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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Unveiling of the Trinity, July 17, 2007
The Unveiling of the Trinity: A Biblical Account of the Mystery Revealed is the author's interpretation of the meaning and purpose of the Trinity. This interpretation is based upon a few key beliefs of the author, those that he upholds and teaches in his ministerial work.
Most prevalent of these beliefs is that the Trinity is a representation of the three aspects of God (God as the father, God as the son, and God as the Holy Spirit). The author explains the differences between these three aspects using various symbolic associations such as the various qualities of water. This portion of the book is extremely well written and explained in various ways for readers to understand the differences between these three aspects of God.
To the author, however, the three aspects of the Trinity are literal and completely true as is every part of the bible. The author states that if one part of the bible is untrue then the rest might also be untrue. Therefore, the entire bible must be taken as a whole as complete unequivocal truth. Much of this book explains and quotes passages of the bible, particularly genesis and the original sin to reinforce this key point.
Those readers upholding a Christian creationist view of the world will find this book comforting. Likewise, those readers interested in exploring or studying the views of Christian creationists will find this book enlightening. Conversely, those readers with alternative or non-Christian beliefs and those readers looking for a historical study of the Trinity, information about Trinity symbolism in various religions, or symbolism behind the Trinity may not find this book useful.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Undeniably the answer to the mystery of the Trinity, February 28, 2006
I approached this book with skepticism, but also with anticipation. I endeavored before reading the book, to lay aside what tradition had taught me and to be open minded. That was truly the right approach because "The Unveiling of the Trinity" did not void what I had been taught, but filled in the gaps and made the Trinity comprehensible.
The Trinity is presented from a realistic viewpoint. As Bosse points out; the creation of man is summed up in 27 words in Genesis verse 2:7, but we find many Scriptures verses in other places of the Bible that provide clues and answers to that event. Likewise, Bosse applies that same scenario to the Trinity by confirming that the Trinity was never a mystery to begin with, but either apparently was overlooked by thosands of Bible scholars, or God withheld its revelation from us until these last days.
The book answers many questions, which up until this time could not be answered because of the mystery. In sorting out the puzzle to the mystery, Bosse reveals the element that resticted our understanding of the Trinity.
In the first two chapters, he lays the foundation. From there, he builds on that foundation from Genesis to Revelation with everything needed to understand the Trinity, minus the mystery. The Trinity is illustrated in both Old and New Testaments with illuminating Scripture accounts regarding Christ's time on earth as well as His present time in heaven.
This book is certain to cause controversy because of the subject matter. Still, it contains the only possible answer to the mystery, and is easy to read and understand. I highly recommend this book to everyone both Christain and non-Christian, but before you read it, leave your traditions and preconceived notions behind.
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
This Book Does More Harm than Good, February 16, 2006
Tom Bosse e-mailed me and asked me to review this book. I was quite hesitant to do so, but finally agreed under certain conditions. I was suspicious based on several comments about this book which were made at Bosse's web site. Here are a few of these comments,
"Generations of Bible scholars sought diligently to understand the Trinity. Their futile
efforts simply produced analogies such as St. Patrick's shamrock or the 3-parts of
an egg to convey its meaning. The revelation of what the early Church failed to
realize is now documented in this book."
"If you are merely looking for the same explanations and definitions to the Trinity,
which Bible scholars have rewritten about for centuries, you are in the wrong
place."
The above claims are very ambitious to say the least, especially considering the early Church councils and their final creeds concerning this very doctrine, and many great learned theologians throughout Christian history who have delineated this doctrine in their theological works. After reading Bosse's book, my suspicions were correct.
This book is replete with inept theology and hermeneutics. In fact, there is so much hermeneutical error in this text that I cannot, in the space of this small review, cover all of it. Therefore, I will demonstrate some of the larger and more obvious problems I see in this work.
Simplistically summarized this book declares that God breathed life into mankind, via Adam, and God did this through His spirit. In the beginning our spirit and God's spirit, via creation, were united. When Adam sinned, our spirit was not affected by Adam's sin, but our flesh and soul were. Our spirit and our soul became divided, due to sin, and our blood became "poisoned" with sin. Because of this [Adam's] sin, God needed a way to redeem mankind. Bosse holds to a trichotomy view of mankind (meaning man is a body, soul and spirit). However, he takes this trichotomy view and applies it to the Trinity. This is where the most serious problem lies within this text.
While there are other smaller theological differences which caused me to disagree with quite a few assertions made by Bosse in this text (i.e. the Calvinist/Arminian differences, etc.), there were several larger theological problems asserted by Bosse which not only caused Bosse to fall into grievous error, but also ruined the overall thrust of the work. These larger problems will be the focus of this review.
First, Bosse holds to a semi-Pelagian, if not a near full blown Pelagian view of the doctrine of original sin. Comments such as, "The little child [those smaller and younger than a mere child] does not have the stain of sin; therefore he is able to enter to Kingdom of God." (p. 115). Also, ". . . little children are connected to God's Spirit and remain so until understanding comes to them." (ibid). Bosse teaches that there is an age of accountability, until that time little children are not under the stain of sin.
Second, Bosse holds to a mix of Christological heretical views. At the point of Jesus' incarnation, Bosse begins to draw strong dichotomies between Christ's divinity and Christ's humanity; to the point where Christ's humanity in the incarnation is much more crucial and important, and "outweighs" His divinity, especially after His ascension. Regarding the "state" of Jesus after His ascension Bosse declares, "Remember, God could not redeem man from His divine position. If Jesus had reclaimed His divinity [this assumes He lost it at some point], which He employed after His incarnation, His redemption efforts would have been in vain."
Third, Bosse holds to a type of distorted Arianism. This remark is the most telling of this distorted view, "Did God simply make Jesus from nothing? Certainly not. There was a definite element devised by God the Father to formulate God the Son. Just as man was made from the dust of the earth, Jesus also was made of a substance. What was that substance?" Bosse explains that this "substance" was the Word of God as found in John 1:1-3.
Fourth, Bosses holds to a blatant view of Gnosticism. Bosse teaches throughout this text that the body (flesh) of man is corrupt. This would be quite orthodox had he stopped there. However, he goes on to declare that the flesh is evil and only the spirit is pure, and thus needs to be united with God. The soul and body were severed, so to speak, from the spirit. The spirit of man remained pure, but the soul and body of man became evil. Bosse declares, "the flesh is drawn to Satan and sin, while the spirit seeks after God and righteousness."
Fifth, and the last of the major problems, is the fact that Bosse teaches, in this text, that there was a battle between God and Satan and Satan lost when he killed Jesus, an innocent man. Prior to this Satan had total dominion over the earth and God had to find a way to "win it back." The fact that Jesus did not rebel against His Father, was the one technicality that Satan failed to take into consideration when Satan killed Jesus. Jesus remained obedient, He deposited the sins of mankind into hell itself (which, by the way, is located at the center of the earth), and the victory was accomplished. This whole scenario as Bosse paints it in much greater detail in this book, is wrought with so many theological problems, this issue alone could take up all the space for this review.
I have merely touched on some of the major theological problems of this work and have barely mentioned the hermeneutical "proof-texting" and lack of appropriate exegesis used by Bosse. In the end this book does more damage than it does good. I give it two stars simply for the fact that Bosse declares that one cannot be saved apart from Jesus' death and resurrection. As far as his answering the "mysteries" of the Trinity, he did no such thing. He merely distorted the view to a greater degree. I do not recommend this book at all. It would in fact be better for anyone to avoid it. Instead, I would recommend Athanasius' work "On the Incarnation."
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