Saturday, April 07, 2007

  • A Mystery

    Where was the Second Person of the Trinity on Holy Saturday?

    Insomniacs of the world, take note!  We're the sane ones!  Who could sleep, with such questions unanswered?!

Comments (6)

  • MeloraCampbell
    Why did I think he was harrowing Hell?  I guess the Apostles Creed doesn't mention how long that might have taken, though.  Where do you think he was?
  • scsours
    Thomas Aquinas (and pretty much all of orthodox Christianity) says he was in Hell doing the whole harrowing bit, but he was also everywhere else too, because God is everywhere. Some theologians think that that's not . . . uh, dead enough. That unless the Son was really and fully separated from the Father, that he didn't really die and thus the Resurrection wouldn't really do much for us run-of-the-mill humans.

    I'm cheerfully agnostic about the issue, which tends to annoy my obsessively orthodox hubbie. *grin*
  • pomegranatebloom

    If the Son was "really and fully" separated from the Father like that, then wouldn't God have ceased from being a Trinity, if only for a short period inside time?  And if so, wouldn't that violate the immutability of God?

    I know I'm way out of my depth here...
  • scsours
    Yup. That's it exactly, Pomegranate. That's why my poor hubbie is so scandalized.
  • DiniHJ
    I think if you lock God into the whole human "time" thing, then this is a question worth debating.  But if God is outside of time, then the time between when Jesus ceased to live as a human being when he died, and when he appeared to humanity once more may have had more or less significance than it does in human terms.  It could have been the blink of an eye, or it could have been 1000 years to Him.  And my understanding is that it wasn't His DEATH that fully separated Him from God, but the sins of the world, which He willingly took on Himself during the crucifixion.  The death was the payment for the sin, but the sin had already separated Him from the Father, as evidenced by his cry of "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?"  
  • MeloraCampbell
    Now I won't be able to sleep.  Thank you so much.  I have puzzled before over how Jesus could stand in for all mankind as a perfect sacrifice to reconcile us with God when He really was God (sort of), but I hadn't thought before about how the Trinity worked when Jesus was dead.  That aspect of it didn't occur to me when I tried answering the first time.  Now my head hurts.  And Ed would just stare at me like I was a complete lunatic if I tried to explain this to him, so I'll be stuck puzzling alone. 

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