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SPIRITUAL CONNECTIONS |
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page was created on December 3, 2004
This page was last updated on
December 10, 2004
—Review by Maurice Broaddus
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| ON
THE TRINITY
Timeless, spaceless, single, lonely,
Yet sublimely Three,
Thou art grandly, always, only
God is Unity!
Lone in grandeur, lone in glory,
Who shall tell thy wondrous story?
Awful Trinity!
--FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER (1814–1863)
The
Trinity is a mystery which my faith embraces as revealed in the
Word, but my reason cannot fathom.
--JOHN ARROWSMITH
In
Christianity God is not a static thing—not even a person—but
a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost,
if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance. The union
between the Father and Son is such a live concrete thing that this
union itself is a Person. . . . What grows out of the joint life
of the Father and Son is a real Person, is, in fact, the Third of
the three Persons who are God. The whole dance, or drama, a pattern
of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us
or (putting it the other way round) each one of us has got to enter
that pattern, take his place in that dance.
--C. S. LEWIS (1898–1963)
A
popular belief among Christians divides the work of God between
the three Persons, giving a specific part to each: creation to the
Father, redemption to the Son, and regeneration to the Holy Spirit.
This is partly true but not wholly so, for God cannot so divide
himself that one Person works while another is inactive. In the
Scriptures the three Persons are shown to act in harmonious unity
in all the mighty works that are wrought throughout the universe.
--A. W. TOZER (1897–1963)
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| ON THE TRINITY |
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Athanasian
Creed
This creed was named in honor Athanasius (A.D. 293-373), the champion
of the Christian Church against Arian attacks on the doctrine of the
trinity. This creed consists of two parts, the first is about
the doctrine of the trinity, and the second deals with the incarnation
(God becoming flesh) and the two-natures of Christ (human and divine).
Whoever desires to be saved should above all
hold to the catholic faith.
Anyone who does not keep it whole and unbroken
will doubtless perish eternally.
Now this is the catholic faith:
That we worship one God in trinity
and the trinity in unity,
neither blending their persons
nor dividing their essence.
For the person of the Father is a distinct person,
the person of the Son is another,
and that of the Holy Spirit still another.
But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one,
their glory equal, their majesty coeternal.
What quality the Father has, the Son has, and the Holy Spirit has.
The Father is uncreated,
the Son is uncreated,
the Holy Spirit is uncreated.
The Father is immeasurable,
the Son is immeasurable,
the Holy Spirit is immeasurable.
The Father is eternal,
the Son is eternal,
the Holy Spirit is eternal.
And yet there are not three eternal beings;
there is but one eternal being.
So too there are not three uncreated or immeasurable beings;
there is but one uncreated and immeasurable being.
Similarly, the Father is almighty,
the Son is almighty,
the Holy Spirit is almighty.
Yet there are not three almighty beings;
there is but one almighty being.
Thus the Father is God,
the Son is God,
the Holy Spirit is God.
Yet there are not three gods;
there is but one God.
Thus the Father is Lord,
the Son is Lord,
the Holy Spirit is Lord.
Yet there are not three lords;
there is but one Lord.
Just as Christian truth compels us
to confess each person individually
as both God and Lord,
so catholic religion forbids us
to say that there are three gods or lords.
The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten from anyone.
The Son was neither made nor created;
he was begotten from the Father alone.
The Holy Spirit was neither made nor created nor begotten;
he proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Accordingly there is one Father, not three fathers;
there is one Son, not three sons;
there is one Holy Spirit, not three holy spirits.
Nothing in this trinity is before or after,
nothing is greater or smaller;
in their entirety the three persons
are coeternal and coequal with each other.
So in everything, as was said earlier,
we must worship their trinity in their unity
and their unity in their trinity.
Anyone then who desires to be saved
should think thus about the trinity.
But it is necessary for eternal salvation
that one also believe in the incarnation
of our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully.
Now this is the true faith:
That we believe and confess
that our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son,
is both God and human, equally.
He is God from the essence of the Father,
begotten before time;
and he is human from the essence of his mother,
born in time;
completely God, completely human,
with a rational soul and human flesh;
equal to the Father as regards divinity,
less than the Father as regards humanity.
Although he is God and human,
yet Christ is not two, but one.
He is one, however,
not by his divinity being turned into flesh,
but by God's taking humanity to himself.
He is one,
certainly not by the blending of his essence,
but by the unity of his person.
For just as one human is both rational soul and flesh,
so too the one Christ is both God and human.
He suffered for our salvation;
he descended to hell;
he arose from the dead;
he ascended to heaven;
he is seated at the Father's right hand;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
At his coming all people will arise bodily
and give an accounting of their own deeds.
Those who have done good will enter eternal life,
and those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.
This is the catholic faith:
one cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully. |
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Maurice here
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