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[One For All]

The Hindu Trinity encompass the all-mighty, all-knowing, all-encompassing God called the unknowable or Brahman. Who is thought to have 3 functions and as expressed as Gods Brahma(Father), Vishnu(Son), and Shiva(Holy Spirit).
In Christianity Trinity encompass the literal nature of the God Brahman by virtue of the trinity Father Abraham, Son Jesus, Holy Spirit (Divine Force)?

1. God the Father must be Visnu-tattva. That is Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Narayana, Visnu, Krishna, Rama, and so forth.

2. God the son must be guru. The one who leads us to The Father. Although the guru is not God, he is considered as good as God, and is worshiped the same as God, and is considered the external manifestation of supersoul who will assist the devotee re-connect with God. Srila Visvanath Chakravarti Thakur has written.

3. God the holy spirit must refer to paramatma, the supersoul that dwells within all living entities. Supersoul is Ksirodaksayi Visnu and accompanies the living entity through all his different bodies as witness to his activities and when the living entity desires to re-connect with God, then Ksirodaksayi Visnu assists and prompts and empowers the living entity to achieve his goal of serving the Lord purely. Thus three different aspects of Godhead are explained through Vaisnava siddhanta. By Murari

From an outside prospective Christianity seem similar to Hinduism rather then the two Abrahamic religion(Islam and Judaism)
Trimurti

What are you thoughts about Christianity being similar to Hinduism, agree/disagree and why?

In addition what are your thoughts about why does Christianity not want to be considered polytheistic?

[jimwalton]

The Christian theology of Trinity is completely different from any Hindu notions of trinity. In Christianity there is one God (strict monotheism)—one essence—who exists in three distinct Persons. In Christianity God is knowable because He reveals Himself, whereas the Brahman is unknowable. I would also correct that the Holy Spirit is not "Divine Force," but a person just as the Father and Son are Persons. The Holy Spirit is a "He," not an "it."

In the Trinity, the Son is the same essence as the Father, not just one who leads us to the Father. He shares divine attributes, He is eternally one with the Father, and He is God. He is not the external manifestation of supersoul, but is God in all ways and perspectives.

The Holy Spirit doesn't dwell in all living entities, but only lives in people who have committed their lives to Jesus.

The differences between Hindu perspective and Trinitarian theology are so disparate as to have nothing in common.

In addition, Christianity is not polytheistic. There is one divine essence (God) who exists in three separate persons. In the Bible, the Trinity distinguishes between the principle of divine action and the subject of divine action. The principle of all divine action is the one undivided divine essence, but the subject of divine action is either Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. The Father can send the Son according to his power, and the Son can be incarnated according to his nature without dividing the divine essence.

We see examples in nature and science. All physical reality has a dual nature. Mass and energy are in principle inter-convertible, through nuclear fission or fusion reactions. E = mc^2. We can, therefore, speak of the universe as a "space-light-time" universe. It is significant that this motion of light is famous for its mysterious and paradoxical complementarity. It has the characteristics of both waves and particles, and yet it definitely behaves as a wave motion under some conditions and as a particle motion under others. This duality applies both in radiations of electro-magnetic energy and in the atomic structure of matter, in which the orbiting electron likewise behaves both as a particle and as a wave. The two disciplines of modern physics known as quantum mechanics and wave mechanics have been developed from these two concepts.

There are several principles from quantum mechanics that may show us some analogies. The first is called superposition, where subatomic particles are able to exist in two states simultaneously. The second is that of nonlocality and entanglement. The principle here is that objects in far reaches of the universe seem to “know” about each other’s states, and separate particles can behave as a single entity. These may be possible analogies, if that helps.

For another potential scientific "validation" of such possibilities, in 2017 a group of quantum scientists (University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai) successfully teleported a photon from earth to a satellite in orbit. It's called quantum entanglement. As far as our discussion here, quantum entanglement means that the two quantum objects share a wave function and share the same identity, even when separated. What happens to one happens to the other—wherever it exists. They are more than identical twins, the article said, "the two are one and the same." Apparently, according to the article, when they interact with matter on Earth they lose certain aspects of entanglement, but in the vacuum of space, they can extend infinitely (eternally). It's just interesting.

Christianity is not polytheistic. We believe in one God who exists and acts in the world in three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit.

[Alt Kon]

> In Christianity there is one God (strict monotheism)

Islam and Judaism is monotheim, Christianity is not.

> Christianity is not polytheistic. We believe in one God who exists and acts in the world in three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit.

And just to clarify so we don't confuse it was partialism or modalism; each person is individually fully God. Polytheism with extra steps.

[jimwalton]

You and I have just had an extended conversation about the Trinity in another section of the forum. Christianity is decidedly and definitively monotheistic, with texts in both the Old and New Testaments repeatedly affirming and verifying monotheism. (Jesus himself affirms monotheism, as does Paul, while at the same claiming that Jesus was God and a different Person than the Father.) Each Person of the Trinity is fully God while existing in three Persons. I even gave you examples from science where we recognize the paradox of unity and plurality without batting an eye. It's no different in the theological realm. You and I have already been through this.

[Dildo]

you said Christians believe in three divine persons. that's three gods. oh, I read your reciting trinitarian dogma, but repeating incoherence doesn't eradicate the incoherence.

[jimwalton]

The Bible teaches that there is only one God—one divine essence. It also teaches that God exists in three Persons, not as separate divinities but as distinct existences of the one true God. As I clearly showed, we see this same principle exhibited in the sciences, yet no one seems to think it's "incoherent" there. That would be a good question for you: Why is this same principle "incoherent" in theology, but well accepted in science?

[Alt Kon]

>You and I have just had an extended conversation about the Trinity in another section of the forum.

We did, I'm still waiting for an argument.

> Christianity is decidedly and definitively monotheistic, with texts in both the Old and New Testaments repeatedly affirming and verifying monotheism

You're trying to subtly move the goal posts like your kind always does. The OT and NT are definitely monotheistic, that was never the issue. Christianity however, is not.

> (Jesus himself affirms monotheism, as does Paul, while at the same claiming that Jesus was God and a different Person than the Father.)

Yes, Jesus affirmed the Shema, as does observant Jews to this day. (And it doesn't comes with a "*" either.) Meanwhile Christians affirm the polytheistic Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed and the Athanasian Creed.

> Each Person of the Trinity is fully God while existing in three Persons. I even gave you examples from science where we recognize the paradox of unity and plurality without batting an eye. It's no different in the theological realm. You and I have already been through this.

It's not a paradox, it's a contradiction. And your only solution is emphatically asserting it's not. Which of course isn't an argument in any sense.

[jimwalton]

> We did, I'm still waiting for an argument.

If God is not the triune Lord revealed in Jesus Christ, then the doctrine of creation is rendered impossible, and man is part of a cosmic chain of being. This is because a monadic conception of God as some kind of singularity leaves us with the emptiness and void of non-personality as ultimate. If there is no plurality within God’s being, then there is no subject-object relationship, no particularity, only a blank unity. In such a view of God there can be no foundation for knowledge, love, morality, or ethics. Indeed, without an absolute personality, there is no diversity or distinction basic to reality at all; ultimate reality is a bare unity about which nothing may be said. This is why the Trinity is so important in tackling the philosophical problem of the one and the many. Moreover, because a denial of the Trinity leads to a denial of an absolute personality, we cannot speak coherently of the will of God. Only persons have a will. But if God has no will, then creation is not the free act of an absolute, personal God. Rather, the universe is the emanation of divine being, and what we call the universe is merely the extension of god, or, as some pagans would say, it is the body of god. Therefore the Trinity is necessary.

> The OT and NT are definitely monotheistic, that was never the issue. Christianity however, is not.

The NT is the documentation of Christianity.

> It's not a paradox, it's a contradiction.

In science these principles are regarded as a paradox, not a contradiction. So also in Christianity.

[Dildo]

nope, the bible does not teach that God exists in three essences. nowhere in the bible does it say that. instead, you are repeating christian dogma that you've been TOLD is in the bible. but it isn't. trinitarian special pleading developed over the hundreds of years after jesus died, in an attempt to harmonize the obvious contradictions and polytheism in the bible.

[jimwalton]

What I said was the God is one essence who exists in three persons, not three essences. We're all aware that the word "trinity" doesn't exist in the Bible. But the concept and theology of trinity is all through it. I'm not repeating dogma, but showing what the Bible teaches, as in these verses: John 1.1-3; 10.30; Col. 1.16; Heb. 1.3. Paul also taught the trinity.

1 Cor. 12.4-6 mentions all three as equals.

In 1 Cor. 12.1-3; Gal. 4.4; Rom. 1.3-4; 8.11 Paul sees the Spirit's identity as defined by how the Father and Christ have sent him, and likewise the identities of the Father and Christ as "in part" determined by the Spirit.

Ephesians 2.18 shows that Jesus gives us access to the Father by means of the Spirit. So Jesus' blood is them means of access, but the Spirit is also the means of access. The result is that by reconciling people to Himself, Jesus reconciles people to God.

For that matter, all throughout Paul's writings God and Christ and Spirit are mutually defining and reciprocally implicating. That is, God's identity is defined in/through/by his relationship to Christ/Son, and vice versa, and also with regard to the Spirit, as listed above.

Romans 8 is infused with Father, Son, and Spirit working as equals and with equal authority, power, and presence. They are one undivided divine essence with different actions appropriate to their persons.

Titus 3.3-8. All three Persons of the Trinity are present and cooperating in the act of grace. Each Person has His function in the salvation of our soul.

There are also plenty of the places where the Father is equated with the Son, and the Son is equated with the Spirit. So if the principle holds that if A1 = A2 & A2 = A3, then A1 also equals A3.

Trinitarian theology is not special pleading but integral to the Bible.