Charles Perry Locke wrote:
Dave,
On the way to work this morning I was thinking about how you wield the term "mystery" like it is an evil tool whose purpose is to perpetuate the doctrine of the Trinity.
I though of an analogy that may provide you with enough understanding to allow you to use the word "mystery" without abusing it.
I know that you work in a motorcycle related industry, and that you have a newsgroup about motorcycles. So I will assume that you know all about the inner workings of an internal combustion engine. If you do not, all the better.
As you probably well know, in order for an internal combustion engine to produce power, it needs three elements...gas, air, and spark. If ANY of these three is missing, it cannot unlock the energy that is held in the gas. (It is true that other parts of the engine are needed to control and harness the power, but , as we all know, even without those other parts, gas, air, and spark will produce unharnessed power anyway!)
Now, to most people, the way in which the energy in the gas is released, and that it also takes air and spark to do this is totally foreign. Many may know that there are spark plugs, a carbuerator (or fuel injectors), and that the engine needs air, but most do understand the chemical process of gas combustion. It is a complete "mystery" to them. In spite of this "mystery". millions of people start and drive their cars daily. They may even know that gas, and air, and possibly even the spark, are required to produce the combustion, but they probably do not know how they are combined checmically to produce the power their cars need to operate.
Similarly, no one truly knows or understands the mechanism, or way, in which the three elements of the Trinity are combined to make the triune Godhead, bur it does not reduce that fact that we can know and understand the Trinity from a practical point of view, even though we do not understand the "mystery" of it.
Perry ==========================================================
Excellect illustration, Perry. Even I can grasp it fully. Terry
---------- "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org
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