Sola Scriptura is not Solo Scriptura. The Bible does not exist in a vacuum and nor can it be intrepretted in such a manner but rather must be considered in light of tradition, at least insofar as tradition is not contradictory to scripture. This issue has been settled in tradition already, using arguments which were scriptural in nature, made in light of interpretations handed down from the apostles.
The position of the Jehovah’s Witnesses regarding the Trinity is not novel. It was proposed by Arius quite a while back, who formulated that Christ was homoiousis (of like substance as the Father) instead of homoousis (of the same substance as the Father). That “iota” of difference, so to speak, was considered to make all the difference when it came to theology. Without going into detail (I’m in a car typing this on my phone), people far more qualified than us have already established that the Trinity is the teaching of Scripture. When something has been established as the teaching of Scripture it is not our place to reject it, as such is to call God a liar.
If modern Christians are a bit reluctant to debate this, it is mostly a matter of not wanting to reinvent the wheel regarding arguments that have been made long ago and settled. St. Athanasius in his Discourses Against the Arians makes the case far better than any of us could hope to do — anything we write would mostly be rehashing his arguments. I suggest looking up his Discourses and going through his arguments, as then we might have suitable grounds for debate on the matter.
Again, I find your desire to defend the potential of JWs to be saved admirable, if perhaps misplaced. All the same, I remind you that JWs absolutely do not extend that same courtesy to non-JWs and I hope you are as vocal in defending our salvation when talking to them as you are of theirs when talking to us.
Ultimately, all we can do is trust in the mercy and justice of God in judging men’s hearts regarding whether their faith was sincere or not.
I guess my view is that if the matter was important to God, he would have made it clear in scripture. Instead, a formal triadic coordination of God, Christ and the Holy Spirit is only found in a few verses.
The baptismal commission in Matt 28:19 and the apostolic benediction in 2 Cor 13:14 are the clearest examples of triadic coordination. Other texts formulate the trinity in a looser fashion by asserting that the work of the three is the same work (1 Cor 12:4-6; Jude 20-21; 1 Pet 1:2; Rev 1:4-7) but they do not formalize the trinity.
Pairwise coordination of God and Christ is more common (John 14:1; Rom 1:7; Rev 5:13) with Chirst and the Spirit less common (1 Cor 6:11; Rom 15:30; Heb 10:29).
Then the spirit appears in numerous verses as a seemingly autonomous agent (Acts 1:16; Acts 15:8; Heb 3:7; Rom 5:3-5; Rom 8:4; Rom 8:27; Gal 3:2; Gal 5:16-25; 2 Cor 3:2; 2 Cor 5:5). The spirit is also called the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:11-12; Rom 8:9-17) and the Spirit of Christ (Rom 8:9), etc.
If modern Christians are a bit reluctant to debate this, it is mostly a matter of not wanting to reinvent the wheel regarding arguments that have been made long ago and settled. St. Athanasius in his Discourses Against the Arians makes the case far better than any of us could hope to do — anything we write would mostly be rehashing his arguments. I suggest looking up his Discourses and going through his arguments, as then we might have suitable grounds for debate on the matter.
Ok but I can't promise when I'll be able to get to Athansius.
Again, I find your desire to defend the potential of JWs to be saved admirable, if perhaps misplaced.
When it came to standing up to Hitler andhis neo-paganism, JWs did much more admirably than the mainstream Protestants and Catholics. As a group, the JWs by and large didn't bow down to Hitler nor serve him and they suffered mightily for it. If the same could be said of the mainstream Christians in Germany, history would have followed a radically different course.
All the same, I remind you that JWs absolutely do not extend that same courtesy to non-JWs and I hope you are as vocal in defending our salvation when talking to them as you are of theirs when talking to us.
Arguments for and against sola fide constantly rage here on FR. JWs are basically part of that camp rejecting sola fide on grounds that some form of works is also required for salvation.
Ultimately, all we can do is trust in the mercy and justice of God in judging men’s hearts regarding whether their faith was sincere or not.
Agreed.