Posted on 10/25/2011 6:23:10 AM PDT by Colofornian
restornu wrote:
“I bet you thought the Bible always came that way from day one.”
Starting a conversation with condescension toward the person you are talking to is seldom helpful. Hasn’t anyone ever mentioned that to you?
Thanks especially for the YouTube link of the guy with all the books on the shelf behind him. He must really be knowledgeable ... right?
The following will be 'a way' to understand the notion of the trinitarian nature of the Deity, not a strictly Biblical explanation, but one which is applicable to the teaching of the Bible. Here goes:
God The Father Almighty is greater than His creation, thus greater than dimension time and dimension space, thus we may think of The Father Almighty as beyond time and space but not prevented from touching and indeed penetrating His creation.
The universe of space and time is likened to a bubble: what is inside the bubble is in time and space. But the nature of what is inside the bubble is only partially understood in modern Physics.
The Bible relates scenes which defy our simplistic notions, but let us make the statement that God The Father Almighty is as comfortable outside the bubble of our spacetime as He is inside the bubble.
Modern Physics has discovered that the balance of forces and tensions sustaining the universe necessary for human life to arise within the universe is extremely delicate, on the order of a mathematical improbability, represented as a 'one in less than' fraction so tiny that a one over a one followed by more than one-hundred zeros [1/1x10100] defines the probability that the whole thing remains in balance! Such a delicate balancing act is but one of the continuing 'works' of the Holy Spirit of God. It is by the Spirit of God, The Word, that the universe came into existence and it is said in the Bible that by His Spirit the whole is maintained.
But the Bible also states that The Word was with God in the beginning and was God. In John's gospel we find that Jesus is The Word made flesh Who dwelt among us. So, inside the bubble Created by The Father Almighty, sustained by God The Holy Spirit, is the Word, God made flesh Who dwelt among us. The Creator does not stop being greater than His creation bubble, nor does His Spirit cease to sustain it all in balance, when Jesus comes in the flesh to dwell among us.
When one reads the Tanakh/Old Testament, one finds scenes like the fifth chapter of Daniel where a being is in one spacetime 'where/when' reaching into another 'where/when' to write on the palace party central wall of king Belshazzar. Just the forearm/hand is seen in the where/when of Belshazzar and the party folks, the rest of the being remains in 'another' where/when.
God The Father Almighty created this 'other' where/when, His Holy Spirit maintains its balance and separateness from our where/when, and Jesus has moved in and out of this other where/when: as shown when He resurrected from the tomb without rolling away the stone, just passing out of the tomb where/when, into 'another' where/when; then back into our where/when as He spoke to the women come to the sepulchre; and when He appeared in a locked and shuttered room with the disciples present; or appeared suddenly with the disciples walking on a road and broke bread with them then left our where/when to go to the 'other' where/when.
The trinitarian nature of God is shown in the Bible, even in the Tanakh. Trinity IS the nature of God as we have been given to know. Even in the Old Testament/Tanakh, we do have instruction on the Three nature of God as Creator, Sustainer, and Deliverer. God Is manifested as three yet one, seen identified by the 'work' He is doing/'action' He is taking.
With each manifestation, we are given to realize His presence simultaneously as Creator--because we exist in the realm He created, as Sustainer--because the balance is too delicate to stand alone without His sustaining the separation and interdependence, and as God with us in the person of Jesus our Lord and Savior.
Restornu; ex-Presbyterian; cannot tell what Joseph Smith 'learned' was UNTRUE about PREBYTERIANism of his time; claims other things are DRIVEL; so as not to deal with them.
Noted...
"He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time.
When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven. When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home.
And as I leaned up to the fireplace, mother inquired what the matter was.
I replied, “Never mind, all is well—I am well enough off.”
I then said to my mother, “I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.”
That's because MORMONism teaches there are at LEAST 3 GODS!
POLYtheism!!
They LIKE that 'poly' prefix; as in: POLYgamy!!!
And TWO of them have physical bodies!
I don't know WHY that Holy Spirit thingy hasn't a body; isn't he (she; it) worthy enough yet?
I have friends who are LDS. I have asked them to explain somethign to me, but they decline, pleading not to be privy to such ‘strong meat’. My question is, since the mormonism god the father was once aq man and had to earn the attributes of godhood and be appointed god over earth and humanity, and the mormonism jesus had to live as a man and earn the attributes of godhood, and presumeably be appointed one of three gods over earth, how did the mormonism holy spirit earn the attributes of godhood and get appointed as one of the troika of godhead over earth, since the mormonism holy spirit has no body? I don’t suppose you’ve seen the mormonic answer to this query in your studies of this religion, have you? I’ve yet to come across it in several years of studying their religion.
Just one; and it is quite Milletonian:
"We really aren't obligated to answer everyone's questions..."
Professor Robert Millet teaching at the Mission Prep Club in 2004 http://newsnet.byu.edu/video/18773/Timeline 2:00 - 2:22
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