Trinity Separat Or Distinct

Originally Written (March 3, 2006)

Are you saying that Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit function independently?According to Norman Geisler - President of Southern Evangellical Seminary

"That God is one, and only one, is the great cry of Judaism called the shema. It is based upon Deuteronomy 6:4--'The Lord our God, the Lord is one'--and was repeated by Jesus in the New Testament. When Jesus replied, 'The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear O Isreal, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength''(Mark 12:29 NKJV)

Jonathan Edwards writes in his "An Essay On The Trinity" and "Treatise on Grace"

"And this I suppose to be that blessed Trinity that we reas of in the Holy Scriptures. The Father is the deity subsisting in the prime, unoriginated and most absolute manner, or the deity in its direct existence. The Son is the deity generated by God's understanding, or having an idea of Himself and subsisting in that idea. The Holy Ghost is the deity subsisting in act, or having an idea of essence flowing out and breathed forth in God's infinite love to and delight in Himself. And I believe the whole Divine essence does truly and distinctly subsist both in the Divine idea and Divine love, and that each of them are properly distinct persons." "In other words, the Holy Spirit is the delight that the Father and the Son have in each other, and He carries in Himself so fully all the essence of the Father and the Son the He Himself stands forth as a thrid person in His own right."

Norman Geisler - President of Southern Evangellical Seminary - also writes:

"The oneness of God is opposed to the heresy called tritheism, which alleges that there are three separate beings in the Godhead. Monotheism asserts that there is only one Being who is God, not three beings. Hence, God's unity stands against the error of tritheism."

Please do not misunderstand the definition of distinct. Webster defines distinct as: "to the eye or mind as discrete, DISCRETE mean not being each and every one the same. DISTINCT indicates that something is distinguished by the mind or eye as being apart or different from others." Each part of the trinity is different from each other but are not separate, as tritheism might have it. God is all three at the same time, but some call the Father part of the trinity God, which is okay but do not think that Jesus or the Holy Spirit cannot be called God also, they are all equally God.