Brenton Malnofski: Discussion Questions

1. My choice of story from the Old Testament is the golden calf story. The liberated Israelites had turned their backs on God, despite being able to see a swirling cloud on Mount Sinai above them. Rather than being patient for Moses to come back, they proceed to make their own god out of gold. This justifiably enrages God, and He tells Moses that He is going to wipe them out and start over with Moses, a la the Noah/flood story. Moses then challenges God, asking how will God’s glory and name be spread if His chosen people cease to exist? God relents out of His persistent love for His people and the Israelites are spared. This story demonstrates that God has always been a patient, forgiving God, and He is willing to forgive atrocities. This is contrary to the common misconception that the Old Testament God is primarily wrathful.
From the New Testament, the parable of the prodigal son is a particularly great one. The father welcomes back his lost son with open arms, instead of shunning him. The father represents God, and his willingness to do the same thing whenever one of us loses our way. He does not send us back out into the wilderness if we repents of our sins.

2. Question #1.
I’m not entirely sure what I think about potentially losing one’s salvation if they were to deny the Trinity. I suppose it makes sense, as blaspheming the Holy Spirit is the unforgivable sin. It does sound pretty radical upon first reading it. But the statement leaves some amount of ambiguity with the phrase “in danger of”, as opposed to a certainty of losing one’s salvation.
Similarly, understanding the Trinity potentially leading to insanity also makes just enough sense to me. The Trinity is described as a mystery, and we are merely human, without the capacity to fully understand it. The concept of three beings simultaneously being one is abstract alone. Therefore, I see where Augustine is coming from when he says someone could be in danger of losing his or her mind. It takes a good amount of faith to trust that the Trinity works as it’s said to work, without actually diving into the inner mechanics of it all. I’m content with trusting it, rather than conducting insanity-inducing research.

Brenton, will you please add a picture to your profile for the forum?

I really like your choice in stories, especially from the New Testament. The Prodigal Son is one of my all time favorite stories and I can't believe I forgot it haha. But it really does portray the love of God, which is who he is, in the most perfect way. It also shows how this loving God relates to us, he will accept us and bless us if only we repent. I also like your choice of Old Testament narrative, the golden calf is one of my favorite Old Testament stories, "And out came this calf" Its crazy to think that the Israelites had seen God lead them out of Egypt, led them specifically by cloud and fire, they could see all of the clouds swirling around the mountain and still they chose to disobey him. It is even more painful when we realize we do this on a daily basis.