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For my previous Journal entry on this, click here: Trinity/Godhead: the quick and easy explanation!
The origins of revisiting this came from a [short] debate not long ago from people who didn't believe Jesus was God, so I re-worded it slightly to make it a journal about the whole Godhead.
As I have said in my previous entry - for those who chose not to read it - skeptics will claim that the doctrine of the Trinity/Godhead is a contradiction (and also that Jesus is both 100% God and 100% Man, yet He is both - which is also called the Hypostatic Union).
However, it only *appears* to be a contradiction on the face of it, but it's actually more aptly known as a paradox; to which we have other paradoxes in nature, like the wave-particle duality of an electron or of light.
So to start with, this is how the Godhead works (please note they are not 3 seperate 'entities', but 3 Persons yet 1 God):
God the Father sent God the Son through the power of God the Holy Spirit.
The Father commands, the Son (aka the Word) obeys through the power of the Spirit.
The Word of the Father created the Universe through the power of the Spirit.
Here's the 'traditional' image of how the Triune God is represented:
Here are some of the references to Jesus being God:
It is clear from the Scriptures that Jesus is considered to be God in flesh; that is, He is considered to be divine. The reason is that without Jesus being both God and man, He could not make a sacrifice of sufficient value to please God the Father. If He were not a man, He would not be able to die for the sins of mankind.
See more about it here: carm.org/is-jesus-god
There are many other instances in which His actions - and what He said - brought about hostile reactions (as well as celebrations) as a result of His proof (and claim) of Godhood.
For example, in Luke 5:17-26 (as well as Mark 2:1-12) He tells the paralytic that his sins are forgiven, and the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were shocked - even to the point of saying this was blasphemy - because "only God can forgive sins"; and Jesus proved Himself by healing the man in front of everyone.
Another time is when Jesus proclaimed in John 10:30 that "I and the Father are one", in which the context of John 10:24-39 shows the Jewish people were about to stone Him for His [rightful] claim of being God.
We also have Colossians 1: 15-20 as an amazing proclamation of His Godhood from the Apostle Paul:
Yes, there are certain Scripture verses where Jesus said things like "The Father is greater than I" and other such quotes, but there are a number of reasons for this.
First of all, as it says on Gotquestions.org:
And secondly, this is more of a employer/employee relationship - or more obviously, a Father and Son relationship - (or even a servant/master role of sorts) of which there are a number of Scriptures to support this.
One last thing before going on to the Spirit, is the Jewish Sh'ma (which I mentioned about in the first entry):
You can read more about it here: The Jewishness of the Trinity
Then there's the Holy Spirit - the 3rd member of the Godhead. He was there from the beginning of Creation (Gensis 1:2 - to which the phrase "hovering over the waters" here conveys the idea of a bird sitting in a nest, hovering and brooding over her eggs; and the phrase 'Spirit of God' is a pretty straight forward example of it being God the Holy Spirit); and then again in Genesis 2:7 - God brought Adam alive through the Spirit, the 'ruach', or 'breath' (and on that point, God also said in Genesis "Let us make man in our image"). He also came at pentecost for all believers, and not just a select few (and while I'm talking about the Spirit, He's not just an "impersonal force" because of the attributes of Him throughout Scripture, like speaking [Acts 13:2], being able to be greived [Eph. 4:30] and has a will [1 Cor. 12:11] - see here: carm.org/holy-spirit - His ministry is to bear witness of Jesus, and to convict the world of sin [John 16:8]).
Lastly, have you noticed how many threes there are in nature/the Universe? 'He made the atom with 3 parts (electron, neutron, proton) and used it to create a world with 3 parts (land, sea, air), all within a universe with 3 parts (space, time, matter). He created time with 3 divisions (past, present, future) and gave space its 3 dimensions (up/down, left/right/ forward/backward). He created matter with its normal, you guessed it, 3 states (solid, liquid, gas [however, this does breaks down slightly when we add in a 4th, which is plasma]). When He created life on earth, this trademark was not far behind. Animals were created to live in 3 areas (in land, in water, in air). He made their survival to depend on 3 essentials (food, water, air), the food providing energy in 3 forms (protein, carbohydrates, fat), the water made up of 3 parts (two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen) and the air primarily consisting of 3 parts (78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 93% argon). His greatest creation, man, was made in 3 parts also (body, soul, spirit)'.
source: [link]
~Gareth †
The origins of revisiting this came from a [short] debate not long ago from people who didn't believe Jesus was God, so I re-worded it slightly to make it a journal about the whole Godhead.
As I have said in my previous entry - for those who chose not to read it - skeptics will claim that the doctrine of the Trinity/Godhead is a contradiction (and also that Jesus is both 100% God and 100% Man, yet He is both - which is also called the Hypostatic Union).
However, it only *appears* to be a contradiction on the face of it, but it's actually more aptly known as a paradox; to which we have other paradoxes in nature, like the wave-particle duality of an electron or of light.
So to start with, this is how the Godhead works (please note they are not 3 seperate 'entities', but 3 Persons yet 1 God):
God the Father sent God the Son through the power of God the Holy Spirit.
The Father commands, the Son (aka the Word) obeys through the power of the Spirit.
The Word of the Father created the Universe through the power of the Spirit.
Here's the 'traditional' image of how the Triune God is represented:
Here are some of the references to Jesus being God:
- John 1:1, "in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. (you can read an excellent exegesis of this verse here: An Exegesis of John 1:1 and here: John 1:1 – Exegetical Observations & Greek)
- John 1:14, "and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..."
- John 8:24, "unless you believe that I Am, you will die in your sins." and
- John 8:58, "before Abraham was, I Am." - which are both references to Exodus 3:14: "God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
- Col. 2:9, "for in Him dwells all the fullness of deity in bodily form".
- Heb. 1:8, "But of the Son He [The Father] says, 'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever'".
After Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, Thomas, one of the disciples, doubted that He had risen. Jesus appears to him and Thomas responds by saying to Jesus "my Lord and my God" (John 20:28). Jesus never rebuked him for calling Him that - in fact, Jesus' response was “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”! He never said "Hey, that's going too far! I'm not God! That would be blasphemy."
- Titus 2:13 tells us to wait for the coming of "our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus".
- Also In John 5:18, it says that Jesus "was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God".
It is clear from the Scriptures that Jesus is considered to be God in flesh; that is, He is considered to be divine. The reason is that without Jesus being both God and man, He could not make a sacrifice of sufficient value to please God the Father. If He were not a man, He would not be able to die for the sins of mankind.
See more about it here: carm.org/is-jesus-god
There are many other instances in which His actions - and what He said - brought about hostile reactions (as well as celebrations) as a result of His proof (and claim) of Godhood.
For example, in Luke 5:17-26 (as well as Mark 2:1-12) He tells the paralytic that his sins are forgiven, and the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were shocked - even to the point of saying this was blasphemy - because "only God can forgive sins"; and Jesus proved Himself by healing the man in front of everyone.
Another time is when Jesus proclaimed in John 10:30 that "I and the Father are one", in which the context of John 10:24-39 shows the Jewish people were about to stone Him for His [rightful] claim of being God.
We also have Colossians 1: 15-20 as an amazing proclamation of His Godhood from the Apostle Paul:
'The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn* over all creation. 16 For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.*"firstborn" here not referring to a created being, but as in status and position. It would not make sense to say the 'firstborn' here meaning one who's created because "all things have been created through Him and for Him" - referring to the Son (through the power of the Spirit as in Genesis 1).
Yes, there are certain Scripture verses where Jesus said things like "The Father is greater than I" and other such quotes, but there are a number of reasons for this.
First of all, as it says on Gotquestions.org:
During the incarnation, Jesus was temporarily “made lower than the angels” (Hebrews 2:9), which refers to Jesus’ status. The doctrine of the incarnation says that the second Person of the Trinity took on human flesh. Therefore, for all intents and purposes, Jesus was fully human and “made lower than the angels”. However, Jesus is fully divine, too. By taking on human nature, Jesus did not relinquish His divine nature—God cannot stop being God.
To understand this fully, to need to read the rest here: If Jesus was God, why did He say "The Father is greater than I" in John 14:28?
And secondly, this is more of a employer/employee relationship - or more obviously, a Father and Son relationship - (or even a servant/master role of sorts) of which there are a number of Scriptures to support this.
One last thing before going on to the Spirit, is the Jewish Sh'ma (which I mentioned about in the first entry):
“The Shema is the central prayer in the Jewish prayer book. It is generally one of the first prayers a Jewish child learns. The Shema defines what it means to be Jewish as it has since the days of Moses:The word “echad” (the ch is more of a throaty h sound) in the above verse is the Hebrew word for one, but it's in a unified oneness here, rather than in a numerical sense.
Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad—“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4)”.
You can read more about it here: The Jewishness of the Trinity
Then there's the Holy Spirit - the 3rd member of the Godhead. He was there from the beginning of Creation (Gensis 1:2 - to which the phrase "hovering over the waters" here conveys the idea of a bird sitting in a nest, hovering and brooding over her eggs; and the phrase 'Spirit of God' is a pretty straight forward example of it being God the Holy Spirit); and then again in Genesis 2:7 - God brought Adam alive through the Spirit, the 'ruach', or 'breath' (and on that point, God also said in Genesis "Let us make man in our image"). He also came at pentecost for all believers, and not just a select few (and while I'm talking about the Spirit, He's not just an "impersonal force" because of the attributes of Him throughout Scripture, like speaking [Acts 13:2], being able to be greived [Eph. 4:30] and has a will [1 Cor. 12:11] - see here: carm.org/holy-spirit - His ministry is to bear witness of Jesus, and to convict the world of sin [John 16:8]).
Lastly, have you noticed how many threes there are in nature/the Universe? 'He made the atom with 3 parts (electron, neutron, proton) and used it to create a world with 3 parts (land, sea, air), all within a universe with 3 parts (space, time, matter). He created time with 3 divisions (past, present, future) and gave space its 3 dimensions (up/down, left/right/ forward/backward). He created matter with its normal, you guessed it, 3 states (solid, liquid, gas [however, this does breaks down slightly when we add in a 4th, which is plasma]). When He created life on earth, this trademark was not far behind. Animals were created to live in 3 areas (in land, in water, in air). He made their survival to depend on 3 essentials (food, water, air), the food providing energy in 3 forms (protein, carbohydrates, fat), the water made up of 3 parts (two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen) and the air primarily consisting of 3 parts (78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 93% argon). His greatest creation, man, was made in 3 parts also (body, soul, spirit)'.
source: [link]
However, whenever you're dealing with analogies about the Trinity, there is a danger in actually teaching the heresy of Modalism. The exmples of the threes above is only showing how God is a Tri-une Being, but to take these as actual examples of the Trinity can be dangerous - and even heretical - like I've stated.
Now, before I finish, I'd like to clear up a misconception concerning the 'approval' of the Trinity doctrine in the early church - during the Council of Nicea. You see, there's a difference between - for this instance - making a creed 'official', and for the concept of it being already interwoven in the fabric of the Bible and its metanarrative. Therefore, just because it became "official" during the Council, doesn't make it any less true before that.
But there's more to it than that; read here about the Council of Nicea:
And for further reading concerning this, please read here: The Trinity before Nicea. To quote (I couldn't do 'quotes within quotes' without messing it up, so I centred the text instead):
But there's more to it than that; read here about the Council of Nicea:
The term Trinitas was popularized by Tertullian almost 100 years before the Nicene council in his debate against Praxeas. However, he was not the first to use the term, a man Theophilus Bishop of Antioch in 160 was the first to use the term (that we have in writing), many years before in his epistle to Autolycus The 2nd,xv..We can assume it was used prior to Theophilus and was held as a common church belief with the many quotes that are left to us in history by the early church pastors. Athenagoras representing the whole Churches belief wrote, that, "they hold the Father to be God, and the Son God, and the Holy Spirit, and declare their union and their distinction in order."(A plea for the Christians.10.3) The term was used to simply describe the three that simultaneously exist as the one God. A man named Praxeas promoted what is called Monarchianism, which held a strict form of monotheistic progression. That the Father became the Son, and the Son became the Spirit. This is what is called modalism in it's simplest form, What is better termed Oneness today. Despite the accusation's of the Church inventing and promoting the Trinity. We find the Church in Rome and elsewhere falling prey to numerous heresies that they tried to keep out.You can read the rest here: www.letusreason.org/Trin13.htm
And for further reading concerning this, please read here: The Trinity before Nicea. To quote (I couldn't do 'quotes within quotes' without messing it up, so I centred the text instead):
Between 260-270 A.D. (over fifty years before the council of Nicea and, in fact, before Emperor Constantine was even born) Gregory Thaumaturgus wrote in his brief work, “A Declaration of Faith”:
“There is one God, the Father of the living Word, who is His subsistent Wisdom and Power and Eternal Image: perfect Begetter of the perfect Begotten, Father of the only-begotten Son. There is one Lord, Only of the Only, God of God, Image and Likeness of Deity, Efficient Word, Wisdom comprehensive of the constitution of all things, and Power formative of the whole creation, true Son of true Father, Invisible of Invisible, and Incorruptible of Incorruptible, and Immortal of Immortal and Eternal of Eternal. And there is One Holy Spirit, having His subsistence from God, and being made manifest by the Son, to wit to men: Image of the Son, Perfect Image of the Perfect; Life, the Cause of the living; Holy Fount; Sanctity, the Supplier, or Leader, of Sanctification; in whom is manifested God the Father, who is above all and in all, and God the Son, who is through all. There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor estranged. Wherefore there is nothing either created or in servitude in the Trinity; nor anything superinduced, as if at some former period it was non-existent, and at some later period it was introduced. And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without variation and without change, the same Trinity abideth ever.” 2
As one can see here, the Father, Son, and Spirit are rightly distinguished from one another and placed in eternal relation to one another. They are also declared to be one perfect, undivided, eternal being; uncreated and unchanging. The Doctrine of the Trinity was thus plainly articulated clearly, systematically, and concisely by Christians before the Council of Nicea or any possible influence of Emperor Constantine.
~Gareth †
The Flood of Noah
For those people who ask "Where did all the water go from Noah's Flood?" (or to those critics who claim there's not enough water), a "Mammoth underground ocean discovered: Contains 3x more water than all oceans combined" https://www.thebrighterside.news/post/mammoth-underground-ocean-discovered-contains-3x-more-water-than-all-oceans-combined A previous article on this was also written back in 2014 Scientists discover an ocean 400 miles beneath our feet that could fill our oceans three times over There has also been previous articles on secular sites which indirectly gives evidence of a global Flood (and where the water went); it's just the secular dating that's usually way off for the links referring to 'ancient megafloods' - because they have to force it into their [false/invented/imagined] uniformitarian worldview: :bulletgreen: Ancient 'Megafloods' Tilted The Very Direction of Earth's Crust, Scientists Find :bulletred: Megaflood in English Channel separated Britain from
God's attributes in every Book of the Bible (song)
I didn't create this list/song, but “He Is” is an informative worship song meant to highlight the attributes of God throughout all 66 books of the Christian Bible. The Holy Trinity of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is personified in many ways throughout the Bible and revealed both physically and metaphorically throughout the book. This song lists one of these instances for each book. It's not my favourite version of this song (that version - sung by the Peniel Choir - isn't available online), but it's close enough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Btc3g0UaU It also definitely helped me learn and remember the Books of the Bible [in order], too :) "In Genesis, He's the breath of life In Exodus, the Passover Lamb In Leviticus, He's our high priest Numbers, the fire by night Deuteronomy, He's Moses' voice In Joshua, He is salvation's choice Judges, law-giver In Ruth, the kinsmen redeemer First and Second Samuel, our trusted prophet In Kings and Chronicles, He's sovereign Ezra,
The hypocrisy of abortion
Before I start with the titular subject, I'd first like to prove that science shows us we are unique, fully human beings from conception to birth (all the way to death) - and not just some bundle of fetal* tissue that can be removed before the shifting preferences of progressive Leftists to decide when it becomes "human". *Ironically, the word "fetus" (or the alternative spelling, foetus) means "offspring" or "bringing forth"; in other words, it means baby. From a scientific viewpoint, at the moment of conception, the baby is a new, unique human being with its own DNA and genetic code. In that fraction of a second when the chromosomes form pairs, the sex of the new child will be determined, hereditary characteristics received from each parent will be set, and a new life will have begun.” --Kaluger, G., and Kaluger, M., Human Development: The Span of Life, page 28-29, The C.V. Mosby Co., St. Louis, 1974. Each human begins life as a combination of two cells, a female ovum and a
Any Bible/theological questions you want to ask?
Happy New Year (and even Decade!) everyone!
I thought I'd start this year off by asking if anyone's got any questions for me about the Bible - or theology in general? :)
I'm happy to answer any of your questions (or even objections if you have any) :thumbsup:
~ServantofJesus
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Comments16
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Not a bad reflection.
Some of your explanation of 3's are a bit of a stretch. E.g., 'body, soul, spirit.' One might easily say "body, soul, mind" or even "body, soul, spirit, mind, heart, etc." And even H2O, another example.
Of your explanations and writings, I think you would appreciate St. Bonaventure, who speaks in 7s, saying Christ is the perfection of all creation, and the seven days of creation relate to the seven sciences, each which prefigure the work of Christ as Savior.