Originally posted by divegeester
Come off it J! Please read my post again and look at what the disiples actually did and said.
Of course there is no plurality - he is ONE. It is about faith yes, but it's also about Truth. The doctrine of trinity (3 Gods) IS pagan in origin.
The revalation of who Jesus is, is a blessing and given by God - "Who do you say that I am?" The trinit laid it out for you, using the disiples deeds and words as concrete examples and evidence?
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Come off it J! Please read my post again and look at what the disiples actually did and said.
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I do need to read it again because my post was not really all in response to yours. But before I go back and read it again, let me respond to you here.
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Of course there is no plurality - he is ONE. It is about faith yes, but it's also about Truth. The doctrine of trinity (3 Gods) IS pagan in origin.
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What you discribe I would call
Tritheism, the belief in THREE Gods. I don't think of "three Gods" when I think of the word Trinity or Triune God.
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The revalation of who Jesus is, is a blessing and given by God - "Who do you say that I am?" The trinity doctrine detracts from this.
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If you mean that TRITHEISM destracts from the revelation of Who Jesus is, I would agree. Once again, I am not a tritheist. Some Christians may subconsciously think of three Gods when they think of Trinity. Many of us do not.
So
trithesism is on one extreme of misunderstanding. On the other extreme, from the other side is
modalism.
The tritheist leans towards there being three Gods. The
modalist says that there is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ... BUT ... they are not in existence at the same time simultaneously. So they teach that these were MODES that God passed through.
Rather than argue about definitions of terms, it is very good simply to point out what the Scriptures teach. We have on one hand the Father, Son, and Spirit simultaneously in existence at the same time. But on the other hand we do have verses like
John1:14 -
"the Word became flesh" and
(1 Cor. 15:45) - "the last Adam became a life giving Spirit"
So you do have one ____ of the three _____ becoming the Other.
Human language is limited to express such a profound revelation. We may borrow words like Persons, ie, three Persons of God. But this cannot be pressed too far for three Persons would easily lead to an understanding of three Gods. But the Bible is clear that there is only one God.
So we have to be cautious not to press the side of THREE _____ too far. And on the other hand we cannot press the matter of ONE ____ too far either.
I leave the blank line "_____________" to express that human language fails me to discribe this mysterious nature of God. He is Three as One and One as Three. When you press me and say:
"Three WHAT? One WHAT?" I don't know what else to say. Theologians speak of hypostasis and other terms. But it is mysterious.
And anyone who scoffs at this revelation saying
"My dear fellow, there is nothing myterious here. It is all quite plain and obvious" is fooling themselves.
If you read the New Testament and believe it, I think you have to admit that there are some mysterious matters presented there. And before I thought of that the Apostle Paul already told us of
"the MYSTERY of the faith".
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Why is what I see in scirpture a "hang-up", when I've simply and clearly laid it out for you, using the disiples deeds and words as concrete examples and evidence?
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I came down on you too hard. Sorry. My post was kind of directed in a general way. That is a not too good habit that I need to break and speak to people's posts specifically.
My apologies.