God is the eternal Spirit. True or False?

[Yahchristian]

John 4:24... God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Hebrews 9:14... How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

God is the eternal Spirit.

True or False?

P.S. It seems the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity has made it difficult to answer simple questions.

 

[Ken Rank]

John 4:24... God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Hebrews 9:14... How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

God is the eternal Spirit.

True or False?

P.S. It seems the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity has made it difficult to answer simple questions.

The Catholic definition is the Catholic definition... and it has even been interpreted different ways throughout the centuries. Bottom line... the bible is a 2000 page book and the vast majority of the book is dealing with how we interact with God and neighbor and history. With very little spent on the being of God, then to debate and divide over each of our understanding is ridiculous. I am not saying you are doing that at all... just speaking in general about a very divided body.

 

[AlexDTX]

John 4:24... God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Hebrews 9:14... How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

God is the eternal Spirit.

True or False?

P.S. It seems the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity has made it difficult to answer simple questions.

I would restate that God is eternity. I understand eternity to be without time. Without time means without beginning nor end. As created beings we are forever a part of time. We have everlasting life in Christ because the timeless life, the eternal life of God, is joined to ours. When we accepted the salvation of Christ with the new birth we stepped into eternity.

 

[RDKirk]

I would restate that God is eternity. I understand eternity to be without time. Without time means without beginning nor end. As created beings we are forever a part of time. We have everlasting life in Christ because the timeless life, the eternal life of God, is joined to ours. When we accepted the salvation of Christ with the new birth we stepped into eternity.

I don't think we or any other created beings will be "eternal" as God is. We will assume immortality, spliced into God's eternal life, but there will always for each of us be a time before existence that we do not share with God.

 

[Archie the Preacher]

I am pretty sure I agree with AlexDTX and R D Kirk.

All Christians are 'eternal' from the point they accept Christ's salvation on.

Only God in His fullness is eternal from 'start' to 'finish' and I use those human temporal terms as I can't think of better ones. The KJV uses the phrase "...from everlasting to everlasting...", the New English Translation uses 'eternal' (Psalm 90:2). Presumably, the reader gets the idea.

 

[Yahchristian]

John 4:24... God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Hebrews 9:14... How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

God is the eternal Spirit.

True or False?

I know Trinitarians would say this is True...

The Holy Spirit is the eternal Spirit.


But I was not sure if Trinitarians would say this is True...

God is the eternal Spirit.


I am glad all those who have responded so far agree with me that statement is True.

What do the rest of you say?

 

[Archie the Preacher]

Yah, how could one hold that the Holy Spirit is God and simultaneously believe the Holy Spirit is Eternal but God is not?

That is a logical contradiction even a - uh - anyone would catch.

 

[RDKirk]

I know Trinitarians would say this is True...

The Holy Spirit is the eternal Spirit.


But I was not sure if Trinitarians would say this is True...

God is the eternal Spirit.


I am glad all those who have responded so far agree with me that statement is True.

What do the rest of you say?

The Holy Spirit is God; the Father is God; the Son is God.

What we don't have a way to understand is whether (and if so, how) those three statements are symmetric and transitive.

 

[Yahchristian]

Yah, how could one hold that the Holy Spirit is God and simultaneously believe the Holy Spirit is Eternal but God is not?

That is a logical contradiction even a - uh - anyone would catch.

In my discussions with Trinitarians...

Trinitarians will say... The Holy Spirit is God.

Trinitarians will not say... God is the Holy Spirit.

So I expect some will not say... God is the eternal Spirit.

I created this thread to find out if that is the case.

 

[AlexDTX]

I don't think we or any other created beings will be "eternal" as God is. We will assume immortality, spliced into God's eternal life, but there will always for each of us be a time before existence that we do not share with God.

I did not say we would be eternal. I said we would be everlasting because of His eternal life in us.

 

[rnmomof7]

I think all Christians accept the trinity as truth..why would that make the question of ifGod is a spirit difficult?

 

[Yahchristian]

I think all Christians accept the trinity as truth..why would that make the question of ifGod is a spirit difficult?

I agree that it shouldn't be difficult. But can you provide your answers...

God is a Spirit. We all say True.

God is the holy Spirit. True or False?

God is the eternal Spirit. True or False?

I say all three statements are True. How about you?

John 4:24... God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Ephesians 4:30... And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Hebrews 9:14... How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

 

[rnmomof7]

I agree that it shouldn't be difficult. But can you provide your answers...

God is a Spirit. We all say True.

God is the holy Spirit. True or False?

God is the eternal Spirit. True or False?

I say all three statements are True. How about you?

John 4:24... God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Ephesians 4:30... And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Hebrews 9:14... How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Yes but I still do not understand why you said this is difficult in your OP ??

 

[RDKirk]

I agree that it shouldn't be difficult. But can you provide your answers...

God is a Spirit. We all say True.

God is the holy Spirit. True or False?

God is the eternal Spirit. True or False?

That depends on what "is" means. As I said before, it's difficult to assert that "Jesus is God" means that Jesus has one-to-one identity with God. I can take a cup of ocean water and say, "this water is ocean" but I can't say "the ocean is this water."

Scripture tells us readily enough that the Son is God, but we can't say that "God is the Son" because the Father is God but the Father is not the Son. We can say the Holy Spirit is God, but we can't say that the God is the Holy Spirit because the Son is God but the Son is not the Holy Spirit.

From scripture we can declare the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but we cannot declare those equations are symmetric or transitive.

 

[nonaeroterraqueous]

I don't think we or any other created beings will be "eternal" as God is. We will assume immortality, spliced into God's eternal life, but there will always for each of us be a time before existence that we do not share with God.

I almost agree. Almost. I think that we occupy at any given time an infinitely small part of time, that bit between future and past that we call "now." While the time we occupy is infinitely small, our creator occupies all of time, contains it, even, and has his own time that stretches to infinity in both directions. We don't abide in the past. We're never in it. Though it stretches out behind us, we never actually are in the past. I don't think the future is fundamentally different than the past, either, and if we have an infinite future, then that makes us beings of an infinite time, but only if we can be a part of it, which we can't. We never abide in more than an infinitely small section of time, and that makes us not eternal. Hence, everlasting is not the same thing as eternal. It's all in the difference between kairos time and chronos time.

 

[Yahchristian]

That depends on what "is" means.

We will use your definition for "is" in this statement...

Scripture tells us readily enough that the Son is God.

Based on your definition/usage of "is" above, can you answer the questions...

God is the holy Spirit. True or False?

God is the eternal Spirit. True or False?

 

[RDKirk]

We will use your definition for "is" in this statement...


Based on your definition/usage of "is" above, can you answer the questions...

God is the holy Spirit. True or False?

God is the eternal Spirit. True or False?

Apparently you didn't read my entire post, so I'll give you the final portion again:

Scripture tells us readily enough that the Son is God, but we can't say that "God is the Son" because the Father is God but the Father is not the Son. We can say the Holy Spirit is God, but we can't say that the God is the Holy Spirit because the Son is God but the Son is not the Holy Spirit.

From scripture we can declare the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but we cannot declare those equations are symmetric or transitive.

 

[Yahchristian]

We can say the Holy Spirit is God, but we can't say that the God is the Holy Spirit because the Son is God but the Son is not the Holy Spirit.

Ok, you answered one question. Can you answer the other one...

God is the holy Spirit. You say False.

God is the eternal Spirit. True or False?

 

[RDKirk]

Ok, you answered one question. Can you answer the other one...

God is the holy Spirit. You say False.

God is the eternal Spirit. True or False?

If you're trying to assert that "eternal Spirit" is a separate Person of God apart from the Holy Spirit or not just a general reference to God, I'm not going there with you.

 

[Yahchristian]

If you're trying to assert that "eternal Spirit" is a separate Person of God apart from the Holy Spirit or not just a general reference to God, I'm not going there with you.

Just the opposite.

I believe God is (the selfsame as) the eternal Spirit.

It is Trinitarians who often think God is not (the selfsame as) the eternal Spirit.

So I would like to know what you personally believe...

God is the eternal Spirit. True or False?

Hebrews 9:14... How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?