kevin.carroll
Puritan Board Junior
Kevin, I do want to ask you a question: what do you mean by metaphors being "modalistic language"? Normally we think of metaphors as multiplicitous language, being able to convey multiple meanings. So, I would like to know what you mean by that.
As you know, modalism is an anti-Trinitarian heresy that denies that there are three persons in the God head. Rather, the one God reveals himself in three different modes, sort of like a single actor playing multiple parts in a play.
An orthodox view of the Trinity is that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God. They are the same in substance, equal in power in glory. One God. Three persons. The Father is not the Son or the Spirit. The Son is not the Father or the Spirit. The Spirit is not the Father or the Son. Yet there is one God.
Back to George:
"Like a three-way mirror, each person in the Godhead satellites the other--an eternal reflection." (p.18)
A reflection? A reflection is not the thing reflected, so does this mean that the members of the Trinity are simply emmanations of the one God? Sounds like modalism to me.
"Like the Irish three-leafed clover...Like a mind, God is intellect, memory, and will--one system, but three functions. Like water, God is fluid, steam, and icicle--one substance, but three textures." (p. 19)
The leaves of the clover, do not constitute the clover. The analogy fails, because the Son is not like the leaf of a clover, he is God. George evidently also does not understand that the works of the Godhead, while distinct in who executes them, are nonetheless the works of the one God. The last (awful) simile gets it really wrong and screams modalism again. Three textures? Each member of the Trinity is God in all his fullness, not a "texture" of God.
"And then God spoke...From the same throat came three chords--Father, Son, and Spirit--a holy harmonic." (p. 39)
So hear, three voices emmanate from one throat. Can you not see the modalism? It's awful, it's sloppy, it's heretical. It's blasphemous.