In this episode Dr. Bowman and I continue our discussion from last week, about some of the New Testament passages he discusses in his “Triadic New Testament Passages and the Doctrine of the Trinity.”
At the end of the gospel according to Matthew, Jesus is portrayed as saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”
According to Dr. Michael S. Heiser, we see “two Yahweh figures” in the Old Testament: Yahweh and the “angel of the Lord”. He holds that the Jewish idea of “two powers in heaven” arose from reading these texts, which sort of set the stage for the more radical idea of God becoming incarnate, becoming a man, which he sees in the New Testament.
In thinking about the Trinity, 380 and 381 are perhaps the most important dates to remember.
Some reference sources will tell you that Christians have always believed in the Trinity. This claim is misleading at best. Rather than dating trinitarian theology to the start of Christianity, if we carefully examine the history of theology, we can see a relevant series of dates, as elements of belief in a triune god emerge. Yes, Christians have always believed in one God, but in… Read More »10 steps towards getting less confused about the Trinity – #6 get a date – part 1
Two common uses of “Trinity,” but one came first…
While there have long been standard terms and sentences relating to the Trinity, there is not and has never been any clear consensus about how to understand those terms and sentences. There is agreement about what the sentences do or don’t imply (Tritheism? No. Monotheism? Yes. Ontological inequalities between the three? No.) But there is not an interpretation of the sentences themselves which is held… Read More »10 steps towards getting less confused about the Trinity – #9 – Formulas vs. Interpretations
What is sometimes called the “Nicene Creed” and recited in churches is actually from this later council.
How does Justin argue from Genesis that even when the world was created, there were two Lords?
Who was born on the first Christmas? According to Luke, God revealed this information to a Jewish prophet named Simeon: Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see… Read More »Simeon says…
0.75x 1x 1.25x 1.5x 2x 0:0000:25:54 podcast 26 – Pastor Sean Finnegan on “the Holy Spirit” – Part 2 Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsPlayer EmbedShare Leave a ReviewListen in a New WindowDownloadSoundCloudStitcherSubscribe on AndroidSubscribe via RSSSpotify In this episode Sean and I continue our discussion of “the Holy Spirit” in the New Testament, covering such topics as how “the Spirit” relates to worship and prayer in the… Read More »podcast 26 – Pastor Sean Finnegan on “the Holy Spirit” – Part 2
0.75x 1x 1.25x 1.5x 2x 0:0000:35:17 podcast 25 – Pastor Sean Finnegan on “the Holy Spirit” – Part 1 Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsPlayer EmbedShare Leave a ReviewListen in a New WindowDownloadSoundCloudStitcherSubscribe on AndroidSubscribe via RSSSpotify In this episode Pastor Sean Finnegan and I discuss biblical spirit-talk: “the Holy Spirit,” “the Spirit of the LORD,” “God’s spirit,” “the Spirit of Christ,” etc. Sean helpfully distinguishes four types… Read More »podcast 25 – Pastor Sean Finnegan on “the Holy Spirit” – Part 1
Earlier catholic theologians like Tertullian and Origen show us how.
Suppose you want to really study my entry “Trinity“ in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. If you’re like me, when you want to really read something, you’ll print it out (and then proceed to destroy it with a pencil and a highlighter). And if you do print it all out, it’ll make your printer burst out in tears. The whole thing, with supplementary discussions, comes… Read More »“Trinity” in paperback form
0.75x 1x 1.25x 1.5x 2x 0:0000:15:42 podcast 12 – the Apostles’ Creed Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsPlayer EmbedShare Leave a ReviewListen in a New WindowDownloadSoundCloudStitcherSubscribe on AndroidSubscribe via RSSSpotify The Apostles’ Creed is one of the most beloved and most widely used creeds in the Christian world. Is it really by Jesus’s original twelve apostles? Why is it so popular? Is it the one truly uncontroversial creed, something which… Read More »podcast 12 – the Apostles’ Creed
In a recent BBC documentary, Story of the Jews, we are told: Born a Jew, like his saviour, was Paul who, within a few years of Jesus’ death began the process of liberating Christianity from the claims of Jewish ritual. Christianity was either universal or it was nothing. So Paul aggressively de-Judaizes the Christian message and there was no surer way of doing that than… Read More »Don’t believe everything you hear in BBC documentaries
Theology blogger / author / golf pro Kermit Zarley posts on the Holy Spirit. A few excerpts: During the 2nd and 3rd centuries, there was no consensus among church fathers, called “apologists,” about the constitution of the Holy Spirit. Most of them didn’t think it was important. In fact, there was a widespread fluidity of ideas among Christians about it. Some thought the Holy Spirit… Read More »Kermit Zarley on the Holy Spirit
