Evolution of the Boss

Evolution of The Boss – or How the Trinity Happened

Imagine you were hired as the accountant at a small company – a small startup where “the Boss” was the Owner.  Not a lot of people in the company, mostly you are directly talking with the Owner.  Times are tough as a startup but you eventually become the leaders in your field.  But as things expand, more people come on board and you see the Owner less as he’s busy in different places.  But you do what he said to do in the past and he updates you by Official Email. For the last few years, all you get is his Email’d instructions. When anyone asks why you do something, you point to the Email and say ‘The “Boss” says via Email to do it.’ Some people says the Email IS the Boss, but that’s silly, because it’s just the Boss’s Email, his laws… but some people have never met the Boss so for them, Email is the Boss.

                One day a guy shows up in the office and announces he is the new Manager, in fact, he is the Owner’s new son-in-law.  His letter says “Listen to this guy – his instructions come from me – the Owner”.  You like the guy and you get along.  So when people ask why you do something, you point to the Manager and say “the Boss says to listen to him”.  Is he the Boss, they ask?  “Well, he’s speaking for the Boss, so, yeah, I guess for us, he’s the Boss.” He’s the most caring and giving person possible, standing up for the employees…. Though he’s not the Owner technically… but for more and more people, the Manager is whom they go to, so he’s effectively the Boss to them.

                Eventually, the Manager has to go elsewhere, but he says he’ll keep in touch by Email. New people start and all they know is the instructions by Email.  You pass down the Emails and after a while, people say “So… if the Email tells us what to do, and the Boss is the person who tells us what to do, then the Official Email must be the Boss as well.” In fact, some of the new employees are used to having multiple bosses so they like it when you start giving instructions “In the Name of the Owner, and the Manager, and the Official Email, your duties today are…”

                Good employees know their purpose is to do their jobs; and not worry about details of the corporate structure. Some people spend a lot of time gossiping about whether the Owner sends the Emails or whether the Manager does. Some people wonder if the Email is sent from a third source entirely.  After a while, people who think The Boss is technically 3 People – Owner, Manager, and Email Dude in IT – all equal shareholders in the company – way outnumber the people who actually met the original Owner, and are ostracized by them as ‘mistaken’ about the corporate structure.

                Every once in a while, some new employee does some digging in the archives, and says “hey, 10 years ago the Owner said one thing, 5 years ago the Manager said something different, and yesterday the Email said something else. Weird.  There must not actually be ‘a boss’, in fact, it’s just the accountant running things.  There actually is no Owner except the accountant who just wants to keep us all working.” (You consider firing that employee immediately for being stupid, because there could not be a company without an Owner… and you actually knew him once... but you are getting old and less respected.)  

                Not the greatest parable, but it makes ecclesiastical history simple. The Owner is “the Father” or Creator God. Since God is “the Boss”, we can consider many things or people ‘God’.  Jesus comes to speak for God, and people think he must be the ‘same as God’ and not just the representative.  Maybe He is, but His job was to point to God, not become God himself.  Email is the Law or eventually, the Holy Spirit sent to inspire new believers.  Eventually, the Holy Spirit went from Divine Inspiration/Word of God to another ‘part’ of God, making the 3 in 1/1 is 3 confusion of Trinity doctrines. As Christianity spread among the pagan peoples, who often had triple-deities in their pantheons, this was an easy sell as the Church expanded, regardless of accuracy.  People like Jesus – or ‘God with the skin on’ as kids say – so equating Him with God isn’t a far jump. 

The real question is why anyone worries about this. Do what you are supposed to do – forget where the email chain comes from.