Counterfeit Christianity: Trashing the Trinity
If I had to identify the top three attacks on Biblical Christianity, I would say it is on the authority of the self-attesting Bible, the Deity and Humanity of Jesus Christ, and the Trinity.
If you've read any of my work, you will quickly see that when I refer to the Trinity, I call Him the one and only self-existing Trinitarian God revealed in the self-attesting Bible who exists in Three Persons; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Why so many qualifications? Because we must define the doctrine of the Trinity by and through God's self-attesting Bible. Any changes, adjustments, or redefinitions are trashing the Trinity.
The Trinity is being trashed in our day by many groups and individuals who claim to be Christian. Apostate "churches" clearly and unequivocally trash the Trinity, such as Oneness Pentecostals or the Unitarian "Church." At least they are honest; I'll give them that much.
However, others aren't so transparent, though their Counterfeiting is easy to detect once you know what you are looking for. For example, here's a blog that trashes the Trinity by referring to God as "Godself; his/her/it."
Here is a typical trashing of the Trinity by Jesuit and a United Methodist calling God the "Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier."
But why should we be surprised after many mainline Counterfeit Christian colleges and seminaries agreed upon the Inclusive Language Policy as articulated by Duke Divinity School?
The exclusive use of either masculine or feminine pronouns for God should be avoided
Metaphors showing God's personal relationship with humans should be used, but need not be gendered: God is parent to us all
God and Godself can be used as substitutes for he/she and him-/herself: After God created the world, God rested
God knew Godself to be great
A variety of gender-specific metaphors can be used: God is the father who welcomes his Son, but she is also the woman for search for the lost coin
Counterfeit Christian Seminaries are right in line with something I found published by Gnostics on Gnosis.org, where their Catechism questions 7-9 state:
7. Is God a Holy Trinity?
Yes. The Gnostic tradition has always affirmed the existence of God as the Holy Trinity consisting of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
8. What are the properties of the three persons of the Holy Trinity?
The Father is characterized by activity, the creation of beings and their attraction; the Son by articulated intelligence (LOGOS) and the will to redeem; and the Holy Spirit by inspiration, fortification and vivification. In short: The Father is creator, the Son redeemer and the Holy Spirit sanctifier.
9. God being called "He" and Father and Son being masculine names, do we need to assume that the godhead is of the male gender?
No. God is totally beyond the limiting characteristics of gender. The ineffable qualities of the Divine, when receiving names in human language, have come to receive the common articles of "he", "she" and "it". It is not uncommon to find terms for God in Gnostic scriptures which are androgynous such as "Mother-Father" (METROPATOR), and the third person of the Holy Trinity (the Holy Spirit) is regarded by Gnostics as feminine.
Right in line with the gnostics is Trinity Trasher and popular Counterfeit Christian pastor/author/theologian, Dr. Greg Boyd who wrote in the introduction to his book Inspired Imperfections: How the Bible's Problems Enhance its Divine Authority:
As you may have already noticed, I will use "God" and "Godself" (rather than "he" and "himself") when referring to God, the first Person of the Trinity, or when referring to God as Trinity. For obvious reasons, I will use "he" and "himself" when referring to Jesus. And, since "Spirit" (pneuma) is feminine in Greek, and since there is some precedent for this in the church tradition, I will use "she" and "herself" whenever I refer to the Holy Spirit. I'm sorry if you find this a little distracting, but I encourage you to press on. You will (I hope) eventually get used to it.
There are other signs of Counterfeit Christianity. If your pastor seems to innocently or ignorantly pray to Mother God, they are trashing the Trinity. It is because they bought into Counterfeit Christianity. They are trashing the revelation given to us in the self-attesting Bible by the one and only self-existing Trinitarian God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Trash the Trinity, and you have Counterfeit Christianity.
I was going to end there, but I thought it would benefit my readers if I provided some links that would help you understand the self-existing Trinity according to the self-authenticating Bible.
