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Religion See other Religion Articles Title: THY WORD IS TRUTH www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p1s2c1p2.htm CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 232 Christians are baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"53 Before receiving the sacrament, they respond to a three-part question when asked to confess the Father, the Son and the Spirit: "I do." "The faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity."54 234 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. Mystery. John 18:20 Jesus answered him: “I have spoken to the world publicly. I always taught in a synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing in secret. The Bible the only source of true revelation There is no doubt that despite current strivings for unity modern Christianity is a deeply divided religion. Evidence of this is to be found in almost any large city of the Western world. In the average British cathedral town the shadow cast by the towering Gothic edifice of the Church of England falls, figuratively if not literally, upon the humbler buildings of the Baptist or United Reformed Church. Down the street is an Evangelical hail and further off a simple meeting room of The Brethren. In other countries the Roman Catholic Church is dominant, or maybe the Lutheran Church is a major influence. Further east the Greek Orthodox Church takes over from the Rome-based Catholic Church. Thus everywhere the mix of different Churches and sects is apparent. All these sectors of the Christian community obviously have variations in beliefs, tradition, or ritual: otherwise the need for their separation from each other would disappear. But among this wide spectrum of differing views and divergent practices there is a common thread that unites all these various sections of Christianity—and this is their concept of God. Whether the believer is Roman Catholic or Methodist, High Church of England or Primitive Baptist, Greek Orthodox or the television preacher from the American Bible Belt, virtually all share the view that the Godhead is a trinity composed of three persons, and that one of those persons assumed human form and came down from heaven to earth for the salvation of mankind. One writer* (2) likens the various components of Christian belief to the parts of a motor car. Some things, such as lights or horn, could be considered non-essential as far as the actual running of the car is concerned, for it can still be driven without them. But some parts are indispensable: the car body for example. It holds all the parts together. Remove it and the car falls apart. The doctrine of the Trinity, he says, is the equivalent of the car body. It is the one basic concept that underlies and unites the whole of the Christian Church. But the doctrine of the Trinity is usually considered to be more than just the one belief that unites the Christian world. It is also taken to define Christendom. God descending to earth and taking human form for man*s redemption is regarded as so fundamental to Christianity that it is used as the yardstick to measure those who can appropriately claim the name of Christ. By this rule all who subscribe to the doctrine of the Trinity are classed as Christian, and all who do not believe the doctrine are considered unworthy to bear that name, despite all other criteria. Hence the understandable, even if embarrassing, scene described in the Prologue. One of the purposes of this book is to explore the relationship between God and Jesus and so test the validity of this frequently made assertion that in order to be a Christian one must believe the doctrine of the Trinity. The authors contend that the boot is really on the other foot, and that it is only among those who deny the doctrine of the Trinity that the Christian tradition about God is found in its original form. Does it matter what we believe about God? "What does it matter?", it might be asked. "If a person has the basic belief that God exists and that mankind is saved through the work of Jesus, and tries to lead a good life, is it really necessary to understand what could be considered to be the more technical aspects of Christian belief? Let the theologians argue about the doctrines whilst we get on with practical Christianity! ~‘ This approach superficially has a down-to-earth and common sense air to it. But is vagueness in belief altogether a good thing? Does Christianity merely consist of doing good, irrespective of what is believed? Clearly not. It would appear from the incident described in the Prologue that for some people the correct understanding of God is important. But, of much more relevance, this is also the teaching of the founder of Christianity himself. On the night before he died Jesus prayed to God on behalf of those who would become believers on him. He said to his Father: "This is eternal life, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). So, on the authority of Jesus himself, a Christian's eternal life is dependent on his knowledge of God. This means that an enquiry into the nature of God is not something that can be left just to professional theologians, but is a vital exercise for all who are concerned about their salvation. The object of this book is to assist such an enquiry by reverently trying to set out a true understanding of God. This can then lead to knowing Him in the more personal sense of the word. We are not writing with theological scholars in mind. They have written volumes about God, but usually such books are full of their particular jargon. Pick up a book attempting to explain the theology of the Godhead and one usually finds it full of terms such as deism, theism, kenosis, hypostatic union, communion of the properties, Arianism, Homoiousians, etc., which may convey something to the author's fellow scholars but leave the ordinary reader completely baffled. By contrast, the present authors' objective is wherever possible to present the true teaching about God in everyday language. Information about God Where can we go for information about God? Most people look to their church for guidance and instruction, and in seeking to learn about God there is apparently good reason for this. The Church claims that throughout its history it has been guided by the Holy Spirit into all truth. As we have seen, the Church speaks with a virtually unanimous voice about God, and furthermore does so with the authority of centuries of tradition behind it. It will point out that its views on the Godhead have continued virtually unchanged for 1650 years. Way back in the year 325 the basis of the official doctrine of the Trinity was forged out of the controversies raging at that time, and the belief has held almost undisputed sway ever since. That year 325 saw the important council of Nicea, a town in what is now modern Turkey, at which the trinitarian formula was decided on. This was expressed as the Nicene Creed, which from that day to this has been the definitive church statement concerning the relationship between God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. But 325 is still nearly 300 years after the mission of Jesus and the first preaching of the apostles. Can we be sure that in formulating its final statement the church had not perpetuated wrong ideas that had gradually accumulated during those three preceding centuries? Does not the fact that the Council of Nicea was called for the very purpose of resolving controversies about this topic raise some legitimate doubts as to whether belief in the Trinity had also been the position of the primitive church and of the immediate disciples of Jesus? Error predicted One of the outstanding features of the apostles' preaching was the repeated prediction that soon after their death the original purity of the faith would become corrupted by ambitious men arising from within the Christian movement, and by wrong doctrine imported from outside. Paul's warning to the church at Ephesus is an example: "Take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock ... I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them" (Acts 20:28-30). This warning was reiterated by Peter, who said that the new Christian church would not escape the activities of false teachers any more than had the Jews in Old Testament times: "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies" (2 Peter 2:1). At the end of the first century, within 70 years of the death of Christ, the Apostle John referred to some who had already corrupted at least one aspect of the original teaching about Jesus: "For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh: such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist" (2 John 7). In view of this clear prediction by the Holy Spirit that the primitive faith would be corrupted, the modern church needs to do more than justify its belief in the Trinity by claiming uninterrupted acceptance of the doctrine back to the third or fourth century. It needs to demonstrate that the tradition went back further still, right to the days of the apostles. This it cannot do. It can only point to a gradual growth of a doctrine that reached maturity at the Council of Nicea. This introduces the possibility, which the authors sincerely believe to be the reality, that the doctrine of the Trinity was not an original Christian belief, but a prime example of the development of false teaching as predicted by the apostles. This is a good sight, and you can read the rest of the information directly there. Does the Bible Support the Idea of the Trinity? www.2001translation.com/Trinity.html While the word Trinity is not found in the Bible, is the concept of the Trinity taught clearly in it? The Encyclopedia of Religion Vol. 15 1987 admits: ‘Theologians today are in agreement that the Hebrew Bible does not contain a doctrine of the Trinity.’ The New Catholic Encyclopedia: ‘The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is not taught in the Old Testament.’ The Encyclopedia of Religion says: ‘Theologians agree that the New Testament also does not contain an explicit doctrine of the Trinity.’ The Encyclopedia Britannica 1976 observes: ‘Neither the word Trinity nor the explicit doctrine appears in the New Testament.’ Protestant theologian Karl Barth as quoted in The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology 1976 similarly states: ‘The New Testament does not contain the developed doctrine of the Trinity. The Bible lacks the express declaration the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are of equal essence.’ So, where does the Trinity come from? As posted before; The New Encyclopedia Britannica says: “Neither the word Trinity, nor the explicit doctrine as such, appears in the New Testament, nor did Jesus and his followers intend to contradict the Shema in the Old Testament: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord’ (Deut. 6:4)…. The doctrine developed gradually over several centuries and through many controversies…. By the end of the 4th century … the doctrine of the Trinity took substantially the form it has maintained ever since.” – (1976), Micropaedia, Vol. X, p. 126. Let us repeat part of what is here revealed; “Neither the word Trinity, nor the explicit doctrine as such, appears in the New Testament, nor did Jesus and his followers What can we gather from that? That the Christ Jesus DID NOT TEACH the dogma known as the Trinity. And if He did not teach it, by what right does man hold to it? The Greatest Man who ever livd, the man I follow by choice, the Greatest Teacher who ever taught on earth, and he did not teach the trinity. When I first learned that, I changed. Period. But even people who profess to hate the Roman Catholic church, accept this dogma. Why is that? And especially since we have a witness from the Roman church that tells us this; The New Catholic Encyclopedia states: “The formulation ‘one God in three Persons’ was not solidly established, certainly not fully assimilated into Christian life and its profession of faith, prior to the end of the 4th century. But it is precisely this formulation that has first claim to the title the Trinitarian dogma. Among the Apostolic Fathers, there had been nothing even remotely approaching such a mentality or perspective.” – (1967), Vol. XIV, p. 299. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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