I respond to an old post (pre-conversion to Orthodoxy) by Jay Dyer on some objection to the Trinity because I had some trouble thinking the objections through.
How is there one ontological will in God, while the Persons appear to do separate actions? For example, the Son does actions in His Incarnation the Father doesn’t do. The Spirit likewise. This seems to require separate willings, but will is not hypostatic, it’s a property of nature. This is why Damascene says there is one will and energy in God, inasmuch as there is one God acting. Nahmanides makes this same objection, I came to find, that occurred to me. So how is it the three act differently? Similarly, is generation not an eternal act? If it’s an eternal action, then it must be of nature and of will. But the Nicene Fathers are adamant the Son is not a product of will in any sense. He is of the Father’s nature. But He and the Spirit share that nature, and thus he is auto-generated. But this makes no sense. Similarly, is spiration also an action? If so, it cannot be hypostatic, it must be of nature, but again, nature is common in the Godhead.
Jewish Objection to the Trinity – Jay Dyer (https://web.archive.org/web/20120121083336/https://jaysanalysis.com/2010/09/05/jewish-objections-to-christianity/)
There seems to be a conflation of the Essential Will in the Trinity that is commonly shared between the Three Divine Hypostasis. However the distinct acts of the Son becoming Incarnate, and the Father and Spirit not incarnating is actions in relation to the Hypostasis not in relation to Essence/Existence. There would be a problem if the separate actions of the Hypostasis necessitated seperate ontological wills–however this does not follow in Christian theology. Since the Three Hypostasis possess the Same Essential Will . It is logically fallacious to say that the mode of willing in respect to the specific Hypostasis would compromise the One Essential Will that the Hypostases possess–since the Hypostases possess the same ontological Will. Hypostasis act on the basis of the One Essential Will, not three Separate wills . The question assumes that since Will is proper to Nature and not Hypostasis–that the hypostases can not act separate in relation to one another and not necessitate a composition of the essential willing capacity shared between the three Persons.
The generation of the Son is a Hypostatic Relation between the Father and Son–both possessing the Divine Nature. And since the action is relational not ontological, there is no compromise of the One Divine Will.
The Nicene Fathers were against the Father creating the Son ex-nihilo. Which would necessitate two independent conflicting existences/realities amounting to opposing wills, (The Father Will/Essence uncreated, The Sons Will created). Which is in no way the same as a eternal relational action between Two Hypostasis that share the same Nature.
Spiration is not common essentially since the Father is not Spirated. Thus, Spiration is Hypostatic and not proper to the Essence of the Person.
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