Featured The doctrine of the Trinity

The first thing God spoke into existence was light [Genesis 1:3] which is energy. I have often thought that all matter [mass occupying space] was then created from that light.

The 1st Law of Thermodynamics once said that energy can neither be created or destroyed or the energy of the universe is constant. With the advent of certain discoveries in the last century or so {fission, fusion,} that law is sometimes stated that the total energy, mass of the universe is constant.

 

OR,

I know you and I are not on the same page....but I see in that statement of Genesis "and God said let there be light"...to be the original Big Bang event. That instantaneous creation of the beginning kernel of the universe from nothing (ex nihlio).

 

The more the Big Bang is studied the more problems are identified. I read some stuff and if I were younger and better in math I would read more. However, nothing has impressed me as much as and God said let there be light. I recall years ago that Nobel winner in physics Charles Townes a SC native and Furman graduate was asked about his views on creation. He quoted the above Scripture.

QF we are not on the same page on a lot of things but we are on the same page that really counts!

 

:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:

 

I'll join Brother QF....

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:


Though mine's prettier...I gave you four 'thumbsup' and he only gave you three plain ole 'thumbs'...LOL...J/K....

 

OR, it just occurred to me. Was it not that the first created action of God "the heavens and the earth"?

Are you making for some reason the distinction that "spoke" was not mentioned in this creative act?

 

I considered that question/problem when I first began to believe that light was the first thing created by God. The Scripture reads:

Genesis 1:1-3
1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

I believe the above can be understood as follows:

Genesis 1:1 is simply a statement that creation "ex nihlio" is an action of God.

Genesis 1:2 simply tells us the state of the earth absent the creative activity of God. Could this simply mean that before God created light the earth did not exist. Verse 2 does seem to indicate that space may have existed before light but I am not sure. Certainly before light there seems to be darkness and something called "the deep" and "the face of the waters".

If these three verses are intended to be a chronology of God's creative activity then He would have created darkness prior to light but that seems to contradict what Scripture tells us about God. Of course verse 2 may simply tells us that nothing existed prior to the creation of light.

I simply believe that Verse 3 tells us much about the creative activity of God.

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

And that is modalism... heresy.

 

The best illustration I believe shows the trinity is man himself. No analogy is flawless, and this one certainly has its holes, but you can't use a finite example to describe an infinite being.

Take man, though. Body, mind, soul. My body is 100% me. Apart from the rest of me (mind and soul) people will still say it's me. "That's where he's buried." My soul is 100% me. When I die and my soul is in Heaven, it will be 100% me in Heaven. My thoughts, my personality, and my likes/dislikes are 100% me. My mind without the other two is still me.

This is where I think my analogy stands up better than the three dimensional discussion. I think an analogy in which all three parts are capable of solo existence, yet are all still parts of a whole works better.

If you erase length, you get rid of breadth and height. They are incapable of being apart. I think the Godhead is the opposite. Each is capable of solo existence, while simultaneously being unable to be separate.

 

How about, Yahweh, Elohim of us, Yahweh one, having brought fourth through a virgin woman, his only begotten Son. That Son, being the Word of God spoken to the fathers by the prophets and now spoken unto us by Son?

Who died for our sins.

By which we received the Holy Spirit of promise.

The Word of God, that is the incorruptible seed, that begets us again, unto a lively hope.

Is that the Word of the God that was with the God from the beginning?

Brought forth as the only begotten Son of the Father?


I will ask again. Why does that have to be a trinity of God persons.

 

I believe God spoke himself, Light, into the presence of the darkness that was upon the face of the deep. He then divided himself Light from the Darkness. And called the Light good.


For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. from 1 John 3:8

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

What was going to be required for there to be an only begotten Son of God, to destroy the works of the devil? Where was the devil when God said, "Let there be light"?

What were all three persons doing at this moment? Before it was said, "Let there be light," had God already made a promise, the hope of eternal life and had God already determined that the Christ would shed his sinless blood?

Was the purpose of the shedding of the blood, that through death he could destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil and thus bring redemption from death?

What death? What Son of God, that would be the heir of God? Why would, God the Son, need to be an heir of anything? Why joint heirs with Christ, the Son of the living God?
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. ?

Just what was the God doing when he said, "Let there be light"?

 

Something someone wrote in another thread, piqued my interest relative to this thread.

The Archangel, wrote;

I'm fairly well an A-mil guy... But, in reality, there is far too much ink and electrons spilled over this issue as if it were a doctrine on the same level as, the trinity, the divinity of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, etc. It simply does not rise to that level of importance.

What is so important about the doctrine of, the resurrection of the Anointed, relative to the doctrine of, the trinity?

Considering the doctrine of trinity, why resurrection, what is the necessity of resurrection, there being the trinity?

Especially relative to resurrection in the concept of Acts 2:27,31?


By that I mean what of who was resurrected from where, in what manner?

Almost the same question a man might ask; How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?

Is the soul raised up from Hades in body incorruptible?


Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead; Gal 1:1

καὶ γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ τοιούτους ζητεῖ τοὺς προσκυνοῦντας αὐτόν πνεῦμα ὁ θεός καὶ τοὺς προσκυνοῦντας αὐτὸν ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ δεῖ προσκυνεῖν From John 4:23,24 TR Who is speaking this?

 

Three irrefutable facts are:

1. God is Triune IN NATURE
2. The NATURE of the triune Godhead is clearly seen in nature
3. The triune nature of time, space and matter is SUFFICIENT to make that clearly manifest.

The triune nature of time, space and matter does not teach modualism nor tritheism. The triune nature of time, space and matter has no other similarity than trinitarianism in regard to any doctrine about God, and therefore provides a SUFFICIENT similarity to the Trinitarian nature of God.

 

Thankfully God exist outside of time, space, and matter!

 

yes, as he alone is Eternal, as ALL others things such as those were created by Him...

 

Yes, as God is just ONE Being, but has been eternally expressed in 3 seperate and distinct persons...

 

I believe "expressed in 3 seperate and distinct persons" is misleading.

The LORD our God is one LORD [Deuteronomy 6:4] yet God exists eternally as three separate and distinct persons.

 

Of course God transcends His creation but that does not mean His creation does not reveal God's triune nature as it clearly does to anyone who eyes to see.

 

Is it not misleading if not incorrect to say: " God is Triune IN NATURE"?

In the Triune Godhead there are three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, but only one nature.

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The 1644 London Baptist Confession reads as follows:

The 1689 Confession reads as follows: