demigod maybe? Nah, too cliché, i’ll just leave it really vague and let the fans come up with something, maybe add a third character to make it seem intentional" - Some charlatan, 0BC
Erm. Only Odin can do that:
Goes on for a bit with a description of skills attained etc. Havamal, stanzas 146ff. (The stanzas look that odd because Old Norse poetry is nuts and essentially untranslatable)
If you want a boring, materialist interpretation it’s a description of a psychological trial caused by the tree of life (the genome), with the result of gaining access to intuitive abilities from precisely there.
Jesus isn’t sacrificed to God he’s sacrificed to carry away original sin
The ancient ritual it’s theologically compared to is the literal origin of the idea of a scape goat. It was a sacrifice that was either driven out of town or killed with the intent that it would carry away the sins of the village
And so Jesus was “sacrificed” and in that act absolved humanity of original sin. This is VERY IMPORTANT to understand, it is why most Christians don’t practice Jewish covenant or tradition, because in Christian canon, Jesus abolished the conditions that made the covenant made by God’s people necessary. AKA “look you cool and all guys but if we want this religion to go anywhere we need to recruit people who don’t want to be circumcized to the faith, so we’re just gonna say the old law was overthrown.”
And that’s why Christians who cite leviticus to continue being terrible to queer people are in fact practicing heresy against the literal roots of the faith and ergo are open season for public burnings and stonings.
There’s actually an even more progressive interpretation here that what Jesus did wasn’t just opening the door to heaven to more than just “god’s people”, but also abolishing the concept of the sins of the father, as the ancient world was known for legal codes where you could receive punishments for crimes a family member committed.
It didn’t exactly take hold for a long while legally but there’s definitely a moral sense now that killing a man’s kids as revenge for him killing yours is well beyond the pale of justified payback.