Friday, November 6, 2015

If God is a trinity...

The Trinitarian Belief                                                  

1. Teaches that:

• there is one God who is one Being, one substance, composed of 3 self-conscious hypostases: God, the Father, God, the Son,  and God, the Holy Spirit.

• “But the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one: the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal” ...

• “So the Father is God: the Son is God: and the Holy Ghost is God;”

• “And yet there are not three Gods; but one God ...”

• “And in this Trinity none is before or after another: none is greater or less than another.”

• “But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together, and co-equal. (The Athanasian Creed)

2. Denies the literal Sonship of Christ.

3. Teaches that Jesus has no beginning, He is co-eternal and the same age as God, the Father.

4. Holds that there is no relationship between the persons or hypostases of God, they are just playing roles in the plan of salvation.

5. Teaches that the death of Christ on the cross wasn’t complete because Jesus is God Himself and God cannot die; also that Christ raised Himself from the dead because He wasn’t dead completely.

6. States that the Holy Ghost (or the Holy Spirit) is a third person of God, coequal, co-eternal and almighty, possessing the same authority as God, the Father or God, the Son.

7. Holds that it is the Holy Spirit, a different, third person of God other than Jesus, that is our Comforter.
 
The Godhead Belief

1. Teaches that:

• there is one Godhead composed of 3 self-conscious persons: God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit.

• these three separate beings work together in perfect unity, and are “one” (because they are one in purpose and character): their glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.

• the Father is God: the Son is God: and the Holy Ghost is God.

• and yet there are not three Gods; but one God (or divinity, called the Godhead).

• in this Godhead none is before or after another: none is greater or less than another.

• but the whole three Persons are co-eternal together, and co-equal.

2. Denies the literal Sonship of Christ.

3. Teaches that Jesus has no beginning, He is co-eternal and the same age as God, the Father.

4. Holds that there is no relationship between the three persons of the Godhead, they are just playing roles in the plan of salvation.

5. Teaches that the death of Christ on the cross wasn’t complete because Jesus is God in highest sense and God cannot die; also that Christ raised Himself from the dead because He wasn’t dead completely.

6. States that the Holy Ghost (or the Holy Spirit) is a third person of the Godhead, coequal, co-eternal and almighty, possessing the same authority as God, the Father or God, the Son.

7. Holds that it is the Holy Spirit, a different, third person of the Godhead other than Jesus, that is our Comforter.

We need to realize that if God is a trinity, then...

1. Jesus is not the literal son of God, the Father.

2. The Holy Spirit is not God’s (the Father’s) spirit with which He is everywhere present but a third, separate person of the Godhead.

3. Jesus should have called the Holy Spirit His Father because the Bible clearly teaches that it was the Holy Spirit that overshadowed Mary. (Luke 1:35)

4. Jesus never really died because God cannot die (He is immortal—1. Tim. 6:16).

a) And because of it, He has never really paid the price for us and the atonement was not complete.
b) He had a part of Himself that was conscience after His death, founding the doctrine of the immortality of the soul.

5. Jesus was never tempted here on earth because the Bible says “God cannot be tempted with evil” (James 1:13).

6. We have a Comforter (the Holy Spirit who is a separate Being, other than Christ) who was never a human being, was never tempted and tried as we are and never suffered death for us.

7. At the new birth, we will possess the Holy Spirit’s life (who was never a human Being and never conquered sin). This life is not a victorious life and there is no union of humanity and divinity in it.

8. We could never really study our Bibles without theological education because it is hard to know when God speaks in a literal and when in a metaphorical sense. (He calls Jesus His Son but in reality He is not.)

9. We have 2 Mediators and 2 Intercessors: Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

10. Jesus is removed from being our Comforter, and the 3rd Person of the Godhead takes His place thus causing us to look apart from Jesus in another direction. (Read what Ellen White said in Review and Herald, August 26,1890, par. 10)

It raises some questions:

1. Why was Lucifer envious just of Jesus’ position? Why wasn’t he jealous of the Holy Spirit (or the Father)?

2. Why is the Holy Spirit missing almost every time when Bible writers or Ellen White write about the Father and the Son?

3. Why was the counsel of peace made between just two of the three persons of the Godhead? (Zechariah 6:13)

4. Why is Jesus the one who is called the “last Adam” (1. Corinthians 15:45) and not the Holy Spirit when it is the Holy Spirit who is the active agent at the new birth?

5.Why will Jesus be subject to the Father “at the end” but not subject to the Holy Spirit? (1 Corinthians 15:28) And if the Father will be the head of everything, will He be over the Holy Spirit, the 3rd person of the Godhead, too?

6. Why did the Jews recognize only the Father as God? (John 8:54)

7. Why does Ellen White talk about Jesus Christ so many times as the literal Son of God?

8. Why did Christ emphasize the union of the believers only with the Father and Himself? Why did He leave the Holy Spirit (the 3rd person of the Godhead) out? (John 14: 20, 23, 17:23)

9. Why does Ellen White call Jesus her Comforter? (8MR 49, 19MR 296, 297)

10. How can the Holy Spirit (as a separate person from Jesus) give us Christ’s righteousness? Why does Paul teach that we need to die in order for Christ (and not the Holy Spirit) to live in us? (Galatians 2:20, Colossians 1:27, 1. Corinthians 6:15)

11. Why does the Bible teach us that Christ lives in us and at the same time that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost? (1. Corinthians 6:19)

12. Why don’t we need to know all of the 3 persons of the Godhead in order to receive eternal life? Why does Jesus tell us we need to know only the Father and the Son? (John 17:3) 

No comments:

Post a Comment