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Colleen Tinker, Feature, Letters to the Editor

I Don’t Understand the Trinity

Please explain the Trinity of the Bible. The Father, Son-Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit. I know they are one.  However, I still do not understand fully. Thank You.

—VIA EMAIL

Response: Thanks for writing. 

None of us really understands the Trinity—it is something that is not earthly, and we can only go by what Scripture tells us. 

We know God is one. (Mark 12:29 quoting Deut 6:4, Galatians 3:20, James 2:1). We know that Jesus said He and the Father are one, and He said that He prayed that we would be one as He and the Father are one and that we would be one with Them (John 17). 

We also know that God is Spirit (John 4:24). 

So what comprises God? What we know are His attributes—and this is the area where we see Adventism departing from orthodoxy. For example, all of the “incommunicable attributes” are present in the whole Trinity: omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, and eternality. The whole Trinity has these attributes. If any one of these attributes is missing, that person is not God. So, for example, Adventism says that Jesus is no longer omnipresent because He took a body, This, they say, is the reason He had to send the Holy Spirit. Yet this is not true. Jesus Is God—and He is omnipresent as God the Son even though He has a body. He is not limited by His humanity. He did not give up any of His God attributes or characteristics or personality when He took a body for Himself. All three Persons have all the same attributes. 

I am going to give you a link to a page on our website where you can find a selection of articles we have published about the Trinity. I believe they will help you:

https://lifeassuranceministries.org/?s=Trinity

Adventists deny that the persons of the Trinity all share substance. By sharing substance, we don’t mean they all have an equal portion of the attributes—it means that they all have EXACTLY THE SAME attributes. It’s like an apple pie: if I cut the pie into thirds, each third would be “all pie”. But each piece might have an anomaly: a seed, a bit of core, a lump of brown sugar. The Trinity is not like a pie in three pieces. Rather, each Person has the substance of the whole of God: each Person contains the same attributes—not similar attributes or distinct variations of the attributes, but the very same attributes. If there is any difference, that person is not God.

The Adventists have a tritheism: three different beings who share a name, a purpose, a will, and so forth. But the Adventist godhead does not share substance. They are what Ellen White called the “heavenly trio” and the Three Worthies of Heaven”. Those designations do not describe the Trinity. They describe three beings. 

Deconstructing!

Please send me info on where to go to find videos or podcasts about soul/ death and what Revelation really means. I’m currently deconstructing.

—VIA EMAIL

Response: Thank you for writing. I’m going to send you a link to an issude of Proclamation magazine which was dedicated to the subject of what happens at death:

https://lifeassuranceministries.org/proclamation/2008/4/index.html

Here is an article that directly addresses the nature of man and what difference it makes (and how we know) that humans have an immaterial spirit that survives death, that is born dead in sin, and that is the part of us that must be born again: 

https://lifeassuranceministries.org/proclamation/2008/4/humanslivingbodies.html

This video addresses the issue of our spirits being dead because of Adam and explains how trusting in Jesus brings us from death to life: 

 

Colleen Tinker
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