Theodicy Soteriology, Hermeneutics

TRINITY : M. M. NINAN
Is 6.8: Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
Thus the plural name Elohim and the possibility of multiple personality within the class of Elohim are
probably implied. God being totally other we cannot know the essence of God or his nature in their
absolute. Yet God has graciously revealed himself to us and that is all what we know of God. So for
confirmation of Trinity - three persons in one Essence we need to look into the revelation of God in
history. This is what we attempt in the next two chapters.
TRINITY - REVELATION THROUGH HISTORY
OLD TESTAMENT
THEOPHANIES
What we have so far done was to establish the fact that a strictly monistic God actually violates the
concept of God who is a creator and is active in history. We have also seen from the first chapter of
Genesis, that God declares himself in plural form.
However we know that God is beyond understanding to the human mind and we should not try to
make God fit to our reason. So the reasoning that we have done is simply apolegetic. The actual
corroboration should come from the revelation of God to mankind through history. Such revelation did
take place from time immemorial to our fathers and it is this that form our faith and understanding.
These appearances of God are called Theophanies or Epiphanies in Greek and Latin terminologies.
In this chapter we are looking at the Old Testament Theophanies to see how God has appeared unto
the patriarchs.
ADAMIC THEOPHANY
The first appearance is described thus:
Gen 3: 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the
garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But
the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" 10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and
I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
Here we see a God who is walking in the garden. This is not a spirit, it is a real living being with
material body. If we take the description as it means, there is no other possibility.
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