62. The Holy Trinity

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Thirty years ago (or maybe more), I looked for all the passages in the Bible where all three of the members of the Holy Trinity were mentioned closely together -- either in the same verse, or in two verses together. There was, if I recall correctly, about fifteen. And since I am an accountant, and also a mathemetician and statistician, I found it particularly statistically interesting that all six of the possibilities of order among the members of the Trinity can be found in the scriptures.

Let me illustrate: If we use "F" for the Father, "S" for the Son, and "H" for the Holy Spirit, then the members of the Trinity can be listed in only six varying orders.

The most traditional for most of us is FSH (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). But there are also five more: FHS, SFH, SHF, HFS, HSF,
and no other.

So does this prove, for example, the inspiration of the Bible? No, probably not. And there might be a naturalness of having the three members of the Holy Trinity, or any two of them, to cluster together in the scripture. For example, we find this set of two more than once: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But here's the thing: It's a probability issue, which makes it at least a curiosity. If I took those three letters in my hand (F, S, H) and randomly cast them onto a table, statistically, it would normally take me from 50 to 75 times to successfully cast all of the six orders listed above. But in the scriptures, it is done in only about 15 passages.

So I conclude a truth which I hold lightly, not tightly, that God is telling us something in making all the possibilites appear in only 15 or so passages. And it is this: that there is an equality in the Godhead which is equally as true as the passages that show an order, i.e. that say that the Son always does what the Father tells him, and that the Holy Spirit has come to point to the Son.

So I am reminded that there surely is a divine order in the Trinity, whenever I see scripture mentioning the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit in order.

And I am reminded that there surely is a divine equality in the Trinity, whenever I see scripture mentioning any of the other orders of relationship.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below,
Praise Him above ye heavenly host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in any order, world without end, Amen.
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