(Continued Chapter IV-The Trinity Of The Divine Personalities)

Again, we see the reasonableness of the doctrine of the Trinity when we consider man's personality and his individualty. Personality implies relationship. We remain simply individuals as long as we stand aloof from others, but our lives are enriched and ennobled only as we come in contact with others. From the standpoint of personality therefore we conclude that the Trinitarian view of God explains personality in the highest sense of the term. This doctrine therefore furnishes the only rational basis for the existence of personality such as we are logically driven to believe God possesses.

Lastly, when we accept the Trinitarian view, we have a logical basis for understanding the object which the Almighty had in view in creation. That which is highest and noblest in our individual lives and social relations finds its prototype in the personalites and the relations existing in the Holy Trinity. Everything in nature and revelation points in the direction of the future when men's highest hopes will be realized. The relations existing here will be perfected after this life--in the great future that lies beyond the horizon of earthly existence. The Trinitarian conception affords a logical basis for our hopes to be realized then. In that eternal tomorrow all the social instincts of men will be met and satisfied, because that eternal sacred social order is grounded in the Trinitarian nature of God.

Having presented the salient facts regarding the Holy Trinity as they appear upon the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures, I wish to close this chapter with a quotation from my own writings, and a short statement from a very eminent Hebrew scholar.

"The reasonableness of the scriptural teaching regarding the triune nature of the Eternal God may be seen in the light of the following facts. The amoeba is a one-cell animal--the simplest form of life. On the other hand, man is the highest type of creature upon this earth. His anatomy is complexity itself in comparison with the amoeba. His intellectual and spiritual life is immeasurably higher than the infinitesimally small degree of intellect of this little germ--if indeed it has any. Between these two extremes of life there is an ascending scale of forms of creatures--each a little higher than the one on the next round of the ladder of existence below it. It is utterly impossible for the amoeba to understand even the simplest things about men--if indeed it has sufficient intellect to have a single thought. This little animal is on the lowest round of this ascending ladder of existence. But man who is on a round infinitely higher than the highest type of animal can look down and see the various forms of creatures below him. Since he sees this ascending scale of life below, and since he can look up the ladder and see, by faith, the Eternal God on the topmost round--infinitely above him so that his mind staggers with amazement in contemplation of Him--he comes to the conclusion that it is impossible for his finite mind to formulate, even in the most limited degree, an adequate conception of God and the nature of His being. As far as man is concerned, God may be, in the constitution of His being, infinitely more complex above him than he is above the amoeba in its complexity." - What Men Must Believe, pp. 138,139

"I am well aware that in the purest and most philosophical presentation of the Christian doctrine of Trinity no infraction of the Divine Unity is intended. It will be needful for the Jewish theologians to consider anew the interpretation of the Trinity."- Claude Montefiore.