Please accept this question with the understanding that I'm searching for the truth. I am not knocking anyone's belief system... just trying to figure out what's right.
THANKS
2007-04-14 10:57:28 · 17 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
You are in good company. Millions of Christians have pondered the mystery of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Trinity as God has revealed these truths to us.
The Bible does not contain the word Trinity. However, the Holy Trinity is hinted at repeatedly in both the Old and New Testaments.
Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the early Christians prayed and struggled over these hints for a couple of centuries. The concept of the Holy Trinity was mainstream Christianity by 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicaea and our belief is expressed in the Nicene Creed.
The doctrine of the Holy Trinity states there is one true God who is made up of three separate but equal persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
How this works is not fully known and is one 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.
The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is shared by most Christian denominations including Roman and Orthodox Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals and Episcopalians.
With love in Christ.
2007-04-15 17:46:24 · answer #1 · answered by imacatholic2 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The word "trinity" never appears in the Bible.
According to the Nouveau Dictionnaire Universel, “The Platonic trinity, itself merely a rearrangement of older trinities dating back to earlier peoples, appears to be the rational philosophic trinity of attributes that gave birth to the three hypostases or divine persons taught by the Christian churches. . . . This Greek philosopher’s [Plato, fourth century B.C.E.] conception of the divine trinity . . . can be found in all the ancient [pagan] religions.”
If the Father and the Son have a name (Jehovah, Jesus Christ), why doesn't the Holy Spirit also?
"But he, being full of holy spirit, gazed into heaven and caught sight of God’s glory and of Jesus standing at God’s right hand, and he said: “Look! I behold the heavens opened up and the Son of man standing at God’s right hand." -- Acts 7:55, 56 => Where's the Holy Spirit?
The Holy spirit is God's active force, his power.
The texts from the Bible refer to the Holy Spirit as something, not as someone.
How could God be Jesus. Can you and your son be the same person? No, it's impossible.
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." -- Colossians 1:15. = > Jesus was created. He has a begining but God doesn't.
“Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father.” -- Matthew 24:36. If God and Jesus are the same shouldn't Jesus know the day?
"....The Father is greater than I am." -- John 14:28
The Trinity says that the Father and the Son are equal, but the Bible says something totally different.
For more information go to:
http://www.watchtower.org/cgi-bin/lib/ProcessForm.pl
2007-04-14 18:38:13 · answer #2 · answered by Alex 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God the Father is above all creation. But God the Holy Spirit comes to individual christian believers. In the Old Testament He was upon prophets, priests and some kings to empower them. He is in christians' spirits since they are born again and a fit place for God to dwell. They can also be anointed by Him to carry out ministry, evangelism and so on, so that they are 100s of times more effective than without this anointing.
Spirits are invisible, i.e. your physical sense which are designed to relate to the physical world can't normally see them. The gift of discernment of spirits can give christians ability to see into the supernatural realm in some contexts as God allows. The Holy Spirit is in many places at the same time, His temple is the Church, i.e. believers.
John Wesley [Methodism founder] said that the Trinity "lies at the heart of all vital religion". You can't know God except as an idea or just as Creator if He can't minister to you individually through the Holy Spirit. (And Jesus died for us demonstrating God's love.)
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NB: Quotes from Jehovah's witness and Mormon websites can be a tad irritating to some of us christians (however nice the quoters be), since they can be very selective (not anything like as bad as Mohammedan apologetics which presents one or two New Testament quotes seemingly supporting Mohammed's view, when there are 20 or 30 others contradicting the point in issue).
With regard to the Trinity its misleading to claim that Christ wasn't regarded as God There are also verses indicating that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God is God.
2007-04-14 19:04:11 · answer #3 · answered by Cader and Glyder scrambler 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
There are three beings in the Godhead: each is equal, but has a separate function. The Father is the Administrator and Overseer, the Son is the Creator and Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit is the Comforter and Supplier of the power needed to come to Jesus and put away our sins. We can't understand God, but someday we will see Him! (St. John 14:1-3) One group will be sorry and the other glad He's come back!
2007-04-14 18:04:22 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
The Holy Spirit is not a "sidekick." He is in fact Gods wisdom, guidance, comfort, love, and courage living on the inside of believers for the growth of that believer and the advancement of the Kingdom of God (God's system or way of doing things). If you are trying to FIGURE out the truth about God on your own and apart from God you'll never reach a full understanding of what God is all about.
2007-04-14 18:04:00 · answer #5 · answered by drivn2excelchery 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
God doesn't "need" an equally invisible sidekick. The Holy Spirit is here for our benefit, not God's.
2007-04-16 15:06:34 · answer #6 · answered by Lehra R 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Short answer: The so-called "Holy Trinity" is BS. 1+1+1 can NEVER equal one. Same goes for the "mystery of faith" hocus-pocus. God does not need such props. RC'ism and her parasitic cousins the protestants do (the institutions, not necessarily the adherents...the "faithful" are merely intellectually and/or spiritually lazy {read brainwashed}) in order to justify their existence. Unfortunately, with it's pagan overtones the religion (not Christ!) is just a weird Jewish cult that falls way short of the enormity of Jesus.
2007-04-14 19:45:48 · answer #7 · answered by ? 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God's Holy Spirit is not a "sidekick"... it is the way in which He interacts with the physical universe. It is the way He makes things/creatures alive. It is not a person like in the first ancient trinity god of Cush/Semiramis/Nimrod
it is God's power in action with the physical universe
2007-04-14 18:58:54 · answer #8 · answered by seeker 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Funny - the doctrine of the Trinity was the ultimate synthesis of Semitic and Hellenistic metaphysical systems, and was used to explain the very fabric of reality, the interaction between Being and Becoming, the means through which the One emanates into multiplicity and bridges the gap between the transcendent and the mundane...
I have never heard it simplified into a "sidekick" before.
2007-04-14 18:05:19 · answer #9 · answered by NONAME 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I would agree with Michael, the Holy Spirit is God, just as, according to Christianity God is all things, living and breathing.
2007-04-14 18:11:13 · answer #10 · answered by fire937rescue 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋