GEN2REV
Well-Known Member
Your thread here is not remotely about the trinity doctrine.Okay, I appreciate what you say about being content with what the Bible teaches. I am also content with what the Bible teaches. And it is only fair that I answer my own question. But before I do, I confess what the Bible actually teaches, that God alone is one. And It also teaches that the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God. It doesn't teach, however, how that is possible. After all is said and done, most Christians are happy to leave it there. How the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit can all be God, and yet remain One, most Christians would say, is a mystery. We just don't know how that is possible and the Bible doesn't go into detail about that. And I am fine to leave it there.
Early in the third and fourth centuries, some Christian theologians, well versed in Greek culture and Greek thought, attempted to formulate an answer the question "in what manner can three distinct persons exist as one being." In order to understand what these men were attempting to say, we need to understand what these men were attempting to do. The preoccupation of philosophy (and thus theology) at that time was the study of science. In short, early Christian theologians were searching for a scientific explanation for the nature of God, given the first principles of scientific thought. In other words, they wanted to know "the what" of God. What was he?
In their view, God is a primary substance (ousia) and the essential nature underlying a thing is (hupostasis). Therefore, God is one (ousia) in three (hypostasis) Father, son, and Holy Spirit. As I said, these are scientific concepts seeking to understand the quiddity of God: what he is in himself. These theologians also developed the notion of the "hypostatic union", That Jesus is both man and God in the same person. Jesus has two, rather than one hypostasis: (1) his human nature, and (2) his divine nature. That is the Trinity Doctrine in a nutshell, a brief summary of a much larger discussion.
The Bible isn't so much concerned with the "what" of God, however, as it is concerned with the "who" of God. The Bible spends little time on the question, "what is God" and much more time on answering the question, "who is God?" Nonetheless, the single most important concept revealed in both the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament scriptures is the fact that God is transcendent over all things he created. There is no God but God. By nature, God is above and outside of creation and therefore cannot be defined in scientific terms and categories. He exists outside of reality. Thus, the second commandment forbids the creation of an idol in the shape of a creature or any other thing, since nothing in this reality can represent him.
The Bible doesn't teach the proposed scientific explanation for the nature of Jesus, i.e. the hypostatic union. The concept of a dual nature is foreign to the Bible, a doctrine which would be strange to Jesus and the apostles. With regard to the "what" of Jesus, the Bible clearly teaches that he is man. We have no Biblical evidence to support the notion of "dual nature", which is absurd on the face of it. With regard to the "who" of God, the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus is the image of God, meaning, if one should experience Jesus in person, then one would be experiencing the Father. It doesn't follow, then, that Jesus must have a transcendent nature along side his human nature. The oneness of God the Father and God the Son doesn't rest in a shared (ousia), it rests in a shared identity.
All I am saying is that the Bible isn't a science textbook, focused on the "what" of God's existence, though it has a few things to say about that. The primary focus of the Bible is on the "who" of God, and especially the qualities of his divine nature. The Bible remains focused on the essential qualities that both the Father and the Son hold in common, which are qualities such as goodness, righteousness, truth, love, justice, mercy, faithfulness, compassion, integrity, and constancy. (committed to his word and his covenants.) The divine nature of Jesus is found in the quality of his character and a life lived in obedience to the Father.
Finally, one can believe the truth about God the Father and God the Son from the Bible without affirming the scientific explanation offered by Christian theologians of the third and fourth centuries. According to Apostles like Paul and John, it is very important for believers to accept the premise that the man Jesus is the Christ. The antichrist, as John says, is the one who denies that Jesus, having come in the flesh, is the Christ. In other words, the antichrist doesn't deny the deity of Jesus; the antichrist denies the humanity of Christ.
It's obvious you would rather discuss the trinity than the fact that the basis of your thread, and your blasphemous video, is completely unbiblical.