Originally Posted by Evil Eye
I'm willing to bet a Kit-Kat that @Rosenritter isn't a "modalist".
It depends who is doing the defining. I don't call myself Modalist. If we are using the definition at
https://carm.org/modalist, then no, but some people might call me Modalist. If we use the same website for Trinity from
https://carm.org/what-is-the-trinity, I wouldn't call myself Trinitarian by that definition either. Too much philosophy rather than use of plain scripture, definitions hammered out while ignoring inconvenient passages that contradict said definitions.
If Jesus cared about whether someone was "Trinitarian" or not, don't you think he would have given a plain easy to understand statement as such? Him, or at least one of the apostles? Jesus identified himself as God, and emphatically stated that there is one God. As for this debate about "persons" then the Bible only uses the word "person" in the singular sense, when referring to God. I have looked and haven't seen the word used with plural. Someone show me if I missed one...
[h=1]
Job 13:8[/h]
“Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?”
Hebrews 1:1-3
1
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom
he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
3 Who being the brightness of
his glory, and the express image of
his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
[h=1]
[/h]If you use the text of Hebrews above, God is one person. It does not say "the Father" but rather "God." Just saying, this talk of "three persons" and "exclusively three persons" etc isn't strictly biblically derived. If someone is being exact, using scripture as source, then God is ONE PERSON.
I am not worried about whether religious types care to condemn or define others until the cows come home, I'm content to take scripture as it's given. If the Bible says that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one, that's good enough for me. If the bible scriptures make the Father and Jesus the same in their statements and treatment, then we will accept that too.
In all, if you could only choose one, which would you rather have:
1) the entire world understanding the exact nature and metaphysics of God?
2) the entire world understanding the message and gospel of God, and putting it in practice?