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Does Scripture support belief in the doctrine of the Trinity, or does such a belief turn people away from the One true God?
Christian doctrine in its totality is rooted in Trinitarian doctrine which teaches that in the One God there is an unbroken unity of essence shared by 3 distinct Persons. These 3 Persons have existed from all eternity in the Godhead, but they are not 3 distinct Gods. The false belief that the 3 distinct Persons in God are 3 distinct gods is "Tri-theism" and this is actually "Polytheism", the belief in many gods. This false understanding of the Trinity is found in religions such as Mormonism. This false understanding of the Trinity, among other reasons, is why Mormons are not Christians.
Trinitarian doctrine also teaches that the 3 distinct Persons of the Trinity will never be confused with each other, or mingle with each other in their divine Persons. They are forever distinct from each other as Persons, even though they share the same nature and attributes as the One God from all eternity.
And if this be true then Trinitarian doctrine is the highest form of Monotheism (belief in One God) possible, and to reject the distinct Persons of the Trinity in the name of "Monotheism" is an attack on Monotheism itself.
Furthermore, can an argument be made to show the stamp of distinct Persons in the One God is reflected and found in creation itself? And did Christ come into this world not only to save man, but to tell us who the distinct Persons in God are, Him being one of them?
Even still, there are many who fail to understand what this doctrine is actually saying. They incorrectly assert that the Son MUST be the same Person as the Father because He is the same God, or that the Holy Spirit MUST be the same Person as the Father and the Son because He too is the same God. That is NOT what the doctrine teaches.
Nor is Trinitarian doctrine a statement of three different modes of presence of the ONE GOD. The notion that the Trinity is three different modes of presence rather than three distinct persons was condemned by the Catholic Church which it labeled as the heresy of "Modalism".
This trial revolves around whether or not Scripture can prove there are THREE DISTINCT PERSONS IN ONE GOD, and if so, is there evidence in Scripture that shows they worked together to save sinful men that we may come Home to the Father.
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I find this book very good in its explanation of the Blessed Trinity; I found especially useful the explanation of the nature of the unchanging relationship between the Father and the Son.
ReplyDeleteI’m still reading it and I plan to read Trial 4 next, but it brings a question to my mind that I know is simply an apparent contradiction. How does Christ’s Divine Nature relate to His Incarnation without accepting that Christ changes when He becomes Incarnate? Would I be correct in saying that we are in ‘hypostatic union’ territory here?
Thank you for your books, I’m looking forward to trial 13!
God Bless
Emmet
Hello Emmet,
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to write and I'm pleased to know that Trial #5 was helpful to you.
Yes, Trial #4 does address the hypostatic union. One thing to keep in mind, as to the subject of 'Person' there is only 'One Person' in Jesus and that person is DIVINE. There is one person with two natures just as you are one person with two natures. You are a composite being with a substantial union between your material body and your soul which is spirit, yet, there is only one person 'you'. There is not a body person 'you' and a spirit person 'you'. There is only 'one person you'.
So too with Jesus. There is only 'one person' Jesus and that person is 'divine'. He is 'one divine person' with two natures. There is not a 'human person' Jesus and a 'divine person' Jesus (Nestorian error). Even though Jesus takes a fully human nature just like yours and mine and unites it to His 'DIVINE PERSON' it does not make Him a human person anymore than your body united to your soul makes your person a human body person unto itself, nor does it make your body the same nature as your soul.
Jesus did not become man to become a person, He IS and was always a Divine Person, from all eternity, and when He took the human nature He created from the Blessed Virgin Mary He united it to his 'divine person' not to His 'divine nature'. His divine nature and his human nature always remain distinct in nature, just as your body and soul always remain distinct in nature though they are joined in union in one person which is you. In Jesus, His Divine person is divine in nature, but his two natures do not mix, either. Rather, the two natures in Jesus come together and subsist in the one person of Jesus which is divine.
The two natures of Jesus do not come together in ONE NATURE. They come together in ONE PERSON. A failure to make this distinction is found in ever heresy. For example, the Coptic Orthodox embrace the error that in Jesus the two natures (divine and human) come together in ONE NATURE rather than ONE PERSON. They do not realize their error argues for the incarnation of both the Father and the Holy Spirit because without the two natures in Jesus being distinct in ONE PERSON rather than ONE NATURE, the fact of "homoousios" (same substance) makes the Father and the Holy Spirit one in nature with the human nature of Jesus. No, they are in error, Jesus is consubstantial (one in substance) with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the essence of teh One God. The human nature of Jesus is never the divine nature of Jesus or the one essence of the Godhead.
The human nature of Jesus is consubstantial (one in being) with His divine PERSON, not his divine nature.
All heresies come about from an over emphasis of either the divine nature of Jesus or the human nature of Jesus, one at the expense of the other as we see in the Arian and Nestorian
error
As long as we keep the two natures of Jesus forever distinct from each other we are good. His two natures NEVER mix in nature or become confused. The two natures come together and subsist in the ONE DIVINE PERSON OF JESUS, nothing more, nothing less.
Thank you for your quick response, most helpful. I knew it was only an apparent problem based on my less than clear understanding of the situation.
ReplyDeleteBless you in your work,
Emmet
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ReplyDeleteThank you, Emmet. God Bless you as well.
ReplyDelete