God Above Us:
The trinity is one of the most difficult ideas to wrap our heads around (my feeling). Yet if we were to understand it fully would God cease to be God? 3 diViNE beiNgs, one God, no hierarchy, different roles, yet so intricately woven together that they cannot be separated, confusing stuff.
As shaky and foundational this belief is we do see clear pictures of it throughout the Bible.
God above us, the Father, the Almight maker of heaven and earth. In Job we see an incredible picture of the wonder, awe, amazing, God who controls all things and knows all. God responds to Job's questions from out of the eye of the storm. That alone is incredible, but the things he says...blows my mind and leaves me in complete awe, remembering that I am man and God is God. That is a deep truth that has a lot to be unpacked. There are many things, many many things, like Job, that I don't understand. And I'm okay with that, as long as I recognize my place, my place is as man, not God. There are some things in this life that I will not figure out, that will not make sense and will leave me befuddled if I dwell on them too long. Then I remember that God is God and if he does what he says he does in Job chapters 38-42 then I have nothing to worry about, for I am man and God is God.
God above us
2 comments:
Chris Massie may be your twin, but I always got you confused with Joe Wells! (Well, only for the first year. :-)
Greetings
The reason why The trinity is one of the most difficult ideas to wrap our heads around is because it is a totally manmade idea, which does not come from Scripture.
No OT patriarchs or prophets taught it.
Jesus the Messiah did not teach it.
None of his Apostles ever taught it.
What they all had in common however, is their staunch, unshakable belief in solely ONE BEING WHO IS ALMIGHTY GOD.
They all confessed the Shema [Deut 6.4], the Scriptural affirmation that there is solely ONE BEING WHO IS ALMIGHTY GOD, namely, YAHWEH i.e.
Hear O Israel,
YAHWEH OUR GOD,
YAHWEH IS ONE.
Let's hear it from our Lord and Master, Jesus the Messiah ...
(Mark 12:28-32) And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. 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:
Both Jesus and the scribe were obviously not trinitarians. They had no concept of a triune being. They had a simple belief in solely ONE Being who is Almighty GOD.
The scribe obviously understood Jesus to be stating the very same belief.
So you are correct, the doctrine of the trinity is indeed shaky
In contrast, the Scriptures teach ...
YAHWEH GOD alone is Almighty GOD.
The man Jesus of Nazareth is His Son whom YAHWEH has made both Lord & Messiah.
The holy spirit is simply the spirit of GOD; and especially in the NT, is the spirit of GOD in Christ operating in the church.
God Bless ...
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