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!