Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: cadence!stevep@uunet.uu.net (Steve Peterson) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Equality w/in Trinity? (was Re: Deity of Christ, H.S. etc. Message-ID: Date: 4 Apr 91 06:18:55 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Cadence Design Systems, Inc. Lines: 79 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article c9037544@cc.newcastle.edu.au (David Williams) writes: >This is in response to some questions about the deity of Christ, and the >doctrine of the Trinity and such matters. >THE DEITY OF CHRIST. > E. Proved by Equality in the Trinity. > 1. With the Father (John 14:23; 10:30). > 2. With the Father and the Spirit (Matthew 28:19; II Corinthians 13:14). Is there equality in the Trinity? --------------------------------- With the Father? ---------------- You site John 14:23; 10:30 "In answer Jesus said to him: "if anyone loves me, he will observe my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our abode with him." "I and the Father are one." When saying this did Jesus mean that they formed some sort of Trinity? Some Trinitarians say that he did. But at John 17:21, 22, Jesus prayed regarding his followers: "That they may all be one," and he added, "that they may be one even as we are one." He used the same Greek word (hen) for "one" in all these instances. Obviously, Jesus' disciples do not all become part of the Trinity. But they do come to share a oneness of purpose with the Father and the Son, the same sort of oneness that unites Jehovah and Jesus. With the Father and the Spirit? ------------------------------- (2 Cor 13:14; Math 28:19; 1 Cor 12:4-6) --------------------------------------- "The undeserved kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the sharing in the holy spirit be with all of you." "Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit" "there are many different gifts, but it is always the same Spirit; there are many different wasy of serving, but it is alwasy the same Lord. Ther are many different forms of activity, but in everbody it is the same God who is at work in them all." Do those verse say that God, Christ, and the holy spirit constitute a Trinitarian Godhead, that the three are equal? No, they do not, no more than listing three people, such as Tom, Dick, and Harry, means that they are three in one. This type of reference, admits McClintock and Strongs Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, "proves only that there are the three subjects named,...but it does not prove, by itself, that all the three belong necessarily to the divine nature and possess equal divine honor." Although a supporter of the Trinity, that source says of 2 Cor. 13:13 (14): "We could not justly infer that they possessed equal authority, or the same nature." And of Matthew 28:18-20 it says: "This text, however, taken by itself, would not prove decisively either the *personality* or the three subjects mentioned, or their *equality* or *divinity*. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are mentioned together numberous times, but that does not make them one. Peter, James, and John are named togethere, but that does not make them one either. Furthermore, God's spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism With love, Steve Peterson stevep@cadence.com