GOD: He’s One and Yet He’s Three! (THE TRINITY OF THE GODHEAD) Pastor John’s Extended Notes CREED Series Mssg #3 May 28 & 29, 2011
Counterfeits are nothing new... It’s in Christendom as well… Tons of Counterfeits!
Satan is the great imitator, and he has been hard at work since he deceived Eve in the Garden...
he has false Christians ( Mtt. 13:38; Jn. 8:44 )
a false gospel ( Gal. 1:6-9 )
a false righteousness ( Rom. 9:30ff )
and one day, he will present to the world a false Christ ( 2 Thess. 2 )
2 Peter 2:1-9
A Description of False Teachers-1-3
But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.
And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.
1 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.
The language is vivid, striking and even harsh!
Peter knew that the truth of God's Word and the false doctrines of the heretics simply cannot coexist!
There could be no compromise…
Any more than a surgeon can compromise with a cancerous tumor in a patient's body... the surgery must be Radical and Precise!
“Destructive heresies”
The word "heresy" originally meant simply "to make a choice"... but later it came to mean "a sect or a party" (a cult).
A false teacher forces you to make a choice… Between his "new" doctrines and the true doctrines of the Christian faith.
Not only was their MESSAGE false - but their METHODS were false also! Instead of openly declaring what they believe… They came to the church under false colors Giving the impression that they were true to the Word of God!
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will secretly bring in destructive heresies… Before long though, they will remove the Truth of God's Word... leaving their false doctrines in its place!
YEARS AGO - I WAS IN THE USO in the St. Thomas in the Virgin Isles after we’d done a shakedown cruise out of Gitmo… They had a movie playing on TV… The Invasion of the Body Snatchers
That’s very close to what false teachers do!
In 2 Peter 2:3...Peter points out that they use "deceptive words".
The Greek word here is PLASTOS… from which we get our English word "plastic" PLASTIC WORDS!
Words that can be twisted to mean anything you want them to mean!
Understand this! A False Teacher uses our words, but not our dictionary!
. They talk abt. Salvation... but they don't mean what God means . They talk about Inspiration... but they mean something entirely different! . They speak of Holiness... but to them its just a verbal front
Young or untaught believers hear these preachers or read these peoples books…
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And think that they are sound in the faith... And are deceived!
. One faith healer (who some of you listen to), said, "You are as much the incarnation of God as Jesus Christ was." . One guy claims to have heard Jesus say, "I didn't claim I was God; I just claimed I walked with him and that he was in me.... That's what you're doing." . Another false teacher claims, "God has to be given permission to work in this earth realm on behalf of man.... Yes! You are in control!... When God gave Adam dominion, that meant God no longer had dominion. So, God cannot do anything in this earth unless we let him. And the way we let him or give him permission is through prayer."
Look at what they deny
2 Peter 2:1
…who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.
IF you pay attention - and IF you know the REAL DEAL… You’ll see them denying key truths, like… . The inspiration of the Bible.. . The sinfulness of man... . The sacrificial death of Jesus... . Salvation by faith alone...
4 . The reality of eternal judgment... . The Trinity…
If they could do away w/ the Trinity of God… The Deity of Christ ... All of Christianity would collapse!
WHY? . Because Christianity IS Christ! . If He is really not who He said He was... there is no Christian faith! . And they know that...because Satan knows that!
2 Peter 2:2
And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.
“WHY do they do that, John?”
These teachers want to deny the truths of the Christian faith because they want to satisfy their own lusts... And Historic Christianity won't allow them that space! They want to satisfy their lusts but do it in the name or under the flag of religion. And many follow them!
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“But John - look at the huge ministry they have! Surely that is proof that God is blessing!
. One of the fastest growing religions in the world is islam… . Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses are growing while many Mainline Denominations are declining… . Statistics are not proof of Authenticity
“I’m still not totally getting their motivations - they seem so sincere!”
2 Peter 2:3
By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.
Their basic interest is in one thing… Making money
“But - they say that they actually hear from God…
And if I just give a little “seed-money” by faith - God will see my faith and bless me like He’s blessing them!”
God’s not blessing them - you’re blessing them!
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Robert Tilton built a television empire that at its peak brought in over sixty-five million dollars a year, promising healing to people who would covenant with him by sending in a large financial gift. He claimed, "God showed me a vision that almost took my breath away. I was sucked into the Spirit... and I found myself standing in the very presence of Almighty God.... He said these words to me, exactly these words…" At that point he introduced the plan by which he would raise money. But… Mr. Tilton's empire has fallen on financial hard times since ABC's Prime Time Live showed how his listeners' prayer requests were first stripped of money, then quickly disposed of in huge dumpsters.
Jesus was lower-middle-class… blue collar
The Apostles were mostly blue collar with a few white-collar types sprinkled in
Not one of them was rich…
. YET they gave themselves to minister to others!
These false teachers are rich men and women… . who cleverly get others to minister to them!
7 Let me say that I do not know of any teachings anywhere that are a better contemporary illustration of the warning of 2 Timothy 3:1-5, which says that in the last days,
"people will be lovers of themselves [the gospel of 'self-esteem']…
lovers of money [and]... lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God [the 'health, wealth, and happiness' gospel]."
“John - you’re judging them… you’re not supposed to judge!” Yes you are!
John 7:24 NLT
Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.”
John 5:30 NLT
I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.
Matthew 7:15-16 NLT
“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act…
Think about it… What kind of a shepherd would I be… If I saw a wolf sniffing out there on the edges of the pasture and didn’t holler… “Wolf!”
“But you’re not supposed to name names…”
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Paul did!
Jesus called Herod “that old fox”…
I need to be alert ...
And refuse to support ministries that exploit people and deny the Savior!
Deny the Godhead…
“John - what’s the big deal about the Trinity?”
Get this:
Without the Full Trinity, I am Doomed for a Full Eternity
One early Theologian had it right when he realized that the believer…"will not attain salvation if the Trinity is not complete."
BUT… and here’s the issue…
. The doctrine of the Trinity is, in its last analysis, a deep
9 mystery… . A mystery that cannot be fathomed by the finite mind.
“Well - If I can’t understand it - then I’m not going to believe it!”
I RIDE IN AIRPLANES But if I had to wait until I could totally understand how a several ton metal fuselage can overcome the set laws of gravity… You’d see me out on 64 with my thumb in the wind - hitchin’
No - we trust our very LIVES to things we cant explain… We see the proof of it - but we all trust in things we cannot explain…
We just have to take somebody’s word for it… And we see the proof of it… And that is good enough
DO YOU BANK ONLINE?
Can you explain how all of your money gets shifted around without your entire life savings getting lost in the ether?
“But I can’t wrap my mind around a God Who is One and at the Same time Three…!!!”
10 John Wesley said: "Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man that can comprehend the Triune God!"
Even though I cannot even begin to understand how God is One God and yet the Godhead consists of Three Distinct Personalities… The Bible gives a ton of witness to the Trinity of God…
“But how do I know that I can trust what the Bible says?”
You’re 2 weeks too late! We dealt with that first-thing when we started this series… Go out to the CD kiosk and grab that CD…
Last week we talked about Creationism VS Evolutionism… Gave you the top 3 major proofs that - I believe - blows evolution out of the water…
HAD A GUY COME BY AND SAY, “That was very interesting - I don’t think I agree with you - tho!”
I replied - “Just munch on it… chew on it… wrestle with it… pray on it…that’s all I ask.”
11 But listen - being waffle-ly on the Origin of the Species won’t keep you out of Heaven… Being wrong on the Trinity CAN! And that’s why Satan attacks it so enthusiastically!
Now again - just like with last week and the week before - I don’t want to give you a drink from a theological fire hose… There is so much here…
What I do want to give you are the major passages that can assure you of the truth of the Trinity of God… Somebody’s (God’s) Word that you can take to the bank . That God the Father is God . That God the Son is God . That God the Spirit is God.
“Well John - why is this all a big deal?”
First - because… Wherever there is truth propagated by God… which glorifies Him and reveals Him…
There are also LIES - promulgated by Satan… Which hides God and denigrates Him!
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And Satan and his ―apostles‖ (messengers) are extremely active…
An email from one of our ladies:
I had a JW come to my door a few weeks ago (she was alone, must be a new tactic), and she backed off when I started talking about Jesus being God and the Trinity. The comment made to me was, "Oh, you're one of those trinity believers".
The following week, I came home and found the Watchtower on my door. Seems they've been very active in the neighborhood here, and you're right, from flipping through that pamphlet, they make it sound so "Christian" and I can see how people who don't know the Word could easily get deceived.
So keep on preaching and encouraging us to read the Word for ourselves so we can detect error and deceit!
Then - this is extremely important because…
Without the Full Trinity, I am Doomed for a Full Eternity
The Trinity is clearly seen in CREATION… Everywhere you see God at work… but…
The Trinity best viewed in SALVATION…
The doctrine of the Trinity flows from the self-revelation of God in
13 biblical salvation history.
Look with me at a few of the major Bible proofs…
In the Old Testament.
This doctrine is not so much declared as intimated in the Old Testament.
God gave His word via Progressive Revelation… one truth at a time
The burden of the Old Testament message seems to be the unity of God.
Yet the doctrine of the Trinity is clearly intimated in a four-fold way:
. First: In the plural names of the Deity; e. g., Elohim. . Second: Personal pronouns used of the Deity. Gen. 1:26; 11:7; Isa.6:8. . Third: The Theophanies, especially the "Angel of the Lord." Gen.16 and 18. . Fourth: The work of the Holy Spirit. Gen. 1:2; Judges 6:34.
In the New Testament.
The doctrine of the Trinity is clearly taught in the New Testament…
14 It is not merely intimated, as in the Old Testament, but explicitly declared.
This is evident from the following:
First: The baptism of Christ:
Matthew 3:16-17 NIV
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." . Here the Father speaks from heaven… . The Son is being baptized in the Jordan… . The Spirit descends in the form of a dove.
Second: In the Baptismal Formula:
Matt. 28:19
"Go… baptizing them in the name (singular) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
These are JESUS’ Words!
He did not say baptize them into the names, but into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The word Trinity does not occur in Scripture, but it well describes the three-in-one nature of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
15 Third: The Apostolic Benediction:
2 Cor. 13:14
"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ....love of God.....communion of the Holy Ghost."
Significantly, in the trinitarian order Christ is mentioned first.
Fourth: The New Testament sets forth:
A Father who is God…
Romans 1:7 NIV
Grace and peace to you from God our Father..
A Son who is God…
Hebrews 1:8 NIV
But about the Son he [the Father] says, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.
A Holy Spirit who is God,
Acts 5:3-4 NIV
Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received… You have not lied to men but to God."
A theologian named Boardman: The Father is all the fullness of the Godhead invisible… the Son is
16 all the fullness of Godhead manifested… the Spirit is all the fullness of the Godhead acting immediately upon the creature…
Got it?
How about William Sangster: Thus we see God is One but also Three in One; God above us, God among us, God within us. The Father in majesty, the Son in suffering, the Spirit in striving.
“But John _ I still really cant understand it all!”
I’d be worried about you if you said you could…
Let me re-quote Wesley: "Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man that can comprehend the Triune God!"
Here is the crux of the matter… This is why it matters…
Romans 8:1-4 NIV
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those…
who are in Christ Jesus,
because through Christ Jesus [God the Son] the law of the Spirit of life [God the Spirit] set me free from the law of sin and death.
17 For what the law was powerless to do… God [God the Father] did by sending his own Son [God the Son] in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,
in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. [God the Spirit]
No condemnation… because of God the Father… God the Son… God the Spirit!
Without the Full Trinity, I am Doomed for a Full Eternity
“John, but I DO believe in Christ as a Great man… a Great Teacher!”
That’s better than nothing… That's a start But - that is not enough to save you!
Why stop there? Why stop with Jesus the man? Why not have the whole Christ as he is here presented?
Trust Jesus - God the Son - as your Savior TODAY!!!
18 PRAYER
……………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………. ADDITIONAL STUDY NOTES FROM RESOURCES …………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………
The Great Triune God quote by Selwyn Hughes:
"Dr. W.E. Sangster tells the story of following three children out of church. One remarked to the others: "I can't understand all this 'Three in One and One in Three' business." "I can't either," said another child, "but I think of it like this: my mother is Mummy to me, she is Mabel to Daddy, and Mrs. Douglas to lots of other people." Is that the answer? Is it just a question of names? Are we right in finding the doctrine of the Trinity in the text of Matthew 28:29, where the word "name" is singular, but three names are given - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? No, that is just part of it, there is much more to it than that, God, we know, is one God. But there stepped into the world someone who claimed also to be God. His name was Jesus. He forgave sins, claimed to have existence before Abraham, and accepted worship as His right. Worship, remember, is for God alone. After Jesus was resurrected and returned to heaven, He sent back the Holy Spirit, who was also seen as God (2 Co 13:13). He -- the Holy Spirit -- came into the disciples and brought with Him the resources of the Godhead, breaking the sin in their nature, pleading in prayer, and exalting the Savior. Thus we see God is One but also Three in One; God above us, God among us, God within us. The Father in majesty, the Son in suffering, the Spirit in striving. This is the central mystery of our most holy faith. Together, and with all our hearts, let us adore the great triune God.
And here's Andrew Murray's perspective from "The Blood of the Cross" with I Peter1:1-2 as the scripture reference:
The Tri-unity of the Godhead is often considered as merely a matter of doctrine and having no close relationship to the Christian life.
This is not the view of the New Testament when it describes the work of redemption or the idea of the life of God. In the Epistles the three Persons are constantly named together, so that in each activity of grace all three
19 together have a share in it. God is triune; but in everything that He does, and at all times, the Three are One.
This is in entire agreement with what we see in nature. A trinity is found in everything. There is the hidden, inner nature, the outward form, and the effect. It is not otherwise in the Godhead. The Father is the eternal being - I AM - the hidden foundation of all things and fountain of all life. The Son is the outward form, the express image, the revelation of God. The Spirit is the executive power of the Godhead. The nature of the hidden unity is revealed and made known in the Son, and it is imparted to us and is experienced by us through the agency of the Spirit. In all Their activities the Three are inseparably One.
Everything is of the Father, everything is in the Son, everything is through the Spirit.
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THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY: (Vs. Unitarianism) - The Great Doctrines of the Bible.
The doctrine of the Trinity is, in its last analysis, a deep mystery that cannot be fathomed by the finite mind. That it is taught in the Scripture, however, there can be no reasonable doubt. It is a doctrine to be believed even though it cannot be thoroughly understood. a) The Doctrine of the Trinity in the Old Testament.
This doctrine is not so much declared as intimated in the Old Testament. The burden of the Old Testament message seems to be the unity of God.
Yet the doctrine of the Trinity is clearly intimated in a four-fold way:
First: In the plural names of the Deity; e. g., Elohim.
Second: Personal pronouns used of the Deity. Gen. 1:26; 11:7; Isa.6:8.
Third: The Theophanies, especially the "Angel of the Lord." Gen.16 and 18.
Fourth: The work of the Holy Spirit. Gen. 1:2; Judges 6:34.
20 b) The Doctrine of the Trinity in the New Testament.
The doctrine of the Trinity is clearly taught in the New Testament; it is not merely intimated, as in the Old Testament, but explicitly declared. This is evident from the following:
First: The baptism of Christ: Matt 3:16, 17. Here the Father speaks from heaven; the Son is being baptized in the Jordan; and the Spirit descends in the form of a dove.
Second: In the Baptismal Formula: Matt. 28:19—"Baptizing them in the name (sing.) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
Third: The Apostolic Benediction: 2 Cor. 13:14—"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ....love of God.....communion of the Holy Ghost."
Fourth: Christ Himself teaches it in John 14:16—"I will pray the Father... He will give you another Comforter."
Fifth: The New Testament sets forth:
A Father who is God, Rom. 1:7.
A son who is God, Heb. 1:8.
A Holy Spirit who is God, Acts 5:3, 4.
The whole is summed up in the words of Boardman:
The Father is all the fullness of the Godhead invisible, John 1:18; the Son is all the fullness of Godhead manifested, John 1:4-18; the Spirit is all the fullness of the Godhead acting immediately upon the creature, 1 Cor. 2:9, 10.
— The Great Doctrines of the Bible.
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Life App Notes for Matthew 28:19
Jesus' words affirm the reality of the Trinity. Some people accuse theologians of making up the concept of the Trinity and reading it into Scripture.
As we see here, the concept comes directly from Jesus himself.
21 He did not say baptize them into the names, but into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The word Trinity does not occur in Scripture, but it well describes the three- in-one nature of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
— Life Application Study Bible.
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Life App Notes for Romans 5:5,6
All three members of the Trinity are involved in salvation.
The Father loved us so much that he sent his Son to bridge the gap between us (John 3:16). The Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit to fill our lives with love and to enable us to live by his power (Acts 1:8). With all this loving care, how can we do less than serve him completely!
— Life Application Study Bible.
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Life App Notes on Revelation 13:1ff
Chapter 13 introduces Satan's (the dragon's) two evil accomplices: (1) the beast out of the sea (Rev 13:1ff) and (2) the beast out of the earth (Rev 13:11ff). Together, the three evil beings form an unholy trinity in direct opposition to the holy Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
--Life Application Study Bible.
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Trinity - Illustrated Bible Dictionary
A word not found in Scripture, but used to express the doctrine of the unity of God as subsisting in three distinct Persons.
This word is derived from the Gr. trias, first used by Theophilus (A.D. 168-183), or from the Lat. trinitas, first used by Tertullian (A.D. 220), to express this doctrine.
The propositions involved in the doctrine are these:
(1.) That God is one, and that there is but one God (Deut 6:4; 1Ki 8:60; Isa 44:6; Mark 12:29, 32; John 10:30).
22 (2.) That the Father is a distinct divine Person (hypostasis, subsistentia, persona, suppositum intellectuale), distinct from the Son and the Holy Spirit.
(3.) That Jesus Christ was truly God, and yet was a Person distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit.
(4.) That the Holy Spirit is also a distinct divine Person.
— Illustrated Bible Dictionary: And Treasury of Biblical History, Biography, Geography, Doctrine, and Literature.
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The Trinity - Evangelical Dictionary of Theology
Crucial to the biblical doctrine of God is his Trinitarian nature. Although the term trinity is not a biblical word as such, Christian theology has used it to designate the threefold manifestation of the one God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The formulated doctrine of the Trinity asserts the truth that God is one in being or essence who exists eternally in three distinct coequal "persons."
While the term person in relation to the Trinity does not signify the limited individuality of human persons, it does affirm the personal relationship, particularly of love, within the triune Godhead.
The doctrine of the Trinity flows from the self-revelation of God in biblical salvation history. As the one God successively reveals himself in his saving action in the Son and the Holy Spirit, each is recognized as God himself in personal manifestation.
It is thus in the fullness of New Testament revelation that the doctrine of the Trinity is seen most clearly.
. God is one (Gal. 3:20; James 2:19), but the Son (John 1:1; 14:9; Col. 2:9) and the Spirit (Acts 5:3-4; 1 Cor. 3:16) are also fully God. Yet they are distinct from the Father and each other.
. The Father sends the Son and the Spirit (John 15:26; Gal. 4:4). This unified equality and yet distinctness is seen in the triadic references to the three persons.
. Christian baptism is in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).
. Likewise, all three are joined in the Pauline benediction in a different order suggesting the total equality of persons (2 Cor. 13:14; cf. Eph. 4:4-6; 1 Pet. 1:2).
23 Although the Trinity finds its clearest evidence in the New Testament, suggestions of a fullness of plurality are already found in the Old Testament revelation of God.
. The plural form of the name of God (Elohim) as well as the use of plural pronouns (Gen. 1:26; 11:7) point in this direction.
. So also do the identity of the angel of the Lord as God (Exod. 3:2-6; Judg. 13:21- 22)
. and the hypostatization of the Word (Ps. 33:6; 107:20) and Spirit (Gen. 1:2; Isa. 63:10). The Word is not simply communication about God, nor is the Spirit merely divine power. They are rather the acting God himself.
As the product of the self-revelation of God, the Trinitarian formulation is not intended to exhaust his incomprehensible nature.
Objections to the doctrine come from a rationalism that insists on dissolving this mystery into human understanding, i.e., by thinking of the oneness and threeness in mathematical terms and human personality.
Attempts have been made to draw analogies of the Trinity from nature and the constitution of man. The most notable of these is Augustine's trinity of lover, the object of love, and the love that binds the two together. While this argues strongly for a plurality within God if he is eternally a God of love apart from creation, it along with all other suggestions from the creaturely realm proves finally inadequate to explain the divine being.
The doctrine of the Trinity developed out of the church's desire to safeguard the biblical truths of the God who is the transcendent Lord over all history and yet who gives himself in person to act within history. The natural human tendencies toward either a nonhistorical divine transcendence or the absorption of the divine into the historical process are checked by the orthodox concept of the Trinity. The first is the ultimate error of the primary distortions of the Trinity. Subordinationism, which understands Christ as less than God, and adoptionism, which viewed him only as a human endowed for a time with God's Spirit, both denied that God truly entered history to confront man in person. Modalism or Sabellianism makes the persons of Christ and the Holy Spirit to be only historical roles or modifications of the one God. This error likewise tends to separate man from God; he is encountered not directly as he is in person, but as a role player who remains hidden behind a mask.
The Trinitarian doctrine is thus central to the salvation kerygma of Scripture, according to which the transcendent God acts personally in history to redeem and share himself with his creatures.
Origen rightly drew the conclusion that the believer "will not attain salvation if the Trinity is not complete."
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THE DOCTRINE IN HISTORY.
The history of Christian thought reveals persistent problems concerning the nature of God and his relation to the world. These involve the related issues of transcendence/immanence, personal/nonpersonal perspectives, and the knowability of God.
The earliest Christian theologians, who attempted to interpret the Christian faith in terms of Greek philosophical categories, tended toward an emphasis on the abstract transcendence of God. He was the timeless, changeless Absolute who was the final and adequate cause of the universe. Little could be predicated of him, and his attributes were defined primarily in the negative. He was the uncaused (possessing aseity), absolutely simple, infinite, immutable, omnipotent Being, unlimited by time (eternal) and space (omnipresent).
Although Augustine's view was more balanced with a view of the personal, immanent, condescending God in the revelation of Christ, this philosophical understanding of God dominated until the Reformation, reaching its climax in Thomas Aquinas and the medieval scholastics. Aquinas held that philosophical human reason could attain to the knowledge of the existence of God. His stress, however, was on the transcendence of God and how little he could be known.
With an emphasis on biblical rather than philosophical categories, the Reformers brought more recognition of the immanence of God within human history but maintained a strong emphasis on his transcendence, as evidenced in the definition of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
Reaction to the traditional Protestant and Catholic understanding of God with its stress on the transcendence of God came with the rise of liberal theology in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The combination of new philosophies (e.g., Kant, Hegel) making the human mind supreme for true knowledge, scientific advances that seemed to substantiate human abilities, and a new historical perspective that tended to relativize all tradition, including the Scriptures, led to a new understanding of ultimate reality. Because, as Kant argued, human reason could no longer establish the existence of a transcendent God, God became increasingly identified with the ideals of human experience. Talk of religious dependency (Schleiermacher) or ethical values (Kant, Ritschl) became talk of God. There was an almost exclusive emphasis on the immanence of God, with a tendency to see an essential kinship between the human and divine spirit. World events including two world wars and the rise of totalitarian regimes brought the collapse of old liberalism with its immanentistic understanding of God and the reassertion of divine transcendence. Led by Karl Barth, theology sought to return not to the earlier philosophical concepts of God but to the categories of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures. Based upon a radical separation between eternity and time, the transcendence of God was exaggerated to the point that a direct revelation of God in human history was denied.
25 According to this neoorthodox theology God did not speak directly in Scripture. As a result of this denial of a direct cognitive communication, with the consequent skepticism of any knowledge of God in himself, the accent on transcendence was gradually lost. A transcendent God who did not reveal himself objectively in human history was too elusive. Consequently, the religious experience of man, usually interpreted according to existential philosophy, became increasingly viewed as the key to theological knowledge. God was understood primarily as the meaning he holds for the "existential experiences" of man. This movement can be traced from Barth, whose theology maintained a strong divine transcendence, to Bultmann, who, while not denying God's transcendence, nevertheless focused almost entirely on God in the human existential experience, and finally to Tillich, who denied entirely the traditional God "out there" in favor of an immanent God as the "ground" of all being. Thus, the transcendence of God has been lost in much of contemporary thought that seeks to do theology in the existential philosophical framework. Divine transcendence is simply equated with the hidden self-transcendence of human existence.
Other contemporary theologians seek to reconstruct theology in terms of the modern scientific evolutionary understanding of the universe. Such process theology, based on the philosophy of A. N. Whitehead, sees the fundamental nature of all reality as process or becoming rather than being or unchanging substance. Although there is an abstract eternal dimension of God that provides the potential for the process, he also is understood to encompass all changing entities in his own life and therefore to be in the process of change himself. As the universe is dynamic and changing, actualizing its potentialities, so also is God.
The wide variety of contemporary formulations of God that tend to define God in ways in which he is no longer the personal Creator and sovereign Lord of human history are the direct result of denying a knowledge of God through his cognitive self-revelation in the Scriptures and the sinful human propensity to autonomy. Influenced by some of the same forces behind process theology, i.e., the modern understanding of reality as dynamic and relational, and the concern for human freedom, some contemporary evangelicals propose a so-called "open view" of God. While clearly denying his dependence on creation (as in process theology), God's relationship with his creatures is said to be more like a loving Father who works with rather than controls human beings. The central emphases on: (1) the knowledge of God in his dynamic relatedness to the world rather than the knowledge of who he is in himself, and, (2) human freedom, led the open view of God to reinterpret traditional attributes of God associated with his sovereign providence, e.g., immutability and omniscience including his knowledge of the future. These changes run into difficulty with certain scriptural data. Moreover, it is not at all evident that this new view solves traditional theological problems, such as the existence of evil and the relationship of God's sovereignty and human freedom, more adequately than the classic understanding of God. R. L. Saucy
See also God, Arguments for the Existence of; God, Attributes of; God, Names of; Revelation, General; Revelation, Special.
26 Bibliography. K. Barth, Church Dogmatics; H. Bavinck, Doctrine of God; G. Bray, Doctrine of God; E. Brunner, Christian Doctrine of God; S. Charnock, Existence and Attributes of God; W. Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testament; E. J. Fortman, Triune God; C. F. H. Henry, God, Revelation and Authority; C. Hodge, Systematic Theology; H. Kleinknecht et al., TDNT 3:65-123; G. Lewis and B. Demarest, Integrative Theology; T. V. Morris, Our Idea of God; T. V. Morris, ed., Concept of God; R. Nash, Concept of God; T. Oden, Living God; H. P. Owen, Christian Theism; J. I. Packer, Knowing God; G. L. Prestige, God in Patristic Thought; J. Schneider and C. Brown, NIDNTT 2:66-84; R. Swinburne, Christian God; H. Thielicke, Evangelical Faith; O. Weber, Foundations of Dogmatics.
— Evangelical Dictionary of Theology.
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Great Origin, Great Destiny - Boice
John 16:28-30
Some time ago in Toronto, Canada, I was talking with a young man about the various errors in theology, and I pointed out that most often heresy results from emphasizing one part of biblical truth at the expense of other parts, as a result of which even that one part is distorted.
"That is true of the Trinity," he said. I agreed, for at this point error consists in emphasizing the unity of God at the expense of the diversity of persons or emphasizing the diversity at the expense of the unity. The first heresy is unitarianism. The second is polytheism or Arianism.
As our conversation went on we pointed out that the same thing is true of the doctrine of Christ's person. Some overemphasize the deity, others the humanity. The true position is that Christ is both God and man in one person.
In thinking about the difficulty theologians have in keeping Christian doctrines straight and in balance, it is always somewhat of a surprise and relief to discover that the difficulty is never apparent in the Bible. The doctrines are there. God is both three and one. Christ is both God and man. But these truths are never stated in a labored or highly technical form. Instead, they seem to flow from the narrative or doctrinal sections of the books as easily as any other statement.
We have an example of this in the section of the Gospel of John now before us. It is toward the end of the final discourses, which close with chapter 16. The Lord is speaking, of course; and he says, "I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father" (v. 28).
This statement concerning his true nature, his heavenly origin, and his heavenly destiny, is profound but, at the same time, so simple that the disciples listening to him were led to exclaim, "Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God" (vv. 29-30).
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Beyond doubt, the disciples did not understand all that Christ was saying, but they were impressed that he knew their questions even before they asked them and could answer them simply. We should also be impressed as we begin to see all that is involved in Christ's statement. I see four parts to verse 28.
. First, there is the doctrine of his heavenly origin; it involves Christ's preexistence and his full divinity.
. Second, there is the doctrine of the Incarnation, voluntarily assumed.
. Third, there is his voluntary return to God by way of crucifixion, burial, resurrection and ascension.
. Fourth, there is the matter of his heavenly destiny.
A Heavenly Origin
The first part of Christ's statement deals with his heavenly origin, for Jesus said, "I came from the Father." This, interestingly enough, is the main part of what the disciples understood, for their response was, "This makes us believe that you came from God" (v. 30).
What did they understand Christ to be saying? They undoubtedly understood Jesus to mean that he was the Messiah, for this was a common way of talking about the Messiah's coming into the world.
Nicodemus said, when he encountered Jesus, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him" (John 3:2).
The people who witnessed the miracles of the multiplication of the loaves and fish in Galilee exclaimed, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world" (John 6:14). That they were speaking of the Messiah in this sentence is proved by the fact that they then wanted to make him king, which we read about in the next verse.
Similarly, Martha confessed, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world" (John 11:27). At the least, then, this sentence indicates that Jesus was the one sent into the world by God for the work of redemption. But it also means more than this, as Martha's additional phrase, "the Son of God," indicates. For it is not just that Jesus was a special servant of God's but rather that in addition to this he was with God from all eternity and was himself God. I do not know if the disciples understood this entirely, but it is certainly Christ's teaching, as other statements show.
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For example, in reference to his heavenly existence before the incarnation, Jesus told the Jews, "Before Abraham was born, I am" (John 8:58). His hearers understood this to be blasphemy because they immediately took up stones to kill him.
On another occasion Jesus said, "No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man" (John 3:13). He said, "What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?" (John 6:62). He said, "I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me" (John 6:38).
Even more impressive than these statements is that great assertion from the seventeenth chapter: "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began" (vv. 4-5).
Here are claims to both preexistence and deity, and they are so frequent throughout the public and private teaching of Christ that we can truthfully say that if we do not know this about him, we can in truth know nothing. Jesus claimed to be God and to have come forth from God. Is it true? Or was it false and therefore devilish teaching? Alexander Maclaren saw the issue clearly over a generation ago and expressed it as follows: 'The meekest, lowliest, and most sane and wise of religious teachers made deliberately over and over again this claim, which is either absolutely true, and lifts him into the region of the Deity, or else is fatal to his pretensions to be either meek or modest, or wise or sane, or a religious teacher to whom it is worth our while to listen."
This claim to deity is simple but stupendous. There can be no honest assessment of Christ that does not result in committing ourselves either to the truthfulness or falseness of those statements.
The Incarnation
The second part of verse 28 is an expression of the truth known as the incarnation, for Jesus said, "And [I] entered the world." There are several interesting aspects to this sentence. First, Jesus speaks of having "come" and "entered" rather than of having been "sent." It is true that Christ also was sent. Elsewhere he speaks of "the Father who sent me" (John 12:49). But this is not the point Jesus is emphasizing here. The point he is emphasizing is the voluntary nature of his incarnation. In other words, he did not have to be born. He was born because he wanted to be. This too is unique, because no one else can say that. But this raises an even bigger question, for if Jesus chose to be born, if he assumed our human nature voluntarily, we immediately want to ask why he did this.
Cur Deus Homo?
Why did the eternal Son of God become man? There are two main answers.
29 First, he became man in order to be our Savior, in order to die in our place and thereby pay the penalty of our sins so that we might be saved from the penalty and power of sin for heaven. This is the point of that passage from Hebrews from which I quoted earlier. I quoted the verse, "I have come to do your will, O God" (Heb. 10:7). But that verse is prefaced by others that speak of the way in which the sacrifice of Christ perfected the ineffectual sacrifices of animals under the Jewish sacrificial system: "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said, 'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased" (vv. 4-6). The passage says further on, "He sets aside the first [sacrifice] to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (vv. 9-10).
Once, when Donald Grey Barnhouse was talking with some students about the atonement, he used the illustration of a judge who saw his son come before him, accused of reckless driving. The charge was clearly proven, and the judge fined the young man the full amount permitted under the law. Then the judge adjourned the court, stepped down from the bench, and paid his son's fine. A girl who had been listening very intently objected, "But God cannot get down off the bench!" Barnhouse's answer was, 'You have given me one of the best illustrations of the incarnation that I will ever have. For Jesus Christ was no more or less than God, come down off the bench to pay the fine which he had imposed upon us."
There is a second reason why the Son of God became man, and it is this second answer that the Gospel most emphasizes. It is that Jesus came into the world to reveal God.
We see this clearly simply by examining the occasions on which Jesus speaks of his having "come" into the world or of his having been "sent" into the world by God.
Here is a scattering of such sentences just as one is likely to find them by reading quickly through the Gospel. "I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony" (3:11). "The one who comes from above is above all... He testifies to what he has seen and heard... The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit" (3:31-34). "My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me" (7:16). "I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence" (8:38). "As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God" (8:40). "I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. ... Whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say" (12:49-50). 'These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me" (14:24). In the great prayer of John 17, Jesus addresses the Father directly saying, "I gave them the words you gave me" (v. 8) and "I have given them your word" (v. 14).
30 The point of this is that Jesus has firsthand information about God the Father and that he should therefore be trusted and believed when he speaks of spiritual things.
A Voluntary Departure The third part of verse 28 deals with Christ's voluntary departure from this world; for he says, "Now I am leaving the world." This throws a great deal of light on the nature of his crucifixion, because if we take it seriously, it means that the crucifixion was not something thrust upon Jesus against his will (as it might well have been were we in his place) but rather that to which his entire ministry was directed and which he joyfully embraced. It was he who said, "I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and to take it up again" (John 10:17-18).
We hear much about love today, and God is assumed to be love. But it is only at the cross of Christ, in his voluntary death for us, that we learn that God truly is love. Love is seen at the cross. For this reason there is hardly a verse in the Bible which speaks of God's love that does not in the same context, often within the very verse itself, speak of Christ's voluntary sacrifice. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Or, Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." First John 4:10 declares, 'This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
Christ's Destiny
The final section of verse 28 deals with Christ's heavenly destiny: "And [I am] going back to the Father."
What is the significance for us that Jesus has returned to the Father, having come to this earth and having died for our salvation? There are several answers.
First, it shows us that the work of redemption is completed and that we can be confident as we come to God on the basis of Christ's finished work. If the work was not done, Christ should still be here completing it. But it is done. Hence, he has returned to heaven, where he has sat down at the Father's right hand. The author of Hebrews discusses this in the same passage referred to earlier, for those verses go on to say, "But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy" (Heb. 10:12-14).
Second, the fact that Christ has returned to heaven shows us that he is now in a place where he is able to impart all spiritual gifts and blessings to us as he sees we have need of them.
31 The first of these gifts was the Holy Spirit, for Jesus said, "It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you" (John 16:7). There are other gifts also. Thus, we read in Ephesians, "But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: 'When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men'" (Eph. 4:7-8; cf. Ps. 68:18).
Third, Christ's present position at the right hand of the Father is one from which he intercedes for his own.
Paul speaks of it in Romans saying that Christ "intercedes for us" (Rom. 8:34). The author of Hebrews says, "Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them" (Heb. 7:25). Thus we sing,
Arise, my soul, arise, Shake off thy guilty fears: The bleeding Sacrifice In my behalf appears: Before the Throne my Surety stands, My name is written on his hands.
It is Jesus' present position in heaven that makes us confident both of salvation and in our approach to God in our prayer and worship.
Finally, Christ's present position in heaven is a token that he is coming to earth again, this time in great power and glory and with his holy angels.
Jesus is coming. This is as sure as the fact that he has come once to die for our salvation. Will you be ready to meet him? Will you greet him as your Savior, or will you have to greet him as one whose love you have spurned, whose sacrifice you have repudiated?
You say that you believe in Christ as a great man, a great teacher. Good! That is better than nothing. But it is not enough to save you. Why stop there? Why stop with Jesus the man? Why not have the whole Christ as he is here presented?
Maclaren has well written, 'These four facts—the dwelling in the Father; the voluntary coming to earth; the voluntary leaving earth; and, again, the dwelling with the Father— are the walls of the strong fortress into which we may flee and be safe. With them it 'stands four square to every wind that blows.' Strike away one of them, and it totters into ruin. Make the whole Christ your Christ; for nothing less than the whole Christ, 'conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary,... crucified, dead, and buried,... ascended into Heaven, and sitting at the right hand of God,' is strong enough to help your infirmities, vast enough to satisfy your desires, loving enough to love you as you need, or able to deliver you from your sins, and to lift you to the glories of his own Throne."
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That is precisely the case. May you find that One and come fully to trust him for your own soul's good and the praise of the glory of his grace.
— Boice Expositional Commentary - An Expositional Commentary – Psalms, Volume 2: Psalms 42-106.
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The Trinity at Work - Boice
Let me repeat that last statement: There is no condemnation for those who have been joined to Jesus Christ by God the Father through the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit. I repeat this because it is a Trinitarian statement—it speaks of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—and because it is precisely in these terms that Paul goes on to explain what God has done for us and why "there is now no condemnation."
Can you see it in the text? After his opening statement in verse 1, Paul has two explanatory sentences, each beginning with the identical Greek word gar, translated either "because" or "for." The New International Version obscures this a bit, since it translates the Greek word as "because" at the beginning of verse 2 and as "for" at the beginning of verse 3, and because it divides the second of Paul's sentences (vv. 3-4) into two parts. But it is clear enough anyway.
In verse 2 Paul says that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because "through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." In verses 3 and 4 he says that there is no condemnation because "what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering, [thus condemning] sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit."
**When you put together those two parallel explanations of why there is now no condemnation, you see that each of the persons of the Godhead is involved.
1. God the Father.
What has God the Father done for our salvation? The answer is in two parts.
First, God sent Jesus in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.
Second, and by this means, God condemned sin in sinful man so that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in those who are joined to Christ.
Do you see now why I have called verse 1 not only the theme of Romans 8 but the very heart of the gospel? As Paul explains the basis of our deliverance, almost the entire gospel is presented in the next few verses.
33 There is the doctrine of the incarnation, God's sending his Son Jesus to be like sinful man. The word likeness (v. 3) is important, of course, for it alerts us to the fact that although Jesus was a real man, which made him able to feel as we feel, endure temptation as we endure temptation, and eventually die, he nevertheless did not become like us in regard to our sinful nature. It is what the author of Hebrews means in noting that "we have one [high priest, that is, Jesus] who has been tempted in every way, just as we are— yet was without sin" (Heb. 4:15).
Paul's statement also contains the doctrine of the atonement. For his argument is that God sent his Son to be a sin offering. This picks up on all we learned about propitiation when we were studying Romans 3. God sent Jesus to die in our place and thus turn the divine wrath aside.
Finally, and by this means, "[God] condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit." This refers to justification, God's work of condemning sin in Christ so that we might be able to stand before God in his perfect righteousness, and to the necessary work of sanctification that follows justification for all who have been saved. (We are going to look at the nature and necessity of sanctification carefully in the next study.)
2. God the Son.
What has Jesus Christ done for our salvation? We have already touched on this by noting that he became like us in order to become a sin offering.
In the context of what Paul worked out in Romans 3, this has two parts.
First, as a sin offering to God, Jesus made propitiation for our sins.
When we were studying chapter 3, I pointed out that this is a term borrowed from the world of ancient religion. It refers to turning the wrath of God aside.
Many in our time have judged this to be unworthy of the character of God and say such things as, "As if his wrath needs to be turned aside! God is not angry, he is love." But this can hardly stand in any honest study of Romans.
What Paul has been saying from the beginning is that we are all under wrath because of our wickedness. The wrath of God is precisely our problem. It must be dealt with. How? We cannot turn it aside. All we do serves only to increase it, since we accumulate wrath against ourselves constantly by every thought we have and everything we do.
Only God in the person of his Son can turn that wrath aside, and this he has done by Jesus' bearing it in our place. No one who fails to understand and believe this can be a Christian.
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Second, Jesus did a work of redemption.
Again, when we were studying chapter 3, I pointed out that redemption is a term borrowed from the ancient world of business, just as propitiation is borrowed from the ancient world of religion. It refers to buying something in the marketplace, and also to buying it out of the marketplace so it will not have to be sold there again.
This means little if we think of it in regard to mere objects, but it means a great deal if we think of it in regard to people, especially slaves. To redeem a slave was to buy the slave out of the slave market so that he or she might be set free. This is what Jesus did for us. Paul touches on it in Romans 8 when he says that "through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death" (v. 2). He means that he was once a slave to sin and death. But Jesus freed him from that, as he has all who have been saved by him.
3. God the Holy Spirit.
The third person of the Godhead is brought into the picture in verse 2 ("the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death") and in verse 4 ("who do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit").
What has the Holy Spirit done for our salvation? He has joined us to Christ, so that we become beneficiaries of all Christ has done.
When we were studying this doctrine in Romans 5, I pointed out two things.
First, that it is terribly important and perhaps the most critical doctrine of salvation in Paul's writings. Paul used the phrases "in Christ," "in Christ Jesus," "in him," or their equivalents 164 times in his writings. We can hardly emphasize this enough.
Second, this union is hard to understand. We recognize that this was true for those living in Jesus' and Paul's day as well as for us, because instead of simply explaining the doctrine in abstract language, both Jesus and Paul used illustrations.
Jesus spoke of it as…
. The relationship between a vine and its branches: "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit of itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.... Apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:4-5).
. He also used the image of eating and drinking, which we adhere to literally every time we share in the Lord's Supper: "This is my body" and "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (1 Cor. 11:24-25).
In his writings Paul illustrates the concept by three very powerful illustrations.
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. The first is the union of the head and the body, in which he compares the members of the church to the various parts of Christ's body (cf. 1 Cor. 12:12-27; Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18).
. The second is the union of the parts of a building, sometimes described as a temple that has the Lord Jesus Christ as its chief cornerstone (cf. 1 Cor. 3:9, 11-15; Eph. 2:20-22).
. The third and most powerful illustration is the union of a husband and wife in marriage. Paul ends his teaching about marriage by saying, "This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church" (Eph. 5:32).
By joining us to Christ, the Holy Spirit seals our salvation and makes possible the great declaration of this chapter: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
— Boice Expositional Commentary - An Expositional Commentary – Psalms, Volume 2: Psalms 42-106.
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TRINITY - Holman
Theological term used to define God as an undivided unity expressed in the threefold nature of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. As a distinctive Christian doctrine, the Trinity is considered as a divine mystery beyond human comprehension to be reflected upon only through scriptual revelation.
The Trinity is a biblical concept that expresses the dynamic character of God, not a Greek idea pressed into Scripture from philosophical or religious speculation.
While the term trinity does not appear in Scripture, the trinitarian structure appears throughout the New Testament to affirm that God Himself is manifested through Jesus Christ by means of the Spirit.
A proper biblical view of the Trinity balances the concepts of unity and distinctiveness.
Two errors that appear in the history of the consideration of the doctrine are tritheism and unitarianism.
. In tritheism, error is made in emphasizing the distinctiveness of the Godhead to the point that the Trinity is seen as three separate Gods, or a Christian polytheism.
. On the other hand, unitarianism excludes the concept of distinctiveness while focusing solely on the aspect of God the Father. In this way, Christ and the Holy Spirit are placed in lower categories and made less than divine. Both errors compromise the effectiveness and contribution of the activity of God in redemptive history.
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The biblical concept of the Trinity developed through progressive revelation.
The Old Testament consistently affirms the unity of God through such statements as, ―Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord‖ (Deut. 6:4). The Shema.
God’s oneness is stressed to caution the Israelites against the polytheism and practical atheism of their heathen neighbors.
The Old Testament does feature implications of the trinitarian idea. This does not mean that the Trinity was fully knowable from the Old Testament, but that a vocabulary was established through the events of God’s nearness and creativity; both receive developed meaning from New Testament writers.
. For example, the word of God is recognized as the agent of creation (Ps. 33:6,9; compare Prov. 3:19; 8:27), revelation, and salvation (Ps. 107:20). This same vocabulary is given distinct personality in John’s prologue (John 1:1-4) in the person of Jesus Christ.
. Other vocabulary categories include the wisdom of God (Prov. 8) and the Spirit of God (Gen. 1:2; Ps. 104:30; Zech. 4:6).
A distinguishing feature of the New Testament is the doctrine of the Trinity. It is remarkable that New Testament writers present the doctrine in such a manner that it does not violate the Old Testament concept of the oneness of God. In fact, they unanimously affirm the Hebrew monothestic faith, but they extend it to include the coming of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The early Christian church experienced the God of Abraham in a new and dramatic way without abandoning the oneness of God that permeates the Old Testament. As a fresh expression of God, the concept of the Trinity—rooted in the God of the past and consistent with the God of the past—absorbs the idea of the God of the past, but goes beyond the God of the past in a more personal encounter.
The New Testament does not present a systematic presentation of the Trinity. The scattered segments from various writers that appear throughout the New Testament reflect a seemingly accepted understanding that exists without a full-length discussion. It is embedded in the framework of the Christian experience and simply assumed as true.
The New Testament writers focus on statements drawn from the obvious existence of the trinitarian experience as opposed to a detailed exposition.
The New Testament evidence for the Trinity can be grouped into four types of passages.
37 1. The first is the trinitarian formula of Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 Peter 1:2; Revelation 1:4.
In each passage a trinitarian formula, repeated in summation fashion, registers a distinctive contribution of each person of the Godhead.
. Matthew 28:19, for example, follows the triple formula of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that distinguishes Christian baptism. The risen Lord commissioned the disciples to baptize converts with a trinitarian emphasis that carries the distinctiveness of each person of the Godhead while associating their inner relationship. This passage is the clearest scriptural reference to a systematic presentation of the doctrine of the Trinity.
. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 13:14, finalized his thoughts to the Corinthian church with a pastoral appeal that is grounded in ―the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit‖ (NIV). The formulation is designed to have the practical impact of bringing that divided church together through their personal experience of the Trinity in their daily lives.
. Significantly, in the trinitarian order Christ is mentioned first. This reflects the actual process of Christian salvation, since Christ is the key to opening insight into the work of the Godhead. Paul was calling attention to the trinitarian consciousness, not in the initial work of salvation which has already been accomplished at Corinth, but in the sustaining work that enables divisive Christians to achieve unity.
. In 1 Peter 1:2, the trinitarian formula is followed with reference to each person of the Godhead. The scattered Christians are reminded through reference to the Trinity that their election (foreknowledge of the Father) and redemption (the sanctifying work of the Spirit) should lead to holy living obedience to the Son).
. John addressed the readers of Revelation with an expanded trinitarian formula that includes references to the persons of the Godhead (Rev. 1:4-6). The focus on the triumph of Christianity crystallizes the trinitarian greeting into a doxology that acknowledges the accomplished work and the future return of Christ. This elongated presentation serves as an encouragement to churches facing persecution.
2. A second type of New Testament passage is the triadic form.
Two passages cast in this structure are Ephesians 4:4-6 and 1 Corinthians 12:3-6.
Both passages refer to the three Persons, but not in the definitive formula of the previous passage. Each Scripture balances the unity of the church. Emphasis is placed on the administration of gifts by the Godhead.
3. A third category of passages mentions the three persons of the Godhead, but without a clear triadic structure.
In the accounts of the baptism of Jesus (Matt. 3:3-17; Mark 1:9-11; and Luke 3:21- 22), the three synoptic writers recorded the presence of the Trinity when the Son was baptized, the Spirit descended, and the Father spoke with approval.
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Paul, in Galatians 4:4-6, outlined the work of the Trinity in the aspect of the sending Father.
Other representative passages in this category (2 Thess. 2:13-15; Titus 3:4-6; and Jude 20-21) portray each member of the Trinity in relation to a particular redemptive function.
4. The fourth category of trinitarian passages includes those presented in the farewell discourse of Jesus to His disciples (John 14:16; 15:26; 16:13-15).
In the context of these passages, Jesus expounded the work and ministry of the third person of the Godhead as the Agent of God in the continuing ministry of the Son.
The Spirit is a Teacher who facilitates understanding on the disciples’ part and, in being sent from the Father and the Son, is one in nature with the other Persons of the Trinity. He makes known the Son and ―at the same time makes known the Father who is revealed in the Son‖ (16:15).
The discourse emphasizes the interrelatedness of the Trinity in equality and operational significance.
All of these passages are embryonic efforts by the early church to express its awareness of the Trinity. The New Testament is Christological in its approach, but it involves the fullness of God being made available to the individual believer through Jesus and by the Spirit. The consistent trinitarian expression is not a formulation of the doctrine, as such, but reveals an experiencing of God’s persistent self-revelation.
In the postbiblical era, the Christian church tried to express its doctrine in terms that were philosophically acceptable and logically coherent. Greek categories of understanding began to appear in explanation efforts. Discussion shifted from the New Testament emphasis on the function of the Trinity in redemptive history to an analysis of the unity of essence of the Godhead.
A major question during those early centuries focused on the oneness of God.
. The Sabelians described the Godhead in terms of modes that existed only one at a time. This theory upheld the unity of God, but excluded His permanent distinctiveness.
. The Docetists understood Christ as an appearance of God in human form, while…
. Ebonites described Jesus as an ordinary man indwelt with God’s power at baptism.
39 . Arius was also an influential theologian who viewed Jesus as subordinate to God. To Arius, Jesus was a being created by God, higher than man, but less than God. This idea, as well as the others, was challenged by Athanasius at Nicea (A.D. 325), and the council decided for the position of Jesus as ―of the exact same substance as the Father.‖
. Probably the most outstanding thinker of the early centuries was Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354-430).
He began with the idea of God as one substance and sought explanation of the Godhead in psychological analogy: a person exists as one being with three dimensions of memory, understanding, and will; so also the Godhead exists as a unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
While this explanation is helpful and contains the concept of three persons in one, it does not resolve the complex nature of God.
Perhaps four statements can summarize and clarify this study.
1. God is One. The God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. His offer of salvation in the Old Testament receives a fuller revelation in the New Testament in a way that is not different, but more complete. The doctrine of the Trinity does not abandon the monotheistic faith of Israel.
2. God has three distinct ways of being in the redemptive event, yet He remains an undivided unity. That God the Father imparts Himself to mankind through Son and Spirit without ceasing to be Himself is at the very heart of the Christian faith. A compromise in either the absolute sameness of the Godhead or the true diversity reduces the reality of salvation. 3. The primary way of grasping the concept of the Trinity is through the threefold participation in salvation. The approach of the New Testament is not to discuss the essence of the Godhead, but the particular aspects of the revelatory event that includes the definitive presence of the Father in the person of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.
4. The doctrine of the Trinity is an absolute mystery. It is primarily known, not through speculation, but through experiencing the act of grace through personal faith.
— Holman Bible Dictionary.
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Wolves in Sheep's Clothing - Boice
Paul has some rather harsh things to say about people who divide the church over minor matters or insist that other Christians conform to their personal standards of behavior,
40 thus adding to the teaching of Christ. His harsh judgments concern both the motivation behind their actions and their basic methodology.
1. Their motivation. When people such as the ones Paul is describing first enter into a Christian congregation, they come as angels of light. That is, they present themselves as teachers who want to instruct and help other believers and move the church forward. They care for them. They want them to experience the fullness of God's blessing. But this is not what they achieve, nor is it what they are really after. Paul says they really want to serve "their own appetites," not Jesus Christ. What are these appetites? John MacArthur answers, "No matter how seemingly sincere and caring false teachers or preachers may appear to be, they are never genuinely concerned for the cause of Christ or for his church. They are often driven by self-interest and self-gratification—sometimes for fame, sometimes for power over their followers, always for financial gain, and frequently for all of those reasons. Many of them enjoy pretentious and luxurious life-styles, and sexual immorality is the rule more than the exception."
These are sometimes pastors who dominate their congregations, or evangelists who make a great deal of money and live lavishly on the many sacrificial gifts of their followers.
These teachers are described in Philippians and Jude: "Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things" (Phil. 3:18-19). "These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever" (Jude 12- 13).
No wonder Paul warned the Romans against such false teachers in strong terms.
2. Their methodology. The second thing Paul says about teachers like this concerns their methodology. They operate by deception, deliberately setting out to deceive the unwary: "By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people" (v. 18). The New International Version's "smooth talk" captures the idea behind the Greek word chrêstologia, but it is useful to note that this compound Greek word is based on the noun logos, meaning word or talk, preceded by the adjective chrêstos, meaning kind, loving, merciful, or easy to bear. In other words, the term refers to moral talk that appears to be kind and loving. Therefore, it requires a wise person to discern what is going on. We must discern that these people are not what they appear to be.
Apostles of Deceit
It is hard to read what Paul is writing about here without thinking of two recent books: The Agony of Deceit, edited by Michael Scott Horton, and Christianity in Crisis, by radio host Hank Hanegraaff. Both examine the false teaching of the best-known television evangelists, faith healers, and "health, wealth, and happiness" preachers. These men have been wildly successful in many cases, raking in millions of dollars from their followers.
41 But they have been guilty of precisely the kind of deception Paul was warning the Romans against—smooth talk and flattery.
1. Special revelations. Virtually all these teachers pretend to have received special new revelations from God. Robert Tilton built a television empire that at its peak brought in over sixty-five million dollars a year, promising healing to people who would covenant with him by sending in a large financial gift. He claimed, "God showed me a vision that almost took my breath away. I was sucked into the Spirit... and I found myself standing in the very presence of Almighty God.... He said these words to me, exactly these words." At that point he introduced the plan by which he would raise money. Fortunately, Tilton's empire has fallen on financial hard times since ABC's Prime Time Live showed how his listeners' prayer requests were first stripped of money, then quickly disposed of in huge dumpsters.
2. Little gods. These preachers tell their followers that they are "little gods." Paul Crouch said on a Trinity Broadcasting Network program, "We are gods. I am a little god. I have his name. I am one with him." Casey Treat, the pastor of Seattle's Christian Faith Center, said, "When God looks in the mirror, he sees me! When I look in the mirror, I see God!" Kenneth Hagin, another faith healer, said, "You are as much the incarnation of God as Jesus Christ was." Morris Cerullo said, "You're not looking at Morris Cerullo—you're looking at God. You're looking at Jesus."
3. A merely human Christ. Surprisingly, because it is utterly contradictory, some of these false teachers deny that Jesus Christ is fully God. Kenneth Copeland claims to have heard Jesus say, "I didn't claim I was God; I just claimed I walked with him and that he was in me.... That's what you're doing."
4. Demoting God. These teachers also limit God. Kenneth Copeland said, "God cannot do anything for you apart or separate from faith" because "faith is God's source of power." Frederick Price declared, "God has to be given permission to work in this earth realm on behalf of man.... Yes! You are in control!... When God gave Adam dominion, that meant God no longer had dominion. So, God cannot do anything in this earth unless we let him. And the way we let him or give him permission is through prayer."
5. Gospel of greed. This false teaching tells people how God wants them to get rich and how being poor is sinful. Frederick Price says, "If the Mafia can ride around in Lincoln Continental town cars, why can't the King's Kids?" Robert Tilton said, "Not only is worrying a sin, being poor is a sin when God promises prosperity." How different from the Son of Man, who did not even have "a place to lay his head" (Matt. 8:20).
These quotations are enough to show how heretical the evangelists I have just named are. Christians should be appalled at such teaching. Yet thousands of people who consider themselves to be sincere spiritual Christians apparently do not know that this is false, or choose to ignore it. Otherwise they would not give these men millions of dollars or recommend that others watch their programs.
42 What are we to call this teaching? Heresy, yes. But also deliberate deception. In some cases, as in that of some faith healers, their deception has been documented.
Peter Popoff is a southern California-based evangelist. During a large crusade in which he claimed to have supernatural knowledge of the names and ailments of several people in the audience a shrewd member of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion named James Randi used a radio scanner to pick up the frequency on which Popoff's wife was broadcasting information to him. She fed him names, illnesses, and addresses of people in the audience to whom she had previously spoken. In the spring of 1986 Randi made his findings public on NBC's The Tonight Show.
This is a modern-day parallel to what took place in the Garden of Eden when Satan deceived Eve by promising that if she and her husband disobeyed God and followed Satan they would be "like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:5). Of course, they already were like God, because they had been made in God's image (see Gen. 1:26-27). After they sinned, Adam and Eve actually became like Satan, who knew evil because he practiced it.
Have Nothing to Do with Them
Not all deceivers and flatterers in the church are this obvious, but they still pose a terrible threat to true Christian people and congregations. Paul gives an answer to what should be done about them in this important paragraph in Romans. It is a simple bit of advice. Yet before we notice what it is, we need to see what it is not. Notice that the Roman Christians were not told to harm the heretics physically, as many church leaders did in the Middle Ages. They were not to have witch trials or burn heretics at the stake. More surprisingly, they were not told to debate the false teachers, to try to prove them wrong.
Quite simply, they were "to watch out for" them and "keep away from them" (v. 17).
Then, as if to explain what he is talking about, Paul says, "I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil" (v. 19). Put in today's terms, this means that Christians should not watch false teachers on television. We should not buy their books or attend their meetings. We should ignore them as figures standing entirely outside the fold of genuine Christianity. In other words, we are to know that they are there but keep away from them. The verb translated "watch out for" in verse 17 is skopeo, from which we get our word scope, as in telescope and microscope. It has given us our word bishop, which means an overseer.
Paul is only telling the Romans in his own words what Jesus said on the issue. Jesus told his disciples, "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them" (Matt. 7:15- 16). He warned, "False Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible" (Matt. 24:24). He also said, "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard against [them]" (Matt. 10:16-17).
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That is exactly what Paul is saying in the last verse of this section when he tells the Roman congregation, "I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil" (v. 19).
We are to know about evil, but we are not to know everything about it. We must not want to. Instead, we must fill our minds and hearts with what is good—with the doctrines of this letter, for example—and be on our guard against those who would lead us from the simplicity of what we have been taught to the deception of special revelations, new insights, novel doctrines, or movements that bow before a human teacher rather than glorify God.
— Boice Expositional Commentary - An Expositional Commentary – Psalms, Volume 2: Psalms 42-106.
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Health, Wealth, and What? - Boice
Romans 10:10
For the last few studies I have been following an alternating procedure in which I have first expounded a text from Romans and then dealt with wrong ways of understanding the gospel or doing evangelism that result from misusing or neglecting what the text teaches.
Thus far I have dealt with two wrong approaches:
(1) the religion of signs and wonders, and
(2) the doctrine that eliminates claims of Christ to lordship from salvation matters.
In this study I want to tackle another serious aberration, namely, the gospel that is often proclaimed on television by the so-called television evangelists. This is sometimes called the "health, wealth, and happiness" gospel.
The reasons I am dealing with this aberration at this point is that it has bearing on the word saved, which we came to in the last two verses we were studying. Romans 10:9 says, "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (emphasis added). The next verse, Romans 10:10, says, "For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved" (emphasis added).
I said in the last study that the future tense of the verb in verse 9 indicates that this is speaking of salvation from the wrath of God against sin at the last judgment. If I had been dealing with this fully, I could have shown that "salvation" is an inclusive term for what the Bible offers.
It includes:
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(1) salvation from the penalty of sin, a past tense;
(2) salvation from the power of sin, a present tense; and
(3) salvation from the presence of sin, a future tense.
Each part has to do with sin.
Most Christians will think this is obvious. What person who claims to be a Christian could deny it? Yet this is precisely what is being lost or even denied by the many popular TV preachers.
This is no small matter. The error concerns the very essence of Christianity, and it is unusually harmful if for no other reason than that television is so pervasive and influential. For millions of Americans, the "electronic church" is virtually all they know of Christianity.
The Gospel According to Television
Let me begin by setting some parameters and providing some focus. First, what I am going to say does not apply to all religious television. It does not apply to the broadcasts of the Billy Graham Association, for instance. Billy Graham is an exception in this, as in many other areas of his unique ministry. Joel Nederhood's "Faith 20" program is another exception. So also, though to a lesser degree, is James Kennedy's television program. People who know the television medium well will say rightly that these programs are "bad television." That is, they do not play to television's unique capacities for oversimplification, drama, and entertainment. But that is precisely why they are a good exception. I hope they will survive.
What I am referring to are the exceptionally popular (read "financially successful") programs, particularly those that promote what is generally called "positive [or possibility] thinking" and "positive confessionism."
These programs are associated with such names as Robert Schuller, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Oral Roberts, and Robert Tilton.
Instead of a traditional gospel of salvation from sin, these TV evangelists preach a man- centered gospel that, in its mildest form, offers self-esteem without repentance and, in its most startling extension, proclaims the deification of man, with its inevitable blasphemous encroachments on God's prerogatives.
This TV gospel promotes self-esteem instead of sin, self-help instead of atonement and redemption, an entertainer instead of Christ, and a lust for power instead of true discipleship.
45 In 1990, a talented friend of mine named Michael Horton edited a book on the TV evangelists entitled The Agony of Deceit. He concluded, after a careful examination of the actual teachings of this influential group of communicators, "All of the televangelists censured in this book tend to trivialize the plan of salvation. There is rarely any serious attempt to explain to the masses such basic redemptive truths as the substitutionary atonement, propitiation, or sacrifice and satisfaction.... One thing the viewer comes away with is the sense that the purpose of evangelism is not to satisfy God and his purposes, but to satisfy the consumer with the product."
In the following analysis I am depending in large measure on the material assembled by Horton and his associates.
The Gospel of Self-Esteem
The least objectionable, but still harmful, form of the TV gospel is the message of "self- esteem" associated with the name of Robert Schuller, pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, not far from Disneyland. Schuller's weekly Sunday-morning services are broadcast on more than two hundred television stations worldwide, and he is watched by more than three million people. In an interview feature in late 1984, Christianity Today claimed that he is "reaching more non-Christians than any other religious leader in America."
Robert Schuller wants to be orthodox and claims to be. He believes in the inerrancy of the Bible and affirms the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian creeds. He even claims to be a Calvinist, professing submission to the Westminster Standards and the Canons of the Synod of Dort, which is the official standard of his denomination.
Nevertheless, Schuller's doctrine of sin is deficient, and as a result his doctrine of salvation has shifted away from the message of God's redeeming work in Christ to what is basically a philosophy of positive thinking, at least to the extent that his views are disclosed on television.
In 1982, Schuller wrote a book that was mailed free to every minister in America. It was titled Self-Esteem: The New Reformation. In this book Schuller took issue with the ways traditional preaching speaks of sin and proposed a gospel of enlightened "self-esteem" instead. Clearly, Schuller believes that if other ministers follow his approach, most of them will have the same or nearly the same (numerical) success he has had.
What did he say? Schuller wrote, "Reformation theology failed to make clear that the core of sin is a lack of self-esteem." "The most serious sin is the one that causes me to say, 'I am unworthy. I may have no claim to divine sonship if you examine me at my worst.'" "Once a person believes he is an 'unworthy sinner,' it is doubtful if he can really honestly accept the saving grace God offers in Jesus Christ." Writing along the same lines in a paragraph quoted by Christianity Today in 1984, Schuller said, "I don't think anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and, hence, counterproductive to the
46 evangelism enterprise than the often crude, uncouth, and unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition."
To be fair to Schuller, he claims that his evangelistic strategy is to get non-Christians in the door, as it were, and then teach them the gospel later. But it is also fair to say that whatever is heard on Schuller's influential television program is not that gospel.
Besides, one cannot help but question whether the true gospel can ever be built on a false foundation.
In a helpful analysis of Schuller, authors Dave Hunt and T. A. McMahon write, "One thing is certain...: The Bible never urges self-acceptance, self-love, self-assertion, self- confidence, self-esteem, self-forgiveness, nor any of the other selfisms that are so popular today. The answer to depression is not to accept self, but to turn from self to Christ. A preoccupation with self is the very antithesis of what the Bible teaches. "
Health, Wealth, and Happiness
The second, and much more harmful brand of the TV gospel is the "health, wealth, and happiness" message of the positive confessionists, men like Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Oral Roberts, and Robert Tilton. These preachers believe that "health, wealth, and happiness" are the birthright of every Christian and that the power to attain them lies within Christians themselves. They affirm the gospel. I know of none who would deny outright that Jesus died for sin and rose again from the dead. But this is not the gospel they preach. In fact, they seem almost intentionally to ignore it.
What these preachers really seem to believe in is the power of the mind to visualize and thus create what one desires. This is New Age thinking. It is not far removed from the fantasies of Shirley MacLaine and may actually have the same origins, as some argue.
A popular slogan for this distortion of the Bible's message is: "Name it and claim it." That is, we have the right to whatever we want because we are God's sons and daughters or even, as we will see, because we are ourselves "little gods."
We see this view reflected in book and pamphlet titles such as Kenneth E. Hagin's "How to Write Your Own Ticket with God" and Robert Tilton's magazine, Signs, Wonders and Miracles of Faith, which is filled with stories of financial and physical success from his followers. Kenneth Copeland has written "God's Will Is Health" and "God's Will Is Prosperity." Oral Roberts promises people on his mailing list, "prosperity miracles that are within fingertip reach of your faith," and one of his most recent books is titled How I Learned Jesus Was Not Poor.
Christians who know their Bibles may wonder how the TV evangelists deal with Bible statements to the contrary, statements that say we are called to suffer with Christ or Job's statement that "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away" (Job 1:21). It is not often that we hear the TV evangelists contradict Scripture, but they do at this point.
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**Charles Capps, another "name it and claim it" preacher, said that Job "was sure not under the anointing" when he said, "the Lord gives and the Lord takes away" and called the statement a "lie." !!!!
The false teaching I have been describing would be serious enough if it stopped here. But, unfortunately, it does not. In an effort to enforce the "authority" the positive confessionists believe to have been given to each Christian, these teachers extend their errors to insist that by their rebirth, Christians have become "little gods" and therefore possess the authority of God himself, not only in "health, wealth, and happiness" matters but in all things.
This is either so ignorant or so diabolical that it is hard for most Christians to believe that such "nice Christian men" are teaching this. But they are, as scores of verbatim quotations show.
Here are some examples....
. Kenneth Copeland, one of the most popular TV evangelists, said, "Every man who has been born again is an incarnation, and Christianity is a miracle. The believer is as much an incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth." On another occasion he said, "You don't have a god in you. You are one."
. Kenneth E. Hagin wrote, "Even many in the great body of Full Gospel people do not know that the new birth is a real incarnation; they do not know that they are as much sons and daughters of God as Jesus."
. In a televised interview with Copeland, Trinity Broadcasting Network's Paul Crouch made this statement: "We are gods. I am a little god. I have his name. I am one with him.... Critics be gone!"
. Here is a particularly offensive example from a tape series called "Believing in Yourself" by Casey Treat.
The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost had a conference and they said, "Let's make man an exact duplicate of us." Oh, I don't know about you, but that does turn my crank! An exact duplicate of God! Say it out loud—"I'm an exact duplicate of God!" [The audience repeats it a bit tentatively and uncertainly] Come on, say it! [He leads them in unison.] "I'm an exact duplicate of God!" Say it again, "I'm an exact duplicate of God!" [The congregation is getting into it, louder and bolder, with more enthusiasm each time.] Say it like you mean it! [He's yelling now.] "I'm an exact duplicate of God!" Yell it out loud! Shout it! [They follow as he leads.] "I'm an exact duplicate of God!" "I'm an exact duplicate of God!" [Repeatedly].... When God looks in the mirror, he sees me! When I look in the mirror, I see God! Oh, hallelujah!...
48 You know, sometimes people say to me, when they're mad and want to put me down.... "You just think you're a little god." Thank you! Hallelujah! You got that right! "Who d'you think you are, Jesus?" Yep! Are you listening to me? Are you kids running around here acting like little gods? Why not? God told me to!... Since I'm an exact duplicate of God, I'm going to act like God!"
What we see in this teaching is an inevitable multiplication of false doctrines. It began with unlimited faith, but it soon progressed to unlimited health, unlimited wealth, unlimited power, and unlimited divinity. And even that is not the end. The last stage is unlimited dominion, even more dominion or authority than Jesus.
Kenneth Hagin tells of a supposed conversation he had with God that was periodically interrupted by Satan.
Hagin asked God to silence the devil, but God said he couldn't do it. He was powerless. So Hagin commanded Satan to be quiet. Hagin concluded his story with these words: "Jesus looked at me and said, 'If you hadn't done anything about that, I couldn't have.'"
What is the end purpose of this unlimited, divine authority? I remind you that it is to grow healthy and rich, and to be happy for that reason.
That is, it is selfish.
. Pat Robertson said, "We are to command the money to come to us."
. Fred Price says, "You, as a Christian, are supposed to be master of your circumstances.... There is no way in the world you can reign as a king and be poverty-stricken."
Let me say that I do not know of any teachings anywhere that are a better contemporary illustration of the warning of 2 Timothy 3:1-5, which says that in the last days,
"people will be lovers of themselves [the gospel of 'self-esteem'], lovers of money [and]... lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God [the 'health, wealth, and happiness' gospel]."
— Boice Expositional Commentary - An Expositional Commentary – Psalms, Volume 2: Psalms 42-106.
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……………………… TEXTS …………………..
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• explanation of. Mark 1:10-11; Acts 1:4-5 • Jesus' words affirm its reality. Matthew 28:19 • its role in salvation. Romans 5:5-6 • the unholy trinity of the last days. Revelation 13:1
……………………. ILLUSTRATIONS ………………..
THREE IN ONE Genesis 1:26-27; Luke 3:16; John 1; 4:23-24 Tertullian, a curmudgeonly theologian of the early church, provided this metaphor: "It is an image of the Trinity as a plant, with the Father as a deep root, the Son as the shoot that breaks forth into the world, and the Spirit as that which spreads beauty and fragrance." Illustrations for Every Topic and Occasion - – Perfect Illustrations: For Every Topic and Occasion. …. Saint Patrick and the Shamrock About the year 441 A.D., St. Patrick, who has since been called the Apostle of Ireland, went over there bent upon carrying out his long- cherished plan of converting the Irish to Christianity. On one occasion, when preaching before one of their petty kings, he spoke of the Holy, Blessed, and Glorious Trinity, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, as being not three Gods, but Three Persons in One God. The king listened in amazement, and at length interrupted him, to ask in the words of one of old, 'How can these things be?' St. Patrick stooped and picked a leaf of the shamrock, with which the
50 ground was there carpeted. Then, holding it up, he said, "Do you see this leaf, O king?" "Certainly I do," replied the king. And now, touching each lobe of the trefoil in succession, Saint Patrick asked the King, "What is this?" "A leaf." "And this?" "A leaf." "And this?" "A leaf." "As, then, O King, you see and confess that this leaf consists of three leaves, and yet nevertheless is but one leaf; so God the Blessed Trinity consists of Three Divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and yet is but One Lord—God Almighty." The king saw the force of the illustration, believed in and confessed the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and was baptized into the faith. From the use thus made by St. Patrick of the shamrock in illustrating the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, this leaf has ever since been employed as the national emblem of Ireland.
- Bible Illustrations – Heartwarming Bible Illustrations. … **John Wesley said: "Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man that can comprehend the Triune God!"
-Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations: Signs of the Times.
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The Fingers In Benediction In the Greek and Roman Church the thumb and first two fingers represent the Trinity. The thumb, being strong, represents the Father; the long and or second finger, Jesus Christ; and the first finger, the Holy Ghost, which proceedeth from the Father and the Son. Some bishops of the Anglican Church use this gesture while pronouncing the benediction. —E. Cobham Brewer
Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. …. * A Part Of Main Structure Rev. W. Kingstone Greenland visited a vacant house with a friend who desired to purchase it. The friend was particularly struck by the beauty of one of the rooms which he wished to turn into his study; but he objected to a cupboard in the corner. "I will have to remove it," he said to the architect. "No, you won't," was the reply. "But I can do what I like if I buy the house," said the man. "You cannot do what you like with that cupboard," answered the architect. "Why not?" he asked, "Is it protected by a clause in the deed?" "No," said the architect, "it is not on the deed: it is on the plan. You cannot take away the cupboard without taking down the house; it is part of the main structure."
52 So if we take away the Deity of Christ, we destroy the whole structure of Christianity. That doctrine is built in. It is central. It is a part of the structure.
Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. …. Firstborn Of Every Creature" A Christian minister once had a member of a well-known Jehovah's Witness cult in his audience who constantly interrupted the meeting by shouting and heckling. "You cannot prove that Jesus is the eternal Son of God," he said. "He was the FIRSTBORN of every creature; so He could not be deity. The eternal Father must therefore be older than His Son; and if Christ is not as old as His Father, then He is not eternal, if He is not eternal, He cannot be God." The preacher carefully considered the statement, "A father must be older than his son"; then he gave this withering reply: "While you might make such a point concerning an earthly parent, it certainly does not apply when we speak of God. I will prove that to you by your own words. "You have just called God the eternal Father. But how can God be the eternal FATHER (not just God) without having an eternal Son? Eternal FATHERHOOD demands eternal SONSHIP! When did your own paternal parent begin to be your father? At the very moment you became his son, and not before! While time must elapse before one can become a human father, this is not true of God. He is the eternal Father, and therefore He must have an eternal Son!" The critic fell silent as he pondered the preacher's words. (cf: Psalm 2:7; Acts 13:33)
—M. R. DeHaanEncyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. ….
53 Heresies In Early Church In the fourth century A.D. Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, began to propagate the view that Jesus though the Son of God, could not be co- eternal with His Father and that He must be regarded as external to the divine essence and only a creature. Arius held that Christ was not true God. Our text calls Christ, "the Word," making Him a Person in the Trinity. Arianism could be classified as the progenitor of modern Unitarianism. In the fourth century, Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea in Syria, wrote against Arianism and other heresies. Zealously wishing to maintain the true error of denying Christ's full humanity, he declared that Christ had a human body but did not possess a human spirit. The complete true proper humanity of Jesus was thus denied. In the fifth century, Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, taught that Christ was both God and man, but that the Godhead was one Person, the manhood another. Instead of a union of two natures with distinction, Nestorians taught that there were two persons. In this same era lived Eutyches, a monk of Constantinople, who was a zealous foe of Nestorianism: yet he proposed another strange theory concerning the nature of our Lord. The Christological view of Eutyches was that the human nature of Christ is absorbed into the divine; yet Eutychianism holds firmly to one nature, the divine in Christ. This made the humanity of Christ a mere accident of the immovable divine substance. The early church met these heretics with four adverbs which briefly and conveniently defined the two natures in Christ's Person. They said that when "the Word was made flesh" the divine and the human natures were united "truly," to oppose the Arians; "perfectly," to oppose the Apollinarians; "undividedly," to oppose the Nestorians; and "unmixedly," to oppose the Eutychians.
54 —Thomas G. Lawrence
Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. …. ** The Issues The Modernist-Fundamentalist controversy was based on: . Virgin Birth . deity . substitutionary atonement . bodily resurrection . second coming of Christ . inerrant authority of Scripture Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. ….
**Nature Of Light Science tells us that light is constituted of three rays, or groups of wavelengths, distinct from each other, no one of which without the others would be light. Each ray has its own separate function. The first originates, the second formulates, illuminates or manifests, and the third consummates. The first ray, often called invisible light, is neither seen nor felt. The second is both seen and felt. The third is not seen but is felt as heat. —Christian Victory
Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. ….
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