Summations Only

Hey sidelined! I'll give you my personal definition and also several definitions gleaned from various apologetic websites.

Tritheism is the teaching that the Godhead is really three separate beings forming three separate gods. This erring view is often misplaced for the doctrine of the Trinity which states that there is but one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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Oneness Pentacostalism is another common belief that is said to be in error.

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Modalism is the error that there is only one person in the Godhead who manifests himself in three forms or manners: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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Personally, I am unsure whether or not I am a Trinitarian or not.

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The Nicene Creed:

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We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

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We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

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We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

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Imagine that you were outside playing football. You looked up and saw the Sun which was 93 million miles away. The sunlight was shining all over, and the heat was noticeable. Although these are three separate attributes, they originate from one source.

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The plurality study seemed to be a helpful link for those who ascribe to Biblical Inerrant explanations.

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Don't try and logically pin this stuff down.

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IMHO, God is a Spirit (or a vibe) and is perceived not through definitions but by characteristics.

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Edited by Phat, : clarification

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Convictions are very different from intentions. Convictions are something God gives us that we have to do. Intentions are things that we ought to do, but we never follow through with them.
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"Atheism is so senseless. When I look at the solar system. I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance."- --Sir Isaac Newton

The creative potential?

How about the number, Infinity? If we chopped Infinity into two parts, would each part be finite?

I became intrigued with this idea of Henotheism and so I looked it up and found:

quote:

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Belief in one god without denying the existence of others.

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This carried me along a brief google search river to this topic and the problems between the ways that many of us think and believe. As an example, to a fundamentalist Christian, there may well be one God..be He able to interact in several personal ways or not. Any other manifestations of supernatural (or otherwise unexplainable) manifestation would be ascribed to Satan...since by golly there is One God that runs the show! On a practical level, however, how is this different than the Hebrews and their collection of idols when they were being rebellious?In other words, how is Henotheism any different from One God plus idolatry?

The Trinity is, in my opinion, not a major theological issue. In the depths of my soul, I believe that there is no doubt One God. Whether I make the "mistake" of worshiping Jesus (or the Holy Spirit in the Living Christ)or whether I am worshiping God through The Eucharist or even whether I am worshiping God while driving to work---I believe that the thoughts and intentions of my heart are what is important. All roads may not lead to God but God finds us down the road in which we live, IMB.

I think the sticking point is the idea of how many spirits there actually are. I maintain One Holy Spirit and a subset of imitators...wannabes...hence two basic spirits. The argument of how to spot the real McCoy from the army of fakes is valid. My answer is that the real Spirit finds you...you do not find God. IOW there may be many paths up the mountain but only one wise sage at the top.

No...its that people don't acknowledge her.....(and I still don't know why you say "she" since Jesus is male)

I'll go with the former statement.

Here it is took me 6 years to answer you! I agree with your assessment that God does not pick and choose among people...but He allows for us to freely and logically find our path. For some, it may not include belief. In this instance, I agree with you that we are judged in part by what we do versus what we believe, but I would add that what we believe may influence what we do and how we do it.

Because that would make God Schizophrenic.

The dogma that I ascribe to shows the tempter, satan, as a created being. There is only One Creator. Granted you can argue that He plays all of the roles, but it makes more sense for Him to be good, rather than complete. Jeffrey Dahmer is a human with a mental disorder, not a Creator of all seen and unseen.I suppose you could argue that God is like Seth MacFarlane and plays multiple roles---but that makes no sense to me.

You seem to be mixing up what it is that a Creator creates versus what a Creator is. An artist can paint a picture of many zoo animals but that does not make the artist a zebra.God may well have created evil(more likely the possibility of evil) but that does not make God defacto evil. Get my point?

Creating the possibility of evil does not make the Creator evil.Choosing which attributes you wish to emulate was only made possible by virtue of the fact that the Creator did not make ypu only able to behave in a singular and limited fashion.Had the Creator made it so that you were destined to only act out a limited trait, that limitation imposed on you would make you doomed and Him evil.On the other hand, had the Creator made it so that you would never experience evil, He may well have done you a disservice by limiting the scope of your experience.You can call Him evil if you like, and I will always disagree with you.

I could say the same about you. You want humans to be responsible for their behavior and claim that the gods don't listen anyway...and yet you pin the label on God as being responsible for evil. In essence, you believe that if there is one God, he is evil and that we humans are better off without him. Wonder who whispered that logic into your ear?One more thing: Being in communion with God does not mean that we never grow up. I could be in communion with a bank via a personal trust and it wouldnt mean that I couldnt count. It would simply mean that I and the bank had a common interest---managing my money. Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

allowing the possibility of evil as a choice would actually compliment evolution, as the weaker people would fall in the hole and the stronger ones would avoid it.