Are Christians Polytheists?

Judaism when it first appeared was a clear break from all the existing religions at that time. It holds that there is only one God (Monotheism) and that God in no way or form can be visualized. Clearly in an environment that was filled with idols and nature worshipers, it was a quantum jump in the idea of God.

When Christianity came around, they had to account for three Persons viz. God the creator, Christ the conciliator, and Holy Spirit the comforter. The last thing the Christians wanted to give up was Monotheism. Therefore they had to struggle through to convince themselves that these three Persons are the same and at the same time they are different. The result of their efforts is the Athanasian Creed. Go ahead and take a peek. If your head swims after reading that, it is quite normal.

When Mohammed set up shop to create Islam, he admired both Judaism and Christianity so much that he made them part of Koran. The part he abstracted from Judaism was its strict Monotheism and iconoclasm and also its various purity codes and social strictures. He made Jesus a prophet and left out the Holy Spirit and thus reconciled the Christian account within Islam without altering the Monotheistic belief. He abstracted proselytism from Christianity.

Of course when these religions competed in the same space, the greatest insult thrown against Christians was that they were Polytheists or more specifically Trinitarians. Any protest by the Christians fell on deaf ears and it is not easy to win any argument by brandishing the Athanasian Creed.

Well how best then is to envisage the Christian Trinity if you do not wish to delve into the abstract world of Athanasian Creed? I would point to a lighted candle as an analog.

Paraffin in lighted candle exists in three forms, a solid support surrounding the wick, a molten liquid feeding the wick, a vapor that comes out of the wick that catches fire, burning with oxygen in the air and casts light to the surrounding.

In our analogy, the solid paraffin is God the Father, the liquid paraffin that is produced by melting of the solid is Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the paraffin vapor. When Jesus enters the heart of a Christian analogous to the wick, the Christian actions bring out the Holy Spirit into the world.

The net result of these actions is the spreading of love to satisfy the community needs. Pushing then our analogy to the limits, the community needs is the oxygen and the evident love in the Christian actions driven by the Holy Spirit is the Light. The unity of the Trinity is clear in this analogy, whether solid, liquid or vapor the substance is still Paraffin. Keep this analogy in mind, go back and re-read the Athanasian Creed. It would not appear as abstract as it did when you read it first.

I like the lighted candle as a symbol for Christianity than a cross. It is positively focused to the community than a cross, which is inwardly focused as a symbol of reconciliation between God and man and what better way is there to illustrate “the Trinity that is Unity” concept than the Lighted Candle?

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