Adam Pastor,
Thank you for posting your comment. I did as you asked and prayerfully considered the video. I've listened to "The Human Jesus" and I'm glad that it's addressing the Trinity. However, I do have some major issues with the documentary. First of all most orthodox Christian believe in the Trinity do not believe that there are three separate gods (video spot or around 15:00). One God Three Person. It can be reduced to logic. Think of it as this way. How can a flawed human individual (supposing Jesus was just truly a human - which is the logical conclusion hinted in the video) be the perfect sacrifice for sins if He is not fully God as well? He couldn't because His sacrifice would be tainted. Univeral Unitarianism (not be confused with biblical Unitarianism, although through my brief research, they have the same roots) belief system falls apart when it comes to the creation of the world as well. For example, nothing existed before God. It was only God and God alone (visited other websites, both pro and con, about universal Unitarianism). How can He be perfect sacrifice if he was only just a flawed sinful human. The Gospel of John clearly states that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us AND was in the beginning of the world. He actually was active in creating the world. He actually claimed this in His interrogation (spelling?). He stated, before Abraham, I was. This is a term reserved in religious writing reserved for God. God in the Old Testament referenced Himself as "I AM", and Christ said before religious authorities the same statement. That is one of the reasons why the authorities wanted to curse Him by hanging Him on a cross. He said that He was the God of the Old Testament. This wasn't the only time He did this. It's just one example. He did the same thing numerous times in the Gospel of John. He knew what He was doing when He said this. He knew He was comparing Himself to God. The only way He could do was a. He was insane. or b. He was what He claimed to be. Other books of the Bible also attest to Him being God. Paul did this repeatedly in his letters (not only in the questioned). Paul referenced the Sacrifice of Jesus as being a complete sacrifice because he was both Man and God.
He (Jesus) did believe in the schema "Hear oh Israel, the is God, the Lord is One." But as stated earlier, He made Himself to be God by the I AM statements.
There is only one God and He is Holy. The only one who could be Holy is God. Holiness can only be attributed to God. So how can the Spirit not be God since the Scripture itself attributes Holiness to the Spirit. I know that's an impacted statement, but it would take much more space... I'll finish with this. God (the second person in the Trinity) made Himself man to complete God the Father's (First person of the Trinity) plan for our salvation. He came to the world through the power of the Holy Spirit. He was Holy (therefore God because only God is Holy) before He was born through the Holy Spirit can do Holy things (I'm hoping that makes sense to you I can't think of any other way of putting just off the top of my head).
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/u07.html This is a definition of Universal Unitarianism, for those who are interested.
Thank you for you interested in my blog. I hope we can have more discussions about the basics of Christian faith.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Three in One
I was channel surfing the other day, and came across "Christianity 101". The premise of the show is this; pastors team up to help young Christians as well as mature followers, find their way through complicated theology. Interested, I paused long enough to hear the word "Trinity". Wow, I thought, these pastors are taking on a heavy duty topic. Intrigued, I decided to watch, not expecting too much. After all, I've been a Christian for many years now, and even though I'm not theologian, I've got this Trinity thing down. Boy, was I wrong! I've heard the doctrine of the Trinity before, but not quite like this. It was explained in such a way that was easy to understand.
One of the principle doctrines of Christianity is that God exsists in three Persons; Father, Son, Holy Spirit (yep, just like the song says they are all Holy). They've always existed and are so united that they are all one God. That's pretty much a mind bender, isn't it. How can three people exist in one, and yet are separate from each other. This is were I would traditionally insert trite explanations like "God is like an apple... God the Holy Spirit is the skin, He leads us to the Son, the meat of the apple, who in turn leads us to the Father, the core of the apple. All are united ..." Yes, they are united, however, the guys on Christianity 101 brought up a good point... The skin, meat and core are just part of the apple, but not the whole! I can't say that I'm going to eat the entire apple, and just eat the meat! In order for me to eat an apple, I have to eat everything. Well, okay, okay maybe not the core! EWWWWWWE!
But that's beside the point. I was guilty of a version of "modalism", a heresy (even though I didn't know I was guilty of it at the time). Basically, modalist believe there is only one God who expressed Himself at different times. God the Father was expressed in the Old Testament, Christ was in the new until His resurrection, and then God was expressed in the Spirit after the resurrection. However, that cannot be true if thought out logically. So as not to take the text out of context, I'll tell you briefly what had transpired before hand. Jesus, knowing it was time to start His ministry, approaches his distant cousin John to be baptized. John looking at Him, testifies that he is not worth to baptize Him, because He is the Lamb of God. Jesus tells him it must be this way, and that John must continue with the ritual. He is baptize and look what follows in Luke 3:22;
22and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
How can God "express" Himself at the same time? Yes, He is all powerful and eternal, however, He will not transgress His own natural law, the laws of physics. If we were to view He'd have to time travel from the past in the form of the Father, while simultaneously traveling from the future, to meet with Himself in the form of Jesus. I'm not saying that He couldn't do this, but look at the nature of God Himself. He is not one to disobey His own law (in this case the law of physics) because the law that He created would be open to, for lack of a better term, interpretation. What chaos would ensue!
Let's look at another passage. This time, I'll include the entire text chapter.
Psalm 51 For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts [a] ; you teach [b] me wisdom in the inmost place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.
14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 The sacrifices of God are [c] a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
In verse 11, David ask God to not take "your Holy Spirit from me". First of all the term Holy in the bible is a term exclusively used to label God. If David had the Holy Spirit (God), how could he have obtained Him if He wasn't in existence at Old Testament times? If it were true that God expressed Himself at different times as Father, then Son, then Holy Spirit, than David himself would have to be eternal (existed before time began) to know and have a relationship with the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit wasn't expressed or present until the New Testament.
People in the modalist camp will say that these are just isolated verses. However there are over 100 verses in the Old and New Testaments that reference God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit coexisting. If you want research and read about the Trinity (and yes, I do know that the word isn't found in the Bible, but it's still a good and orthodox way of describing God), use http://www.biblegateway.com/ to look up the Holy Spirit. Also, CARM also has a good definition of modalism on there website (www.carm.org/modalism). I'm still learning about the Trinity, and I hope you will too.
God Bless!
One of the principle doctrines of Christianity is that God exsists in three Persons; Father, Son, Holy Spirit (yep, just like the song says they are all Holy). They've always existed and are so united that they are all one God. That's pretty much a mind bender, isn't it. How can three people exist in one, and yet are separate from each other. This is were I would traditionally insert trite explanations like "God is like an apple... God the Holy Spirit is the skin, He leads us to the Son, the meat of the apple, who in turn leads us to the Father, the core of the apple. All are united ..." Yes, they are united, however, the guys on Christianity 101 brought up a good point... The skin, meat and core are just part of the apple, but not the whole! I can't say that I'm going to eat the entire apple, and just eat the meat! In order for me to eat an apple, I have to eat everything. Well, okay, okay maybe not the core! EWWWWWWE!
But that's beside the point. I was guilty of a version of "modalism", a heresy (even though I didn't know I was guilty of it at the time). Basically, modalist believe there is only one God who expressed Himself at different times. God the Father was expressed in the Old Testament, Christ was in the new until His resurrection, and then God was expressed in the Spirit after the resurrection. However, that cannot be true if thought out logically. So as not to take the text out of context, I'll tell you briefly what had transpired before hand. Jesus, knowing it was time to start His ministry, approaches his distant cousin John to be baptized. John looking at Him, testifies that he is not worth to baptize Him, because He is the Lamb of God. Jesus tells him it must be this way, and that John must continue with the ritual. He is baptize and look what follows in Luke 3:22;
22and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
How can God "express" Himself at the same time? Yes, He is all powerful and eternal, however, He will not transgress His own natural law, the laws of physics. If we were to view He'd have to time travel from the past in the form of the Father, while simultaneously traveling from the future, to meet with Himself in the form of Jesus. I'm not saying that He couldn't do this, but look at the nature of God Himself. He is not one to disobey His own law (in this case the law of physics) because the law that He created would be open to, for lack of a better term, interpretation. What chaos would ensue!
Let's look at another passage. This time, I'll include the entire text chapter.
Psalm 51 For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts [a] ; you teach [b] me wisdom in the inmost place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.
14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 The sacrifices of God are [c] a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
In verse 11, David ask God to not take "your Holy Spirit from me". First of all the term Holy in the bible is a term exclusively used to label God. If David had the Holy Spirit (God), how could he have obtained Him if He wasn't in existence at Old Testament times? If it were true that God expressed Himself at different times as Father, then Son, then Holy Spirit, than David himself would have to be eternal (existed before time began) to know and have a relationship with the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit wasn't expressed or present until the New Testament.
People in the modalist camp will say that these are just isolated verses. However there are over 100 verses in the Old and New Testaments that reference God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit coexisting. If you want research and read about the Trinity (and yes, I do know that the word isn't found in the Bible, but it's still a good and orthodox way of describing God), use http://www.biblegateway.com/ to look up the Holy Spirit. Also, CARM also has a good definition of modalism on there website (www.carm.org/modalism). I'm still learning about the Trinity, and I hope you will too.
God Bless!
Thanks for hanging in there with me
The job interview went better than expected. They actually called me back for a second interview. Very cool, but during the meeting I started to guess whether or not I was the right fit for the job. Basically, it's selling insurance. There is nothing wrong with this profession, it just seems rather unrealistic for me. I can't foresee myself selling with high pressure tactics.
As for my health; I still have vertigo, and got FMLA for it. I tried going back to work this week, and for a few hours, I was fine, but had to go home do to dizziness. I'll try again next week. One day at a time, as it were.
The story I'm working on is slowly going forward. Will publish it soon, I hope.
As for my health; I still have vertigo, and got FMLA for it. I tried going back to work this week, and for a few hours, I was fine, but had to go home do to dizziness. I'll try again next week. One day at a time, as it were.
The story I'm working on is slowly going forward. Will publish it soon, I hope.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Job interview
I have a job interview with an insurance company this week. Please pray for me (specifically for physical strength, knowing what to say when to say it, and speaking the truth in love). I also have another doctor's appointment tomorrow for a bout of vertigo that I've been having for the past 2 weeks or so, it's really very annoying to have another person escort me to appointments because I'm so dizzy it's hard to drive.
So... Please pray for me! Thanks,
P.S. I'll be posting another story soon!
So... Please pray for me! Thanks,
P.S. I'll be posting another story soon!
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