i'm not a monotheist...pt.3

Limited analogies
As stated before, there have been many analogies used to try to represent and reflect the trinity. For example, the popular h20 example, liquid, vapor, and ice all are types of water, yet in three forms. Another popular one being the egg model in which shell white and yolk make up an egg.
Of course, looking at the previous blog, the 7 fenceposts of the trinity make clear the limitations of such analogies. For example, the h20 example expresses a certain type of modalism. These three states do not exist at the same time, but only one at a time, changing from one state to another. This is not trinitarian as God does not become the Son, then become the Spirit. It does not explain that all three are present at all times and every divine attribute applies equally to all three of them. Similarly, the egg fails in that the shell, white, and yolk are parts of the egg, but not the egg in themselves. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not parts of God, each of them is God. Of course, I do not expect any analogy to be perfect, (I use to use the h20 analogy in high school =p).
The Example of Marriage
But the most helpful analogy I believe would be the one of marriage. This I believe has the most biblical support. The marriage analogy of I-you-we suggests a complex unity. Two becoming one, and dwelling within one another. There is a type of mystical union within marriage, where in a deep way, where one is, the other is also. In which two individuals are perfecting their union over time, learning how to mutually submit, becoming of like mind, will, and purpose, in which (from what i hear =P) you can no longer think simply of your own needs, without considering the other .. An obinity. In short, marriage is used to tell us what the triune God is like. As God is described as One, a man and woman also become united, becoming one. A man and a woman, who were together made in the very image of God.
Of course, i'm not married. But if marriage is suppose to replicate the trinity, it makes sense how hard it is. A denying of oneself, thinking how to serve the other spouse ahead of ones own interests. Yet, the older a couple becomes, they may more and more fall in love, serve one another, fall into their roles, perfecting their unity... Waking up thinking, "how am i going to serve my wife today?" (Thanks again MS!) I'm going to go more into this later, but the relationship, actions, and example of the trinity sets the foundation for so much of practical christian living. Within the church family, the home family, the extension of the family (evangelism/missions), prayer, worship, and any relationship period! The trinity amazes me the more and more I think about it. Not to mention the immense practicality of such a doctrine...
Not just some abstract philosophical thought folks, work it into your lives!

i'm not a monotheist...pt.2

Just to set a foundation for what i started in the last entry, i wanted to share some essentials of the orthodox Christianity belief on the trinity. Obviously this is not comprehensive. (Thanks MS!)

1. Unity of God
- There is one divine essence or nature. There are not three minds or three wills in the divine essence.But one will, one mind, three manifestations of it.
- Each member of the trinity is self-conscious, but these consciousnesses do not exist side by side as they do for human beings. Rather they are in each other, so that each one has the whole of the one consciousness.
We can say the Holy spirit is a member of the Godhead, yet we can also say he is God the fullness. In contrast with say me, I can say I'm part of the human race, but I can't say I am the human race.

2. The deity of each of the three persons of God
- Gonna have to be brief here, but if you want more verses, let me know.
- The full deity of each of the three, not part of deity.

- The deity of the Father is scarcely contested, but heres a few verses. John 6:27, Gal 1:1-3

- Deity of the Son, the NT authors apply much of what is said of God in the OT to Jesus. For example, Isaiah 45:23, "To me every knee shall bow, every tongue confess", is cited by Paul in Phil 2:10 about Christ. Also consider Hebrews 10, where the author citing Psalm 10:26 about God- "Though, Lord, in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth and the heaven is in the work of thy hand. In Hebrews 1:8, the author writes this of the Son.
-John 8:58 Jesus calls himself by the name of Yahweh, "I Am". etc etc etc i could go on for pages concerning Christ's deity. Superiority to angels, unity with deity, etc.

- Deity of the Spirit, people may assert that he is simply an "impersonal force" or spirit within the Father, but that could hardly be asserted in light of the activities done by the spirit, such as searching out the deep things of God (1 Cor 2:10), interceding for christians to the Father. You need to have two beings to have one intercede to the other. (Ro 8:26-27). He is also quoted as a person in Heb 3:7.
- Direct statements of deity would be Is 40:13, John 14:16, 2 Cor 3:17-18, etc. As well as being named with the father and son in Mt 28:19.

3. The trinitarian nature of God is revealed primarily by his actions in creation and redemption
- Basically God is known by his actions, thus...
- The father is attributed the beginning of activity and the fountain and well spring of all things; to the son is wisdom, counsel, and the ordered dispositon o fall things; but the spirit is assigned the power and efficacy of that activity. (Calvin, Institutes, 1.3.18)
- Scripture mainly reveals the trinity as it unfolds the divine plan of salvation.

4. The threeness and the oneness of God are not in the same respect
- God is not both one and three in the same sense at the same time. Traditionally Christian theology has spoken of the divine oneness in regards to God's essence, and his threeness in regards to his functionality.
- in biblical revelation, certain priorities of function are discernible in Scripture for each member of the trinity.

5. The Trinity is eternal
- This is here protecting against many of the heresies that arose regarding the trinity.
- Such as modalism, which asserts that God "wore" a mask of the Father during the OT, then assumed the role of the son and after pentecost became the holy spirit.
Scripture clearly denies this.

6. The function of one member of the trinity may be subject to one or both of the other members
- Classical trinitarianism recognizes the functional subordination of the members of the trinity to one another. This subordination is not a matter of essence, but of function.
- Just as a women is not inferior or unequal in any way to her husband in her humanity, so the spirit and the son are not different from the Father in their deity.

7. Finally, the trinity is incomprehensible.
- As Augustine said, "If God can be fully understood, then it is not God."
- The search for analogies to the trinity has gone on since beginning of church history.


These are simply to help us understand certain boundaries. Things that we should retain. You can't step over these lines and say your still credible. (cf. Erickson, Christian theology) =P
i'll apply these 7 boundaries in the next blog. bye! Work it out!

I'm not a monotheist... Pt.1

Well I am in a sense, but there needs to be added an asterisk. God is One, yet there is a complexity there. The trinity is a doctrine that is pretty much fully neglected from what I see, yet in my opinion it sets the foundation of what makes Christianity so different from every other religion.
Basically in all world views that affirm the existence of God, the existence and nature of the deity or deities can be located according to where it falls in the scale of a transcendent, or immanent (meaning close) polarity. Thus..
- God Transcendent------------------------------------------------------God immanent

Thus, deism for example asserts God's transcendence over his creation, but denies his closeness. He set the universe in motion, endowed it with certain natural principles and laws, then stood back and now watches it run.
Pantheists though would identify god with the universe. He or she affirms the closeness of god in all that is around us, but denies his transcendence over the universe.

Yet, how amazing the triune God is!!! God the Father, perfectly transcendent as the creator. God the Son, who would be in the middle, breaking into our world as a man, living and dying amongst us. God the Spirit, living literally within us, pressing God's will upon our hearts.
Now where would Christianity lie in this scale? I suppose the middle would be the best answer, but that is also incomplete.

I want to share some verses... Acts 17:24-28 this is Paul preaching to gentiles.

24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

I read this and I think, how amazingly BIG God is! How sovereign, how transcendent, how powerful! Then i read more and i think How amazingly CLOSE God is. IN him we live, we breath, we move, we have our being. We are his offspring! We have a God, worthy of worship, to be honored, praised, and feared. Yet he is so close, a friend, a shepherd, a Father. A monotheistic God cannot accomplish this amazing balance.....a Triune God can.... How absolutely amazing....think and work that out!

*This is only part 1, i'm gonna keep going into the trinity. If it bores you i'm sorry. I'm trying to put into words what i've been thinking. I strongly believe the trinity need to be understood by all Christians.

Sorry If I Bore you! Random thoughts!

I'm just gonna share what i've been thinking as of late. Like a real journal entry =P

Just finished my finals! Perhaps the first time i'm sad about that. haha i'll miss the classes during the week. Thus, I have finished my first semester of seminary! I Often forget im in seminary, its surreal. What a joy it was! Yet, what a double edged sword it can be. I feel like i've learned so much, but it was easy for me to go home, especially to my church and be prideful about it. Then, i see my grades and it's like..freakkk what do i have to be prideful about. haha I saw my project grade today, it was a 93! But then i realized thats barely a B+ in talbot scales and its like..ohh.. i thought that project i made was awesome! hahaha how humbling. Yet, what an honor that I the creature can study the creator. (doesn't really make sense, except if God has revealed himself)

I've been really blessed at work as well. Don't ever underestimate the value of simply working hard. I wrote my paper on Phil 2:6-11, its been pounding around ever since. There are times when i'm at work, and im cleaning drains or etc, and i think "man i'm above this," or "This is too dirty for me." Then Phil 2 pops in my head, and it's like "uhh no its not". hahaha Christ truly set a remarkable and radical new paradigm in his life, humility glorified! Service exalted! Being at work reminds me that wherever I am, whether at seminary or wherever, I want to glorify God. I want to know God. Thats for all of us, not just us seminary students. So work hard!

Studying Philippians, i think what frustrated me most is that I can't duplicate Christ. I can do the same actions, by serving, but what amazes and frustrates me about Christ is his heart! That is what makes me feel so inadequate. Christ's true humility deep down is so amazing to me. Yet i know he did miracles, amazing works, etc but what amazes me more is his perfect character. I know this is only a work God can do in me, truly transforming my inner heart character, its frustrating at times, but I gotta be patient =P

To reiterate the goal of this blog, its mainly for me. For me to get my thoughts down, to help me remember things i wanna remember. To help me be better in explaining my thoughts. One thing that frustrates me though about teachers, theologians, pastors etc is that often, "They don't make the cookie jar accessible to others." It's impossible to reach it for many. Basically i'm saying, I want to be better at helping you understand different difficult truths. Helping you reach up and grab the unreachable cookie! What i'm learning isn't just for me, but i hope to use it to encourage and exhort others, not just let it be some abstract theological truths too difficult for me and you to understand. I think a leader needs to be able to do that. I hope I become better at encouraging you, and become a better teacher along the way.

Once again, i stress, Work it from your head to heart! whatever truth your thinking about. No theological thought should go without a practical aim. Biblical doctrine is that which transforms you. So think....

Anyways, it's been a good semester. I'm thankful. Schools good. Works good. Church is good. Good people in my life. But most importantly, The gospel. Oh how amazing it is.

Vantage Point

Do me a favor. Examine how you pray. Think about it. Do you pray as someone who is 'In Christ'? How do you pray? From which vantage point? Are you a sinner trying to act like a saint? Or a saint who sins? Are you trying to be someone you currently are not? Or are you trying to be who you already are? Do you battle on the basis of victory? Or is it a lost cause? One thing we cannot forget, We are victorious in Christ. Let us move our lives in line with the Gospel which saves us and sanctifies us. Do you believe this? Then live it.

Work it out...
*I give this a short post, but its actually all-important. This truly needs to be worked out. Think!

Dong Yun Yoon

I was gonna talk about the trinity tonight, but i'll move that to another day.

On my way home today, I heard a story. A fighter pilot, who couldn't make it back to base because of an engine problem, crashed into Dong Yun Yoon's (A recent korean immigrant) house in San Diego. Dong Yun Yoon's wife, two baby girls, and mother in law were in the house. Sadly, they all passed away....

What a tragedy..He is a believer, but still... what do you say to him to comfort him? Amazingly, he forgives the fighter pilot (Who lived by ejecting before the crash).

"I don't have any hard feelings," Dong Yun Yoon, 37, told reporters near the rubble where his home once stood. "I know he did everything he could..... "Please pray for him not to suffer from this accident," Dong Yun Yoon said. "I know he is one of our treasured for the country." (That is DEfinitely not how i'd respond to this...)


"I Believe my family is in heaven with God" he states. Later in the interview "I know there are people out there who have been through worse. (Really...???) Please tell me how to do it," he said, surrounded by his pastor, sister, brother and church members. "I don't know what to do.

It would be a huge understatement to say he truly is an amazing witness. An amazing example.....Pray for Dong Yun Yoon.

Stop talking, and show me!

A quote from Christianity Today, talking about why Christians don't put more into the offering plate. I'm gonna skip the main part, and I want to jump to the end, where the article talks about Francis Chan and his church.

Francis Chan, pastor of Cornerstone Church in California's Simi Valley, says churches are often theologically accurate when they teach about giving. But they haven't reoriented themselves.

Chan asks, "Do our actions show that we really believe that our money belongs to God?" Cornerstone gives away 55 percent of what it brings in. And staff members have tried to model financial generosity in a number of ways. Some raided their retirement accounts and gave the money to organizations serving the poor and needy. Some started businesses and donated the profits (and then their free time) back to the church.

The example spread to church members. A college student moved into his car, showered and shaved at friends' homes, and gave what had been his rent money to a Christian aid organization. A single professional moved in with his parents so he could give away a large percentage of his paycheck.

Cornerstone faced a difficult choice when its leadership looked into purchasing a new building. After five years of stagnant attendance, the church realized that its building limited growth. So Chan and the rest of the pastoral staff brought in consultants and architects who laid out a sweeping new campus for the church: an extended complex of buildings, brick streets, fountains, and gardens.

"I really felt it was repulsive," Chan says. "It showed us spending money for our own comfort."

Chan showed the designs to the congregation. When the gasps subsided, he told them it was off the table. Instead of a huge sanctuary, he explained, they were building an open-air amphitheater and saving millions of dollars. A few small buildings would suffice for offices. "There is greater joy in sacrifice," Chan says, "than when we give just out of our excess."

Christianity today "Scrooge lives!"

What an amazing impact "being examples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:3) can have! If you're a leader, lets not forget the simple truth, constantly exhibited in scripture, of leading by example. It really is powerful.... I'm often a horrible example in many issues, but i'll keep trying!

By the way, like Francis said, we are probably theologically accurate in our teachings on giving. Yet, does that go from our head to heart? Where does our money go?

Work that out!

Really?!?!!? I dont believe it...

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right, and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: You knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of, throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: But he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."
C.S Lewis

I know I shouldn't be surprised by how rough it can be to follow Christ. Yet, it doesn't hit me till those tough times. Sometimes I follow God as if its a cakewalk. Other times I think, "what have i gotten myself into." Thinking of the cost of following Christ in particular. Then come those times where I don't know GOd is doing, he begins knocking me down, and it hurts. I feel like im in that kind of stage right now. I can't really understand everything thats going on. All I can do is trust him, have patience, trying to live a life by faith. Its discouraging at times....yet humbling.

TO finish off the quote above...."If we let him....He will make the filthiest and feeblest of us into a dazzling and radiating immortal creature pulsating through with such energy, joy, wisdom, and love as we cannot imagine. The process will be long, and at parts painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less."

Sometimes...its just hard to believe that God can do that in me.... But i'll try to let Him.

Work it out....

Who forgot the gospel?

Imagine this. A child, who is excited with just the prospect of you opening the door to reveal whats behind it. Then comes a teen, who will only get excited as you actually open the door. Lastly comes the adult, who needs to actually see whats behind the door, to perhaps get excited. As you get older, it takes more and more to get you excited. What excited you as a child, is suddenly not enough.

I'll keep this simple. In the midst of all i've been learning, what i've been forgetting sadly has been the gospel.

Heres a snippet of a journal entry I wrote on 01/10/2006.
"I thank you God for giving me strength. Let your gospel permeate over every part of my life! I thank you for the brokenness I feel, help me to keep on fighting my sins. May I plunge my weakness into your amazing grace. Forgive me Father for all i've done. May all glory Go to you."

Oh 2006 Patrick! How Good you were at focusing on the gospel! That time feels like it was forever ago....How ironic. How sad. How disappointing. How sinful that i've forgotten. Nowadays I need to see whats behind the door to be excited, i need more then the gospel to feel moved. I miss those days where the gospel was enough.

If you're reading this, I implore you, don't forget the gospel. Don't think you've moved on. Don't let yourself focus more on your sins, less on the gospel. Our lives will forever revolve around the gospel. DOn't let yourself get used to the noise the train makes, when it should shake your foundation every single time it goes by.