Free Republic

The motherliness of God has been neglected for far too long, says Martina Bär. For the fundamental theologian from Graz, practising a "Our Father-Mother" prayer therefore makes sense. "We have neglected the motherliness of God for far too long," says theologian, Professor Martina Bär. She is a Professor of Fundamental Theology in the Catholic Faculty in Graz and herself a mother of a one-year-old child. She explains why practising an "Our Father-Mother" prayer makes sense.

“This Is the Catholic Faith” (Athanasian Creed) Did you know that we Lutherans are catholic? We are! In fact, you just said so. You did, just now when we all confessed the Athanasian Creed. Don’t worry. I’ll explain. And so our theme on this Holy Trinity Sunday: “This Is the Catholic Faith.” Yes, it’s Trinity Sunday, that one Sunday of the year when we haul out that big, long creed with the funny name and say it in church. But at least I let you sit down for this one! This creed is called the Athanasian Creed. It’s named after...

The theory that the universe was crafted intentionally explains many essential realities that theories based on spontaneous chance do not.The scientific establishment is slowly beginning to allow scientists who believe in intelligent design to have a platform. Why? It may be because the theory that the universe was crafted intentionally explains many essential realities that theories based on spontaneous chance do not. Perhaps the simplest and best argument for intelligent design is to clearly state what you have to believe to not believe in intelligent design, as I did in my book, “In the Beginning and Other Essays on Intelligent...

Of course, during the last century liberal theology had no use for the historical resurrection of Jesus. But a remarkable change has come about during the second half of the 20th century. A new quest of the historical Jesus had begun. By 1968 the old skepticism was a spent force and began dramatically to recede. So complete has been the turnabout during the second half of this century concerning the resurrection of Jesus that it is no exaggeration to speak of a reversal of scholarship on this issue. What are the facts that underlie this remarkable reversal of opinion concerning...

I teach Sunday school at my Church. For our next study we will be doing a class on the Trinity - which I see the world and false Christians attacking more and more in contemporary society. The primary text I will be using is “The Forgotten Trinity” by Dr. James White. It is aimed at the layman and should be an excellent resource. But whenever I teach a subject I like to get immersed in it so I can respond to the inevitable tough questions the class always ends up throwing at me. Accordingly, I am looking for some other...

“Born of Water and the Spirit” (John 3:1-17) On this Trinity Sunday, our Gospel reading, from John chapter 3, tells us of the work of the Holy Trinity--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--in bringing us to a new birth and the new life that flows from it. And this is where Jesus goes in his conversation with Nicodemus. Jesus tells Nicodemus that he needs to be “Born of Water and the Spirit.” This Nicodemus was a prominent Jewish religious leader. He was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. Jesus even calls him “the teacher of...

The Trinity is all about Love. The Trinity is heart-warming. It is the Trinity that makes human loving family relationships possible , , , but first let is "get the math out of the way." All orthodox Christians are Trinitarians, that is, we believe there is one God who exists in three Persons -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.. Unfortunately many people get bogged down in the seemingly mathematical contradiction involved in 1 yet 3. Forget trying to solve the 1 yet 3 thingy -- that's impossible to solve. Why? Because there is nothing on this earth comparable to 1...

Each of the Persons of the Trinity were present at Christ's baptism as recorded in all four gospel accounts Two topics I haven't touched on much before, although we've discussed them at great length on the forum, are the Trinity and the deity of Christ. In this article I will address these fundamental theological truths. What Is the Doctrine of the Trinity? This is the belief, as revealed in Scripture, that there is a single, immutable, eternal God (monotheism), who eternally subsists as the mutual indwelling of three Persons (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit). When properly...

Seventy-five years ago today, on a rainy morning in the Jornada del Muerto desert of New Mexico, the United States ushered in the nuclear age with the detonation of the world’s first nuclear explosive device—an event code-named “Trinity.”  This remarkable feat of engineering and scientific ingenuity was the culmination of the Manhattan Project, which helped end World War II and launch an unprecedented era of global stability, scientific innovation, and economic prosperity.After Trinity, nuclear testing conducted by the United States laid the groundwork to maintain our stockpile and further our ability to understand and prevent nuclear threats around the...

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the first detonation of an atomic bomb. Now famous as the Trinity Test, the giant explosion was the culmination of the ultra-secret Manhattan project and would within weeks lead to the end of the Second World War and usher in the Atomic Age. On July 16, 1945, at 5:29 AM, the predawn darkness on what was then the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, was suddenly lit up with the light of a thousand suns....

Posted on June 7, 2020June 7, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope One and One and One are One. A Homily for Trinity Sunday There is an old spiritual that says, “My God is so high you can’t get over Him. He’s so low you can’t get under Him. He’s so wide you can’t get around Him. You must come in, by and through the Lamb.”It’s not a bad way of saying that God is “other.” He is beyond what human words can describe, beyond what human thoughts can conjure. On the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity we do...

June 7, 2020 The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Reading 1 EX 34:4b-6, 8-9 Early in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai as the LORD had commanded him, taking along the two stone tablets.Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with Moses there and proclaimed his name, "LORD." Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out, "The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity." Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship. Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O...

The Ascension of the Lord Matthew 28:16-20 Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus assures us that he will always remain with us. Only when we realize that our lives are situated in a context of a Life that stretches infinitely beyond them, only when we know that our wills are related to a Will that encompasses and surpasses the whole of the cosmos, are we ready to live. Matthew brings his Gospel to completion with Jesus’ Great Commission: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations. . . . And behold, I am with you always, until the end of...

Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter John 16:12-15 Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit to guide the Church through time. "I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. When he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth." Since Jesus is the Son is God, it is impossible for us adequately to interpret him through our own powers of perception. We require a divine pedagogue through which the speech of the Father is to be understood. This is the advocate we call the Holy Spirit....

EASTER JOHN 14:15-21 Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit to accompany his disciples. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth.” Just a moment before, Jesus had identified himself as the Truth and as, essentially, one with the Father. Thus we find in this first reference to the “Advocate,” the parakletos, a fairly clear proto-Trinitarian formula. As Jesus reflects the Father’s being, so this third seems to reflect the mutuality of Jesus...

MONDAY OF THE FIFTH WEEK OF EASTER JOHN 14:21-26 Friends, we see in our Gospel reading that the Holy Spirit’s principal sign is love. The night before he died, Jesus told his friends the deepest truths. He spoke of himself, his Father, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the love that connects the Father and the Son. From all eternity, he is breathed back and forth between the Father and the Son, and hence he is nothing but love. When therefore he comes to dwell in you and me, he turns us to the path of love. “On...

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter John 12:44-50 Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus identifies himself with the Father and so hints at the reality of the Trinity. The Trinity is just another way of saying that God is love. But this has to imply that there is a play, within the unity of God, of lover, beloved, and shared love. This is precisely what we mean when we speak of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This love is so white-hot, so intense, that it spills over into creation. In the case of human beings, this communication...

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter John 10:22-30 Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus declared that "the Father and I are one." Jesus appeared two thousand years ago and announced that he had been sent by the Father. There was a strange "something more" regarding Jesus, for he spoke and acted in the very person of God. The first Christians had to come to grips with this strange duality: somehow Jesus was Son of God, both sent and divine. He was other than the Father, but somehow at the same level as the Father. Things got more complicated when the...

I explore one of the final Meccan surahs from the Koran, and explain how Mohammed and his anti-Christ religion differs from true religion and the Holy Spirit.

Is Jesus God? By Philip Cottraux In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not (John 1:1,10). It’s one thing to believe Jesus is the Messiah. Or the Son of God. But God? While firmly settled by Christians long ago, many still grapple with it. Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses are fine with labeling Jesus a prophet, but consider equating Him with the Almighty blasphemy, pointing out that nowhere in the four gospels did He demand...