01-21-2007, 11:45 AM
Glory to God & peace to all.
Dear umm Zachariah,
I came across this thread by accident & I'm glad I did. Please allow me to deal with your queries.
In the Name of the Most Holy & Blessed Trinity...
Quote:But in the case of Jesus pbuh it may be a bit more complicated. Since he is considered to be both God and himself, both human and divine, that means that God also has a soul, and that makes things even more strange. Does God have a soul?
Jesus Christ is the Son of God incarnate. As CC stated, He is fully divine & fully human, not 50-50.
A soul is the source of life in a body. God is Pure Spirit without a body, therefore He doesn't need a soul, however, when the Son of God assumed a human nature, he obtained a soul only in His humanity. To confuse you further (LOL), Jesus Christ is one Divine Person with two natures: human & divine.
Quote:Do you have an explanaition to why Jesus pbuh is supposed to sit BESIDE God when they are the same, according to Christianity?
God doesn't sit beside God. You & I both know there's only One God. The Son is seated at the right hand of the Father - "right hand" represents majesty, power, etc. Therefore, the Father who generates the Son, share all things in essence/attributes. The Holy Spirit is the Divine Love that proceeds from the Father & the Son. Praise God!
Quote:But still God, that is the co-existent in His Trinity does die? I mean His body represented by Jesus pbuh dies, doesn't he? According to Christianity?
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, experienced death in His humanity. His divine nature remained untouched.
Quote:Someone discribed the Trinity earlier somewhere here like 'a man', 'a son' and 'something else', don't recall what it was for now and if the 'man' dies, so does the son and something else too, don't they? They cannot be separated just because one of them dies? Not according to the Christian description of the Trinity? Since one is three and three is one?
One God - 3 Distinct Persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit).
God can't die. Angels can't even die! They're spirits.
I posted the following info on another thread just recently...
The doctrine of the most Holy & Blessed Trinity from a theological perspective:
Christians acknowledge one God - Unbegotten, Eternal, Invisible, incapable of being acted upon, Incomprehensible, Unbounded - who is known only by understanding & reason. By whom all things through His Word have been produced & said in order & are kept in existence. We recognize also the Son of God. Let no one think it laughable that God should have a Son, for we do not conceive of either God the Father or God the Son as the poets do, who in their myth-making represent the gods as no better than men. The Son of God is the Word of the Father, in thought & in actuality. By Him & through Him all things were made, the Father & the Son being One. Since the Son is in the Father & the Father is in the Son by the Unity & Power of the Spirit, the Mind & Word of the Father is the Son of God. If in your exceedingly great wisdom it occurs to you to enquire what is meant by the Son, I will tell you briefly. He is the first begotten of the Father, not as having being produced, for from the beginning God had the Word in Himself, God being eternal Mind & eternally Rational. Who then would not be astonished to hear men speak of God the Father & of God the Son & of the Holy Spirit.
(St Justin Martyr 150AD)
The three things are existence, knowledge & will. For I can say that I am, I know & I will. I am a being which knows & wills. I know both that I am & that I will. I will both to be & to know. In these three - being, knowledge & will - there is one inseparable life. One life. One mind. One essence. Therefore, although they are distinct from one another, the distinction does not separate them. This must be plain to anyone who has the ability to understand it. In fact, he need not look beyond himself. Let him examine himself closely, take stock, & tell me what he finds. For none of us can easily conceive whether God is a Trinity because all these three -immutable being, immutable knowledge & immutable will - are together in him. Whether all three are together in each person of the Trinity, so that each is threefold or whether both these suppositions are true & in some wonderful way in which the simple & the multiple are one, though God is Infinite He is yet an end to Himself & in Himself, so that the Trinity is in Itself, & is known to Itself, & suffices to Itself, the Supreme Being, One alone immutably, in the vastness of its Unity. This is a mystery that none can explain, & which of us would presume to assert that he can?
(St Augustine 354-430 AD)
Here the mystery deepens. Three Distinct Persons & only One God. How is this possible? Reason understands that there is no contradiction, because it is a Trinity of Persons & a Unity of Divine Nature. But the difficulty remains. Each of the Persons is the same God. How can They be really distinct? The reply which our reason stammers is based on the concept of relation. The Three Divine Persons are distinguished among Themselves solely by the relations which They have with One Another. Precisely by the relation of the Father to the Son; of the Son to the Father; of the Father & the Son to the Spirit; & of the Spirit to the Father & the Son. The Council of Florence in 1442 could therefore state, "These Three Persons are One God, because the Three are One Substance, One Essence, One Nature, One Divinity, One Immensity, One Eternity... in God everything is one & the same, where there is no opposition of relation".
(Pope John Paul II 1985)
God - Father Son Holy Spirit - have one nature or substance; one power & authority. There is a consubstantial Trinity; one deity to be adored in three subsistences or persons.
There is only one God the Father from whom all these come. There is one Lord Jesus Christ through whom all things are. There is one Holy Spirit in whom all things come to be.
(2nd Council of Constantinople 553AD)
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!