What is the Trinity? (page 2)

BurnTheShips

sorry if that sounds harsh, but there is no example of an almighty Trinity, eternal and uncreated in any other religous belief.

The Hindu Trimurti/Tridevi seems to share some similarities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimurti

BTS

Terry

Why make something like this a question of belief when it isn't even a question of understanding or explaining?

You can make school kids memorize things and parrot them back, but, it isn't a question of them learning so much as following orders.

The Pledge of Allegience, for example. What would the average kid say the word "Allegience" actually means?

People start getting weird and crazy when you push their BELIEF buttons.

They'll defend what they have been given to be a Truth even if it is inexplicable and teach it to their kids who will grow up believing and defending too.

This TRINITY thing is a meme. It is a superstitious non-rational one.

The earliest arguments between Judeo-Christians and Messianic Jews was a knock-down-drag-out semantic and philosophical smackdown over the NATURE of God and Jesus and the Trinity.

Some pretty smart people and some pretty stupid ones got involved but it was the power of the state (Roman Emperor) who finally made it a matter of ORTHODOXY.

Believe what you like. It has nothing to do with reality.

Belief and Faith simply prove how far you are willing to suspend your rational mind before it snaps.

A True Believer has given up reality.

PSacramento

A True Believer has given up reality.

How very absolute of you ;)

BurnTheShips

The True Unbeliever speaks out on this meme!

BTS

TTWSYF

Good show Burns. But the only similarity between the Christian Trinity and the Hindu Trinity is the word trinity.

Although the wikipedia [,unreliable resource by the way,] uses the words 'great trinity' , the extensive polytheism of that faith could not possibly translate into Christianity. Hindus have [literally] hundreds of millions of Hindu gods. It is true that hindus will often view their [lower] deities as the 3 greater deities [Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva], often referred to as the Trimurti. They apparently proceeded the 'Great World Egg' that itself was created by the 'First Cause'.

They do not believe in a single divine Being who is eternal, uncreated, and in three persons which would be required to say that the Christian Trinity was borrowed from pagan beliefs.

respectfully,

DC

Chalam

What is the Trinity?

The Trinity states that Jesus is God, just as the Holy Sprit is God, and indeed the Father.

There is one God, three persons.

Ephesians 4:4-6 (New International Version, ©2010)

4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Matthew 28:19 (New International Version, ©2010)

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

2 Corinthians 13:14 (New International Version, ©2010)

14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Galatians 4:6 (New International Version, ©2010)

6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”

John 4:23-26 (New International Version, ©2010)

23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Blessings in the Son, the Sprit and the Father,

Stephen

GOrwell

Can the greek word used @ 1 Cor 1:15 for firstborn (pre-eminent) also mean first-created at the same time? or is that completely incompatible?

ProdigalSon

Positive, negative, and ground.

Band on the Run

C.S. Lewis had a major impact on me. His writing is clear and terse. He does not talk down to the reader or issue edicts.

Mere Christianity is a masterpiece. My fear of demons knows no bounds. A priest recommended The Screwtape Letters to me. It sounded awful at first. How can Satan and demons be funny? I laughed so hard and was unburdened. If only, C.S. Lewis wrote a piece about the Witnesses for me in a similar vein. They deserve laughter as Satan deserves laughter.

Madeleine LiEngle of A Wrinkle in Time and The Glorious Impossible helpd me through a wretched illness. Lewis is the better writer but her work also mocks witches. Reading her book is fun. It is a fave among Christian kids. When you read her critics, I would believe I knew a total amoral wretch who spent hours with me when she was under no obligation.

Perhaps b/c I feel so mute and awkward, I simply adore hearing language used in wonderful ways. I wanted to spit on Lewis after I read The Problem of Pain but he saw the error of his ways in A Grief Observed.

Chalam

Hi GOrwell

I assume you means this verse? http://biblos.com/colossians/1-15.htm

Blessings in Christ,