Quote:
Originally Posted by prisonchaplain
Trinity: The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. Each is a distinct person, yet they are the one true and living God. Only Jesus has a body, so he's the only one we could look upon as being human-looking.
The main difference is that LDS teaching is essentially that there are three entirely separate god-beings in the Godhead. Trinitarians believe there are three persons, but only one God. God does not split himself, or appear in different forms. That teachings is called modalism, and is also considered a heresy, by Trinitarians.
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PC,
I hope you can help my misunderstanding on this issue. This is a big blind spot for me about the Trinity(not the only blind spot, but the biggest).
As you stated, in the Trinity, there are three persons but only one God. From my point of view, if all three persons are individually God, then there are three Gods. However, time and time again, Trinitarians say no that's not right.
Then in my mind, the Trinitarian God is not a specific person, but the container, called "essence" or "nature" that these persons reside in. The individuals themselves are called God, but only because of the container.
I am sure I am missing some peice of the equation, or maybe because of my LDS upbringing, my mind isn't wired in a compatible way for understanding this, but I really would like to understand this.
Hopefully, your presence here, may give you an understanding of LDS thinking that can help make this easier to understand.