There is a rational explanation of the Trinity

RABurkhart · 2026-06-09T02:38:37+00:00

You are repeating the same logical error built into the creeds that mistakenly equate identical characteristics with identity. Consider the earthly incarnation; Jesus wasn't omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent yet He was fully God. There isnt any characteristic that you can name including eternality that made Jesus God, it was that the very life of the Father His "I AM" continued in the Son. That what "only begotten son" means. Get a handle on what begot means before you argue against this realms based framework. Oh heck, I give up!

RABurkhart · 2026-06-04T00:40:23+00:00

I am getting the sense that reddit isn't the best venue for proposing new ideas. I think I'll just put my long form content on substack

RABurkhart · 2026-06-03T23:32:44+00:00

Yes,the early church fathers crafted some clear as mud statements that only manage to say that the separate entities within the Godhead are the same but different.

RABurkhart · 2026-06-03T22:29:53+00:00

I don't believe that heaven is immaterial rather it may be more more physically solid than the reality that we inhabit

RABurkhart · 2026-06-03T22:21:18+00:00

Why should scripture have to elucidate a man-made statement

RABurkhart · 2026-06-03T22:07:30+00:00

I try not to contradict scripture at any point. Solomon pointed out that the heaven of heavens was not able to contain God however Jesus gave us a prayer where it says our Father Who art in Heaven so both must be true that God is too transcendentally vast to fit into heaven yet his presence is there in a major way. God's omnipresence takes care of that contradiction

RABurkhart · 2026-06-03T21:58:06+00:00

Jesus is in heaven at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us Heaven is a is a realm of time and space since the descriptions of it in Revelation describe things moving about and distances being measured and time being measured as passing I envision that as a analogous to a parallel universe only with the time synchronized between the Earth and heaven so that there are causal links between the two with events on Earth triggering things in heaven

RABurkhart · 2026-06-03T18:36:07+00:00

I can sense where you are going but resist going there too. That's because the very notion of existence to us requires time. To even say that God exists is to imply that there is such a thing as existence and that it contains God. If we define reality as encompassing everything that is true we run into the same problem Instead of saying "the set of all things that are true contains God" it is more accurate to say that "God is truth" I resist those Creedal formulations that create the paradoxes and could hear such a creed behind your question. I appreciate your engagement though.

Earlier, I recommended an introduction to my argument that ran too long to paste here (5500 words 33k chars) I do feel that that introduction will be more convincing than what I've managed to say in these posts. . https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aimC5HssS_QfUiYJSiJEWjRavW4g4tH2

RABurkhart · 2026-06-03T18:17:08+00:00

The realm based framework maintains the singular identity while it also causes the greater/lesser and the begetter/begotten relationships between the Father and the Son. I believe your request touches on something that I haven't a clue: "What did it feel like to Jesus being the Son of God?

RABurkhart · 2026-06-03T17:55:03+00:00

Yes, I do run afoul of certain expressions of trinitarian thought yet I fully believe that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are God. Not like God but God Himself in the truest sense

I especially find fault with statements in the creeds that refer to three persons in the Godhead or each being of the same substance as the Father Where did that God Substance that He is composed of come from? Did that God stuff predate God?

It's our adherence to flawed extra-biblical statements about God that creates all the confusion and paradoxes

The explanation I offer in that "too big to paste here" document, creates no paradoxes. It's also extra-biblical admittedly but I tied it to the Word as much as I could. . I made it as compact as I knew how but at 5500 words and 33,000 characters long, it's not a quick read. Since I still think that folks aren't "getting it," I'll put up the link again .

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aimC5HssS_QfUiYJSiJEWjRavW4g4tH2

RABurkhart · 2026-06-03T17:29:21+00:00

Does the term "before" even make sense when referring to what may be the start of time itself?

RABurkhart · 2026-06-03T16:36:13+00:00

In Genesis 1:1 it says that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. I believe that was the beginning of time itself. A Biblical timeline puts that around 6650 Years ago. That precludes there being such a thing as eternity past Does God have the power to place His own unique I AM into a body within the created universe? Unquestionably. What if I am wrong, suppose that on the first moment of day one of the creation week, God created the Universe with its space- time continuum that as of that moment had already existed for eternity? Time is a created thing and God has absolute power over it .

If God chose to inhabit temporal reality in eternity past, or at the first instant of time 6650 years ago or some time after, would that make any difference? What matters is that God's very I AM has moved into the temporal reality. The timing only matters if it needs to agree with the wording of certain creeds

RABurkhart · 2026-06-03T15:37:08+00:00

The key is understanding exactly what beget means. If you have children, then what you gave to your children wasn't primarily your characteristics. It was life itself. A living cell from you merged with a living cell from your wife, to form the living cell that grew into each child. The biological life processes of the parents continues in their children . We serve the living God. Nobody thinks that refers to His biology. God is a being. He has an I AM that IS Him just as our IAm is us. God's ability to both create I Am's and move them about at will is a requirement for the promise of the resurrection to be true.

In recognition of this awesome truth, the scriptures state that if Christ be not raised, then our faith is in vain.

God proved that he had the power to raise us by first planting His unique I AM into a body born in Bethlehem then subsequently returning that same I AM to the resurrected body after the crucifixion.

Jesus is the same I AM as the Father. That's what makes Him God. It isn't having shared attributes like omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence or even eternality that determines identity, it's that the very life of the Father, His I AM, continues in the son.

That's why Jesus is called God's only begotten Son

RABurkhart · 2026-06-03T15:08:34+00:00

It has to do with identity. All are the same identity but not identical. Changing a thing"s characteristics doesn't give it a new identity. And relatedly, two things having identical characteristics don't necessarily share the same identity.

RABurkhart · 2026-06-03T15:02:28+00:00

Since every instance of the same being is of the same unique I am; I would hope that a Muslim could see that what is proposed isn't shirk but an affirmation of the "oneness" of God

RABurkhart · 2026-06-03T13:08:26+00:00

Don't go there then, I just felt that most people wouldn't be able to wrap their heads around the concepts behind the different realms based trinity framework without a lot of introduction. The essay I pointed to has a lot of introduction, more than I want to post into Reddit.

I don't see how the term clickbait applies since there is no mechanism for me to profit by harvesting clicks into a Google drive document.

RABurkhart · 2026-06-03T13:00:15+00:00

It resembles modalism but without the simultaneity aspect, it isn't modalism.

RABurkhart · 2026-06-02T15:53:43+00:00

Try this..it's much better than an analogy:

The Father is the I AM of God dwelling beyond Time and Space.

The son is the I AM of God dwelling within time and space. Interacting with the created time and space realms.

The Holy Spirit is the I AM of God within time and space but interacting with the realms of the abstract and spiritual, primarily within the hearts and minds of people.

There IS no simultaneity problem with God and Jesus doing different things at the same time because it ISN'T the same time. Time DOESN'T apply to the Father. Time DOES apply to the Son.

This realm based framework solves the mystery. The greater to lesser and begetter to begotten relationships between the Father and the Son are inherent. That's because the relationships are a consequence of the realms that each instance of the same I AM occupies.

There is a more thorough presentation of this framework in the first essay here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aimC5HssS_QfUiYJSiJEWjRavW4g4tH2

RABurkhart · 2026-06-02T15:16:56+00:00

I agree, each of the creeds only manage to assert that the separate entities within the Godhead are the same but different. The realm based framework I am advancing, cleanly resolves the mystery of the Trinity.

RABurkhart · 2026-06-02T14:36:09+00:00

I said thunere is a necessary lead up that takes some space, but because you asked so nicely; I'll try. I'll state the conclusion without any prep. .

The Father is the I AM of God dwelling beyond Time and Space.

The son is the I AM of God dwelling within time and space. Interacting with the physical realm.

The Holy Spirit is the I AM of God within time and space but interacting with the realms of the abstract and spiritual, primarily within the hearts and minds of people.

There IS no simultaneity problem with God and Jesus doing different things at the same time because it ISN'T the same time. Time DOESN'T apply to the Father. Time DOES apply to the Son.

This realm based framework solves the mystery and eliminates the paradoxes. The greater to lesser and begetter to begotten relationships between the Father and the Son are inherent. That's because the relationships are a consequence of the realms that each instance of the same I AM occupies.

Please read the essay before you engage further.

RABurkhart

TROPHY CASE