Introduction to study of the Trinity or the doctrine of God!
By Fred Vidar Hjortland
Trinity doctrine is alien to both the Old and New Testament, it came in full with the Catholic church and has evolved into a currently empty worship of the Holy Spirit in Pentecostal \ Charismatic circles is basically an invocation of evil spirits. Hillsong is an example of how to worship the Holy Spirit and thus get into the demonic realm!
The purpose of this limited study is not to address the Trinity in its full width. If it had been the goal, would probably side's been a totally different! Our more modest approach here in this context only to travel only a few questions and try to find out what kind of answer the primary witnesses to Jesus' life and work - the four Gospels - gives to them. If questions can not be said to cover all aspects and details of the Trinity, they must at least be said to be very basic and important in its character. And as such, the answers you come up to, at least give a very good indication of what Jesus must have thought about who God is. About this relatively short presentation may seem like an appetizer and an inspiration for further study, much to be won. The theme is in fact in my and arguably overdue for further theological reflection: It is impossible to document what we now call orthodoxy within Christianity, while two first centuries. (Dr. Harold Brown: Here Said: Heresy and Orthodoxy in the History of the Church, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody (MA), 1988, p.5)
All major recognized denominations account for a particular doctrinal doctrine of Jesus. Specialists in early Christian thought, however, places in question the arguments that have been used to arrive at this doctrine. Scholars NT researchers are asking themselves the New Testament at all teach this doctrine, and historians wonder about the violent throat you see between Jesus himself and fully developed Christianity. These questions are very disturbing, for they indicate that the Christian church can be in a more serious situation than initially assumed. It may be that we do not have to do with a basic good structure that only needs a little modernization, but a poor structure which may have need of a radical and pervasive nystrukturering. (Professor Don Cupitt, Cambridge, The Debate About Christ, London: SCM Press, 1979, p.7)
This occurs naturally an important exegetically question, namely the question of to what extent the ontological Christology in the early church confessions - with its strong emphasis on Jesus' deity - is a faithful doctrinal confessional formulation of the New Testament witness. Represents the confession formulation a legitimate and inevitable development of New Testament Christology, or represents a distortion of this? Do not challenge this Christological problem for us - in light of the knowledge which is now available for NT research, a knowledge that far surpasses the knowledge of the Fathers possessed - a new and far more thorough? (GH booby, Bulletin of The John Rylands Library, Vol 50, (1967-68), p 247-261, "Jesus As 'Theos' In The New Testament") On the other hand, we must admit that the doctrine of the Trinity did not constitute any part of the early Christians, New Testament message. Integrated considered this doctrine never been a central article of faith in the Christian church life in any part of its history. We are therefore forced to ask the question: Does the truth of this center of Christian theology, but not the center of the Christian faith? Is such a discrepancy between theology and faith possible? Or due to this disparity a mistake in almost the whole Christian church doctrine development? (Emil Brunner (former professor of systematic and practical theology at the University of Zurich), The Christian Doctrine of God, Dogmatics: Vol.1, The Westminster Press, 1949, p.205) From a theological assessment Trinity grew up as a syncretism of Judaism and Christianity in the face of Hellenism .... The theologians therefore detects, makes a big question this learning design. When it first goes up for one - and there's no way around this - that Jesus himself only knew the God of Israel, whom he called Father, and knew nothing about "being made to God," as it is commonly believed in the These days, with what right can we say that the Trinity is normative and binding on all Christians? ... No matter how we interpret the various stages in the development of the Trinity, it is clear that this doctrine, which was "dogma" in both East and West, has no biblical basis and can not be traced continuously back to the New Testament. .... Theology must eventually come to a recognition of the facts. (Karl-Heinz Ohlig, Ein Gott in turn the person? Vom Vater zum "Myserium" where Trinitat, Mainz: Matthias Grunewald-Verlag, 1999, 123-125, translated into English by Anthony F. Buzzard and Charles F. Hunting) The need for an overall reassessment of the old church's belief in the divinity of Christ right up to the present time, it is urgent. (Professor A. Grill Meier, Christ in Christian Tradition, Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1975, 1:557) One of the UK's leading Anglican theologians, Dr. Geoffrey Lampe, has come forward with a strong challenge to the historic Christian doctrine of the Trinity. He said that treenighetslærens trepersons-God - "did not have much future." (London Observer, December 3, 1978) In the West, there are increasingly more often question the doctrine of the Trinity. ... It has long been a tendency to treat this doctrine as more of a problem than as a doctrine protective of their core truth of the Christian gospel. (Professor Colin E. Gunton (Kings College, London), The Promise of Trinitarian Theology, 1991, p.31) A little about attitudes It is always important to have good attitudes when we study God's word, but when we are faced with large and difficult theological questions that challenge our habitual thought patterns - such as in this study - it will of course be especially important and necessary! That is when our attitudes are really put to the test. All new ideas are at first difficult and challenging to deal with. It is something we all know, and it's OK. A healthy skepticism and critical thought is good! Another thing is, however, if you close your ears, pull the blinds down and battened down all the hatches! Then the healthy skepticism started to be something negative! The Jews in Berea listened to what Paul had to say, even if the message was new to them! (Acts 17:11). They received the word with all readiness of mind, it says. Further, they searched the Scriptures daily to see if it behaved as it was told them. This listening and inquiring attitude is praised by Luke. He describes them as people actually affected by a noble mind! I wonder if this story has something to teach us! One can therefore - like the Jews in Berea - be faced with thoughts and ideas that initially seem new and strange, but on closer inspection turns out to be well grounded in the Word of God. If one goes through such a process, as well should the new thoughts and ideas be allowed to drop to and get a place in our hearts - even though they may both challenge and disturb us! It could be that God does not always feel the urge to pat us on the shoulder and say that everything is fine the way it is. Maybe sometimes he actually wants to disturb us and try to wake us up in relation to large, new and important truths! A closed heart can not be reached. The one who basically said "do not disturb me with the truth", has chosen a dangerous and destructive form of peace! And just because the wrong attitude can get as large a negative impact on a person - it can miss so much valuable - I find it appropriate to begin this study to say anything general about attitudes. For what good is it for good and good things will be picked up and poured out, if everything just roll off of the water on the goose? Or what good is it for valuable treasure is placed in front of the door if the door is never opened? Below I've compiled some interesting statements that is precisely this with attitudes. I think everyone will find something good and valuable here as it is worth reflecting on: We all want to make progress, but if we are on the wrong road, progress will involve a turnaround and a return to the straight path. And whoever does this first, is the most progressive. (CS Lewis, The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations, Baker Books, p.7-8) When an honest, but deluded man hears the truth, he will either cease to be seduced, or cease to be honest. If 50 million people say a foolish thing, it will still be a silly thing! (Anatole France) The hardest prejudices to reveal, they are being shared by many. (Jason D. BeDuhn, Truth in Translation, 2003, p.15) None are so blind as those who do not want to see! To be deprived of his illusions can be the first, painful step on the path to truth. On the other hand it must be admitted that not all the Church has taught is true. And it can happen that a new era of science and thinking can help to discover new aspects of God's revelation, or rather: old, forgot truths of God's word. Thus it happened at the Reformation. (From the parish priest and church historian Ivar Welles's book, "What will happen soon", Oslo, 1933, s.75) I am firmly convinced that the Lord has yet more truth to show us out of his holy word. For my own part, I regret greatly the situation of the Reformed churches have come in. They have reached a certain point in their religious practices, and will not go on from where their reformation tools have brought them. Luteranerne will not go beyond what Luther saw, and Calvinists is, as we see, where the firm took over this great man of God, a man still not everything. ... I urge you to remember that there is an article in their church confessional for you to be open and receptive to any truth that might be made known to you from God's written word. ... It is inconceivable that perfect knowledge should be in place immediately after the Christian faith so recently escaped such a thick anti-Christian darkness. (John Robinson, learned and noble Cambridge man who founded a Free Church congregation in the Netherlands in 1609) Unless I am convinced by Scripture or by common sense, I do not accept pavers and synod authority, for they have contradicted each other. My conscience is subject to God's word. I can not and will not take back anything, to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand and can not do otherwise. May God help me. Amen. (From Luther's defense speech before the congregation of 210 high-grade clerical, royal and noble in Worms, 1521) Each subsequent generation of the church can and must then verify whether the confession formulas corresponds to the biblical message. There is reason to affirm that every religious confession has authority only to the extent that it agrees with Scripture. (Ole Modalsli and Leif Gunnar Engedal, Evangelical faith, Luther Publishing, 1980, s.38-39) Christians have a faith that is crystallized and solidified in the theologians artificial systems, look in any new truth drawn from Scripture until an unwelcome guest or even a suspicious enemy. (Birks, cited in: The Bible and the Church's teachings on hell-punishments, FW Farrar, Christiania, 1886, s.262) There are those nowadays who have been trained to look at any study that questions the old cherished traditions or creeds of various kinds - especially those that concern "established" the teachings of the Holy Ghost or the Holy Trinity - with great dismay and skepticism - no matter how biblical studies may be. (Robert Whitelaw, Biblical Facts about the Holy Spirit and the true holy trinity, Grace Abounding Ministries, Inc., 1991, Introduction) Evangelical Protestants can be as much a tradition as slaves, Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox Christians, the difference is just that they do not realize that it is about tradition. People who profess to "Sola Scriptura" (so they think), confess in reality often a traditional interpretation of Sola Scriptura. (FF Bruce, from private correspondence, June 13, 1981, Focus on the Kingdom, Volume 3, No. 12, September 2001) Traditions that have their origins in the Christian environment, can have an "own weight" which leads Christians into bondage and shadows of true message of Scripture. Healthy respect for ancestors and their traditions have since degenerated into debilitating traditionalism, and it will be an important task to expose and correct the source of error that is so effective. (Ole Modalsli and Leif Gunnar Engedal, Evangelical faith, Luther Publishing, 1980, p.6-7) There is nothing wrong with tradition as long as we blend the tradition of truth. If we become more attached to our traditions than to the truth, then we have serious problems. ... The moment we look at our tradition as a test basis to assess others' relationship with God, we have elevated this tradition to an unscriptural status. (James R. White, The King James Only Controversy, p.17) God is truth God (Elohim Emet)! Love of truth, a willingness to submit to the truth, power, willingness to abandon traditional views that do not pass a truth test - is a sacred duty and a natural part of true godliness. (Franz Julius Delitzsch) Anyone who seriously decides to search for the truth, should first of all strengthen their minds with a love for it. For those who do not love it, will not exert himself much to obtain it, and will not worry much even if he has it in his possession. (The philosopher John Locke, Concerning Human Understanding, 1661) From the cowardice that has the courage to accept new truths, from the laziness that is content with half truths, from the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth - O God of Truth, deliver us! Therefore, the faithful Christian, search for the truth, hear truth, learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, live the truth, defend the truth to death. (Jan Hus, 1369-1415) Let us not receive anything, believe anything or follow anything that is not in the Bible or can be proven from the Bible. (JC Ryle, in: The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations, compiled by Mark Water, Baker Books, 2000, p.117) Nowadays those who read Scripture already assumed several religious beliefs during their schooling before they sit down to understand a text. When they read the text, it happens naturally, but perhaps unconsciously, that they explain all the difficulties in keeping with these beliefs. This is why it can happen that people of all beliefs find their special opinions confirmed in the Holy Scriptures. In reality it is not Scripture that informs them, but those who ascribe scriptural language of their own opinion. (John Lingard, "A New Version of the Four Gospels with Notes Critical and Explanatory, by a Catholic ", London, J. Booker, 1836, p.330) We must be ready to have the text break through our defenses, challenge our assumptions, disrupt our complacency and judge our compromise. (John Stott, Understanding the Bible, Lunde Publisher, 1974/1990, pp. 172) To recognize the authority of Scripture means nothing more than to endorse any doctrinal position or opinion ... To submit to the authority of a text means very convenient that you are willing to be corrected, to change the attitude and opinion change if the text requires it. ... If you are not careful, your lenses become mirrored glass that reflects your own theological agenda rather than to convey the text's meaning. In that case you will not "find" something else in Scripture than you have "entered" there. ... Our prejudices must be subject to the authority of the biblical text, we must allow the text to create and shape our understanding. (Guthrie / Duval, Biblical Greek Exegesis, Zondervan, 1998, p.105-106) When we meet various New Testament texts in the following sections, let us as far as possible try to appreciate what they have to say about God, without judging them against or read them through later doctrinal developments. (Larry W. Hurtado, God in New Testament Theology, Library of Biblical Theology, Abingdon Press, 2010, p.7) To let the Bible speak for itself, no matter how good or bad this speech corresponds to one with expectations or acceptable forms of modern Christianity, is an exercise in courage, or to use another word, faith. (Jason D. BeDuhn, Truth in Translation, 2003, p.168) A thorough and conscientious search for truth often leads to a conviction that things previously held to be correct, in reality are not. (Justin Martyr, Exhortation to the Greeks) Peering into the mist of gray That shroud the surface of the bay, Nothing I see except a supervisor Of fog surrounding every sail. Then Suddenly against a cape A Vast and silent form takes shape, A great ship lies against the shore Where nothing has appeared before. Who must be a truth Often gauze Into a fog for many days, It may seem very acidic two heaven Nothing is there but mist-clouds dim. Then, Suddenly, His eyes will see A shape everywhere nothing used to be. (Clarence E. Flynn) Some initial thoughts
Was Jesus a Trinity?
Many Christians would argue with the strength that Jesus of course was a Trinita. As the other person in the Trinity - as many believe it is appropriate to describe Jesus - he was of course aware of both who he was and how the deity as a whole was put together. Since he was a part of the Trinity, he did not really believe in any doctrine of the Trinity - he just knew the whole with a perfect certainty that it was such a deity was! No one can actually know God better than God himself! And as humanity's great teacher, a witness and God's reveal, of course, Jesus communicated that his knowledge of God to the world. He was not called "Light of the World" for nothing! In Jesus' presence could not eclipsed, untrue or half-anne notions of God consist? When he preached and guided people to believe in the true God, he brought them always until a clear and confident faith in the triune God. And as a natural consequence of these two conditions - that Jesus knew better than anyone else that God was a triune God and that he always and everywhere true and faithful witness of this God to the people around them - we find a number of clear examples Jesus preaching at Trinity reproduced in the four Gospels. How many Christians will probably think, and something like this should just correct the situation could be described if the Trinity is really true. That Jesus of endless reasons to fail, or in any way confusing to tell the truth about the true God, appears at least not for me as a credible alternative. Provided that the conditions are right, I can not understand anything but that these must necessarily lead to a number of clear examples of the Trinity sermons of Jesus in the four Gospels! So far all well and good. But before we turn us completely satisfied with this description, it will probably not be so stupid to make a little bit of reality check of what is being said here. Situation is really as we are promised that it should be? Votes line of thought and its conclusion with what we see in the real world? If we find such. a lot of trinitarian texts in the Gospels? Draws the Gospels a clear picture for us by Jesus as a Trinity-believing person? Jesus proclaims constantly the Triune God when he preaches in the temple and in synagogues? Jews accuse him time and again to proclaim a God who they have never heard of before - a triune God? He proclaims himself as God? He sits down with his disciples in quiet moments and explain to them detailed and clear about God's Pentecost? He teaches them that worship should be directed against him? Assuming his friends and disciples a treenighetstro after listening to his preaching? These and similar questions are critical enough sense that you ask before you accept the truth that Jesus was a Trinitas as a biblical truth. Here in this study, we - as the title page already disclosed - just travel seven such critical questions. The answers will eventually emerge to these questions will definitely do something with your readers. If not all immediately begin to adjust his belief in God - it's a bit much to expect - the study should at least provide inspiration for further serious reflection, prayer and reflection. And who knows, maybe some - with me - one day will realize that it is not quite as obvious as many people believe that Jesus was a Trinity! Maybe someone with a today will agree with me that the following little humorous story provides a better and more accurate picture of Jesus' relationship with the Trinity than the example. The Athanasian Creed does! Jesus said, "Whom do but say That I Am?" And his Disciples answered and said, "Some say you are John the Baptist returned from the dead, others say Elijah, or Other of the old prophets." And Jesus answered and said, "But who do you say That I Am?" Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Logos, existing in the Father as His Rationality and simply, by an act of His Will, being generated (eternally), in considerations of the Various functions by Which God is related to historical creation, but only on the fact That Scripture speaks of a Father, and a Son and a Holy Spirit, Each member of the Trinity being coequal with every other member, and lock in acting inseparably with and interpenetrating every other member, with only an economic subordination Within Good , but no division Causing Which would make the substance no longer simple. " And Jesus Answering, said, "Huh?"
PS! Only a few brief remarks before we get started with the review of the questions. In short one can say that this program is built on two "pillars". The first and most important of these is the Scripture's own testimony. It does not come with anything else unless this column is in place. Scripture's own words, and it becomes critical! Each question we travel throughout the study, are therefore primarily considered in terms of what the four gospels have to say about them. In addition, it is also interesting to be able to document that a number of talented scholars have observed the same thing as a self in the Scriptures. This is particularly interesting when concurrent observations from orthodoxy own camp! The second pillar is called therefore the support of theological authority. Although statements from theological quarters, of course, does not prove anything, it's not going to get past the wide and heavy theological support provides a reassuring strength and weight to their own observations. A case is always stronger when more eyes have seen the same thing! Once one has recognized theologians and major theological encyclopedias in the back, it is also difficult to dismiss observations that weird or sectarian. With such support it must rather admit that observations appear to be serious and some observations in the highest degree is worth noting, and take seriously!
Related links: http://the-heavenly-blog.janchristensen.net/2012/01/nr-197-trinity-in-unity.html http://the-heavenly-blog.janchristensen.net/2012/01/nr-196-jesus-is-not-god-almighty.html http://the-heavenly-blog.janchristensen.net/2012/01/nr-195-holy-spirit-unnamed-person.html
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