Modalism and personage

[billcu1]

Can someone help me with personage so that I can truly understand the trinity? The hypostatic union is Jesus. One personage and two natures divine and human. Modalism exaggerates God to the point that he is one God with 3 modes rather than persons. My parents believe that Jesus was the Father incarnate as the Son and suffered and died. Pure classic modalism. Also is God a triune being? That might be true in some way right?

 

[Robyn_p]

The simplest way I find to look at this is to see personhood as describing the “who” of something, where nature describes the “what”. So what Jesus is is true God and true man. Who Jesus is is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

So, if you asked any one Person of the Trinity what they are, you would get one answer. God. But if you asked them who they are, you would get three different answers: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Father is fully God, the Son is fully God, and the Holy Spirit is fully God. They’re all co-equal, and co-eternal with each other. They all have the same glory. But they are distinct persons nonetheless. The Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit, the Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son.

Does that help a little? Let me know if you need something better explained.

 

[billcu1]

The simplest way I find to look at this is to see personhood as describing the “who” of something, where nature describes the “what”. So what Jesus is is true God and true man. Who Jesus is is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

So, if you asked any one Person of the Trinity what they are, you would get one answer. God. But if you asked them who they are, you would get three different answers: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Father is fully God, the Son is fully God, and the Holy Spirit is fully God. They’re all co-equal, and co-eternal with each other. They all have the same glory. But they are distinct persons nonetheless. The Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit, the Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son.

Does that help a little? Let me know if you need something better explained.

So is the personage for us as humans. The Word or son? I know man has one personage.

 

[Robyn_p]

So is the personage for us as humans. The Word or son? I know man has one personage.

Sorry, could you clarify the question? Who are you asking is the Word or Son? Jesus? If so, yes those names both refer to the same Person.

And yes humans exist as one person in one being. God exists as three Persons in one being.

If you want to go deeper in understanding the Trinity, the best explanation I’ve seen so far is in the book Theology for Beginners by Frank Sheed, He somehow explains the deepest mystery of our faith in plain layman terms, when I read him I went from not liking to think about the Trinity to getting excited about it. Highly recommend that book.

 

[billcu1]

Sorry, could you clarify the question? Who are you asking is the Word or Son? Jesus? If so, yes those names both refer to the same Person.

Yes I understand Jesus’s personage is the Son but what about the rest of us? Is our personage the Son or the other cosubstantals ?

 

[Robyn_p]

Yes I understand Jesus’s personage is the Son but what about the rest of us? Is our personage the Son or the other cosubstantals ?

Our personhood is our own. Your personage would be billcu1, mine is Robyn p, that’s who we are.

Our personage can’t be the Son, any more than my person could be your person. because the Son is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, a distinct divine person, distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit, and distinct and completely separate from us.