171. The Trinity that the modern-day Christian church has embraced and integrated into its faith is that God the Father bore a Son from eternity, and the Holy Spirit came forth from them both. Each one is a god all by himself.

The only way the human mind can grasp this trinity is to view it as a "triarchy," like a government of three monarchs in one country, three generals over one army, or three heads in one household, each of whom has equal power. What other outcome could such a situation have except destruction? Any of us who try to picture or sketch that triarchy in our mind's eye, with its unity in mind as well, can view it only as a person with three heads on one body or three bodies with one head. This deformed image of the Trinity is bound to show up in those who believe in three divine persons, each of whom is God in his own right - those who connect them into one God while denying that "one God" means one person.

The concept of an eternally begotten Son of God who later comes down and takes on a human manifestation is like the ancient nonsense about human souls created at the beginning of the world that enter bodies and become people. It is also like the absurd notion that someone's soul can cross over into someone else. Many in the Jewish church used to believe this. They thought that the soul of Elijah was in the body of John the Baptist and that David was going to return in his own body or someone else's to reign over Israel and Judah, because it says in Ezekiel, "I will raise up one shepherd over them, who will feed them - my servant David. He will be their shepherd. And I, Jehovah, will be their God and David will be a prince in their midst" (Ezekiel 34:23-25; there are other such references as well). They did not realize that "David" there means the Lord.

261. 11. While in the World, the Lord Fulfilled Everything in the Word; by Doing So He Became the Word or Divine Truth Even on the Last or Outermost Level

The fact that in the world the Lord fulfilled everything in the Word, and by doing so became divine truth or the Word even on the last or outermost level, is what the following words in John mean:

And the Word became flesh and lived among us; and we saw his glory, glory like that of the only begotten child of the Father. He was full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

"Becoming flesh" means becoming the Word on the last or outermost level.

When the Lord was transfigured, he showed his disciples his qualities as the Word on the last or outermost level (Matthew 17:2 and following; Mark 9:2 and following; Luke 9:28 and following). There it says that Moses and Elijah appeared in glory. "Moses" means the Word that was written by Moses, and the historical Word in general. "Elijah" means the prophetical Word. The Lord was represented as the Word on the last or outermost level to John as well (). All the details of that description of the Lord mean the last or outermost features of divine truth or the Word.

The Lord was of course the Word or divine truth before he came, but only on the first or inmost level. We read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1-2). When the Word became flesh, however, the Lord became the Word even on the last or outermost level. This is why the Lord is called the First and the Last (Revelation 1:8, 11, 17; 2:8; 21:6; 22:12-13; Isaiah 44:6).