Basically, the three key points are:
- The Godhead is made up of three individuals: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
- Each individual is wholly and really God. That is, the Father is completely and really God, the Son is fully and truly God, and the Holy Spirit is fully and truly God (not part of God).
- There is only ONE God; there are not THREE. 1 + 1 + 1 equals 1 in this instance.
Compare this philosophy to that of contemporary liberals. A “liberal” is an individual who, in addition to teaching incorrectly, opposes the inspiration and supremacy of God’s word, claims the Bible contains errors, and holds views such as “Miracles never occurred.” that the Father is the Almighty God, that Jesus was a nice man, and that the Holy Spirit is a power.
- The way we use the term “God”: In certain cases, “God” refers to God the Father; for example, “God resurrected the Lord Jesus from the grave.” When the Old Testament (OT) employs the word “God,” it alludes to “the LORD” (Yahweh, Jehovah), the triune God. However, at other times, “God” refers to a comprehensive Godhead, i.e. Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit.
- The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not considered to be fully distinct human beings when we say there are three individuals in the Trinity. The same way that when we say, “We are sheep,” we don’t imply that we are exactly like sheep in every way; rather, we only indicate that we are similar to them in certain ways.
- When referring to human humans, the phrase “three persons” refers to three distinct individuals; nevertheless, the Godhead does not consist of three distinct individuals. When we talk about “persons,” we mean “people,” not “things,” and we don’t mean “people” in the sense of various individuals!
Augustine debates the appropriateness of referring to God as a “person” while describing him. He states: “When the query, “three what?” is posed. The overall speech quality of human language is really poor. However, the response is “three individuals,” suggesting that it might not be left unsaid rather than that it might be said. The nice guy was saying that we must speak up about what God is like, even if we are unable to say much. We cannot simply remain silent.
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