The Birth Of The Trinity

Bates explores how early Christians read the Old Testament in order to differentiate the one God as multiple persons. The earliest Christians felt they could metaphorically 'overhear' divine conversations between the Father, Son, and Spirit when reading the Old Testament. The connection of these snatches of dialogue forms a narrative about the unfolding interior divine life as understood by the nascent church. What emerges is not a static portrait of the triune God, but a developing story of divine persons enacting mutual esteem, voiced praise, collaborative strategy, and self-sacrificial love.

How and when did Jesus and the Spirit come to be regarded as fully God? The Birth of the Trinity offers a new historical approach by exploring the way in which first- and second-century Christians read the Old Testament in order to differentiate the one God as multiple persons. The earliest Christians felt they could metaphorically overhear divine conversations between the Father, Son, and Spirit when reading the Old Testament. When these snatches of dialogue are connected and joined, they form a narrative about the unfolding interior divine life as understood by the nascent church. What emerges is not a static portrait of the triune God, but a developing story of divine persons enacting mutual esteem, voiced praise, collaborative strategy, and self-sacrificial love. The presence of divine dialogue in the New Testament and early Christian literature shows that, contrary to the claims of James Dunn and Bart Ehrman (among others), the earliest Christology was the highest Christology, as Jesus was identified as a divine person through Old Testament interpretation. The result is a Trinitarian biblical and early Christian theology.

Dispensing means to distribute. God dispenses Himself to you just as you may dispense food to your guests. Many readers of the Bible have realized that in the Gospel of John the Father is revealed, the Son is revealed, and the Spirit is revealed. But not many have realized that in the Gospel of John the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is revealed for the dispensing of Himself into us first as life, then as life supply, and then as everything.

The Contraception Deception: Catholic Teaching on Birth Control by author Patrick Coffin is a comprehensive assessment of the Church’s sexual ethic. In this expanded revised edition of Sex Au Naturel: What It is and Why It’s Good for Your Marriage, Coffin demonstrates how the rejection of Humanae Vitae impacts more than just our national birthrates. With relevant insight into the development and reception of Paul VI’s landmark 1968 encyclical, Coffin explains why Humanae Vitae is more timely than ever. In The Contraception Deception, you’ll learn where exactly the Bible teaches against birth control, the differences between contraception and natural family planning (hint: they’re more profound than you think), why other reproductive technologies fall short of God’s vision for marriage and family, and—most importantly—how to rely on the ever-present grace of God rather than your own strength in faithfully following this challenging, life-giving aspect of Christian discipleship.

St. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, wrote in defense of the orthodox faith in the Trinity in opposition to the Arian heresy.

Meister Eckhart, a now-popular medieval German mystic, provides the contemporary person with a way of living that centers on nothing but God in everyday life. He insists that everyone—whatever they have done, whatever they believe—is one with God. Because of this, the good Meister sees no opposition between our spiritual and daily lives. We access oneness with God through letting go. Bliss and freedom flow from giving birth to this divine oneness right where we are. This book intends to help us live this everyday mysticism by prayer and letting go. Meister Eckhart invites all of us to realize our divine oneness in the midst of raising a family, commuting, doing our jobs, cooking, cleaning, and scheduling. Meister Eckhart preaches that God is one with every one of us in our everyday lives.

Conventional wisdom states that the Hebrew Scriptures only hint that there are persons of Yahveh. This book shows that Moses and other Bible writers wrote strikingly and often, both about the Trinity and the deity of the Messiah. The Old Testament is as explicit about the Trinity and the deity of the Messiah as is the New Testament. The reader of this book will come to know the Trinitarianism in the Hebrew Scriptures that Yahvists knew. The reader of this book will come to read the Bible the same way the inspired writers intended it to be read-as Trinitarian