Concept of "The Trinity" self-contradictory?

[Guest]

Paidion,

OK, cool,

Btw, I PMd you about your post on "Jesus in the Talmud".....
Off to watch Joel Osteen and Michael Horton on 60 Minutes,
Rick

[Guest]

Paidion, I voted "no" to your question. Jesus once told his disciples, "I have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now." I wonder if, perhaps, we have not been given the privilege to know how all this works out. For one reason, if the trinity doctrine of 3 in 1 were true, we have nothing to compare it to in the nautral world in which we live. Sure, there are examples given but none of those examples involve one being who is also three different beings. It's as incomprehensible as an eternal being who's always existed.... yet that seems to be true as well.

I actually enjoy the mystery on this one. I like knowing that God has some things up his sleeve and there's a lot more to him that I could ever imagine. You know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you gaze up at the night sky and see that seemingly endless universe? I like the fact that I can't comprehend God's power and infinite creativity. If I could explain God's full nature it would be a total letdown, and I consider myself pretty creative!

We know that God revealed himself to us in the person of Christ and right now I'm satisfied in knowing that God is exactly like Jesus.... because I really dig what Jesus is like in the scriptures.

[Guest]

Paidion, I voted "no" to your question. Jesus once told his disciples, "I have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now." I wonder if, perhaps, we have not been given the privilege to know how all this works out. For one reason, if the trinity doctrine of 3 in 1 were true, we have nothing to compare it to in the nautral world in which we live. Sure, there are examples given but none of those examples involve one being who is also three different beings. It's as incomprehensible as an eternal being who's always existed.... yet that seems to be true as well.

I actually enjoy the mystery on this one. I like knowing that God has some things up his sleeve and there's a lot more to him that I could ever imagine. You know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you gaze up at the night sky and see that seemingly endless universe? I like the fact that I can't comprehend God's power and infinite creativity. If I could explain God's full nature it would be a total letdown, and I consider myself pretty creative!

We know that God revealed himself to us in the person of Christ and right now I'm satisfied in knowing that God is exactly like Jesus.... because I really dig what Jesus is like in the scriptures.

Well said, JC.


Dave

[Guest]

Truthfully, I find the concept of the Trinity a bit confusing. I know I received the Holy Spirit (I speak in tongues everyday) and I know that Spirit testifies of Jesus - I believe Jesus is God - but when it comes to the doctrine of the Trinity I can't understand the issue. I also believe the church was well on the way to being off the rails at the Council of Nicaea when the topic came up. (But so was Balaam and he prophesied of Christ).

[Guest]

Paidion,
A question after reading this, is there somewhere on the forums where you've outlined what your current perspective is on the relationship and nature of the Father/Son/Holy Spirit? If you could point me there or give an outline here I'd appreciate it.
Josh

[Guest]

I found this interesting:

"This God is never called a person. The word person was never applied to God in the Middle ages. The reason for this is that the three members of the trinity were called personae (faces or countenances): The Father is persona, the Son is persona, and the Spirit is persona. Persona here means a special characteristic of the divine ground, expressing itself in an independent hypostasis.

"Thus, we can say that it was the nineteenth century which made God into a person, with the result that the greatness of the classical idea of God was destroyed by this way of speaking... but to speak of God as a person would have been heretical for the Middle Ages; it would have been to them a Unitarian heresy, because it would have conflicted with the statement that God has three personae, three expressions of his being. (Tillich, Paul, A History of Christian Thought, p. 190)