Puritan Corner - Prayer Opens & Shuts

"Prayer keeps the heart open to God -- but shut to sin."

by Thomas Watson (1626-1686)
For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. 1Timothy 4:5

Spurgeon on the Divinity of Christ

The mighty God. Isaiah 9:6


"The term here used for God, El, is taken from a Hebrew or root, which, as I take it, signifies strength; and perhaps a literal translation even of that title might be, "The Strong one," the strong God. 

But there is added to this an adjective in the Hebrew, expressive of mightiness, and the two taken together express the omnipotence of Christ, His real deity and His omnipotence, as standing first and foremost among the attributes which the prophet beheld.

First let note point out THE FOLLY OF THOSE WHO PROFESS TO BE THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, YET DO NOT, AND WILL, NOT, CALL HIM GOD. 

---We do continually affirm that an error, with regard to the divinity

of Christ, is absolutely fatal, and that a man cannot be right in his judgment upon any part of the gospel unless he think rightly of him who is personally the very center of all the purposes of heaven, and the foundation of all the hopes of earth.

The Unitarians must, to be existent, charge the whole of us, who worship Christ, with being idolators. Now idolatry is a sin of the most heinous character;
--You have so insulted us by denying the Godhead of Christ, you have charged us with so great a crime, that you cannot expect us to sit coolly down and blandly smile at the imputation. 

If Christ were not the Son of God, His death, so far from being a satisfaction for sin, was a death most richly and righteously deserved. The Sanhedrim before which He was tried was the recognized and authorized legislature of the country. 

--He was brought before that Sanhedrim, charged with blasphemy, and it was upon that charge that they condemned him to die, because he made himself the Son of God.

We will write this on the forefront of our banner, —Christ is God; co-equal and co-eternal with His Father; very God of very God, who counted it not robbery to be equal with God." 

Charles Spurgeon

IN the NEWS - Schooling this Jesuit Priest on the Antichrist

"Jesuit Father Thomas Reese has asserted that Donald Trump is a true figure of the antichrist.

“If we compare the Gospel message with that of Trump and other authoritarian leaders, we can only conclude that he and they are antichrists,” Father Reese wrote for the leftwing Religion News Service (RNS) this week.
In 2020, Father Reese stumped for Joe Biden, urging his fellow

Catholics to join the “grassroots” group “Catholics for Biden.”
The launch event sought to “engage Catholic voters” and whip up enthusiasm for the Biden-Harris ticket.
Father Reese also attempted to convince Catholics that it is okay to vote for Catholic candidates who openly flout Church teaching on issues such as abortion.

“A Catholic Democrat might feel impelled to vote for Biden despite his position on abortion and gay marriage because of other morally grave reasons, for example, his positions on racism, immigration, global warming and COVID-19,” Reese argued." Breitbart

*So, this Jesuit thinks that people should vote for those who actively and proudly promote in the public arena SNUFFING OUT BEATING HEARTS THAT HAVENS'T YET SINNED and those who actively embrace with bravado a SIN of the LGBT movement that God labels ab ABOMINATION and the Apostle Paul yells us was the 3rd of three steps in the world's apostasy from God? (Rom.1)?

Q: Why does he project onto others what his side does? What did Trump do that was truly "authoritarian"? 

I can name things Biden has done that are: for starters proposing last year, but then backing down, his own Ministry of Truth Comrade, to regulate Free Speech in America. Or weaponizing the Government against his opponents like a banana republic.

1) As to "racism"--the "racism" sprouts out today from the very side of the political spectrum that this Jesuit wants people to vote for--the ones who make a living off of PICKING AT THE SCABS OF THE PAST so as to keep a voting block living in the past in anger on their political plantation -- same party that kept blacks on cotton plantations before the Civil War.

2) When he says "immigration" he actually means ILLEGAL IMMIGTARION. They are two separate things for words mean things. IF those who identify with the Christian label, who violate our immigration laws to come here, were following Scripture they would know that it teaches to OBEY THE LAWS OF MAN unless they tell you to break God's Law.

3) "Global Warming"? Why am I not surprised this Jesuit is into the CLIMATE CHANGE CULT and seeks to preach the GREEN GOSPEL rather than the Biblical Gospel?

4) As to "COVID-19" does he mean the FALSE NARRATIVES that were peddled about Lockdowns that didn't work, masking that was only 3% effective (even Fauci finally admitted on CNN earlier this year they were only 3-10% effective), and a COVID RNA based vax that doesn't really work after all, unlike DNA based vaxes that have been working since the rabies's vax in the 1800's!

NO, TRUMP IS NOT, NOR CANNOT BE THE ANTICHRIST, for the antichrist is a Spiritual / Religious power that cast the Sanctuary Truth to the ground, [and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.... to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? Dan. 8:12,13] blasphemed them the dwell in heaven (meaning the Godhead) like someone claiming to be the "Holy Father" in Rome [And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. Rev.13:6] and is an institution that stretches from Pagan Rome to the end of time [I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things....But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. Dan.7:8,26].....just saying Mr. Reese....

Creation Moment 11/30/2023 - 20 Failed Evolutionary Biological Claims SERIES: COMPLEXITY

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men...
1 Corinthians 1:25

"Prediction: genes are linear, where a control sequence will be next to the gene controlled, and others genes involved in the same

biochemical pathway will be next on the DNA strand (the lac operon in E.coli is like this). 

However, genes in eukaryotes such as humans are divided into exons that are separated by stretches of DNA called introns. Different exons combine in modular fashion for multiple different functions. In humans, exons from up to different genes on as many as 14 different chromosomes combine to code for the sequence for a specific protein. Furthermore, gene control often comes ‘from afar’, a long way from the gene involved, even located on a different chromosome.

However, the controls often turn out to be close to each other because of the 3D-arrangement of the chromosomes, also controlled by DNA coding. 

These discoveries of stupendous complexity go against evolutionary expectations." 

CMI

SIMPLIFYING ADVENTISM: Mission, Cornerstone Doctrine, Identifying Mark & Unique Characteristic of SDA Chruch Through the Prism of Sola Scriptura

 

SIMPLIFYING ADVENTISM: 

Mission, Cornerstone Doctrine, 

 Identifying Mark & 

Unique Characteristic of SDA Chruch 

Through the Prism of Sola Scriptura 

Sola Scriptura (Latin for 'by Scripture alone')

The MISSION of the SDA Church is the 3 Angel's Messages:

[Last Call To The World]
1) And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, 

Saying with a loud voice, 

Fear God, and give glory to Him; 

for the hour of His judgment is come: 

and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, 

and the sea, and the fountains of waters. 

2) And there followed another angel, saying, 

Babylon is fallen, is fallen,....

3) And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, 

If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; ...

*And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, 

Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, 

and is become the habitation of devils, 

and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird....., 

Come out of her, My people, 

that ye be not partakers of her sins, 

and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Revelation 14:6-10/18:2,10

The Cornerstone DOCTRINE of the SDA Church is the SANCTUARY DOCTRINE:

[From the SYMBOLISM of the Earthly Sanctuary to the REALITY of the Heavenly Sanctuary]
And he said unto me, 

Unto two thousand and three hundred days; (years)

then shall the sanctuary be cleansed....

*We have such an high priest, 

who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; 

*A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, 

which the Lord pitched, and not man. 

1) Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. 

--For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. 

--And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold,..

--Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. 

--But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: 

2) But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

--For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 

--much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?... but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 

-**-And as it is appointed unto men once to die, 

but after this the judgment:

Daniel 8:14/Hebrews 8:1,2/9:1-4.6,7,11-14,26,27

The IDENTIFYING MARK of the SDA Church is the 7th Day SABBATH:

[The Seal of His Law that Identifies Him as Creator -- and therefore as God]
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy 

Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: 

*But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: 

in it thou shalt not do any work...

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, 

the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: 

wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 

Here is the patience of the saints: 

here are they that keep the commandments of God, 

and the faith of Jesus.

Exodus 20:8-11/Revelation 14:12

In this GREAT CONTROVERSY between God and His opponent, played out here on this Space Fabric of Time, 

between the Pillars of the 2 Decrees from the Throne of God, 

of "Let There Be Light" (Gen. 1:3) to "It is Done" (Rev. 16:17) --

The Apostle Paul gives us a WARNING:

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, 

but against principalities, against powers, 

against the rulers of the darkness of this world, 

against spiritual wickedness in high places.

 Ephesians 6:12

God sent mankind a Text Message, the Bible--giving us origins, destiny, meaning and morality.

It Begins & Ends the same: It begins with God leaning over and

breathing the breath of Life into Adam. It ends with God leaning over and wiping away the tears of the saints. -- It Begins and Ends with God leaning over and touching us--mankind. In the pages in between He tells us what He thinks of us: ...that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. James 5:11

Picture the Letter of 3rd John as a Summary of God's Text Message to YOU:

Beloved, 

I wish above all things 

that thou mayest prosper

(personal wellbeing)

and be in health,

(physical wellbeing) 

even as thy soul prospereth.

(spiritual wellbeing)

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. But I trust I shall shortly see thee, 

and we shall speak face to face.

3 John 1:2,4,14

The Unique Characteristic of the SDA Church is the Gift of the SPIRIT of PROPHECY in its midst:

[We believe through Ellen White]

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, 

and went to make war with the remnant of her seed,

1- which keep the commandments of God, 

2- and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

And I fell at his feet to worship him. 

And he said unto me, 

See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren 

that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: 

for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Revelation 12:17/19:10

Her writings are considered by her and the Church, to be the "Lesser Light" pointing toward the "Greater Light" (the Bible). They are in NO WAY to take the place of Scripture nor are on par with the canon of Scripture itself. Rather, under inspiration, they highlight the Present Truth in the Bible for this age---

(Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. 1 Peter 1:12).

EXAMPLE: The dietary principles of God are in Scripture. Well before the Hebrews in the days of Moses, God distinguished clear back in the Days of Noah, that there are Clean and Unclean Meat for mankind. She pulled the HEALTH MESSAGE from the Scriptures that many Christians had been missing - or ignoring for centuries - yet it was always there.

This last day movement would not only keep the commandments of God but have the Spirit of Prophecy within it. 

***12 Samples of Ellen White***

On GRACE: 

"If you feel yourself to be the greatest sinner, Christ is just what you need, the greatest Savior. Lift up your head and look away from yourself, away from your sin, to the uplifted Savior; away from the poisonous, venomous bite of the serpent to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world."

On OBEDIENCE: 

"God has given us His commandments, not only to be believed in, but to be obeyed." 

Message for LAODICEA: 

"You know the truth, you believe the truth, you even love the truth.---But the truth hasn't changed you. Let the truth change you."

On PRAYER: 

"Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears before God. 

You cannot burden Him; you cannot weary Him.

His heart of love is touched by our sorrows and even by our utterances of them.
Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind. Nothing is too great for Him to bear, for He holds up worlds, He rules over all the affairs of the universe. 

Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for Him to notice. 

There is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel. .... no sincere prayer escape the lips, of which our heavenly Father is unobservant, or in which He takes no immediate interest.
......He knows the sorrows that we feel to the depths of our being, but which we cannot express."

On What to Contemplate:

"It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of

Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones."

On the "IF": 

"If we ever reach heaven, it will be by linking our souls to Christ, leaning upon Him, and cutting loose from *the world, *its follies *and enchantments."

On SEXUAL IMMORALITY: 

"O, how disgusted is God with the tame, lifeless, Christless efforts made by some of those who profess to be his servants. Not one particle of Sodomitish impurity will escape the wrath of God at the execution of the judgment. Those who do not repent of and forsake all uncleanness will fall with the wicked.

Those who anciently committed these sins were taken without the camp and stoned to death. Temporal and eternal death was their doom; and because the penalty of stoning to death is abolished, this sin is indulged in beyond measure, and is thought to be a small offense.
Indulgence in unlawful things has become a power to--deprave mankind,--to dwarf the mind,--and to pervert the faculties.
Just such a state of things as exists today existed before the flood and before the destruction of Sodom."

On Christ in the SANCTUARY: 

"The intercession of Christ in man’s behalf in the sanctuary above is as essential to the plan

of salvation as was His death upon the cross.
By His death He began that work which after His resurrection He ascended to complete in heaven. The sanctuary in heaven is the very center of Christ's work in behalf of men.
It concerns every soul living upon the earth."

On the SABBATH:
"Like the Sabbath, the week originated at creation, and it has been preserved and brought down to us through Bible history. God himself measured off the first week as a sample for successive weeks to the close of time.
Like every other, it consisted of seven literal days. Six days were employed in the work of creation; upon the seventh, God rested, and he then blessed this day, and set it apart as a day of rest for man."

On the STATE OF THE DEAD:

"Nowhere in the Sacred Scriptures is found the statement that the righteous go to their reward or the wicked to their punishment at death. Upon the fundamental error of natural immortality rests the doctrine of consciousness in death—a doctrine.... opposed to the teachings of the Scriptures, to the dictates of reason.

Immortality, promised to man on condition of obedience, had been forfeited by transgression. 

Adam could not transmit to his posterity that which he did not possess; But what did Adam, after his sin, find to be the meaning of the words, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou

shalt surely die”? 

Did he find them to mean, as Satan had led him to believe, that he was to be ushered into a more exalted state of existence? 

The Bible declares that the dead know not anything, that their thoughts have perished; they have no part in anything that is done under the sun; they know nothing of the joys or sorrows of those who were dearest to them on earth. God has expressly forbidden all pretended communication with departed spirits. In the days of the Hebrews there was a class of people who claimed, as do the spiritualists of today, to hold communication with the dead. But the “familiar spirits,” as these visitants from other worlds were called, are declared by the Bible to be “the spirits of devils.” 

The theory of the immortality of the soul was one of those false doctrines that Rome, borrowing from paganism, incorporated into the religion of Christendom. 

Martin Luther classed it with the “monstrous fables that form part of the Roman dunghill of decretals.”

The Bible clearly teaches that the dead do not go immediately to heaven. They are represented as sleeping until the resurrection. 1 Thessalonians 4:14; Job 14:10-12. In the very day when the silver cord is loosed and the golden bowl broken (Ecclesiastes 12:6), man's thoughts perish. They that go down to the grave are in silence. They sleep; they are awakened by the trump of God to a glorious immortality. “For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.... So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Corinthians 15:52-54. "

On ERROR:

"Error cannot stand alone, and would soon become extinct if it did not fasten itself like a parasite upon the tree of truth.
--Error draws its life from the truth of God.
--The traditions of men, like floating germs, attach themselves to the truth of God, and men

regard them as a part of the truth.
--Through false doctrines, Satan gains a foothold, and captivates the minds of men, causing them to hold theories that have no foundation in truth.
Men boldly teach for doctrines the commandments of men; and as traditions pass on from age to age, they acquire a power over the human mind.
But age does not make error truth, neither does its burdensome weight cause the plant of truth to become a parasite.
--The tree of truth bears its own genuine fruit, showing its true origin and nature.
--The parasite of error also bears its own fruit and makes manifest that its character is diverse from the plant of heavenly origin."

A WARNING: 

"...by beholding we become changed. The mind gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is allowed to dwell. It becomes assimilated to that which it is accustomed to love and reverence."

Q: Do you know of any other denomination that preaches the 3

Angel's Messages, lifts up the Beauty of the Sanctuary Doctrine where the Plan of Redemption is laid out, believes in keeping ALL the Commandments of God (including the 7th day Sabbath of the 4th Commandment) and has the Spirit of Prophecy -- not in an arrogant way that makes up new things but rather, under inspiration, points deeper into what's already there in the Bible?

Links for MORE on the 3 ANGEL'S MESSAGES:

3 Angel's Message Simplified

Dig Deeper: 3 Angel's Message Simplified (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

3 Angels' Messages SIMPLIFIED Series: Message 1

Dig Deeper: 3 Angels' Messages SIMPLIFIED Series: Message 1 (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

3 Angels' Messages SIMPLIFIED Series: Message 2

Dig Deeper: 3 Angels' Messages SIMPLIFIED Series: Message 2 (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

3 Angels' Messages SIMPLIFIED Series: Message 3

Dig Deeper: 3 Angels' Messages SIMPLIFIED Series: Message 3 (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

Amos Summarizes 3 Angel's Message

Dig Deeper: Amos Summarizes 3 Angel's Message (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

Links for MORE on the SANCTUARY DOCTRINE:

SANCTUARY DOCTRINE simplified

SANCTUARY DOCTRINE simplified (sancdoct.blogspot.com)

Paul Describes the Christians Disease (While Teaching the Sanctuary Doctrine)

Dig Deeper: Paul Describes the Christians Disease (While Teaching the Sanctuary Doctrine) 

2300 Days/Years Succinctly Laid Out

Dig Deeper: 2300 Days/Years Succinctly Laid Out (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

Cleansing of the Sanctuary Simplified

Dig Deeper: Cleansing of the Sanctuary Simplified (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

Uriah Smith & the Prophetic Apartment of the Sacred Scriptures & the 2300 days

Dig Deeper: Uriah Smith & the Prophetic Apartment of the Sacred Scriptures & the 2300 days 

ALPHA & OMEGA of the SANCTUARY

Dig Deeper: ALPHA & OMEGA of the SANCTUARY (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

Links for MORE on the SABBATH:

"Tree" Lesson of Sabbath

Dig Deeper: "Tree" Lesson of Sabbath (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

Sabbath Debate SIMPLIFIED

Dig Deeper: Sabbath Debate SIMPLIFIED (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

Your Biological Connection to the Sabbath

Dig Deeper: Your Biological Connection to the Sabbath (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

The "Severing" at the Creation

Dig Deeper: Creation Moment 4/20/2023 - The "Severing" at the Creation 

What is the Doctrine of Sunday Sacredness?

Dig Deeper: What is the Doctrine of Sunday Sacredness? (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

Council of Trent admitted they teach the commandments of men

Dig Deeper: Council of Trent admitted they teach the commandments of men 

Creation Moment 11/29/2023 - 20 Failed Evolutionary Biological Claims SERIES: Missed the mark by 57,000

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men... 

1 Corinthians 1:25

"Prediction: it was proposed in the early 1940s that genes would each code for one protein or enzyme. This applied in bacteria. And the realization that the formation of any functional gene coding for one protein by evolutionary processes was improbable reinforced this view. 

Thus, it was applied to all organisms. It was not anticipated that a

gene could code for more than one protein, or other functions as well as protein production. 

--Hence it was thought that humans would have over 100,000 genes. 

--This is not the case; we have ~23,000 genes, but we produce many more than 100,000 different proteins. 

This is achieved by a given DNA sequence being multi-functional, coding for more than one protein." 

CMI

What does "Godhead" mean?

"The term “Godhead” is used three times in the Bible:

“Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device” (Acts 17:29, KJV).
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20, KJV).
“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9, KJV).

Other translations (NASB, NIV, ESV) use different terms in place of “Godhead” – divine nature/being (Acts 17:29), divine nature (Romans 1:20), and deity (Colossians 2:9). These are helpful in understanding the meaning of the term.

“Godhead” is about nature or possessing the characteristics of God. 

Another term that may be easier to understand would be “Godhood.” This would be similar to “manhood” or “brotherhood” – possessing the characteristics of “men” or “brethren.” Those in the “Godhead” are part of the “Godhood” – possessing the characteristics of God." 

PlainBible

How Pagan Stoic Influence CREPT into Rome's version of the "Trinity"

For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Jude 1:4

"Under the influence of Stoic philosophy, Tertullian believes that all real things are material. God is a spirit, but a spirit is a material thing made out of a finer sort of matter. 

*At the beginning, God is alone, though He has His own reason

within Him. 

*Then, when it is time to create, He brings the Son into existence, using but not losing a portion of His spiritual matter. 

*Then the Son, using a portion of the divine matter shared with Him, brings into existence the Spirit. 

And the two of them are God’s instruments, His agents, in the creation and governance of the cosmos.

The Son, on this theory, is not God Himself, nor is He divine in the same sense that the Father is. Rather, the Son is “divine” in that He is made of a portion of the matter that the Father is composed of. 

This makes them “one substance” or not different as to essence. 

But the Son isn’t the same god as the Father, though He can, because of what He’s made of, be called “God”. 

Nor is there any tripersonal God here, but only a tripersonal portion of matter - that smallest portion shared by all three. 

The one God is sharing a portion of His stuff with another, by causing another to exist out of it, and then this other turns around and does likewise, sharing some of this matter with a third.

Against the common believers concerned with monotheism, Tertullian argues that although the above process results in two more who can be called “God”, it does not introduce two more gods - not gods in the sense that Yahweh is a god. 

There is still, as there can only be, one ultimate source of all else, the Father. Thus, monotheism is upheld. The one God is unipersonal both at the start and the end of this process. Nor are the persons equally divine; Tertullian holds that the Son is “ignorant of the last day and hour, which is known to the Father only” (Tertullian, Praxeas, ch. 27; Matthew 24:36).

Q: What is Tertullian’s answer to his “monarchian” critics? 

A: He strongly emphasizes that these are truly three; none of the

three is identical to any other. They are “undivided” in the sense that the Father, in sharing some of His matter, never loses any; rather, that matter comes to simultaneously compose more than one being.  The Father is one entity, the Son is a second, and the Spirit is a third. Nor are they parts of any whole; the latter two simply share some of the Father’s divine stuff. 

Tertullian does not argue that the three compose or otherwise are the one God. Instead, Tertullian replies that a king may share his one kingdom with subordinate rulers, and yet it may still be one kingdom. Likewise, God (i.e. the Father) may share the governance of the cosmos with His Son (Praxeas, ch. 4)

Despite these fundamental differences from later orthodoxy, Tertullian is now hailed by trinitarians for his use of the term “Trinity” (Latin: trinitas) and his view that it (at the last stage) consists of three persons with a common or shared “substance”. StanfordEncyclopediaOfPhilosophy

A Plural-- yet --Monotheistic God

"Monotheism (the belief in one deity) was unique to God’s people in the Old Testament. Moses said, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!” (Deuteronomy 6:4).

The New Testament plainly teaches that there is one God. Paul described the idols as “so-called gods” because “there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one” 

(1 Corinthians 8:4-5).

While the Scriptures are clear that there is one God, they also describe three persons of God. 

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each referred to as “God” in the New Testament.

The Father is God – 

“For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this

was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased’” (2 Peter 1:17).
The Son (Jesus) is God – 

“But of the Son He says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom” (Hebrews 1:8).
The Holy Spirit is God –

 “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of land? […] You have not lied to men but to God’” (Acts 5:3-4).

Though we do not find the term “Trinity” being used in the Bible, we can see from the passages above that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all God." 

PlainBible