Well, even though we concluded our series on Love, I hope we aren't "finished with love." That would be to miss the point of the entire series.
Our conclusion was broad, but I'll try to narrow it here... and conclude with a video we made a few months back.
Love is an important concept. John (the Son of Thunder) says that God is love. Paul gives us an amazing look at Godly love in 1 Corinthians 13, and says in Romans 5 that God demonstrates His love in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
And Jesus said that the most important commandments are: 1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength. 2) Love your neighbor as yourself.
Love is important.
God is love. This is a tricky statement. It doesn't mean that we should think that God fits into our understanding of what love is. Here is what it means: God shows us what love is - and Godly love is life.
God shows us what love is by his very nature. God is One. God is Three. The Trinity is crazy!!! One God. Three persons. Perfect unity. God is relationship. God is love.
Godly love, then, is found in his nature... it is found in the Trinity. In the Trinity we find full individuality... the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, Neither the Father or the Son are the Spirit. But they are fully unified as only One God. They are not three gods. Yahweh is One God.
Love... is fully retained individuality accepting perfect unity.
Humanity is created to be the image of God. Together, we are to represent God on Earth. We are supposed to be so unified, that we reflect God to the rest of creation. How far we have fallen from that unified image!!
We cannot regain that image without the unifying love of the Trinity governing our lives. Loving God means giving our identities to Him. Jesus is the Way to the Trinity's Unity. We give Christ our selves just as he gave himself for us on the cross. He preserves our individuality as we abandon our very selves into Him.
Love... is fully retained individuality accepting perfect unity.
Jesus prayed in John 17 that we would all be one... even as he and the Father are one. He prayed that we would be in them even as they are in each other. Reality is about entering into the Unifying love of the Trinity... together.
Humanity will not do this... until YOU do this. Die to yourself. Love God. Love People.
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Greetings nacker
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of the Trinity,
I recommend this video:
The Human Jesus
Take a couple of hours to watch it; and prayerfully it will aid you to reconsider "The Trinity"
Yours In Messiah
Adam Pastor
That is an interesting video. Many of the arguments I have heard before.
ReplyDeleteOne's belief (or disbelief) in the doctrine of the Trinity essentially boils down to how you see the New Testament books, and how you interpret the history of the early church.
Surely God revealed himself once again to humanity through Abraham and his descendents as the One God of all creation. And, as we follow the Narrative of the Patriarchs, and of the nation of their descendents, we see God progressively revealing more and more about himself to the world through this people.
Ultimately he revealed himself through Jesus the Christ. If you accept the Gospels as inspired scripture (as Jesus did with the OT), then you must take it all in context, and see that Jesus spoke of himself as God, One yet distinct from the Father.
John tells us that Jesus was with God in the beginning, and that HE WAS GOD. Of course the word Trinity is not in the NT, nor is the doctrine explained in scripture.
What the doctrine represents, is followers of Jesus Christ struggling with all their heart to be faithful to the One God who has revealed himself. They knew, as we know, that he is One. But they also were discovering that they had experienced Him in the man Jesus Christ, who taught that he was BOTH equal to, and subordinate to the Father. And they were experiencing fellowship with the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit... the paraclete whom Jesus and the Father sent at Jesus' ascension.
So we know that God is One. But we can only discuss the One true God in light of His revelation of Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We are not at liberty to tell God who he his, or how his nature is structured... we can only take him at his Word.
I understand the video's arguments, but I find them to be the result of faulty interpretation of the nature of scripture, faulty interpretation of the scripture, and faulty interpretation of history.
But as a Rabbi from CA said in the beginning of the video, "It is a free country... If someone wants to call a chair a 'table', that is their national right."
Thanks for the video. I hope you study other material besides that which furthers your own opinion. I cherish the insights of Jewish Rabbi's and others who disagree with me. They expand my understanding of the context in which the Tri-une God revealed himself.
And most importantly... I am fairly certain that Christ's apostles did not have the doctrine of the Trinity outlined in their minds. What they knew was that there was power in the Resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of sin... and that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life... he is the path to relationship with YHWH.
The Crucified God by Jurgen Moltmann is an interesting read.
ReplyDeleteAs is
Participating in God: A Pastoral Doctrine of the Trinity by Paul S. Fiddes
Thanks nacker,
ReplyDeletefor taking the time to watch the video.
And thanks for you comments.
Yours In Messiah
Adam Pastor