E. Calvin Beisner
God in Three Persons
The Christian Church throughout history has found in order
to remain faithful to the teachings of the New Testament regarding the person
and work of Christ, it had to affirm at least the following doctrines:
The doctrine of the Trinity----that in the nature of the One
True God, there are three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, each fully God, Coequal and Coeternal
When we have said these three things, then—that there is but
one God, that the Father and the Son and the Spirit is each a distinct
person—we have enunciated the doctrine of the Trinity in its completeness.
We may condense this into a somewhat shorter statement, one
which is more precise: In the nature of
the God, there are three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit ( or substance ) of the one true
God, there are three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit p 24
“The Nicene Creed, then, with centuries of theological
discussion and controversy behind it, still teaches of the Trinity as the New
Testament does: that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, while distinct
from each other personally, are the same God”
p 153
It is this relation of Christ to the Father and the Spirit
which Dr John Robinson takes as one of the strong-est indications of triunity
in the Godhead:
At the Incarnation…
the Godhead is revealed for the first time as existing in three distinct
relationships. It is these differences of relation that make necessary a doctrine
of the Trinity, not differences of “character” or modes working. The Old
Testament, too knew God in different “characters” but it was not forced to a
Trinity Theology…We cannot begin with God creating, God redeeming, God
sanctifying, or any such collection of attributes, and proceed to identify
these with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…Rather, one must start with the three
Persons, no more and no less, which are required by the three relations at the
Incarnation
When we have said these three things, then---that there is
but one God, that the Father and the son and the spirit is each God, that the
Father and the Son and the Spirit is each a distinct person---We have
enunciated the doctrine of the Trinity in its completeness.
Page 40
In like manner also
the three days which were before the luminaries, are types of the Trinity, of
God, and His Word, and His Wisdoms.” Vol 2 pp 100 101 Epistles to Autolycus,II
WV
Page 53
The concept of Trinity in unity, three distinct persons who
are the one God, is then firmly entrenched in Christian thought by the middle
to second century
Page 54
Thus the connection of the Father in the Son, and of the Son
in the Paraclete, produces three Co-herent Persons, who are yet distinct One
from Another. These Three are one essence, not one Person, as it is said, “ I
and my Father are One “ in respect of unity of substance, not singularity of
number. Roberts and Donaldson, anti-Nicene Fathers Vol. 3, p. 621, against
Praxeas, xxv
Page 57
The New Testament teaches us that there is one God and that
this God is three distinct persons, the Father the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
and that these persons are co-equal and co-eternal. This is also the only
possible interpretation of the Nicene Creed as it was intended by its authors.
Therefore, the doctrine of the Trinity as taught in the Nicene Creed is an
accurate representation of the teachings of the New Testament” pp 155-156
E. Calvin Beisner
(from McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia, Electronic
Database. Copyright © 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights
reserved.)
One being. Three persons. In other words, one
"what" and three "who"s. There is one being, God. There are
three persons: God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The distinction is
between being and person. One being, three persons. One what, three who's.
All the Persons of the Holy Trinity are IDENTICAL IN ESSENCE
but DISTINCT IN PERSONS
John Ankerberg
[Everything You Ever Wanted to know about Mormonism]
Page 104-105
1.
There is Only One God
2.
The Father is God;
3.
Jesus Christ, the Son, is God
4.
The Holy Spirit is a Person, is eternal and is
therefore God
5.
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are distinct
persons.
TRINITY
The coexistence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
in the unity of the Godhead (divine nature or essence). The doctrine of the
trinity means that within the being and activity of the one God there are three
distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Although the word trinity does
not appear in the Bible, the "trinitarian formula" is mentioned in
the Great Commission (Matt 28:19) and in the benediction of the apostle Paul's
Second Epistle to the Corinthians (2 Cor 13:14).
(from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Copyright ©
1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)
Trinity
used to express the doctrine of the unity of God as
subsisting in three distinct Persons. This word is derived from the Gr.
trias
, first used by Theophilus (A.D. 168 A.D. - 183 A.D.), or
from the Lat. trinitas, first used by Tertullian (A.D. 220 A.D.), to express
this doctrine. The propositions involved in the doctrine are these: 1. That God
is one, and that there is but one God (Deut 6:4; 1 Kings 8:60; Isa 44:6; Mark
12:29,32; John 10:30). 2. That the Father is a distinct divine Person
(hypostasis, subsistentia, persona, suppositum intellectuale), distinct from
the Son and the Holy Spirit. 3. That Jesus Christ was truly God, and yet was a
Person distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit. 4. That the Holy Spirit is
also a distinct divine Person.
(from Easton's Bible Dictionary, PC Study Bible formatted
electronic database Copyright © 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. All rights
reserved.)
we are not using Biblical language when we define what is
expressed by it as the doctrine that there is one only and true God, but in the
unity of the Godhead there are three coeternal and coequal Persons, the same in
substance but distinct in subsistence. A doctrine so defined can be spoken of
as a Biblical doctrine only on the principle that the sense of Scripture is
Scripture. And the definition of a Biblical doctrine in such un-Biblical
language can be justified only on the principle that it is better to preserve
the truth of Scripture than the words of Scripture. The doctrine of the Trinity
lies in Scripture in solution; when it is crystallized from its solvent it does
not cease to be Scriptural, but only comes into clearer view. Or, to speak
without figure, the doctrine of the Trinity is given to us in Scripture, not in
formulated definition, but in fragmentary allusions; when we assemble the
disjecta membra into their organic unity, we are not passing from Scripture,
but entering more thoroughly into the meaning of Scripture. We may state the
doctrine in TRINITY The coexistence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
in the unity of the Godhead (divine nature or essence). The doctrine of the
trinity means that within the being and activity of the one God there are three
distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Although the word trinity does
not appear in the Bible, the "trinitarian formula" is mentioned in
the Great Commission (Matt 28:19) and in the benediction of the apostle Paul's
Second Epistle to the Corinthians (2 Cor 13:14).
(from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Copyright ©
1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)
(from International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Electronic
Database Copyright © 1996, 2003, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
God- Godhead- Substance- Essence- being [ all Synonyms ]
POCKET DICTIONARY
OF
THEOLOGICAL TERMS By Stanley J. Grenz
David Guretzki
Cherith Fee Nordling
Trinity The Christian understanding of God as triune.
Trinity means that the one divine nature is a unity of three persons and that
God is revealed as three distinct persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The
ultimate basis for the Christian doctrine of the Trinity lies in the divine
self-disclosure in Jesus, who as the Son revealed the Father and poured out the
Holy Spirit.
A BASIC DEFINITION It is time to lay down a basic,
fundamental definition of the Trinity. At the end of our study we will look a
little closer at this definition, expand upon it some, and examine a few of the
issues it raises. But we need a short, succinct, accurate definition to start
with. Here it is: Within the one Being that is God, there exists eternally
three coequal and coeternal persons, namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit.
Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research
Institute (CRI), has often expressed this point in a wonderfully simple and
clear way: when speaking of the Trinity, we need to realize that we are talking
about one what and three who’s. The one what is the Being or essence of God;
the three who’s are the Father, Son, and Spirit. We dare not mix up the what’s
and who’s regarding the Trinity. Thirdly, we are told that the relationship
among these divine persons is eternal. They have eternally existed in this
unique relationship. Each of the persons is said to be eternal, each is said to
be coequal with the others as to their divine nature. Each fully shares the one
Being that is God.
Christians believe in
the Trinity not because the term itself is given in some creedlike form in the
text of Scripture. Instead, they believe in the Trinity because the Bible,
taken in its completeness, accepted as a self-consistent revelation of God,
teaches that there is one Being of God (Foundation One) that is shared fully
(Foundation Three) by three divine persons (Foundation Two), the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit.
There is none else. No other God, no other deity, no other
Savior. One God, absolute, eternal, Creator of all things. The doctrine of the
Trinity is based upon this firm foundation. We are no proclaimers of a
plurality of gods. We have no allegiance but to the same God who appeared to
Moses in the burning bush. The Trinity in no way, shape, or form compromises
this fundamental truth— it does, however, fulfill it, bring it to full
realization, and reveal to us how this one true and eternal God exists as three
coequal and coeternal persons.
White, James R. (1998-11-01). The Forgotten Trinity (p. 46).
Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Tertullian (A.D. 160-220) Next to Augustine perhaps the
greatest Western theologian of the patristic period. Tertullian was one of the
first major Christian theologians to write in Latin (the language of Western
theology) and authored many apologetic, theological and controversial works in
defense of Christianity. Tertullian is often credited as being the first
important theologian to use the term Trinity, describing God as “one substance
in three persons.”
Gen 1:
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all[b] the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Gen 11:
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
notice how the Bible is always singular God, Plural persons.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all[b] the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Gen 11:
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
Mormon leaders have designed an elborate strawman argument about the Trinity saying the Trinity is all one person rather than three like the above teaching. Here below is there false claims
http://carm.org/heresies
the below claims are called heresy among Christians yet Mormon leaders still claim Evangelism teach them
In Marvelous Work and A Wonder, Le Grand Richards
Page 18 under the heading
John's Testimony of the Personality of God
Says "This accords also with the report of John's
baptism of Jesus:
16When He had been baptized,
Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened
to Him, and £He saw
the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Here each of the three members of the Godhead are distinctly and
separately mentioned; (1) Jesus coming up out of the water; (2) the Holy Ghost
descending like a dove; (3) the voice of the Father from heaven expressing his
love and approval of his beloved Son. How could one possibly believe these
three to be one person without body or form?
President Gordon B. Hinckley explained why he also could not
believe in the Trinity: The world wrestles with the question of who God is, and
in what form He is found. Some say that the Father and the Son and the Holy
Ghost are one. I wonder how they ever arrive at that. How could Jesus have
prayed to Himself when he uttered the Lord's Prayer? How could He have net with
Himself when He was on the Mount of Transfiguration? No. He is a separate
being. God, our Father, is one. Jesus Christ is two. The Holy Ghost is three.
And these three are united in purpose and in working together to bring to pass
the immortality and eternal life of man.' ONE GOD The above comments are
clearly antithetical
Bill McKeever;Eric Johnson. Mormonism 101: Examining the Religion
of the Latter-day Saints (Kindle Locations 503-507). Kindle Edition.
James Talmage states: "This [the Trinity] cannot rationally
be construed to mean that the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are one in
substance and person" (A Study of the Articles of Faith, p.40)
James Talmage tells a lie here since the Creeds never say same or one person. They do teach one substance since substance is a synonym for Godhead.
James Talmage tells a lie here since the Creeds never say same or one person. They do teach one substance since substance is a synonym for Godhead.
1. Hugh B. Brown, The Abundant Life, p.313
Surely this was not
ventriloquism where Christ was speaking to and of himself. It was the Father
introducing His Son. In this case, the members of the Holy Trinity manifested
themselves, each in a different way, and each was distinct from the others. A
similar event occurred on the Mount of Transfiguration when members of the
Godhead were distinguished in the presence of Moses and Elias, and Peter,
James, and John.
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