How do you explain the Trinity to kids?

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

@Luce NDs no need to look very far...just come to WC2 and I'm having a real beef in a bunch of posts. Beef in a bunch? A virtual beef bouquet, in fact.

 

[revsdd]

The bad analogy is proven by the fact that the light and the heat will continue to radiate across the universe long after the star itself dies.

Come on Patrick get with the program.

Oh. And one more point using the imperfect analogy. If, somehow, the Father were to die tomorrow, the teachings of Jesus the Son would still exist, as would the influence of the Holy Spirit who inspired their compilation and preservation. Given the limitations of using the finite to describe the eternal, once again - the analogy works, albeit - as always - imperfectly.

 

[Neo]

Neo, I largely agree with your concerns about "isms."

To go a bit deeper into Arianism and the trinity. Arianism was one of the early forms of Christian belief that was deemed heretical. Arianism posits that the Son of the trinity was a created being - created by the Father and therefore not co-eternal with the Father and therefore subordinate to the Father, and therefore not fully God. The official position of the church became that the Father and the Son were of the same substance and were co-eternal. The Son was not a creation of the Father and was not subordinate to the Father. I agree with that. I might draw a slight distinction between Jesus and the Son, in that "Jesus" was flesh and blood and fully human and in his human nature was a creation. But "the Son" - who can be equated with the divine nature of Jesus - has always existed with the Father, and is of the same nature and substance with the Father. Thus, when the Son becomes incarnate in Jesus, it is God (Father and Son and Holy Spirit) becoming incarnate in Jesus in that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God. Another of the debates of the early church in this vein revolved around what is known as "patripassionism" - the issue of whether the Father suffered with the Son on the cross. I am a patripassionist. All of God experienced the suffering of Jesus. God was not compartmentalized so that only some of God experienced the suffering of Jesus. Jesus is the revelation of all of God in other words. It may seem an arcane debate, but the church claims, of course, to follow Jesus (not always very well, I concede) and, if so, it becomes rather important to decide the nature of the one we're following. That's called "christology" - our theology about the christ. I have a high christology. I believe that Jesus - as the Son - was God Incarnate. Among other things that is important because if Jesus was not God Incarnate (all of God rather than just a part of God) then God withheld a part of God's self. Indeed, if Jesus was only human and not divine then God has given nothing. My theological position is that God withheld nothing - that God's incarnation (the Creator choosing to become, in Jesus, a part of the Creation) is the ultimate sign of God's completely self-giving love for that which God has created. While I said above that I have trouble with the traditional doctrine of the trinity, my trouble with it is not with the truth it is revealing, it is that for some people the doctrine (a human construct) becomes the last word; the absolute truth about God that must be accepted word for word. "One God in three persons" (not biblical language) can then become a thoughtless mantra to be repeated as if repeating it actually accomplishes something, rather than being an invitation to go still deeper into the mystery of God, which will never be fully understood. The "going deeper" is, in essence, spirituality. Spirituality is the ongoing quest to go deeper into our origins and into our nature and to have a sense of wonder and awe about them. In that sense, science (even when engaged in by atheists) is a spiritual endeavour. In my view, one rejects spirituality if one comes to the position that by reciting a list of doctrines one suddenly knows everything there is to know (or at least everything that one needs to know) about God.

Back to Arianism. revjohn's declaration of my analogy being a form of Arianism is based on his mistaken belief - - that light is created by the sun rather than being simply a part of the sun which has been emitted by the sun for as long as the sun has been a star. I argue that not even a split second could have passed during which a star does not emit light because a star emits light by its very nature. As soon as a star is a star it emits light. The emission of light is one of the things that makes a star a star. A star can't be a star unless it emits light. God is not God unless God is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Therefore, if God is eternal, then Father, Son and Holy Spirit are co-eternal, because all are equally God.

Interesting theology... not my personal cup of tea but it's our difference views and beliefs that makes the world go 'round.

There's a big and inherent danger in our attempt to identify an absolute truth about spiritual matters. As soon as one says "this is God"'or "that is God" then one begins to circumscribe and restrict the idea of God to "this" or "that". In this way Buddhists never concern themselves with defining God and have consequently been thought of as atheists. Buddhist focus more on becoming enlightened and therefore becoming more and more "awake", which is another term for "awareness". I personally prefer this approach to life than the purely theological one, for the latter tends to lead to separation rather than unification, i.e. if one doesn't believe in this religion's theology or that religion's theology then that person must not be walking the path to God. I believe all roads lead to Rome... eventually, and that even a wayward path still teaches in the long run. As long as we live our lives with sincerity of spirit, honesty of mind and a healthy detachment from the physical world, then we are on the right path.

 

[Luce NDs]

Where's the beef?! That's an oldie but a goodie.

There is a connection between it, Aryanism and the Elysium heresy ... but things common folk aren't supposed to religious know ... or expected to be religiously naïve about. Myths are supposed to be beyond the norm ... like po-ethix .. a lesser ethic that one would use to separate the d'ontological from the tautological that puts real people in a tense paranoiac state ... sort of like dream walking. Only profound psychology majors get into this and often away from the institution if the latter doesn't accept strange essences ... like ascent of whoa-men? Man bung or stopper?

Lack of which can put A'Mon right into de pitz of a mental mood .. described in Nordic tongues as runnels and Anglo Saxon as Randi ... in Hindi, as a high Runes ... Babylonian Strom God arriving as Hidalgos? One just never knows for sure with all the perspectives ...

Some will not even admit they don't know everything little more nothing ... that vagrant state of uncontrollable passions as a Gael Poisson .... Semitic phesh-heh? ---backatcha!

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

There is a connection between it, Aryanism and the Elysium heresy ... but things common folk aren't supposed to religious know ... or expected to be religiously naïve about. Myths are supposed to be beyond the norm ... like po-ethix .. a lesser ethic that one would use to separate the d'ontological from the tautological that puts real people in a tense paranoiac state ... sort of like dream walking. Only profound psychology majors get into this and often away from the institution if the latter doesn't accept strange essences ... like ascent of whoa-men? Man bung or stopper?

Lack of which can put A'Mon right into de pitz of a mental mood .. described in Nordic tongues as runnels and Anglo Saxon as Randi ... in Hindi, as a high Runes ... Babylonian Strom God arriving as Hidalgos? One just never knows for sure with all the perspectives ...

Some will not even admit they don't know everything little more nothing ... that vagrant state of uncontrollable passions as a Gael Poisson .... Semitic phesh-heh? ---backatcha!

I just looked up non-trinitarian churches - and do you know there's one refered to as the Bickertonite Church?

 

[Luce NDs]

Let sus recess and bicker politely for a while ... the quieted ones will probably think we're screwing about with the stoic problem of whoamen settling in with de men-TED people who present those odd videos about incomprehensible things ... peace, pacifism and what? even thinkable things as aesthetics ... isn't that adept?

Yet aren't women responsible for these ascending and descending reciprocations? some call these reciprocal variants or opposing waves ... they should be stopped ---Bung! He who plugged the barelle of mon'KISS ... possibly a s rogue spirit as light in a dark domain.

Ever wonder what would happened if such facetiae were turned inside out ... in alien reciprocation like autos deis elle? You know the damned soul won't work well without myth?

 

[Luce NDs]

Thus the ups and downs of life ... including un-stabled a'moors the place of irresponsible passions and even disposed of reverences! No one being respectful of anybody ... unless they're ganged up in moral fashion or fantasy ... the mental state depends ... as in pride and Prejud' is!

As intelligence is despised ... hide it in peculiar statements that are incomprehensible to those choosing the ire rationale's ide ... thus the ability of the unknowing continuum as expressed in the relationship of jude'n with tamiyr lands ...