Which is it?
- Thread starter domer76
- Start date
I do not understand why you keep saying Christianity is not monotheism.
Well, let’s see. What deities do they worship or believe in?
We can start with the bizarre concept of the Trinity.
Toss in angels, saints, demons, and even the Virgin Mary and you have an entire pantheon of supernatural beings that are prayed to or believed in.
I don't think you understand the trinity. It is three aspects of one god. It comes directly from Aristotle.
So one person can be a father, a son, a brother.
Nope. It is three distinct people. Your notion is one that was abandoned long ago.
Please cite some actual document or statement. I never heard of what you are claiming.
Jesus, man! Just look it up!
Then you are profoundly confused. No one says that, just you.
It’s called modalism, dumbfuck. Considered heresy and only practiced by the Pentecostals and a couple others.
Do some fucking homework.
You are as uninformed as Cypress. You confuse your proclamations with knowledge.
And your own definition contradicts what you said.
The Trinity is 3 persons, dumbfuck. Not one with three roles. I just told you what modalism is. Fucking look it up.
Christians need Jesus to be at the godhead as a separate person, pally boy. That was called the resurrection.
So, back to my premise. Multiple supernatural beings that are recognized. Some worshipped, some prayed to, all recognized. Satan, angels, saints, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, God, the Virgin Mary.
That’s polytheism or, at least, henotheism.
Obtenebrator
Verified User
Not really. It is still a triune single God.
But point taken that it requires a suspension of some degree of critical thinking to square that particular circle. But if you give the Christians that contention it still, as you noted, leaves a host of lesser heavenly beings (eg Mary, the Saints, etc.) to which veneration is paid and prayers for intercession made. Hard not to see that as a form of polytheism or maybe henotheism.
But even then it is not all Christians. Protestants pretty much stick with the one triune God.
Obtenebrator
Verified User
Nope. Most churches espouse the Nicene Creed. That comes out of the Council of Nicaea which anathematized Arianism and enshrined the "homoousiosness" of Jesus with God. "Of one substance".
So, no, Christians most assuredly do NOT have Jesus as separate from God the Father.
They still have Jesus as a separate and distinct being. How they wrap their heads around that is some major theological gymnastics. A case can easily be made that he never acquired divinity until the resurrection.
Obtenebrator
Verified User
Well, given that it is all made-up, a case can be made for just about anything. But given the rules of the game (Christian Theology) as I understand it, it is disallowed to treat Jesus as a separate being. That was the Arian Heresy.
Again, don't get me wrong: I see the point because it is such a feat of mental gymnastics that it kind of beggars the imagination. ALSO it is so interesting that so often in the Gospels Jesus prays to God or references God as if He were separate. But, again, the rules of the game are set by the believers.
I do not tolerate insults. Goodbye.
Obtenebrator
Verified User
Thank you for the early morning laugh. That was truly a funny post. You win the internet for the day.
Blackwater Lunchbreak
Verified User
but also, fuck the Catholics.
read the books for what's important. moral teachings.
Obtenebrator
Verified User
Sigh.
It would be great if you understood the faith you seem to be TRYING to discuss.
It seems to come down to a matter of language and perception.
Hinduism has a pantheon of dieties. But all of them are just manifestations and representations of the one universal spirit, Brahman.
So Hinduism is conventionally polytheistic, but in another very real sense it is monotheistic.
I just don't think the English language has the words to clearly penetrate these distinctions and juxtapositions