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Hi Jordan, thanks for writing.
You wrote:
We arrived here
by way of discussion of the Immaculate
Conception, which she stated was
the conception of Mary, not of Jesus,
because Mary was born without original
sin, while Jesus was. The concept
of the Trinity states that all three
are the same person, the same being,
in different forms. My question is
this: If Jesus, being God on Earth,
was born with original sin, then
that means (because they are all
different forms of the same being) that God has original sin. God, however,
is supposed to be infallible. Please
explain.
Let me try to clear up some of this
confusion.
First of all, while your girlfriend
is correct that the Immaculate Conception
refers to the conception of Mary,
she is not correct if she said that
Jesus was born with original sin. He was not.
Jesus is without sin
because He is God. God by definition
cannot sin, nor can He have original
sin, which is being deprived of the
divine life of God, since He is the divine life of God. Note also
that a being without sin is said
to be impeccable, not infallible (which means teaching without error).
The Pope, for example, is infallible (when he teaches all Christians on
a matter of faith and morals), but not impeccable, meaning he can sin.
Second, the concept of the Trinity
states that there are three *Persons*
in one being, God, each of which
are co-equal and co-eternal. They
are not different forms, but different Persons.
You wrote:
My experiences
with devout Catholics have driven
me from any possibility of reconciliation
with the faith. Thank you for your
answer.
I am sorry to hear that you had such
negative experiences with devout
Catholics. If you would like to share
them I'd be happy to listen.
- But can I ask, what do those
experiences have to do with whether
Christianity is true?
I assume these are believers behaving
badly. People are still with sin.
I promise you they will behave badly,
even if they are believers. History
attests to that.
- Can a person who behaves badly
cause an article of faith to not
be so?
- Does a person who fails to live
out the faith thereby disprove
the Truth of that faith?
- Maybe you have been deeply hurt
and, as a consequence, have difficulty
reconciling yourself to the Truth;
but deep down inside, do you really
believe that these bad experiences
disprove what Christianity claims
to be the Truth?
Eric Ewanco
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