Trinity Understanding help

[FightingFat]

The Docetic tendency in Islam is obvious. If only more Muslims would study HISTORY!

Athanasius dealt with this best I think. God can never be without His Word, any more than the light can cease to shine or the river source to flow.( Here Athanasius uses the language of spring and river to explain the relationship between Father and Son as prefigured in Jeremiah 2:13) Hence the Son must exist eternally alongside the Father. The explanation of this is that His generation is an eternal process; “just as the Father is always good by nature, so He is by nature always generative”.(St. Athanasius) It is entirely correct to call Him the Father’s eternal offspring, for the Father’s being was never incomplete, needing an essential feature to be added to it; nor is the Son’s generation like a man’s from his parent, involving His coming into existence after the Father. Rather He is God’s offspring, and since God is eternal and He belongs to God as Son, He exists from all eternity. It is characteristic of men, because of the imperfection of their nature, to beget in time; but God’s offspring is eternal, His nature always being perfect.

 

[inJESUS]

The Docetic tendency in Islam is obvious. If only more Muslims would study HISTORY!

they’d stop being Muslims. How many Muslims on this board know about Gnosticism or Ebionitism, their forefathers?rarely do they know that their teachings were held by heretical sects that opposed the apostolic churches.

good post by the way.

 

[inJESUS]

why “distinct” ?? I don’t understand why they have to be distinct ??

distinct in postition not nature because the Font is the Father from whom eternally proceed the Word and Spirit.

 

[FightingFat]

they’d stop being Muslims. How many Muslims on this board know about Gnosticism or Ebionitism, their forefathers?

Exactly! The denial of the soteriological importance of Christ’s suffering and death diminishes His mission to that of a mere prophet, despite the miraculous circumstances of His birth acknowledged by Muslims. A heresy that is centuries older than their own beliefs.

good post by the way.

Thanks!

 

[Catholic_JIMMY]

the Trinity

3 distinct forms , 1 substance,

look at H2O ------- ice , water, vapor(steam)

ice is the only thing in this world that expands when it freezes, All other things contract when they freezes, Without that unique fact life could not exist, if ice contracted and sank in a lake then no fish could live, all lakes would freeze solid, iceburgs in the ocean would sink. . Ice expanding allows life,
ice= God the Father

water, the living flowing water, life can not exist without water, Christ is often represented as flowing water
water=Jesus

vapor, unseen, without it again life would not exist, if humidity was 0 percent. we would shrivel up and die, we need the vapor in our every breath we take, the vapor in the air also gives us rain. vapor is the breath of life.
vapor= Holy Spirit

All 3 forms of H2O are separate and distinct, but there are all H2O They are all the same element , in distinct forms.

all give LIFE, 3 distinct forms- (persons), but only One Substance-(God)

No, no, not the water theory. God cannot be explained through H2O, get that idea out your head please. I have an understanding of the Trinity but it was revised several times. I will say it anyway . Just as each person has an unseen mind, a at times visible spirit, and an always visible body God does to. Some people might ask, wait are you saying that Jesus did not have his own soul, no I am not. I am saying that the relationship between each distinct person or aspect of the God is similar to the relationship to each aspect of our being. Note that our mind, spirit, and body are distinct but of the same being. Since God is infinite, we can conclude that each aspect of the Trinity is greater than a whole finite Human being. Thus each aspect of the Trinity is can also manifest itself as a person. This understanding of the Trinity is not perfect either, but I believe it is at least a baby-step ahead of the water theory.

 

[Catholic_JIMMY]

Gaudium et Spes directly draws a parallel from the union of the divine Persons and the “…union of the sons of God in truth and love.” (Gadium et Spes ¶ 24) Can you see how this uses human community itself as a model to show us the Trinity and thus offers a challenge to us for a journey into God?

Ultimately, the mystery and doctrine of the Trinity means that the God who created us, who sustains us, who will judge us and give us eternal life is not a totally transcendent God utterly removed from us, rather He is a God of absolute proximity, communicated in flesh, in history, within our human family. He is a God who is present in the spiritual depths of our being and apex of our unfolding history as the source of enlightenment and community.

The Trinity is the transcendent Archetype of unity-in-love-without-rivalry. This, I propose, is the challenge we are set by God.

I actually like your understanding of the Trinity rather then mine.