Love is God's most basic characteristic. The
life that he wants to share with us is not just a biochemical existence – he wants us to have a life that is
characterized by love – a life of joy and kindness and appreciation.
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Program Transcript (click to view):
I’ve got a problem.
Actually, I’ve got two problems.
They are kind of personal problems, so I hope you
don’t mind me mentioning them.
But you are probably already familiar with them,
because you have the same two problems.
The first problem is sin, and the second is death.
Perhaps you
know of someone who might like to watch this program. If so, go to the bottom of
the page and click on "Email this page." Fill out the short form, and share the
good news! There's also a way to share the page on Facebook, Twitter,
Buzz, and other websites.
If you'd like to support this ministry, click here.
.
Program Transcript (click to view):
Ask ten average Christians in ten
average churches to explain the doctrine of the Trinity, and you’ll probably get
ten different explanations.
Most Christians "accept" the Trinity as
orthodox Christian doctrine. But they would be at a loss to explain why the
doctrine matters, or how it affects their Christian lives.
As Catherine Mowry LaCugna explains in
the introduction to her book, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life,
the Trinity is a doctrine that most people
Ask ten average Christians in ten
average churches to explain the doctrine of the Trinity, and you’ll
probably get
ten different explanations. Most Christians "accept" the Trinity as
orthodox
Christian doctrine. But they would be at a loss to explain why the
doctrine
matters, or how it affects their Christian lives.
As
Catherine Mowry LaCugna
explains in her introduction to God For Us, the Trinity is a
doctrine
that most people "consent to in theory but have little need for in the
practice
of Christian faith."1
The word elohim can refer to the
true God, to a false
god, to angels, and to human beings. In its rather wide application,
this name is unusual
and difficult to translate into English. The ability of this word to
refer correctly to
God, angels, man, and man-made gods can be understood only if the root
of the word is kept
in mind; it is somewhat like referring to the "powers that be," whether
they are
human or divine, singular or plural.
In Genesis 1:26, God says,
"Let us make man
in our image." "Let us...." Does this mean that there is more
than
one God? Some say yes. They say that the Hebrew word elohim is a
plural noun,
showing that there is more than one God. Yet the Hebrew Bible plainly
quotes God as saying
that there is only one God. "I am God," he says, "and there is no
other" (Isaiah 45:22). God does not say, "we are God."
One will frequently read statements to the effect that the Hebrew word elohim is plural, as can be seen from the ending -im. The complete thought behind this claim is that this plural form is a sufficient indication that there is plurality in the Godhead. With this plurality firmly in place, some conclude that the biblical references to a Father and to a Son are God's way of corroborating that God is a family of divine beings headed by the Father.
Some Bible
passages are difficult to understand.
Others are easy. The Bible has many plain, simple, straightforward,
unambiguous verses,
and these are the verses we should study first when we want to
understand what the Bible
teaches. Understanding the plain, straightforward verses then becomes
our basis for
understanding the more difficult verses. The plain verses become the
foundation for the
rest of our biblical understanding. We build on those.
Some people who do reject the Trinity
doctrine often claim that the word "Trinity" is not found in Scripture. Of course,
there is
no verse that says "God is three Persons" or "God is a Trinity." This
is all quite evident and true, strictly speaking, but it proves nothing.
There are many
words and phrases that Christians use, which are not found in the Bible.
For example, the
word "Bible" is not found in the Bible.
The Father is God,
and the
Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but there is only one God.
"Wait
a minute," some people say. "One plus one plus one equals one? This
can’t be right. It just doesn’t add up."
Some people take issue with
the use of the word
"Person" in the doctrine of the Trinity when the word is applied to the
Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. They wrongly assume that the doctrine of the
Trinity
inadvertently teaches that three Gods exist. Their reasoning goes
something like this: If God the Father is really a "Person," then he is a
God in
his own right (having the characteristics of being divine). He would
count as
"one" God. The same could be said about the Son and Holy Spirit. Thus,
there
would be three separate Gods.
