dthmstr254 said:
the term jesus used was YHWH, and not the big long one. this term was fhorthand for "I Am That I Am" or God's name. it was considered blasphemy to even speak that name in reference to oneself, which is why the philistines took up stones to stone him with. but the Bible says He disappeared to their eyes and walked "through the midst of them.
All we can
prove with Scriptures (or any source actually) is the belief or opinion of the writer at that time. What the Christian world refers to as the
Old Testament and also the
New Testament is rich with history, metaphor, symbolism, poetry, allegory, parable, apocalyptic code, imagery, and theology, but all it
proves is the perception, understanding, and sense of the person and culture of that time.
Without experience, all we know of anything is theory. Until somebody actually walked on the moon, its texture, substance, etc. was all speculative. Until we go back, much of what we know of the moon is still speculative though less so because we now have some experience. Evenso, we have to have confidence in the ones reporting their experience in order to adopt their belief as our own. There are actually quite a few people alive now who believe the moonwalk was an elaboate hoax.
Regarding our understanding of God, who Jesus was, or any of the mysteries surrounding both, the Apostle Paul poignantly explained through a metaphor of 'looking through a dark glass' that gives you some images but obscures the big picture. And we have the reported prophecies of the Old Testament and the reported testimonies of Jesus (and others) of the New Testament of what a part of that big picture looks like. And as Jesus and the Apostle Paul explained, it is by the power of the Holy Spirit - the third person of the Godhead - that causes us to believe it.
It is my belief, based on experience, that those who yield themselves to be instructed, touched, guided, changed by God will come to believe, perhaps not exactly as I believe, but they will receive their own truth. Such yielding has to be with no strings attached, however. Too many try to attach their own chosen dogma, rules, timelines, specific criteria to the request and thus attempt to tie God's hands from the beginning. It has been my experience, that tactic doesn't work well. But for those who don't put God in a box, who can let God be God, almost all come to understand and accept the doctrine of the Trinity.
My best feeble, and most inadequate, explanation of this is that God is Spirit after all, and it is only spiritually that He can be known or understood at all.