Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!know!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jow@pacbell.com (Jeff Westman) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Trinity Message-ID: Date: 6 Nov 90 08:26:38 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA Lines: 32 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article dg@pallio.uucp (David Goodenough) writes: > ibrahim@syacus.acus.oz (Ibrahim Sifri) asks: > > People often say they believe in the Trinity, yet they differ in their > > understanding of it. > > > > 1) What, exactly, is the Trinity? That is because it is so complicated and beyond human understanding! I have heard all the common analogies, the egg/shell/yolk, water/steam/ice, etc., and none of them really make sense to me. Understandably, perhaps, God is three Persons of the same Substance with different manifestations, functions and personalities. There are many things about God we do not understand; perhaps we are not meant to understand them, per se, but to accept them because God tells us they are true. > John 20:28 "And Thomas answered and said unto him [Jesus] 'My Lord and > my God'" And interesting side-note here. When Thomas said 'My Lord and my God', he used a greek construction called the 'Gransville Sharp Rule'. I don't remember the exact "rules" involved (I could look them up if anyone is interested -- email me), but when the word "and" is joining two phrases of like tense and mood, one emphasises the other. In other words, in Thomas' astonishment, he exclaims to Jesus: You are my Lord __AND__ my God. This is agreat proof of Christ's deity to other faiths. There's another identical construction (emphasizing Christ's deity) in Titus, I believe (I don't have my Bible with me). Let me mention, too that this Gransville Sharp Rule is standard greek -- not some special rule just because the Bible is involved -- the same emphasis would still be intact in any greek literature (eg, Homer). -- Jeff