The Lovely Trinity Argument – chris cribari blog

Photo Cred: (1) | Updated: 5/27/2019

A while back I wrote an argument for the doctrine of the Trinity called The Lovely Trinity Argument (2) and it was okay in retrospect. After further study and improvement in philosophical argumentation, I have a second argument for the doctrine of the Trinity. This new argument is called The Greater Than Argument. The argument goes as follows:

The Greater Than Argument

Every human is a single person.
God is greater than a human.
Since God is greater than a human, He therefore must be multi-personal.
The Christian Trinity is the best explanation of God’s multi-personal nature.
Therefore, God is a tri-unity of persons, yet remains one nature.

Now this argument is meant to be presented after belief in God is philosophically proven. This can be done by showing the person that you are talking to any number of arguments for the existence of God. In the spirit of my argument, I think the Kalam-Cosmological Argument (3) makes the most sense as a foundation to then build off of and further understand who God logically must be if they exist. Although, one could just as easily use Norris Clarke’s World as an Interacting Whole Argument (4) or Peter Kreeft’s version of The Change Argument (5) first proposed by Thomas Aquinas in his famous Five Ways collection of philosophical arguments.

On the flip side, I also have an alternative version that is simply called The Alternate Greater Than Argument. This alternate version is more so meant to be used in broader contexts for those who don’t believe in God. The Alternate Greater Than Argument goes as follows:

The Alternate Greater Than Argument

Every human is a single person.
If God exists, then they would have to be greater than a human.
If real, God would be multi-personal.
The Christian Trinity is the best explanation of both God’s existence and His multi-personal nature.
Therefore, God is a tri-unity of persons, yet remains one nature.

The basic concept for the Greater Than Argument was inspired by Alvin Plantinga’s philosophical work as a whole and a YouTube video from InspiringPhilosophy (6). I’d highly recommend those resources, along with James White’s book called The Forgotten Trinity. Both arguments have the exact same conclusion and start with the same first premise. Where they differ is in their next three premises, in order to get to the same conclusion.

It’s probably not going to become the most groundbreaking development in defense of the doctrine of the Trinity, but I would say it is a vast improvement over my first argument. Not only in its more focused nature, but also for the fact that it is a third of the length of that first argument (i.e. 15 point argument vs. 5 point argument). So the use of The Greater Than Argument or The Alternate Greater Than Argument in discussion will be far easier to defend in a dialogue, rather than The Lovely Trinity Argument because of said reasons mentioned above. Since the argument is shorter and more to the point, you can invest more time supporting the Christian worldview and get to a Gospel presentation sooner in conversation with others.

You may find it useful to use or might figure out a better way of defending the doctrine of the Trinity. Regardless, I hope it helps you out in some way. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless!

Footnotes

Photo Cred: (1) | Updated: 5/21/2019

This blog-post is a little different than past blog-posts in that I will be showing you briefly my first argument for the Christian Trinity. My argument is called “The Lovely Trinity Argument” and was heavily inspired by the works of C.S. Lewis, especially his arguments in Mere Christianity. The argument resides on the central question found in premise seven and is actually what I asked myself a few years ago when the original concept for the argument began to take shape in my mind. Shout out to my friend, Kevin King, for helping me fine-tune my argument to make it as logically airtight as possible. Here is the argument down below presented in a premise-by-premise structure like almost all other philosophical arguments:

The Lovely Trinity Argument

By Christopher Cribari

Before Creation, there was God (✝).
God was alone and nothing existed, except for God before Creation.
Therefore, God is the objective standard for all things pertaining to morality and the like, including love because He is all that existed.
Thus, God is love (✝), love is God*, and God is all-loving.
Love is an action expressed towards an object.
Love is actively expressed from person to person.
But if God is love, love is God, and God is all-loving, who would God love?
A Unitarian God cannot love Himself because He is one person.
Thus, God would need to be 2 or more than 2 persons to actively express love, in order for God to be love, for love to be God, and for God to be all-loving.
Therefore, God is one being (✝), but multiple persons.
But in order for love to be expressed for others to see, there has to be a third party or person.
Thus, a Binitarian God cannot love another person without a third party or person to validate that love.
Therefore, God is one being, but three persons (✝).
Hence, the doctrine of the Trinity is true because it validates that God is love, love is God, and God is all-loving, while at the same time affirming that God is triune.
For God is a Trinitarian God: one being, but three persons.

Argument Footnotes

* = C.S. Lewis penned “love is God” in his work, Mere Christianity, in chapter 4 of book 4 entitled “Good Infection.”

✝ = Biblical References

Premise 1) Genesis 1:1, Hebrews 1:10
Premise 4) 1 John 4:8, 16
Premise 10) Deuteronomy 6:4, 1 Timothy 2:5a
Premise 13) 2 Corinthians 13:14

Well, that is my argument for the Christian Trinity and I hope it helps you wherever you are in relation to God. If you would like to hear my newer argument for the Christian Trinity, click here. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless!

Footnotes

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