I Understand the Trinitarian Doctrine to be:

Hoovie · #1 03-06-2009, 09:07 PM

Which choice best describes your understanding of the Trinity? Please vote.

This of course, does not suppose you agree or disagree - just what you know or believe the doctrine to be.

Norman · #2 03-06-2009, 09:13 PM

I have talked to many people about this, and some tell me I am not a true Christian because I do not acknowledge a 3-person Godhead. Many of these people want to define a "person" by what a person does, not what a person actually is. They usually insist on Jesus being the "eternal Son," which is a self-contradiction. There cannot be an "eternal Son" if words have any meaning. Other people say the Trinity just means the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one God; they don't make three "persons" out of it, and they explain the Trinity exactly the way we explain oneness. So I try to find out what the Trinity means to the one that says he believes in the Trinity, not what it means to me.

Sam · #3 03-06-2009, 09:41 PM

I was just glancing at a book where the author says that "God is one" and uses the term tri-unity. He says that the word "one" when used in reference to God is a compound unity.

He then uses several examples to describe the triunity:

One God is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
One human is spirit, soul, and body.
One sun is unseen rays, seen rays, and felt rays.
One atom is proton, electron, and neutron.
One tree is bark, pulp, and sap
One egg is shell, albumin, and yolk
Water can have three forms, liquid, solid(ice), and vapor (steam)

He says
Throughout the Old Testament God continued to reveal Himself in an unfolding revelation. Much of that revelation came by the names that God revealed of Himself.

He talks about the names of God in the Old Testament such as Elohim, Adonai, Jehovah, and then goes on:
In the New Testament there is revealed a new compound name for God.
At His birth, He is called "Jesus" Matthew 1:21
At His baptism, He became the "Christ" (anointed) Matthew 3:16, 17
At His resurrection, He became "Lord" Acts 2:34-36, Phil 2:8-11.
The name Lord Jesus Christ is not found once in the Gospels, but is found in some form fifty-five times throughout the rest of the New Testament. this is the meaning of Colosssians 2:9. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfillment to us of every promise of God.

Sam · #4 03-06-2009, 09:43 PM

Years ago an elderly minister spoke at our ALJC church and said "trinitarians and oneness people actually believe the same, they just explain it differently."

franklyn4 · #5 03-06-2009, 10:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam

Years ago an elderly minister spoke at our ALJC church and said "trinitarians and oneness people actually believe the same, they just explain it differently."

I think trinitarians forget that they are monotheist.

LUKE2447 · #6 03-10-2009, 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam

Years ago an elderly minister spoke at our ALJC church and said "trinitarians and oneness people actually believe the same, they just explain it differently."

Then the elder minister needed to brush up on the books of the theologians that teach it. They are not compatible from a theological point of view. Anyone says they are and gives XXXXX laymen said XXXXXX as an example is dealing with that just someone who has very little understanding and really is not teaching a orthodox position but a personal position that might sound similar because certain phrases are meant in different ways than a orthodox position.

Timmy · #7 03-06-2009, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Norman

I have talked to many people about this, and some tell me I am not a true Christian because I do not acknowledge a 3-person Godhead. Many of these people want to define a "person" by what a person does, not what a person actually is. They usually insist on Jesus being the "eternal Son," which is a self-contradiction. There cannot be an "eternal Son" if words have any meaning. Other people say the Trinity just means the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one God; they don't make three "persons" out of it, and they explain the Trinity exactly the way we explain oneness. So I try to find out what the Trinity means to the one that says he believes in the Trinity, not what it means to me.

Can a person be his own son, and words have meaning?

pelathais · #8 03-07-2009, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timmy

Can a person be his own son, and words have meaning?

Ouch! You play too rough. And what's a "Doctine?"

The primary concern for Trinitarian dogmatists over the years has been around the words "three Persons." The word "Persons" was coined (invented) by Tertullian to translate the Greek work "hypostasis." Since there was no word in the Latin West for hypostasis, Tertullian took an old Etruscan word for a theater mask and and put it to work in the Latin churches.

And then, Tertullian's writings disappeared for most of a thousand years. He was unknown except by citations and quotations. It really wasn't until the 20th century that scholars began to understand how the terminology developed.

If you go back through the literature you will see a frightening confusion of such terms as "ouisia" and "hypostasis", and "realities" and "essence."

In his most cited work, Against Praxeas, Tertullian doesn't even really develop a Trinitarian doctrine as many had believed. He merely coins the term and then argues interminably about the two Natures.