Trinity haters on CC

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dalconn

Guest
#1
From time to time someone will message me regarding my belief on the Trinity of God. Trinitarianism is monotheistic by definition and not polytheistic. The fact that there is only one God can not be over stated. I am comfortable knowing that I can never fully understand the Triune Godhead as long as I'm in this mortal body but I accept it by faith.
I thought I would post this visual aid so that there will be no confusion as to what I personally believe or understand.
Feel free to chime in :)


th[1].jpg
 
Nov 22, 2015
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#3
Amen!..I fully 100% believe in the Trinity....One in purpose and nature and in union with each other....sharing mutual love and respect and oneness with each other..yet maintaining distinctiveness and yet being One.
 
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FreeNChrist

Guest
#5
From time to time someone will message me regarding my belief on the Trinity of God. Trinitarianism is monotheistic by definition and not polytheistic. The fact that there is only one God can not be over stated.
That's right. The actual term for the Christian belief is monotheistic trinitarianism.
 
Nov 22, 2015
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#7
I think how the Trinity interact with each other and is in union with each other yet maintaining distinction is paramount in seeing who we are in Christ now.....and how we are to interact with Them and with each other too...
 
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sparkman

Guest
#9
Good post, dalconn. Many of us belonged to groups which taught against the Trinity. As a part of the Armstrongites, I was anti-Trinitarian.

Most of the aggressiveness against it is related to a poor understanding of what the Trinity teaches. In addition, cults often object to it based on their own false doctrines. For instance, Armstrongites teach that they are going to be Gods in the future, so limiting God's nature to three Persons rubs against their false teachings. They believe that they will be added to the Godhead in the resurrection.

Many times anti-Trinitaries set up a "straw man" version of the Trinity which doesn't fully reflect what orthodox Christianity teaches on the topic, and then proceed to criticize it, in order to bolster their position. The listeners aren't experienced enough to know that what is being represented as the Trinity doctrine isn't even the Trinity doctrine, but is an intentional or ignorant misrepresentation of what Christians believe concerning the Trinity.

Some anti-Trinitarians also seek to diminish the full deity of Jesus Christ, either denying his deity or relegating him to the status of a lower god, like the Jehovah's Witnesses do. This view is called henotheism. Denying the full deity of Jesus Christ is pretty serious. Why was Christ sinless if he was not God, and why did he accept worship? Besides, Colossians 2:9 clearly teaches that in him the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form.

In addition, some professed Christians are anxious to label many things "pagan" because they think the Roman Catholic Church or Constantine enforced them on the Christian church. They don't realize that Constantine was an Arian until later in life, and the council he was involved with organizing insisted on the biblical truth of the Trinity. It's a variation on the conspiracy theory mentality of many professed Christians, especially within the cults. A distorted view of church history is commonly employed by these groups with unorthodox doctrine.

I'd challenge anti-Trinitarians to read Forgotten Trinity, by James White, along with the Bible verses it lists, to fully understand what Christianity teaches on this issue. His book is excellent in this regard.

By the way I am not stating that an anti-Trinitarian is necessarily a false believer, as I was an anti-Trinitarian for a decade while saved. I think rebelling against the teaching without fully examining both sides definitely indicates a lack of wisdom and may indicate a contentious nature. While the church may not be right on everything, I would think twice about rejecting church history in this regard.

I think this is one topic, though, that cultists use to separate themselves from others and claim superiority or an exclusive relationship with God. Others use other things..tongues, Sabbath and Holy Days, etcetera. The attitude is that "we know the Truth and you do not. Accept our theology or be lost or less spiritual than us."
 
Nov 22, 2015
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#10
John 10:30 (KJV)
[SUP]30 [/SUP] I and my Father are one.

Mark 1:24 (KJV)
[SUP]24 [/SUP] Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.

Mark 1:1 (NASB)
[SUP]1 [/SUP] The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Mark 1:14 (NASB)
[SUP]14 [/SUP] Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God,
Jesus and God are mentioned as the gospel of..

Below God is our Savior..which is of course the man Jesus..

1 Timothy 1:1 (KJV)
[SUP]1 [/SUP]
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;

1 Timothy 2:5 (KJV)
[SUP]5 [/SUP] For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

here he is called God and Savior at the same time..

Titus 2:13 (KJV)
[SUP]13 [/SUP] Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

 
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dalconn

Guest
#12
Perhaps this has not been revealed to you. :)

Matthew 11:27
All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

So for the sake of confusion, you DO agree with the illustration that I posted?
 

CS1

Well-known member
May 23, 2012
12,284
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#13
as we know the word " Trinity" is not in the bible. it is a concept that speaks about the Godhead which is seen in the Word of God. We are to approach the nature of God reverntly and with the understanding of the orignal post "knowing that I can never fully understand the Triune Godhead as long as I'm in this mortal body but I accept it by faith." I say amen
 
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FreeNChrist

Guest
#15
Perhaps this has not been revealed to you. :)

Matthew 11:27
All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
What do you see revealed there?
 
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dalconn

Guest
#17
I see we're headed down the "special revelation" road :rolleyes:
 
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yoninah

Guest
#19
Well, I'll chip in my thoughts.

The word 'Trinity' is not 'Biblical'. The word used in the NT is translated 'Godhead'. A previous poster has already said this.

The NT writers clearly believed (as do I) that the Father is God, the Son, Jesus Christ is God and the Holy Spirit is God. They also believed that God is one God.

Then they went on to state various stuff about Father, Son and Holy Spirit, even at some points saying that One did the same as another One.

They didn't try - at any time - to define 'Godhead' (certainly not by the word 'Trinity'). They just spoke about it/Him (the Godhead word is not personal but a label although God is so I use both pronouns so you can use your preference).

Then came along the early Church fathers who found that this wasn't a very good state of affairs and began formulating theology and theory - instead of just accepting what the early Church believed. They then coined the translated word 'Trinity'.

And that's where it went very pear-shaped. It really would be much easier if we just talked about the Godhead and accepted what the NT says about it/Him without trying to go *too much* further.
 

Zmouth

Senior Member
Nov 21, 2012
3,391
134
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#20
So if the trinity is a mystery that only God can reveal to the believer, then I would ask how did you hear about the Trinity, from God or were you taught? {The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the "mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God.}

Since it is written in Matthew "
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:" can those who believe in the trinity give the name of the Father, the name of the Son and the name of the Holy Ghost?



From the Catholic Church website

The dogma of the Holy Trinity

253 The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the "consubstantial Trinity".[SUP]83[/SUP] The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire:

"The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by nature one God."[SUP]84[/SUP] In the words of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), "Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance, essence or nature."[SUP]8524

[/SUP]254 The divine persons are really distinct from one another. "God is one but not solitary."[SUP]86[/SUP] "Father", "Son", "Holy Spirit" are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another: "He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son."[SUP]87[/SUP] They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: "It is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds."[SUP]88[/SUP] The divine Unity is Triune.

255
The divine persons are relative to one another. Because it does not divide the divine unity, the real distinction of the persons from one another resides solely in the relationships which relate them to one another: "In the relational names of the persons the Father is related to the Son, the Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to both. While they are called three persons in view of their relations, we believe in one nature or substance."[SUP]89[/SUP] Indeed "everything (in them) is one where there is no opposition of relationship."[SUP]90[/SUP] "Because of that unity the Father is wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Son."[SUP]91
[/SUP]
256
St. Gregory of Nazianzus, also called "the Theologian", entrusts this summary of Trinitarian faith to the catechumens of Constantinople: