tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8076218417451364964.post4441983137398564421..comments2023-10-09T09:11:20.120-05:00Comments on Tom Wolff's Blog: Immanueltom wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15045360985467575407noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8076218417451364964.post-72562356633532872342008-01-07T21:17:00.000-06:002008-01-07T21:17:00.000-06:00I'm sorry, Tom, but I'm still clueless... But don'...I'm sorry, Tom, but I'm still clueless... But don't feel bad, because I've never met a Hindu who could explain the full nature of their Deity's Avatars either.<BR/><BR/>Perhaps Jesus was a little like Richard Nixon, who used to refer to himself in the third person, even to his wife?<BR/><BR/>It seems to me that the whole Trinity thing is really just an attempt at separating Christianity from other religions. If you look at the pantheistic religions that dominated the ancient world, they all descended from one (usually self-creating) god. This Uber-God then had children, and a pantheon was born. Christianity needed something unique to make it stand out from the crowd of the day, and thus the Trinity was born.<BR/><BR/>If you take a step back, and view Christianity as on a level with any other religion, it bears remarkable resemblance to any other pantheon. You have the self-creating God, the child of God, and the Avatar of God (Holy Spirit). The Archangels fill the roles of lesser deities. Satan (as powerful as any second-string god) supplies the pantheon with a source of Evil, and his Archdemons round out the pantheon. <BR/><BR/>The Christian pantheon is a little light on gods, but even three majors is enough to qualify. By creating the Trinity, the pantheon is imbued with a sense of mystery and uniqueness. The Trinity also provides a (somewhat shaky) basis for the claim of there only being one true God. <BR/><BR/>Christianity was not the first religion to try the multiple-as-one gambit, or even the god's-son-as-sacrifice-who-gets-resurrected motif. They refined the concept quite a bit from the Mesopotamian original, and obviously got it right, but to me it still doesn't lift the whole religion any higher towards believability... <BR/>~Ed~Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8076218417451364964.post-5961444101413140592007-12-20T18:38:00.000-06:002007-12-20T18:38:00.000-06:00Ed,Your first misunderstanding is that in the Trin...Ed,<BR/><BR/>Your first misunderstanding is that in the Trinity there are three separate persons: God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are separate, and each has different aspects from the other members of the Trinity. So this means that Jesus is separate from God the Father. This also means that Jesus can pray to the Father. He wasn't talking to Himself - He was actually communing with the Father.<BR/><BR/>And I don't see how it is so difficult to understand. If you know that God the Father is in heaven, and you have sensed His Holy Spirit here on earth, you have just experienced a vital part of the Trinity. You did not experience God the Father when you sensed His Holy Spirit. Yet, you still experienced God - because although they are separate, they still have the same nature. And so, even though God the Father and the Holy Spirit are separate, they are still of the same substance.<BR/><BR/>I have always thought of the Trinity as something along the same lines as me being a Father, a husband, and a lawyer. Three different roles for me, yet there is only one Tom. In each role I am doing something different, yet it is still Tom's character in each role. But where my analogy falls apart is that there are not three separate "Tom's", which makes it different from the actual Divine Trinity. Yet, for me I still think of this as being helpful.tom wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15045360985467575407noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8076218417451364964.post-67710083511094446222007-12-17T06:58:00.000-06:002007-12-17T06:58:00.000-06:00The true test of understanding a concept is to be ...The true test of understanding a concept is to be able to explain it to the clueless... Which I apparently am...<BR/><BR/>How can Jesus and God be one? The scriptures are full of examples to Jesus' miracles, so he did seem to have some powers of his own (notice I'm letting a lot of assumptions slide through here), but there are so many examples of God and Jesus talking to or about each other that have would suggest a clear separation. <BR/><BR/>Jesus does not always know the mind of God. Jesus argues with, and nearly rebels against, God. They both refer to each other as individuals, with God clearly in the superior role. Jesus prays to God and gives him credit for many of his own miracles. <BR/><BR/>From my standpoint, the Trinity is no more believable than the multiple aspects (avatars) of some of the Hindu gods... <BR/><BR/>~E~Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com