...New Life Theological Seminary The Doctrine of the Trinity Submitted to Professor Gifford In Partial Fullfillment of TH531: Systematic Theology I By Emily Ephraim The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons--the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. These definitions express three crucial truths: (1) The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, (2) each Person is fully God, (3) there is only one God. Wow what a concept to digest, one God within three distinct persons. When I think of the power that comes along with that I am in awe. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit all humbling to the omnipresent God. How can God be all three and yet be one? God is present everywhere and cares for everyone. God as The Father Jeremiah 23:23-24 King James Version (KJV) 23 Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? 24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord. God the Son Matthew 28:20 King James Version (KJV) 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. God the Holy Spirit Psalm 139:7 King James Version...
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...Name Institution DOCTRINES IN THEOLOGY DOCTRINES IN THEOLOGY Doctrines can be defined as teachings that are believed in a society. The doctrines of the church are teachings of the scriptures and give answers to fundamental questions of life. “The trinity” and “The full deity and humanity of Christ” are such doctrines. The trinity basically is a belief that God exists in a trio form namely God the father, son and Holy Spirit. The full deity and humanity of Christ refers to the existence of the Son of God in two forms as human and as God. The trinity shows how the attributes of God are shown with the three forms he is. The trinity was a doctrine developed in the early church to answer the frequently asked questions about the nature of God. This was mostly in Arianism in the attempt to protect monotheism. God is believed be three persons in one essence. Theology however explains the trinity as a way of denying the oneness and uniqueness of God. The statement that there is only one God is seriously opposed in the trinity aspect. The doctrine of the trinity plays a major role amongst Christians today. Just as God is three in one, Christians are encouraged to employ the system of togetherness as no man can stand alone. It even presents a better argument that even God is three in one. This is often mistaken making understanding the trinity a hard task for believers. It involves careful concideration of the bibles analysis and faith to understand how God is both one and three...
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...TM 266 Basic Christian Doctrines October 7, 2010 Box 479 Word Count: 1,368 When discussing and trying to define God and how He interacts with the world. There are not many ways in which to do so. Grudem tries to find a way to explain this problem by using communicable and incommunicable attributes. In the handouts, incommunicable is defined as absolute and God chooses not to share them with others, communicable is defined as relative and are the attributes that God chooses to share with others. These attributes are how God chooses to communicate who He is with the world and allow us to better understand Him. The incommunicable attributes that I see most in God are His eternity and His omnipresence. When I think of these attributes and God, I feel that I can better comprehend God. By using eternity and omnipresence to get to know God better, I can have a better faith in knowing that He is always with me and He will never leave me. When talking about a God that is eternal, you must understand that means that God had no beginning and will have no end. To explain God’s eternity Grudem states, “To be “infinite” is to unlimited, and this doctrine teaches that time does not limit God or change him in any way.” If God is infinite then time, as it does to humans on earth, does not apply to Him. We see a day as one rotation of the earth and a year as one rotation around the sun, which is defiantly not how God sees time pass. God, on the other hand, can see any...
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...|Doctrine in the Bible | | | |Christian Doctrine or Christian Unity? | |There seems to be a great deal of controversy about “doctrine”. To those outside the Church the mere mention of the word | |conjures up visions that range from “outdate historical notions” to “things that Christians fight over”. It does not fair much | |better inside many churches. Today the mention of doctrine seems to carry an almost negative connotation to it. There are many | |prominent leaders inside of Christianity today who make an impassioned plea for us to ignore doctrine and just “love Jesus”. Are| |these valid requests? Is God the one behind all of this? Is doctrine on its way out? We hear comments such as, “let the body of | |Christ come together”, and “leave your doctrine and return to Jesus” resonating in the messages of many pulpits and songs today.| | | |Why is this so? What are the reasons for this type of plea coming from Christians? These arguments take many forms, but follow | |the same basic pattern. The following points can...
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...is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. In other words, God is all-knowing, all powerful and always present. Christians also believe that God is One but embodied in three persons, God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit as sanctifier. Belief in the Trinity is a central tenet of Christianity. God's promise of salvation has been fulfilled through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In other words, God is revealed as the trinity. God the Father is revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures, God the Son in the Christian scriptures and God the Spirit is revealed through the Church. Trinitarian doctrine This plurality in God is evident in the way Jesus calls God "abba" which means Father. Similarly early Christian practice indicates a liturgical use of this Trinitarian formula, "In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit". The Trinitarian doctrine states that there are three co-eternal, equal persons in one God. This doctrine was further developed and defined at the councils of Nicaea in 325 CE and Constantinople in 381 CE. The difficulty is reconciling monotheism with the notion of the three persons. The various heresies and the councils which followed reflect a process of refining the understanding of the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the fourth century there was considerable debate and discussion on how God was One and yet also three persons. In other words, how can unity co-exist with the...
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...found adequate to account for the suffering of God. Some thought that no distinctions ought to be found in the Godhead (monarchianism) or that the Son was a mere man adopted by the Father (adoptionism); others thought that he was inferior to the Father (subordinationism); still others that he was fully God. Many more variations on the theme circulated. A doctrinal storm was gathering. The storm broke out in 318 when Arius, a respected Libyan presbyter in Alexandria, began to teach what many thought acceptable in view of the sufferings of Jesus: that the Logos/Son was a mere creature, made from “nonexistence” and had not always existed. Hence he was not quite equal to the Father. The controversy went through episodes of such violence, unfortunately not only verbal violence, that Emperor Constantine, badly concerned with the peace and unity of the estate, called a general council at Nicaea in 325, which he himself attended and which was presided over by his representative and messenger, Ossius, bishop of Cordova. The council proclaimed two main theses, incorporated in the so-called Nicene creed: that Christ had a real body (against those who still thought Jesus only “seemed” to have a body, the “docetists” or docetism); and that the Son was perfectly equal to the Father (“of one substance” with the Father: homoousios). Imperial approval was given to the findings of the council, with penalties meted out to those who disagreed with its decrees and lasting vilification tacked to the...
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...S. Mill was an extremely capable economic theoretician, his intellectual background directed him toward much broader social issues than economists typically address. Mill was essentially social philosopher intent upon improving the role of the individual in society. In place of the pessimism of his father and Ricardo, he advanced a guarded optimism that contemplated the development of a good society. Although he read widely, the major influences on his economic ideas were his early training in the classical economics of Smith, Ricardo, his own father, and Bentham; the socialist writings of Fourier and Saint-Simon; the writings of Comte, sometimes called the father of sociology, who led Mill to view economics as only one aspect of human social activity; and, finally, his friend Harriet Taylor, who later became his wife and who taught Mill to be more receptive to the humanistic socialist ideas of his times. Mill was both a classical liberal and a social reformer. J. S. Mill's position in the development of economic ideas is difficult to specify. He wrote at the end of the classical period, but his open-mindedness, one of his greatest assets, enabled him to modify classical doctrine in several ways. His economics is simultaneously the most mature statement of the classical position and the start of a new period in the development of economic thinking. His Principles of Political Economy, written in less than two years, was first published in 1848 and remained, in its subsequent...
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...Introduction Religion is something that virtually all humans have in common. In all corners of the world and in all eras of history, people have wondered about the meaning of life, how to make the best of it, what happens afterwards, and if there is anyone or anything "out there". Christianity is the name given to that definite system of religious belief and practice which was taught by Jesus Christ in the country of Palestine, during the reign of the Roman Emperor, Tiberius, and was promulgated, after its Founder's death, for the acceptance of the whole world, by certain chosen men among His followers (New Advent). The goal of this paper is to provide information on the various answers about Christianity, as well as the rituals and customs that go along with them. It will attempt to summarize the general consensus of Christian beliefs on everything from God to the afterlife. Origin of Christianity and its relation with other religions According to the accepted chronology, these began their mission on the day of Pentecost, A.D. 29, which day is regarded, accordingly, as the birthday of the Christian Church. In order the better to appreciate the meaning of this event, we must first consider the religious influences and tendencies previously at work in the minds of men, both Jews and Gentiles, which prepared the way for the spread of Christianity amongst them. The whole history of the Jews as detailed in the Old Testament is seen, when read in the light of other events, to...
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...Understanding of God ============================= Muslims and Christians believe there is only one God / Allah. The basic testimony of Islam is called the 'shahada', the first clause of which states that "la ilaha illa Allah" -- "There is no god but God." This is certainly a statement that Christians would affirm. But how Christians and Muslims conceptualize God in their respective theologies is actually quite different. The emphasis in the Islamic theology of God can be summarized by one word: 'tawhid', which means "absolute unity." Muslims insist that there is no distinction within the Godhead. God is sublimely one. Thus the Islamic polemic against Christianity has centered on the doctrine of Trinity. This is the central doctrine that causes problems for Muslims when they consider Christianity. Muslims have caricatured Christians as tritheists guilty of "shirk", that is,...
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...GETTING TO KNOW THE CHURCH FATHERS An Evangelical Introduction JoHanna Gilyard-Woodward History of Christianity 1 CHHI 520 July 20, 2012 Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction By Bryan M. Litfin: BrazosPress, 2007, pp301 softback. Bryan M. Litfin at the writing of this book states that he earns his living as “a professor whose academic expertise is the early church fathers” (p.7). He is a husband and an associate professor of theology at Moody Bible Institute. He summarizes himself by saying that he is one who has been “taught to think like a Christian; taught to think like a scholar; and taught to think like a catholic” (p. 7). Litfin begins and ends this book with an overall theme and challenge to see how the church fathers impacted the Christian church and the life of an individual Christian on the whole. Secondary to the overall theme he lays out three misconceptions with regards to the church fathers, (1) the church fathers were not biblical; (2) the ancient church fathers were Roman Catholics; and (3) the church fathers represent the “fall” of Christianity (pp. 20-25 & pp. 255-257), and through the ten church fathers discussed in his book he seeks to prove how those misconceptions have misled some individuals. As he introduces the church fathers and deals with the misconceptions, he deals with his third theme, the historical events and places of the life of the church father. Each chapter begins by giving a modern day application...
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...view of the Trinity. Deny the Trinity, and you will lose the biblical Christ; affirm the Christ of Scripture, the Son who was sent by the Father and who sent the Holy Spirit, and you will find that your God is the Trinity.” According to Bowman without the Trinity one cannot truly Know Christ. Bowmen claim can be supported with Scripture....
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...He opines that many Christians believe in the truth that God is the Creator of all things, but neglect the implication of that truth (Stott, Balanced Christianity 50). He maintains that a better doctrine of creation is needed for many Christians. He says, “We have tended to have a good doctrine of redemption and a bad doctrine of creation” (Stott, Balanced Christianity 49), and asserts that there is a need for “a better doctrine of creation” (Stott, The Birds Our Teachers 10). He believes in God the Creator who has concern for all people, not just the church or the Christians. He says that the Creator is interested in the whole of life. For him, creation care is one of the characteristics of Christian discipleship which is to be taken seriously but is often neglected (Stott, The Radical Disciple 17). Stott is in the opinion that humans have “noble calling to cooperate with God for the fulfilment of his purposes, to transform the created order for the pleasure and profit of all” (The Radical Disciple 59). To him, our care for creation is a reflection...
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...society is not any constant phenomenon, it inevitably changes every moment. As a result laws are needed to be changed in compliance with the changing demands of the society. In Islamic Legal System as well the iron fist of taqlid (the doctrine of imitation) had to give way to ijtihad (meaning independent and free exercise of intellect to interpret interpretation of Islamic laws). It is always open for and permitted to, the thinkers, lawmakers and the rulers who are entrusted to apply shariah in society. In this short commentary I intend to address a particular issue relating to the orphaned children’s inheritance right. This is an extremely practical anomaly of the Doctrine of Representation usually escaping our notice. Grandchild’s inheritance right: the Islamic Law The Islamic law of inheritance does not all together deny the grandchild of the propositus their right to inheritance. Sunni Law places them in the list of quranic sharers. Unless excluded otherwise, they inherit from their grandparent. The doctrine of representation comes into question in case of allotment of their shares. The doctrine is accepted at least for two purposes:2 A) For the purpose of determining who are entitled to inherit However while using the doctrine of representation for the purpose of determining who are entitled to inherit, the principle of exclusion (nearer in degree excluding the remote) is not curtailed or suspended. Thus if A dies leaving him surviving a son and grandsons...
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...funeral ceremony for him. People will always remember this great leader. His name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhi was the leader of the national liberation movement and the Indian National Congress Party. He is the father of modern India. His “non-violence”(ahimsa) and philosophy affected the international movement of nationalists around the world. Elements of Gandhi's philosophy were rooted in the Indian religions of Jainism and Buddhism. The Acaranga Sutra, a Jainist text, describes the fundamental need for non-violence: “All beings are fond of life; they like pleasure and hate pain, shun destruction and like to live, they long to live. To all, life is dear” Gandhi strongly believed that if violence was used to deal with the issue between India and the Britain, the result would be more violence. Gandhi’s emotional speech concluded his principle that all violence was evil and could not be justified. When I was in elementary school, I have heard about a story about Gandhi. In the age of 15, Gandhi stole a small piece of gold from his brother’s bracelet. After that, Gandhi felt extremely guilty. Therefore, he wrote a repentance letter to his father. Gandhi thought his father would punish him heavily. However, his father forgave him. Actually, Gandhi’s father was very proud that Gandhi could admit his mistake bravely. Gandhi was deeply moved. This is the first lesson of Gandhi's life about “non-violence”. He believed that the power of trust and love are much better than scolding...
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...Section1. INTRODUCTION In Islamic Law of Succession, the matter of inheritance by grandchildren from predeceased child of deceased stands on a critical position. By the rule of traditional succession law any son of the deceased excludes such grandchildren generally. But now this time many states brought some changes as to such traditional rule for the benefit of such grandchildren which works as shields from total exclusion. Pakistan brought a major change in 1961 by section-4 of the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance (MFLO). In Bangladesh the same law has become accepted through the promulgation of the ‘Laws Continuance Enforcement Order, 1971’. Section-4 the MFLO’1961 affects the fundamental principles of Muslim Law of Succession. Bangladesh is the only country which has adopted such change. Although this law has faced many challenges in Pakistan but in Bangladesh no academic discussion or judicial interpretation is made till now. Since 1961, from the date of adoption of MFLO there are differences of opinion among the persons. Some of them supported such enactment and some of them denied. The persons who opposed the law are known as traditionalists and the others are modernists. Both groups have logics behind their beliefs. Professor Serajuddin has rightly pointed it out that ‘It will however, be wrong to assume that only the traditionalists are opposed to orphaned grandchild’s inheritance. Again an internationally acclaimed scholar on Islamic Law thinks that section-4 of the...
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