Trinity Notes

Friday, August 11, 2023

Rabbi Tovia Singer is Wrong About the Trinity by Gavin Ortlund

Rabbi Tovia Singer is Wrong About the Trinity by Gavin Ortlund
https://youtu.be/1Xtl6jR2SdI

Is Belief in the Deity of Christ Necessary for Salvation? by Anthony Rogers

Is Belief in the Deity of Christ Necessary for Salvation? by Anthony Rogers
https://youtu.be/Ft0JfLroFQM

Friday, July 28, 2023

The Running Conversation in Your Head

One of my browsers recommended this article The Running Conversation in Your Head. I found it interesting given Trinitarian theology. There are different Trinitarian models. While I'm a convinced Trinitarian, I don't dogmatically hold to any Trinitarian model. Nevertheless, one that I'm fond of is the usual Evangelical view whereby three centers of consciousness share the one being of God. Given, that view, the article might have some relevance when one considers that humans were made in God's image. Here's a quote from the article:

Beck: You think of inner speech in terms of a dialogue. If it's between the self and the self, how does that splitting of the self work out internally? Is it like the old Freudian superego telling the id, “Don’t eat that donut?”

Fernyhough: That can be part of it. The key thing is that the self is multiple, that we have different parts to the self. Whether you want to fit that into a Freudian frame or not, that can be useful, but it’s not really the way I take it. The most important thing is that there's this basic structure of a dialogue where somebody’s speaking and somebody’s listening. It can be you as a listener but it can also be another person. I can have an inner dialogue with my mum, for example. A few people have told me over the years that they have inner dialogues with people who aren’t here anymore. It can be a dead person, it can be an imaginary person, it can be God. In the book I tried to use this as a way of rethinking the idea of spiritual meditation and of prayer. The idea of having a conversation with another being. To me, it’s all made possible by that dialogic structure that's created because of the way we develop as children. Because we internalize social dialogues, we bring in that dialogic structure and it's right there at the heart of our thinking.

Anyway, I thought the article was interesting. I'm not making any dogmatic claims about the relevance of the article to Trinitarian models. Only that it can spark some new ideas in Trinitarian thinking.

Sunday, July 9, 2023

Jehovah's Witnesses and Jesus by J.P. Holding

Jehovah's Witnesses and Jesus by J.P. Holding
http://www.tektonics.org/gk/jwsandjesus.php

Jesus, as God's Word and Wisdom, was and is eternally an attribute of God the Father by J.P. Holding

J.P. Holding (James Patrick Holding, Also Know As Robert Turkel) is a controversial figure in Christian apologetics (for various reasons). He nevertheless does make some informative contributions to apologetics. Here's a link to his article: Jesus, as God's Word and Wisdom, was and is eternally an attribute of God the Father. I would ignore the cheesy video at the top. Just read the article.

Jesus, as God's Word and Wisdom, was and is eternally an attribute of God the Father
http://www.tektonics.org/jesusclaims/trinitydefense.php

Thursday, May 4, 2023

An Explanation and Defense of the Filioque

As I've said many times before (e.g. here), I'm open to various formulations and models of the Trinity. I don't dogmatically hold to the filioque, but I lean toward it. In the following video Lutheran theologian Jordan Cooper gives some historical background and explanation to the filioque controversy, and then provides a defense of its truth.

An Explanation and Defense of the Filioque

https://youtu.be/NrLqxpmmy-4

Monday, April 17, 2023

Upcoming Blogposts

Planned blogposts with provisional titles:

-The Moyer Lectures:
This blogpost will be about the Moyer Lectures that were devoted to defending the doctrine of the Trinity. I'll have links to some of the lectures/sermons preached in defense of the Trinity.

-Troubling Questions If I Were Still A Unitarian:
This blogpost will be about features in the Bible that make little to no sense if Unitarian were true. For example: Why is it Jesus is worshipped? Why is Jesus included in a Christianized version of the Shema? Why are Christians individually and corporate the Temple of God when they are filled with the Holy Spirit?

-Things in the Bible that Now Make Sense Now That I'm a Trinitarian:
For example, why is the Bible so Christocentric? I recall when I was an anti-Trinitarian in the early 90s how disturbed I was how Jesus was the center of attention and worship in Christian churches. Then I realized this was true even in the 1st century church as can be seen in the New Testament.