• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Is it Possible the God actually has FOUR parts?

vulcanlogician

Well-Known Member
"My God has three parts." or "My God consists of three persons." are both arguments people have thought worthwhile to defend in threads recently. But I have a question about these claims:

Is it possible that God actually consists of four or more parts/persons?

(But these extra persons do not involve humanity so much. They are merely parts required for God's own divine purposes, so God only thought it necessary to disclose the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to humanity via the scriptures.)

And a bonus question (that I'm sure has been asked already): How important is it to the Christian faith that a believer accept that God has three parts? What if a person (out of concern for the first question) made the claim that God has AT LEAST three parts? Would that be heresy?
 

Eli G

Well-Known Member
Not all self-proclaimed "Christians" believe that.

But YES, since the premise those who believe that is that "god" is belonging to a family, a race, an essence, or something like it ... of course, they could be thousands and millions, like mormons say.

BUT the truth is: God is One.
 

Exaltist Ethan

Bridging the Gap Between Believers and Skeptics
I'm a trinitarian pantheist. For me, God is composed of the ultimate being, The Omniverse (ultimate nature), entropy and extropy. But to me God is not really a being but a description of a being. Yes, one-third of God is The Omniverse, and that definitely is a being, but the other two parts, entropy and extropy, actually describes how The Omniverse becomes Godlike. Likewise, if you describe God as just entropy or extropy, then how far do we say entropy or extropy goes? Some people may argue that these concepts are exclusive to our Universe. I believe there are forms of entropy in every reality, and variations of extropy in some others. I used to think that God was just one. One Omniverse. But without the other two eternal forces driving it, The Omniverse essentially has no divinity and thus is a stagnant God. The Universe already does a good job with entropy. We were created as a driving force for its extropy.

And to answer your question, do you know that some Christians are actually bitarian? Some Christians are unitarians too. But why isn't there another part? Maybe because it is viewed as something that is not needed to fulfill the role of God.

As a trinitarian pantheist, I could throw in the idea that time is part of the equation, effectively making me quadtarian. But, according to current science time didn't really exist before the Big Bang, and understanding the very concept of time has been an issue with philosophers and scientists. Is time composed of right now, or is split between past, present and future? Or maybe only the past and future exists and the present is just a illusion? The fact is, as we understand the Universe, there is ten spatial dimensions and only one time dimension. But in other realities, there could be more than one time dimension. Plus, if you really think about it, time itself is a subjective value. As things reach the speed of light time for them slows down. Does that mean if nothing moved in the entire Universe, time would speed up? Is that why the formation of galaxies was so quick? Is time as we know it just a way that we actually measure distance, like a lightyear?

There are so many unanswered questions that none of us really know. If God can be four parts, why not five? Or why not thousands, like in some sects of Hinduism? Or why not nine, like the Nine Divines in Elder Scrolls mythology? In reality, when I see the word God, it seems to be one of the most subjective terms out there. It could literally mean anything.

But the way I understand God is that physical things have divine traits in them, there is a portion of all reality that is able to change, thus raising or lowering its own divinity. And I don't need four parts to explain it. Just The Omniverse, entropy and extropy. That is why I view myself as trinitarian. All three parts need the others in order for God to exist. Yet, I also believe that God as most people understand it will also be created one day. The formation of The Omniverse, entropy and extropy creates a Synverse, or a place in spacetime that is able to be changed. The problem is, most synverses only contain small parts of all three concepts. But, we as a human species will build from our own synverses a unified Synverse of the whole thing, the whole Omniverse, the entire consumption of entropy and our extropy, to create the Syntheos of The Omniverse, or what most people would imagine is God, or something resembling monotheism, some day.

If I am wrong and there already is a Syntheos of The Omniverse and we're past the point of the Omega, it is doing a really good job at hiding this fact. But the fact is, Christians understand God has three entities because it doesn't need other entities to fulfill that role for it. I mean, even water particles can turn to plasma, but that wasn't even known at the time. And then there are superstates of matter that also exist at 0K, which has never been measured in the entire Universe. But, most people understand God as ice, water and vapor, like the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and doesn't need additional explanation for this God. And I understand God as The Omniverse, entropy and extropy, which can correlate to trinitarian monotheism of Christianity quite easily. The Holy Spirit is The Omniverse, the Father is entropy and the Son is extropy. Those are the most logical modes that exist that can be proven today by science.

So, God as three makes sense for both most of Christianity and myself. It doesn't need a fourth part to fulfill a role in it.
 
Last edited:

Eli G

Well-Known Member
No matter what people believe: if there is a Creator, He and only He may be the Supreme person, the Majesty in the whole universe, and everything else under Him. ONE PERSON: the "God of gods" ... and if jesus has a God, he cannot be that person, period.

If you think about the triune God or the three gods in one, however you wanna think it, it is like this:

1) God the Father
2) the spirit of God the Father
3) the Son of the Father

... So, who is truly God?

If they wanna add to a mystical triple "essence" or whatever they want to invent, then God is not any of what they say, but something else that they don't even know ... Actually, if the spirit of God is another member of that "thing", why the spirit of the Son is not another one?
 

Eli G

Well-Known Member
God is not an idea; men cannot invent him.

We need to know Him, look for Him, search for Him.

He is real, a living being who is over everything in the Universe he created. We cannot see Him, but we can know Him and even have a personal relationship with Him.

About Him Jesus said:

John 7:28 Then as he was teaching in the temple, Jesus called out: “You know me and you know where I am from. And I have not come of my own initiative, but the One who sent me is real, and you do not know him. 29 I know him, because I am a representative from him, and that One sent me.”
... 8:54 Jesus answered: “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, the one who you say is your God. 55 Yet you have not known him, but I know him. And if I said I do not know him, I would be like you, a liar. But I do know him and am observing his word...."
 

pearl

Well-Known Member
Is it possible that God actually consists of four or more parts/persons?

For an amusing response from a theologian at a Catholic college;
The Trinity doesn't make much difference to people. I have often remarked to students that if I and my fellow preachers mounted our pulpits some Sunday and announced that we had a letter from the Vatican saying that there are not three Persons but four, most people in the pews would simply groan. "Oh, when will these changes stop?" But to most of them it would cause no problem other than having to think about how to fit the fourth one in when making the sign of the cross.
 

vulcanlogician

Well-Known Member
But to most of them it would cause no problem other than having to think about how to fit the fourth one in when making the sign of the cross.

As someone who was raised Catholic, this seems like an easy one to solve.

Left shoulder would be "holy ghost" instead of just "holy." That leaves the right shoulder completely free for the new member of the Trinity.

(Quadrinity?)
 

amorphous_constellation

Well-Known Member
Is it possible that God actually consists of four or more parts/persons?

Well the Tarot has four energies, which are cups, wands, swords, and pentacles. So those are four deep symbols, and may connect with with what you are asking about. If you want to know more about that, I'll discuss it, otherwise I won't presently waste time by typing more.
 

Eli G

Well-Known Member
As someone who was raised Catholic, this seems like an easy one to solve.

Left shoulder would be "holy ghost" instead of just "holy." That leaves the right shoulder completely free for the new member of the Trinity.

(Quadrinity?)
Not need ... they already got the mother of God as another and even more important member of that "thing" they are trying to discover and yet don't have the exact idea of it, even if they got the Scriptures to know who God really is ... and his own Son's teachings.
 

Eli G

Well-Known Member
Cannot be "the mother of God" part of the family? If not so, how you consider her?

I thoguht so, cause I can see myself how you worship that image everywhere in the whole world. My grandma did too.
 
Last edited:

pearl

Well-Known Member
In his book Beyond Personality (1944), Lewis gives a clear example of how one might relate to the Christian three-in-one God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He writes:

“You may ask, if we can’t imagine a three personal Being, what is the good in talking about him? The thing that matters is being actually drawn into that three-personal life, and that may begin any time tonight, if you like. What I mean is this. An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get in touch with God [the Father]. But if he is Christian he knows that what is prompting him to pray is also God. God is, so to speak, inside him [the Holy Spirit]. But he knows also that all his real knowledge of God comes through Christ – the man who was God – that Christ [the Son] is standing beside him helping him to pray, praying for him. You see what is happening. God is the thing beyond the whole universe to which he is praying – the goal he is trying to reach.

God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him on – the motive power. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed towards that goal. So that the whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers.” (p.17)

Or at Steven's execution in Acts. His vision is of God with Jesus at his side, and the Holy Spirit within Steven.
 

Eli G

Well-Known Member
The thing is that if 1+1+1=1
then 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+....+1=1 also.

Or only one of those 1 is really 1, or all of them are just certain percent of the unity. If they are three, then each of them is only a part, the third part, or 33.333333 %, as you wish.

There is not a person that can be multiple persons at the same time, out of the mysticism of the illussion ... or psychiatric field.

Did Jesus know that he was just one of three, as you say?
 

vulcanlogician

Well-Known Member
Then I'd ask to see the scriptural basis for such a claim, I would judge it on that

Well the claim would be completely based on whatever scriptural criteria are used to form the doctrine of God having three parts. Then from there, the person would say, how do I know it's JUST three. Maybe reading God's speech to Job this person thinks, "there's a whole bunch we don't know about God. Not EVERY single facet of God's nature is disclosed to us in scriptures."

So then the person would resolve to say "God has AT LEAST Three parts. Maybe just the three... but also maybe more..." Would that be a heretical view? Surely you agree that there are things that are true about God... that God knows about himself... but that aren't included in the Bible for us to learn.

Your question could also be aimed at you. Sure, according to your doctrine the three persons of the Trinity are described in the scriptures, but is it ANYWHERE stated in the Bible that there are NOT four or more parts?
 

Eli G

Well-Known Member
The simple idea of God being more than ONE, is heretical and unbiblical.
Even Jesus and other Christians in the NT quote the Jewish Shema: GOD IS ONE. JEHOVAH IS ONE.
 

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
The thing is that if 1+1+1=1
then 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+....+1=1 also.
Correct. All is One in God.

Or only one of those 1 is really 1, or all of them are just certain percent of the unity. If they are three, then each of them is only a part, the third part, or 33.333333 %, as you wish.
I see. You're trying to understand God with physics and science and math. That's your whole problem right there. You're approaching the Divine with the wrong set of tools. You don't go swimming with a tape ruler, do you?
 
Top