The Trinity...but Not the Trinity

In my last post, there was a comment left by "Anonymous" which leads me to talk today about the Trinity.

Anonymous pointed out that the WMSCOG calls Ahnsahnghong "Father Ahnsahnghong," and "Christ Ahnsahnghong," and also the "Holy Spirit."  Yet as Christians, we do not call Jesus "Father Jesus."

This is because WMSCOG's interpretation of the Trinity is different than the mainstream Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

I asked a teacher at my sister's church about the Trinity during one of my study sessions with her.  I was wondering how "Mother" fit into the Trinity--does she actually make the 3-in-1 God a 4-in-1 God?  No they believe she is an entirely separate female "God."  It is the male "God" (Ahnsahnghong) who has shown himself through the Trinity.

She described the Trinity as similar to water.  Water can appear as a liquid, solid, or gas, but it's still water.  Likewise, God has shown Himself as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but all of those are still one God.  Or, she said, you could imagine an actor playing different roles on the stage.

Then she went on to say that because of this, you can interchange the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit throughout the Bible and not have a problem.  You could say that God the Son gave Moses the 10 Commandments, or you could say that the God the Father died on the cross, or the disciples were baptized in God the Son on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.  That's when I knew something was not quite right, but I couldn't put my finger on it until another of my readers here referred me to the term "Modalism."

The mainstream Christian doctrine of the Trinity is one God in three eternal, coexistent Persons, each distinct from the other yet all together one God.

But the WMSCOG interpretation sounds more like Modalism, which is that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are different "modes" of one God, but not distinct Persons.

Modalism is apparently one of the most common errors in regards to the Trinity, and it's easy to fall into.  I've noticed this myself after researching it.  In trying to explain the Trinity to my own children, I found that I sometimes used examples that actually show Modalism rather than the Trinity.  So it's something for us all to be aware of.

There are resources around the web about Modalism.  Here are a couple links that you might use to get started if you wanted more info:
at basictheology.com
and at gotquestions.org

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I just need to add a little note to this post...

The WMSCOG has a problem with the traditional doctrine of the Trinity. They think it's confusing that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would be different yet the same.

The Trinity is a very difficult concept to understand. Here are two very good pages from gotquestions.org that help explain and put it in perspective:
What does the Bible teach about the Trinity?
and What is Trinitarianism?  Is Trinititarianism Biblical?
They also include a different picture illustrating the Trinity than my example of a Venn diagramm in the comments below.  No picture will explain the Trinity fully--it's just meant to help.

My purpose of this post is not to argue Modalism vs. the Trinity.  I believe in the Trinity, but I can understand where the idea of Modalism comes from.  My purpose is to point out that the WMSCOG does not believe in the Christian definition of the Trinity.  They have taken the word and given it a different meaning.  It's something you should be aware of when they they are talking to you about the "Trinity."