Trinity?

[MystyRock]

I do believe in the Trinity (God, Jesus, Holy Spirit). They are each unique in their own way, but still "one".

My question is - do you think they are equal?

 

[BryanW92]

I do believe in the Trinity (God, Jesus, Holy Spirit). They are each unique in their own way, but still "one".

My question is - do you think they are equal?

Is ice better than water or steam? Each part of the Trinity has a different purpose. There is no equal or unequal. They just are.

 

[steamforthis]

I need help- I need to answer this question. PLEASE.

I'm sorry I posted this in the wrong place. PLEASE HELP ME.

"If the Old Testament saints went to Paradise, why was Jesus needed?
The old saints went to Paradise. They gave their life to the Lord."

 

[steamforthis]

I need help- I need to answer this question. PLEASE.

I'm sorry I posted this in the wrong place. PLEASE HELP ME.

"If the Old Testament saints went to Paradise, why was Jesus needed?
The old saints went to Paradise. They gave their life to the Lord."

 

[steamforthis]

I need help- I need to answer this question. PLEASE.

I'm sorry I posted this in the wrong place. PLEASE HELP ME.

"If the Old Testament saints went to Paradise, why was Jesus needed?
The old saints went to Paradise. They gave their life to the Lord."

 

[yogosans14]

According to the Trinity doctrine, yes they are all equal.

I personally dont believe in it, but each to his own.

 

[Albion]

According to the Trinity doctrine, yes they are all equal.

I personally dont believe in it, but each to his own.

Here's the answer to your confusion. They are all equal in Godliness. They are all equally divine. However, they are NOT equal to each other in every way. That would be to have them be identical to each other, which we know is not the case.

 

[Gods4Life4Ever]

I do believe in the Trinity (God, Jesus, Holy Spirit). They are each unique in their own way, but still "one".

My question is - do you think they are equal?

MystyRock,
To expand upon what Albion said, ..... they are One together with each other with separate and distinct actions, with One message, One mission, One purpose.

To put it into Wesleyan terms of grace, God the Father by His grace seeks to have a loving fellowship with His creation-humanity: prevenient grace, drawing faith. God the Son provides the means to reconcile that loving relationship between God the Father and humanity: Saving grace, saving faith. The Holy Spirit provides the means of sustaining that reconciled loving relationship between God and humanity: sanctification, holiness, sustaining grace, sustaining faith.

The One message: John 3 & 17.
The One mission: John 3 & 17.
The One purpose: John 3 & 17.

So, yes, they are equal parts of the Whole.

 

[GraceSeeker]

I do believe in the Trinity (God, Jesus, Holy Spirit). They are each unique in their own way, but still "one".

My question is - do you think they are equal?

I don't think that you properly described the Trinity.
Historically, when we in the Christian church have spoken of the Trinity, we are speaking of the one God. This is important, to understand that the original and major emphasis of the Trinity is to affirm the unity of the one God. That despite the experience of being taught by Jesus to pray to the Father, and that one will be guided by the Holy Spirit, and that Jesus himself is to be understood as both Lord and God (see Thomas' comment when he first meets Jesus after the resurrection, John 20:28) that we don't have three different God's but still just the same one God.

So, to speak of God is already to speak of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. To call the Trinity God and anything is to be redundant. Muslims make the mistake of equating the concept of the Father with all of God, but we who are trying to speak of the Trinity ought not do so.

Also, though the Son has always been, and therefore God has always existed in a Trinity which included an eternal Father and an eternal Son, we cannot say that Jesus has always been. Jesus is the incarnation of the Son in a human body, but that incarnation does have a beginning point in time, which the Son does not.


So, the Trinity is not God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is nothing more than and nothing less than a description of what we understand about God pure and simple. That God has eternally existed in community within himself. That community is known to us in the persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who are nonetheless just one divine being, i.e. God.



P.S. I know that many who have already posted here are quite capable theologians. So, I'm surprised that no one else caught the mislabeling of the Trinity earlier. Are you all sleeping?

 

[GraceSeeker]

I need help- I need to answer this question. PLEASE.

I'm sorry I posted this in the wrong place. PLEASE HELP ME.

"If the Old Testament saints went to Paradise, why was Jesus needed?
The old saints went to Paradise. They gave their life to the Lord."

Have you heard of kairos time? We normally track time in a chronological sense, the arrow of time. But there are also moments in time that are so seminal, so full of import that they impact everything. Jesus is considered one of those moments, note how we count all time from him, either B.C. (before Christ) or A.D. (Ano Domino, in the year of our Lord).

Well, the Crucifixion/Resurrection is THE Kairos moment of all time. Christ took away the sins of all. Not just those of his own time, but those who follow and those who go before.

In trusting in God, the OT saints, trusted that he could and would do what was necessary to save them. In Christ God has done just that. Some how they had faith to believe what their eyes could not see. But that is what faith is all about. And it is their faith that become a model for ours and thus how we are saved. But neither of us go to paradise on our own merit. Rather we go based on the grace of Christ's offering of life to us and his victory over sin and death. Apart from that, even the OT saints would be in hell as surely as the rest of us.

The interesting thing is not so much that Christ's action on the cross might be applied to sins that have already occurred, but that it might also be considered sufficient to cleanse those of use who did not yet even exist of our future sins. But it does, specifically because it is a kairos moment, a once for all time offering, and we who believe don't have to live at that time to be recipients of the grace offered in it.

 

[MystyRock]

I don't think that you properly described the Trinity.
Historically, when we in the Christian church have spoken of the Trinity, we are speaking of the one God. This is important, to understand that the original and major emphasis of the Trinity is to affirm the unity of the one God. That despite the experience of being taught by Jesus to pray to the Father, and that one will be guided by the Holy Spirit, and that Jesus himself is to be understood as both Lord and God (see Thomas' comment when he first meets Jesus after the resurrection, John 20:28) that we don't have three different God's but still just the same one God.

So, to speak of God is already to speak of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. To call the Trinity God and anything is to be redundant. Muslims make the mistake of equating the concept of the Father with all of God, but we who are trying to speak of the Trinity ought not do so.

Also, though the Son has always been, and therefore God has always existed in a Trinity which included an eternal Father and an eternal Son, we cannot say that Jesus has always been. Jesus is the incarnation of the Son in a human body, but that incarnation does have a beginning point in time, which the Son does not.


So, the Trinity is not God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is nothing more than and nothing less than a description of what we understand about God pure and simple. That God has eternally existed in community within himself. That community is known to us in the persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who are nonetheless just one divine being, i.e. God.



P.S. I know that many who have already posted here are quite capable theologians. So, I'm surprised that no one else caught the mislabeling of the Trinity earlier. Are you all sleeping?

Ok - One Eternal God in 3 persons - Father, Son, Holy Spirit?

 

[GraceSeeker]

Exactly!