Religion 203
Notes, Nov 7th

The instructor passed out a handout
titled Calvinism and Arminianism.

We started class with a quick
discussion of the nature of the Trinity.
First, we compared the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost with the Cabalistic
theory of the Godhead as En Sof and the
ten emanations of God the Kabala
calls Sefirot. The instructor tells us that
this is like the Trinity in that
the sefirot are parts of one God, but says
it differs in that they are not
eternal since they are products of the
Godhead's interaction with mankind and
the world and therefore not existing
before man.
The class offered a few analogies to
clarify the nature of the divine
Trinity.
1. The Trinity is like a human,
composed of body, mind, and soul. Each
part makes up the whole, but they are
distinct. The instructor says this is
close, but that body, mind, and soul are
fundamentally different in their
nature (physical, mental, and spiritual)
whereas Jesus and God are supposed
to be composed of the same essence.
2. The Trinity is like water. It can be
solid, liquid, or vapor,
depending on the environment. So too
can the Godhead be Father, Son, and
Holy
Ghost, depending on whether he is
operating in Heaven, Earth, or our hearts
and minds.
3. The Trinity is like a person with split
personalities. My problem with
that analogy is that each personality
functions independently of the others
and is capable of working against the will
of the other personalities.
4. The Trinity represents different
relationships. I am a father to my
son, as well as my mother's son, and a
student at Lane. One person, three
modes. (This might be like the heresy of
Modalism discussed later.)
We concluded that any analogy used to
describe the Trinity will be flawed.

After the Trinity discussion, we went on
to discuss the book of Acts.
The instructor says that the Gospel of
Luke and Acts could be considered
two volumes of the same book. Both are
thought to be written by a companion
of Paul, written for the same patron, and,
chronologically and narratively
speaking, they are compatible. Unless
you look at the death of Judas,
portrayed in Luke as a suicide by hanging
and in Acts as a suicide by jumping
off a cliff. One reconciliation for this might
be that he jumped off a cliff
with a rope around his neck.
Luke ends with the Ascension of Christ
and Acts picks up the narrative
where Luke left off, presenting the history
of the early Christian Church.
So the apostles are sitting around
praying and just a little bit freaked
out by what happened. They are confused
and in disarray. Two angels come down
and tell them to get busy spreading the
word. Instead the apostles elect a
successor for Judas by casting
lots.(Casting of lots was a common way
to
divine the will of God in Judaism and
early Christianity. It was like drawing
straws, or rolling dice. The theory behind
this kind of divination is that
God controls everything and therefore
nothing is random.) They pick Mathias.
Most Christians think the apostles should
have picked Paul instead.
When Shavuot(Pentecost) rolls around,
the apostles are still just kind of
hiding out in Jerusalem with Jesus's
mother and brothers, when the Holy
Spirit descends upon them and gives the
apostles the ability to speak foreign
languages. Since there were so many
Jews from varius lands gathered in
Jerusalem for Shavuot (Pentecost) the
apostles set about converting them. The
bible says they converted 3000 on that
day.
We had a discussion in the class on
whether or not the divided tongues
spoken of in Acts 2:3 were forked tongues
in the apostles mouths, or little
tongues of flame atop their head.
Professor Borrowdale says he will
investigate this question and back to us
with an answer.
Finally, we discussed the difference
between the gift of tongues bestowed
on the apostles at Pentecost and the gift
of tongues spoken of in 1
Corinthians 14. The Pentecost gift of
tongues allowed the apostles to speak
known human languages to foriegners in
order to convert them. The gift of
tongues as seen in the Pentecostal
church is an angelic language used for
direct communications between God and
the Holy Spirit within the devotee.
Sometimes it is also used to prophecy.


Some definitions given in class.
Orthodoxy: Proper or official teachings.
Heterodoxy: Any teaching other than
orthodox.
Heretic: Anyone practicing Heterodoxy.
Modalism: A heresy stating that the
Father and Son are just different
modes of God.