It does take long time to come up with another work of a fairy tale.
2007-05-03 06:19:46
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answer #1
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answered by Honest christian 2
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God is a trinity of persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the same person as the Son; the Son is not the same person as the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is not the same person as Father. They are not three gods and not three beings. They are three distinct persons; yet, they are all the one God. Each has a will, can speak, can love, etc., and these are demonstrations of personhood. They are in absolute perfect harmony consisting of one substance. They are coeternal, coequal, and copowerful. If any one of the three were removed, there would be no God. (See also, "Another Look at the Trinity")
Jesus, the Son, is one person with two natures: Divine and Human. This is called the Hypostatic Union. The Holy Spirit is also divine in nature and is self aware, the third person of the Trinity.
There is, though, an apparent separation of some functions among the members of the Godhead. For example, the Father chooses who will be saved (Eph. 1:4); the Son redeems them (Eph. 1:7); and the Holy Spirit seals them, (Eph. 1:13).
A further point of clarification is that God is not one person, the Father, with Jesus as a creation and the Holy Spirit is a force (Jehovah's Witnesses). Neither is He one person who took three consecutive forms, i.e., the Father, became the Son, who became the Holy Spirit. Nor is God the divine nature of the Son (where Jesus had a human nature perceived as the Son and a divine nature perceived as the Father (Oneness theology). Nor is the Trinity an office held by three separate Gods (Mormonism).
The word "person" is used to describe the three members of the Godhead because the word "person" is appropriate. A person is self aware, can speak, love, hate, say "you," "yours," "me," "mine," etc. Each of the three persons in the Trinity demonstrate these qualities.
The chart below should help you to see how the doctrine of the Trinity is systematically derived from Scripture. The list is not exhaustive, only illustrative.
The first step is to establish the biblical doctrine that there is only one God. Then, you find that each of the persons is called God, each creates, each was involved in Jesus' resurrection, each indwells, etc. Therefore, God is one, but the one God is in three simultaneous persons. Please note that the idea of a composite unity is not a foreign concept to the Bible; after all, man and wife are said to be one flesh. The idea of a composite unity of persons is spoken of by God in Genesis (Gen. 2:24).
There is only one God
The first step is to establish how many Gods exist: one! Isaiah 43:10; 44:6,8; 45:5,14,18,21,22; 46:9; 47:8; John 17:3; 1 Cor. 8:5-6; Gal. 4:8-9
"I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God" (Isaiah 45:5).
“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me," (Isaiah 44:6).
"I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God, (Isaiah 55:5).
The Trinity
FATHER SON HOLY SPIRIT
Called God Phil. 1:2 John 1:1,14; Col. 2:9 Acts 5:3-4
Creator Isaiah 64:8 John 1:3; Col. 1:15-17 Job 33:4, 26:13
Resurrects 1 Thess. 1:10 John 2:19, 10:17 Rom. 8:11
Indwells 2 Cor. 6:16 Col. 1:27 John 14:17
Everywhere 1 Kings 8:27 Matt. 28:20 Psalm 139:7-10
All knowing 1 John 3:20 John 16:30; 21:17 1 Cor. 2:10-11
Sanctifies 1 Thess. 5:23 Heb. 2:11 1 Pet. 1:2
Life giver Gen. 2:7: John 5:21 John 1:3; 5:21 2 Cor. 3:6,8
Fellowship 1 John 1:3 1 Cor. 1:9 2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:1
Eternal Psalm 90:2 Micah 5:1-2 Rom. 8:11; Heb. 9:14
A Will Luke 22:42 Luke 22:42 1 Cor. 12:11
Speaks Matt. 3:17; Luke 9:25 Luke 5:20; 7:48 Acts 8:29; 11:12; 13:2
Love John 3:16 Eph. 5:25 Rom. 15:30
Searches the heart Jer. 17:10 Rev. 2:23 1 Cor. 2:10
We belong to John 17:9 John 17:6 . . .
Savior
1 Tim. 1:1; 2:3; 4:10 2 Tim. 1:10; Titus 1:4; 3:6 . . .
We serve Matt. 4:10 Col. 3:24 . . .
Believe in John 14:1 John 14:1 . . .
Gives joy . . .
John 15:11 John 14:7
Judges John 8:50 John 5:21,30 . . .
Therefore, the doctrine of the Trinity is arrived at by looking at the whole of scripture, not in a single verse. It is the doctrine that there is only one God, not three, and that the one God exists in three persons: Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. An analogy would be time. Time is past, present, and future. But, there are not three times, only one.
2007-05-03 13:19:51
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answer #2
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answered by Anonymous
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The Trinity clearly states there is one and only one God. You can keep stating that it doesn't as much as you want, but that doesn't change reality.
Furthermore, you are ignoring the difference between an "explicit doctrine" and no doctrine at all, as well as not finding a place formally" and being non-existent. There simply was no need to formulate an explicit doctrine of the Trinity until Arius became the first serious threat to Trinitarian teaching around the 4th century. Before then, it would have been like vaccinating children today for smallpox.
2007-05-03 13:46:26
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answer #3
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answered by Deof Movestofca 7
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The reason it took 300 years for the Church to formulate the doctrine of the Trinity is that the first concern of the Church is the rightness of the individual's relationship to God, not philosophical or theological formulas. So it was not necessary for the Christians of Nero's persecution to be able to define essence, substance and personhood of God. They believed Jesus was God, they believed He had a Father who was God and they knew from those who witnessed to them that Jesus had spoken of a "Holy Spirit" as if the Spirit was God. They also believed that there was only one God. Did they spend their time sorting this out? I doubt it, they were probably more concerned with the possibility that the great joy they found in practicing their faith was in danger of being taken from them during the persecutions. The Church only made a declaration on the doctrine of the Trinity when it was possible for Christians to openly discuss exactly what was meant by the statements Christ made while He was on earth.
Now, those who claim that "true Christians never believed in the Trinity" are either ignorant of the very meaning of the word "Christian" or they are advancing their own agenda. Christians have always believed in Jesus Christ, His Father, and in the Spirit and that these Three are the one God. That is the doctrine of the Trinity.
The official Christian explanation for the logical contradiction of "Three Persons, One Substance" is that this is the closest thing our intellects can use to describe the workings of Perfect Love in the Interior of the Infinite Being. And that this formula of Personhood and Substance, like inifinity itself is an extra rational concept, beyond reason and logic.
2007-05-03 14:38:57
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answer #4
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answered by Anonymous
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Not true. True Christians have NEVER believed in the trinity. No true Christian believes in the trinity. The trinity doctrine is based on the Catholic Athanasian Creed, not on the Bible. In part, it says: "Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. And the Catholic Faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not Three Almighties but One Almighty. So there is One Father, not Three Fathers; one Son, not Three Sons; One Holy Ghost, not Three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is afore or after Other, None is greater or less than Another, but the whole Three Persons are Co-eternal together, and Co-equal."
As hard as you might look in Scripture, you will not find a single verse or series of verses that describe God as being composed of three co-equal "persons." There is not one verse that says that the Father, Son, and the holy spirit, are co-equal, co-eternal, almighty, and that combined, they make up God.
Trinity believers are very confused. Take a look at Lion of Judah's Biblical take of the trinity. He first comes up with verses that say there is only one God. Then he brings up more verses and then says that all three "persons" are all called God. How many gods is that? THREE! So how many Gods are there really? One? Or three?
Lion of Judah also says that all "persons" of the trinity are all-knowing. If that is true, why did Jesus say at Matt. 24:36 that ONLY the Father knew the day an hour. If Jesus were an equal part of the trinity, wouldn't he know too?
You will also notice that he did not come up with one single scripture that says the Father, Son, and holy spirit are co-equal, co-eternal, and almighty. Without these ingredients, there can be no trinity.
2007-05-03 13:18:09
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answer #5
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answered by LineDancer 7
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Well first of all, the trinity isnt polytheistic, it is montheistic. Polytheism is where you believe in multiple deities that are independent of each other like Zeus and Athena. In the trinity, God is 3 in person, but only 1 in essence.
Second, even though the early church may not have fully systematized and gone down various theological avenues of thought with it, they nevertheless believed it and actively taught it. It wasnt something that just magically appeared 400 years later with no basis from the apostles teachings.
The word trinity is a combination of the words (3) tri-unity which accurately describes what God is. Why would we expect to find a more modern english expression for a doctrine in Scripture that was written in a different language 2000 years ago? We would need a time machine to go back and tell the apostles that this is what their doctrine would eventually be known as.
The same goes for words like "rapture" that arent literally in Scripture, yet the foundations for what many believe is the rapture are right there in black and white!
It is true there have been many controversies and different takes surrounding it, but that doesnt mean that Gods truth is dependent upon mankind to get it right. It was taught originally from the apostles and came from God himself. Gods truth isnt developed by man over time, it comes from God and is REVEALED to mankind.
Perhaps it wasnt systematized and better thought of and understood by the 4th century, but nevertheless we its foundations in Scripture.
Since when does Catholicism get ANYTHING right with theology? These are the same people that tell us that Mary gave birth to Jesus' deity and quite literally was the mother of salvation. Heck Im surprised they havent perverted the trinity yet by calling it the quinity!
It may have been thought over and hashed over for 3 centuries, but that doesnt mean man created it and that its foundations are not found in Scripture.
Everything that that dictionary said wasa great piece of propaganda but fortunately they arent Bible scholars and it is very clear that they have a very secular take when it comes to theology and religion.
Im not going to fill a bnuch of space with Bible quotes but if you would like to know more about the Scriptural foundations of the trinity, feel free to email me.
2007-05-03 13:46:27
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answer #6
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answered by Anonymous
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Don't you have anything else to worry about in your life?
It is clear that you do not believe in the Trinity, so why bother reading about it and trying to force feed your lack of belief on those who will never see your point-of-view?
However, if you are seriously trying to understand what the Trinity is, why don't you start reading the Christian sites about it? May I suggest reading http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15047a.htm and finding out what the Church has to say about it. It is a wealth of information and clearly defines what the Trinity is.
2007-05-03 13:23:34
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answer #7
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answered by Anonymous
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