Posted on 04/26/2005 9:00:20 AM PDT by TheTruthess
The greatness and power of God is pictured in a few bold strokes in the opening chapter of the Bible. The Genesis account of creation portrays God and identifies man. It sets the stage for all that follows. It is important for man to know about creation because it tells him who he is and vividly represents the might and divinity of the Creator.
Jehovah, Jesus and the Spirit, acting in the unison of their God nature, brought the present order of things into existence. There is only one true and living God who is three beings, or persons. The perfect unity between the three persons of God make a single entity. The plural nature of God is asserted in the opening chapter of the Bible. "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26). God...us...our...the plural pronouns used in connection with the word God show the one is three and the three are one. This may sound like a contradiction, but it is not.
An illustration of the three-in-one understanding of deity may be seen in space. Space is limitless, having no bounds. Space has three measurements. Look at a cube. It has three dimensions-depth and height (same dimension measured from opposite ends), width and length (same dimension measured from opposite sides) and breadth and thickness (same dimension measured from opposite borders). Height, length, thickness each is separate and identifiable and are the dimensions of space. Space is one--the three are one and the one is three.
In much the same way, there are three distinguishable beings in one God. Each possess the God nature and besides this one God with three beings there is none other. God alone is God. The same information is given concerning man. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion..." (Gen. 1:26).
Notice "man" is singular, but God gave "them" dominion. The word man is used in the sense of mankind. Only those who possess human nature are man. They are one in their manhood, but separate in their being. They are many but the many are one. They alone are man and beside them none other possesses human nature. The brute beast is not man. Cows, dogs, horses do not possess human nature. Only man is man.
There are only three beings who possess the God nature. Each of the three has all the attributes of divinity. Each of the three is all knowing, all powerful, everywhere present, infinite in love, holiness and justice. The agreement between the three persons in the one God is absolute. They are perfectly united in thought, word, desire, and purpose. Though separate they are welded together into a consummate unit. They are one as the disciples of Jesus are to be one (John 17:21). The disciples of the Master, in their human weakness, may fail in their oneness, but God is faithful to his essential unity even if man is faithless in his.
The opening chapter of the book of Genesis does not give details about the essence of God, but it does give the outline. It makes us aware that God is plural and, therefore, from the first, affirms the eternal nature of the being who would one day restrict his God nature and also take the form of a servant, and be "made in all things like unto his brethren."
The Genesis account of creation is the only accurate report of the First Cause. Men, in their limited knowledge, may concoct all kinds of theories about the origin of things, but all such speculation is vain. Human conjecture is often a house of sand. We are now being told by some advocates of evolutionism that the whole universe came into existence in the expanding fireball of a big bang, doubling in size every tenth of a quadrillionth of a quintillionth of a second. That gets pretty close to the majestic statement of Moses, "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Gen. 1:3).
God spoke the universe into existence. The expression "And God said" is repeated 10 times in the account of creation. He commanded and it was done. Not in eons, but in hours. Not in a long, indefinite period of time, but in days. Everything from light to man was created by the irresistible power of an Almighty God in 144 hours.
In 615 words God, through Moses, told all we know of how everything in the universe came into existence. The Bible story of creation is a masterful and fascinating description of how material things came into existence. No one has been able to improve on it. It is an introduction of the history of the dealings of God with man, and forms the ruling theme of inspired scripture. It shows us the Supreme Being in unquestioned majesty. The God of the spirits of all flesh - the moral governor of earth and sky and sea. The Genesis account shows us man as subservient to God. Man is in the image and likeness of God, but he is not God. He has limitations. He is finite and mortal. He is created -- not eternal. His spirit never dies, but man had a beginning. Man is dependent.
The Genesis account of creation should help us to understand that the throne of God is the center of everything. Our limited and distorted human vision is clouded and we do not see things as they are. We are tempted to suppose that the planet earth is the focal point of eternity. We are duped into supposing that authority and nobility are in the visible world around us.
God's throne is the center of the universe. The first book in the Bible explains the separateness and majesty of God. The last book in the Bible confirms this exalted truth. The apostle John on Patmos was given a vision of the cosmos. He saw God's eternal throne as the midpoint. It is a place of power, beauty and transcendent wisdom. Arched over the throne of God is an emerald rainbow. He who sits on the throne is "like a jasper stone and a sardius to look upon" (Rev. 4:3).
Daniel described the dwelling place of God. "I beheld till thrones were placed, and one that was ancient of days did sit: his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, and the wheels thereof burning fire" (Dan. 7:9). "And out of the throne proceed lightnings and voices and thunders. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; and before the throne, as it were a sea of glass like a crystal; and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, four living creatures full of eyes before and behind" (Rev. 4:5-6). Surrounding the throne of God are four living creatures and twenty-four thrones occupied by elders, having crowns of gold upon their heads. Beyond the living creatures and the elders' thrones are countless angels. "The number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands" (Rev. 5:11). Beyond the angel host--out on the periphery of the universe--are the kingdoms of men. The human drama is played out on the fringe of God's ageless kingdom. The center of everything is God. The account of creation helps us to know, to the limit of our ability to understand, the preeminence of God. His supremacy is undeniable. Almighty God made the worlds.
Jesus was the reason for making of all things. In Jesus we have the forgiveness of our sins "who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him; and he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fullness dwell; and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens" (Col. 1:15-20). God made everything good. Six times in the Genesis account of creation God looked at what he made and pronounced it good (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). Then, to top it off, "God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31). It was all good--not only good but very good! God made nothing that was bad, or evil.
Bad things came when man rebelled against God. God made man good and gave to him the power of choice. Man decided to do something God had forbidden. Man was told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil--the tree that stood in the midst of Eden. Man did what God told him not to do. Man can reject the rule of God in his life. If man fails to do what God has commanded, or does what God forbids, he is distanced from God. In his separation from his maker, man is miserable and lost. His rebellion brings upon him sorrow and suffering. The blessing God intended for man is ruined because of man's disobedience. The Bible account of creation tells us that sin brings death (Gen. 3:3). The New Testament reiterates it..."the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). Every ounce of woe and every gram of heartache visited on the human race is the result of man's stubborn rebellion to God. The polio virus and cancer virus did not exist in the beginning but are the results of mutation. The world as we see it today is not the world as God made it, but is the world as man has spoiled it. When man rejects God and refuses to follow his word, he brings about profound alterations. Having caused the change, man must live in consequence of it. We must suffer from the transgressions of all who have gone before us, and all who come after us will have to endure the results of our folly. "For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" (Rom. 8:20-23).
God deniers try to discredit believers by asking, If God is good where does evil come from? The answer is, all evil comes from man's rejection of God's will and way. Evil is the fault of the creature--not the Creator. It is the bitter fruit of disobedience. This is fundamental and basic. The essential goodness of God is underscored in his promise that the seed of woman would bruise the head of Satan (Gen. 3:15). In mysterious grandeur God speaks of the time when a savior would appear to give man the opportunity of victory over the devil.
On the first day of creation God called for light and light had no choice but to appear. Philosophers and scientists can neither make nor explain light. Light is distinct from the sun and moon (Gen. 1:3,16). Where and what is it? Do you know its dwelling place (Job 38:19). Job could not explain by what way the light is parted, nor can we (Job 38:24).
A light was first in God's creation and symbolizes divine wisdom. Jehovah is "the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning" (James 1:17). Of Jesus it is said, "In him was life; and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). Of heaven it is written, "And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb" (Rev. 21:23).
Those who proclaim and practice the teaching of Jesus are the light of the world (Matt. 5:14). The saints of earth are to "become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as lights in the world" (Phil. 2:15). The lessons of creation are many and magnificent, but there is no truth more profound than who and where God is, and who and where we are. The grand lesson of creation is God's compelling power and our appalling weakness.
It was all done with a view to the Messiah of Jehovah. Creation was a prelude to the grace of Christ and his adoration. We cannot escape the conclusion that the overture of creation is the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star, the sun of righteousness with healing in his wings. The blinding blaze of creation sets the stage for the deep shadows of Calvary. The world's redeemer dying on a cross in the darkness is anticipated in the expectation of creation. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). "God the mighty maker died for man the creature's sin. Just as creation anticipates the cross so does the cross anticipate the second coming. One foresees the other. Creation will reach its climax one day when Jesus comes again. The last chapter of earth will be written in blood and fire and fear and brightness and joy and victory.
The word of God is powerful. From of old there was "an earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of God" (2 Peter 3:5). By the means of that forceful word "the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished" (2 Peter 3:6). The heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to youward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2 Peter 3:7-13).
The God who made the world by his authoritative word will destroy it some day by that same decisive word. See the greatness, separateness, majesty, mercy, love and grace of God unfolded in creation and in judgment. This brings us full circle to stand in awe of the matchless word of God. "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not when they refused him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from him that warneth from heaven" (Heb. 12:25).
Even now he is warning from heaven. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest haply we drift away from them. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard" (Heb. 2:1-3). Harden not your heart!
Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth."
http://www.bible-infonet.org/bin/feature_articles/apologetics/Creation.htm
"It makes us aware that God is plural and, therefore, from the first, affirms the eternal nature of the being who would one day restrict his God nature and also take the form of a servant, and be "made in all things like unto his brethren."
Oh, brother, this guy is definitely a heretic.
Now, God restricts His nature? The divinity didn't change as a result of the Incarnation! Are we to say that the Holy Spirit and the Father now changed as a result of the Incarnation? One of the persons of the divinity took on the form of man, took on our nature, but He (Jesus) never put aside His divinity! Jesus Christ was God AND Man! He had/has TWO natures. How can one say the nature of God changed? That is a contradiction of terms.
Regards
Your right,
I should have read the whole article instead of skimming through it.
"Your right, I should have read the whole article instead of skimming through it."
I usually do the same thing, but the above called out to me. Another point this guy states to prove he doesn't know much about the Trinity is...
"...there are three distinguishable beings in one God. Each possess the God nature and besides this one God with three beings there is none other."
There are three PERSONS - not three beings! We are polytheists now? God is one being, one essence, the divine nature - who happens to consist of three distinct persons. God said "I am who am", not "I are who are", or "We are who are".
Yikes!
Regards
Rather than be so quick to label heretics, read more carefully. He stated that God is plural. God the father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. The Son restricted his nature to become flesh. Yes, he was both God and man as I know the author would also attest. But if scripture tells us something, it's better to listen than to start spouting false labels.
Hebrews 2:7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: 8 Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. 9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
Jesus is God. Jesus was made 'lower than the angels'. Therefore God restricts his nature. It's really not that hard to understand when you take the time to follow reasoning.
Again. Check the reasoning. 'God in three persons' is the phrasing I usually use, but based on the english language (of which I speak a little) being and person can be used interchangably.
From Webster:
Being - To exist in actuality; to have life or reality; to occupy a specified position.
Person - An individual of specified character.
Let me assure you any difference is merely syntactical in the author's case.
"The Son restricted his nature to become flesh."
God does not reduce His nature. The nature of the Godhead remains unchanged! Your explanation would have me believe that when Jesus became a man, the Holy Spirit and the Father lose power because the nature of God is now restricted! Remember, Jesus is only One of the Three Persons of the Trinity that utilize the Divine Nature.
It would be better to say that Jesus did not display His divinity fully while He was Jesus of Nazareth. His full divinity was "hidden" from the Apostles and Jews. Because the Person of Jesus Christ is wrapped in mystery, we must be careful on our definitions.
Jesus being a little lower than angels merely means that He took on the nature of a man. Being that God is impassible, that is the only way Jesus could suffer and die, by taking on our nature. This is what the author of Hebrews refers to - that the Logos, the pre-existing Second Person of the Trinity took on the nature of man, IN ADDITION to His nature already as God. Both subsist in the person we call Jesus Christ. As Christians, we must be careful on such explanations, as they lead to un-Biblical ideas. We must believe that God became Jesus, fully God and fully man.
Regards
"There are three PERSONS - not three beings!"
I stand by this explanation. Looking up in the dictionary is not going to help in this particular case. Why? When refering to anything BUT God, this would be true. Everything that exists has a nature. The WHAT. It is also the source of action. All creatures that can rationalize (or had the potential to - children or mentally ill) are Persons. The WHO. Normally, these co-exist, and we can legitimately call a person a being. No one exists who has two natures - until Jesus came along. Now, we have a person with two distinct natures, or sources of action. Thus, the dictionary will not help much here, as we have an exception to the rule.
To say that God is three beings is to say that God is three persons with three separate natures, as we normally associate persons and natures together, one person having one nature separate from another person. Again, it is a mystery, but it would serve others who are learning about Christianity to use accepted terms, such as three persons in one God, so as not to confuse others.
Regards
In this sentence you used God and the Godhead interchangably. If this is to be the accepted starting premise, then I will agree. But if Jesus as God is separate from the other 'persons' (yes, I agree much better than 'beings') of the Godhead, then I stand by my original reasoning. It is not the 'nature of God' that is resricted as much as it is Jesus as God the Son through obedience to the Father restricting himself.
We must believe that God became Jesus, fully God and fully man.
On this we agree.
Gerald L Schroeder, "The Science of God".
"But if Jesus as God is separate from the other 'persons' (yes, I agree much better than 'beings') of the Godhead, then I stand by my original reasoning."
Be careful. Again, this can be complicated. The Three Persons of the Trinity are NOT separate in any way. They are distinct merely in their relationship to each other. They do not share the divine nature, they each possess it totally and completely. To separate the Three Persons is to tread on polytheism again.
"It is not the 'nature of God' that is resricted as much as it is Jesus as God the Son through obedience to the Father restricting himself."
Yes, this is different than saying the divinity of God is restricted, yes? The nature of God remains unchanged. Yet, the Logos took on a second nature so that He could suffer and save us. Perhaps you are beginning to see why the Church went through several hundred years before they defined the limits of who and what God is (or perhaps, it is easier to say what God is not, according to Augustine).
Why the quibbling over what God is? This revelation of who God is is an act of love similiar in its depth to Calvary. We should become aware of who God is, not only because we love Him and this is a deeply personal revelation that was not necessary, but it also gives us hints of how we are made in God's image (especially realized in marriage) and what we will enter when we move on to heaven to "share in the divine nature" as Peter wrote in Scripture.
Take care
Three personages:
1. God the Father
2. Jesus Christ
3. Holy Spirit
How you can interpret these three as one other than a metaphorical one is beyond me. They are separate.
"How you can interpret these three as one other than a metaphorical one is beyond me. They are separate."
This doctrine of the Trinity took many years to fully develop to what we have now. The Church Fathers carefully developed this doctrine to weed out what the faithful DOES NOT believe. When terminology was initially given, heresy would pop up that took the faith in a direction that the Apostles had not taught. For example, the idea of three hypostases (persons) removed the taint of Sabellianism (the idea that God manifested Himself differently through history, in essence, saying that there was no distinction between Jesus and the Father and the Spirit). However, this brought up the threat of Tritheism, which claims that God is three separate persons. Deut 6:4 is being threatened, thus, the careful wording by the Fathers. And so, the Fathers had to define to what extent God consisted of three hypostases (persons).
We can thank the Cappodocian Fathers for our definitions that we have today that preserve "the tradition of the Scriptures", as St. George of Nyssa recalled. Specifically on the question of distinctions among the Three, he identified causality as the only real point of distinction, stating that one was the cause, namely, the Father, and that the Son and the Spirit were derived from Him, but eternally. In this one cause was the guarantee of the unity of the Three. By saying this, we can rest assured that there are not three Persons who act separately from each other. When one acts, all three act. There are three persons, but they have one will, one nature. They act together. It is a fine line, but it keeps us away from Tritheism
Here is what the Catechism says on the subject:
254 The divine persons are really distinct from one another. "God is one but not solitary. [Father], [Son], [Holy Spirit] are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another: "He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son." They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: "It is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds." The divine Unity is Triune.
256 St. Gregory of Nazianzus, also called "the Theologian", entrusts this summary of Trinitarian faith to the catechumens of Constantinople:
"Above all guard for me this great deposit of faith for which I live and fight, which I want to take with me as a companion, and which makes me bear all evils and despise all pleasures: I mean the profession of faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today. By it I am soon going to plunge you into water and raise you up from it. I give it to you as the companion and patron of your whole life. I give you but one divinity and power, existing one in three, and containing the three in a distinct way. Divinity without disparity of substance or nature, without superior degree that raises up or inferior degree that casts down. . . the infinite co-naturality of three infinites. Each person considered in himself is entirely God. . . the three considered together. . . I have not even begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes me in its splendour. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when unity grasps me".
St. Basil said that what was common to the Three and what was distinctive among them lay beyond speech and comprehension and therefore beyond either analysis or conceptualization. The distinction between the generation of the Son and that of the Spirit remained an "unknown mode", according to Didymus. These Fathers were determined to "guard tradition we have received from the fathers, as ever sure and immovable, and seek from the Lord a means of defending our faith" (George of Nyssa).
I think we will have to admit that the mystery of the Godhead cannot be fully understood in this lifetime. These theological definitions attempt to explain using human words an essence and subject that we can never fully penetrate. However, it is important that we have an understanding of who God is based on His revelation to the Apostles.
Regards
I don't know where you're getting your information from but it's definately not the Bible. No would guess that you are augmenting scripture with some doctrine of man on the issue of the Trinity. Since the Bible does not reveal that much information concerning the trinity there is no way that we can completely know everything about it. I only use the Bible as a source and everything I have studied in it leaves some real unanswered questions.
Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Just as I thought.
"I don't know where you're getting your information from but it's definately not the Bible."
Two comments.
First, the formula of the doctrine of the Trinity is in the Bible, when read entirely and within the Apostolic Tradition handed down to the Bishops. Note the citation from Gregory of Nyssa that I mention "tradition of the Scriptures, etc."
Second, where exactly does the Bible say that my information about God must be explicitly stated in the Bible ONLY? I agree that it cannot contradict, but I believe we can agree that everything we are meant to believe is not always explicitly spelled out. Example: What are the Table of Contents of the Scripture? The Bible is NOT a catechism.
Regards
"...you are augmenting scripture with some doctrine of man on the issue of the Trinity"
Hmm. Sola Scriptura and Sola Fide. Where exactly can I find those in the Bible? Are these doctrines of man?
Regards
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