Priestly1 wrote:"Sh'ma yisro'el: Yahoweh Elohenu, Yahowah echod!"
"Listen Israel! Jehovah is your God! Jehovah alone!" or "Listen israel! Jehovah your Deity, Jehovah is Unified!"
Echod = A composite unity...a cluster.
Achad = A modan..a unit.
Vowel signs make the difference.....but the Greek is clear. YHVH alone is our God....no one else.
I am a Judeo-Christian. YHVH is a single Divine Being (Gk: Ousia) who is eternally manifested in Three distinct sentient States of existence (Gk: Hypostasois). Persons is a poor translation in English. God is not a supreme Siamese Triplet, nor three supreme identical Twins (a species), nor a supreme being who suffers with multiple personality disorder! YHVH is Three eternal Realities (hypostasies) of a single Divine Being (ousia).
I am a Trinitarian..a Paradox...yes. But not an inconsistancy! The Sun is a Single Object which is the unseen Source, the visible Orb and the invisible Wind. So too YHVH is the eternal Father who is the unseen Source (Arche) of His visible Word (Logos = form and Image) and His invisible Spirit. The Father, His Word and His Spirit are undivided, yet distinct...One God in three eternal conscious states. God is eternally Father because He eternally generates (i.e. begets) His Son the Word.
As the Sun is source, Orb and Wind...so YHVH God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each are distinct, yet all are One in Being. The Father is the Source of His Word (Son) and His Spirit (Breath). The Father alone has no Source. As you have a Head (e.i. Source) which is united to your Right Hand (i.e. Word) and your Left Hand (i.e. Spirit)...so too YHVH God created and maintains all things with His All Powerful Word and Spirit...so too you create what you will with your hands................neither does anything on its own....yet each is distinct from your head. Yet God's distictions are equal in divine glory, majesty and power.....each is self conscious...yet there is but One Divine Mind and Being.
A Mystery and Paradox does not mean an illogical reality unknown and unknowable.....just nut fully understood in our limited minds...we can only aproximate what has been revealed with human terms and examples...such as the Nicaea-Constantinoplaean Creed (321 - 381 CE).
Merry Christmas!
Rev. Ken (
priestly1@hotmail.com)
Hi Ken,
Then why did the concept of who God is (Trinity) take hundreds of years to come about?
A brief history of the Church after Nicaea
You must realize that in the early days Greek philosophy was the major thought pattern of the civilized world. Anyone who was anyone was educated in Greek philosophy. Another reason why these philosophies were so quick to influence early Christianity is that in the beginning of the church, the leaders were for the most part Jewish, with the Jewish concept of God.
"The Jews conceive God as an absolutely simple unity (inferring absolutely no constituent divisions)." (Jewish Thought 6/12/96)
When Christianity started spreading, the leaders of the churches were now Gentiles who had converted to Christianity. These people, for the most part, had been educated in Greek philosophies in their schools and universities. As educated persons, they of course wanted to find a place for their new religious beliefs within the philosophical framework they had already acquired.
So when they read Hebrew Scriptures, they could not help injecting Greek philosophical meanings into them.
Is not difficult to observe the early influence of the Greek philosophers on the Church fathers. Clement of Alexandria was so steep in pagan philosophy that he explained,
“Greek philosophy purges the soul, and prepares it beforehand for the reception of faith, on which the truth builds up the edifice of Gnosis.” (Clement of Alexandria, xia iii).
For philosophy was a ‘schoolmaster’ to bring the Greek mind to Christ, as the law brought the Hebrews.
Thus philosophy was a preparation, paving the way towards perfection in Christ.” Clement of Alexandria (c.200), Stromateis, I.v.28
The Encyclopedia Britannica says concerning Christian Platonist:
"They did not believe that truth could conflict with truth and were confident that all that was rationally certain in Platonic speculation would prove to be in perfect accordance with the Christian revelation. Their unhistorical approach and unscholarly methods of exegesis of texts, both pagan and Christian, facilitated this confidence."
There was also the felt need of some Christians with Greek philosophical training to express Christianity in those terms, both for their own intellectual satisfaction and in order to convert educated pagans.
What is needed today is to remove all the Greek influence from what is called modern day Christianity, and return to the Christianity that was preached by Jesus and his Apostles.
The Council of Nicaea, in 325 AD., made
"Jesus of the same substance as God." This is not the Trinitarian doctrine we know of today, but it was a start. Fifty-six years later, at the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD., the Holy Spirit was added to the formula, bringing to life the modern day Trinity. One can easily see that even at Nicaea the Trinity was not an established doctrine by the absence of the Holy Spirit. Trinitarians will argue that the belief in a triune God was there from the Apostles, and that it was formalized as dogma at Nicaea and Constantinople. But the fact is that the New Testament does not anywhere teach the doctrine of the Trinity. The Doctrine of the Trinity, was not an established doctrine from Apostolic times, but a slowly developing idea that took over three hundred years to formalize.
325 AD - Constantine convenes the Council of Nicaea in order to develop a statement of faith that can unify the church. The Nicene Creed is written, declaring that
"the Father and the Son are of the same substance" (homoousios). Emperor Constantine who was also the high priest of the pagan religion of the Unconquered Sun presided over this council. According to the
Encyclopedia Britannica:
"Constantine himself presided, actively guiding the discussions and personally proposed the crucial formula expressing the relationship of Christ to God in the creed issued by the council. "of one substance with the Father."
The American Academic Encyclopedia states:
"Although this was not Constantine's first attempt to reconcile factions in Christianity, it was the first time he had used the imperial office to IMPOSE a settlement."
At the end of this council, Constantine sided with Athanasius over Arius and exiled Arius to Illyria.
328 AD - Athanasius becomes bishop of Alexandria.
328 AD - Constantine recalls Arius from Illyria.
335 AD - Constantine now sides with Arius and exiles Athanasius to Trier.
337 AD - A new emperor, Contantius, orders the return of Athanasius to Alexandria.
339 AD - Athanasius flees Alexandria in anticipation of being expelled.
341 AD - Two councils are held in Antioch this year. During this council, the
First, Second, and
Third Arian Confessions are written, thereby beginning the attempt to produce a formal doctrine of faith to oppose the Nicene Creed.
343 AD - At the Council of Sardica, Eastern Bishops demand the removal of Athanasius.
346 AD - Athanasius is restored to Alexandria.
351 AD - A second anti - Nicene council is held in Sirmium.
353 AD - A council is held at Aries during Autumn that is directed against Athanasius.
355 AD - A council is held in Milan. Athanasius is again condemned.
356 AD - Athanasius is deposed on February 8th, beginning his third exile.
357 AD - Third Council of Sirmium is convened.
Both homoousios and homoiousios are avoided as unbiblical, and it is agreed that the Father is greater than His subordinate Son.
359 AD - The Synod of Seleucia is held which affirms that Christ is "like the Father," It does not however, specify how the Son is like the Father.
361 AD - A council is held in Antioch to affirm Arius' positions.
380 AD - Emperor Theodosius the Great declares Christianity the official state religion of the empire.
381 AD - The First Council of Constantinople is held to review the controversy since Nicaea. Emperor Theodosius the Great establishes the creed of Nicaea as the standard for his realm. The Nicene Creed is re-evaluated and accepted with the addition of clauses on the Holy Spirit and other matters. (History of Arian Controversy)
If you believe that Nicaea just formalized the prevalent teaching of the church, then there really should not have been any conflicts. Why should there be? If it were the established teaching of the church, then you would expect people to either accept it, or not be Christians. However, it was not the established teaching,
and when some faction of the church tried to make it official, the result was major conflict.
It was mainly a theological power grab by certain factions of the church. The major complication throughout all this was that the emperors were involved. At Nicaea it was Constantine that decided the outcome. Then as you can see, we have the flip-flopping of opinion with the result that Athanasius is exiled and recalled depending on who is in power. We even have in 357 AD the declaration that
homoousios and
homoiousios are unbiblical, and that the Father is greater than His subordinate Son. This is 180 degrees from Nicaea. It is definitely not the Trinitarian formula.
In 380 AD Emperor Thedosius declares Christianity the state religion. One can come to the conclusion that whichever way Theodosius favors, is the way in which it is going to end. This is exactly what happened next. In 381 AD the struggle was finally ended by the current emperor, Theodosius the Great, who favored the Nicene position. Just like at Nicaea, the EMPEROR again decided it.
The emperors were dictating the theology of the church. The big difference now was that there was not going to be any more changing sides. It was now the state religion. You cannot make Christianity the state religion and then change its beliefs every few years, it would undermine its credibility as the true faith. The Trinity was now the orthodox position, and the state was willing to back it up. Debates however, would continue for years to come.
This does not include the different teachings of Origen, Tertullian, and other Church fathers who all held different beliefs about the Trinity. The Trinity was a docterine that developed over hundreds of years. It was not the teaching of the early Church.
Paul
