EstherRose

This is what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a part of believers.

John 14
16 he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

John 14
26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

net2002

If I have a cup of water which can become steam, liquid, or ice, then it is not possible for me to drink the "liquid" while the "ice" and "steam" remain inside the glass. It is not possible for the "liquid" to ask the ice to save it from being drunk while the ice stayed a safe distance away and was not itself drunk. This is simple logic. In a similar manner, if god, krishnaesus, and the holy ghoat are all merely three "personalities" or three "states" for one being, namely God Almighty, then it is not possible for one "personality" of God to DIE while the other two remained a safe distance away unharmed by death



Would it be logical to picture the "ice" form of a bucket of water praying to the "steam" form of itself . Further, did water start out as liquid and then decide to "beget" for itself another personality as "ice" and then add on a third personality as "steam"? Did God start out with one "personality" and then one day "beget" for Himself multiple personalities to keep Him company?. Does He usually speak to His other personalities and beseech them for salvation? (Matthew 27:46) Did He sacrifice one of His personalities to "save" mankind? Do some of His personalities have knowledge not available to others (Mark 13:32)? Are some of His "personalities" more powerful than others (John 14:28)? Are some of his personalities submissive to others (Luke 22:41-44)? Is this our mental picture of God? How will we answer Him on the day of judgment when He asks us about these claims we have made against Him?


If Jesus
said None is Good except the Father, and he used words such as My
Father and Your Father, and he prayed to God in the gardens such that
tears flowed right before his death, and he ate and drank, and slept
and felt pain, he was trying to make the realization of divinity over
time? Or maybe it was just that God (I seek refuge in God from such
thoughts) could not explain himself clearly, yet the idea he was
suppose to convey was so essential to man’s salvation?

mike_decock

I think this picture explains it best:



-Mike...

Fr.Andrew

“No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illumined by the splendor of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish Three than I am carried back into the One. When I think of any of the Three, I think of him as the whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking escapes me.”--Gregory of Nazianzus

River

The Holy Spirit is Gabriel (pbuh). This is very clear in the passage when Gabriel ( the Holy Spirit ) came to Mary in the New Testament. I advise you read the New Testament , more thoroughly.

Magus55

The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit of the Trinity. Its part of God.

Magus55

Gabriel is only mentioned in Luke of the NT - and no mention of Him being the Holy Spirit. Sorry, not taking advice from a Muslim on the Christian God.

Xixax

Interesting reply. I was, in times past, a member of a Protestant religion which denies there is a trinity.

It's quite a clear distinction for them ( United Pentecostals ), there are not three persons, three "beings" or three manifestations, but three names provided to the one god that manifests himself in many ways.

Otherwise, add the burning bush to the list of "personas".

The place where their doctrine is nearly impossible to speak clearly is when they get to Jesus. They call him a "godman".

From their website:

Of course, they have a problem with "Jesus", at least in my mind they don't seem to have adequately answered all the questions, but it makes more sense than the trinity.

I had, during my time with them, felt I had an answer that disagreed slightly with scripture ( if read the way they wanted me to ) but fit the background of god in the old testament more accurately.

1) Jesus, when born, was born sinless, and so his soul was never separated from god as every soul has been since Adam sinned.
2) Jesus had the choice of taking up his human nature by committing sin, and then would have been separated from god.
3) Jesus, because he was not separated from god by sin, could speak with the authority of god and as god. He could accept praise as well as give it, acting as god while walking on earth.
4) When Jesus was sacrificed for our sins while being sinless, the will that was given with his body ceased to exist. The body of christ became the body of god, the link between humanity and god himself.
5) That body now sits on the throne as the body of God, god having taken on "humanity" in order to save it.

So, for a while there existed two "persons" capable of speaking as god, but they shared the same will, because Jesus never acted on his own will, but always the will of god. Once he died, there aren't even two wills to worry about.

Of course I no longer believe in any of this, I'm agnostic. At least at the time I had no scripture which would nullify this position ( no scripture I had faith in, as some passages in the KJV were removed in other editions ), and it also fit into the monotheistic framework of the old testament.

Xixax

I do find this humorous though.

I guess spiders, bacteria, and even in that very story, Peter, are then God by definition.

After all, they're surely not taking Job 9:8 out of context.

EstherRose

Ice, water and steam have physical limitations. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have no limits except for what God has put on them. It is not possible to compare them. Your questions are interesting ones.

Matthew 27:46
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

This was not a plea for salvation. This reveals to us how much Jesus felt when He bore all of the sins of mankind. It is sin that isolates us from God.

John 14:28
"You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

We believe this has to do with the function of Jesus versus the function of God. Although all are three persons of one God, their functions in the life of a Christian are different.

Mark 13:32
"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Jesus as God has no limits on Himself, but Jesus walking on this earth as man willingly gave Himself limits to His knowledge.

Luke 22: 41-44
[i] 41He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." 43An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.[i]

You posed that some of God’s personalities are submissive to other parts. Well in a way. All throughout the Gospels, Jesus exhibited submission to God’s will. He demonstrated to believers how we need to be towards God: submissive to His will.

It seems that people want to make God fit their concepts of what He must be and that places limits on what God the omnipotent and omnipresent Lord really is. I feel that you or I are no more capable of comprehending all of God anymore than an animal can fully comprehend what makes a car work.

Jesus did not have to make the realization of divinity, He is divinity. But His part of Trinity still showed reverence in prayer for the elevated function of God. Prayer is also how we are to communicate with God. Jesus although fully divine in nature, was also man on this earth and so was able to feel pain, eat, drink and cry.