Definite Article Theology: The Trinity and the Trichotomy of Man I'm thinking of a particular individual that denies the Triunity of God and is a soul sleeper. Actually, my uncle also denies the deity of Christ and is a soul sleeper, though I dont think they like that term. I wonder if there is a connection between denying the Triunity of God and denying the Trichotomy of man, which leads to the view that in totality we sleep in the graves until the coming of Christ. It is also interesting that a particular Christian owner moderator would team up with a person that denied the Trinity of God and the Trichotomy of man to debate pretribbers. He wouldn't even find out whether one was saved before debating pretribbers concerning eschatology. Looks like screwed up priorities to me. Anyhow lets first look at the Triunity of God. I could expound on many scriptures regarding the deity of Christ and the Triunity of God. (Genesis 1:26; Isaiah 48:16; John 1; Revelation 1:7,8 with Rev. 22:12,13 ; Proverbs 8:22-31; Hebrews 1; Colossians 1:15-17; Acts 13:2; Acts 5:4), but my purpose here is to show how the definite article (The), plays a role in proving the Triunity of God. Obviously, THE man is more distinct than man or a man. This is one of the purposes of the definite article in the greek. In Matthew it says: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name OF THE Father, and OF THE Son, and OF THE Holy Ghost: " (Matthew 28) Now the modalists want us to think that these three are the same person and that the name of Jesus sums up these three, that Jesus prays to himself in the Garden, asks himself why he forsook himself...It gets real silly when you think about what they are saying. No wonder these folks are schizoid in their behaviour, they believe in a schizophrenic God. But if that was the case the scripture would have said, In the name of the father, son and holy Ghost. A definite article, tou separates each person mentioned in Matthew: name OF THE Father, and OF THE Son, and OF THE Holy Ghost. This is significant and if God meant it the way the modalists and the other heretics meant it, three definite articles would not have separated the three. Is this important? Yes, how you view God determines how you view man and salvation. How one views the nature of God and man influences their view of salvation. Concerning salvation the scriptures say: We were saved 'And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.' (Revelation 13) We were saved before the world, according to the Father: 'For whom HE did foreknow, he also did PREDESTINATE to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.' (Romans 8) We were saved when WE believed: 'He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.' (John 3:18) Our SOULS are saved/sanctified when we receive the word and walk with him: 'Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your SOULS.' Now if you don't understand or are apathetic toward the Triunity of God and the Trichotomy of man, these scriptures will confuse you and make you into a very insecure individual. So understanding the Triunity of God and the trichotomy of man clarifies the Who, When, What person of God and part of man these scriptures are referring to in relation to the salvation process. If you were to take a poll of those that denied the Triunity of God you would find that the majority also have a messed up view of salvation, never spiritually secure in their faith. If one doesn't FIRST understand the Three Persons in God, The Three parts of Man, the Two Programs in place, they cannot understand the other things. There are other examples of how ones view of God affects their view of everything else, but that will do for now. Now for the Trichotomy of man. In my earlier days my soul sleeping Uncle used Genesis 2:7 against me to defend his view of the makeup of man. It says, 'And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a LIVING SOUL.' (Genesis 2:7) He pointed out that before the 'breath of life' man was a dead soul. At the time he stumped me. Since then I have found the answer. The word soul in the Hebrew is Nephesh and is speaking of the whole of man. (Genesis 1:26) In the NT soul in Greek is psuche and means a part of man. So one has to see what happens to mans parts upon death to understand the nature of the afterlife. So lets get back to the definite article: "23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. " (1 Thess. 5:) Notice that in the greek the body soul and spirit are separated by definite articles: The definite articles in greek separate the three parts of man, though most translations don't reflect these articles but they are there. This means that the body and the soul and the spirit are three parts of man and not the same. Notice that the verse following the three parts of man is a verse which reflects our security in Him and His faithfulness. Just like in the Granville Sharpe rule that I mentioned in a previous message, if the body soul and spirit were the same, only one article would have been used. This directly affects what we think happens at death. Those stuck in the OT and that have not properly graduated to the New, have views similar to OT Jews. If one looks only at OT scriptures regarding the nature of God and man, they might easily be confused and though the OT doesn't contradict the NT, the New Testament clarifies the Old. "The Old Conceals, the New Reveals." This is why those that deny the Trinity, believe in soul sleep, observe the sabbath, or believe in a works oriented salvation....often sound like the Jews of Old that didn't have the Rrrrrrrrrrrrrest of the Story. BJ Maxwell