Theology Corner

Addressing commonly asked questions about Christianity from the perspective of a non-theologian

Theology Corner

1.)  AREN'T ALL RELIGIONS ESSENTIALLY THE SAME?

2.)  WHAT IS YOUR THEOLOGY?

3.)  WHAT ARE THE CORE BELIEFS OF CHRISTIANITY?

4.)  IS THE SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT THE ULTIMATE ACT OF LOVE?

5.)  WHAT IS THE GREATEST OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY?

6.)  IS THERE AN INTERMEDIATE PLACE?

7.)  WHAT ARE THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?

8.)  WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING TO DO AFTER YOU DIE?

9.)  WHAT IS THE APOSTLES' CREED?

10.)  WHAT IS THE NICENE CREED?

11.)  WHAT ARE THE DECREES OF GOD?

12.)  WHAT WILL YOU DO IN THE INTERMEDIATE STATE?

13.)  WERE THE OT TEN COMMANDMENTS REPLACED BY THE NT GREAT COMMANDMENT?

14.)  WHEN DOES GOD MAKE HIS DECISION ABOUT YOUR FINAL DESTINATION?

15.)  WAS JESUS TEMPTED IN EVERY WAY?

16.)  SHOULD WE ASPIRE TO UNBROKEN COMMUNION WITH GOD?

17.)  WHAT WERE THE ATTRIBUTES OF JESUS DURING HIS INCARNATION?

18.)  WHAT IS THE MYSTERIOUS LAW OF RESERVE?

19.)  CAN CHRISTIANS DEFEND THE TRINITY AND THE INCARNATION?

20.)  WHY NOT CALVINISM?

21.)  WHO WAS JAMES ARMINIUS AND WHAT DID HE DO?

22.)  WHO WAS JOHN WESLEY AND WHAT DID HE DO?

23.)  IS JESUS CHRIST THEANTHROPIC?

24.)  WHAT IS THE SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT OF JESUS CHRIST?

25.)  WHAT MIGHT A METHODIST THEOLOGIAN SAY ABOUT THE SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT?

26.)  WHAT MIGHT A METHODIST THEOLOGIAN SAY ABOUT THE TRINITY?

27.)  WHAT WERE THE ORIGINAL FIVE POINTS OF THE REMONSTRANTS?

28.)  DO INTELLECTUAL CHRISTIANS MINIMIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRINITY?

29.)  DID JESUS DESCEND INTO HELL?

1.)  CAN GOD'S WILL BE THWARTED?

2.)  DID GOD ELECT ONLY A FEW FOR SALVATION WHILE CONDEMNING THE GREATER PART OF MANKIND TO HELL?

3.)  FAITH OR SALVATION: WHICH COMES FIRST?

4.)  DID GOD THE FATHER BEGET JESUS CHRIST?

5.)  WHAT ARE THE TWO NATURES OF CHRIST?

6.)  WHAT IS ANTINOMIANISM?

7.)  WHAT IS SABELLIANISM?

8.)  WHAT IS PELAGIANISM?

9.)  DOES LOVE REALLY WIN?

10.)  IS YOUR WILL REALLY YOUR WILL?

11.)  CAN TWO THEOLOGIES BE TESTED FOR COMPATIBILITY?

12.)  WHAT IS THE FRAUD OF FIDEISM?

13.)  IS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES THEOLOGY?

14.)  IS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH CHRISTIAN SCIENCE THEOLOGY?

15.)  IS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH MORMON THEOLOGY?

16.)  IS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS THEOLOGY?

17.)  IS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH SCIENTOLOGY THEOLOGY?

18.)  IS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH UNIFICATION CHURCH THEOLOGY?

19.)  IS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH THE WAY INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGY?

20.)  IS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD THEOLOGY?

21.)  IS REPENTANCE REALLY NECESSARY?

22.)  WHAT ARE SOME MUSINGS OF A METHODIST THEOLOGIAN ON LIMITED ATONEMENT?

23.)  WHAT ARE SOME QUESTIONS FOR THOSE WHO TEACH A LIMITED ATONEMENT PROVIDED ONLY FOR THE ELECT OF GOD?

24.)  WHAT WERE CALVIN'S ACTUAL WORDS?

25.)  WHAT IS GNOSTICISM?

26.)  WHAT IS THE UNPARDONABLE SIN?

27.)  IS CLASSICAL CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY?

28.)  CAN CALVINISM BE SENT TO THE DUST BIN?

29.)  IS YOUR FREE WILL AN ILLUSION?

1.)  IS CHRISTIANITY COMPATIBLE WITH POSITIVE TOLERANCE?

2.)  CAN WE HAVE A FORM OF GODLINESS, BUT DENY THE POWER THEREOF?

3.)  WHAT IS THE GREAT WAR?

4.)  SHOULD PRESIDENT TRUMP HAVE BEEN IMPEACHED FOR IMMORALITY?

5.)  WHO SAID MOSES WAS HUMBLE?

6.)  COULD CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE BENEFIT FROM WOKE REVISION?

7.)  DID EINSTEIN BELIEVE ALL CHRISTIANS WERE CALVINISTS?

8.)  WHY IS MARXISM A MAGNET?

9.)  WHAT IS TRUE SCIENCE?

10.)  CAN YOU LOSE YOUR SALVATION?

11.)  WHAT ARE THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS?

12.)  WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS?

13.)  WAS PAUL ENTIRELY SANCTIFIED?

14.)  ARE YOU LIVING IN A WORLD AT WAR?

15.)  WHAT IS THE DIRECT METHOD FOR PROVING A CONDITIONAL PROPOSITION IS TRUE?

16.)  WHAT IS THE CONTRAPOSITIVE METHOD FOR PROVING A CONDITIONAL PROPOSITION IS TRUE?

17.)  WHAT IS THE CONTRADICTION METHOD FOR PROVING A CONDITIONAL PROPOSITION IS TRUE?

18.)  WHAT MIGHT A METHODIST THEOLOGIAN SAY ABOUT PURGATORY?

19.)  WHICH BIBLE PASSAGES ELUCIDATE CORE ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY?

20.)  DO SELECTED NIV VERSES ELUCIDATE CORE ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY?

21.)  DO SELECTED AKJV VERSES ELUCIDATE CORE ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY?

22.)  DO SELECTED YLT VERSES ELUCIDATE CORE ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY?

23.)  DO SELECTED 'VOICE' VERSES ELUCIDATE CORE ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY?

24.)  COULD THE CONCEPT OF 'SALVATION ONLY FOR THE ELECT' HAVE BEEN ROOTED IN THE MIND OF AUGUSTINE BEFORE HE EMBRACED CHRISTIANITY?

25.)  DID AUGUSTINE RECEIVE PUSHBACK FOR HIS TEACHING OF 'SALVATION ONLY FOR THE ELECT' DURING HIS LIFETIME?

26.)  WHAT DOES REFORMED THEOLOGY MEAN BY PREDESTINATION; IS IT TRUE OR FALSE?

DO INTELLECTUAL CHRISTIANS MINIMIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRINITY?

Neither the term Trinity, nor any that expresses the notion of Triunity is contained in Scripture, but the mysterious truth that these words represent is stamped upon the entire revelation of God.  Nevertheless, virtually all Christian associated cults have removed the Trinity from their theology (e.g. Jehovah’s Witness, Christian Science, Mormon, Unitarian Universalist, Scientology, Unification Church, the Way International and the Worldwide Church of God).  Furthermore, some groups, claiming to be mainstream Christian, have done likewise, such as Jesus Only (Oneness Pentecostal) and the 20th century UMC.  In 1987, UMC Bishop Emerson Colaw issued the 3rd edition of Beliefs of a United Methodist Christian.  In the words of Bishop Colaw:

 

"By having affirmed that as United Methodists we believe in the Holy Spirit, we hasten to add that the Christian faith, contrary to what is often assumed, does not have three distinct persons, separate from each other, as God...No doctrine is more misunderstood than the Christian concept of the Trinity.  When we say "God in three persons, blessed Trinity,"  however, we are using the word persons in the sense in which the word Persona was used in the theater of classical Greece and Rome.  It meant the mask, put on by actors, in order to play different parts. The word was taken over by early theologians to express the diverse forms of God's activity without destroying the concept of God's unity...The number three is incidental.  We are simply saying that these are the ways we know God, and we are also saying that all these expressions are manifestations of the One God."  (Colaw, p 33-34) 

 

Because rejection of the Trinity is not an outlier among those professing to be Christian, there is a vague sense among Christians that it doesn’t really matter whether we de-emphasize the Trinity or not.  After all, we still worship the same God; therefore no real damage is done one way or the other.  Herein lies the problem; we don’t really worship the same God!  Samuel Wakefield captured the importance of properly viewing the Trinity:

 

“IT ESSENTIALLY AFFECTS OUR VIEWS OF GOD AS THE OBJECT OF OUR WORSHIP, whether we regard him as one in essence and one in person or admit that in the unity of the Godhead there are three equally Divine persons.  These are two very different conceptions, both of which cannot be true.  The God of those who deny the Trinity is not the God of those who worship the Trinity in Unity, so that either the former or the latter worship a being which does not exist; and, so far as it respects any reality in the object, they might as well worship a pagan idol.

But as the object of our worship is affected by our respective views on this great subject, so also is it character.  For if the doctrine of the Trinity is true, then those who deny it do not worship the God of the Scriptures, but a fiction of their own framing, and are, therefore, guilty of idolatry.  If it is false, Trinitarians, by paying Divine honors to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, are equally guilty of idolatry, though in another mode.  The importance of the doctrine must, therefore, be obvious to all…

If the doctrine of the Trinity is denied, how is it to be accounted for, that in the Old Testament God should be spoken of in plural terms, and that this plurality should be restricted to thee?  How is it that the very name Jehovah should be given to each of them, and that repeatedly on the most solemn occasions?  How is it that the incarnate Messiah should be invested with the loftiest attributes of God; and that acts and characters of unequivocal divinity should be ascribed to the Holy Spirit also?  How is it that in the New Testament the name of God should be given to both, and that without any intimation that it is used in an inferior sense?  How is it that, in the very form of initiation by baptism into the Church of Christ, the ordinance, which itself is a public and solemn profession of faith, is to be performed in the one name of Father, Son and Holy Ghost?”  (Wakefield, p 180-183)

 

Some scholars have claimed the concept of the Trinity is, for all practical purposes, missing from the Old Testament.  It is true that the Old Testament does not refer to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit by those specific names, but references abound, in the Old Testament, to each member of the Holy Trinity separately as well as all three members simultaneously.

 

 

  • Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” (Gen 1:26)

 

  • And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. (Gen 3:22)

 

  • The first person of the Trinity appears, by various names, throughout the Old Testament.

 

  • The second person of the Trinity appears, by various names, in Gen 22:15-18, 32:24-30; Hos 12:4-6; Ex 23:20-21; Ps 2:2-7; Prov 8:22-31; Isa 7:14, 9:6, 44:6 and other locations.

 

  • The third person of the Trinity appears, by various names, in Ex 17:7 cf Heb 3:7-9; Gen 1:2, 6:3, 41:38; Ps 139:7; Job 33:4; Num 11:25; Judges 14:6; 2 Sam 23:2; Micah 2:7; Isa 48:16; Joel 2:28 and other locations.

 

 

If we want to call ourselves Christian, it behooves us to clarify our thoughts on this issue.  We would do well to remember a core belief of Christianity:

 

 

The one true God exists as three distinct, transcendent, immanent, infinite, eternal, and immutable persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

    • The one true God (Deut 4:35, 6:4; Isa 43:10, 44:6-8; I Cor 8:6; 1 Tim 2:5) exists as three distinct,
    • transcendent (1 Kings 8:27),
    • immanent (Acts 17:27,28; Col 1:16-17),
    • infinite (1 Kings 8:27),
    • eternal (Isa 57:15) and
    • immutable (Mal 3:6) persons:
      • God the Father (John 5:18, 10:29, 14:28, 17:1-3; 1 Cor 8:6; Phil 2:11),
      • God the Son (Isa 7:14, 44:6; John 1:1-14, 5:18, 10:30, 20:28, 8:58 cf Ex 3:14; Rom 9:5; Phil 2:5-11; Col 1:15-18; Titus 2:13, Heb 1:8; 1 John 5:20; Rev 22:13-18) and
      • God the Holy Spirit (Ex 17:7 cf Heb 3:7-9; Mat 28:19; Acts 5:3-4, 13:2 cf Gal 1:1 and 1 Tim 1:1; 1 Cor 3:16; 2 Cor 13:14; 2 Tim 3:16 cf 2 Pet 1:21; Heb 9:14).

Some have claimed the Holy Spirit is not a person. This claim is refuted by the following Scriptures: (John 14:26, 15:26, 16:7-11, 14; Acts 5:3, 13:2, 16:7; Rom 8:16, 26; 1 Cor 12:11; Eph 1:14, 4:30).

 

(see also Sections 1.19, 2.7, 2.13, 2.14, 2.15, 2.16, 2.17, 2.18, 2.19 and 2.20 of Theology Corner)