From: Roberto Dam (rad@infonet.com.py)
Date: Mon Oct 13 1997 - 02:41:46 EDT
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<FONT COLOR="#400040">It is an interesting proposition, I think, to start
discussing O LOGOS. The starting point,</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#400040">however, as I see it, is not semantical, but
theological. When we see the true relationship between YHVH, Yeshuah/"Jesus"
and the Holy Spirit do you start to comprehend the possible and true translation.</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#400040">I am attaching our article, A GOD IN THREE PERSONS
OR A GOD IN THREE PARTS, which will give interested parties a chance to
open hitherto unexpected vistas into O LOGOS.</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#400040">Hasta la vista!</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#400040">Julio Dam</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#400040">Messianic Pastor,</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#400040">Beit Shalom Messianic Congregation</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#400040">URL:http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/7775/BEITSHA2.HTM</FONT></HTML>
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<H1><center> GOD IN THREE PERSONS
                         OR A THREE-PART GOD?</center> </H1>
<P>
<H4><center>By Julio Dam</center>
<center>Messianic Pastor</center></H4>
<center>.</center><HR><P><blockquote>
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                         <P>
               If there is one mystery worth revisiting,  surely it is  the
          mystery  of  the nature of God's Trinity.  Theologians throughout
          the ages have  devoted  themselves  to  delve  into  this  arcana
          with--fervorous  enthusiasm  albeit meager results--many a times.<P>
               These Christian sages' inquiries revolved  around  ponderous
          themes.  Among  these themes are questions such as the following,
          which have not been examined thoroughly, however,  if one were to
          judge  from the end results.  How did this "Three-Persons-in-One-
          God originate?   And a Divine Person?  Is God a three-in-one God?
          And, if so, in what way? Does indeed God possess three Persons or
          is He a Three-Part God?<P>
    <Center><H3> THE ORIGIN OF THE THREE-PERSONS OF GOD FORMULA</H3></Center><P>
                Where did the Church pick up the "three Persons-in-One-God"
          formula?  Let  us state it right at the beginning:  It is not based
          on Scripture nor is it derived from it; and unfortunately,  as we
          will try to show, it is an erroneous one.<P>
               Tertullian,  Irenaeus,  and Origen pursued the study of the Trinity.  In fact, the
          former is responsible for the formula of "One Substance in  three
          Persons"  in  the  fourth century A.D.  Now then,  where did this
          "God: One substance in three Persons" come from? From Tertullian,
          a gifted theologian and writer.
          [Surely,  if the "three Persons" part of the Tertullian phrase is
          not  quite  accurate,  in its present connotations, then  his whole phrase may fall apart in a
          second.] Athanasius proclaimed it as the faith of the  church  at
          the Council of Nicea in 325 A.C. as a riposte to the onslaught of
          Arrianism.  Augustine  devoted  fifteen  years  of  his  life  to
        meditating on it and wrote<I> De Trinitate</I>.  He reformulated  it  as
          the  "Athanasian Creed".  John Calvin took it up and after him it
          become part of the Reform.<P><P>
What really happened is that Tertullian used the Latin word "persona" for its legal connotations,
at his time, which meant "parts of a litigation." That is to say, that what he thought, when he said "...in three Persons," what "..in three Parts." That is absolutely correct. The problem began when the word "persona" took on its modern meaning, as we shall see below. (For a brief discussion of this semantic change from "Part" to "Person," see History of Christianity, by Kenneth Scott Latourette, Vol. 1) If we stick to his original formulation, there is no problem at all, since God does have three Parts. As a God in three Parts, He made us "in His image and likeness," also with three parts. Surely, nobody would argue that we have three persons.
                      <Center><H3> 1. WHAT IS A PERSON?</H3></Center><P>
               Any successful theological explanation regarding God's  Persons should, perhaps, satisfy two preconditions. First, it should be  found  in  Scripture,  as clearly and free of dogmatic interpretations and manipulations,  and as unmistakably  as  possible. <P>
          Second,  it  should be fit to be understood via the digestion organs of man's mind, which are, after all, God-given.  Blind faith should  come  after  the understanding.  The Church should not be
          forced to swallow "by faith" something  which  it  cannot  digest
          with her collective mind in the first place, <B>especially</B> if this
          "blind faith" is used to cover up something totally unscriptural.
          Let us see how these two preconditions meet our case.<P>
               What  is  a person?  Webster's Dictionary defines it "as individual man, woman or child". Then, the word "individual" (as in "individual man" above) is defined  as  coming  from  the  Middle  Latin  word  individuus,  meaning  not divisible,  "existing as a separate thing or being." Thus,  a person is  a  separate  being, distinct  from  another  person or being.  Therefore,  if God has three Persons, it should somehow be referred to in Scripture.<P>
                However,  nowhere in Scripture does the  word  "person"  as
          such appear in the original languages.  In the<B> Tanakh</B> [the "Old"
          Covenant] the word used is "ben Adam",  meaning,  "son  of  Adam"
          i.e.,  "man".  In the New Covenant,  there are three words, sometimes translated as "person", but none in fact,  meaning so.  The  word  usually translated for "person" is the Greek word<B> prosopon,</B>
          which according both to Vine Dictionary and Thayer's  Lexicon  of
          Greek Words,  means "a face". Moreover, the word<B> antropos</B>, really
          means "man" not, "person", as in the word "antropomorphic",  manlike.<P>
               Also,  a person is supposed to have a personality.  The word
          "personality," according to  Webster's  Dictionary  is  "what  it
          takes for a person to be a person," i.e., certain characteristics
          that  make  him what he is and distinguish him from his next-door
          neighbor.  Now,  what do we make of a guy who has  not  one,  but
          three   personalities?   The  scientific  world  would  call  him
          "schizophrenic," and the Bible a "double-minded man" (James 1:8)
           Thus,  it follows that a God with three  Persons  should  necessarily  possess three personalities.  What are we implying? <P>
               Regarding the use of the word "Person" as referred  to  God. The  New  Bible  Dictionary    quite convincingly states its case against it:  "Person' is, however,  an imperfect expression of the truth  inasmuch as the term denotes to us a separate rational and moral individual. But in the being of God there are not three individuals, but only three personal self-distinctions within  the one divine essence.  Then again, personality in man implies independence of will, actions, and feelings,  leading to  behavior  peculiar to the person.  This cannot be thought of in connection  with the Trinity." [R.A.F., <B> New Bible Dictionary,  Inter-Varsity Fellowship</B>, London, 1962, p. 1300.]<P>
               We  have  to  agree  with  the Bible dictionary commentator, since the word "person" automatically  implies  a  "separate  rational  and  moral  individual",  with the operational word being separate.  God is not made of three separate Persons,  no  matter how  attuned  they are to each other,  since God does not possess three Personalities. That is Tritheism, a belief in three Gods.<P>
               In addition,  nowhere in Scripture is there  a  verse  which specifically  states  that God has three Persons.  We must make up our minds,  and Protestantism has long ago  decided  against  it,           whether  we  will  believe  in  something which is clearly not in Scripture just because it has come  down  from  a  long  line of tradition.  Moreover,  time  and  again,  commentators urge their readers to "have faith" in a God  who  is  both  One  and  Three, without  any further explanation about how this can be plausible. Our minds, thus, clearly reject this.<P>
               In sum,  first, Tertullian hit the right formula with his "...in three parts." The problem has been with the subsequent connotations of the word "persona." Second,  the word "person,"  semantically,  means  a
          human being separate from another, and it never appears even once
          as  such in the whole of Scripture.  Third,  there are no verses
          specifically saying that God has three Persons. As the Bible Dic-
          tionary quoted above says: <I>"Scripture does not give  us  a  fully
          formulated  doctrine  of the Trinity."</I> [<B>The New Bible Dictionary</B>,
          op. cit. p. 1298.] Fourth, the given explanation of a three-Person
          God who is at the same time One does not sound plausible.<P>
 <Center><H3>  2. WHICH CHARACTERISTICS MAY A PERSON POSSESS?</H3></Center><P>
 We have seen above how a person  possesses  certain  characteristics which constitute his personality. Which characteristics may a person have?  A person, as "a separate being" has an ego, a    self;  he is morally and rationally separate from any other  person; he has a self-will  [which  might  coincide  or not with somebody's will]; a distinct culture, mother  tongue, and an upbringing  and  background (childhood, adulthood) which is different from that of any other person, just as different as his unique fingerprints.<P>
               For instance, you and I are two separate persons. Aside from
          the  fact that we are both human beings,  we have very few things
          in common.  We do not share an  identical  moral  and  scriptural
          code,  since  we  were  brought  up  in  different denominations.
          Neither do we  share  the  same  will,  culture,  mother  tongue,
          upbringing,  or background since we have not even met.  In short,
          there is very little that we do have  in  common.  Thus,  we  can
          hardly say we are the same person,  nor can we say this about any
          other person on the face of the earth. We are unique.<P>
               Last, but not least, one of the most important traits a persson possesses as a human being is the fact he is made up of three parts,  according to I Thess.  5:23:<I> "And the very God  of  peace
          sanctify    you    oloteleis </I>   ["perfect,    complete   in   all
          respects";Thayer's  Lexicon] <I> and  I  pray  God  your  <B> olokleron</B></I>
          ["complete in all its parts; entire" Thayer's Lexicon]<I> spirit and
          soul  and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord
          Jesus Christ."</I><P>
<Center><H3>3. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PERSON AND A PERSON'S PARTS</H3></Center><P>
               What the above verse from I Thess.  means is  that  a  human being,  a person is made up in its entirety of a spirit,  a soul, and a body; these are his three parts. In other words, a person's  body is not the complete person;  he still lacks his  spirit  and soul.  And  viceversa.  A person's spirit does not constitute the entire person;  he still lacks his body and his soul.  Similarly, his spirit is not a person,  but a third of his person,  which is likewise for his soul and body.  Not even your body and your soul is your whole person;  you still need your spirit to make a whole person. Thus, a person's<B> olokleron</B>,  "complete,  entire" being is made of these three parts,  and no less than three because Scripture says so.<P>
               When we see a person vis-a-vis a person's three-part  being,
          we  may begin to clear our minds about their differences.  Let me
          give you a "for instance" that I hope  will  suffice  to  clarify
          matters in your mind. Your body may wish to eat right at the time
          you are in church, but both your soul (made up of your mind, your
          feelings,  and  your  will)  and  your  spirit may want to remain
          seated where you are,  enjoying the Lord's peace.  Thus,  you may
          appreciate  the difference between a person and a person's three part being.<P>
               Who is the one who wishes to leave church?  Your whole  per-
          son?  No,  it  is  only a third of your being,  your body,  being
          hungry, who signals you to leave.  Both your soul and your spirit
          tell your whole person: <I>"Don't.  Stay until it is finished. Enjoy
          the Presence of the Lord."</I><P>
                     <H3><Center> 4. GOD'S THREE PERSONS OR GOD'S THREE PARTS?<P>
                    TRINITARIANISM AND UNITARIANISM COMBINED</Center></H3>
               Trinitarians and Unitarians have waged a  centuries-old  war
          of  words  regarding  paradoxical verses,  i.e.,  apparently contradictory ones,  such as the following.  But there is a  way  to unite the two extremes and still come up with the truth.<P>
                              <Center><H3>GOD IS ONE</H3></Center><P>
             <I>  "Shema  Israel,  Yahveh  Eloheinu Yahveh <B>ekhad</B>.  Hear Israel:
          Yahveh  our God Yahvheh  is one"</I> (Deut.  6:4) [the translation  from
          the original Hebrew is the author's.]<P>
             <I>  "And  this  is  life eternal,  that they might know thee the
          only true God,  and Jesus Christ,  whom thou  hast  sent."</I>  (John
          17:3)<P>
             <I>  "yet for us there is but one God,  the Father, from whom all
          things came and for whom we live;  and there  is  but  one  Lord,
          Yeshuah Messiah,  through  whom all things came and through whom we
          live"</I> (I Cor. 8:5-6)<P>
             <I>  "one Lord,  one faith,  one baptism;  one God and Father  of
          all, who is over all and through all and in all"</I> (Eph. 4:5-6)<P>
                                <Center><H3> GOD IS THREE</H3></Center><P>
            <I>   "...baptizing  them  in  the name of the Father,  and of the
          Son, and of the Holy Ghost"</I> (Mtt. 28:19)<P>
             <I>  "May the grace of the Lord Yeshua Messiah ,  and  the  love  of
          God,  and  the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all"</I> (II
          Cor. 13:14)<P>
               On the other hand,  in Gen.  1:26 it is  written: <I> "And  God
          said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..."</I><P>
               It follows, as mathematicians say, from the two verses above
          that if God made us in His image, after His likeness, what we are
          made  of  He is made of.  Thus we can conclude by saying that God
          also has three parts,  a Spirit,  a Soul and  a  Body,  since  He
          created us in His image and likeness.<P>
               What are these three Parts of God? Yahveh ,  God the Father,
          Yeshua, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit of God.  It remains to be
          ascertained  which  Part  of God corresponds to which Part of His
          Holy Being.  Let us take the simplest one to  figure  out.  Which
          Part  of  the  Three  is  the Spirit Part of God?  Why,  the Holy
          Spirit, of course. Which Part of God is the Body? Let us see what
          it says in Yochahan/John 1:1,14: <I>"In the  beginning  was  the  Logos</I>  [the
          Word], <I> and  the Logos was with God,  and the Logos was God...And
          the Logos was made flesh, and dwelt </I>[tabernacled] <I>among us..."</I><P>
                The word Logos might be conceived as the tabernaculization,
          the embodiment of the Supreme Thought of God,  a Part of Himself.
          Since,  as  we  will see next,  Yahveh God the Father is the Soul
          Part of God,  this Soul (Mind,  Feelings,  Will, Judgment, Ego, Social Ego, and Moral/Conscience)  of  God
          needs a vehicle to be made visible,  for putting flesh and blood,
          so to speak, unto His Thoughts; this carnalization of His Supreme
          Thought is Yeshua Himself.  And Scripture says so  in  Yochanan/John  1:14:
         <I> "...And the Logos was made flesh, and dwelt among us..."</I><P>
               It  is  clear  from  Yochanan/John  1:14 that Yeshua is God manifested
          <B>[phaneros</B>], made visible, and He is in such manner described in I
          Timothy 3:16: <I>"And without controversy great is  the  mystery  of
          godliness:  God was ephaneroze</I> [manifested,  made visible]<I> in the
          flesh..." </I> Even His name in Hebrew is extremely revealing, and that is precisely why God«s enemy has struggled so hard to hide it under its Greek-derived translations, as Jesus. Yeshua comes from: "Y" (Yahveh) plus "Ieshuah," meaning "salvation/deliverance/victory." (See Vine«s Dictionary, Vol. 3, p 316; and Ben-Yehudah«s Hebrew-English Dictionary, p. 123). <P>
So, we may conclude that Yeshua is the Body Part of God.<P>
               What remains is only the Soul Part of God;  since  there  is
          only one name left, that of Yahveh, God the Father, we may safely
          say that Yahveh  God is the Soul Part of God.<P>
<P><Center><B><H3> GOD IN THREE PARTS REVEALED IN THE TEMPLE«S STRUCTURE </H3></B></Center>
<P>God has chosen remetz (allusion) as a way to share these truths with His sons, the believers. One of these allusions is the Jerusalem Temple. We must not forget that both the Tabernacle in the desert as well as the Temple of king Shlomo (Solomon) in Jerusalem was made up of three parts: the Kadosh Kadoshim (The Holy of Holies), the Holy Place (Makom ha Kadosh) and the Outer Court, or Court of the Women.<P>
There is no coincidence here that it is made up of Three Parts: It corresponds exactly with the three Parts of God, and also with the three-part man, His creation. The Holy of Holies is the place reserved for Yahveh, God the Father. That is why only the High Priest could enter it, and only once a year, on Yom Ha Kipurim. Then there was the Holy Place, representative of the Holy Spirit. And there is the Outer Court, representative of Yeshua, who is the only One who put His feet on this earth, as the Outer Court is the<P>
most accessible part of all three parts of the Temple.<P>
<P>
<P><Center><B><H3>GOD IN THREE PARTS REVEALED IN THE THREE GREAT YEARLY FEASTS</H3></B></Center><P>
Another remetz (allusion) God used were His three great yearly feasts referred to in Vaikrah/And Called/"Lev." 23, when the eight feasts mentioned there were compacted into three yearly feasts, and one weekly feast, the Shabat.<P>
These three great yearly feasts were: Pesach/Passover, in remembrance of Yeshua the Messiah, who gave His life for us; Shavuot/Pentecost, in remembrance of the Holy Spirit, as it was in Shavuot/Pentecost that the Jewish woman called Israel was born again in the spirit; and Sukot/Cabanas/Tabernacles, in remembrance of Yahveh, God the Father. (See A Staircase to Heaven, by the author).<P>
<P>
<Center><B><H3>GOD IN THREE PARTS REVEALED IN THE LETTER ALEPH</H3></B></Center><P>
<P>
Even the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the Aleph, reveals the three-Part nature of God. The aleph is made up of three strokes, as seen from right to left. The first, right-hand stroke, which never touches the Earth (represented by the writing line)  is representative of Yahveh, God the Father. Then there is a middle, long stroke from left to right coming down from above and touching the writing line, which represents the Holy Spirit. And the third stroke issues from the second stroke and puts its "foot" on the writing line, a symbol of Yeshua Messiah. One letter made up of three parts. One God made up of three Parts. 
                                          <Center><H3>  CONCLUSION</H3></Center>
<P>
               To  sum it up,  God,  like us humans,  made in His image and
          likeness, has three Holy Parts: a Spirit, the Holy Spirit; a Soul
          Part, Yahveh ("The LORD");  and a Body Part,  the only one of the
          three  who was made flesh,  Yeshuah.  Once we thoroughly understand
          this,  there is no need to entangle ourselves with  the  <B>mistaken</B>
          notion of God's having three Persons.<P>
               Yavheh God, the Soul, a Third of God, is not the<B> olokleron, </B>the
          complete  God.  There  still  remains His Spirit, the Second Third,  the Holy
          Spirit, and His Body, His final Third, Yeshua;  and the same goes for each of
          the  Holy  Parts  of God.  Just one Third of God is not the Whole
          God.<P>
               In this manner, Yeshua, for instance,  as a Part of God,  and
          not  as  a separate and distinct Person,  does not possess a 
          culture, language, background and upbringing which is different from
          the Father's, or from the Holy Spirit.  The same thing happens to
          us  as  a tripartite being.  Our body does not possess a separate
          upbringing or background from our soul (mind).  Your  body,  dear
          reader, was brought up in the same house, within the same family,
          and  heard the same words as your soul and your spirit--precisely
          because you are not made up of three different persons,  but only
          three different parts.<P>
               God is One,  just you and I are one; and He is made of three
          Holy Parts, just as Tertullian first formfulated it, and  just as you and I are made of three (unholy)  parts.
          It is only when we perceive God as<I> one</I> God made up of three Parts
          that  all  the apparent contradictions dissolve into nothingness! It is only when we realize that Yeshuah is Yahveh made flesh that we begin to understand "in spirit and in truth" the nature of the Trinity.
          It  is  only  then  than  Trinitarianism  and  Unitarianism  come
          together and evolve into something higher: a three-Part God.  Let
          us hope this view helps Christiandom understand our God better.
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<P>MESSIANIC PASTOR JULIO DAM IS THE SPIRITUAL LEADER OF THE BEIT SHALOM MESSIANIC CONGREGATION, IN ASUNCION, PARAGUAY.<P>
HE IS AVAILABLE FOR TEACHING SEMINARS ON THE FOLLOWING SUBJECTS: 1) THE TRUTH ABOUT THE JEWS, ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH; 2) THE TRUTH ABOUT ANTICHRIST AND ARMAGUEDDON; 3) HOW TO ACHIEVE A CLOSER, MORE INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD; 4) ADVANCED SPIRITUAL WEAPONRY.<P>
 IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE HIM IN YOUR CHURCH FOR ONE OF THESE TEACHING SEMINARS, PLEASE CLICK <a href="mailto:beitshal@hotmail.com?subject=SEMINARY">HERE</A> 
</P><P> IF YOU WISH TO EMAIL HIM YOUR COMMENTS OR SUGGESTIONS, PLEASE CLICK 
<a href="mailto:beitshal@hotmail.com?subject=COMMENTS OR SUGGESTIONS">HERE</A>.<HR><P> <P>
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