{"id":43162,"date":"2021-03-28T22:43:34","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T03:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/?p=43162"},"modified":"2021-03-28T22:59:43","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T03:59:43","slug":"catching-the-masked-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/catching-the-masked-man\/","title":{"rendered":"catching the Masked Man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I wrote this little parable tonight in response to an apologist friend on Facebook arguing that Jesus and God are numerically one, and that the Father and God are numerically one, although Jesus and the Father are not <\/em>numerically one. First I replied in Philosophy-nerd fashion, that things identical to the same thing must thereby be identical to one another. But I realized that this truth, while self-evident, is too abstract for many to easily grasp, and is too easily dismissed with “there you go again with your tricky Philosophy!” So I thought a story might be better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sheriff Sam had been after the Masked Man<\/strong>, some anonymous fellow who had robbed several banks in the county. Finally, after a lot of work, he thought he’d solved his case. Pushing each chained prisoner by the neck, he entered into the courtroom. He told the judge, “I’ve caught the Masked Man. Our banks will now be safe.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge said, “Which one is he?”<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Judge,” said the Sheriff, the Masked Man is this feller here, Foul Phil<\/strong>.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I see,” said the judge. “And who is this other gentlemen?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sheriff pushed forward the other man. “This man here is Rotten Randy<\/strong>.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Why have you brought him here?” asked the judge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He’s the Masked Man too.” <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Oh,” mused the judge, “there are two <\/em>masked bank robbers?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No, your honor. We are quite certain that just one <\/em>man has by himself robbed all of these banks.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And which man are you talking about?” The judge leaned forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This <\/em>man, your honor… and <\/em>this man.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sheriff Sam, don’t fool around. I can see that these are two <\/em>men.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yes, your honor.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So, they can’t both <\/em>be the one Masked Man.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Your honor, if I may, each of these men is<\/strong> sneaky, bold, five foot three, shoots straight, and looks dashing in a black mask – just like the Masked Man.<\/em>” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Be that as it may,” replied the judge – at most one <\/em>of them can be the Masked Man, if indeed there is one <\/em>such man.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

“No, your honor! Foul Phil is <\/em>the Masked Man, but so <\/em>is Rotten Randy.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And yet, Sheriff Sam, they are two different men<\/em>, as you and I can both see <\/em>right now.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That’s right, your honor.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m throwing your case out, Sheriff Sam!” thundered the judge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam later complained to his friends that this judge had wrongly taken all the mystery out of law enforcement, but he had to let the men go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Regarding not same-man<\/em> but rather same-thing<\/em> – you are invited to check out podcast 124.)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pushing each chained prisoner by the neck, he entered into the courtroom. He told the judge, “I’ve caught the Masked Man. Our banks will now be safe.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apologetics","category-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43162"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43168,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43162\/revisions\/43168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}