Quote:
Originally Posted by Bible-believer
They teach
"The Bible reveals that God is immutable in His essence and that God has been processed in His economy. As the processed God, the Triune God has passed through crucial and interdependent steps in the divine economy in order to dispense Himself into His chosen and redeemed people…God’s process ultimately is related to becoming flesh through incarnation and becoming the life-giving Spirit through resurrection."
Our Unchanging, Processed God
“the Christ in whom we believe is the center of the Triune God.” Because of this, “the Triune God became mingled with man… He is not only the Triune God but also a man… He is the Triune God mingled with man. Therefore, He is the Triune God-man."
Witness Lee, The All-Inclusive Spirit of Christ
(Los Angeles: The Stream Publishers, 1969), pp. 8-11
It's like in this process is the Triune God becoming flesh. Jesus Christ is not the Second Person of the Trinity. Instead, “the Christ in whom we believe is the center of the Triune God.” It's like in this process is Jesus, the Triune God-man becoming the Spirit. If so, does it means they are not separate "three Persons", but just one? and if so, is the teaching of Triune God the same as the Trinity?
Maybe I didn't make myself clear on this matter, but you can see how confused I am about this teaching.
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Okay, I think I understand a little bit better. When I was thinking about how to talk about the four-in-one God, I realized that the confusion really started with the three-in-one, and just built upon that, but I didn't want to unnecessarily turn the thread into a discussion about the Trinity, so I shied away from it.
Others can and have said this more clearly than I will be able to, but Lee taught contradictory things about God. He simultaneously taught that the three of the Trinity are distinct while also saying that they actually are each other. This is a logical contradiction and has led to a lot of things being written about what Lee "actually" believed as people tried to sort out his confusing teachings. So the first thing I have to say is that you are right to be confused!
The problem is not you, and the problem is not that you don't understand something that you should. The problem is that Lee was not a good Bible teacher, he had no one to correct him, and he taught lots of things wrong. This is one of them.
The concept of the entire Triune God becoming flesh has been a contentious one. I think that is even one of the issues that other Christian scholars have had with the local church - Lee's teaching that the entire Triune God became flesh and the entire Triune God became processed.
But your name is Bible-believer, so let's remember what the Bible says.
The Bible says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. It does not say that God so loved the world that He sent Himself in His entirety. Or that God so loved the world that He gave Himself as the Trinity. It says He sent His Son. Jesus. The Son of God.
When Jesus was on earth, He repeatedly claimed to be the Son of God. He did not claim to be "the entire Triune God".
Yes, the Father was in Him and with Him, and He did the will of the Father, and when you saw Jesus you saw the Father, but Jesus never said He was the entire Triune God.
When Jesus was on the cross, He cried out asking why God, His God, had forsaken Him. God who forsook Jesus on the cross was God the Father. The Bible does not describe a situation where "in His essence" the Father was actually on the cross too, but "in His economy" the Father forsook the Son. The only record is that God the Father forsook His Son, who was on the cross dying for our sins.
Where the Bible shows distinctions, Lee dragged them together and mushed them into one. He should not have done that. The Bible uses words and metaphors in ways that help us understand what's being said. When Jesus says He is the bread of life, or the water of life, that means something to us because we know what bread and water are in our physical life. And when we talk about God the Father and Jesus, His Son, we can grasp that because we know what a father and son relationship is in our human life. And in no instance in our human life are a father and his son ever actually just one person. They are always distinct persons from each other. So no, the Father and Son are not actually just one person.
There's more to say on "the Triune God-man becoming the Spirit" but I'll have to do that later, or maybe others can chime in.
Is any of that more in line with addressing your confusion? Let me know if I'm in the ballpark, or if not, what I'm missing.
Trapped