The Trinity
Referenced in: The One and the Many Have the Same Last Name
The Christian doctrine that God is one being in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Not three gods (that would be tritheism). Not one God wearing three masks (that would be modalism). One being, three persons; a unity that contains diversity and a diversity that does not compromise unity. This is not a contradiction; it is a distinction between what God is (one being) and who God is (three persons). Schaeffer argued that the Trinity is not an appendix to theology but the answer to the oldest philosophical problem in the book (the one and the many), and the epistemological grounding for all human knowledge; because a God who is relational within Himself can create relational creatures who can know things. The Trinity also explains love: if God is love (1 John 4:8), love cannot be a property God acquired at creation (which would make creation necessary for God to be Himself). Love must be eternal, which means there must be an eternal object of love within the Godhead.