Calvinism and Universalism

[Homer]

Paidion,

As one wise man put it, "The Father was causally but not temporally prior to the Son."

Hmmmm... we've come a long way from "Calvism and Universalism". But that's okay. That's now natural conversation goes. You start out talking about one thing, and it leads to something else, and then something else again.

Considering what you see as the "trinitarian view" (and I am sure most Christians have no precise idea what that means), and your own view of the relation of the Father and Son, what practical difference do you think it makes in either how we worship or how we live our lives?

[Paidion]

Considering what you see as the "trinitarian view" (and I am sure most Christians have no precise idea what that means), and your own view of the relation of the Father and Son, what practical difference do you think it makes in either how we worship or how we live our lives?

Jesus told His disciples that He and the Father would come to dwell in them. Does not the Spirit of the Father and the Son dwell in us? Is that not the Holy Spirit? --- the very Persons of the Father and the Son? If this is correct, and the Holy Spirit is not "a third Person of the Trinity", but rather the Persons of the Father and the Son, then it would make a great practical difference in how we worship. If the view I just expressed is correct, then Trinitarians woship and pray to a non-existent Person! That would be idolatry. Indeed, I wonder whether demons might sometimes pretend to be the "third Person" in order to get control of such worshippers.

On the other hand, those who consider the Father and the Son to be one and the same Individual (as in the "Oneness" position), may not be serving the Son of God at all, because they recognize only One Divine Individual, who expresses Himself by wearing three divine masks.

[Homer]

Paidion,

You wrote:

If this is correct, and the Holy Spirit is not "a third Person of the Trinity", but rather the Persons of the Father and the Son, then it would make a great practical difference in how we worship.

My own view is very close to the view eloquently expressed by Priestly1 on the subject. I have never thought to pray to or worship the Holy Spirit, although in some Charismatic circles it seems popular. For me, prayer to the Father is normative, although I sometimes give thanks to the Son.

And you wrote:

Does not the Spirit of the Father and the Son dwell in us? Is that not the Holy Spirit?

The Spirit certainly does dwell in us. Would this indwelling be of no effect if the person indwelt did not exactly understand the nature of that Spirit and just simply yielded to it?

By the way, you see the Father and Son as two individuals, unless I misunderstand you. How then is it we are indwelt by one Spirit, rather than two?

May God bless you and yours in the coming new year!

[Paidion]

By the way, you see the Father and Son as two individuals, unless I misunderstand you. How then is it we are indwelt by one Spirit, rather than two?

It is because the two individuals share the same Spirit. They also share the name "Yahweh"

Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahweh out of heaven. Genesis 19:24

Two "Yahwehs"! One in heaven, the source of the brimstone and fire, and one one earth through whom the heavenly Yahweh acted!