The doctrine of the Holy Trinity in which the one true God is made up of three separate but equal persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is shared by most Christian denominations including Roman and Orthodox Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals and Episcopalians.
The doctrine of the Holy Trinity states that God is a single Being who exists, simultaneously and eternally, as three persons: the Father; the Son; and the Holy Spirit.
Since the 4th Century AD, in both Eastern and Western Christianity, this doctrine has been stated as "One God in Three Persons," all three of whom, as distinct and co-eternal "persons" share a single Divine nature.
How this works is not fully known and is one the the Christian mysteries.
There is a story told about St Augustine: Augustine was walking along the seashore trying to figure out the mystery of the Holy Trinity and came up to a little boy. The boy was trying to pour the ocean into a hole in the sand with a seashell. Augustine told the boy what he was doing was impossible. Then the little boy told Augustine that it is also impossible for the mind of man to try to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The little boy turned into an angel and disappeared.
With love in Christ.
2006-11-17 17:45:05
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answer #1
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answered by imacatholic2 7
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There is but one Messiah, He came 2000 years ago and His name was Jesus. God is a triune God of which Jesus is one of the three along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. There are no other Messiah's to come however the true messiah Jesus Christ will return @ the rapture to receive His church and will not be seen by the world. He will return (referred to as the 2 nd coming) again 7 years after the rapture and will set foot on earth to set up His 1000 year (millennial reign) only to be followed by the Great White Throne Judgement. It is here the non believers will be judged and sent to hell for their rejection of Christ as Saviour.
2006-11-17 03:31:37
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answer #2
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answered by Steiner 6
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Please tell me this is a joke. The Holy Trinity is God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. All three are the aspects of one God, but three entities. It's like a body. God is the mind, Jesus the heart and the Holy Spirit is the lungs. THree sepperate parts of the body, but you can't live without any one of them.
There is only one HOly Trinity.
2006-11-17 03:24:40
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answer #3
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answered by sister steph 6
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The Trinity is an invention of the church -- a shibboleth -- a piece of nonsense you must say to prove your loyalty to the priests.
It's not even in the bible -- not that that would prove anything one way or the other.
And I lurve your disrespectful attitude!
2006-11-17 03:41:03
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answer #4
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answered by Iain 5
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NO. NO. NO. Are you Crazy? I don't remember Christ's saying in the bible anywhere, the term "BIG POPPA". You really ought to re-examine yourself before you ask dip-**** questions like that. Dumb ***
2006-11-17 03:24:26
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answer #5
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answered by ? 6
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If you belong to a small group of serious students of the Bible who are trying to appreciate Bible and to learn the Hebrew or Greek languages, then you will appreciate that the "word" TRINTY nor its doctrine is not at all found in the pages of the inspired Scriptures.
First of all, "All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight"- 2 Tim. 3:16;
A person who is really seeking to know the truth about God is not going to search the Bible hoping to find a text that he can construe as fitting what he already believes. He wants to know what God’s Word itself says. He may find some texts that he feels can be read in more than one way, but when these are compared with other Biblical statements on the same subject their meaning will become clear. It should be noted at the outset that most of the texts used as “proof” of the Trinity actually mention only two persons, not three; so even if the Trinitarian explanation of the texts were correct, these would not prove that the Bible teaches the Trinity.
[steph w],
Honestly can you say that after reading the Bible, where does it say that, "All three are the aspects of one God, but three entities." OR "It's like a body", "God is the mind", "Jesus the heart and the Holy Spirit is the lungs". Please indicated where in the Bible does it say that "THree seperate parts of the body, but you can't live without any one of them." (Please site the verse or scriptures where this is read)
However, as a "Catholic" base on this "traditional" doctrine which is base upon the "Athanasian Creed", you may want to view what catholics and secular souces remarks about the TRINITY:
THE New Catholic Encyclopedia offers three such “proof texts” but also admits: “The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is not taught in the O[ld] T[estament]. In the N[ew] T[estament] the oldest evidence is in the Pauline epistles, especially 2 Cor 13.13 [verse 14 in some Bibles], and 1 Cor 12.4-6. In the Gospels evidence of the Trinity is found explicitly only in the baptismal formula of Mt 28.19.” Do these verses prove a trinity doctrine?
This type of reference, admits McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, “proves only that there are the three subjects named, . . . but it does not prove, by itself, that all the three belong necessarily to the divine nature, and possess equal divine honor.”
Also note, (although a supporter of the Trinity), that source says of 2 Corinthians 13:13 (14): “We could not justly infer that they possessed equal authority, or the same nature.” And of Matthew 28:18-20 it says: “This text, however, taken by itself, would not prove decisively either the personality of the three subjects mentioned, or their equality or divinity.”
Regarding John 10:30, John Calvin (who was a Trinitarian) said in the book Commentary on the Gospel According to John: “The ancients made a wrong use of this passage to prove that Christ is . . . of the same essence with the Father. For Christ does not argue about the unity of substance, but about the agreement which he has with the Father.”
Catholic scholars Karl Rahner and Herbert Vorgrimler state in their Theological Dictionary: “The Trinity is a mystery . . . in the strict sense . . . , which could not be known without revelation, and even after revelation cannot become wholly intelligible.” (How is that YOU can explain it?)
The Catholic work Trinitas A Theological Encyclopedia of the Holy Trinity, for example, notes that some of Tertullians words were later used by others to describe the Trinity. Then it cautions: “But hasty conclusions cannot be drawn from usage, for he does not apply the words to Trinitarian theology.”
The Catholic Encyclopedia also comments: “In Scripture there is as yet no single term by which the Three Divine Persons are denoted together. The word ÏÏÎ¯Î±Ï [tri'as] (of which the Latin trinitas is a translation) is first found in Theophilus of Antioch about A. D. 180. ... Shortly afterwards it appears in its Latin form of trinitas in Tertullian.”
Johannes Greber (1874) a former of Catholic priest in his book 'The Communication with the Spirit World of God' in page 371 was written, "As you see, the doctrine of a triune Godhead is not only contrary to common sense, but is entirely unsupported by the Scriptures".
New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, Vol. XIV, p.295: "When one does speak of unqualified Trinitarianism, one has moved from the period of Christian origins to, say the last quadrant of the 4th century ... Herein lies the difficulty. On the one hand, it was the dogmatic formula "one God in Three Persons" that would henceforth for more than 15 centuries structure and guide the Trinitarian essence of the Christian message ... On the other hand, the formula itself does not reflect the immediate consciousness of the period of origins; it was the product of 3 centuries of doctrinal development."
The New Catholic Encyclopedia also says: “The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is not taught in the O[ld] T[estament].”
The Catholic Encyclopedia: “Nowhere in the Old Testament do we find any clear indication of a Third Person.”
The New Catholic Encyclopedia: “The O[ld] T[estament] clearly does not envisage God’s spirit as a person . . . God’s spirit is simply God’s power. If it is sometimes represented as being distinct from God, it is because the breath of Yahweh acts exteriorly.”
Catholic theologian Fortman: “The Jews never regarded the spirit as a person; nor is there any solid evidence that any Old Testament writer held this view. . . . The Holy Spirit is usually presented in the Synoptics [Gospels] and in Acts as a divine force or power.”
In his book The Triune God, Jesuit Edmund Fortman admits: “The Old Testament . . . tells us nothing explicitly or by necessary implication of a Triune God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. . . . There is no evidence that any sacred writer even suspected the existence of a [Trinity] within the Godhead. . . . Even to see in [the “Old Testament”] suggestions or foreshadowings or ‘veiled signs’ of the trinity of persons, is to go beyond the words and intent of the sacred writers.”
It also says: The New Catholic Encyclopedia admits: “The majority of N[ew] T[estament] texts reveal God’s spirit as something, not someone; this is especially seen in the parallelism between the spirit and the power of God.” (1967, Vol. XIII, p. 575)
The New Catholic Encyclopedia: “The Apologists [Greek Christian writers of the second century] spoke too haltingly of the Spirit; with a measure of anticipation, one might say too impersonally.”—Vol. XIV, p. 296.
A Catholic Dictionary: “On the whole, the New Testament, like the Old, speaks of the spirit as a divine energy or power.”
A Catholic Dictionary notes: “The third Person was asserted at a Council of Alexandria in 362 . . . and finally by the Council of Constantinople of 381”—(Hence neither the Jews nor the early Christians viewed the holy spirit as part of a Trinity. That teaching came centuries later. As, some three and a half centuries after holy spirit filled the disciples at Pentecost!)
The New Catholic Encyclopedia states: “The formulation one God in three Persons was NOT solidly established, certainly NOT fully assimilated into Christian life and its profession of faith, prior to the end of the 4th century. But it is precisely this formulation that has first claim to the title the Trinitarian dogma. Among the Apostolic Fathers, there had been nothing even remotely approaching such a mentality or perspective.” (1967), Vol. XIV, p. 299.
2006-11-17 04:08:55
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answer #6
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answered by jvitne 4
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I thought Groucho, Chico and Harpo were the holy trinity.
2006-11-17 03:25:53
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answer #7
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answered by Anonymous
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What or better yet, where are you from?
Seek knowledge.............................
"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name (NOT THE NAMES) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (St. Matt. 28:20).
Many Christians begin to learn about the Trinity through knowledge of Baptism. This is also a starting point for others in comprehending why the doctrine matters to so many Christians, even though the doctrine itself teaches that the being of God is beyond complete comprehension. The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed are structured around profession of the Trinity, and are solemnly professed by converts to Christianity when they receive baptism, and in the Church's liturgy, particularly when celebrating the Eucharist. One or both of these creeds are often used as brief summations of Christian faith by mainstream denominations.
One God
God is one, and the Godhead a single being: The Hebrew Scriptures lift this one article of faith above others, and surround it with stern warnings against departure from this central issue of faith, and of faithfulness to the covenant God had made with them. "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD" (Deuteronomy 6:4) (the Shema), "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Deuteronomy 5:7) and, "Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel and his redeemer the LORD of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; and beside me there is no God." (Isaiah 44:6). Any formulation of an article of faith which does not insist that God is solitary, that divides worship between God and any other, or that imagines God coming into existence rather than being God eternally, is not capable of directing people toward the knowledge of God, according to the trinitarian understanding of the Old Testament. The same insistence is found in the New Testament: "...there is none other God but one" (1 Corinthians 8:4). The "other gods" warned against are therefore not gods at all, but substitutes for God, and so are, according to St. Paul, simply mythological or are demons.
So, in the trinitarian view, the common conception which thinks of the Father and Christ as two separate beings, is incorrect. The central, and crucial affirmation of Christian faith is that there is one savior, God, and one salvation, manifest in Jesus Christ, to which there is access only because of the Holy Spirit. The God of the Old is still the same as the God of the New. In Christianity, it is understood that statements about a solitary god are intended to distinguish the Hebraic understanding from the polytheistic view, which see divine power as shared by several separate beings, beings which can, and do, disagree and have conflicts with each other. The concept of Many comprising One is quite visible in the Gospel of John, chapter 17, verses 20 through 23.
God exists in three persons
The "Shield of the Trinity" or "Scutum Fidei" diagram of traditional Western Christian symbolism.This one God however exists in three persons, or in the Greek hypostases. God has but a single divine nature. Chalcedonians — Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants — hold that, in addition, the Second Person of the Trinity — God the Son, Jesus — assumed human nature, so that he has two natures (and hence two wills), and is really and fully both true God and true human.
The singleness of God's being and the multiplicity of the Divine Persons together account for the nature of Christian salvation, and disclose the gift of eternal life. "Through the Son we have access to the Father in one Spirit" (Ephesians 2:18). Communion with the Father is the goal of the Christian faith and is eternal life. It is given to humans through the Divine union with humanity in Jesus Christ who, although fully God, died for sinners "in the flesh" to accomplish their redemption, and this forgiveness, restoration, and friendship with God is made accessible through the gift to the Church of the Holy Spirit, who, being God, knows the Divine Essence intimately and leads and empowers the Christian to fulfill the will of God. Thus, this doctrine touches on every aspect of the trinitarian Christian's faith and life; and this explains why it has been so earnestly contended for, throughout Christian history.
Source(s):
Douay Rheims Bible
78 References and Illusions To The Trinity Found In The Sacred Scriptures
I. Even the Old Testament makes definite reference both to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 11:2 "...the Spirit ... the Lord ... Him"
Isaiah 42:1 "My Servant ... I ... My Spirit ... upon Him"
Isaiah 48:16 "The Lord God ... His Spirit ... sent Me"
Isaiah 61:1 "Spirit of the Lord God ... upon Me ... the Lord"
Isaiah 63:9 "He ...the Angel of His Presence ... His Holy Spirit"
II. Close examination of the following New Testament scriptures will make obvious to any student of the Bible that the doctrine of the Godhead is truth.
Matthew 1:20, 21 "the Lord (the Father) ... the Holy Spirit ... Jesus"
Matthew 3:16, 17 "Jesus ... the Spirit of God ... a Voice from heaven (the Father)"
Matthew 12:18 "I ... My Spirit ... on Him"
Matthew 22:42, 43 "Christ ... the Spirit ... Lord (the Father)"
Mark 1:9-11 "Jesus ... the Spirit ... a Voice from heaven ... My beloved Son"
Mark 12:35, 36 "Christ ... the Holy Spirit ... the Lord (the Father)"
Luke 1:35 "the Holy Spirit ... the Highest ... the Son of God"
Luke 2:26, 27 "the Holy Spirit ... Christ ... Jesus"
Luke 3:21, 22 "Jesus ... the Holy Spirit ... a Voice from heaven ... My beloved Son"
Luke 10:21 "Jesus ... the Spirit ... Father"
Luke 12:9, 10 "God ... the Son ... the Holy Spirit"
John 3:5 "Jesus ... the Spirit ... God"
John 3:34, 35 "God ... the Spirit ... the Father ... the Son"
John 4:24, 25 "God ... a Spirit ... Messiah... Christ"
John 14:16, 17, 26 "the Comforter ... the Father ... in My name"
John 15:26 "the Comforter ... the Father ... of Me"
John 20:21, 22 "Jesus ... Father ... the Holy Spirit"
Acts 2:32,33 "Jesus ... God ... the Father ... the Holy Spirit"
Acts 2:38,39 "Jesus Christ ... the Holy Spirit ... God"
Acts 4:30,31 "Jesus ... the Holy Spirit ... God"
Acts 5:31,32 "God ... a Prince and Savior ... the Holy Spirit"
Acts 7:55 "the Holy Spirit ... Jesus ... God"
Acts 8:14_16 "God ... the Holy Spirit ... Jesus"
Acts 10:38 "God ... Jesus ... the Holy Spirit"
Acts 10:46_48 "God ... the Holy Spirit ... the Lord"
Acts 11:16, 17 "the Lord... the Holy Spirit ... God ... the Lord Jesus Christ"
Acts 20:21_23 "God ... Jesus ... the Holy Spirit"
Romans 1:1,3,4 "God ... His Son, Jesus Christ ... the Spirit"
Romans 5:5,6 "God ... the Holy Spirit ... Christ"
Romans 8:2,3 "the Spirit ... Jesus ... God ... His own Son"
Romans 8:8,9 "God ... the Spirit ... the Spirit of Christ"
Romans 8:16, 17 "the Spirit ... God ... Christ"
Romans 14:17, 18 "the Holy Spirit ... Christ... God"
Romans 15:12, 13 "Root of Jesse (Jesus) ... God ... Holy Spirit"
Romans 15:16 "Jesus ... God ... the Holy Spirit"
Romans 15:30 "The Lord Jesus Christ ... the Spirit ... God"
1 Corinthians 6:10, 11 "God ... the Lord Jesus... the Spirit"
I Corinthians 12:4_6 "Spirit ... Lord... God"
1 Corinthians 7:39, 40 "the Lord Jesus ... the Spirit ... God"
1 Corinthians 8:2 "the Lord Jesus ... the Spirit ... God"
2 Corinthians 3:3, 4 "the Spirit ... Christ ... God"
2 Corinthians 13:14 "Jesus... God ... the Holy Spirit"
2 Corinthians 5:5, 6 "God ... the Spirit ... the Lord (Jesus)"
Galatians 4:6, 7 "God ... the Spirit ... Son ... Father ... God ... Christ"
Ephesians 2:18 "through Him (Jesus) ... Spirit ... the Father"
Ephesians 2:21, 22 "the Lord ... God ... the Spirit"
Ephesians 3:14, 16 "the Father ... Jesus Christ ... His Spirit"
Ephesians 4:4-6 "Spirit ... Lord (Jesus) ... God and Father"
Ephesians 5:18-20 "Spirit ... Lord (Jesus) ... God ... Father"
Colossians 1:6-8 "God ... Christ ... Spirit"
1Thessalonians 4:6-8 "Lord (Jesus) ... God ... Holy Spirit"
1 Thessalonians 5:18, 19 "God ... Father ... Christ ... Jesus ... Spirit"
2 Thessalonians 2:13, 14 "God ... Lord... God ... Spirit ... Lord Jesus Christ"
Titus 3:4-6 "God ... Holy Spirit ... Jesus Christ"
Hebrews 2:3, 4 "Lord (Jesus) ... God ... Holy Spirit"
Hebrews 3:4, 6, 7 "God ... Christ... Holy Spirit"
Hebrews 6:4-6 "Holy Spirit ... God ... Son"
Hebrews 9:14 "Christ ... Spirit ... God"
Hebrews 10:29-31 "Son of God ... Spirit ... Lord ... God"
1 Peter 1:2 "God the Father ... Spirit ... Jesus Christ"
1 Peter 3:18 "Christ ... God ... Spirit"
1 Peter 4:14 "Christ ... Spirit ... God"
2 Peter 1:21 "God ... Holy Spirit... Lord (Jesus)"
2 Peter 2:1 "God ... Holy Spirit ... Lord (Jesus)"
1 John 4:2 "Spirit ... Jesus ... God"
1 John 4:13, 14 "Spirit ... Father ... Son ... Savior"
1 John 5:7 "Father... Word ... Holy Spirit"
Jude 20, 21 "the Holy Spirit... God... Lord ... Jesus Christ"
Revelation 1:9, 10 "Jesus Christ ... God ... Jesus Christ ... Spirit"
Revelation 3:5-7 "Father ... Spirit ... He that hath the key of David (Jesus)"
Revelation 14:12, 13 "God ... Jesus ... Lord ... Spirit"
Revelation 21:9, 10 "Lamb ... Spirit ... God"
Revelation 22:16-18 "the offspring of David (Jesus) ... Spirit ... God"
2006-11-18 07:36:14
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answer #8
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answered by Anonymous
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What about Moe Larry and Curly?
2006-11-17 03:23:21
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answer #9
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answered by uncle J 4
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I for one,don't.
2006-11-17 03:21:26
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answer #10
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answered by kick it 5
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