1. “The Trinity Violates the LNC ”:
Premises – The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are:
Co-eternal and Co-equal
Distinct Persons
One in essence
Law of Noncontradiction:
Contradictory propositions cannot both be true in the same sense at the same time:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_noncontradiction
Argument that the Trinity violates the LNC:
a = b
c = b
a != c (contradiction)
Father = God
Son = God
Holy Spirit = God
Father != Son != Holy Spirit (contradiction)?
This argument is to misunderstand the Trinity Doctrine and/or the LNC.
It is true that two propositions are contradictory if they both affirm and deny the same thing, at the same time, and in the same sense or in the same relationship. This is the case for:
a = b [same sense]
c = b [same sense]
a != c [same sense]
The doctrine of the Trinity, however, does not affirm that God is both one and three in the same sense or relationship. Rather, it affirms that God is one His essence/being, subsisting in three persons/hypostases/relationships. Person(s) reveals who He is, and Essence refers to what He is. So the Trinity does not refer to three whos in one who (which would be a contradiction), but three whos in one what (which is not a contradiction).
Father = God [not same sense]
Son = God [not same sense]
Holy Spirit = God [not same sense]
Father != Son != Holy Spirit [not same sense] (not contradictory)
Therefore, the Trinity is logical and does not violate the LNC.
2. “The Incarnation Violates the LNC”:
It is further insisted upon by those who are blind and confused that the Hypostatic Union violates the principle of noncontradiction. This is simply a misunderstanding of both the Doctrine and the Logical Law. The LNC states that contradictory propositions cannot both be true in the same sense at the same time. For example:
Can I be both poor and rich?
- At different times? Yes.
- At the same time? Yes.
- At the same time and in the same sense? No.
I can be poor in the context of Elon Musk’s wealth and rich in the context of a slave simultaneously. But, I cannot be poor in the context of Elon Musk’s wealth and rich in the context of a slave simultaneously in the same sense – incoherent. The Doctrine of the Hypostatic Union and broader orthodox Christology teaches that in Jesus Christ there is:
- 1 Hypostasis who is the second ‘person’ of the Triune Godhead. An eternally generated Hypostasis from the Father.
- 2 Distinct natures, one fully God and one fully human
The statement that Christ is fully man and fully God does not violate the LNC because he is not Divine and human in the same sense. The nature and attributes of divinity are the property of His Divine nature, while the nature and attributes of humanity are the property of His human nature.
The Doctrine does not state that:
- In Jesus Christ there is 1 nature which is simultaneously God and man.
- Christ is only God and at the same time only man.
- Christ’s human nature is His Divine nature, or His Divine nature is His human nature
- Or, that his human attributes are the property of His Divine nature, or his Divine attributes are the property of His human nature
Any of these assertions would indeed violate the LNC, but no Ecumenical Church Council has ever made these claims. Therefore, the Hypostatic Union is logical and does not violate the LNC.
3. “The Eucharist Violates the LNC”:
The Essence/Person/Energy distinction will be used to explain the Lord’s Supper being bread and Christ’s Body. There is one divine nature in the Godhead. There is one God the Father, and His Son and His Spirit, who are three distinct persons. The Son and Spirit participate in the divine nature of the Father hence they are one. The three persons are distinguished by their relations of origin to the Father, ie the Son is eternally begotten and the Spirit is eternally proceeding.
Energy/action/actualisation proceeds from nature. We know persons through the energies/actions that proceed from their natures, how they behave, how they act, what they do. These things make a person distinctively ‘them’. As such, despite us not being able to have the subjective experience of actually being another person, we can still know them through their energies. Their nature is them, likewise, their energies are them also.
- Nature (οὐσία): God is God
- Person (ὑπόστασις): Father is God, Son is God, Spirit is God
- Energy (ἐνέργεια): Energies of God (proceeding from the single nature in the Godhead) are God also.
The Energies of God are God, yet distinct from Nature, in the same way that the Nature of God is God, yet distinct from Divine Person(s). It is not idolatry to worship Jesus, even though he is a man, because I am worshiping the person Jesus who is fully God and fully man, two natures which exist in a hypostatic union. The human nature that Christ adopted in the incarnation is divinised through a union of energies between the divine and human nature, such that Jesus whilst having a real, physical human nature can still walk through walls (John 20:19-20) and on water.
The bread is actual bread, The bread is also the actual body of Christ. There is one nature in the bread, bread nature. But there is a union of energies in the bread. The energies proceeding from the bread nature, and the energies of the human nature of Christ who are Christ, such that we are eating the actual bread and simultaneously the actual body of Christ. This is not cannibalism, as it is Christ’s human energies rather than nature present.
Energetic union in the bread is actualised by Christ through his divine nature and energies. Who while sitting at the right hand of the Father currently, makes His human energies present in the bread. Similarly while on earth, Christ through his divine energies divinised his human nature and energies to transcend the limitations of physical reality with walking on water and through walls.
- The hypostatic union in Christ makes the impossible possible (God and man)
- The energetic union in the bread makes the impossible possible (bread and body)
- Therefore, Real Presence is logical and does not violate the LNC.
ethankatsos@protonmail.com