Sincerely, thank you for your clarifications. I especially like your explanation of the Holy Spirit. Without personalities, what is the meaning of, “they are 3 different persons eternally in a relationship?” What are their different personalities. What is the Catholic understanding? Thank you.
"JesusChrist:
Thus, you disagree with the same Christ you professed to be God when you said:
So which is it? Is Jesus your God? Do you dissent from your professed God’s teaching that there are no other ways save His way through His Cross and His Church? You can’t have it both ways. Again, listen to He who you profess to be God
JesusChrist said:
Saying you believe in one God with three personalities fails to account for the distinction between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I can be one man with three (or more) personalities (i.e. a schizophrenic), but I cannot be more than one person - I cannot be in relationship with myself. God, on the other hand, is not a schizophrenic, He doesn’t have multiple personalities. There exists three distinct persons all of whom are one God because they all share in the one Divine essence. All three persons are uncreated and co-eternal. This is important because it means that God has always existed in relationship, in love. He did not need to create someone to love, He already had a full communion of love within the Godhead from all eternity. Creation, therefore, was completely unnecessary, it was a pure act of the overflowing love of God. Further, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not parts of God, they each are fully God. When we see Christ we are not seeing this part of God and not that because Christ is all of God, as is the Father and the H.Spirit. Finally, please note that God cannot generate new members of the Godhead, all three divine Persons exist eternally because there is no potency in God (God cannot change) and thus there cannot suddenly be four Divine Persons.
BTW, schizophrenic people do not have multiple personalities; they have only one personality. You’re thinking of people who suffer from dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder. The “split” found in schizophrenia consists of a lack of coordination between people’s affect (emotion), behavior, and cognition.
Thank you for your kindness and prayers. Regarding your 3 choices, I have to reject choice #1, #2, and #3. (lol) Much easier for me to just accept the Catholic Church as a body of believers profoundly blessed by God as demonstrated time and time again in the most profound and inspiring ways. Again you are encouraging me to reject Krsna as false and man-made. So you have raised your hand and stood up and have basically called countless spiritual leaders liars. Do you really need to do that? They teach that the goal of human life is to awaken love for God. They teach that the soul’s eternal nature is the servant of God. All I know is that offending God’s holy servants can destroy one’s blessings and opportunities with God. This is taught by both religions. I guess this is blunt, also. As for Lord Jesus Christ, I love Him. As for Catholicism, I kind of stumbled into it late in life. I entered by reading the history of Sor Maria de Jesus of Agreda, Spain; both her biography and her words. That was about 3 years ago. So in a way, I stumbled upon this big trunk full of Catholic books, so to speak, and next pulled out 3 or 4 different volumes about St. Francis of Assisi, and Blessed Margarette of Costello, and on and on and on. Now I have a bookshelf with dozens of Catholic books I have read, am reading, and am going to read. I especially like reading what the Saints have written. They seem free of politics and only know and express their love of God. These are Saints such as St. Joseph of Cupertino who were so lost in their love, that even the rules that govern science melted before them. So it as their feet that I sit, listen, and try to learn. It took awhile but this is all I have tried to do in my life, these past fifty years: learn about God. You seem to have the whole God thing figured out perfectly with nothing left to discover. And you certainly are not going to look beyond the pins that have you anchored to your spot. That is not necessarily a bad thing; just the opposite. How can following in the footsteps of the Catholic Church be a mistake? I can only encourage you. My only humble suggestion for you is to be more loving and more receptive to those people of India who follow the path of bhakti (devotion) as taught by Lord Krsna. Don’t lump them all together as Hindus. You are going to find all sorts of beliefs in India. I only accept the cult of bhakti yoga (connecting to God by loving devotional service). This was most notably taught by Lord Chaitanya who appeared in West Begal about 500 years ago. He taught that God is non-different from His Holy Name and thus instigated with his followers the worship of the Holy Name by singing and dancing. There was not a person in India who could approach His intellect, but instead of joining “the discussion” he told all the great scholars to put away all their books of learning and simply sing and dance to the Lord’s Holy Name. Sadly, some say that God only has one Name. Lord Chaitanya taught that God has millions of Names. As long as they are bonafied, pick the one that you love the most. He personally recommended the Names: Krishna, Rama, and Hare. Because God is non-different from His Name, by calling upon the Name of God your are directly associating with Him. You will find this wonderfully illustrated in the most beautiful book, The Way a Pilgrim, who was a Russian Catholic. Again, thank you.
I stand corrected. Taking Psych 101 a thousand yrs ago as a Freshman hardly qualifies me as an expert. Nonetheless, the theological point stands. God doesn’t suffer from DID either
You are doing the exact same thing, my friend. Countless spiritual leaders have taught exactly what I’ve said above, that the God of India is false and man-made. You are calling all those spiritual leaders liars! You are pretending to believe in Catholicism, but you don’t actually believe in Catholicism, you are a Hare Krsna who is misinterpreting some Catholics saints to fit into a Hare Krsna theology those same Saints would regard as evil and man-made!
Hmmm. I guess I’m toast. What others have done and said is what others have done and said. Someone once said (probably some Hindu heathen) that some people are like flies and some people are like bees. Bees only search for nectar. Flies like dirty things. I want to be like a bee. All I know is that I find enormous nectar with the words and lives of the various Catholics I have spent time with. Often I see some agreement with the teachings of Bhakti yoga. Yes, I find that nice. I don’t even know who are the countless Catholic spiritual leaders you are talking about. I only entered into the world of Catholicism by a side door, so to speak. Who could not find and appreciate the sweetness emanating from the lips of the great and Holy Saints of Christ. I find this nectar very sweet and it brings me much happiness. You haven’t heard me tearing down Catholics. You might imply that I have, but this only came about from responding to your pointed comments. It is not my place to condemn anyone. I don’t even care about what religion is right or wrong. Just not me. I only care about God. I believe with God that all things are possible. But because I did spend 5 years as a Hare Krsna monk, if somebody has a question, they are welcome to ask me. After all, this is a section on Catholic Answers that allows for this. As for you, thank you for taking time with me on this forum.
Hi reb108,
Then I suppose we’ve gone as far as we can go together, my friend. If you continue to seek out good Catholic books, may I suggest two books by a great Catholic author/ philosopher? Jacob’s Ladder and Between Heaven and Hell both by Dr. Peter Kreeft. May God bless you.
Oh, good. I am always looking for good books to read. But I do have “Saints of the American Wilderness” to read next. I just watched “The Black Robe” (for the 3rd time) to get me in the mood. And then I have a Hare Krishna book I just bought that is on my reading list. All glories to Lord Jesus Christ P.S. Just ordered Between Heaven and Hell from Amazon. Thanks again
That you can even ask about Advaita Vedanta suggest to me your are far more knowledgeable about this than I am and that please, I would like to hear your thoughts concerning this. Brahman is God, but refers more to His impersonal nature, like the rays of the sun vs. the sun itself. The highest conception of Brahman is Krishna and millions of people worship Krishna. Thank you for asking.
Very Nice questions. Too late now to answer but I will reply ASAP. All glories to Lord Jesus Christ.
I would contend that hindus at the time didn’t ahve the strict monotheism believed by Jews and Chrsitians of the first century but went along pantheistic lines. I may be wrong on that but I suspect no jew in the first century who actually was devout would have thought the hindus were worshipping the one true God.
The holy spirit is not Jesus Christ but the Holy spirit and Jesus Chrsit are the one God. The trinity uses specific language in its definition to reach these persons, thus I think you really don’t know what the trinity says when you say they are the same person. Lets define some terms, two are really only important at this point.
Hi reb 108,
Dear LivingWaters7. Here is the response to your first two questions: