"In praying to His Father Jesus was acting from His human nature. He is true God AND true man. So His whole life on earth reflected His human nature, from being a helpless baby to suffering and dying on the cross. Praying to the Father is simply another example of this. When He worked miracles, foretold the future and rose from the dead, He was acting from His divine nature."
-----Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.
"No. He prayed to the Father. The doctrine of the Trinity states that there are three Persons but one God. The term person answers the question of "Who?" and the term God answers the question "What?" In other words, if you asked the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who they were, they'd answer "The Father" or "The Son" or "The Holy Spirit" depending on which Person you were addressing. But if you asked all three what they were, all would answer "God." (This is roughly analogous to asking a human being who he is and being told "John Smith," then asking what he is and being told "a human being.") The Person of the Son, who is the God-man Jesus Christ, prayed to the Person of the Father, in union with the Person of the Holy Spirit."
Above, XAndrewX refers to "the person of the holy spirit." Do Catholic research sources agree that the holy spirit is indeed a person? The answer is NO! Consider:
ReplyDeleteThe Catholic Encyclopedia says: "Nowhere in the Old Testament do we find any clear indication of a Third Person."
Catholic theologian Edmund Fortman said: "The Jews never regarded the spirit as a person; nor is there any solid evidence that any Old Testament writer held this view. . . . The Holy Spirit is usually presented in the Synoptics [Gospels] and in Acts as a divine force or power." (The Triune God)
The New Catholic Encyclopedia says: "The O[ld] T[estament] clearly does not envisage God's spirit as a person . . . God's spirit is simply God's power. If it is sometimes represented as being distinct from God, it is because the breath of Yahweh acts exteriorly." It also says: "The majority of N[ew] T[estament] texts reveal God's spirit as something, not someone; this is especially seen in the parallelism between the spirit and the power of God."
A Catholic Dictionary: "On the whole, the New Testament, like the Old, speaks of the spirit as a divine energy or power."
Hence, neither the Jews nor the early Christians viewed the holy spirit as part of a Trinity. That teaching came centuries later. As A Catholic Dictionary notes: "The third Person was asserted at a Council of Alexandria in 362 . . . and finally by the Council of Constantinople of 381.
Note: No third person, no trinity. Is it any wonder that the New Catholic Encyclopedia admits that the trinity "is not directly and immediately the Word of God"?
The HOLY SPIRIT, THE 3RD PERSON OF THE HOLY TRINITY
ReplyDeleteIn Acts 5:1-4 When Ananias lied to the Church, Peter told him he had lied to the Holy Spirit and in lying to the Holy Spirit he lied to God.
Acts 13:2 The Holy Spirit speaks to the Disciples, telling them to apart Saul and Barnabas for the work God has planned for them, A non-personal "active force" can not speak like a person
(NWT) John 16:13 However, when that one arrives, the spirit of the truth, he will guide YOU into all the truth, for he will not speak of his own impulse, but what things he hears he will speak, and he will declare to YOU the things coming.
This verse say 3 important things about the Holy Spirit
1) He speaks
2) He hears
3) he is referred to as HE as personal pronoun.
In Romans 8:26-27 This passage tells us that the Holy Spirit intercedes for the saints. An impersonal "active force" cannot plead on our behalf. Thus the Holy Spirit is a Person.
Video explaining the trinity -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA04hu_o0oo
Here's what Catholic authorities say about the trinity:
ReplyDelete"Although this spirit is often described in personal terms, it seems quite clear that the sacred writers [of the Hebrew Scriptures] never conceived or presented this spirit as a distinct person" (Edmund Fortman, The Triune God, p. 9).
"Nowhere in the Old Testament do we find any clear indication of a Third Person" (The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912, Vol. 15, p. 49).
"The Jews never regarded the spirit as a person; nor is there any solid evidence that any Old Testament writer held this view…The Holy Spirit is usually presented in the Synoptic gospels (Matt., Mark, Luke) and in Acts as a divine force or power" (Edmund Fortman, The Triune God, pp. 6, 15).
"The Old Testament clearly does not envisage God’s spirit as a person…God’s spirit is simply God’s power. If it is sometimes represented as being distinct from God, it is because the breath of Yahweh acts exteriorly…The majority of New Testament texts reveal God’s spirit as something, not someone; this is especially seen in the parallelism between the spirit and the power of God" (New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, Vol. 14, pp. 574, 575).
"On the whole the New Testament, like the Old, speaks of the spirit as a divine energy or power" (W.E. Addis and Thomas Arnold, A Catholic Dictionary, 1960, p. 810).
Now, tell me, does your little youtube video say something different.
If the trinity is Scriptural, why can't you explain to me from the Bible that God is a trinity. If I needed a reliable reference for an important topic, I would NEVER turn to Youtube. You must be getting desperate.
BTW, did you notice how you completely ignored your own reference sources that clearly said the the holy spirit is a divine power, not a person? It appears that you put more trust in youtube than you do in your own Catholic research sources. How pitiful.