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Trinity #1-Foundational to the Christian Faith and a key distinction from the Mormon Church

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In a recent television interview, Pastor Rick Warren was asked his opinion about the Mormon Church and he graciously replied that he had a problem with their view of the Trinity, that it was not the Biblical view. I appreciated that because it cut to the core of the difference between the Mormon Church and the Biblical Christian Church–what God do we believe in?

In this and the next several lessons we will look at this in detail as we study the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. God does not reveal things to us in the Bible to confuse us–He wants us to understand the Trinity. It is the foundational teaching about our God and where Biblical Christians different fundamentally with other religions and cults.

In this lesson we start by a review of “Progressive Revelation” how God reveals many truths to us progressively through the Bible. We also look at “explicit” and “implicit” truth to answer the questions as to why the word “trinity” is not in the Bible, but is still a Biblical truth.

If you want to see the PowerPoint slides full size, click on that image. To download the notes, click on the second image.

Study of the Trinity, #1, full size slideTrinity #1 notes

Canonicity #1, how we got our Old Testament AND what makes the Bible different than other religious books

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This probably should be two lessons and the video is a bit long, but as I researched, thought and prayed about the subject, I realized that to help you see the incredible value of the Old Testament manuscripts and for you to realize how unique they really are, you need to see them alongside other so called “scriptures” from other religions.

To do that, I have included some examples from Hinduism, Buddhism, and the Mormon Church. When you read even these brief examples, that have no tie to true history, it becomes obvious that the Christian Bible is unique. People still must decide what they think about Jesus and make a decision to follow Him as leader and forgiver, but they cannot lump our scriptures in with all others.

It also becomes obvious with even a brief look at the scriptures of other religions that: “all religions DO NOT lead to God.”  All religions do not say the same thing, they do not have the same message. It is an insult to each one of them to lump them all together.

Though we must always speak to people of other religions with “gentleness and respect” as 1 Peter 3:15 commands us to do, but at the same time in our conversations we much always affirm:

That is it by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, that we are assured of eternal salvation.

Following is the video–you don’t have to watch it, you can just click on the computer, listen and go about your work.Continue Reading