Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
But even though the God we serve is in Three (whether persons, or something else, the scripture is too clear that they are not simply each other), therefore it is not as simple as "if you say three then you are a tritheist."
Tritheism is the worship of three gods. We do not worship three gods. We worship One God that is in three "persons." We do not worship the three separately though we do acknowledge their unique attributes as described in the scripture. But they are not worshipped as separate beings to be separately appeased. Rather we worship One God who is a unified three. Therefore we "appease" only God, not the Spirit separately from the Son or the Father (and so on). (I realize that there is nothing that we do to appease God, but my point is to make a comparison between the worship of three who are three and three who are One.)
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OBW,
Had you said the above and stuck with it I would not have said you had veered into the ditch of tritheism . You said three entities or beings so you went too far. Three entities or beings is the ditch of tritheism. Three Persons could be the ditch of tritheism if by Persons you mean entities. If you say three Persons yet you maintain that God is one being then that is not the ditch but is the road, yet as soon as you start thinking three entities or beings you may be on the shoulder and when you say three entities or beings you are in the ditch. So "Persons" could go either way depending what you mean by it. Therefore, the conversation of Persons pivots on what you mean by it. Three beings is clearly the ditch.
Thanks
Drake