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Who Is The Christian God? · Gil I Am

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  Speaker 1: All right, Today we're jumping into one of the most
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  Speaker 1: foundational and honestly one of the most mind bending concepts
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  Speaker 1: in Christianity, the understanding of God. It's a topic that
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  Speaker 1: manages to be both incredibly simple and profoundly complex all
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  Speaker 1: at the same time. And yet that complexity hits you
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  Speaker 1: right away with the central paradox of the faith, the trinity.
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  Speaker 1: So how can a religion that is absolutely insistent on
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  Speaker 1: there being one and only one God also talk about
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  Speaker 1: a father, a son, and a holy Spirit. To even
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  Speaker 1: begin to get our heads around that, we've got to
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  Speaker 1: start at square one before we can even touch the three.
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  Speaker 1: We have to get a rock solid grasp on the one.
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  Speaker 1: You see, the entire structure of Christian belief is built
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  Speaker 1: on this non negotiable monotheistic foundation. At its absolute, unshakable core.
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  Speaker 1: Christianity is a monotheistic faith. What does that mean. It
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  Speaker 1: means there is one supreme, eternal being who created and
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  Speaker 1: sustains everything. And this isn't just, you know, one belief
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  Speaker 1: among many. It is the bedrock of the entire Christian worldview.
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  Speaker 1: And this idea isn't unique to Christianity at all. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: it places the faith firmly within the family of Abrahamic religions,
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  Speaker 1: right alongside Judaism and Islam. All three trace this fierce
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  Speaker 1: commitment to one God back to the patriarch Abraham, who's
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  Speaker 1: seen as the one who really kicked off this revolutionary
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  Speaker 1: idea of a single universal God. So, if monotheism is
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  Speaker 1: the hard and fast rule, where in the world did
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  Speaker 1: this idea of a trinity come from? Well, and this
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  Speaker 1: is crucial, you have to understand that this doctrine didn't
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  Speaker 1: just appear fully formed overnight. Nope, it was a concept
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  Speaker 1: that took centuries to develop, through intense debate, scripture study,
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  Speaker 1: and a whole lot of theological reflection. You can actually
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  Speaker 1: see the seeds of this idea planted really early on.
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  Speaker 1: If you rewind the clock to around fifty four a d.
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  Speaker 1: The apostle Paul is already writing letters that make clear
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  Speaker 1: distinctions between the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Fast
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  Speaker 1: forward about one hundred and five years and a theologian
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  Speaker 1: named Tertullian gives the early Church the language to talk
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  Speaker 1: about it. He's the one who coined the idea of
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  Speaker 1: one divine substance existing in three distinct persons. Then things
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  Speaker 1: get really official at major church councils, first at Nicea
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  Speaker 1: in three twenty five, which hammered home the full divinity
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus, and then it was all pretty much finalized
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  Speaker 1: in three eighty one at Constantinople, which gave us the
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  Speaker 1: version of the Nicene Creed that's still used today. Okay, So,
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  Speaker 1: after all that history, all those debates, what is the
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  Speaker 1: doctrine of the trinity that they landed on while it
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  Speaker 1: all boils down to a single, powerful and kind of
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  Speaker 1: mysterious formula. And here it is. This is the foundational statement.
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  Speaker 1: One God exists in three persons and one substance. Think
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  Speaker 1: of this formula as holding two critical ideas in a
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  Speaker 1: perfect delicate tension. It's designed to protect both the absolute
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  Speaker 1: unity of God and the distinct reality of the Father, Son,
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  Speaker 1: and Holy Spirit. So let's break that down a bit.
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  Speaker 1: Each person has a totally distinct identity and relationship with
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  Speaker 1: the others. The Father is described as the eternal source,
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  Speaker 1: the one who eternally begets the Son. The Son, who
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  Speaker 1: we know is Jesus Christ, isn't created, but is eternally
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  Speaker 1: begotten from the Father, and the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds
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  Speaker 1: from the Father. These specific relationship words begetting and proceeding
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  Speaker 1: are absolutely key to understanding their distinct roles. Now this
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  Speaker 1: is so important. Despite these different roles, all three persons
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  Speaker 1: are one hundred percent coequal, co eternal, and they all
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  Speaker 1: share the exact same, single divine nature. Christian theologians are
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  Speaker 1: super clear on this point. This is not tritheism. It
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  Speaker 1: is not a belief in three different gods. It's one
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  Speaker 1: God in a mysterious internal relationship of three persons. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: so that's the internal family dynamic, if you will, of God.
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  Speaker 1: But what about us? How does this one try youn
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  Speaker 1: God actually relate to the universe and everything in it.
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  Speaker 1: While Christian theology explains this through two more big ideas,
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  Speaker 1: the faith holds these two concepts transcendence and imminence, and
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  Speaker 1: another careful balance. On the one hand, God is transcendent
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  Speaker 1: that means he's infinite, eternal, completely separate from and independent
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  Speaker 1: of his creation. But on the other hand, God is
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  Speaker 1: also imminent, meaning he is deeply involved and active right
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  Speaker 1: here within our world and in our lives. So he
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  Speaker 1: is both totally above creation and completely present within it.
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  Speaker 1: And to flush this out even more, we have what
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  Speaker 1: are called the divine attributes. God is understood to be omnipotent,
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  Speaker 1: meaning all powerful, omniscient or all knowing, and omnipresent which
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  Speaker 1: means present everywhere, all at once. He's also eternal, existing
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  Speaker 1: completely outside of our concept of time, and is considered
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  Speaker 1: the ultimate standard of goodness and love. Now we've spent
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  Speaker 1: all this time on the trinitarian view, and that is yes,
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  Speaker 1: by far, the position of the vast majority of Christians.
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  Speaker 1: But and this is really important to know, it's not
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  Speaker 1: the only one out there. There are other Christian groups
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  Speaker 1: that have very different interpretations. These groups are broadly known
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  Speaker 1: as nontrinitarian. They absolutely share a belief in the God
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  Speaker 1: of the Bible and the importance of Jesus, but they
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  Speaker 1: understand the whole relationship between the Father, Son and Holy
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  Speaker 1: Spirit in a fundamentally different way. Let's look at a
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  Speaker 1: few examples. Jehovah's witnesses believe that God the Father Jehovah
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  Speaker 1: is the one and only almighty God. Jesus is his son,
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  Speaker 1: a divine being for sure, but he was created by
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  Speaker 1: God and is not co equal with him. Latter day
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  Speaker 1: Saints believe the god Head is made up of three
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  Speaker 1: totally separate and distinct beings, the Father, the Son, and
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost, who are just perfectly united in their purpose.
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  Speaker 1: And then you have oneness Pentecostals who believe there's only
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  Speaker 1: one God, a single divine Spirit who just shows up
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  Speaker 1: in different modes or roles as the Father in creation,
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  Speaker 1: the Son for our redemption, and the Holy Spirit in
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  Speaker 1: our lives today. So let's bring it all together. What's
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  Speaker 1: the big takeaway here, It's that the mainstream Christian concept
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  Speaker 1: of God is a paradox. It's an uncompromising, deeply rooted
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  Speaker 1: belief in one God expressed through this incredibly complex, mysterious
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  Speaker 1: and historically developed doctrine of the Trinity. It's really an
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  Speaker 1: attempt to make sense of the Bible's witness to God's
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  Speaker 1: total unity on one hand, and its descriptions of the Father, Son,
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  Speaker 1: and Holy Spirit as being fully divine on the other.
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  Speaker 1: And all of this leaves us with a final thought
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  Speaker 1: to chew on. You know, all these doctrines, debates and counsels,
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  Speaker 1: they really represent this profound human attempt to use our finite,
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  Speaker 1: limited language to describe an infinite being. So the real
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  Speaker 1: question becomes, how does the very act of trying to
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  Speaker 1: define the undefinable, ultimately shape of faith's relationship with the
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  Speaker 1: whole idea of mystery itself.