the nature of God and His son since the early first century. Is the Father alone God? Or is Jesus also God? Are Jesus and the Father one in essence, and therefore one God but two persons? And if Jesus is God, can he also be man? And how does the Holy Spirit fit into this question about Deity and Godhood?
The doctrine of the Trinity purports to answer these questions, along with the doctrine of the two natures of Christ. Orthodox Christianity points to the Council of Nicea in 325 AD as the defining moment for the Trinity. But in reality the Nicene Creed only recognized the Father and the Son as being of the same essence. It actually affirmed only the Deity of Christ, not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was given only passing recognition at the end of the creed with the sentence "And we believe in the Holy Spirit."THE COUNCILS and CREEDS
The fact is, there were many such Church Councils after Nicea, but it was not until the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD, 56 years later, that the Holy Spirit was recognized as full Deity in the Creed of Constantinople. "The Council of Constantinople eliminated the anathemas from the Nicene Creed and added a statement affirming the deity of the Holy Spirit as well as the one holy catholic church, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection of the dead." -- Frank M. Hasel, “Creeds and Confessions,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016)Further, it was in the Athanasian Creed of 451 AD that the Church finally agreed, in writing, on the dual nature of Christ as both fully God and fully man. Church Creeds were formulated to provide a consistent confession for all believers to agree on and follow. But sadly, they have always had the opposite effect, being a point of division and contention due to disagreements over language. And today, centuries later, we still debate and argue over the same issues.
THE DEBATES
Have you listened to the debate between Dr. Dale Tuggy and Dr. Michael Brown, held on January 11th, 2019? If not, you can see and hear the full debate HERE.As debates go, I thought this one was very good, and I believe Dr. Tuggy to be the winner. Although he admittedly was unable to address every Scripture Dr. Brown referenced that night, he has made a great effort to follow up. You can hear his follow up arguments to the debate on his podcast called "Trinities", HERE. Also, some excellent points in refutation of Dr. Brown's Trinitarian arguments are made in three parts by Sean Finnegan and Jerry Wierwille on Sean's podcast called "Restitutio", HERE.
I have recently been made aware of yet another debate which took place on 7/2/18. This one between a life long Unitarian and a former Unitarian turned Trinitarian. Debates can be lengthy, and a little boring (depending on the presenters), but if you like debates I think you'll enjoy this one.
The video below is the full debate without moderator questions or comments, (debaters only) and lasts approximately 1 1/2 hrs. If you don't care about watching the video, you can hear an audio only version at Dr. Tuggy's Trinities YouTube Channel HERE. The audio version has been edited even further (less than 1 hour).
In the end, every serious minded Christian must make up his/her own mind about this vital issue, and the final authority can only be what is written in the Bible, and not any man made creed. It's what the Bible actually says, not what we want it to say, or what any tradition dictates, that matters. Do you agree?
Enjoy! And let me know what you think.
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