Terms courtesy of Merium Webster:
MERIUM WEBSTER PAGE: http://209.161.33.50/dictionary/PERSONALITY
Main Entry: personality
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -ties
Etymology: Middle English personalite, from Anglo-French personalit, from Late Latin personalitat-, personalitas, from personalis
Date: 15th century
1 a: the quality or state of being a person
b: personal existence
2 a: the condition or fact of relating to a particular person; specifically : the condition of referring directly to or being aimed disparagingly or hostilely at an individual b: an offensively personal remark
3 a: the complex of characteristics that distinguishes an individual or a nation or group; especially : the totality of an individual's behavioral and emotional characteristics
b: a set of distinctive traits and characteristics
4 a: distinction or excellence of personal and social traits; also : a person having such quality
IDENTITY:
Main Entry: identity
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -ties
Etymology: Middle French identité, from Late Latin identitat-, identitas, probably from Latin identidem repeatedly, contraction of idem et idem, literally, same and same
Date: 1570
1 a: sameness of essential or generic character in different instances
b: sameness in all that constitutes the objective reality of a thing : oneness
2 a: the distinguishing character or personality of an individual : individuality
b: the relation established by psychological identification
3: the condition of being the same with something described or asserted establish the identity of stolen goods
4: an equation that is satisfied for all values of the symbols
PERSON
One entry found.
person
Main Entry: person
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French persone, from Latin persona actor's mask, character in a play, person, probably from Etruscan phersu mask, from Greek prosôpa, plural of prospon face, mask — more at prosopopoeia
Date: 13th century
1: human, individual sometimes used in combination especially by those who prefer to avoid man in compounds applicable to both sexes [chairperson] [spokesperson]
2: a character or part in or as if in a play : guise
3 a: one of the three modes of being in the Trinitarian Godhead as understood by Christians
b: the unitary personality of Christ that unites the divine and human natures
4 a: archaic : bodily appearance
b: the body of a human being; also : the body and clothing
5: the personality of a human being : self
6: one (as a human being, a partnership, or a corporation) that is recognized by law as the subject of rights and duties
7: reference of a segment of discourse to the speaker, to one spoken to, or to one spoken of as indicated by means of certain pronouns or in many languages by verb inflection
personhood
in person : in one's bodily presence
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QX: PERSONALITY: All those traits, qualities, attributes, natures, drives, values, habits, preferences, inclinations, components which make up an INDIVIDUAL PERSON and their unique IDENTITY (as uniquely distinguished from all other persons, identities).
QX: PERSON: A unique individual human made in God's image as a flesh/blood human being and an eternal soul/spirit with a unique personality--a unique individual set of qualities, attributes, traits, inclinations, preferences, etc. . . . .
QX: IDENTITY: An INDIVIDUAL PERSON'S UNIQUE attributes, traits, qualities, inclinations, preferences, features--particularly those which distinguish him from all other persons, identities, creatures . . .
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Certainly after the fall, and at least until satan et al are locked up for the millenial reign of Christ, all humans have included in their personalities, identities, personhood, deplorable traits, sins, inclinations etc.
But we were not designed FOR sin. We were designed FOR DADDY; FOR DADDY'S PLEASURE; FOR FELLOWSHIP WITH DADDY.
Sin and the law are evidently instructive exercises, features of this bootcamp . . . which have infected our natures, persons, identities, personalities since the fall and will have influence until we are translated/resurrected/die and are transferred into our Heavenly states/bodies; our RESURRECTED, GLORIFIED states, identities, bodies.
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING of the sin nature will remain a part of our identities in our Heavenly, glorified state.
EVERYTHING GOD, DADDY DESIGNED INTO, AS PART OF OUR PERSONALITIES, IDENTITIES, PERSONHOODS AS INDIVIDUALS AT OUR CREATION [which was--IN TERMS OF IDENTITY--was before the world began--at least before our conception in our mothers--some verses speak of our being KNOWN before then--we must be KNOWN as distinguishable from other identities, personalities, persons even in that earliest time of our existence as persons] . . .
EVERYTHING GOD DESIGNED INTO AND AS PART OF OUR PERSONALITIES, our unique IDENTITY, WILL ENDURE AS THE UNIQUE INDIVIDUAL US IN HEAVEN AND ETERNITY.
Nothing else is Biblical to me. Nothing else makes sense to me. Nothing else is congruent with the many reports of Heaven, to me.
For some reason, IN CONTRAST TO EASTERN RELIGION, where the body is considered not only inconsequential but even also an illusion hindering IDENTITY OBLITERATING merging with the ONE-- CHRISTIANITY includes God's plan and demonstrated ability and purpose to even RESURRECT our bodies and transform them into similar APPEARING HEAVENLY VERSIONS, BODIES.
I do not believe we will be 100% devoid of will in Heaven. But with His law written on our hearts, our wills WILL BE IN CONFORMITY WITH HIS WILL. Had DADDY WANTED puppets on a string or robots, HE WOULD HAVE MADE SUCH. HE DID NOT, MAKE SUCH, WHEN HE MADE MAN. What is this boot camp for, if not to train us and our awareness in experiential ways what perverse rebellious willfulness results in--DEATH.
Daddy's not about to have another rebellion in Heaven. But evidently about AS important is the wisdom and compassion such will bring to our ruling and reigning with Christ over countless ages and galaxies/universes/dimensions.
I don't think we handle well as mortals eternal constructs and realities. We are too finite. The idea of having a will and that will being in any sense uniquely ours AND AT THE SAME TIME BEING IN HEART CONFORMITY WITH DADDY--just tends to fry our circuits. So, I think the inclination is to obliterate part of that reality in our minds and pretend we have the right reality understood after we've obliterated half of it--for our comfort of our finite understanding.
To me, God says and demonstrates--I WANT YOUR PURIFIED, REDEEMED, GLORIFIED WILLS AT MY LOVE-SLAVE SERVICE. I don't want you as robots or puppets on a string. I want you as friends, children, cherished sons, joint heirs with Jesus working along-side Him, Us in concert, IN SYMPHONY--NOT IN "OOOOOOMMMMMMMMM."
And our finiteness hears that and frizzes out and says--right--we'll be robots for Jesus. NOT!
CERTAINLY, we will be devoid of self-centeredness [and all the other sinful, less than God's best] there.
Even though the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are One - and there are no bright lines to separate them - they each are Persons.
I don't think I know enough from a lofty enough, comprehensive enough perspective to make that statement. I suppose it depends on what's meant by "bright lines." There's plenty of mystery about THE TRINITY.
Nevertheless, imho, there is plenty of evidence to at least SUGGEST that DADDY, SON AND SPIRIT have distinct personalities, identities. They are not (to me) different bumps of the same AMORPHOUS-GOD-AMOEBA. Yet, they are One in ways we have too little info to articulate well, imho.
We were created for FELLOWSHIP. That requires at least some sort of unique FELLOWS to SHIP!
FELLOWSHIP IN ETERNITY WILL BE ENHANCED, NOT LESSENED. All the Scripture and data I can detect and consider convinces me that our VERY PERSONALITIES WILL BE ENHANCED vs diminished in Heaven. Why would DADDY going to such great lengths to create and train, condition our PERSONALITIES then throw all that unique information and training, shaping in the toilet? Makes absolutely no sense to me that He would even remotely consider doing such a thing.
And, interestingly, when folks go to Heaven and report back, they do NOT meet this galactic sized amorphous-JABBA-THE-HUT-mass of a GODBLOB with pokey outy points wearing personality masks of folks they have known.
INSTEAD, they meet individuals—PERSONALITIES they have known on earth running to greet them. The individuals who greet them, including sometimes Biblical characters are full fledged individuals with individual identities and personalities expressively demonstrating all the Godly personality traits and redeemed personality traits that might have been manifested in microscopic degree on earth.
One of the elder characters in my teen A of G church used to muse about whether when we died, we as we—all the info about us—was entered into God’s computer and that was all the we that was left. I certainly don’t think so. I don’t THINK this is just a big version of THE MATRIX.
God shows an inclination, a PERSONALITY TRAIT, as it were, throughout Scripture of PREFERRING THE REAL THING. I don’t think the pearls at the Heavenly gates will be manufactured in some Star-Trek like REPLICATOR. I believe they will be from huge oysters in some great ocean on some planet in some literal, real galaxy.
REGARDLESS, EVEN IF we were “reduced” to all the information about us in some infinite GOD COMPUTER . . . OUR PERSONALITIES, IDENTITIES, PERSONHOODS would still be preserved as unique constructs. Otherwise, imho, there would be no point. No point to our having ever been created as such for FELLOWSHIP to begin with.
Imho, of course.
This is SOOO true. It is the very reason our actual bodies will one day be in heaven, glorified -- God loves the bodies of His children. This is the basis for the Protestant work ethic and why Christianity is the only way to true psychological health and well-being. God's children work the soil and grow crops and replenish the earth and raise strong children and PREACH THE WORD OF GOD so that the Gospel may benefit all who hear it and rejoice.
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