From: Case (Case@iSpots.com)
Date: Wed Nov 09 2005 - 15:59:58 GMT
Rebecca,
Sorry, but I am having a hard time seeing the connection between the Trinity
and the MoQ. Here is why:
In the case of the Father.
One of the things that can said to be truly original to Jesus said his
attitude toward the Father. He talked about God in deeply personal terms. He
called God "Abba" or Father or more accurately "Daddy". This is in contrast
to more traditional Jewish formulations of God as Lord or Yahweh: the name
that should not even be spoken. Yahweh is a name composed of all of the
vowel sounds and vowels were not even included in early written Hebrew.
Then there is the traditional treatment of the person of Jesus.
The earliest followers of Jesus saw him as a human being pure and simple.
During the first two centuries after his death competing schools of thought
on his true nature arose. In short, one school held that Jesus was a divine
creature who only appeared to be real. While the other school held that he
was a real person who was transformed into a divine being through his death
and resurrection. As a result of one of the most twisted and bizarre
compromises of all time, today we have the dogma that Jesus was fully human
and fully divine at the same time. This is the formulation of the Nicene
Creed where Jesus is fully human but "of one substance" with the Father.
It is interesting to note in light of recent conversations on the MoQ that
there was a very early disagreement in Christianity over the Canon of
scripture. The first canon was actually proposed by the Gnostic Marcion. His
version of the Christian Bible consisted mostly of Luke. He rejected the Old
Testament out of hand because it was too Materialistic and for Marcion
anything material was evil. The collection of scriptures we use today arose
as a reaction to Marcion's canon. Ireneus and others had very nasty things
to say about the Gnostics in general but they also recognized the need to
put a lid on things. As more and more writers adopted Christian themes and
claimed revelation from Christ there became less and less of a standard from
judging true revelations from false ones. In Old Testament terms: each
believer would be free to do "what seemed good to them". They adopted the
criteria that for inclusion in the canon the writer had to have been around
close to the time of Jesus and at least have been in the circle of one of
the Apostles. In my own view this should have excluded Paul but that's
another story.
This strikes me as an early example of Materialism versus Idealism.
The Holy Spirit - Don't really know what to make of that.
I would also point out that although the concept of the Trinity is accepted
by the vast majority of Christendom it is found no where in the Christian
scriptures. There are denominations, for example the Disciples of Christ,
who do not accept Trinitarian formulations.
Case
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