The assumption, that a seeker of the True God could not possibly arrive at any understanding of the “Trinity”, using only the Bible seems to be just an assumption.
Feel free to assume so.
As Christine77 pointed out, the Trinity is all over in Scripture.
Well, my point is she didn’t come to that knowledge by first reading Scripture. She first learned the doctrine of the Trinity from the teaching of the Church and subsequently referred me to the Scripture pointing out that the doctrine of the Trinity is contained therein.
The first verse with a plural Elohim and the later verse 26 “Let US make man in OUR image,…” should get a true seeker started in the right direction.
I wouldn’t argue with the notion that a
true seeker will not be disappointed if he or she diligently seeks God. However, my own experience leads me to question the idea you’re suggesting. Please allow me to explain.
I’ve learned much about the Bible since I became a Bible–believing Christian nine years ago. It was in Sunday school as a very new entrant into church that I first realized how inadequate was my knowledge of the Bible. Although I was familiar with a few characters and events in the Bible, I was pretty much without a clue. One Sunday morning a question arose in Sunday school as to how many angels were mentioned in the Bible. The question resonated with me because in my search for God I’d checked out Islam and had read the Qur’an (wherein, by the way, Allah often refers to himself in the first person plural) and I thought I knew the answer. But somebody beat me to it and suggested that the answer was two: Gabriel and Michael. I was going to raise my hand and volunteer a correction because I knew the correct answer was three: Gabriel, Michael and
Raphael. However, I thought better of it and I waited for somebody else to perform that duty. Well, nobody did and the teacher progressed to the main point apparently content with the notion that only two angels were mentioned in the Bible.
That got me thinking. At first I thought I’d got myself mixed up. But the more I thought about it, the more I was certain there was an angel named Raphael somewhere or other. It bugged me so I had to check it out. Well, Raphael was indeed mentioned in the Qur’an. But I also found him mentioned in the Book of Tobit. The Book of Tobit is one of the seven Old Testament books which Catholics regard as inspired and include in their Bibles and which Protestants don’t. I take it you’ve read the Book of Tobit? It’s a curious story. In fact, it struck me as sounding more like a fairy tale than a Bible story, what with the angel faking eating and drinking, the remarkable fish, and the wicked demon killing off husbands – presumably because he was jealous of them and fancied Sarah.
So, all was explained. Raphael was mentioned in the Catholic Bible but not the Protestant one. My state of unawareness impressed itself upon me and I began to feel I ought to do something about it. I decided that the way to proceed was to read the Bible (the Protestant one, of course) all the way through from beginning to end. I’d heard comments at church such as, “God speaks to people through His Word.” So it was with vague ideas about hearing from God in a personal way that I began to read the Bible.
I got as far as the Second Book of Chronicles before I gave it up. It was a rather disappointing and frustrating exercise. As I was reading, questions arose in my mind. But they had to remain unanswered as I ploughed on, becoming increasingly confused. Anybody with little or no knowledge of the Bible who has tried to read it from beginning to end will understand my predicament.
I didn’t realize it at the time but I’d run into the same difficulty as Max Anders. When Max Anders tried to read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation he got completely confused. Max Anders is a Protestant pastor. He’s written a really helpful book called
30 Days to Understanding the Bible in 15 minutes a Day. (look here)
In his opening chapter he explains why he wrote the book. He writes:
Many years ago, I decided I was going to master the Bible. I was going to begin with Genesis, read to Revelation, and I wasn’t going to put it down until I understood it. I soon became hopelessly entangled in a jungle of fantastic stories, unpronounceable names, broken plots, unanswered questions, and endless genealogies.
That pretty much described my experience. Max Anders’ assertion is this:
If you want to understand the Bible, you must first learn how the Bible is put together.
His book sure helped
me to do that. You see, the Bible doesn’t explain itself. That’s why I got confused. That’s why Max Anders got confused. And that’s why lots of people who pick up a Bible and who have little or no biblical knowledge get confused.
Because the Bible doesn’t explain itself, a process of learning
about the Bible – which has to take place
outside the Bible – is necessary. So it seems to me that the only people who hold that the Bible does explain itself are those imperviously–minded people who are very familiar with the Bible but who have forgotten how they obtained that familiarity. I’ve met a few Sunday school teachers who qualify for that category.
All of this is directly relevant to the question posed by the Original Poster, who is a Catholic, and who wants to know about the
how of Protestant understanding.
Cordially,
Mick
