Believers Armed and Dangerous

The Bible has been accused of having discrepancies.  In order to defend the Bible, we need to better understand these objections.  So, this is the beginning of a series dedicated to doing just that.

There are supposed contradictions, errors, lies, etc.  These “discrepancies” fall into several categories, so I thought it would be good to look at some of the ways the Bible is misunderstood and at some of the accusations made.  We’ve touched on a few of these in earlier blogs, but this series will look more deeply at some of these and why they are misunderstood.

The first we’ll look at are additions to the text.  But, first we need to look at what a manuscript is versus a text.  There are more than 24,000 manuscripts of all or part of the New Testament.  A manuscript is simply a handwritten copy of a document.  There are variations in these manuscripts, mostly very small errors like misspelled words, change in word order, etc.  Scholars compare these manuscripts and try to arrive at what the original actually said.  When they think they’ve come as close as possible to the original, they create a text.  The text is their representation of what they believe the original looked like. 

Though there are 24,000 manuscripts, there are only two major Greek texts, the Received Text (Textus Receptus or “TR”) and the Westcott & Hort (W&H) text.  The TR was created in 1516 by Erasmus, a Catholic monk and fine Greek scholar and represents a large number of the 24,000 manuscripts.

The W&H was published in 1881 and represents only a very few, about five, of the earliest manuscripts now available.  These early manuscripts had not been discovered at the time the TR was published.

So, the two texts are the TR with the majority of manuscripts represented and the W&H with the very oldest manuscripts represented.

Now on to the two “discrepancies” we’re looking at.  If you have a modern Bible, you should see a footnote at Mark 16:9-20 telling you this passage is not in the earliest manuscripts.  Many believe the accepted default is to go with the earliest manuscripts since they are the closest to the original autographs.  So, a note is added to make the reader aware of this situation.

What is thought to have happened with Mark is early scribes made copies of the New Testament books for their own use.  As such, many made personal notes or observations in the margins, at the end of the page, or even included them in the text.  It was their own copy for their own use.  Why not?  The problem came when someone would borrow their copy to make their own copy and included the notes into the text by mistake.  W&H scholars believe this is what happened with Mark 16:9-20.  We’re not claiming Mark 16 is not Scripture, just that it doesn’t appear in the earliest manuscripts we have.

Now for 1 John 5:7 : (KJV)  “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”  You can see how valuable this would be in defending the trinity doctrine if the verse were genuine.

How did this make its way into the TR?   As the story goes, Erasmus (who compiled the TR), found no Greek manuscript which included 1 John 5:7, so he left it out of the first two editions of his text.  The Roman Catholic scholars objected to this verse being “left out” as it did appear in the Latin Vulgate, the official translation of the Roman Catholic Church.  Erasmus said something like, “If you can show me a single Greek manuscript of 1 John which includes this verse, I’ll include it in the third edition of my Greek text.  The scholars had a manuscript the next day (the ink was still wet).  With this and pressure from the Vatican, Erasmus included the verse.  Unfortunately, the third edition is the one upon which the TR is based.  You will not find this verse in modern translations and usually will find a footnote about it in the KJV and NKJV.

So, over the millennia, errors, additions, and other changes have crept into the various manuscripts of the New Testament.  We’ll look at more of these in the blogs to come.  But, realize, we are agreed that we have a very accurate representation of the Bible in its original form with better than 98% accuracy.  The portions in question have no bearing at all on doctrine, faith, or practice.  You can trust the Bible you hold in your hand whether it’s from the TR or from W&H.

You’ll hear everyone from atheists to cultists try to belittle the Bible because it has additions.  Just answer back that this is common with old manuscripts with so many copies available.  Fortunately, we have plenty of manuscripts to compare in order to find the meaning and wording of the original.

2 Timothy 2:24-26 (ESV)
And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

I’m involved in Facebook groups for Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Muslims, and atheists, and I’m somewhat surprised by the way people in those groups who call themselves Christians present themselves.  I see this especially in the Muslim vs Christian group, but it appears in all the other groups I’m a member of as well.  Some Christians throw insults, are disrespectful, and just generally obnoxious.  That’s not our role in the world, is it?

I understand that we get angry with some things that are said about our faith and even about our Savior.  I get angry sometimes myself.  But, we always have time to calm down before responding.  We have time to pray, to spend a little time in the Word rather than slash out in anger.

I’ve even had Christians argue with me that they can be disrespectful and strike out as Jesus did in the temple with the moneychangers.  Jesus struck out in righteous anger, yes, but He was striking out at those corrupting His Father’s house, not someone who disagreed with Him on a theological point or who came from another religious system.  He was patient with gentiles and people like Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman.  Even the Jews in John chapter 8 were treated with respect by Jesus though they sought to kill Him.  True, they were doing the devil’s work, and Jesus pointed that out to them.  We can do that as well to those who are purposely and knowingly combating the gospel.

Most often, though, when we’re talking with people with whom we disagree, we’re talking with people who are deceived.  Our job is to help them better understand the gospel, and as Peter says in 1 Peter 3:18, “…with gentleness and respect.”

God has assigned us the job of showing the Truth of the Bible and the love of Christ.  We don’t accomplish that with insults.  Everyone we speak with is someone for whom Christ died.  Let’s treat them that way.

Paul said, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” (1 Cor. 11:1).  Would we be willing to say that online and ask the people there to hold us accountable?  It might start a revolution of courteous loving Christians in Facebook.  Worth a try.

The Bible contains the very words of God:  Exodus 20:1-2 (ESV)  And God spoke all these words, saying,  “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

The words of angels:  Luke 1:13 (ESV) But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.”

The words of Satan himself:  Luke 4:3 (ESV) The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

The words of demons:  Matthew 8:31 (ESV) And the demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.”

The words of men: Exodus 3:3 (ESV) And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”    

It even records the words of a donkey:  Numbers 22:28 (ESV)  Then the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?”

There are metaphors:  Isaiah 64:8 (ESV) “But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

There are similes:  Mark 4:26-29 (ESV) And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.”

There are even lies in the Bible: Genesis 3:4 (ESV) But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.”

So, yes, there are lies in the Bible, but two points need to be made here: God Himself does not lie (Num 23:19) and the Bible records all events and quotes accurately.  So, while there are lies quoted in the Bible, the Bible Itself does not lie (John 17:17).

Why is this important?  Well, you will sometimes hear opponents of the Bible misquote passages or quote some person in the Bible to say the Bible teaches or sanctions something evil.  How do we handle such objections?  We simply point out that, while the Bible reports these acts, it does not endorse them.  So, be careful.  Biblical citations need to be read in context. 

In a very real sense, the Bible should be read much like a newspaper.  It includes figures of speech and quotes from all sorts of individuals.  When the Los Angeles Times publishes the times for sunset and sunrise, we don’t think the writers believe the sun actually rises and sets but that the earth rotates.  Sunrise and sunset are just figures of speech.  When they used to call Ted Kennedy, “The Lion of the Senate,”  we didn’t think they were saying he was a jungle cat.  How foolish.  In the same way, we need to include a little common sense with our Bible reading. 

Now, when someone tells you the Bible teaches a flat earth because Isa. 11:12 talks about the four corners of the earth, tell them to get a life.

 

We as Christians struggle with doing right and with sin.  It is a constant fight to keep our heads above water.  One side, the spirit, tugs at us to follow God’s commands and please Him.  The other, our flesh, pulls us the other way trying to please ourselves, and we often fall.  Paul faced the same struggles:

Romans 7:18-21 (ESV)
¹⁸  For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
¹⁹  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
²⁰  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
²¹  So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

It’s the sin in our lives, both past and present, that causes us to withdraw from God, to see ourselves as worthless, as unworthy, as unqualified for what Christ gave and the salvation He offers.

A little over a year ago, I met a man, Jim Delozier.  Jim was a Christian, but you could see by how Jim presented himself that he had faced some hard times in his past, that his was a tough.  He was, as was said at Jim’s memorial service, “a warrior.”  You can hear Jim’s testimony on Youtube.com here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao1uasDBwwE   It starts about 18 1/2 minutes into the video.

Anyway, something Jim said in his testimony last year was about a dream Jim had had.  It describes how we feel and how we often respond to our Lord.

In Jim’s dream, he saw Jesus come to him.  Jim began to weep, and Jesus asked, “Don’t you believe in me?”  In his dream, Jim said, “Of course I believe in You.  It’s me.  I’m the one who doesn’t deserve it.”  We see ourselves facing Jesus with our sin standing alongside of us.

The born-again experience is such a personal thing that I often see only myself and Jesus.  I think no one else carries the sin I carry.  No one else has hurt God as I have hurt Him.  But Jim’s simple but powerful statement clarified it for me and for all the men in that room.  The dream ended with Jesus telling Jim He was coming back for him.

No matter what we have done, no matter Who we have hurt, no matter the guilt we carry inside of us, as Jim says at the end of his testimony, Jesus is coming back for us.

A friend of mine, Steve, told a story the other day of his son and a hunting trip they had taken together.  They stumbled on an old railroad track, and his young son started picking up railroad spikes that lay all around the site.  Soon he had 35 pounds of these spikes in his backpack, and he was struggling.  But, because his dad had warned him it would be too heavy if he picked up too many, pride kept him from dropping some of the spikes.

Jesus tells us, like Steve’s son, we carry a heavy burden we don’t need to.  Yes, we feel worthless and unworthy to accept Jesus’ gift.  We think we are the exception to John 3:16.  “God, couldn’t really want me, we tell ourselves.” 

God knew all about the human condition.  That’s why He had Paul write Romans 7.  But He also had Paul write chapter 8 which starts out:

• Romans 8:1-4 (ESV)
  ¹ There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
  ²  For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
  ³  For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
  ⁴  in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Paul is saying, if we are still holding ourselves responsible for sins of the past and the present, we are purposely rejecting Christ’s gift and living under the Law.  Condemnation because of sinful works is the other side of the “salvation by works” coin.  These are not God’s plan.

Jim went to be with the Lord earlier this month.  Jesus came back for him.  The Lord didn’t count Jim’s sin against him.  He counted his heart and his love for Christ.  We will be held to that and only that standard as well.

Forgiveness is a huge part of our lives as Christians.  We enjoy God’s unmerited forgiveness for our sins (1 John 1:9).  It is in the very nature of God to forgive (Ps. 130:3-4), so forgiveness is a righteous act.  We should emulate God in this.

Jesus’ death on the cross, the shedding of Christ’s blood, was the payment so we could be forgiven (Mat. 26:28).  So, forgiveness is important to God.  In an earlier post, we looked at sin and how sin is anything which does not align with God’s nature.  Since that’s true, not to forgive others would be sin.  And that’s where the real problem lays, doesn’t it?

Some of us have had things done to us which are difficult to forgive.  Maybe we’ve been abused, spat on, treated unjustly, and so on.  God doesn’t seem to care about the scale of what has been done to us, He wants to forgive that person.  Col. 3:12-13 says we are to forgive one another.  You just can’t forgive that one offender?  Too bad.  It’s God’s instruction to the Christian.

And if you think this is just an instruction for us to forgive only brothers and sisters in Christ or only those who seek forgiveness, Heb. 12:14-15 says one of the reasons we should forgive others is for our sakes, not just for the other person’s or to satisfy God.  This passage says bitterness will arise in us if we fail to forgive others.  We are to extend God’s grace to all, ALL, who have offended us.  That arrogant relative who has been belittling you since childhood, that guy at the office who continues to show you in a bad light, even the guy who cuts you off on the freeway, all these are to be forgiven.

There is a difference between forgiven and forgotten, however.  If you were abused as a child by a relative, for instance, forgiveness of that relative does not mean you should leave your children alone with him.  God isn’t saying that.  After all, we are to be as wise as serpents (Mat. 10:16), not crazy.

Lastly, I’d like to point out one of the most frightening passages of Scripture for us who find it difficult to forgive some folks.  In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus tells us to ask God to forgive us just as we are forgiven.  Some of us can twist that a little into thinking God will forgive us even if we don’t forgive others.  But, look at the next two verses following the Lord’s Prayer:

Matthew 6:14-15 (ESV)
¹⁴  For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,
¹⁵  but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Verse 14 should thrill us, but verse 15 should scare the tar out of us all. 

It is our obligation as Christians to forgive others.  Some we can forgive immediately.  Those are the easy ones.  But God wants us to forgive the difficult ones as well.  I’ve found forgiveness sometimes takes years.  There’s only one way to accomplish forgiveness for those difficult folks, seek God’s help, and start today.

God has just one main goal: To make heaven as full as possible and hell as empty as possible.

Our lives on earth are important as God uses our years here to give us time to know Him and to introduce Him to others through word and deed.  Granted, there are more purposes to our lives, but these are the overriding ones. 

God’s plan stretches over thousands of years.  My spiritual life today is a tiny part of it and dependent on those who came before.  Hopefully, it will also be a brick in the foundation of those who are yet to come. 

The Born Again experience is a sort of benevolent pyramid scheme.  It depends on the work of others.  Someone shared Christ with Walter Martin at one time, and he wrote a book that pointed me to Christ.  In turn, there are people I have introduced to Christ.  That’s how it works.  There’s an unbroken chain from Adam and Eve to us and on to our spiritual descendents.  That’s God’s plan.

Many Christians believe happiness should be our lot in this life, but God often has a different plan.  It’s not that He doesn’t love us.  It’s that He loves all of us, even those who reject Him.  Jesus died for all the world, not just the few.  Other than our relationship with God and His effect through us on the lives of others, our time on earth is of little value in His grand plan.

On the morning of All Saints Day, November 1,  1755, a powerful earthquake lasting more than six minutes struck Lisbon, Portugal.  The destructive earthquake, accompanying tsunami, and devastating fire afterward killed an estimated 10,000 people many of whom were in churches worshipping.  The atheist, Voltaire, wrote a famous poem questioning a God who could allow such evil to happen to His children.  “Evil?”  I can think of no better way to go to God than on my knees in prayer.  The deaths of these people caused others to realize the temporary nature of life and turn to God.   Voltaire’s poem caused a stir in Europe, and many came to accept Christ through the resulting debates.  God has a plan. 

God often uses suffering and death to bring people to His Son.  If we ever think the godly life should only be filled with happiness, we should reread Job and 2 Cor. 11:21-29 to remind us of what God’s people have gone through in their lives.  The word, “happy” only appears 11 times in the Bible and is never a promise.  “Joy” appears nearly 200 times.  Only the Christian can be joyful through painful trials (James 1:2).

Our God is omniscient.  That means He knows every option, every possibility, and every result.  If it takes the suffering or death of one person in order to effect another’s life and bring them to His Son, then so be it.  There is a priority here.  At a recent funeral at our church, nearly a dozen people who might never have darkened the doorstep of a church otherwise, came to Christ.  The life, and even death of that man was used by God for His purpose.

The loss to loved ones is more than stressful and painful, but we all must leave this life.  For us to question God is laughable, puny finite man trying to understand the methods and motives of an infinite God is foolish.  He gives us a glimpse of His nature through His Word, but other than that, we still stand before a darkened mirror.

God has a grand plan.  Our lives are simply a few ticks on the clock of that plan.  Whether trials enter your life, or your life is filled with happiness, God is working His plan in you to fill heaven and keep hell as empty as possible.

I’m on FaceBook often, and I had an atheist there ask the other day why Christians pray.  “If God already knows your needs, why pray?’ she asked.  Good question

We pray for a number of reasons.

We pray, first, because we are told to pray (John 14:14), Jesus commands us to pray for others including our enemies (Mat. 5:44),  Jesus assumes we will pray (Mat. 6:6), and He set the example for us to pray (Mat. 14:23).

God loves to hear from His children even when the prayer is the same prayer day after day.  Don’t we love to see and hear from our loved ones?  When my extended family gets together, the same stories are told, the same blessing repeated, the same laughs are heard, and sometimes the same tears are shed.  Our God is a God of community.  He created the family because it is not good for us to be alone (Gen.  2:18).  He is a God of relationships including our relationship with Him.

To give us things to talk about, God gives us things to pray for:  World conditions (Pa. 122:6), more workers in the ministry (Luke 10:2), for the spiritual and physical health of others (2 Cor. 13:9; James 5:13-14).  We’re to pray for one another’s wellbeing and to give continual thanks to God for His blessings among a series of other things (1 Thess. 5:16-25).

Sometimes, God uses prayer to change US, OUR minds.  Think about that.  If God is all good and all knowing, what is He going to change His mind to?  It can’t be more righteous than He had already planned.  So, it’s we who need the change at times.

Billy Graham told a story of praying with a friend for three hours on a matter of much concern to them both.  He realized at the end of their prayer time, that they were both praying the exact opposite of what their view was at the beginning.  In their communion with God, God had changed their minds.

Most of all, prayer is just visiting with God.  He has time to talk with us unrushed, patiently, kindly. 

Years ago when I was in business for myself, I needed one more day of work per week, and two contracts were offered.  I bid on them both hoping to get one of them.  I got both of them.  I started ranting at God, “Don’t you understand, I don’t have time to do both.”  This went on for several minutes until He whispered in my ear, “You’re asking the omniscient God if I don’t understand.”  God and I laughed at my stupidity for several minutes.

It turned out the extra work caused me to hire a man who became a great Christian friend and, later, my partner in business.  God used that friendship and that business to provide so many other answers to prayer, I can’t list them all.  What I learned was that prayer should be two-way.  Not only are we to pray, we are to listen.  Try it.  Sometimes God will actually tell you some pretty neat things (Jer. 33:3)

Here is the second post looking at the lives of the major characters of the New Testament after Jesus’ resurrection.  This time it’s the apostles, James the Just, and Lazarus:

Matthew: Matthew seemed to want to stick around Palestine where he preached the gospel and ministered to many before heading out to, “other countries.”  “Other countries,” is not defined.  Church tradition says he died a martyr’s death but that death is not described.

James the son of Alphaeus:  Also known as “James the Less.”  Little is known about this James.  Many historians believe he remained in Jerusalem and was stoned to death by an angry mob.

Thaddaeus:  Also called St. Jude, Thaddaeus is the patron saint of lost causes.  He traveled spreading the gospel to Armenia, Osroene, and Iran where he was run through with a spear by an angry mob.  He and Simon the Zealot are the only two apostles martyred together.  Before his death, Thaddaeus is said to have looked at the crowd then turned to Simon and said, “I see that the Lord is calling us.”

 Simon the Zealot: Is said to have preached in Mauretania, Africa, Britain, and Iran where he suffered martyrdom alongside Thaddaeus (Jude).  While in Iran, the Magi reportedly saw Thaddaeus and Simon cast demons from their Temple.  Because of this, the magi encouraged an angry mob to kill the Christians.  Simon was sawn to pieces.

Judas Iscariot:  Judas, of course, hanged himself (Matt. 27:5) for betraying our Lord.  He may well have used a tree with a branch which extended out over a cliff.  Later, either the tree branch broke or the rope was cut, and the body of Judas fell and burst open (Acts 1:18).  It is interesting to me that every time his name is mentioned in the Scripture, he is either in the act of betraying Jesus or his betrayal is noted.

Matthias: Matthias was elected to be the replacement for Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:15-26).  It looks like Matthias might have travelled with the gospel to Armenia and helped Andrew with the cannibals of Scythia.  Tradition has it that he returned to Jerusalem and was stoned to death by an angry mob of Jews around 51 a.d.

Paul: Paul, of course, traveled throughout the Roman world sharing the gospel with the gentiles.  He also was the writer of much of the New Testament.  As a Roman citizen, it was illegal to crucify Paul, so he was beheaded sometime after the great fire in Rome (64 a.d.) but before Nero’s reign ended in 68 a.d.

James the Just:  James the Just was the half-brother of Jesus and head of the church in Jerusalem.  That church kept many Old Testament traditions as do many Messianic Jews today.  Because of this, the Jewish leaders thought James to still be a practicing Jew and asked him to stop the preaching of Jesus.  This he would not do and proclaimed the gospel throughout the city.  As a result, in 62 a.d., James was taken to the top of the wall of the temple and thrown down.  The fall did not kill him, though.  He was stoned and beaten to death.

James was a righteous man and recognized as such by the citizens of Jerusalem.  He was called “Old Camel Knees” because of what the hours of daily prayer had done to his knees.  He was such a just man, that when Jerusalem was overthrown and the temple destroyed in 70 a.d., many blamed the destruction on the way they had killed James the Just.  James is the writer of the book of James in Scripture.

Lazarus:  Lazarus is thought to have fled Jerusalem around the time of Christ’s crucifixion as the Jews sought him as well.  He went to Cyprus and stayed there.  Later, it is said, he met Paul and Barnabas in Kition in Cypress and was ordained by them to be bishop of Kition where the Church of St. Lazarus exists today. 

Another tradition says that Lazarus, Mary, and Martha were set adrift in a boat which eventually arrived at Gaul.  They evangelized the people there, and Lazarus was said to have become the first bishop of Marseille.

     People don’t live as these men and women did for something they don’t believe, and they don’t die for a lie.

I thought it would be helpful to look at what happened to major figures in the New Testament after the resurrection of Christ.  The lives of these men teach us truth is something to cling to share and die for, faith is a lifelong pursuit.  They show the truth of the gospel in that few people will gladly give their lives for a lie; certainly not all. 

We don’t have verified history for many of these lives: just church tradition.  I’m not ignoring the work the women did.  There is just very little recorded about them. 

Tens of thousands of people came to know Christ through the direct ministry of these men, millions through their inspired writings.

This will appear in two parts.  Part II next week. 

Peter:  Peter traveled around Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, and Rome where at age 70 he was crucified upside down after first watching his wife crucified.  During the entire ordeal, he constantly encouraged her to remember Christ.  Peter chose to be crucified upside down.  He didn’t believe himself worthy to die as his Lord had.

Andrew:  Andrew seemed to prefer sharing the gospel in individual conversations rather than preaching to large crowds.  The governor of Patrae, Greece believed Andrew’s healing and conversion of the governor’s wife brought an alienation of affection.  He condemned Andrew to the cross, but commanded no nails be used so Andrew would die of exposure and exhaustion.  A crowd gathered around Andrew’s cross day and night as he told of his glorious Lord until his death.  He is credited with at least 2,000 converts to Christ in his lifetime.

James the son of Zebedee:  Also known as “James the Greater.”  According to Acts 12:1-3, James was killed (probably beheaded) by Herod Agrippa very early in the life of the early church.

John the son of Zebedee: John is said to have lived a full life and was perhaps the only one of the 12 to die a natural death.  Jesus asked him to watch over His mother (John 19:26-27) which he did.  John ministered throughout Palestine and Asia Minor.  Tertullian and Jerome tell us that John was thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil in Rome but survived.  He died reminding his flock to love one another.  He was nearly 100.

Philip: A number of early church fathers and historians believe Philip the apostle and Philip the deacon to be the same individual.  Eusebius, Tertullian, and Polycarp are among them.  Philip was an evangelist and ministered in Palestine, North Africa, and Asia Minor.  He was martyred as was Peter: crucified upside down. 

Bartholomew: Bartholomew spread the gospel through Palestine, Armenia, Asia Minor, and Central India.  The local governor in India liked Bartholomew, but the king did not.  He was skinned alive and crucified praying for his executioners and preaching to the crowds which gathered.  The church he started in India lasted several centuries.

Thomas: Though called, “Doubting Thomas,” Thomas had one of the most active ministries of the 12.  He left Palestine early and spent many years ministering in Osroene, a nation just north of Palestine and became a national hero there.  He returned to Jerusalem briefly before setting sail for India where he planted several churches.  Most of these are still there today, and the people call themselves “St. Thomas Christians.”  Thomas was martyred by local Hindus who were threatened by the new religion and thought it might replace Hinduism.  He died thanking God for all His mercies.

Early in the third century, a monk and theologian named Sabellius came up with the idea that God is not triune, that He is really just One Person who wears three hats, the Father hat, the Son hat, and the Holy Spirit Hat.  This was rightly seen as heresy and the church excommunicated Sabellius in 220 A.D.

The understanding of the trinity was in its early stages in the third century.  The church believed  the Father was God, the Son was God, and the Holy Spirit was God.  They just didn’t know how that worked seeing the Bible also says there is only One God.  There were several heretical answers to this problem.  Sabellius’ heresy was one of the more prominent. 

Around the same time, Dionysius of Alexandria, in an attempt to disprove Sabellius, taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were three separate gods.  He was quickly corrected by other scholars and changed his view.  Arius of Alexandria, in another effort to fight what he thought was the return of Sabellianism, taught that only the Father was God and that He had created the Son.  “There was when the Son was not,” was his famous statement.  He was refuted by Athanasius, yet it took the Council of Nicea (325 a.d.) to resolve the matter and show that the church supported the truth of the trinity.

That’s a lot of church history to make this point: Sabelius’ heresy is still seen today in what is called the “Oneness Movement.”  They teach that God is just one Person who relates to man in three ways, as the Father, as the Son, and as the Holy Spirit.  Usually this is explained as, “Only Jesus is God and He presents Himself as the Father and the Holy Spirit at times.”  This gave the movement the nickname, “Jesus Only.”

The organization most often identified with the “Jesus Only” doctrine is the United Pentecostal Church International.  There are others out there, but this is the largest that I know of.  Be careful, though.  Most Pentecostal churches are mainline Christian churches.  It is the United Pentecostal Church that teaches it.

“So, what is the problem,” you might ask.  “They still believe in Jesus, don’t they?”  Well, they believe in a Jesus but not the Jesus of the Bible.  The Jesus of the Bible is God the Son, second Person of the trinity.  He is not the Father or the Holy Spirit.  2 Corinthians 11:4 says there is another Jesus, another Spirit, and another gospel being taught out there and we should beware.  Galatians 1:9 says anyone who preaches another gospel than the one Paul taught should be cursed.  So, we need to be on guard.

2 Corinthians 13:5 says we should examine ourselves to make sure we are in the true faith.  To do that, we need to know the true faith, what it means and how we are to act.  Acts 17:11 commends the Christians at Berea because they examined what they were taught before accepting it as true.  Let’s be like the Bereans and test all things we hear from friends, radio programs, flyers at our doors, and even the pulpit.  Any sincere Bible-teaching pastor will encourage us to do so. 

Let’s be noble Christians like the Bereans and test what we hear, Christians who are sure of what we believe.