Earlier today, Igzy wrote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
The one God is three persons. On the one hand you must say the persons are distinct. On the other you must accept that on some level they are the same thing. The Son is not the Spirit, yet on some level he is.
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I pretty much subscribe to this understanding.
At the same time, I wonder if we really understand what it means that God is One at the same time the He is Father, Son and Spirit. It very well could be that it would not be correct to say that at some level the Son is the Spirit because it could be that the way in which there are Three is not the way that they are one. Maybe, just maybe, that "essence is the way they are one" way of thinking is right. It is not the way I tend to thing about it. But I don't see anything that makes it simply wrong. Therefore I am not sure that the way that God is One in any way makes the Son into the Spirit. (Wow! I might actually agree with Justyn on something.) And Lee's certainty that it is so at such a level that everyone else becomes marginal as Christians (at best) is just not supportable.
I see Unto suggesting that it is important to understand the Trinity. I agree and disagree. I agree that being heretically off is problematic. (But what is that outside of something like Jesus is not God — Jehovah's Witnesses.)
But I disagree because at some level, despite very common-sounding descriptions within various doctrinal statements within just the evangelical branches, there are subtle differences that we manage to mostly overlook all the time. So there is some clarity to the idea that we only have it "pinned-down" in vague terms, not in specifics.