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ANDY
Posted on Sunday, December 26, 1999 - 12:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

DOES YOUR FELLOWSHIP BELIEVE IN THE TRINITY
Praise999
Posted on Sunday, December 26, 1999 - 9:06 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

This is an interesting kind of question: "Does your fellowship believe in ..."

If a poll were taken, I believe that most would respond, "Yes, I believe in the trinity."

On the other hand, consensus of belief is not an emphasized component of our fellowship -- witness the diversity of belief in our discussions.
Jude the Obscure
Posted on Sunday, December 26, 1999 - 8:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hi, Andy. Can't speak for everyone, but I do. I have to be careful, though, since the word trinity doesn't appear in the Bible. It's a theological construct or doctrine created by Christian theologians to account for the many different kinds of statements in the Bible referring to God. And nobody really understands it. It's a paradox, and as far as I'm concerned, it's better left as a deep mystery good for contemplation and meditation. --Jude
Jude the Obscure
Posted on Sunday, December 26, 1999 - 9:34 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Andy,

Ooops, correction: I mean to say, I can't speak for everyone, but I do believe in the trinity.

Jude
Susan
Posted on Tuesday, December 28, 1999 - 4:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yes,I believe in the trinity! As Jude pointed out, the word doesn't appear in the bible. But the support of this doctrine is clearly evident throughout scripture. I'm sure CRI has some good info. on the subject.

I would like to comment on something that appeared in the discussion "Adventist Reform". This seemed like a good place to put my comments. I read in one of Tom's posts the following;
"The law can never be removed as a standard for behavior or the judgment and the definition of sin. That does not have to mean that we are saved by keeping the law for that is an impossibility. WE ARE SAVED ONLY BECAUSE JESUS KEPT IT PERFECTLY IN OUR PLACE and we accept his obedience in place of our lack thereof." (emphasis mine)
While I agree that it is impossible for anyone to keep the law perfectly, I have to strongly disagree with the rest of this statement. Jesus Christ kept the law perfectly because he was God incarnate! He was incapable of sinning. He did not keep it in our place. He was divine and unable to sin because of his divine and holy nature. Sure he was an example of perfect holinesss, something that we can strive for but not attain until we are in our glorified state. Christ's perfect observance of the law did not save us. It was essential that almighty God would die on the cross for our sins. Believing in this my friends is what saves us.
All cultic doctrines start with distorting the nature of Jesus. They also pervert the gospel of the atoning work of Christ on the cross.
Jesus lived the perfect life because he was perfection. He died the perfect death so that we might be saved and have an assurance of a perfect eternity with him.
Jude the Obscure
Posted on Tuesday, December 28, 1999 - 6:45 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Susan, you have touched on one of the most powerful passages in Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, NIV:

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

The idea that God demanded a difficult task that we didn't know how to do -- live a sinless life -- and then sent his Son to give us an EXAMPLE to follow is the central nervous system of legalism.

When you wrote, "Christ's perfect observance of the law did not save us," you hit a grand slam home run!

We're not off to one side watching Jesus resist temptation and then trying to emulate him. We are actually IN Christ. We are not just looking at a new creation (Jesus of Nazareth). We ARE that new creation. ALL of this is from God. NONE of this is of ourselves and our efforts.

It is not some library of information that is at work here. It is GOD HIMSELF acting in Christ who is reconciling the world unto himself.

It is God -- and not some narrow-minded legalist or needle-nosed Pharisee -- who of his own sovereign free will has decided not to count our sins against us.

The old shackles of Moses' law lie broken in pieces at the foot of the cross. You don't have to be circumcised. You don't have to keep the Sabbath from sundown Friday night to sundown Saturday night. You don't have to shun pork chops or clam chowder or wine. You don't have to sew tassles at the hems of your garments. You don't have to sacrifice animals. You don't have to go inside the SDA "ark of safety before it is forever too late." You don't have to get an SDA education. You don't have to pay tithe. You don't have to subscribe to the SDA doctrine of "the state of the dead." You don't have to sing in the choir. For you are a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come.

If we don't have to do all those things, what do we have to do? Love one another without conditions. Love our neighbor. Love our enemies. Treat every other person as though Christ were in him, for his is in him. That's all. The Holy Spirit will help us decide what offerings to give and to whom, when and where to go to church, how to help others, and everything else.

Thank you, Susan, for not being led away once again into slavery in the worn chains of the old legalistic arguments and guilt trips.

God has blessed you,

Jude
Colleentinker
Posted on Tuesday, December 28, 1999 - 9:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jude--I have to say "Amen!" to your post. Isn't it wonderful to learn to live with the Holy Spirit?

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