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From: jeand@ihlpg.UUCP (AMBAR)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Trinity: the fine line
Message-ID: <1043@ihlpg.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Aug-85 15:26:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlpg.1043
Posted: Thu Aug  8 15:26:49 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Aug-85 00:56:17 EDT
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> Then why is the doctrine of the trinity so important to Christianity?
> 
> >As I see it, the primary purpose of the doctrine is to emphasize the
> >fact that Love is part of God's nature.  When he asks us to love him
> >and each other, he is letting us into something that he has had all
> >along.  This means that for us God is no longer a mathematical point,
> >with no observable properties other than the demands he makes on us.
> >We actually know something about God in himself: that he has within
> >himself that which loves, that which accepts love in obedience, and
> >all of the interplay between these two.
> 
> Of course this side of God's nature was already much in evidence
> in the Old Testament books of the prophets (e.g. the story of Jonah).
> 
> 	Frank Silbermann

Not in the sense we are talking here.  One example:  some people have 
God creating man because He was lonely. Or variations on that theme.  The
Bible says that that's not so, that the members of the Trinity loved
during eternity past, long before our existence.  Because our God is a
personal God, and we are created in His image, we can love because He
can/does love.
(with apologies to Francis Schaeffer)