Very, very well put, DavidM.
----Original Message Follows----
From: "David Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [TruthTalk] Trinity & Mormonism
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 09:03:34 -0500
Michael Douglas wrote:
> Now you say you worship one God!
> The Father! yet you say Jesus is also
> a God, and you worship Him too.
> Now that is polytheism by any standard.
> Either that or you are committing idolatry.
> Now which is it??????
DAVEH:
> Neither Jesus nor his Father are idols nor do
> they represent pagan gods. Both are part of
> the "Godhead". As part of that Godhead, our
> Heavenly Father commissioned his Son to create
> us, bring forth the gospel and to redeem us.
> Therefore, worshiping either Jesus or his Father
> do not represent "polytheism" to me, since their
> goals, methods and purpose are the same.
Dave, this comment is about the closest thing to the Trinity that I have
ever heard you say. In fact, I cannot distinguish your viewpoint from the
Trinity except for the semantic fact that you will call god those who are
outside of this Godhead, those whom you agree we should not worship.
Perhaps it would help if you defined the word god. Can you??? Please?
Notice my three question marks please. :-)
Henotheism is a term that Jeff brought up in the past to describe your
viewpoint. As I read more about this to better understand Jeff, I found
henotheism consistently listed in my sources as a type of polytheism. It is
basically the view that there are many gods, but only one god is worshipped.
I thought perhaps you guys thought maybe we only worship one god at a time,
but we never really got that far in our discussions.
Now you clearly indicate that one may worship both the Father and the Son at
the same time, and this is not polytheism because they are one. This seems
so identical to the Trinity concept, I'm at a loss for words.
The Arian doctrine of the Godhead and the Trinity doctrine of the Godhead
both accept worshipping Jesus and the Father too. Many Trinitarians
complained that this introduced polytheism because the Arian doctrine taught
that Jesus was a created being, separate from the Father, yet they still
worshipped him. The Trinity doctrine maintains the unity of the Godhead by
saying that the Father and the Son are different persons but of the same
substance, both eternal, from everlasting to everlasting, neither one being
created by the other.
I can't help but think that Mormonism simply drags up old arguments that
were dealt with long ago, and they are kind of reinventing the wheel so to
speak. If it took 400 years for Christianity to settle the question
officially for the churches, and Mormonism is only 170 years old, then I
suppose that in another 230 years, we might expect Mormonism to accept the
Trinity doctrine. They seem mighty close as it is, so maybe it will happen
even sooner. What do you think?
Peace be with you.
David Miller, Beverly Hills, Florida USA
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