1 + 1 + 1 = 1 Faulty Math or Good Theology?

September 26, 2005 @ 4:25 pm by Pressed

I was doing a study in a theology class and we started talking about the Trinity. What I have written here is simply a compilation of thoughts that have come from much reading and several different books. What I have discovered is that the doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most difficult and yet one of the most essential doctrines in the Christian faith. The word trinity is a Latin word meaning “tri-unity” that was most likely coined by Tertullian. Trinity is a word that cannot be found in Scripture because the word isn’t used, however, we use it today in order to describe what it means that God is three persons, and yet one God. The doctrine of the Trinity is a concept that developed to defend and portray the nature of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as revealed in Holy Scripture. It remains true that the Bible teaches us that God is three persons, each person is fully God, and there is only one God, however, the problem comes when we try to understand this or put it into words. The doctrine of the Trinity and its implications are essential to the Christian faith and to the salvation of lost sinners. The church needs to understand the nature of the trinity from the perspective of the bible, understand the danger of faulty views of the trinity, and understand how this applies to our lives.

Elements that make the doctrine of the Trinity what it is are found in both the Old and New Testaments. In the creation account of the Bible there is some indication of the existence of the trinity found in the way God refers to Himself in the plural form, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” Genesis 1:26. This is also found in Genesis 3:22 and Genesis 11:7. It is also suggested in several different passages that more that one person is called the Lord in the Old Testament. In Hosea 1:7 the Lord speaks and refers to “the Lord their God” whom he is sending to deliver them and in Psalm 110:1 David refers to two separate people as “Lord” which Jesus later identifies in Matthew 22. The Holy Spirit is seen as distinct from God himself in Isaiah 63:10 and in Isaiah 48:16 “God has send me and his Spirit”. Christ could be seen as distinct from God and the Holy Spirit when he is referred to as wisdom in Proverbs 9:1-6 and Job 28 and the Word of God in Psalm 119:89 and Isaiah 55:10.

While there are several areas that reveal God as being more than one person in the Old Testament, there is a greater understanding of this found in the New Testament. There is a distinction between Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God when Jesus is baptized in Matthew 3:16-17. Jesus is Baptized, the Spirit descends upon Christ, and God says from heaven, “This is my beloved Son”. The three distinct persons are put on the same level as each other when Jesus tells his disciples to go and baptize all nations in the name of “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 28:19. There are numerous verses that refer to each person of the trinity separately in the same sentence including 2 Corinthians 13:14 and Ephesians 4:4-6.

In understanding the Old and New Testament accounts of the trinity the church has also confirmed through the years the truths of the doctrine of the trinity so as not to contradict or diminish Scripture. Tertullian started some of the thought on the trinity when he established God as being three persons who were complete deity and yet they have no independent existence apart from the three persons. He wrote against Praxes who believed the God head was one, but existed in three roles or modes that did not occur at the same time. This is what became known as Modalism. The problem with this view is that it denies the personal relationships within the trinity and therefore it contradicts a large part of Scripture. God who sent his Son to die and was pleased to see Him crushed now becomes simply an illusion, Jesus dying on the cross now becomes God dying and we lose the personal element of God, the Son, and the Spirit working together in unison.

Some other views that fall short of Scripture include Arainism which says Jesus was created and therefore is not divine, Subordination which assumes that the Son is not equal to the father, Adoptionism which states that Jesus was a normal man until adopted at his Baptism, and Tritheism which denies that there is only one God and sees the trinity as three separate Gods. Each of these views fall short in Scripture and affect our faith and salvation in Christ. To deny the deity of Christ is to destroy every aspect of what we believe as Christians, and to deny that there is only one God is to confuse and convolute Scripture in such a way that destroys worship, loyalty, devotion, and obedience to what the Bible refers to as the one true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. No church or group can deny the trinity and remain thought of as Christian, which makes this an important doctrine that should be taught and understood in the church.

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Cranium Leakage Podcast

September 25, 2005 @ 10:12 pm by Pressed

If you would like to hear the guys and gals responsible for Cranium Leakage, mainly avoidingevil.com, whatintarnation.net, and timetobelieve.net then tune in to our latest Cranium Leakage Podcast. We do a podcast on a weekly basis (well, sometimes).

CL Podcast Episode 7: The Big Announcement

* Intro
* Where in the world in Michael? Let’s call him!
* Intermission
* We woke Michael
* Craig shares some big news with Michael
* Congratulations
* Awkward moment of silence
* Michael’s Cool List
* Michael tries to go back to sleep
* Details about the big announcement
* The Melting Pot
* Don’t drop it!
* Send your well wishes
* Hacked… by a hacker
* At least it wasn’t p0rn0
* Lower car and gas payment
* Episode 13
* Feedback and a winner
* Fifth Anniversary Bash
* The Cool List
* Contact Us!
* Pretty, pretty princess
* They ate the wedding party
* Here comes the music!
* Well, bye!

You can manually download the episode here.

Or subscribe using the following address:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/clpodcast

My Odeo Channel

Originally recorded September 18, 2005
38:23
27 MB

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The Airport Police

September 24, 2005 @ 12:56 am by Pressed

Tonight I had to drive to Lambert Airport in St. Louis to pick up Kendall’s dad who was flying back from a Sonic convention in Las Vegas. When Kendall and I arrived at the airport we were a little confused as to what we were supposed to do. Looking for her dad, with very little success, we pulled up next to a police officer and asked where we might find American Airlines arrival flight pick-up. He said we were in the right place, but we needed to keep circling until our party arrived. Keep circling? That is right, we had to keep circling the entire airport until our party arrived on the scene, no stopping.

When we finally came around again we saw her dad coming up to the car and so I just stopped, not realizing that I was stopped in a “no stopping or loading zone.” Ooops. All is good though, no one behind me or around me. Unfortuantly the police officer didn’t think it was no big deal. He came walking over to the car and as I rolled down my window he said “sir you need to pay attention to the sign” to which I looked up and saw for the first time a tiny little sign that said no stopping zone. I remained speechless and said nothing to the officer. He then said, “you need to pay attention to these signs or next time I’m going to write you.” Again I remained silent. Kendall’s dad got in the car and I drove off leaving the police officer there to stare in amazment. Moral of the story: Watch the signs when you come driving into the airport, and if you want to avoid a ticket just ignore the cop… it works, trust me.

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Personal Holiness

September 23, 2005 @ 9:29 am by Pressed

Lord, you are my righteousness. I have no righteousness of my own, it is only through your blood that was shed for me that I can be pure and holy in your sight, and it is your righteousness that sets me free making me clean. Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice. Without you I have nothing and without you I am nothing. Lord today I ask that you would help me to set my mind on you. Let my mind be focused on things above and things that are eternal and Lord give me a passion to dwell on whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is excellent and good in your eyes. Lord give me the strength to take every thought captive today that I might be obedient to you. Jesus, help me to be like you, to feel like you feel, see what you see, and to love like you love. I ask all of these things in the precious name of Jesus, Amen.

What is the end-game in Christianity? (to avoid any unnecessary confusion let me define what end-game means. End-game-”The final stage of an extended process or course of events” ) What should we be striving and fighting and pushing for in our lives? What should we be doing to work towards the final stage of the process of Spiritual growth? Many people have the idea that the purpose or goal of Christianity is to reach heaven and some may even think that the purpose or goal of Christianity is to avoid hell. While these may be real concepts, these things are simply consequences or results that happen in the present, not the future. Once you are a Christian you don’t strive to get to heaven anymore because the result of being “born again” (John 3:3) is that you are automatically no longer condemned (Romans 8:1) and that you will go to heaven. If you are not born again then the automatic result is that you are “already condemned” (John 3:18) and destined for eternity apart from God. For those who are in Christ Jesus, the goal of reaching heaven is already complete and for those who are without Jesus they stand already condemned and therefore these things are not a process, they are instant results of our spiritual state. So then, what is the end game? I believe God summed it up with one simple statement: “Be Holy”

Leviticus 11:44 - “For I am the Lord your God, so you must consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy.”

Leviticus 11:45 - “For I am the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God, so you must be holy because I am holy.”

Leviticus 20:7 - “Consecrate yourselves and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.”

Leviticus 20:26 - “You are to be holy to Me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be Mine.”

De 26:19 - “that He will put you far above all the nations He has made in praise, fame, and glory, and that you will be a holy people to the Lord your God as He promised.”

Eph 1:4 - “for He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight.”

1Pe 1:15-16 - “but, as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy. “

2Pe 3:11 - ” it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness”

In the end, to those who are in Christ Jesus, we will be glorified with new bodies and without sin or pain or suffering, completely holy and righteous people. If that is the final product, then that should be what we are striving for each day, personal holiness. Here is the problem I see, Christians will strive for personal holiness in the “big stuff” but when it comes to the little sins we simply look over them with no thought or remorse. While most Christians strive not to kill, steal, cuss, commit adultery, or do any of the big sins, it is not uncommon to see Christians illegally downloading music & movies off of the Internet or breaking the law by speeding.

Almost a year ago I began to feel convicted about personal holiness. Realizing that I fit into the “don’t do the big stuff and ignore the fact that you do the small stuff” category I decided one day that I was going to do something about it. I actively began forcing myself to drive the speed limit and when I want to download a song I legally use iTunes. Doing these things has become such a habit for me that I rarely deviate from them. Sometimes I do fail and realize that I am speeding, at that point I simply slow back down and mentally repeat to myself, “be holy as I am holy”.

Many of us believe that we can never be perfect and since we can never reach that goal then what is the point in trying? Here is what I tell my teenagers at church: (I may have just coined this) “If you never try you will always fail, but if you do try you will only fail sometimes.” The simple fact is, if you try you will succeed but if you never try you will never succeed. The difference between someone who tries and someone who doesn’t is simple. For example, a person who tries is like the guy who has a problem with his temper and does what he can to control it and then every once in awhile it slips out. Once it slips out he feels bad about it, repents from it, and goes right on trying once again to do the best he can to be kind and gentle. The person who doesn’t try is like the guy who makes the conscious choice to speed and does so with no remorse and no thought of repentance whatsoever. The guy who has the temper tries and sometimes fails but he also succeeds in personal holiness. The guy who speeds will always fail and will never succeed because he doesn’t even try. I would label this as unrepentant sin. How can we be faithful to God in the big stuff if we are never faithful in the small stuff?

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Here Comes the Bride! (And Groom!!)

September 22, 2005 @ 3:15 pm by Kendall

Okay, we were supposed to write these entries at the same time, per Christopher’s request, but I didn’t get mine written before Craig did…sigh. Anyway, here is my version of how the whole thing happened, which may sound like a repeat, but here it is!!

I have known Craig for a very long time, ever since my first mission trip. Amazing…my first and his first, however, I had just finished 7th grade and he had just finished high school…lol…anyway, we went to Colorado. My earliest encounter that I can remember with him since he was a high schooler and I was just a youngin’ was on the charter bus that we were taking to Colorado. My mom went that year and we boarded the bus, Mom asked him his name, and he promptly informed her that he was George. Mom called him that for forever until she realized that wasn’t his name, but it’s still a story we laugh about today. Anyway, Craig and I didn’t really know much about one another, he was older than me and we didn’t really spend too much time together.

I went away to college at Missouri Baptist University in Chesterfield my freshman year and only stayed for a semester. In that time, I think I talked to him maybe once, but that was to ask a question about one of my religion classes that I was taking at school…we still didn’t really talk. When I moved home, I became very involved at church and with the youth group…trying to find a place to serve God. Still….no talking, and both of us were in relationships. In February of 2004, after both of us had ended relationships, I needed someone to talk to about my breakup…and as strange as this is, the first person who came to my mind to give me advice was Craig. Now, keep in mind that I hadn’t really had a conversation with him….ever, really….God works in mysterious ways. Anyway, I went in and he gave me some advice and we just chatted about life and all kinds of things…it was great! It was at this point, crazy enough, that I knew I wanted to date this boy.After that, we talked on MSN sometimes and actually carried on conversations at church, normal stuff. Pretty soon, we started talking more frequently and we would talk on the phone for hours about nothing. In this time period somewhere, we discussed dating each other and Craig…yes, it was his idea…said that we should wait and pray about it since we had both decided that the next person we dated woud be the person that we married. Then I got a job at the church, what a very cool thing…which only made it harder for me to conceal the fact that I wanted to date Craig.

Then came summer, and communication slowed down a bit, as we talked less and less frequently, all the while, we were praying for God’s will in the whole situation. We were both really busy and preoccupied with life to really take time out….however, it was in this time period that I knew that he was the one I would spend the rest of my life with. In the fall, we started hanging out…going to plays and things with groups of people and one night, we went to see Polar Express, and that’s when I knew, 100%, that we would spend the rest of our lives together…crazy, I know. I wrote him a letter…the most insane thing I’ve ever done, telling him that I loved him, even though we had never even been on a date, that I knew that we were supposed to be together forever. He didn’t respond for a couple of weeks, and I asked him what he thought…he was a little shocked, but we continued to hang out and spend time together and then we went on our first date on December 17th of 2005.

How did the proposal happen? After receiving three roses and a card at 12:45 a.m. on Saturday, and then 6 more and another card (for 9 months) we went out to breakfast at IHOP…now one of my favorite places to eat. We then went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens, so beautiful..and we walked all around. If you live in the St. Louis area and you’ve never been there…you must go! Then we ate dinner at the Melting Pot, which was pretty much the neatest restaurant ever and I don’t think I’ve ever eaten quite that much food. It was so much fun, too..very romantic and really quiet. I LOVED IT! Then we drove to Forest Park to row in a rowboat on the lake, as the sun was setting. We got into the boat and Craig had another card with him, which I thought was just another anniversary card. We rowed and talked and laughed for awhile, and then we rowed behind a little island thingie….I am still oblivious at this point, for those of you who know me, I’m sure that’s not hard to believe. Craig started talking to me about the future…still clueless….and how he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me, which we talk about quite often….still clueless and he hands me the card, which was the sweetest and most wonderful card, ever…still clueless….then he says, “I have a question for you.” DING DING DING!!! At that moment, it hit me! So he proposed to me, right there in that rowboat….how romantic! Yes, my ring is gorgeous, yes I’m so excited, and no, JD didn’t hide in the bushes with a video camera, so for those of you who wanted to experience the proposal too, I’m sorry.

So, what now? The date is March 11, 2006 and plans are already underway. We are both still excited about everything and I am pretty much on cloud nine still. There have been a few bumps in the road, but we’re doing great and are really looking forward to the wedding.

All this to say, patience is so important. God’s timing and His plan are so much better than anything we could come up with on our own. I am so blessed to have Craig in my life. He is my knight in shining armor, the love of my life, and I can’t wait to be his wife!

Kendall

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