Quote:
Originally Posted by coksiw
votivesoul,
The Trinity doctrine is complicated to articulate, and hard not to come with "misrepresenting" conclusions out of implications of the premises.
Trinitarians are in practice oneness, or tritheist, depending to who you talk to.
Three persons, three wills, three minds, three powers, and self-existance, but all with the same divine nature, and working in perfect unity. By implication, they basically say that "God" in the NT could refer to one person of the trinity, or to the divine nature as a whole plus the three persons.
Just in my opinion, it is hard not to come with "misrepresenting" conclusions.
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No pass here. There is no complication in making certain one accurately reflects the language and ideas one uses when setting forth the basic principles of the doctrine.
There is nothing about making certain one doesn't use the word Gods in the place of Persons that is difficult or challenging to articulate. Whatever conclusions one reaches, one may simply state something to the effect of, "The way I understand the Trinity doctrine, it looks to me like there are three Gods".
That is one thing. It is another to claim, "Trinitarians believe in three Gods".
That is demonstrably false. And anyone who cares about honesty, integrity, accuracy, and good Christian moral ethics, would make certain to not make untrue claims.
Trinitarians routinely used to say that Oneness are "Jesus Only", implying Oneness disavow the Father and the Holy Spirit. Oneness folks, particularly Dr. Bernard, have gone to great lengths to show the error of that statement and implication, and have largely succeeded in striking the "Jesus Only" language and its implications from the discussion.
How about Oneness return the favor and learn to strike the "three Gods" language from the discussion.
Do you want dialogue? An open door to witness? A chance to share what you believe to be true about the Godhead? Well, you aren't ever going to get the chance going into the discussion misrepresenting the opposing view.
It's why Dr. Bernard won that debate. The man took the hardline, low road approach and Dr. Bernard took the diplomatic, high road approach, and his views won out.
All Nicodemus1968 is going to do, or any other Oneness person for that matter, is alienate the people he is hoping to convert. If we cannot correctly and faithfully represent the very basics of what others believe, we will only ever engender their mistrust and anger, and in the process, lose our chance at winning people to the truth.
If you belong to Christ, let me assure you, He demands better than that.
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