ALTER2EGO -to- EVERYONE:
I am a Christian and have the deepest respect for God's inspired Word, the Judeo-Christian Bible. I invite fellow Christians to participate in the questions for discussion. Two of the most basic teachings in Christendom are as follows:
1. THE TRINITY
The teaching that God is split up into three individual persons that are combined into one "Godhead" (Father, Son, and holy ghost/holy spirit). All three of these persons are said to be CO-EQUAL (meaning they have the same power) and CO-ETERNAL (meaning they have always existed at the same time and none of them can die).
Jesus as the Son of Man had died. He has to be the Son of God if God expects to use Him as the only way to reconcile us back to God again through Jesus Christ. That is like saying God is reconciling the world to Himself, ( the Father) through Himself ( the Son).
God is the Saviour and yet Jesus Christ is named as the Saviour, thus Jesus is God.
John 10:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
30 I and my Father are one.
But your question is to address scriptural support for the Triune God.
We see the plurality of the One God in creation:
Genesis 1:
26 And
God said, Let us make man in
our image, after
our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created
he him; male and female created
he them.
He did the same thing at Babylon.
Genesis 11:
6 And the
Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7 Go to,
let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Now here is a key that He may help you understand: look at God's requirement for man in establishing a word which is the same as a true witness. It gives us insight on how God can judge unless He is the Triune God.
Deuteronomy 17:6At the mouth of
two witnesses, or
three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death;
but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.
Deuteronomy 19:
15One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of
two witnesses, or at the mouth of
three witnesses, shall the matter be established.
If God so requires this from man to judge, what does that say about God as He is the judge? That He is the Triune God.
Look at how this requirement from man in establishing a word shows how the Triune God established a word in creation and in confusing the people at Babylon.
Matthew 18:16But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or
two more, that in the mouth of
two or
three witnesses every word may be established.
2 Corinthians 13:1This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of
two or
three witnesses shall every word be established
How does God bear witness of Himself?
John 5:
31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. 32 There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true....
36 But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.
37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me,
hath borne witness of me....
How did the Father borne witness?
Matthew 3:
15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
So not only the Father had borne witness, but the Holy Spirit did too, and the fulfilling of all righteousness that Jesus was talking about was this prophesy below.
Isaiah 48:
16 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me. 17 Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
Here, the Son of God was speaking this prophesy of which was fulfilled at His water baptism when God the Father spoke from Heaven testifying of the Son as God & the Holy Spirit did too by alighting on Him.
John 8:17It is also written in your law, that the
testimony of
two men is true.
So as God required from man, so does it speak to the character of the Triune God in how to give a true witness.
1 John 5:
7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
May God help you to understand that Jesus being "before Him" is just His way of saying we can come to God the Father through Jesus Christ as we are reconciled to God through the Son, Jesus Christ, but they are One. So in that respect, no one is before God as they are One, but Jesus is serving as the Mediator between us and God in bringing us to God as well as serving as the only way to relate to God.
John 14:
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
2. HELLFIRE
The teaching that God will burn a person's soul in everlasting hellfire for committing wicked deeds. In other words, God will supposedly punish people forever in fiery flames of hell--despite the fact the crimes the persons committed were only done during the persons' brief human lifespan.
Proverbs 8:36But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
Mark 9:.....be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 46 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
It is said that worms will die and the fire will quench when there are no more corpses, but what happens in the resurrection of the unjust when they are no longer in that corruptible flesh as in the terrestriel flesh?
Acts 24:15 And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.
If this be true:
Hebrews 9:27And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
2 Timothy 3:13But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
Then how will the unjust be in the resurrection? We see hardened criminals as unredeemable and deserved to be locked up forever, then for God to promise us that sin and death will be dealt with forever, then the dealers of sin has to be dealt with too. We would not welcome an unrepentant and hardened criminal in our home to spare him life imprisonment of suffering, otherwise we'd jeopardize the safety and well being of those in our house. So in no way will God allow eternal sinners that cannot die again, dwell within His House after all the trouble He went through in reconciling us back to Himself as God is good, and nothing outside of Him is good.
So I can see how in the resurrection of the unjust, there will be eternal torment. We cannot fathom it because we would see ourselves repenting, but we should recognize that not every criminal in prison will be reformed, and some desire to go back to prison once they are let out.
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5. If hell is a place of literal fiery torment, how is it that the Bible says Jesus went to hell for the entire three days that he was dead?
"He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that HIS SOUL WAS NOT LEFT IN HELL, neither his flesh did see corruption."(Acts 2:31--King James Version)
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Abraham's bosom, which was really Paradise, was in hell in all respect, but across the chasm from hell . After His resurrection, He led the captivity captive as Paradise is now located in Heaven.
In spite of preaching unto those in captivity, and we noted how Jesus said in His parable that those in hell can hear and talk to those in Abraham's bosom, yet hell is not emptied. Those in hell should have been able to hear His preaching, but only the graves of the OT saints were opened and not the whole world's. So what does that tell us about evil?
Proverbs 8:
36But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
Weird, but as far as I can understand, those unrepentant evil sinners can burn for all eternity. That is not voiding God's love, but showing God's holiness and justice in dealing with sin & death as it shows God's love towards the redeemed.
In one sense: His judgment towards the damned as being eternal also reminds the redeemed of His promises that we will never sin nor be seperated from Him again.
