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FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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An apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ, Elder Jefffrey R. Holland, recently spoke on the LDS view of the Godhead: | An apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ, Elder Jefffrey R. Holland, recently spoke on the LDS view of the Godhead: | ||
− | Our first and foremost article of faith in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.” ({{s||A+of+F|1|1}}) We believe these three divine persons constituting a single Godhead are united in purpose, in manner, in testimony, in mission. We believe Them to be filled with the same godly sense of mercy and love, justice and grace, patience, forgiveness, and redemption. I think it is accurate to say we believe They are one in every significant and eternal aspect imaginable except believing Them to be three persons combined in one substance, a Trinitarian notion never set forth in the scriptures because it is not true.{{ref|holland1}} | + | :Our first and foremost article of faith in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.” ({{s||A+of+F|1|1}}) We believe these three divine persons constituting a single Godhead are united in purpose, in manner, in testimony, in mission. We believe Them to be filled with the same godly sense of mercy and love, justice and grace, patience, forgiveness, and redemption. I think it is accurate to say we believe They are one in every significant and eternal aspect imaginable except believing Them to be three persons combined in one substance, a Trinitarian notion never set forth in the scriptures because it is not true.... |
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+ | :We declare it is self-evident from the scriptures that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are separate persons, three divine beings, noting such unequivocal illustrations as the Savior’s great Intercessory Prayer just mentioned, His baptism at the hands of John, the experience on the Mount of Transfiguration, and the martyrdom of Stephen—to name just four.... | ||
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+ | :{{ref|holland1}} | ||
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+ | Elder Holland continued: | ||
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+ | :We agree with our critics...that [the Nicene] formulation for divinity is truly incomprehensible. With such a confusing definition of God being imposed upon the church, little wonder that a fourth-century monk cried out, “Woe is me! They have taken my God away from me, … and I know not whom to adore or to address.”5 How are we to trust, love, worship, to say nothing of strive to be like, One who is incomprehensible and unknowable? What of Jesus’s prayer to His Father in Heaven that “this is life eternal, that they might know ''thee'' the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom ''thou'' hast sent”?{{ref|holland2} | ||
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+ | We see again both the post-biblical nature of the Nicene solution, and the fact that it was new: the monk who was quoted was distressed because a small group within Christianity had imposed its new views on the majority.((ref|debating1}} | ||
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+ | I've commented these out just because I didn't know where you were going with them - Greg | ||
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! <h2 style="margin:0;background-color:#cedff2;font-size:120%;font-weight:bold;border:1px solid #a3b0bf;text-align:left;color:#000;padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Claim: The New Testament does not reveal these three Persons to us separately, but in a profound sense of unity.</h2> | ! <h2 style="margin:0;background-color:#cedff2;font-size:120%;font-weight:bold;border:1px solid #a3b0bf;text-align:left;color:#000;padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Claim: The New Testament does not reveal these three Persons to us separately, but in a profound sense of unity.</h2> | ||
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! <h2 style="margin:0;background-color:#cedff2;font-size:120%;font-weight:bold;border:1px solid #a3b0bf;text-align:left;color:#000;padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Claim: The New Testament relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit disproves the conclusion that the Father alone should be thought of as the only True and Most High God.</h2> | ! <h2 style="margin:0;background-color:#cedff2;font-size:120%;font-weight:bold;border:1px solid #a3b0bf;text-align:left;color:#000;padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Claim: The New Testament relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit disproves the conclusion that the Father alone should be thought of as the only True and Most High God.</h2> | ||
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! <h2 style="margin:0;background-color:#cedff2;font-size:120%;font-weight:bold;border:1px solid #a3b0bf;text-align:left;color:#000;padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Endnotes</h2> | ! <h2 style="margin:0;background-color:#cedff2;font-size:120%;font-weight:bold;border:1px solid #a3b0bf;text-align:left;color:#000;padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Endnotes</h2> | ||
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#{{Ensign|author=Jeffrey R. Holland|article=The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent|date=November 2007|start=40|end=42}} | #{{Ensign|author=Jeffrey R. Holland|article=The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent|date=November 2007|start=40|end=42}} | ||
+ | #''Ibid.''; citing Owen Chadwick, ''Western Asceticism'' (1958), 235 and {{b||John|17|3}}, italics added. | ||
+ | # For a history of the conflict, debates, intimidation, violence, and manipulation which attended the establishment of the later creeds based on verbatim stenographic records, see Ramsay MacMullen, ''Voting About God in Early Church Councils'' (Yale University Press, 2006). ISBN 978-0300115963. | ||
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The Relationship Between Father, Son and Holy Spirit |
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