Sunday, March 09, 2008

The Bad Egg

I just finished reading chapter 14 in Abstract of Systematic Theology by James P. Boyce. This last paragraph sums what has been said.

"The Scriptures teach everywhere the unity of God explicitly and emphatically. There can be no doubt that they reveal a God that is exclusively one. But their other statements, which we have been examining, should assure us that they also teach that there are three divine persons. It is this peculiar twofold teaching, which is expressed by the word "trinity." The revelation to us, is not that of tritheism or three Gods; nor of triplicity, which is threefoldness, and would involve composition, and be contrary to the simplicity of God; nor of mere manifestation of one person in three forms, which is opposed to the revealed individuality of the persons; but it is well expressed by the word trinity, which is declarative, not simply of threeness, but of three-oneness. That this word is not found in Scripture is no objection to it, when the doctrine, expressed by it, is so clearly set forth."

This last paragraph is something that I think may often be overlooked. Sometimes we use imprecise language in describing our beliefs. We all at one time may have used the egg analogy in illustrating the Trinity. God, however, is not in three parts. There are three persons who are fully the same as to the stuff [Now I am doing it. Being or nature might be better] that makes God to be God. Yet there are not three Beings of God but only One.

There are three major errors that men fall into when denying some aspect of the clear doctrines of Scripture. Tri-theism or worse, polytheism is an error when denying the unity and oneness of God. Subordinationism is when the three Persons are denied as being equal. Modalism is the error when the plurality of Persons within the One God is denied [God is manifested as Father, Son and Spirit as an actor may take on different roles in a play].

Each of these errors is a serious trap. Often today the error of Modalism is the functioning belief of Christians. Have you ever used the water analogy? God desires Christians to worship in spirit and truth. Theology does matter. I would highly recommend James White's The Forgotten Trinity as not only a resource but a book that the average Christian layman to become familiar. It truly is a blessing to know God as He has revealed Himself.

4 comments:

Adam Pastor said...

Check out this video:

The Human Jesus

Hopefully, it well aid you in forgetting the trinity; seeing that the Scriptures have never ever taught such a thing as a trinity.


"The Scriptures teach everywhere the unity of God explicitly and emphatically. There can be no doubt that they reveal a God that is exclusively one."

That's it! Nothing more!
GOD is exclusively ONE! Thousands upon thousands of singular personal pronouns reaffirm the fact that GOD is ONE Being, ONE Person!!

Also it is obvious from Mark 12:28-32; that Jesus the Messiah believed alongside all Jews of that time; that GOD is ONE!

Note the scribe's response:
(Mark 12:32) And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:

Jesus was no trinitarian & neither was the scribe!


Modalism is indeed wrong.
But so is the doctrine of the trinity; find out more by viewing the video.

Yours In Messiah
Adam Pastor
The Human Jesus

Howard Fisher said...

Howdy Adam,

I am sure there is no convincing someone who is not able to even understand the basic definitions of the Trinity, so I will write what I am going to write knowing that you are not going to listen anyway.

"thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:"

What else was Jesus supposed to say? You must understand HOW the doctrine is revealed. It is not revealed in formulations as in the Nicene Creed or theological treatises. It is revealed in progressive & redemptive revelation. We know Jesus is Deity precisely because of how redemption occurs throughout the NT.

2) "Thousands upon thousands of singular personal pronouns reaffirm the fact that GOD is ONE Being, ONE Person!!"

a) This is simply false. Yes, there are singular pronouns. Yet there are also plural pronouns. Such as "Let Us make man in our image..."

b) Assuming being = person is plainly false.

c) The New Testament is replete with references that cite the Old Testament verses that speak about Yahweh and applies them directly to Jesus.

There is much more that could be said, but one must be willing to discuss such things instead of being a drive-by commenter.

------- Theo ------- said...

Howard:

I laughed out loud when you mentioned the egg analogy. It brought back a vivid memory of how such analogies break down.

While visiting inmates at a detention center in Texas some thirty years ago, a young inmate began complaining to me that the entire Christian notion of God seemed silly to her. "If God is like an egg..." she began and went off on some tangent that applied rather well to the nature of eggs but had nothing to do with the nature of God. I finally had to interrupt her, as this was obviously one nasty case of "missing the point."

"I don't know what people have told you about God," I said, "but one thing you can be sure of is this: God is NOT an egg."

Her reply (I'm not making this up.) was, "Oh. O.K." Then we moved on.

With the "simple" analogy removed she was able to go past it and begin trying to grasp the reality. Simple analogies can be helpful, but we need to remember that the only reason we use them is to attempt to illustrate a complicated or difficult to grasp truth in familiar terms. As such they must eventually break down. So it is with many concepts we attempt to sum up in easy, neat packages. The reality is not so neat. As I once read (It might have been here, as a matter of fact.), any theology you can put in a nutshell probably belongs in one.

Your bro,
--Theo

Howard Fisher said...

"any theology you can put in a nutshell probably belongs in one"

ROTFL