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Rolla, ND | I start by explaining the Trinity is certainly a mystery that we really probably cannot completely understand.
Then use the Athanasian Creed, http://www.bookofconcord.org/creeds.php
And I'd explain the origin of the word person because people have real problems hearing person without thinking separate.
In the Roman theatre, it was common for an actor to play more than one part, multiple personas. He would do this by simple switching masks, the mask was called a persona. So we are saying we see God with three personas. Now the danger is thinking God is like the actor and wears just one mask at a time, that's modalism, God is more like an actor doing three parts all at the same time. God doesn't switch back and forth.
Probably also good to talk about the Son being begotten. Many groups have taken that and run with it so to speak to mean that the Son was created. What it is focusing on is that you begat that which is the same as you, you create something different than you, so saying the Son is begotten is saying he is the same as the Father.
People also take the begotten as there was the Father and then there was the Son. This error is what the Nicene Creed tries to correct with the
"begotten of the Father before all worlds". That's a literal translation that again it's not trying to say the Son was created first, but it is saying the Son always was, that there was no time the Son was not. And it should be noted that there is no explicite scripture to say that Jesus is eternally begotten, that comes from the Father and Son relation. Some might argue with that but it boils down to the mistranslation of monogenes as begotten (such as in John 3:16) instead of the proper, "one of a kind" or "unique". Many translations and creed translations are now using "only" for monogenes but that's still not quite correct, though in many passages, monogenes does refer to an only child, but not all. The ISV is using "unique".
Anyway I'd probably wrap it up at that and state again that it's a mystery, that we want to wittle away at it so we are not in error. | |
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For the Christians on here. How do you explain the Trinity?
