Thursday, February 5, 2009

Modalism

While I'm not really harping on anyone, I heard a pastor use the example of the trinity as a particular man being considered a “husband” to his wife, a “father” to his children, and an “son” to his mother. Which is apparently Modalism. Which is bad. At the same time though, the Trinity is super hard to grasp with an example. So they all fail. I think we might be dealing with an issue where some examples are bad and some are better.

I don't think there is a 100% genuinely good example. What do you think? Are you a Modalist?And here is the rest of it.

2 comments:

Andrew Lindsey said...

Attempt at a good example (its a stretch, and one that breaks down at some point I'm sure, but I've been thinking about this a while:

3 phases of water. This is considered "modalistic" as well, as most think of the water first being ice, then , liquid, then steam. But picture a block of ice floating in water with steam over the surface of the water. The essence is the same (H2O), but there are three simultaneous phases with distinct characteristics. That's the best I can do for an analogy not found in the Bible.

Anonymous said...

Not that it is ever easy to explain the sheer magnitude of who God is, but the example does come across as very limiting. Many times of course, we feel the need to try to explain God's word to others in a watered down, easy to grasp format. And that is not always a good thing. We need to look at His word with the understanding that, yes...issues can be debated on until we are all blue in the face. What do passages really mean, who's interpretation of scripture is more accurate, and if it's not packaged in a popular easy to grasp format...is it even relevant to today's world? The answer is yes. His word was not given to us in order to deceive us, but rather to allow us fellowship with Him. The pages of truth must be accepted and believed and carried out. Sometimes it is best to simply present the truth as the truth. Why try to dumb down the awesomeness of the Trinity?