In response to my post discussing whether God the Father left God the Son when He was on the cross, Adam Pastor posted a comment suggesting to watch the video The Human Jesus, which promotes Christian Unitarianism. I thought that rather than derailing that discussion too much, I would make a separate post to discuss this issue. Admittedly, the topic does fall outside of my own guidelines, as outlined in the “Baseline” section of the introductory post, but I think it is important to weigh up any belief against the scriptures.
I have copied my comments from the other post below.
A couple of thoughts about the video:
A major difficultly, is seems, for unitarians is understanding how Jesus can be both fully God and fully human (see video at 25 minutes 30). It is hard for some modern rationalists to understand, I suppose, but the limits of human understanding doesn't limit God. If that were the case, then God is our creation (or at least our servant) — we are God's god.
An interesting point mentioned in the video (23 minutes 50) is that there are verses that seem to promote the deity of Christ and the Holy Spirit, in apparent conflict with Deuteronomy 6:4. Trinitarians, according to the interviewee (Dan Mages), have tried to come up with a theology that solves this apparent conflict. My question about this is, isn't that what we're meant to do? If there are some apparently conflicting verses, shouldn't we try to work out how to interpret them so there is no contradiction? Otherwise we just have to accept that some of the verses are simply wrong.
It would have saved my time if the weak arguments (e.g., post-biblical era tradition and culture) for both sides of the discussion were omitted and just the solid arguments (that is, basically, just the exegesis of the scriptures) were presented.
About the humanity of Christ: He chose not to exercise His divine privileges while He was on Earth. He chose to subject Himself to the temptations that face mankind.
What I'd find useful, is a table listing all the scripture used to support trinitarianism in one column, and the unitarian rebuttals in another column. Then, a similar table listing all the scripture used to support unitarianism in one column, and the trinitarian rebuttals in another column.
Posts
www.biblicalunitarian.com gives arguments refuting the trinitarian interpretations of six scriptures, specifically John 8:58b, John 10:30, John 1:1, Philippians 2:6-8, Genesis 1:26 and Isaiah 9:6.
ReplyDeleteI'll try to find the trinitarian rebuttals to these arguments.
Regardless of what questions might be bouncing around in my head, when I come before God in worship, my spirit cries out to the The Lamb Who Sits Upon The Throne, “my Lord and my God!”.
ReplyDeletewww.carm.org/apologetics/cut-and-paste-information/god-trinity states some of the reasons for accepting the trinitarian doctrine. It's “Objections to the Trinity answered” section is a little weak I feel (it addresses the peripheral unitarian arguments, but not really the serious scriptural arguments). I'll keep looking for a better reference.
ReplyDeleteThe Biblical Basis of the Doctrine of the Trinity from Apologetics Index looks to be a good exposition of the Trinity.
ReplyDelete