Who Said That?

"God is a superior trinity of Father, Son and Spirit.  Man is an inferior trinity of spirit, soul (mind) and body (flesh).  If a man's spirit is alive and uppermost, he has fellowship with God.  If a man's flesh is uppermost, his fellowship with God is broken, because God wants nothing to do with his sinful flesh.  Man can only meet God in the spirit."

Please leave your guess in the comments section below.  No google searches or cheating!  I'll post the answer next week (Lord willing).

Update on Saturday, March 7, 2009 at 10:52AM by Kim Riddlebarger

No, this is not from Plotinus.  It is from Chuck Smith's The Gospel According to Grace (1981), a brief commentary on Romans which was very influential in the early years of Calvary Chapel.

Comments

[Matthew Neal]

Sounds like Augustine to me.

[Zac]

Watchman Nee ?

[Danan Leab]

Kenneth Copeland

[JN]

I have no idea but it sounds like a derivative of gnostic/docetic thought. I'd be more than surprised if it were Augustine based on that.

[dsanger]

Benny Hinn

[Coyle]

Hmm... John Paul II? He was big on "theology of the body" stuff...

[Mike]

Chuck Smith all the way. That was in almost every sermon discussing how to walk in the Spirit.

[Steven Carr]

Neil T Anderson

[Robert Widdowson]

Joseph Smith?

["lee n. field"]

Almost sounds like one of the ancient church fathers, post-Tertullian (who coined the term "trinity"), making a point in their own way that's strange to modern ears.

Tripartite anthropology. Boy. Hmm. Who taught that in the early church?

[Coyle]

I think it does propose an interesting question- if man is made in the image of God (and he is), how does man reflect the Trinitarian nature of God? Or is that a characteristic of God which is not included in man?

[John Y]

"Man can only meet God in the spirit." No, man can only meet God through the mediation of Christ. This is no different than any of the postmodern and new age spirituality which is dominating the cultural landscape today. Those who claim they are spiritual, not religious. It could be Joyce Meyers, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, Pat Robertson or any other people involved in the Word/Faith movement or charismatic movement. Are these people really Christians? They have infiltrated the Catholics, Lutherans, Reformed, Emergents, and the Church Growth movement. It seems to me that the main point of Christianity is that you believe in the mediation of Christ- which is what he came to earth to do. These people are majoring in minors. I will stick with Luther, Calvin, and the great theologians of the Christian faith which seemed to have its greatest impact during the age of orthodoxy in the reformation of the Church. These spiritual types can call me closed minded, bigoted and that I put God in a box all they want. I want to maintain my sanity and the mediation of Christ is what keeps me sane.

[John Y]

I should say it is the mediation of Christ and all the good orthodox theology which surrounds that truth is what keeps me sane.

[Merritt]

some early gnostic most likely or who knows maybe a late gnostic

[Dusty]

Sounds really neo-platonic. So maybe Augustine, but I'm going with Justin Martyr.

[John Y]

I hope to God Augustine did not say anything remotely close to this. I cannot see him saying this. His soteriology was pretty accurate and clear. I know both Luther and Calvin drew heavily from Augustine in regards to his writtings against Pelagius the monk. And this is where Augustines soteriology was most clearly developed.

[brigand]

Man is a trinity? I didn't realize that I was three persons.

Maybe MPD isn't a disorder, after all.

[Paul C. Quillman]

Brian Mc Laren?

[Scott Roper]

Some Word of Faith teacher. Joyce Meyer?

Where does Augustine suggest anything remotely close to this?

[Michael William Smith]

I would have to guess Watchman Nee.