Carson Bledsoe: Discussion Questions

Personally, I believe, the story in the Old Testament that best illustrates what God is like is Genesis 1-3. The creation chapters detail God as a creator who is passionate about creating and his creations. He shows that he is almighty in his ability to create and in his ability to bestow authority upon the man and his wife. The fall shows God’s jealousy, his inability to be with sin, and his intense desire to have a personal relationship with us as humans. The story in the new testament that best illustrates what God is like would be the story of Jesus. Maybe it’s cheating to use the story of Jesus but I can’t think of a better character or story than God himself in human form. The person of Jesus, God himself, is shown to be wise in how he teaches his disciples and how he responds to the Pharisees. He is compassionate towards the sick and destitute, willing to go out of His way and heal them. Jesus is shown to be humble as he asks recipients of his miracles to not tell others about what occurred to them. Jesus is compassionate to the point of the Cross where he cared so much for us that he died in the most gruesome way imaginable. While the list could go on forever, Jesus is shown as powerful as he is raised from the dead and continues to perform miracles.

Pg 231 #1 What do you think of Augustine’s statement that “whoever denies the Trinity is in danger of losing his salvation; whoever tries to understand the Trinity is in danger of losing his mind?”

The first part of this statement seems to mean that one cannot be saved without belief in the Trinity. This is because salvation would not be possible without God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God sent the Son to atone for the sins of man, the Son lived a perfect life on Earth and died man’s death that we could be set free from death, but then the Holy Spirit is sent by God to Earth so that God may dwell with man once again. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence with man, who guides us in the process of sanctification. Without these three persons of God, we cannot be saved.

The second part of Augustine’s statement alludes to the fact that the Trinity is an incredibly complex and divine idea that we will just not be able to understand on this side of Heaven. To dwell on the idea of the Trinity and to pick it apart, to study it can be incredibly beautiful and eye opening, but also maddening as we cannot fully understand this awesome and abstract attribute of God.

Hi Carson, will you please add a picture to your profile for this forum?

Definitely agreed that the beginning of Genesis is a great way to learn about and assess God’s character. It’s the beginning of our basic understanding of who we are, and why we live in the world that we do. So it should make sense and be clear from the outset. Also, I don’t think it’s cheating to put Jesus as the New Testament example. He truly is the best example of God’s character that we have. Being fully God and fully human certainly helps.

Your explanation of Augustine’s statement also makes sense. The basic idea of the Trinity doesn’t make sense to our human understanding. Yet, our nature also leads us to wanting to learn more and force it to make sense. There are some divine concepts that are just outside of our capacity to understand, as you said. A human attempting to grasp something inherently superhuman can certainly lead to madness – that makes sense.