Hillsage
Member
YES, and like I've said a hundred times here; GOD IS SPIRIT. The WORD gave up that GOD quality emtying Himself of being GOD/ spirit and became man/FLESH. Nothing refutes that POV IMO.
I'm done for the night too. Have a good one.
Defining the godhead - an open discussion on Unitarianism, Binitarianism and Trinitarianism
- Thread starter SteVen
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I'm done for the night too. Have a good one.
Quite the contrary: I am smack in the middle of the record-setting Southwest heat wave, so I emerged only to see if the outdoor cats were still alive.
I am actually overflowing with energizing peace, more or less. My energizing peace, however, is and always has been of the somewhat cynical, skeptical variety. If other people told me some of the things that I myself have experienced, my first reaction would be "What a load of BS." I insist that my religious beliefs be exposed to the strictest scrutiny of which I am capable. When they survive that, they do indeed bring energizing peace. In fact, the verse about the peace that passes all understanding has been one of my favorites since I was a newbie.
I am energized to an extent by helping other humans and animals, which I do pretty generously, but witnessing and sharing ain't my thing. Ditto for my wife, who is far more devout but simply never felt comfortable doing anything resembling witnessing or sharing. I actually always enjoy it when the JWs and Mormons come to the door and do their thing - I appreciate the effort and sincerity and sometimes get something worthwhile out of it, even if it strikes me as slightly goofy. My long-ago activities with Campus Crusade strike me as somewhat goofy. But I understand what you're saying, and your encounter with Alicia was something entirely different.
For all my experience with them, I do find internet forums of all types inherently energy-sucking. It's probably one of the most disappointing and energy-sucking forms of human interaction. My wife just had the same experience with a very active forum comprising her Belarusian university classmates of almost 50 years ago. At first, it was fun and exciting, but it quickly went the direction of all internet forums - she grew to hate it and pulled the plug without notice to anyone. And so it goes. The healthiest approach, which I hope to adopt, is to allot oneself perhaps an hour a week and not let it become an energy-sucking addiction.
In my hometown of Tucson, there is a church/ministry called WORKship: https://www.workship.org/about. Their "services" consist, or at least used to, of a very short sermon (7 minutes), a quick hymn, and the congregants then feeding the hungry at the church and in the community or doing other good deeds. I always thought it was the sort of church I'd like. (They are "just a bit" woke for the tastes of most mainstream Christians and are positively heretical in their refusal to pass a collection plate at services: https://www.workship.org/services-1.)
L.B. (2.0)
Member
O'D III: @Hillsage too,
I have loved reading your debate and I was struck by how pleasant and informative you have been.
I will be the first to admit: I am a little or a (lot) bit woke; yet comfortable with seeing other perspectives.
The Triune debate on a lot of forums can lead to throwing verbal chairs at opponents with differing views- yet this has been a treat to read.
I hope to bring more posts to the debate here- but for now glad to read the threads.
Massive blessings,
L.B. (2.0 !)
The_H_C
Member
Did you not follow with why I used Acts 9?
Jesus said to Saul: “why are you persecuting me?”
Saul was persecuting Jesus’ disciples, not literally persecuting Jesus.
But Jesus said Saul was persecuting him!
It wasn’t literal. Now, apply that to the phrase, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
For instance, I’m just like my Dad was. Looks and actionsSo I could say, “if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen my Dad.”
Didn’t Paul call Jesus, “the image of the invisible God”? (Colossians 1:15; 2 Corinthians 4:4) So, there you are.
Here’s a good question: as a former Jew — in fact, as a Christian — what would Paul say about image worship? - 1 John 5:21
Yet Paul called Jesus, “the image of the invisible God.”
If he wanted to encourage the worship of Jesus, the last thing he would have called Jesus, was “image”!
The_H_C
Member
Yes, that was my point. Was Paul literally persecuting Jesus? No.
Yet Jesus asked, “why are you persecuting me?”
Jesus was saying that He was His disciples. Figuratively.
I guess I didn’t explain it well enough. Grief. I thought I did.
L.B. (2.0)
Member
Imagio Die
In the image of God.
We are wonderfully made by God. In His image:
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:27, NIV)
Image can be decoupled from "idol'.
Imagine this: we worship God/Godhead. The Christological manifestation of God in Triune traditions sees the unity of the theistic as God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Often, some monotheists confuse worship of many Christians as 'idol'.
Decoupling idol from image helps... the early verse of Genesis is comfortable with the term 'image'- it seems image as a term has created so much conflict around idol worship/envy.
We are in the 'image' of God... not the idol of selfhood and fallacy.
Imagio Dei: worth noting.
Massive blessings
In the image of God.
We are wonderfully made by God. In His image:
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:27, NIV)
Image can be decoupled from "idol'.
Imagine this: we worship God/Godhead. The Christological manifestation of God in Triune traditions sees the unity of the theistic as God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Often, some monotheists confuse worship of many Christians as 'idol'.
Decoupling idol from image helps... the early verse of Genesis is comfortable with the term 'image'- it seems image as a term has created so much conflict around idol worship/envy.
We are in the 'image' of God... not the idol of selfhood and fallacy.
Imagio Dei: worth noting.
Massive blessings
L.B. (2.0)
Member
O'D. I looked up the web page and found the community be lovely: warm and fuzzy. I appreciated their efforts.
And this, I believe, is the key point (which I think I also made somewhere up above): These - including the most standard version of the Trinity - are all simply ways of thinking about, talking about, and relating to what is ultimately the Mystery of God. They are not descriptions of the ontological Reality of this Mystery - or, if one of them is, it's mostly a matter of chance. If your version of the Trinity works for you, that's the essential thing.
I found Trinitarian notions simply "got in the way" of my own thinking. Not that they are wrong, but simply that I didn't find them useful or helpful. Hence, my monotheistic/idealistic way of thinking, talking and relating as set forth in my blog entry at Christianity Board, "A Possibly Useful Way of Thinking About God."
The only way discussions such as this go off the rails is if someone thinks he or she has the ontological Reality and is hellbent to show that others don't. If everyone accepts that they are sharing personal notions of what is ultimately a Mystery, things are far less inclined to go off the rails.
SteVen
Well-known member
A Possibly Useful Way of Thinking About the Nature of God
Idealism as a model of God and His creation.
www.christianityboard.com
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SteVen
Well-known member
I think this topic has shown that Trinitarianism has the most biblical support. Unitarianism and binatarianism pale in comparison.
To be clear, I'm not married to Trinitarianism, but I seem to be the designated driver in the defense of it on this forum topic.
God is mysterious. Unitarianism, binatarianism and trinitarianism are only different (and contradictory) attempts to explain God.
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Hillsage
Member
The church of today certainly does manifest as a coat 'of many colors'. I am wondering if the original church looked so diversified?
So you live in Tucson and it's been a heat wave. Sorry, I am happy to say we've had a very cool spring and have yet to hit 100, even when it was predicted. My last real attention getting 'bite' from the hound of heaven was from a girl in Tucson. She was a nurse and moved there after she divorced her husband. We had an adulterous relationship when she was separated from him. She invited me to come visit her for Christmas in '71'. I ended up hitchhiking out to see her a couple months later. I was expecting a hot time like the days of old. Instead she sit me down and told me how she had become a Christian and God had put me on her heart to witness to me. I wasn't invited for a 'hot time', and I spent the night on her living room floor and the next morning I hitchhiked back home. But I was impacted greatly by her changed physical countenance and her 'peace that passed all MY UNDERSTANDING.
I got back to Kansas and started seeking the one who was drawing me and got born again. I was so happy to be able to tell her, when she called months later to try again to witness, that I was saved and she was a bit part.Keep 'cool' and have a good one. And as the Aussies say; "May God be on ya....mate."