Theology In Pieces
Join Slim Thompson, Malcolm Foley and many more to discuss and 'Apply the Gospel' into little bite sized pieces every week. email hello@theologyinpieces.com to ask questions or reach out.
Theology In Pieces
84 - God, Gender, And Chaos.
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Robots Olympics. New Way to Stop Smoking. And ICE #'s are UP! Cruelty is the point. Chaos abounds. But that's why today's discussion matters. There is not one God for Americans and another God for immigrants.
Today, we open the Nicene Creed again and slow down on a dense, beautiful line: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty.”
Why Just 1 God? Can we call God: Mother?
We'll unpack all this and more. Take a listen!
Talarico: Christians, Muslims, and Jews all worship the same God.
Also Talarico: "Nonbinary / can't use human categories to define God"
Not the Worst of the Worst (Liam Tadeo - 5 yr old Boy Deported)
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Malcolm Foley - on twitter @MalcolmBFoley
Slim Thompson on twitter @wacoslim
For more information on the church,
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Welcome And Waco Banter
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Oh, hey. We got that live studio audience today. Gotta love it. Not really. Um, hey, what welcome, Theology and Pieces listeners, to another episode uh where we hope to rebuild your theology at the church, the world, or somebody a shattered to pieces. We are your host, Slim and Malcolm. Oh man, Malcolm. Malcolm, what are we doing? What are we doing in the epicenter of Theology and Pieces? Like we are recording right here in downtown Waco. Uh huh. People take pilgrimages from all over the world just to come see this podcast.
SPEAKER_00They do come to visit the church. There you go. And Magnolia.
SPEAKER_03You're welcome. The studio audience is open.
The Anti-Greed Gospel And Work
SPEAKER_00No, it's not.
SPEAKER_03No, it's not. Please.
SPEAKER_00Please don't.
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_03Uh today we have a lot of fun uh things to talk about. We're gonna talk about God, gender, and chaos.
SPEAKER_01Okay. All right.
SPEAKER_03Malcolm, you're so prepared for this.
SPEAKER_01I'm just oh gosh. Oh boy.
SPEAKER_03But before we get here, what's new in your world, man? What's going on?
SPEAKER_01I'm I'm good, man. I was just this past weekend talking to the Methodists about the anti-greed gospel. Do we like the Methodists? Uh I mean, I like these Methodists. Oh it was a good time. Uh it was a good time. So that was that was fun. I have I have a lot of travel this. I didn't think coming into this year that I was gonna have a whole bunch of travel, but it turns out I do. I was like, the book's been out for like a month, a year and a half. Yeah, almost two, yeah, year and a half. Year. Year and a half? Yeah, year and a half. Um I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_03What book?
SPEAKER_01Uh The Anti-Greed Gospel. Why the love of money is the root of racism and how the church can create a new way forward.
SPEAKER_03Where where could people get them?
SPEAKER_01People can buy it anywhere that books are sold. And it was a two and it was a 2026 Christian Book Award finalist for faith and culture.
SPEAKER_03Um, this is all just happening at the moment.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. No, it's uh it's it's important for me to always uh to always be selling. Uh if you haven't bought the book, you should get it. Get it for your friends, uh, get it for your whole church.
SPEAKER_00If you want to do if you want to do like a reading group on it, I'm happy to zoom in to your reading group. Just this podcast is sponsored by Theology. Or wait, wait.
SPEAKER_03The Anti-Gree Gospel. Anyway. But yes. Um So you have a lot of lot of speaking gigs.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, things coming up uh this kind of this year, but I I but I am still trying to focus my attention on writing the second book. So that's what I'm really excited about.
SPEAKER_03Nice, nice. Yeah, man. Yeah. Um nothing uh you got kids in school now. This is was that a hard transition to like school? You know, I remember the first day I dropped off my my my son in kindergarten. I was like, why would parents do this to be gone for eight hours in a day?
SPEAKER_01That's great.
SPEAKER_03And then you made a friend, and I was like, Oh, okay, that's sweet. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01All that matters to me is that they love that they love the uh the situations that they're in, and they are they are loving the situations that they're in. So I'm like, you love it, I love it. Noise.
SPEAKER_02So whatever your kids say they love, you're on board with.
SPEAKER_01Basically, yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's how it's could there be a scenario where they love something that's bad for them. Yes, absolutely. Of course.
SPEAKER_01Yes. But school, they they will be in school, so it is uh it is it is an advantage if they like it.
SPEAKER_03Well fun. Well fun. Um well the chaos, Malcolm. What is it? The chaos.
SPEAKER_01What's going
Robot Games And AI As God
SPEAKER_01on?
SPEAKER_03Um there is a lot of great stuff happening in the world. Sure. The the thing that I think is on everyone's mind is the uh 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games. Oh. Have you seen any of these? No. No. Let me turn the tables here and let's see if we can watch and hear.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, I have seen some of these clips.
SPEAKER_03Let's see, is there any sound coming from this? Oh my goodness. There's not, which is great. Uh no, that's that's that's terrible. We have if you have not seen this, we'll we'll link it. The robots running uh down down the race and also kind of exploding. It's falling and they just fall in just spectacular ways. One robot just slowly walking off the track. Um, they're it's on a track. Uh and it's impressive. It's so this this what is this running style with the arms flailing left and right? What is that?
SPEAKER_01I don't know what that is.
SPEAKER_03But they're all doing it's like I mean I'm sure this is terrible podcast material because no one's watching it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, nobody can see it.
SPEAKER_03But uh we will link it. You should definitely go watch it. It is fantastic. Uh what a what a fun thing.
SPEAKER_01Uh wild.
SPEAKER_03Uh when you watch that, are you impressed or terrified?
SPEAKER_01They're testing, they're testing stuff out. If it the goal, as with most artificial intelligence, like even with what people are doing in develops in developments of artificial intelligence, they're trying to replace us, Slim.
SPEAKER_00Are they?
SPEAKER_01These people already don't these people already don't have a robust theological anthropology. Uh-huh. So they're perfectly fine. Look, look, like like well, I mean, like actively. Like there is a if anybody doesn't know this, this is gonna sound, it's gonna sound crazy. There is basically a rel there's there's a group of people in in a religion.
SPEAKER_03A cabal called called it's called the No no, Malcolm's gone down the conspiracy. No, this is real. Oh gosh.
SPEAKER_00This is real.
SPEAKER_03Says every conspiracy theory.
SPEAKER_01This is an actual group of uh of most of whom are they mean in the basement of their pizza parlor, right? They call themselves the singularity. Okay. Of course they do. Right, right? But like, but this, but this is but but this is the thing, like they like these are people who have already begun in many ways to to worship the like artificial intelligence entity that that basically is being built. Because they're like, look, there's gonna come a point where we can just we can just pass on all like all of our like really big decisions that we want to make as human beings, we can pass it on to this greater intelligence.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, which essentially ends up functioning as a as a god. Um, a lot of the developments of this technology are I mean, a significant part of it is from our desire to be and to construct gods for ourselves. And like, and that's what that's one of the things that's pressing this forward. And so, like, even the ways that Sam that Sam Altman and others will talk about the ways in which this technology is like its actual purpose, like it's it's not that this is going to like in incidentally do away with a number of jobs, like these people are narrating it as though like that's actually the purpose of it. The purpose of it is to take away human work.
SPEAKER_03So that people can relax. That's bad, right? That's bad. Here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00Right, Malcolm?
SPEAKER_03Here's here's the Hey we we went from robots to AI.
SPEAKER_01If we weren't, if we weren't, if we But that, but that I mean I mean that's I mean that's what this that's what this that's what this is. And if it if this was paired with, hey, let's construct a different political economy where everybody has the resources in order to flourish, cool. But that's not the current political economy we live in. All these people are thinking about these are ways that we can become billionaires. Sure, like, yeah, like y'all might lose your jobs, but we're gonna make a whole bunch of money off of it. And we're and we're continuing to pour a whole bunch of money into it. Yeah, and it's and it's also kind of a con because they're calling for all of this investment. And then you look at the financial documents of these of these of these companies, and they are bleeding money.
SPEAKER_00They're bleeding money, their revenues in no way match up with the kinds of investments that are being constantly poured into them.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. No, that's absolutely right. But I was gonna ask. Anyway, have you seen Mitchell's versus the machines?
SPEAKER_00This is also, as you guys can tell, this is also our dynamics. We'll say things like this, and then I'll turn it super serious, and then we'll bring us back. Some really good points.
SPEAKER_03However, have you seen this really fun movie? It's like it's like the kids' version of Terminator, Mitchell's versus Machines. Have you not seen it? No, I haven't. Oh, yeah, your kids would love it. Yeah, it's great. It's great. But it's it's the same idea of the robots, and then they become self-aware and they take over all of that, right? Um, and so if that were the reality, like that movie and these movies, if we were living in that reality, which these robots can't they're right, they're sprinting around a track and they're tripping and falling and blowing up.
SPEAKER_00Um but they won't one day. Yeah, and give it give it about I mean two, two, three years.
SPEAKER_03At what point do you think realize you're in that reality? Like, do you ever think like people in those stories, you're like, at what point did someone go like, um pick me, uh hands in the air? Hey, uh can we can we pause this for a minute? At what point do we stop?
SPEAKER_01That's what Bill Gates tried to do a few days ago when he wrote this 6,000-word thing where he's like, hey, so you know, now the profit motives of the of this of this industry no longer drive me.
SPEAKER_00Um hey, maybe we should slow some of this down.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Maybe a little bit. Like it's similar to when um uh there was a point, uh, it was like four years or 50 years. When was when was George HW Bush president?
SPEAKER_03Uh 2000 uh he ended in 2008, right?
SPEAKER_01H HW HW Oh HW. Yeah, HW 94? That's back in I think so. Yeah, back uh ways ago.
SPEAKER_0392 to 96.
SPEAKER_01Uh because that was Clinton out. So anyway, but it was it was back ways ago.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And and and a bunch of energy company CEOs wrote a letter to the president and they basically said, We need you to regulate us because if you don't, we will likely destroy the environment.
unknownGosh.
SPEAKER_01Like self-awareness. Like well, but like honestly, because one of the things that they're saying is that like, look, the way that our economy is set up, we have to compete in order to survive. And if we continue that at that rate, it's going to just it's it's essentially going to destroy the world. And so, and so um and so it's interesting to see, you know, uh when we think about the regulation of particularly all this uh all this artificial intelligence stuff, like I mean, the government is not thinking about the government's thinking about, oh, think about the military applications, think about the surveillance applications, all this, all this kind of stuff. Yeah, they're not gonna self-regulate, they're not gonna self-regulate. No, that's not that's also not how any of us, like that's not how any of us work.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Especially in the face of billions and billions of dollars. And it's why would I cut that off?
SPEAKER_03And it's one thing to see robots tripping and falling. Every time I see an Amazon uh prime uh drone going over our city, I get so creeped out. I'm like, there are drones shooting up uh wars uh in Ukraine and Russia and in Iran and going, um hello? Like they probably look just like that.
SPEAKER_00They're just dropping off packaging too. Just dropping off packages.
SPEAKER_01Within an hour of ordering it on Amazon.
SPEAKER_03And all it takes is for someone to upload the software that says like, and I'm I'm guessing the drones probably have to be fitted with guns and things like that. But like you can use it for surveillance now though. But that's wild that and they also have another they have the their big argument about the AI where it's it they've now uh there's trying to regulate it, but there's there's pushback on it of of whether or not the AI can um make the decision to kill or not kill without human approval. And you're going, that this is this is it. This is Sarah Connor. We are Sarah Connor right now telling people stop, and everyone says we're crazy.
SPEAKER_01But we're not gonna but the other thing is we're not gonna slow down because what'll what what what will pop up is they'll be like, well, China's not slowing down, and if we want to be a global superpower, we gotta be like that. Like all this.
SPEAKER_03I don't want to be a global superpower.
SPEAKER_01Well, hey, uh sh unfortunately, uh the Empire does.
SPEAKER_03But another angle we could take with this robot uh com conversation, is there ever a point where the robot gets so real and so good at running and they put skin on it that you would say it's human?
SPEAKER_01No. I mean, obviously, obviously no. It's a soulless machine.
SPEAKER_03Like human skin.
SPEAKER_01So creepy. Called a skinwalker, is what we're called.
SPEAKER_03Um in completely different news.
A Head Cage And Habit Change
SPEAKER_03Yes. Um apparently humanity, because you know, we're great, we we invent these robots, but speaking of another invention, we've we've one man has invented a bizarre way to help people stop smoking. Okay. Um we have nicotine patches. Yep. We have gum, we have medication, we have vapes, which were originally supposed to help people stop smoking, but now they've got addicted to vaping. Good news, I don't smoke anymore, but I vape constantly. It's really bad for us. Um this man, uh let's see. Um a man in Turkey built a cage for his head to quit smoking. Yeah, it's like a it's like a chastity cage.
SPEAKER_04It's a chastity cage.
SPEAKER_03What is he? What do you think of it is a giant like ball around his head that's just a cage? Like uh you gotta eat? Like, is there a straw for that? I mean you would think a cigarette could go through it. Right.
SPEAKER_01That's hilarious.
SPEAKER_03But what what do you think? Do you think this is a good thing, a helpful thing? Um, what do you think of this approach to sin or to addiction?
SPEAKER_01It's the language of the language of chastity is is I think important. So like it's it's a uh, you know, if if the goal if the goal is abstinence, there is a way to like to force, to essentially force abstinence. Um it's like um So you're on board. You're on board with No, I'm sorry the the cage. I it it it can't be done. I mean, obviously that that's not the only that can't be the only intervention, but it is but it is helpful. Like if you if you want to stop, if you want to stop doing something, then and then like one of the ways to stop uh doing a thing is remove from yourself the ability to do that thing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, all right.
SPEAKER_01That is one way to fight it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um it is it is even more effective if you both remove the ability to do it and also the desire to do it. Um and and the and the only way it's like so it it's like even broadly the way I think about sinful, sinful habits. Like it's not it's not enough for us to just like stop doing bad things because the fact is the space that those bad things filled in us, that space is still that space is still gonna be there. Right. Um and so uh and so the question is like, okay, well then where where is that energy being uh being being replaced? Where is it being re where is it being refocused? Um because that it because because otherwise it can it it can just lead to just the building of frustr of of just frustration. Um because if that if if if that energy isn't isn't re isn't redirected, then it then it has nowhere to go and that and that often just leads to just leads to frustration.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It makes me think, like when I first saw it, I was you know, it's it's absurd, it's over over the guy's head, and it's it looks kind of pretty hardcore metal, and you're thinking um maybe a horror movie. But it made me uh my first thought was it made me think of the attempts uh people do to to to quit bad habits. Um you think of uh uh many guys have have gone through uh to try to to uh avoid pornography and use something like Covenant Eyes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there are plenty of apps.
SPEAKER_03Um and and other other things like this. And I just remember being uh what they one of those apps where you uh you get re uh reports from your your your your friends and one of my my my buddies in college had that and you know you get like a hey they checked out these sites. And so then now you're like hey man, uh just let you know I I I saw. Yeah and so that's a it's it's an odd thing. Um but it's like it's a it's a help trying to be a deterrent. But here's the thing I stopped getting those emails from the thing and I'm like, oh he's winning. He's winning at life. What do you think, Malcolm? What do you think happened?
SPEAKER_01He just deleted the he just deleted the app is probably what he deleted or found another way. Or found a way around it.
SPEAKER_03And that's where it's like, are these things really helpful? Because like it's like if you really want to do something, you're gonna find a way to do it to do it. And so that's kind of I've kind of had like a like a negative view towards those types of things, but at the same time, I'm like, but there is a point where when um something is so tempting, like you find ways to to run from that, especially with sexual sin. Like you want to run from it.
SPEAKER_01Which is which becomes harder and harder every day in this world. Yeah, because I mean, like the opportunities, the opportunities for sexual sin now, and the opportunities like 1500 years ago, or even just 200 years ago, even just 60 years ago, there's there are many more opportunities now than there were before the internet, and before the I mean, before the fact that I mean, people talk about why um, you know, why you you should also give like cell phones to kids much later is also because like in once they have access to the internet, they have access to some of the most depraved material that a human being could ever come into contact with. Um and thinking of kids, like how early they get exposure to pornography, like you get like the age numbers are like between like eight and ten. Like it's but it's because it's so it's so widespread. So like I said, the reason for those apps, I mean those, it's it's it's they're important to have, but but but but none of those things none of those things are are replacements for the actual cultivation of virtue.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but yeah, so I think that I think it's a maybe a good first step to um reduce exposure to begin with. Yeah. But you but that's a first step that many people will kind of lean like leave it at that. And then you gotta go into kind of reframing your mindset of like, hey, this stuff leads to death, and actually seeing as this stuff leads to death, or in this guy's case, you know, you know, lung cancer. Um saying, like, hey, this is actually bad for me. And not just like I uh I'm stopping myself from something I really want to do, because that craving will chill, unless you start saying, like, I want to crave something different. And yeah, I think that you gotta you gotta replace, as you said, replace that craving. So um but that was it was it was a funny thing that made me think about like the way we deal with you know spiritual temptations and uh other things like that. Um the the last thing I wanted to to bring up was oh my goodness. Um let me let me let me give everyone what we really the reason for this podcast.
ICE Arrests And Cruelty By Design
SPEAKER_03Dun dun dun. This now we enter into the terribleness. Oh dear. Um ICE has not gone away since Minnesota. I don't know if you know that. No, it hasn't. Um This is from KWTX, our local news. It says ICE has arrested nearly 50,000 people in July. The highest single monthly arrest total during the second Trump presidency. So we've we've arrested more people this last month than we ever had. And it it seems like since Minnesota, where Alex Pareti was shot and killed, where uh who was the other person that was killed there um by ICE? Um I should have had that names. Um but so ICE is is being killing. There was a killing in Houston, but but it seems like things have died down in terms of public and I think that's the point. It's happening underneath the rug. And so we had more deportations or more uh arrests, uh 50,000 people in July. And so it's it's not going away. It is is very present. And then uh this uh from uh David Beer says in August of 2026, so this this month, nearly 80% of ICE arrests had no criminal conviction. Nearly eighty percent of any kind. Fifty-five percent didn't even have a pending charge of any kind, and four percent were violent criminal convicts. And DHS promised all of this saying that they are going to go after the worst of the worst. No, they're not.
SPEAKER_01Because you can't you can't racially profile for the worst of the worst. That's not how this works. And and their primary work is largely through racial profiling.
SPEAKER_03It is. It is one hundred percent. They're they're They're going they had to like fight legally whether they could stop people big based on the color of skin. And so they're you're just you're seeing it's getting worse. And it's it's right here. It's not in Washington. This is right here in our backyard. Like goodness gracious. And then this is this is from um uh KWTX as well. US immigrations and customs enforcement has awarded a sixteen point seven million dollar contract to a purchase, I think it was a no-bid purchase uh contract, six thousand pairs of gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks, saying officers would use them to control detainees and protesters who resist. They're creating ways to enforce and to dehumanize people with electric gloves.
SPEAKER_01Love that.
SPEAKER_03I remember another government that invented ways to harm and deter criminals. That said, hey, let's come up with the most creative ways to deter people. Because that's what they're doing, right? Like the whole point I don't want to overstate this, but it it is very clear that cruelty is the point. That cruelty is the point to say, don't come here. Be afraid. Yep. You're not wanted. Yep. We are watching, and here's what can happen happen to you. Like it is unreal. Yep. And is it the worst of the worst? Clearly not. This is from uh Ruben Gallego. Ice just deported Liam Tadeo. He's a five-year-old kid. He cute little picture wearing a Texas longhorn shirt, which you know that's that that's a choice.
SPEAKER_01That is a choice.
SPEAKER_03But this five-year-old boy just got deported. Like unbelievable. And so what do we do when like the cruelty is the point? That's like ICE isn't that old. ICE is 23 years old. I know 23-year-olds that I think could still grow and and be better, right? You probably everyone here knows a 23-year-old that says, like, they're not a finished product. We can reform it. We can say this is not good. There used to be customs before. There used to be immigration stuff happening before ICE existed. And so I think what we have to think about as Christians in this time right now, of like, when cruelty is the point, what do we do? Like, I think first thing is we can't become cruel back. And that that that's hard. Like we we're not gonna win the dehumanization battle. No, absolutely not. That's that makes things worse. They also have all the power. But there was this author who has a really good book who talks about one of the ways we can we can fight back is through truth telling.
SPEAKER_01Malcolm, do you do you have somebody somebody write a book about that?
SPEAKER_03And I think I think in these moments you're like, yeah, this is part of it. It's telling the truth that this is wrong, this is harming people, and this has to stop. Right? I think that's like all we can do right now of saying prayer.
SPEAKER_01I think it's I think prayer is really so I this is something, and I keep tell I keep end up saying this in different in different contexts. So I'll say it on this, I'll say it on this, on this podcast. I think that um most of our anxiety existentially comes from the fact that we confuse the two categories of things that exist. There are two kinds of things that exist, things that I can control and things that I can't control that I can't control. And and and one of the basically the primary source of much of our anxiety is our is our confusion of those of those categories. Um the things that I cannot, the things that I cannot control are the things that I fall on that I fall on my face before the Lord in prayer about and hand over particularly to it to his hands. But they but the Lord has the Lord has also placed things in front of us that we actually can do something about. And he's like, focus your attention, focus your action, focus your focus your hands and your feet on those things because there's gonna be, especially now, we have access to everything that's happening in the world at all times. Um and it can, and that can be really, that can be a really overwhelming position for us to for us to be in. Um, especially when a lot of that is stuff that like we can't actually do anything about. But there are things that we can do something about. And the Lord is saying, hey, you I've I've called you to love me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourselves. That and that that's enough, that's enough work for you to do. And and and and especially when especially when a number of our neighbors are are are being made even more vulnerable by the state, that then that that that reminds us of our call. Fundamentally, like I said, our first our first priority is the is the love for all of our neighbors, brothers and sisters, and even those who present themselves as our enemies.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, I think this is uh this actually connects beautifully with what we're talking about today because we're we're gonna begin with the creed of we believe in one God, the Father Almighty. And I just want you know to connect that. That it's not it's not one God for Americans and one God for immigrants. It's one God for citizens, another for people without legal status. No, not one God for the powerful and one God for the vulnerable. It's one God. And that's what we're gonna be talking about here today. All
One God And The Trinity Tension
SPEAKER_03right, so if you uh missed last episode, I encourage you to go back and to uh listen in as we just kicked off our series on the Nicene Creed. And we talked about why Creeds and Nicene and all of that, and we began with just I believe. Um and the the Creed is it's not super long, uh, but it it is it's you know it's substantial. Uh and and I think it's uh uh high it's uh high intensity, it has a lot of stuff packed into it, and so we wanted to break it down into some bite-sized pieces. So you know it begins, we believe in one God, the Father Almighty. And that's the phrase we want to begin with uh today and to discuss today is one God, the Father Almighty. Um, you know, Christianity comes out of um Judaism, uh, and the fundamental uh confession uh for Israel is God is one. That's the Shema, Deuteronomy 6, 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Um Jesus repeats that basic confession. Um Jesus Christians started saying things like Jesus is Lord, Jesus is God, and now it's getting confusing. Wait, do we have another God?
SPEAKER_01We're gonna get there.
SPEAKER_03Um uh but Isaiah 44 says, I am the first, I am the last, besides me, there is no God. Uh 1 Corinthians 8, 6, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things and for whom uh for whom all things and for whom uh we exist. First Timothy 2, for there is one God, and there is one muting between God, man, the man, Christ Jesus. So it seems to be very clear, Malcolm, there is one God. Why do you say there is more than one?
SPEAKER_01I don't I I don't I don't I don't actually say there's more than one.
SPEAKER_03Why are you the way that you are?
SPEAKER_01If I did, I would be out of step with the entire historical Christian faith.
SPEAKER_03But there is a tension, isn't there? Because if you go back to uh Genesis 1-1, it says in the beginning, God, which is in Hebrew Elohim, which is the plural of gods. And you know, there is uh Exodus 20 uh 3 where it says you shall have no other gods before me. That's Elohim.
SPEAKER_01So Malcolm suggests that there would be other things vying.
SPEAKER_03As the one carrying the the torch for monotheism on this podcast.
SPEAKER_01I am as a Christian, it's what uh it's kind of a thing that Christians do.
SPEAKER_03How can you say there is one God and yet it begins with in the beginning, God's created the heavens and the earth?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, so it so then then we have to go, so I think the I think the I think I win.
SPEAKER_03I think I win.
SPEAKER_01No, I think the link to draw, I think the link to draw there is also to you know to kind of make it even more confusing, uh, in John, in John 1, where we were told that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was and the word was God. Um so like you like what however we think and this is and this is something, like I said, this this is the first centuries of the this is the first centuries of the church. And um, and and and what and what we had to affirm as Christians is that we are, we are, we are so okay. I think the reason why we affirm that we're monotheists is really is really important. And and and one of the fit and one of the best people to articulate this was uh St. Gregory of Nazianzis. So in the fourth century, you have three three of the most significant theologians in the history of the church are all friends with each other. Like at the same time, there is there is no century like the fourth century when it comes to the theology of the church.
SPEAKER_02It's like us having a podcast.
SPEAKER_01It's just like us having a podcast.
SPEAKER_02They probably had a pretty killer podcast.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, look, if Basil Caesarea, Gregory, Gregory miss out and Gregory Nezzian's and had a podcast, it would be insane. What would they call it?
SPEAKER_00What would they call the podcast?
SPEAKER_01I don't I I mean, I don't even know. Um Right in your suggestions. Yeah, yeah. But so but um, but in in his uh in his oration 29, this Gregory Venezia's uh oration 29, he's like, we have three we have three options when it comes to how we how we think about like opinions of how of how God would work. And those and those three those three options are um atheism, which which is the word anarchy, um, polytheism, which is the word poly polyarchy, or monotheism, which is where we get monarchy. Basically, either nobody's in charge, a bunch of people are in charge, or one per or uh or or or one or one is in is in charge. Um the one of the issues, one of the primary issues with both um anarchy and with polyarchy is that is that they're essentially uh the way that the way the Gregory argues is that they're essentially the same. Nobody's polyarchy is is is essentially anarchy. Um and what we're told, and and what we're told specifically from the scriptures, because really, really the main thing is the reason why we believe in one God, the Father Almighty, is because the scriptures tell us that there is one God. The scriptures tell us that there's one God, and and and from and from from from the revelation of Christ, we now have the opportunity to call that God Father. Because because because as we're also told in uh uh in John, that when we when we when we place our when we place our faith in Christ, we get to experience adoption. That is, we get to be adopted into God's family, such that we can call God Father in the in the sense that the Son of God calls calls God Father.
SPEAKER_03So I I like the the framing. Uh either polytheism or atheism are kind of two of the same thing, um, as as old old Greg um might argue. The father. Old Greg.
SPEAKER_01The theological. Let me read. Oh boy. I'll read I'll read a little bit of this text to you. So uh the opinions about God, and I'm I'm I'm um, yeah, I'll just I'll just read it. The opinions about God that hold pride of place are three in number anarchy, polyarchy, and monarchy. With the with the first two, the children of Greece amuse themselves. Let the game go on. Atheism or anarchy involves disorder. Polytheism, polyarchy, involves faction, and hence the and hence the absence of a governing principle. And this involves disorder again. Both lead to an to an identical result. Lack of order, which in turn leads to disintegration, disorder being the prelude to to to disintegration. Monarchy is what is what we value. Not not monarchy defined as a single person. After all, so here's here's an interesting point. He says, after all, self-discordant, a self-discordant one can become a plurality. So for an example, for you, like if when when we have disputes with ourselves, we can be, we can, we can be described, even as even as James says, we we can be described as as double-minded, as as being, you know, as going to and fro or whatever. But what what our monotheism is, is is is is single rule produced by equality of nature, harmony of will, identity of action, and the convergence toward their source of what springs from unity, none of which is possible in the case of created nature. So what he's what he's saying is that when we when we articulate the Trinity, we are we we are articulating a unity that is beyond any unity that even we could that even we could think of. A oneness that's beyond what we could or what or what we could imagine. Um and it's a and it's a oneness that is actually expressed in, expressed in diversity. That it's a it's a it's a unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that is a it's a it's a it's a oneness that, like I said, is deeper, is deeper that is really deeper than any oneness that we could that we could perceive of before. But that but one of the one of the reasons why we why we have to do, why we have why we have had to do this kind of thinking is because Jesus comes on the Jesus comes on the scene and claims to be God. And and he and he doesn't see that as like a competitive claim against the God of the oldest, against quote unquote the God of the Old Testament or whatever. Like he's like, no, no, like that's that's like we're we're talking about the same, we're talking about the same God. And people are like, that's really that's really confusing. And then he then starts talking about the Holy Spirit, as though the Holy Spirit is also God. And we're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I thought there's only one God. It's like, well, that we'll we'll get there. We're gonna get there. We're gonna get there.
SPEAKER_03But um and so when we say God, you you know, people could say um ultimate reality, um, that right there, trying to how do you describe God? Um we're talking about the ultimate thing upon which everything else depends. And so it makes sense to ask the question, um, are there multiple gods, or just you could say, are there two gods? Um, or is there one or is there none? Um and those are the it's good framing to have those kind of three categories. Um, but when you say there is multiple gods, um, and you say the plurality or in regards, we can think of like the Greek mythology with all of the warring that happens between the gods, and you think like Poseidon going against you know, um, whomever. I don't ever study all that. But like it's getting popular right now in like Disney movies that are like you know fun to watch or whatnot, uh Percy Jackson stuff. Yeah, but it's or recently talking about Odysseus and you know the Odyssey or whatnot. So there's a there's there's some stuff that's happening that I think we're wrestling with, and but you can see how it if there's multiple gods, then then who's actually in charge? Uh is there an ultimate reality?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're competing powers, competing loyalties, um and all of the mythologies, also all the mythologies that even um even when uh the texts of the old testament are being are being are being written, the religions of the ancient of the ancient Near East, when you look at the creation of the world and also the conception of the gods, like they're always infighting and stuff. And so and so that so when when when Jewish monotheism hits the hits the scene, it's in it's in many ways uh it's a it's a denial of those other of those other religious forms, but it's also saying it's like no like the the all the all all those other creation narratives, uh the world is created out of fighting and stuff. This God, he just speaks and it's done. Like that's that's how this the that's how this works. Um Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And I think going back to the what I was uh trying to uh play devil's advocate to begin with on you know the Genesis 1 passage of you know, in the beginning, God or gods, Elohim created the earth. I I do think some people argue that that's you know the first uh you know connection with the Trinity. Uh and and maybe that's what is being written there um of Elohim. So you have the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, but we also don't believe that God is it's one God, not multiple gods. Um and so I I think that's probably more of the the royal we um as like a kingly court referring to that in in this re w way of describing it. And so you know Psalm 82 says God Elohim has taken his place in the divine council. And I think there's like the way of seeing in the midst, and then says then the next verse says, or the next part of that verse says, in the midst of the gods, Elohim, he holds judgment. And so you have it singular and plural in the same uh in the same thing.
SPEAKER_01So you yeah, uh you should you shouldn't uh you shouldn't you shouldn't have pulled out that that text because that's that's one of the uh let's see. Uh is that the text that yes, that is that is that is the text. Um so this is the this is this is the psalm that uh Jesus quotes um and uh in in referring to uh basically he he's he's he he's like the the the ones who are in view here are actual human beings whom whom who are who are called gods. And so for so so for the history of the church, especially our Greek, especially our Greek brothers and sisters, this is this is one of the texts that is pointed back to when we think of uh Christian salvation as deification. So when people will use the language of the Son of God became man so that man might become God, this is this is actually one of the this is actually one of the texts that they'll that they'll that they'll come back to. That that that that God's that um uh and actually um my guy uh uh Nicholas uh Kabacillas will say that that that basically uh in the new in the new heavens and new earth uh one could describe like what it will be is it will be God got God among the among the gods where where where we because of our because of our participation in the in the triune God will actually be able to be called gods. So like all that's to say, all that also comes from all of that also comes comes from the historical interpretation of Psalm of Psalm 82. Yeah. Um but anyway. Sounds good. Sounds good.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we can't wait for that book.
SPEAKER_01Oh man. Oh what the Lord has prepared for us.
SPEAKER_03Anyway, so it makes sense. I think when we ask the question, like, why is this so important to be one of the first things that the um the creed affirms that we believe in one God? Oh god. Um, I think it's also helpful to see it in the sense of like this actually establishes that there is truth, that there is not like, oh, you see your truth and my truth, and that's very postmodern. But if you were to take it more in the the multiple gods realm, you're like, well, this God sees it this way, and this God sees it this way, and truth cons consistently is getting um positioned by who who holds that, and so you actually have absolute truth. It's not determined by the knower by which god you follow. The if that's true, then the only thing you can know is is your angle on things. You can't actually know anything outside of yourself. And so I think this is important for us to be able to go like just like logically, uh philosophically, to have one set truth that's this is how the world works. Um it makes me think of you know, some people when they they try to have more of a pluralistic uh way towards salvation, um, kind of view of it, like you know, there are many paths up the mountain to the top. You just gotta pick the your path. Um that you know, all systems are equal, all cultures are equal, all religions, all people, all uh you know, like we would say you know, people and cultures. Um good and bad in each culture, but like all people are equal.
SPEAKER_01But insofar as they involve claims, especially when they have contradictory claims, they can't both be true at two things, two two opposite things can't they can't two things that are up two things that are opposite in a uh um uh in a specific sense cannot be true at the same time. They cannot be true at the same time.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And so this is where um I actually uh we wanna we wanna we wanna push truth regardless of where it comes, uh champion it and then critique it if it's uh being threatened. Um and so there's a there's a there's a gentleman that you and I uh seem to um think he's a he he could be a he could be a he could be a good candidate um here in Texas. Um our our our our b our buddy J James Tallerico. He's got this this uh he he made he was fame uh made famous, not from this, but he famously said this uh back in twenty twenty-four. Listen it. Why is my sound not doing it? Oh no. Oh no. Get it together, son. Okay, well he famously said Christians and Muslims and Jews all worship the Same God. Um and do you want to talk about this? Well, we're saying we believe in one God, and great. There we go. He's he's right. We believe in one God.
SPEAKER_01We do.
SPEAKER_03Christians and Muslims and Jews all believe in one God. And so we do.
SPEAKER_01That is true.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. We all refer to that God.
SPEAKER_01We do all believe in one God. I can say. But is the same God? That's a different question. It is, it is, it is 100% true that we all we all believe in one God.
SPEAKER_03And he did, he did was clear to Mega that Christians, Muslims, and Jews.
SPEAKER_01Those are the three monotheistic. Those are the three Abrahamic and monotheistic relations.
SPEAKER_03And so there's there's the connection there. But I wouldn't I would not, and I don't think he is, but I you know No, he might be. Can't maybe is. Um in that like they all lead all roads lead to the same top of the mountain type thing. But if if that's true, like think of a a nat like, oh sure, if if the mountain roads are fine, but if you actually go down like that that uh analogy, if you were to like go down or go along a path and you see like, oh, the only way to cross this this brid is to across this gat chasm is through this bridge, and you're saying, you know, take whatever road you want. You're like, yeah, but you gotta go through this one path to cross this bridge to get over this waterfall or whatnot. You're like, there really is one path that that that has been held that has been made. And so if I told you every path is fine, I've actually told you something incorrect and potentially harmful for you to get up this mountain. I I think this is just like the the logic of that you you can't have multiple paths to God. You can't have this is where the second Timothy, there is one God, one meeting between God, man and the man Christ Jesus. Right. Yeah. And so I think we need to be able to profess this and I also at the same time Christians, please do this with humility. Because you can be like, yeah, Slim, that's I like it. Let's go, let's let's let's tell everyone how how wrong they are in in their that they don't they don't have the right view of God. No, but oh my gosh. Right when G right when Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ, Peter cut uh Jesus comes back to Peter and says, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona. And then he says, For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by Father in heaven. He reminds him, you didn't get that information on your own. Yeah. This was grace that it was given to you. And so I think that's important. Yeah. But last thing, another way of seeing this, you know, kind of guess goes into what we just talked about here. How do you feel about the unitary view?
SPEAKER_01You know, the you know the denial, the act of denial of the Trinity. If we're talking about that? Being unitarian? No, absolutely not.
SPEAKER_03Um because it'd be one God, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it it it would.
SPEAKER_03Although it almost makes everything God.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, there is a way to there is a way for that to turn into to pantheism. But but but but but but here's the other here's the other here's the other element. Like, and why the church was so insistent on affirming the divinity of Christ is because of their understanding of salvation. And this is and this is something that that also Gregory of Nazianzas presses, where he's like, it the only way the only what what what we're essentially told in the gospel is that the only way for us to really be healed is for Christ to take up everything, everything that is ours. And so, um, and but it's also really important that he do so as God. So it's why it's really important that when that we affirm that what that when we see Jesus in the gospels, like we're looking at God. Um and and the and the and the thing about it is is that if we for for a number of and this is and this was this was what this what this debate was largely about, and I mentioned this at our uh uh in our last podcast, one of one of the things that that Arius was really concerned with was maintaining a particular kind of monotheism where the father is the only, the only unbegotten one, the only eternal, the only, only, only, only, only, only, because he was really, really focused on a particular kind of monotheism. And the and and and the and the way that the church responded, especially in Athanasius, the way the church responded is like, well, look, love all that stuff, but also Jesus. Because it's really, really important that we affirm that as true as those things are of the Father, those things are also true of the Son. Because what the because what the ministry of the Son is, is to bring us into relationship with the Father. And no creature, no creature could do that for us. Only God could do that for us. And what and what we see in the good news of the gospel is that God found this brilliant way to be both God and human, fully and completely, both of those things in order to bring us up to where he is. And and and and and if we and if we flatten, if we if we flatten those kinds of distinctions, then what we also flatten is our is our is our vision of what of what salvation, of what salvation really is. And that's the other thing that comes, it comes throughout, like throughout the creed. I think it's important that we remember that that these things are not just obscure theological conversations that people are having. The the what lies at base in each of these claims is this is who God and this is who God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are in order to in order to save us. Like this is not just some, like I said, it's not just some obscure philosophical set of conversations. They're like God God has shown us these things about Himself so that He can reveal to us what what salvation looks like and what and what our also what our futures are gonna look like. So that's good.
SPEAKER_03That's good. All right.
Calling God Father Without Gendering God
SPEAKER_03Um, let's shift over to the Father Almighty.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because uh Almighty. This is good. This is Father.
SPEAKER_03Uh, it can be a loaded word. Um for some it communicates safety, love, protection. Uh, and for others it could be uh absence, disappointment, abuse, control, or fear. And so when Christians call God Father, uh, we are careful not to pretend that everyone hears that word the same way. Um but we shouldn't throw that word away because Jesus uses that language. It says, our father in heaven, right?
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm. Um and abuse does not remove use. Just because there are bad fathers doesn't mean that the being a father is a bad thing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Malcolm's gonna coin that phrase, and that's gonna be something we we we probably need to like press a button for what abuse does not negate use. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's an old Latin phrase.
SPEAKER_01Abuse is non-not toletum. But yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um but uh also throughout the New Testament, God is repeatedly described as father, and um, and so God is father, yeah, and yet we need to recognize that God is literally not a biological male. Right. Because we we say that God is spirit, correct? That God doesn't have a body um that is gendered. And so here I I said where I critiqued uh James Tallerico, here's where I actually agree with him that he says God is non-binary. I don't know if that's all what he means, but I mean that is what he means. Yeah, that's he may have been uh provocative in that way.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's just a way to be provocative.
SPEAKER_03But he's he's emphasizing that God is not a gender, God is spirit, right? And um all throughout the the scriptures, there's also references to God as uh as a woman, right? That that that God is compared to a woman in labor. Yeah, there's there's a mother comforting her child, fair amount of femininess, gathering her chicks. Um this is Isaiah 66, as a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. Uh this is Isaiah 49. Can a woman forget her nursing child or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. And so there is considerable amount of feminist theology. Um, this is from Mary Daly, who says, if God is male, then male is God. Uh I think she's arguing that that can't be the case. Um and um you quoted uh Ariana Grande uh on Sunday. Did you know she has a song called God is a Woman? I listened to it this morning out of curiosity. It's not bad. It uh it definitely hits. Uh it seems like she's more talking about how someone sees her or another woman as as in a godlike figure. I don't think she's making that theological argument. I could be wrong.
SPEAKER_00No, I don't know.
SPEAKER_03I'm just Julian of Norwich, uh-huh, uh, who the Catholic Church calls the doctor of the church, did claim in her book Revelations of Divine Love, says, it is a characteristic of God to overcome evil with good. Jesus Christ, therefore, who himself overcome evil with good, is our true mother. We received our being from him, and this is where his maternity starts. And with it comes the gentle protection and guard of love, which will never cease to surround us. Just as God is our father, so God is also our mother. So, how do you how do you feel like we can we interchange mother with father here? And we have to just go ahead and and and state that we we realize we are two dudes talking about this on this podcast.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um go I mean, you know, I think I think the language that we use about the Lord I think I think it's important that what guides the way that we think about the language that we use for the Lord is not what am I most comfortable with, but how has God revealed himself. And I use him, like I said, I just I use that as a as a matter of um uh as a matter of convention, um not to ascribe maleness to God, except except to ascribe it to Christ as a as a human male. Um but but I think um I think you you you can you can do you you you can do you can do either either of those things, but when I think about the way that we are called to pray to the Lord and the way that um and all those kinds of things, like we're given a we're given a structure and we're given and we're given ways to refer. Like like we're given it's specifically in prayer, like ways to refer to God. And so I see it particularly as an act of obedience to the Lord to refer to the Lord in the way that the Lord asks to be referred, tells us to refer to him. So like that doesn't that that that does not negate all of these other all these other insights. It also doesn't, um it also doesn't negate the ways in which that can be and has been used to oppress. Those things are still wrong, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to refer to God in the way that God has told us to refer to God. Um and so that's that's that's I think when I when I when I when I think about those things, that's that's that's what I want to do. I mean, like there there is so much in the kind of masculine and feminine imagery of the scriptures that is uh there are a number of theologians who have worked with that beautifully. So like so like for example, you know, uh uh Simeon the new the new theologian, um, and by new we mean like he's a monk in the 11th century. Um but but but he will refer to and other other folks will do this too, he'll refer to all like all believers as as possible like as possible mothers of Christ, in the sense that um uh in Galatians, when Paul talks to the yeah, when Paul talks to Paul talks to the Galatians, he is he is he is awaiting Christ, he wants Christ to be formed in them. To use the language, like like using that language of gestation, uh something that only happens in a mother, but that's something that we want to happen in each and every one of us. And so there's a like there's a fluidity to gendered, to kind of gendered language, particularly in the particularly in the uh uh in the scriptures, I think, because ultimately, um, you know, in that and I could I could take this from from Maximus the Confessor, like ultimately that that division, it's it's like it's like what we're told by Paul that in Christ there's no slave nor free, Jew nor Gentile, male, uh uh, male nor female. Like there are there are there are ways in which those those divisions will be will be overcome. And also there are ways where in that where in the church now, those those div that that that division is not like that's not a hierarchy of power or any of those things in the church. At least it ought, at least it ought not be. Um those there are there are ways in which in Christ those those divisions are to be are to be overcome. So there's so so there's a so there's a so there can be kind kind of a flexibility with some of that language, but I but but the virtue is not in that flexibility. The ver where where virtue is is I want us to think about it in terms of obedience. So if God has if God has told us to refer to God in particular ways, that like that's what that's that's what we should, that's I think what we should do.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I mean I I I lean that way. Um I because I I think that's the safe place to be. But I'm I'm trying to um put myself in uh you know woman's shoes to be able to say like hey, this connects and I'm able to hear um God um the love for me in a very different way when I see God, as scripture has described in in these these feminine ways, um you know, as a mother hen or whatnot. Um and so I'm like and again scripture referred to God this way, so I don't think it's it's wrong to be able to like go like lean into those uh images and illustrations to be able to say that. Um you know scripture also refers to God as as a shepherd, as a king, um, as a rock, um, as fire, um, as a as we sort of just read here, an eagle or hen. Um and yet I would not refer to God as a rock or eagle or hen, um but I would I would say God's king, uh which it's just in interesting to think about like what and what i illustrations or analogies we're saying is okay and what's not. Um but this is where I think it's okay to think of these th in this way, but how do I refer to God? I think that's where um it it's important to say that you know, naming God is actually important because naming God is actually you know, it shapes our language, it shapes our thinking, our behavior. Um and if God reveals himself as father, even though he may not be you know, if has a physical body here, I just think that's that's a that's the the the furthest we can go, right? Um and so I don't want to spend it only on the contrast between father versus mother. Um if if God said you know if Jesus said mother in this way, I think we would be okay with that. It's like it's we're following Jesus' lead here. You know, our father or our mother who are in heaven, right? Like I I would follow Jesus' lead if that's how it went.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um but you know, Father, why you why have you forsaken me? Um these these passages. Um but so just to now to to distinguish not just you know what makes it different than you know from but why does he choose father um if he is not gendered? Why does God begin with um you know or why does it the creed begin with, you know, what we believe in one God, uh Father Almighty. And I think I think because yes, we we'll get to the Trinity stuff, but I think fatherhood communicates a a relationship, right? It communicates the that you know God's relationship primarily with Jesus, um, but also with us. And so I think that is something important for us to be able to emphasize that we're not just talking about a force um or an you know you know some people talk about like well the universe you know brought this to me or this ultimate consciousness. No, that you actually have a relationship. Father tells us that that reality, this ultimate reality is personal. And it's not just personal in the sense of like having thoughts, but someone you can talk to and someone who cares for you. And so I think fatherhood communicates that. Um it also does communicate um origin, I think, in that in that sense, that that the source uh as father as you know, not we're not talking about like male authority, but we're talking about like the relationship of you know the father you know being the source that ultimately will get there with that the father begets the son. And so I think that's part of that. I think every thoughts on why why would God refer you would use that word?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, I mean that it's the I mean because that's the that's also the context in which it comes up as is the language of of uh of begetting. Um and uh yeah, I mean uh uh Gregory and Asianzis um basically plays out that uh part of it is like in order to be born like in order to be born as a in order to be born as a human being, Christ had to have a human mother. He doesn't have a human father. He he only has one real father and one real mother, uh, which is which is fascinating. But it's like but it's but it's like even that uh um oh how to describe what that is. Oh, I don't have a word for it. But anyway, it's fine. It's fine, it's whatever. Um but but but but it's a it's a term of it's a term of of yes, both, of yes, both intimacy and also in you know in that in that particular society, it's also a term uh of inheritance as well. So so this is so this is why it's important to me that for all of us as believers that we see ourselves as sons of as sons of God, whether we are male or female. Because what that image, because what that image suggests is that you know, Christ gets the privileges of the firstborn son, which given that given that society, like that's that's the one who gets the privileges. What Christ then invites all of us into is the is the relationship that a father has with his firstborn son, which is you get everything. If something happens to the father, everything you get, you get everything.
SPEAKER_03We're talking about an inheritance, inheritance sonship.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And so, and so whenever we use the the the theological uh ideas of adoption, like and all that, like and and all those kinds of things, all of those images actually work together, work together in a matrix for the for the Lord to communicate with us how how much he actually wants to share, to share with us. Um and so as much as as much as there may be other things that may be important to us or whatever, part of this is when we read the scriptures, what what is it that God wants to communicate with with us through those names? Because there because there are things that like like we could hear those words and hear all kinds of stuff. But the primary thing that we need to think about when we encounter the scriptures is when we encounter these names in the scriptures, what is it that God is trying to tell us about God's self? That's the most important thing for us to ask.
SPEAKER_03And
Father Almighty And Trinity Unity
SPEAKER_03then to close, it's it says we believe in one God, the Father.
SPEAKER_01Almighty.
SPEAKER_03Almighty. And I think my my take on why Almighty is the the first um you know what's the word? Adverb there um would be father communicates come close. The intimacy that we have that you you you have all of my love, you have my all of my inheritance. Almighty communicates communicates you cannot possibly comprehend the power of this king. Like Almighty. So it's like one's close, one's far away. It's that you know, both and here, and I think the creed puts them all together.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I love it. Any other any other thoughts?
SPEAKER_01Uh let's see. Yeah, so here's okay, uh, and this is a slight distinction between uh Western and Eastern theology. Um the ground of the Trinity according to so okay, so so if you were to ask some of our brothers and sisters in the in the West, uh, what is it that makes God one? Some might answer that it is the oneness of the divine nature. So the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all share the same nature. That's the oneness, that's the oneness of God. If we would ask our brothers and sisters in the East, they would they they would answer what the creed says, that when we have that that the oneness of God is is rooted in that the is actually rooted in the person of the is actually rooted in the person of the Father. That is that the Son, the Son is begotten, it's begotten from the Father, the the the Spirit proceeds from the Father. But if one but but if one asks about kind of the uh the the the oneness of the oneness of God, it is it's rooted in it's rooted in the monarchy of the Father. Now, that that that does not that that that does not place relationships of subordination or whatever within the Trinity. All it's all it says is that if you want, if you want to, if you want to point to what is it that unites, what is it that unites the Trinity, um, they would say it's in, it's in the it's in the person, it's in the person of the Father. So when so in saying one God, the Father Almighty, that's not saying that the Son is not God, and it's not saying that the Holy Spirit is not is not God. What it's saying is that if you're looking for quote unquote the source, the source of the the source of the Trinity, it is it is the it is the Father. Um and and everyone's goal, the Son's goal and the Holy Spirit's goal is ultimately to point all of us to the Father, too. So like so that's so that's where they take that from too. Like there's just like scripturally, every each of the each of the other persons of the Trinity all point back to the Father. And so, and so that's that's then it's the ground of their unity, and it's also the ground, it's all it's it's also the ground of our unity. So that's so that's I that's I think an important point to make too. Why it's that and and why Paul will even say like we have one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ. That that that's the language that is that's specifically uh mirrored in the creed as well. Yeah um so yeah, so that's that's I that's that's important too.
SPEAKER_03Good. It's
Closing Thoughts And Listener Requests
SPEAKER_03good. Well, we we hope you're enjoying uh this this series as we go through the Nicene Creed. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, next week, the maker of heaven and earth of all things visible and invisible. Oh yeah. Oh man. So until next time. Keep asking questions. Keep pulling the pieces apart. Look at the creed and let us know if you have questions about it. Um, yeah, we want you to pull it apart, disentangle it. Let's put it back together together, though. We wanna we help rebuild the faith, not tear it apart.
SPEAKER_01Amen.
SPEAKER_03Uh so shoot your questions. Hello at theologypieces.com. Uh you can find us on the Instagram on the on the Twitter.
SPEAKER_01That is possible. Not on the Twitter. I mean, I'm not on the Twitter anymore, but Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I'm you know I'm once a week, it seems.
SPEAKER_01Uh I'm gonna be on Substack soon. I am gonna like actually be on Substack. So that's coming.
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