Triniterology

Congruent with Easton, the arguments generally adduced by theologians in proof of the being of God are:

(1) The a priori argument, which is the testimony related to reason.

(2) The a posteriori argument, by which we proceed logically from obvious historical and present facts of experience to causes. These arguments are:

(2a) The cosmological, by which it is proved that there must be a first cause of all things, for every effect must have a cause.

(2b) The teleological, or the argument from design. With our five senses, we perceive everywhere the phenomena and operations of intelligent design in nature.

(2c) The moral argument, called also the anthropological argument, based on the moral consciousness and the history of mankind, which exhibits a moral order and purpose which can only be explained on the supposition of the existence of God. Conscience and human history testifies that "truthfully there is a God who judges in the earth."

Conceptualizing and defining The Holy Trinity (pertaining to THE Creator GOD) is best done by:

(a) recognizing names of God given throughout Old and New Testament Scripture, and
(b) analyzing characteristics and functions associated with names of God given throughout Old and New Testament Scripture.

Two prominent Hebrew designations for the Creator given in the Old Testament are: Yahweh and Elohim.

It is somewhat confusing that the KJV used the word "Lord" in place of Yahweh, because correct equivalence of the English word "Lord" is the Hebrew word: Adonai referring to: Jesus, the Son of God. Accurate English Old-Testament translations use "Jehovah" or "LORD" (all capitals) for the Old-Testament word occurrences of Yahweh. The "Spirit (of God)" also is found within the Old Testament.

Though credit for creation is said to have been done by "the Father" in the Nicene Creed, the work and accomplishment of creation is actually credited to the Son Jesus, as it states by the following New-Testament passages:

Col 1:16 for in [the Son of God] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities--all things were created through Him and for Him.
Col 1:17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

Heb 1:10 [Of The Son He says:] "You, Lord, did establish the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.

One also could wrongly presume, by the wording of the Nicene Creed and other literature, that the word "begotten" implies that the Son of God was conceived or birthed or fathered by The Almighty Father in Heaven before all time, before Christ was conceived in the womb of Mary. That presumption, of course, is errant - being that the Son of God of the Triune Godhead has always existed long before being conceived in Mary. Use of the weird English word "begotten" is lamentable, being that it is easy to miscomprehend, since with humans the word is associated with human fathers being an integral part of the production and maintenance of their male or female offspring. The English-transliterated Greek-word source of "begotten" is instead: generated.

Because of that, it is easy to understand why Jesus the Son of God equated Himself with God Almighty (El Shaddai) and part of that trinitarian Elohim Who spoke to Moses (recorded in Exodus chapter 3) from the burning bush:

2 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.
3 And Moses said, "I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt."
3 Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?"
14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
15 God also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you': this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

Joh 8:58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."

As in indicated in http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/Adonai/adonai.html, examples of the Hebrew word for "Lord" which is: Adonai (and the pronunciation of YHWH as "Adonai") is found in Genesis 15:2, Deuteronomy 10:17, Psalm 8:1, and Isaiah 6:1.

Combinations of "Spirit" and "Lord" or God" or "GOD" and so forth are described in http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/Spirit_of_God/spirit_of_god.html as with the following examples:

Ruach Elohim = The Spirit of GOD (Genesis 1:2, Numbers 24:2)
Ruach Adonai = The Spirit of the LORD (Isaiah 11:2, Ezekiel 11:5)
Ruach Hakkodesh = The Holy Spirit (Isaiah 51:11)
Ruach Adonai Adonai = The Spirit of the LORD God (Isaiah 61:1)
Ruach-El = The Spirit of God (Job 33:4)

It thus becomes quite clear that the Jews of Israel had a remarkably developed cognition of the Trinitarian nature of the Godhead!

To help Old-Testament Jewish scholars understand the phenomenon of the Son of God becoming flesh as a fleshly descendant of God (see the geneologies of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter 3), Jesus asked the Jews whose son the Son of God is, and they replied that he was prophesied to be the son of David, to which Jesus responded:

Mt 22:41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,
42 saying, "What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David."
43 He said to them, "How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
44 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put thy enemies under thy feet'?
45 If David thus calls him Lord, how is he his son?"
46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did any one dare to ask him any more questions.

Mk 12:35 And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, "How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?
36 David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, declared, 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put thy enemies under thy feet.'
37 David himself calls him Lord; so how is he his son?"

Luke 20:41 But he said to them, "How can they say that the Christ is David's son?
42 For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand,
43 till I make thy enemies a stool for thy feet.'
44 David thus calls him Lord; so how is he his son?"

Engrained right within the Jewish Bible of Law, Prophets, and Writings, the concept of a Supreme-Power Savior who resurrects and judges is evident:

Job 19:25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth;
26 and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God,
27 whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

Deuteronomy 6:4 in effect reads: "Hear O Israel, Yahweh our Elohim is one Yahweh (i.e. Jehovah our GOD is one Jehovah). Again, along with Yahweh and Elohim (trinitarian plurality) is included the Son Adonai and the Holy Spirit (i.e. Spirit of God).

Again, though Jesus the Son of God came in the flesh as Son of God by His Father in Heaven through the Spirit impregnating Mary and as Son of man by the human Mary, He previously had always existed in spirit previously before all time. Of course, spirits are invisible, and thus:

Joh 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.
Joh 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

And not only made Him known, but enabled humanity to see Adonai in the flesh - the Son of God part of the Elohim Holy Trinity, according to:

Joh 14:9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

being that:

Joh 10:30 I and the Father are one."

The functional characteristics or duties or work of the Son was and is to:

1. create and maintain the heavens and earth operationally, and
2. redeem penitent faithful and obedient mankind as THE only legitimate perfect atonement against (and not "for") sins by HIS once-for-all sacrificial death on a cross (and not ANY human involvement nor effort of faith, works, reading the Bible, going to church regularly, offering eucharist, proclaming acceptance of Christ as Lord, believing Christ is the Savior, etc.)
3. return someday to destroy the wicked and ultimately judge all humanity

The function of the Spirit of God was and is to:

1. Give breath to all living creatures, and remove breath from such to cause death
2. Impregnant the virgin Mary, and
3. Divinely inspire authors of the Bible and empower men of God to do unusual actions

The function of the Father was and is to:

1. Be regarded as Father of His Son Jesus, and be called such by the Son of God
2. Be petitioned as Father in prayer, and
3. Be thought of as Chief Authority and Commander over all beings (e.g. angels, demons, creatures or entities of Heaven), and Supreme Designator over all that has happened, is happening how, and will happen - who sits on His throne as El Shaddai (Almighty GOD)...... yet is one-of-three entities within the United Divine Godhead.

A few Scripture verses stating names of the three persons of the GOD-is-Three-in-One Godhead, their functions and actions and relationships will help the reader understand that Divine Trinity:

Mt 24:36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
Mt 25:31 "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.
Mt 25:32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,
Mt 26:53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?
Joh 5:45 Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; it is Moses who accuses you, on whom you set your hope.
Joh 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever,
Joh 14:23 Jesus answered him, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Joh 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Joh 14:28 You heard me say to you, 'I go away, and I will come to you.' If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.
Joh 15:26 But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me;
Joh 16:8 And when he comes, he will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:
Joh 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
Joh 16:14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Joh 16:15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Joh 20:17 Jesus said to her, "Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."
Ac 17:31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead."
1Co 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
1Co 15:24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
Eph 2:18 for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Col 1:3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
1Pe 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
1Jo 2:22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.
1Jo 2:23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also.
1Jo 2:24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father.
1Jo 1:3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Re 2:27 and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received power from my Father;
Re 3:5 He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.
Re 3:21 He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

Even momentarily, GOD never died. GOD never even died on a cross at Calvary.

Scripture does record that "Christ died" in Romans 5:6,8 plus 14:15 and I Corinthians 8:11 and 15:3. Put another way, one can safely say that the Messiah died (and was resurrected, of course). It is legitimate to declare that the Father raised His Son from the dead, instead of Jesus raising Himself from the dead.

Though Jesus was "one with the Father" (John 10:30) and was of the ancient "I AM" (Exodus 3:6-15 and John 8:58) who spoke from the burning bush in the desert which burning-but-not-being-consumed bush fascinated Moses, and our Lord was in in the form of God (Philippians 2:6-7), He was never the totality of the Trinitarian Godhead (i.e. the Holy Trinity) during His earthly ministry. "The LORD said to my Lord....If David thus calls Him 'Lord,' how is He then His Son?" (Matthew 22:45). In Philippians 2:7 The KJV states that when the no-beginning always-preexisting Son of God took bodily form in Mary, He became a servant. The RSV states in that passage that Jesus "emptied Himself" of His omnipresent and omnipotent nature (please do NOT use the materialistic Nicene-Creed-imposed word: "substance" here):

Php 2:7 but [Jesus Christ] emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Similarly, infant Jesus birthed by Mary was never the totality of the Trinitarian Godhead (i.e. the Holy Trinity). Thus, it is wrong and improper to say that "GOD" died at Calvary, and improper to state that Mary was the Mother of "GOD" - consequently presuming that the universe was being held together and run by a suckling infant interested simply in both the milky breasts and other purely-human functioning. Concordantly, rather than the obnoxious and in fact blasphemously-humanistic utterance: "Holy Mother Church," the correct terminology is instead: Holy Male Christ Church of the Fellowship of Christian Believers.

Regarding the Kingdom of God (instead of the Queendom of God), the distinction separating Jesus the Son of God from His Heavenly Father was made clear many times in the New Testament record, such as when Jesus cried out "My Father, My Father, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34) and "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit" (Luke 23:46).

Concerning the latter point, Mary never originated nor birthed either The Father nor The Holy Spirit. Indeed, she never even originated nor birthed the Son of God, even though she did participate and cooperate in the origin and birth of the son of man Jesus, which Jesus was fathered by His Heavenly Father through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. In fact, all three Persons of the Holy Trinity Godhead originated and created sinner yet temporary-virgin redeemed-saint mortal Mary herself.

NON-allegorically, NON-symbolically, NON-interpretively and NOT as a metaphorical parable, the Lord Jesus spoke both of LITERAL Hades (with reference to the rich man and Lazarus parable in Luke chapter 16) and LITERAL Paradise (Luke 23:43) before He died on His cross. What Jesus immediately and initially descended into upon His bodily demise was neither Hades of tormenting fiery punishment nor blissful Paradise nor fairy-tale-myth "purgatory" but what the precise text in Ephesians 4:9-10 states, which is: the lower parts of the earth. That "lower parts of the earth" is probably what the Old-Testament authors called "Sheol" and "the Pit" (i.e. the abode of the dead) - not distinguished in the Old Covenant with the New-Testament distinctive differentiation of "Hades" and "Paradise." When Jesus ascended, the KJV has Ephesians 4:8 read that He "led captivity captive" whereas the RSV for that Scripture reference states that He "led a host of captives." One wonders exactly where saints of the Old Testament who existed before the sacrificial-atonement crucifixion death of Jesus went when they died, though one can safely assume that those good guys were not being tormented with the flaming torture of Hades upon their deaths. Indeed, we remember the glorified state that both Moses and Elijah were on the Mount of Transfiguration before Christ's crucifixion death. There is no reason to presume that transfigured Moses and Elijah temporarily left a burning Hades of fiery torment (where the anti-Lazarus rich man was being tortured) to briefly chat with Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Major creeds of the Christian Church would be accurate if they had stated that Christ descended into the lower parts of the earth like the Bible states, rather than descending into "Hades or hell."

It is similarly errant to presume that Christ died in the sense of momentarily becoming non-existent. None of us humans, also made in the triuine "image of God" (with body, spirit, and soul) even momentarily become non-existent either, being that upon our bodily death, our spirits return to God who gave us them, and our souls go either to Hades or Paradise awaiting the resurrection when the trinitarian parts rejoin as Scripture describes.

Pertaining to the human nature of the God-man Jesus compared to our human nature, James 1:13 reminds us that Jesus as God "cannot" be tempted with evil and He Himself tempts no one.....but assuredly us non-God humans can (and frequently are) lamentably tempted with evil and regrettably tempt others. The KJV renditon of Titus 1:2 states that God cannot lie and the RSV translation of Titus 1:2 instead states that God never lies. Which do you prefer? Does believing that God cannot do something make Him inadequate and inferior and violate His free will? Is it that He "cannot" be tempted and sin because He WILL NOT be tempted and sin? A speculation into God's capacities and intentions is avoided by simply declaring that the Lord does not (i.e. NEVER) is tempted nor sinfully gives in to the temptation.

When the Lord went into the temple and overturned the tables of the cheating (and perhaps irreverently noisy) moneychangers, He was not "at that time abrogating the Jewish animal-sacrifice system," as one errant and confusing pseudo-theologian has mis-claimed. The animal sacrifices ceased only at the time The Ultimate Sacrificial Lamb died on His cross, and has ceased ever since. [How many Jews do you presently know of who now yet sacrifice animals for their sins]? Jesus got angry and took violent action against the temple officials for the cause the precise Text states: "My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers."

I know of one errant and confusing pseudo-theologian anglican rector who has incorrectly asserted that events in Biblical history did not happen at a particular time in history because: "all history is simultaneous with God." [But in fact Divine pre-knowledge is obviously NOT identical nor synonymous with omni-occurrence. "At the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6) "while we were yet sinners" (Romans 5:8)].

He has also absurdly stated that religious iconic images (e.g. paintings, sculptures, etc.) which in fact merely symbolize who and what they symbolize.....are instead: "the actual and real event or person they symbolize."

Besides that, he has (in his pathetic non-genetic stupidity and ignorance misusing microbiological terms) non-scientifically and anti-scientifically asserted that Adam and all men thereafter came from Eve's maternal RNA and DNA.

Cultic-Catholic PSEUDO-"Bible" Verses:

Leviticus 19:28? = You shall not tattoo any marks upon you, so tattoo little temporary ashen crosses on your foreheads on Ash Wednesday.

Matthew 6:16? = Be like the hypocrites who disfigure their faces with little temporary ashen crosses on Ash Wednesday so their fasting can be seen by men.

Matthew 23:9? = Call no man your Father on earth, for you have one Father who is in heaven. Therefore call cultic catholic "priests:" Father, being there is no such things as the "priesthood of all believers" and that Christ alone was and is our high priest.

Luke 1:48? = Hencefore all generations will call Me the Blessed Mother of GOD as Maternal Intercessor and Co-Redemptress.

Luke 11:27? = Blessed is Mary's womb which bore you, and Mary's breasts you sucked. And Jesus replied, "Blessed indeed is the Mother of GOD, instead of those who hear the Word of God and do it.

Luke 23:43 = Today you shall be with Me in Purgatory.

Acts 11:26? = ....in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Catholics.

Romans 8:26-34? = The spirit of Mary intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. The spirit of Mary intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Jesus Christ and Mary, raised from the dead and at the right hand of God, indeed intercede for us.

I Timothy 2:5? = There are at least two Mediators between God and men besides Christ Jesus, including the Virgin Mary, St. Peter, and a cadre of other canonized saints and purported saints with diverse names.

II Timothy 3:16 = All "scripture," including the plagiaristic koran-like apocryphal books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus are inspired by God.