This thread, I plan to reserve for what has been written about the matter of the Trinity by other Christian teachers through the centries;
We've here talked quite much. I want to supply some samples of what others before us wrote:
John Nelson Darby (A.D. 1800 - 1882 )
"Not that I have the least pretension to fathom this divine mystery where all are God, all one God, God all three; yet the Father is revealed, the Son reveals, the Holy Spirit quickens and makes known .... I fear much human language on this. But I affirm that the only full revelation of the one true God is the revelation of Him in the Trinity. Our prayers rise up the same. Through Him (Christ the Son) we have access by one Spirit unto the Father."
W.H. Griffith Thomas (A.D. 1861 - 1924)
"The threefold distinction in God, which is expressed by the word "Trinity," is an attempt of man to conceive and express the meaning of the Infinite God in terms of Jesus Christ, and we believe that the use of the phrase, "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit," is the very best rendering of the mystery that can be given .... The true meaning of Trinitarian doctrine, therefore, is not separate spheres of Divine operation in connection with each Person, but the united and inclusive operations of three Persons in one God .... When we turn to St. Paul, we find substantially the same set of ideas. The language about the indwelling of Christ and of the Spirit is practically identical ....We are therefore not at all surprised at the variation of the theological expression connected with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes He is regarded as a separate Personality within the Godhead, having self-consciousness separate from and yet connected wth Jesus and the Father. At other times the Spirit is used for the Name of God's own personal activity, as He dwells in the soul of man. But however difficult it may be to express the difference between Christ and the Spirit regarded as within God Himself, no difficulty must allow us to ignore the plain teaching of the New Testament and the personal testimony of Christian consciousness. In our Lord's discourse, while He distinquishes between the relations of the Father and the Spirit with Himself to the disciples, yet there is no essential dfference or separation. Whether the Father lives or the Son lives; whether the Father comes or the Son comes; whether the Father gives the Spirit or the Son gives Him, the essential relationship is the same. But while closely and intimately connected, Christ and the Spirit are never identical ... It is essential to preserve with care both sides of this truth. Christ and the Spirit are different yet the same, the same yet diffeent. Perhaps the best expression we can give is that while their Personalities are never identical, their presence always is."
John Calvin (A.D. 1509 - 1654)
"In considering the hidden mysteries of Scripture, we should speculate soberly and with great moderation, cautiously guarding against allowing either our mind or our tongue to go a step beyond the confines of God's Word. For how can the human mind, which has not yet been able to ascertain of what body of the sun consists, though it is daily presented to the eye, bring down the boundless essence of God to its little measure? Nay, how can it, under its own guidance, penetrate to a knowledge of the substance of God while unable to understand its own? Wherefore, let us willingly leave to God the knowledge of Himself, never attempt to search after God anywhere but in His sacred Word, and never to speak or think of Him farther than we have it for our guide. But if distinction of Father, Son, and Spirit, subsisting in the one Godhead (certainly a subject of great difficulty), gives more trouble and annoyance to some intellects than is meet, let us remember that the human mind enters a labyrinth whenever indulges its curiosity, and thus submit to be guided by the divine oracles, how much soever the mystery may be beyond our reach."
Origen (A.D. 185 - 254)
"According to strict truth, God is incomprehensible and inestimable ... for among all intelligent, that is incorporeal beings, what is so superior to all others - so unspeakably and incalculably superior - as God, whose nature cannot be grasped or seen by the power of any human understanding, even the purest and brightest."
Originally posted by jaywill"...cautiously guarding against allowing either our mind or our tongue to go a step beyond the confines of God's Word."
John Calvin (A.D. 1509 - 1654)
"In considering the hidden mysteries of Scripture, we should speculate soberly and with great moderation, cautiously guarding against allowing either our mind or our tongue to go a step beyond the confines of God's Word. For how can the human mind, which has not yet been able to ascertain of what body of the sun consists, ...[text shortened]... mit to be guided by the divine oracles, how much soever the mystery may be beyond our reach."
This is what I've been trying to get some of the folks around here to think about, but for some reason they seem to want to avoid certain things. It makes one wonder.
Originally posted by galveston75More pride. Trust in your human reasoning.
Oh my gosh!!!!!!! No wonder you are so confused. I've never in my life read anything like this. This is classic!!!!!!!!!
We will trust in God's revelation.
The One whose name is Wonderful is "unto us". We can taste and see that the Lord is good.
You go ahead and boast that there is nothing mysterious about Jehovah.
Boast to the world that there is no mystery in God to YOU boy!
I'll agree with the Scriptures "the mystery of God, Christ"
Originally posted by josephwThat is why I thought to include some of the sayings of the Christian brothers of the past.
[b]"...cautiously guarding against allowing either our mind or our tongue to go a step beyond the confines of God's Word."
This is what I've been trying to get some of the folks around here to think about, but for some reason they seem to want to avoid certain things. It makes one wonder.[/b]
The collective wisdom of the Body of Christ sooner or latter causes us to nod in agreement.
You have not been wrong. And I try to help people to understand. And as you see it can easily backfires with the scoffer.
Originally posted by jaywillThis is awesome! I've heard it said that we can ascertain but never fully comprehend God's very nature. We are finite trying to understand God the infinite! At this we should bow down before God in awe.
Origen (A.D. 185 - 254)
[b]"According to strict truth, God is incomprehensible and inestimable ... for among all intelligent, that is incorporeal beings, what is so superior to all others - so unspeakably and incalculably superior - as God, whose nature cannot be grasped or seen by the power of any human understanding, even the purest and brightest." [/b]
Manny
Origen’s broken down Platonism -mixed with a bit of Stoicism- is a strange theology that cannot stand criticism, and at the same time does intend to avoid criticism claiming that anyway the true nature of God will remain for ever and ever incomprehensible to us. What a surprise, mambo-jumbo once more.
Origen, unable even to bring up a description of the super observer “god”, he cannot comment rationally about the concept of Trinity and he considers it a “mystery”. However his Platonism is obvious, and Plato built his ideal Soul based on the concept of Trikaya, and the concept of Trikaya is not a mystery at all
😵
Originally posted by menace71And you guys really fall for this made up, confusing, who knows what, Godless man made philosophy of God that contradicts everything the Bible teaches, stuff?
This is awesome! I've heard it said that we can ascertain but never fully comprehend God's very nature. We are finite trying to understand God the infinite! At this we should bow down before God in awe.
Manny
Heb 13:9, Col 2:22, 1Tim 4:1, 2Pet 2:1, Mark 7:6,7, Rom 10:2,3.
Originally posted by galveston75it should be remembered Glavo, that the monster Calvin had a man, burned alive, because he dared to print something contrary to the teaching of the trinity, a one Michael Servetus! who published De Trinitatis Erroribus (On the Errors of the Trinity). One can hardly imagine Christ doing the same. To cite Calvin as an example of either a Christian or a scholar is incredulous in itself.
Oh my gosh!!!!!!! No wonder you are so confused. I've never in my life read anything like this. This is classic!!!!!!!!!
Bishop Bull in Defene of the Nicea Creed
"The persons mutually contain each other, and all the three have an immeasureable whereabouts, so that wherever one Person is there the other two exist ... the coinherence [mutual indwelling] of the Divine Persons is undeed a very great mystery, which we ought rather religiously adore then curiouslyt pry into. No similitutde can be divised which shall be in every respect apt to illustrate it; no language awails worthily to set it forth, seeing that it is a union which far transcends all other unions."