Is Christianity truly monotheistic?

Question

I'm not trying to start any fights, so please don't bash me, I just wonder why it's called a monotheistic religion when they believe in the holy trinity.

Monotheistic is one god and one god only. Not three parts one god.

Aaron - It's still three parts! That's what I'm trying to understand. A mono, mono meaning ONE, theistic religion has only ONE GOD. NOT THREE PARTS.

Answer 1

in my opinion, christianity verges very strongly on polytheism. some, but not all, christians are very openly idolatrous. i'm not saying that people who practice idolatry are stupid or anything, other people's beliefs are all fine and dandy. but when your own god commands you not to practice idolatry, and you do it anyway and still think you are following the perfect will of your god, thats kind of stupid.

Answer 2

Not all Christian sects believe in the trinity, and those that do don't all view it the same way. However, every Christian sect agrees that there is only one God. So, in this way monotheism is a more core belief amongst Christians than even the trinity. The distinction of what makes someone monotheistic is that they believe there is only one God, not what others percieve they believe. Since you could ask any Christian, "Do you believe there is only one God?" and they would reply, "Yes, of course," then they are monotheistic. It doesn't matter if YOU perceive their belief to be a belief in 3 seperate Gods.

Answer 3

I had a relatively long discussion on this specific topic.

basically we came to the conclusion of this:

Christianity's "Monotheism" is like a Tree with 3 branches. (a trunk split into 3 parts that is... get the image?) but it being 1 tree.

Judaism and (theoretically at least) Islam's Monotheism, being a perfect stone monolith.

to the christian point of view, since its 1 tree, it appears as 1.

and from the "absolute monotheism" point of view, christianity's is clearly NOT monotheistic, as it has the division into branches.

from a point of view it makes sense I guess.

what I don't get is why christians so frequently have so much trouble seeing that theres a fundamental difference between the obelisk and tree "models" of God.

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>>"if there are no other gods, other than bible-god, then why does bible-god have to tell people (in one of the ten commandments) that they shall worship no other gods, but him. if there were no others, he'd just say that, rather than tell people not to worship any of the other ones. "<<

its not a screw up at all. its a question of definitions. to use a kabbalistic phrase, "God is a Verb" from a certain angle, it could be "misunderstood" that a semi-autonomous component of God (or for the above comparison, one facet of the obelisk, looked at independently of the others) could be called a "God" but that its an incorrect perception, and that only the overall absolute, is truly "God" that is worthy of worship.

many people misunderstand God using a Royal We, as support for support of the trinity. which if you understand the nature of god, is quite absurd.

edit: also, to clarify... the facets of the monolith do not count as "parts" because they are merely different "angles" of viewing the object(... its an analogy anyway...) and the cells, atoms, and subatomic particles do not count as "parts" any more than you or I being as many people as there are cells that make up our body.

Answer 4

Christianity believes that God Is So Awesome, Almighty, & Powerful Beyond Limits, that He Can Be 3 Divine Persons(Father, Son, & Holy Spirit)all the while Remaining One True God.

Answer 5

One GOD FOR SURE!

SEEN as THREE ATTRIBUTES!


The word trinity is not in the Bible, but the indicators certainly are.
Look up Psalm 45, and Psalm 110. Both indicate THE GOD speaking to
"HIS OTHER".....also......The Trinity is indicated in 1 John 5:7 if you are using
a King James Bible (others have removed or altered same).

In the Old Testament see Isaiah 44:6 --- and His redeemer I am ---.
and Isaiah 45:11 --- And His maker --.

My favourite indicator is 1 Corinthians 15:28 ! At some point The Trinity will once
again unite because THEN there will be no need for The Trinity !

Water appears as a liquid, steam, and ice. All three are one.
A Clover leaf has three segments, it is but ONE clover.

In both situations above, three are one. Why can't THE GOD do the same?

Answer 6

C. S. Lewis came up with the analogy that a flame produces both light and heat. You cannot have a flame without it producing (or begetting) both light and heat as a byproduct of its existence. So is the light a part of the flame, or is it a separate thing? Maybe a little of both?

The trinity is not three separate gods, but rather three separate personas within the one same unified being. So you have three persons who share the same essence.

Three completely separate beings might have differences of opinions and disagree with each other; one single being will not fight against itself.

===edit===
A god with "multiple personality disorder"? Perhaps it seems that way, since God is something beyond human experience. It would be silly to assume that we could fully comprehend what he is like. People have made numerous analogies over the years, but none are completely adequate since God is like nothing that we have ever experienced.

To carry C.S. Lewis' analogy further, he assumes that God the Son is a product of the God the Father's existence as light is a by-product of the flame's existence. And the spirit of love that exists between the father and son makes up the third persona, God the Holy Spirit.

Sorry, but I cannot explain it any better than that.

And "Jewish Girl"s point about idolatry is well taken. That is why protestants do not use images in their worship.

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...The co-equal and distinct persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not three Gods because they share the same essence in complete unity. This is difficult to grasp because we have no comparison that we can experience empirically or with our five senses.

For example, the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are three distinct persons and beings. They do not share the same essence or being or divine attributes. However, the doctrine of the Trinity says that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit share the same being or essence, and this is where the human example of the three patriarchs and the divine nature must part company. So the human analogy fails to describe the Trinity and would in fact confuse this doctrine if we took the example seriously.

Augustine comes up with an analogy that is deep: the lover, the beloved, and love (The Trinity, Books VIII.14; IX.2, and XV.10). As we saw at the baptism of Jesus, the Father says that he loves the Son, and at that very moment, the Spirit descends and rests on Jesus (see no. 1, above, and Matt. 3:16-17). Augustine seems to say that the Father loves the Son, who receives his love and returns it, for example, in his willingness to obey the Father and die on the cross, while the Spirit communicates the love between them. This image of a triad of love expresses how Christians believe the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit existed before the creation of time and the universe, and how the three persons will forever exist. It is into this love that the Trinity welcomes all believers and all who have received the love of God, through Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Augustine’s analogy is profound, because we have all experienced love from a lover, and we have returned the same love. But it still does not adequately explain how the one God shares this divine attribute of love and all the other divine attributes in three persons. Our human love is but a poor reflection of divine love. We cannot observe this with our eyes, so all analogies from nature and humanity ultimately fail in illustrating the Trinity. Analogies from nature cannot reach up to heaven so that we can connect them to the Trinity. Our finite and limited mind cannot grasp this mystery, even after our minds have studied the doctrine for years.

This page discusses the philosophical necessity of the Trinity, based on Augustine’s analogy of divine love. The strict unity of God does not make sense in terms of the love of God, because divine love amounts to self-love in a strict oneness doctrine of God.

To clarify further why there are three persons, but not three Gods, God’s essence is not divided equally into three parts; it is not one-third, plus one-third, plus one-third. Also, the three persons are not added on to God’s essence or being, as if they are tacked on to the outside of God. Rather, all three persons share the same essence, fully God in one being, in total and perfect unity.

Thus, basic Christian doctrine teaches that one God exists in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, not in three Gods, which is called tritheism.

Besides giving a list of divine attributes, this website uses some properties of creation and this series presents a mathematical model to illustrate the Trinity, though, as noted, all analogies are ultimately flawed.

Answer 7

God has declared that HE alone is GOD and beside Him there are no other gods. Yes we do believe that Jesus Christ is indeed God...the Bible declares this too in many places. Thomas recognized Jesus as God when he said "my Lord and my God"

We also believe the Holy Spirit is God but we do not believe in three Gods because they are all ONE GOD in three manifestations. We can have three manifestations of water.

We can have water in the liquid form, Ice or steam. We can also see all three forms at one time. Just look closely at a frozen pond on a warm winter day. We see the ice, some water on top of the ice and steam coming off from it.

It does make a difference on who we think Jesus is. Jesus said in John 8:24 "I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."

Jesus said we had to believe that He is the I AM that refers only to GOD. For more on this check the link below.

Answer 8

Christianity claims to be monotheistic, but they do have separate versions of God in the Trinity. Catholics intercede with their saints. Mother Mary is a way for some Christians to adapt a feminie, Goddess energy into their Christianity.
Jesus is God and The Holy spirit is God, according to Christianity. If they need more than one figure to represent God, then they seem just as technically polytheistic as Pagans do.

I don't mean to judge or cause strife, either. No haters, please! I am just expressing my own observations.

Answer 9

The Bible does not support the trinity. I would love for someone to show me just one scripture that says that God is made up of three co-equal, co-eternal persons. Jesus never claimed to be God. Instead, he called himself the Son of God. See John 10:36. At 1 Cor. 11:3, it says that the head of Jesus is God. Does God have a head? No, but Jesus does. If Jesus is God, who is the mediator between God and men? See 1Tim. 2:5. If Jesus is God, why didn't he direct his followers to pray to him instead of to someone else? See Matt. 6:9. If Jesus is God, who did he tell his followers he was going away to? See John 20:17 The truth of the matter is that true Christians do not believe in the trinity.

Answer 10

Me? I am a father of my son. I am a husband of my wife. I am a boss of my staff. I am a staff of my manager. I have different roles and positions, although I don't have the power to appear differently physically. So, am I one person or many?

God? He has greater power than me. He has different roles. And He can appear in the form of anything He wants, well He is God the Almighty, isn't He?

If He only appears in the position of God the Father, and in the form of son taking the human flesh, and in the position of the Holy spirit, this is not too many, just three (known as the trinity).

I believe He could take other forms if He needed to, because He is God the Almighty. He can take another one-hundred different forms in He wants to. He is God, His power and capability is unlimited.

Are you comparing God to a person? A person who has just one physical form?

The answer is: There is one God, who translate Himself into three roles, three different idividuals, but One. Confused? It shows that our small limited brain cannot understand Him the Almighty. He is too grand for our tiny mind.

You know a character known as Monkey King in the Chinese legends who can convert himself into other forms, things, and beings because the can do 108 magics. He is not God, yet he can appear in different forms, but still the same one Monkey King.

God is much much much much much more than that.

Answer 11

I know that it may be hard to understand, I was brought up thinking there were THREE, but I studied a little more, and now I understand. You have received good answers to this question, explaining the aspect of the character of God: The clover, water, egg. See how it can be confusing but it really is just one. No bashing, I appreciate your sensitivity. Thanks!