Dale says:
There are many theological, ethical, and practical problems with the JWs, as testified to be an endless stream of thoughtful, God-fearing people leaving that group, often at great cost…If you google around, you’ll find them talking about leaving. I do encourage you to leave the Watchtower behind. They are just one of many cultish groups who gain credibility by pointing out that the Trinity, and other things common in various catholic groups, are not taught in the Bible...Beware of various legalists, like those who try to go quasi-Jewish...
http://trinities.org/blog/archives/5620/comment-page-1#comment-108761
It's gratifying to see that anti-Trinitarian apostate Dale Tuggy hasn't lost his theological standards. You see, for Dale, it's not good enough to belong to just any ol' Christ-denying cult. You gotta belong to the right Christ-denying cult. The One True Christ-denying cult. Thankfully, we have Dale to separate the sheepish cult-members from the goatish cult-members. Heresy has its own outcasts.
My cult's bigger than your cult,
My cult's purer than yours.
My cult's better 'cause he gets Tuggy Ration,
My cult's better than yours.
Not that anyone should care about my personal beliefs or history, I nevertheless want to confess something that might be of help to some people.
ReplyDeleteFor the first few years of being a believer in the Bible I was anti-Trinitarian (c. 1988-1993). So, I can understand and sympathize with Unitarians and Semi-Arians (and to a lesser degree with Arians). Honestly, I sometimes have my Trinitarian doubts. Especially since the arguments that various anti-Trinitarians are using nowadays are much better than in the past. Whenever I do experience doubt, I do two things:
1. I re-examine the Biblical evidence for plurality in the Godhead along with
2. re-examining the evidence for Jesus being identified as YHWH in ways which cannot be accommodated or explained away by a representational or agentival understanding of Jesus' "godhood."
After doing both of those things, the standard evidence and arguments for the doctrine of the Trinity and for the personality and full deity of the Holy Spirit seem once again to make A LOT of sense. The doctrine of the Trinity really does seem to have the greatest explanatory power and scope. It can explain and accommodate all of the data (rather than just "some" or "most") in a way that's mutually supportive and consistent rather than contradictory.
So, with respect to #1, one of the resources I repeatedly return to is John Gill's book, "The Doctrine Of The Trinity Stated And Vindicated." Especially chapter 2 titled, "2. Proving That There Is A Plurality In The Godhead" ( and to a lesser degree chapter 3).
Gill has a similar chapter in his book "A Body of Doctrinal Divinity"
Book 1—Chapter 27 is titled, "Of A Plurality In The Godhead". All of chapter 26-31 are helpful. The main weakness of Gill's books is that he sometimes appeals to textual variants which modern conservative scholars wouldn't (e.g. the Comma Johanneum etc.). However, even if you discount those passages and some of his weaker arguments, Gill nevertheless makes an overall strong case for the doctrine of the Trinity. The same pros and cons can be said of John Owen's classic "A Brief Declaration and Vindication of The Doctrine of the Trinity"
With respect to #2, I re-read/browse books like Putting Jesus in His Place by Bowman & Komoszewski (et al.)
Here's a link to my blog:
Resources in Defense of Trinitarianism
http://misclane.blogspot.com/2013/06/resources-in-defense-of-trinitarianism.html
Oh, I forgot to add the link to me new blog Trinity Notes
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