Month: February 2010

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the Ocean of Truth. We’ve gone through the Bible and seen the doctrine of the Trinity. Now we’re seeing the outworking. I’m thinking tomorrow unless things change I could begin going through the doctrine of God and as my guide, be using the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas so be prepared to dive even deeper. First, I give my prayer requests for you. I ask for prayers for my Christlikeness. I’m noticing how many problems in my life are actually self-fulfilling prophecies. Well it’s all part of God shaping me to be the man that I need to be. I also ask for prayers concerning my financial situation. Finally, I ask for prayers in a third related area of my life. For now, let’s study the Trinity and the Father.

Most of us can see how we need to understand the doctrine of the Son and the doctrine of the Spirit in relation to the Trinity. After all, that’s where our disagreement is with the heretics. Everyone agrees when they approach the Scripture that the Father is God. What can we learn however about the Father by studying the doctrine of the Trinity?

For one thing, we learn that the Father has always been the Father by studying the doctrine of the Trinity. It was not essential to the nature of the Father that he create. Being creator is not a necessary attribute of God, although we could say having the power to create would be a necessary attribute. Because God has an ability it does not mean that he has to act on that ability for it to be there.

Being a creator is an attribute that is describing how God relates to the creation and not how he is in himself. It is not essential to the existence of the Father that he be the creator of the Deeper Waters blogger. Since, however, I exist, he does have some relation to me and one such relation is that of the Deeper Waters blogger.

What about being Father? Is that essential to God? If we have just the Father, then it is not. Now we could say the Son is created, but it is at that point that either God becomes relational or else God was relational and he had a lack within himself that needed to be filled and if he had a lack, I see no reason why we should think of him as God.

Without that love going on, God would have many attributes, but he could not be seen as a loving Father. It is because there has always been a Son that the Father has always been the Father. If we do not have an eternal Son, then we do not have an eternal Father. To deny the Son is in essence then, as John says, to deny the Father.

If we change our doctrine of the Son, it follows that our doctrine of the Father will change. Naturally, if we have a good doctrine of the Father, we will have a good doctrine of the Son. You either accept the Trinity then or you reject God as he is entirely. Your choice.

Hello everyone and welcome back once again to Deeper Waters where we continue to dive into the ocean of truth. We’ve finished up our Trinitarian Commentary so now we’re just looking at some ramifications of the doctrine of the blessed Trinity. First, my prayer requests. I ask for your continued prayers as I continue along on Christlikeness. Things seem to be going better today, but I am becoming also more aware of how fall short I am falling and need to change. Second, I ask for prayers for my financial situation as I believe I came across an extra hurdle today. Finally, I ask for prayers in a third related area in my life. God knows. Let’s talk about the Holy Spirit now.

I am not a Pentecostal, but it has been said that one thing we can learn from the Pentecostal movement is “don’t forget the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit has often been called the silent person in the Trinity. The Father we all know about all throughout the Old Testament. The Son is there, but he makes a major appearance in a unique way in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit is all throughout, but not in the most prominent way.

We have times where the Spirit is present such as the Spirit filling the leaders of Israel so they can prophecy. Also, we have the Spirit coming and filling the temple so that the priests cannot enter and do their work. This is referred to as the Shekinah glory. The Spirit’s first mention however comes as early as Genesis 1:2 as an active participant in the creation.

In the New Testament, we have the Spirit being treated as God in that Ananias and Sapphira are guilty of lying to the Spirit which is equated with lying to God. We also have him sending out Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13. Jesus warned the Pharisees about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and Paul told the Jews in Acts 28 that they were resistant to the Holy Spirit. Stephen said the same in Acts 7.

The Holy Spirit then was an understood aspect in Judaism to some extent. This does not mean that they had a full-blown doctrine of the Holy Spirit, but they did understand the concept of such a person as the Holy Spirit even if he didn’t have ontological equality with God. However, it could be easy to say that the Holy Spirit is in a way the manifest presence of God somewhere, though still a person in his own right of course.

Maybe you’re like me and you’re not Pentecostal. That’s okay. You need to learn a lesson from our Pentecostal brothers and sisters as do I. We need a doctrine of the Holy Spirit. This doesn’t mean that you have to start talking about baptism of the Spirit and speaking in tongues, though you should have some stance on that. Before you talk about what the Spirit does however, you need to know who he is and for that, you need the doctrine of the Trinity. Let us not neglect a primary issue, who the Holy Spirit is, over a secondary issue, what he does in the lives of believers in relation to spiritual gifts.

Welcome back everyone to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of Truth. We’ve just completed a Trinitarian Commentary and are briefly looking at some ramifications of the truth of the doctrine of the Trinity. Before we get to that, I’d like to mention my prayer requests. First, I ask for your prayers for my Christlikeness. Today and yesterday have been kind of rough for me on my progress, yet I believe I am still maintaining an inner attitude that is keeping me going stronger than I would be before. Two step forward. One step back. The second area I ask for prayer in is my finances. Finally, I ask for prayer in a third related area of my life. For now, let’s get to our topic.

One question that every worldview has to deal with now is what to do with Jesus. Muslims make him the greatest prophet before Muhammad. They affirm that he was sinless, born of a virgin, and the Messiah of Israel, but they deny that he was the Son of God and to say he is fully God as we have been is to commit the sin of shirk.

Jews can have mixed attitudes. Some do see him as a good teacher. Others see him as a great blasphemer. (I would actually consider the latter to be more consistent if one denies the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.)

Hindus can claim him as a great avatar. In Buddhism, he can be a Bodhissatva. In Mormonism, he is the spirit-brother of Lucifer. In Watchtower doctrine, he is the son of God, but he is not God himself and is not the second person of the Trinity. For an atheist, he can be a really great teacher, but in no way deity.

What to do with this figure? It seems every religion now needs to say something about him. Christians have given their answer for centuries. He has full ontological equality with God. He is the second person of the Trinity. He is the Lord and Savior of the world. He is the messiah. We do not deny he was a great teacher and pinnacle of morality, but we see him as so much more. If he was simply a great teacher and a pinnacle of morality, we would honor him of course, but not worship him.

The Trinity gives us our answer. Is Jesus fully God? Well, the texts of Scripture teach us that he is. Yet at the same time, we also know that he is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. To add to the mystery, we know that there is one God. There are three persons who can be called God then and there is one God.

The Trinity is the answer. I am a thinker who does try to examine every idea and the more I examine this, every time I come back to the doctrine of the Trinity. This is something I have to agree that the church got right. I stand by the church fathers in this regard and the creeds. I, as a Protestant, unite with my RCC and EO brothers and sisters. We worship one God in Trinity.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’ve talked about the Trinity for awhile and I’d like to look deeper at what that means for us as Christians. I’d also like to break off of this some and then just get into a look at the doctrine of God in classical theism. Thus, for those wondering about how we get our ideas of God and our understanding of him, hopefully you’ll get something out of this. I do ask for my usual prayer requests first. The first is that I will be a more Christlike man and have the rough edges I see in my heart worn away. The second is that I will get the help I need for my finances. Finally, I ask for prayers in the third related area of my life. For now, let’s get to the blog.

How do we treat our fellow human beings? Are they objects or persons in their own right? I do agree with Immanuel Kant on this in that he said that persons should not be treated as means to an end but rather they should be treated as ends themselves. Now someone might say “Well I used the cashier at the grocery store to ring up my purchases.” True, but Kant would say to never forget that that cashier is a person as well and don’t treat them as just an object.

Could we learn that from the doctrine of the Trinity as well?

In the relationship of the Trinity, you see the Father glorifying the Son. You see the Son glorifying the Father. You see the Spirit giving glory to both. All the persons of the Trinity have a selfless love for each and each loves the other for the sake of the other.

The Trinity should teach us that God is relational in his very essence and so ought we to be. We ought to relate to one another the way the persons of the Trinity relate to each other. Yes, each person fulfills certain roles for the other, but they do so out of love for the other.

If we have an arian concept of God, then we can say that God is creating out of  a lack of love in himself. There is no one for him to love and so God creates man fulfilling a lack in himself. In the Trinity however, there is already abundant love and love that is overflowing. Man is not created because God was lonely, but man was created because God is happy and God wishes to spread that happiness and creates man to invite him to join in the dance.

What would it mean if we each sought the good of the other as a person and not as an object? How would employer and employee relationships change? How would student/teacher relationships change? How would parent/child relationships change? How would relationships with the man on the street change?

The observant reader should notice I left one relationship out.

How would husband and wife relationships change?

Cohabitation has proven a problem for people today as marriages tend to not last that have cohabitation before marriage. Now I know there are some that do, but cohabitation is generally an impediment. Why? Each person is being treated as a test object. Consider the analogy of “Well would you buy a car without taking it for a test drive?” No. Most of us wouldn’t. In this case however, there is one question.

Which of you is the car and which of you is the driver?

You see, if you take the car back to the lot, the car won’t be mourning. It won’t be asking what it did wrong. It won’t have a feeling of rejection. The human being is different. What does it mean to say that you rejected another human being because they did not bring about the happiness that you desired? Did you ever consider thinking about their happiness instead?

A true marriage will have each seeking the happiness for the sake of the other. Now there’s nothing wrong with telling your spouse what you desire if they want to know how to please you, which they should, but your main focus should be on the desires of your spouse before your own desires. The husband is to love as Christ loved the church. He gave himself up for her. The wife is to love as the church loves Christ. She submits to him and seeks to serve and please him. Now I know a lot of women balk at the idea of submission, but it is biblical and it is not to be used as a whip by men. If you have a good and godly husband, submission will not be a pain. It will be a pleasure as he will help you in Christlikeness.

Let us then learn to be Trinitarian in our ethics and not Arian in them. We are Trinitarians. We live accordingly.