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I realize that that is a not uncommon interpretation of Abraham's visitors. But there are many verses in the Bible indicating that no one can see God the Father and live. Here is one example:
Joh 1:18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
The little bit that the passage reveals is entirely relevant, in my reading, to homousianism and trinitarian monotheism:
- Abraham experiences a theophany, a visitation or appearance of God
- Theophanies need not necessarily be a direct appearance of God (e.g. a burning bush). They are not incarnations.
- Three persons approach Abraham
- Abraham greets and appeals to one singular Lord, not multiple strangers
- One God responds to Abraham, not God and others
So, the better interpretation of Abraham's theophany is that the visitors were the pre-incarnate Christ and two angels. Then the 2 angels proceeded to meet his nephew Lot in Sodom.
I'm curious, where does this assertion come from?
It may be fair to say that that the concept of Being (Ousia) transcending the distinction between coequal, coeternal Persons agrees with the Pseudo-Athanasian creed. My understanding is that that has been a point of discrepancy between Eastern and Western understanding of the Trinity. EO believe that an essence is not something that exists independently.
This assertion I don't understand. Existence preceding essence is the basis of existentialism, no? Nobody can exist without their essence. If we did not have essence, none of us would be what we are.
God the Father is the Being or the essence from whom the Son is begotten and the Holy Spirit proceeds.
I'm of a comparable position: the Father speaks the Word of His Power, upholding all created things, created and "framed" by the Word.
The issue can be looked at as follows: Does the transcendent God become immanent in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Or does the transcendent Father become immanent in the Son and the Holy Spirit? I think the correct position is that Christ and the Holy Spirit immanently reveal themselves; God the Father only reveals himself immanently vicariously through the Son and Spirit.
It's my understanding that the filioque can actually be reconciled, but this doesn't mean we can expect the same to apply to the East and West. As for me, I have some reasons to believe that "from the Father, through the Son" is agreeable, but this is going way beyond the scope of this thread.
And the other important question is: which of these models can be better understood by a Muslim? This is the subject of the OP.
Asserting the monotheism of trinitarian belief is absolutely mandatory. Currently I do not know any other way to establish that trinitarianism is monotheistic, beside the basic idea of homoousianism, interpreted as "same in being," as I'm presenting here.
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