The Trinity

[stephen]

There are many passages in the Bible that show that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are persons distinct from one another. So also are there many passages which show that each is God.

In Scripture they all share the same attributes, are involved in the same works, take council together, share the same Divine Names, and are worshiped. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are Bible names given to each of the persons as distinct from one and other.

A father has a distinct meaning as opposed to a son, and because "holy" means separated and "spirit" means breath, a separated breath has a distinct meaning from breathers (father and son). The idea of progenitor is unique to father. The idea of begotten (generated) is unique to son. The idea separation by breathing is unique to the separated spirit.

Separation and begotten are terms that not only show a distinct state, but also point to a manor of origin for that state. To the Father belong the notions or ideas of generator begetter, generator breather, and as distinct from the others un-begotten and un-breathed.

To the Son belong the notions of separation from the father by generation, breather of the separated breath, and as distinct from the others begotten yet un-breathed.
To the Holy Spirit belong the ideas of separation by aspiration from the Father through the Son and as distinct from the others breathed yet un-begotten.

God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has no beginning in time which is a created property of the physical universe. Rather these triune relationships are eternal and simply are what God, the one and only God, is eternally as I am that I am without beginning or end.

Father has no distinct meaning without progeny; thus Son, though begotten of the father, is never-the-less, as equally eternal as father. A breath, furthermore, implies a breather, thus making separated breath as essential for the breathers as father is to son and son is to father.

There is no time or situation when father, son, or separated breath could not all simultaneously exist and still the terms have meaning. All these terms presuppose the others in order to have their unique meanings. This is why God gives them to us in the Bible in revelation of his Tri-personal being.

The Bible is also abundantly clear that there is only one God, not three gods and that each person is the one God. Each person is not a fraction of God, but all God.

The Father is all God; the only things he is not are the Son and Holy Spirit. The Son is all God; the only things he is not are the Father and Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is all God; the only things he is not are the Father and the Son.

This is no contradiction, for the Bible does not say one person existing in three persons or one god existing in three gods, but three Persons in one God and one God in three Persons. Logically, triune-persons are thus distinguished from essential substance.

Mankind understands persons because we are one. Made in His image we are persons. Our ego or self is an indivisible whole, it is our essential substance. We have, however a physical body, a rational moral soul, and a spirit.

Our one person is not divided up into these properties; it exists wholly simultaneously in these properties. The Holy Spirit bears witness with my spirit, and I know God. I say something dumb, and I know embarrassment. I hit my thumbnail with a hammer, and I know bodily pain.

I exist simultaneously without division in each property; it is the one self, person, knowing each time. This is not a contradiction, for man is not one in the same way he is three nor three in the same way he is one. There is a distinction between essential self and triune-substances.

To conclude, the Bible uses terms for three persons who are each the one God. The terms are descriptive of personal relationships that define the uniqueness of each person in such a way that they must simultaneously exist in personal relation to each of the others in order to be what they are.

God is one essential substance existing without division in three distinct persons, showing us there is a distinction between person and substance. We see this again in man. But man is one essential person existing without division in three distinct substances.

If we can distinguish between person and substance, and count to three, then there ought to be no problem with the notion of Trinity, accept unbelief to begin with. View this as a simple meditation upon the three words used in the Bible to name the three persons that God is.

The simpler it is thought through the more obvious trinity becomes.

Thread written by Bro. xDICEx


Your thoughts?

 

[Chad]

Great topic brother. For more discussions on Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), read these threads:

http://www.talkjesus.com/scriptural-answers/11922-trinity.html

(taken from one of my other posts)

Acts 5:30-32

30The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. 32We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him."

Acts 7:55-57
55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56"Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

Luke 22:69
But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God."

Mark 16:19
After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.

Luke 22:69
But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God."

Hebrews 12:2
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Genesis 1:26
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [ Hebrew; Syriac all the wild animals ] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

Trinity: Webster’s dictionary gives the following definition of trinity: “The union of three divine persons (or hypostases), the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in one divinity, so that all the three are one God as to substance, but three Persons (or hypostases as to individuality).” Synonyms sometimes used are triunity, trine, triality. The term “trinity” is formed from “tri,” three, and “nity,” unity. Triunity is a better term than “trinity” because it better expresses the idea of three in one. God is three in one. Hypostases is the plural of hypostasis which means “the substance, the underlying reality, or essence.”

Tri-theism. This is the teaching that there are three Gods who are sometimes related, but only in a loose association. Such an approach, abandons the biblical oneness of God and the unity within the Trinity

1 Corinthians 8:4-6 “Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.”

Ephesians 4:4-6 “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”

James 2:19 “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.”

There are many instances where God uses the plural pronoun to describe Himself (see Gen. 1:26; 3:22; 11:7; Isa. 6:8).

Several passages reveal a distinction of Persons within the Godhead.

• In Psalm 110:1, David demonstrates there is a distinction of Persons between “LORD,” the one speaking, and the one addressed called by David, “my Lord.” David was indicating the Messiah was no ordinary king, but his own Lord, Adoni (my Lord), one who was God Himself. So God the first Person addresses God the second Person. This is precisely Peter’s point when He quotes this Psalm to show the resurrection of the Messiah was anticipated in the Old Testament.
• The Redeemer (who must be divine, Isa. 7:14; 9:6) is distinguished from the Lord (Isa. 59:20).
• The Lord is distinguished from the Lord in Hosea 1:6-7. The one speaking here is Yahweh, the Lord, yet, note the statement in verse 7, “I will have compassion … and deliver them by the Lord their God.”
• The Spirit is distinguished from the Lord in a number of passages (Isa. 48:16; 59:21; 63:9-10).

(1) The Father is called God (John 6:27; 20:17; 1 Cor. 8:6; Gal. 1:1; Eph. 4:6; Phil. 2:11; 1 Pet. 1:2).

(2) Jesus Christ, the Son is declared to be God. His deity is proven by the divine names given to Him, by His works that only God could do (upholding all things, Col. 1:17; creation, Col. 1:16, John 1:3; and future judgment, John 5:27), by His divine attributes (eternality, John 17:5; omnipresence, Matt. 28:20; omnipotence, Heb. 1:3; omniscience, Matt. 9:4), and by explicit statements declaring His deity (John 1:1; 20:28; Titus 2:13; Heb. 1:8).

(3) The Holy Spirit is recognized as God. By comparing Peter’s comments in Acts 5:3 and 4, we see that in lying to the Holy Spirit (vs. 3), Ananias was lying to God (vs. 4). He has the attributes which only God can possess like omniscience (1 Cor. 2:10) and omnipresence (1 Cor. 6:19), and He regenerates people to new life (John 3:5-6, 8; Tit. 3:5), which must of necessity be a work of God for only God has the power of life. Finally, His deity is evident by the divine names used for the Spirit as “the Spirit of our God,” (1 Cor. 6:11), which should be understood as “the Spirit, who is our God.”

Ryrie writes: “Matthew 28:19 best states both the oneness and threeness by associating equally the three Persons and uniting them in one singular name. Other passages like Matthew 3:16-17 and 2 Corinthians 13:14 associate equally the three Persons but do not contain the strong emphasis on unity as does Matthew 28:19.”18

2 Cor. 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.

1 Peter 1:1-5 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, tat you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

John 20:17
Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "

John 13:3
Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God.

Dictionary:

Gentiles
(Heb., usually in plural, goyim), meaning in general all nations except the Jews. In course of time, as the Jews began more and more to pride themselves on their peculiar privileges, it acquired unpleasant associations, and was used as a term of contempt.

In the New Testament the Greek word Hellenes, meaning literally Greek (as in Acts 16:1, 3; 18:17; Rom. 1:14), generally denotes any non-Jewish nation.

 

[stephen]

Brother Chad...

The link you gave to the Trinity..........I am speechless.

And after a lifetime of study. I thought I had it explained, simple terms, (simple man) who said that? easy to understand etc etc.

Good .......yes indeed good. Will try to catch up with this thread again.


God Bless