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Trinity: same or separate?

Q: If God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit (ie trinity) - are they the same person or three separate beings which form one person?

neither 'same' nor 'separate'

A: This gets right to the heart of the Christian faith. And it's not easy to understand - God is infinite, and we're finite, so we'll never plumb the depths of everything there is to know about him. But the New Testament does give us a clear answer - John's gospel especially. It's worth making the time to read what John chs. 14-17 have to say.

more »The problem comes with the words 'same' and 'separate' - neither of these is right. Father, Son and Spirit are distinct persons - they are distinct centres of consciousness (loving, willing, acting, knowing). But they coexist together - their unity is so tight that they dwell in one another, and act in harmony with one another. They are both "three persons" and yet "one God".

[To put it another way: 'same' implies they aren't distinct; 'separate' implies they aren't united in that tight way the Bible describes. Neither is true.]

Three important things follow from this:

1) When you read the pages of the New Testament and come to understand more and more of who Christ is, you can be sure that you are also coming to understand who God the Father is (e.g. John 1:18, John 14:9);

2) Christ is the only person who can bring us human beings into relationship with the Father, since he is the only person who is both fully human (as we are) and fully God (as the Father is);

3) If you do have that relationship with the Father, then you have all of God living within you (John 14:23, Romans 5:5) and you live in God (John 17:21) - isn't that amazing!

{adapted|from an answer by JHH}

See also:

detailed article at theopedia

Any room for the environment?

Q: If Jesus tells us that our Christian responsibilities are summed up in the command to "love God, and love our neighbour as ourselves" does that leave any room for caring about the environment?

totality vs centre

A: This twofold summary ("love God & neighbour") is a brilliant summary of the Christian life. But we need to think about what sort of summary it is. There are at least a couple of options: does it express the totality of our obligation to God, or the centre of our obligation to God? Does it sum up everything in the Christian life - without any remainder - or does it point us to the core?

more »If you adopt the 'totality' answer you will run into trouble. It's hard to explain why God puts Adam in the garden of Eden 'to take care of it (Gen. 2v15). It's better to see the twofold summary as expressing the 'centre' of our obligation to God. In one sense, if we are loving God with all our heart and mind and soul, everything else will drop into place. But, sinful as we are, we probably need more direction that that. Jesus gives us more direction by pointing to our neighbour. If we fully love God and our neighbour then (as before) everything else will drop into place. But (also as before) we are still sinful and prone to misunderstand, so God has given us the whole Bible to show us what that looks like. Care for God's creation finds it's place there; it's not the central place - but it's not no place either.

1) Through the Bible itself

It's important to know what the Bible says about itself, eg: - "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Tim 3v16) - "prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." (2 Peter 1v21)

2) Through history (or archaeology)

Generally speaking, when we are able to check up on things about Bible times (from archaeology, or from other written documents) they support what the Bible says.

3) Through experience

The way the Bible describes our world makes sense. It rings true. We live in a good world made by God; it's gone wrong; but God cares, and has sent his Son to put things right. It makes sense of who we are too - it explains the mixture of good and evil we find within ourselves.

4) Through Jesus himself

Jesus trusted the Bible. He thought is was totally reliable. And he is God the Son, so he knows what he's talking about. Over and over again Jesus quotes from the Scriptures, he appeals to the Scriptures in arguments - and when he's tempted by Satan it's the Scriptures he points to, to show that Satan is wrong.

Here's a couple of snippets from what Jesus says about the Bible (he uses different ways of describing the Bible: "the Scripture(s)", "the Law", etc ):

"the Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10v35);
"I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." (Matt 5v18-19)

Now, of course, when Jesus says this only the Old Testament Scriptures have been written. But Jesus also makes particular, strong promises to the Apostles, who wrote and validated the New Testament. The "you" in these verses are the Apostles - that's who Jesus is speaking to:

"the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." (John 14v26)
"When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come." (John 16v13)

The Bible is God's word, and God is trustworthy - so his word is trustworthy. (:showmore2end:)

From ARC

QuestionSpot: Random Selection

1) Through the Bible itself

2) Through history (or archaeology)

3) Through experience

4) Through Jesus himself