general

• The Bible does not mention the Trinity directly, but the concept is shown in stories such as Jesus’ baptism and in John’s Gospel.
• St Augustine helped describe the Trinity using the analogy of love (Lover, Loved and Love itself).
• Orthodox Jews may argue that the belief in the Trinity challenges the first commandment “You shall have no gods before me”. A belief in the Trinity would break the covenant that God made with Abraham and Moses.
• St Paul wrote the Kenosis hymn. Kenosis means ‘empty’ and shows that God gave up his power to become human in Jesus.
• Jews reject the belief that Jesus is the Messiah because they believe that the Messiah will be a human descendant of King David
• ORIGINAL SIN – God created a perfect world. Adam and Eve went against God. This introduced pain and suffering into the world. We all have Original Sin, the tendency to go against God.
• AUGUSTINE’S VIEW - God made a perfect world. Fallen angels caused chaos in nature which brought natural evil into the world and Adam & Eve brought moral evil.
• Catholics believe that free will is a gift from God.