The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Trinity Doctrine

Kathy,

The ability of man to create terms--words--to represent reality was given by God to Adam as one aspect of his image, and that ability continues to be properly used today, especially when a shorter term is invested with the meaning of a much longer series of terms. If the meaning invested in the shorter term is faithful to the truth of the Word of God, the shorter term may be said to be true, otherwise not; yet the use of the shorter term in place of the longer is still valid.

So the term "purgatory" may condense the concept of "the time and place of purifying discipline for the blessed dead before their entrance into the glory of heaven"; since the concept itself is unscriptural, we must say that the short form is unscriptural as well; but that does not mean we cannot use the abbreviation when talking about the subject.

Similary, "trinity" is simply a shorthand for several essential truths about the God Who Is. Others have elucidated those truths to you, and shown beyond doubt that they are scriptural. Therefore the term may be safely used to describe that family of doctrines.

Do you realize that you yourself have engaged in the very practice you decry--that of using a "non-biblical word" to summarize biblical truth--here already? You wrote several diatribes on the "Noahide Laws", although those words never appear in the Bible! And even more curiously, in the above quote, you refer to "the bible". Can you please show me where those very words occur, in your Bible?

Unless you are able to do so, you need to reconsider the appropriateness of meaning-invested terms--as "Trinity"--in discussion about essential doctrines of the faith, or else refrain from using shorthand terms yourself.

Now you're on much more solid ground; in fact I'm sure nearly everyone here would agree it is totally impossible to do so without deviating from some of her core teachings. The trouble in this instance is, that Rome's teachings on simply "the Trinity" have been much more faithful to their scriptural roots than her teachings on Salvation; so in our rejection of the one with its flagrant and deceptive twisting of truth, we don't want to reject other truths which she retained.

Please consider the Pharisees. Jesus tore their lack of faith, their accretions to the law, their self-righteousness, to shreds in his various rebukes; but he still commanded the people to obey them when they taught the true law of Moses (Matthew 23:2). One must be discerning to not reject all doctrine of a particular group, even "children of the devil", without testing it against the Word and keeping what is good, rejecting what is evil. So it is necessary to see that although Rome's message of "Salvation" is fundamentally flawed, the Trinitarian doctrines are themselves sound and essential.