The first thing I will say is it is beyond ANYONE's understanding...But people don't let that get in the way of their apparent need to understand...And when the understanding can't be found, people turn to their own reasoning and human logic to explain it...
Joh 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Joh 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Joh 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
These are familiar verses...And they are not complicated...When Jesus leaves, the Holy Spirit shows up...And Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father...
Very clearly, there are three...
Joh 10:30 I and my Father are one.
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
This is just a small sampling of the scripture on the issue...
People get so hung up on understanding the Trinity, they tend to dis-believe the scriptures that speak of the Trinity...
We were made in the image of God...We have a body, a soul and a spirit...But yet to look at us, all you see is one...
Mat 26:39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
Jesus wasn't speaking to Himself...But yet;
Joh 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
It's a mystery...It has not been revealed to ANYONE...There are 3, but they are one...That's what the scripture says and I believe it...I'm not required to understand it...
The phrase which you used was "Jesus is still separate from God...As is the Holy Spirit...
You used it while lecturing my FRiend wagglebee about his alleged misunderstanding of the Trinity, but your own statement shows a clear misunderstanding of the Trinity. Yeah maybe nobody can really explain it, but to state that "Jesus is separate from God" is to show your own clear misunderstanding either of the Trinity or of the word "God" or of the word "separate".
There is no difference between the Latin Rite understanding of the Trinity and the Reformation understanding. My FRiend wagglebee is nothing, if not Orthodox in his trinitarian understanding. We may part company on other doctrinal issues, but on the Trinity I think that we are in Communion, so to speak.
My point is that if you are going to accuse someone of having a fundamental misunderstanding of the Trinity, that you had better be able to articulate what you mean without throwing out some statement that would not only be scripturally inaccurate, but historically heretical.
Maybe you might want to rephrase what you said.
That is good for everyone to remember.
My bias is . . . that the traditional TRINITARIAN description . . . as fuzzy as it is . . .
is as reasonable to hold onto until we KNOW FULLY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF JORDAN . . .
as are the other perspectives on it.
You said:
We were made in the image of God...We have a body, a soul and a spirit...But yet to look at us, all you see is one...
Where in the Bible (or even tradition [oral transmission] handed down by the Apostles) does it say that God put a "soul" in our body? That is my question.
BTW: define the term "soul" for me in your response, if you can.