god – Page 6 – Believers Armed and Dangerous

Some Trinitarian Thoughts

1 John 4:7-8 (ESV) Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love

Let me start by saying a teacher once told me I had the ability to make difficult concepts easier to understand. This blog may prove him wrong.

As the title says, this is a blog on Trinitarianism, so you might ask how these specific verses apply. It’s just the last three words of the passage I’d like to concentrate on, actually: “God is love.” I’d also like to establish early on that God’s love is perfect:

1 John 4:18 (ESV): There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

So, God is love means God is by nature, love. He’s not just loving but must by nature love. God is also an infinite being, so His love is infinite, and that love is perfect. The word for perfect in 1 John 4:18 is teleios and means “complete.” The Greek word for love in these verses is agape, unconditional love for someone else: man. Throughout the Bible, God’s love is directed at someone or something. My point is that love, at least perfect love, requires an object to be loved whether it’s man or righteousness or something else. Love isn’t love unless it is expressed toward something or someone.

Now, if God is love, is eternal, and prior to creation, was only one person, and was alone, He would not have had an “object” at which to direct His love. His love would then have been imperfect, so God would have been imperfect at least in His love nature. But, if there were a second person, the Eternal Word, say, at whom to direct His love, that love would have been more perfect. “But,” you say, “that only gives us two persons in the godhead,” and you would be right. We’re seeking perfect/complete love here. There is another requirement of love we need to include if we want perfect/complete love. That would be the practice of two loving individuals directing their common love at another, a third person. We see this in a family where parents will say they didn’t know what love was until they had a child. The communion between parents in their common love for a child, in this case, results in perfect love.

“But,” you say again, “why not just continue on with a fourth, fifth, sixth, person and so on?” This isn’t necessary since the common love shared by a first, second, and third person doesn’t require a fourth to be complete. It only adds objects, not features to perfect love. Three will make it perfect, and since God is perfect and perfect in love, three is enough.

So, to lay this out logically, it would go something like this:

God is love.
God’s love nature must be perfect and complete.
For God’s love to be perfect and compete, there must be an object for that love.
Adding one person or object to be loved still leaves open a need to love another together.
Adding that third person completes the perfection of love as it adds a shared communal love of two toward another.
An additional person, a fourth person, does nothing to perfect that love.
Therefore, if God is perfect, efficient, and eternal love He must be three divine persons.

Is the Trinity logical?

We’ve all heard poor explanations of what the Trinity is and how it can be explained like the egg example: shell, white, and yoke. As a child, my son had a book explaining the Trinity in a similar manner using an apple: peel, meat, core or seeds. Both of these explanations make God out to be three parts. God is a simple being not made of parts, so we need to find a better explanation. How about this one:

Mary is going to try out for the Rockettes, but when she shows up at Radio City Music hall for the audition, no one is there. She decides to run through her routine anyway. When she finishes, she slips into a time machine and goes back in time to one minute before her dance routine began and joins her other self. They both dance the same routine, and when they’re finished, Mary reenters the time machine again and goes back in time to one minute prior to the start of the dance routine and joins her other selves.

Now, is each of the three dancers the same Mary? Yes, they are all Mary. Can they be distinct from one another? Yes they can. We can have the Mary on the left, Mary on the right, and Mary in the center. They can communicate with one another, move independently, etc. So, what we have are three distinct dancers but only one Mary. This principle can be applied somewhat to God. We have one God but three distinct persons all sharing the same nature. Therefore, the statements “God is one God” and “God is three persons” are not contradictory any more than saying “There is one Mary but three dancers.”

Why is this important?

It is sometimes important to present philosophical answers to questions about our beliefs because not everyone will accept direct biblical answers.

Most of what I have presented here is taken from the chapter on the Trinity in An Introduction to Christian Philosophical Theology by Davis and Yang (2020, Zondervan Academic)

Help My Unbelief

Matt. 13:58 (NKJV) Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

Unbelief is something I think most Christians struggle with. We sometimes find ourselves praying as did the father of a demon possessed child in Mark 9:23-24 (NASB) And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can!’ All things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father cried out and began saying, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”

A fairly famous charismatic pastor once said he had never seen a person’s arm or leg grow back when he prayed for healing. He said he believed it was because of his own unbelief. Because he had never seen God do this, he doubted God would heal in this way. Was his unbelief itself preventing the healing:

Matt. 13:58 (ESV) And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.

I think our unbelief can stand in the way of God working in us and in others. So, we might be a little better able to understand this if we look at the Greek word used in both Mark 9:24 and Matt. 13:58. It is apistia. Pistia is the Greek word for faith or trust. As in this case, adding an “a” before many words in Greek makes that word the negative version: “no faith,” or “no trust.” Unbelief is a soft version of what apistia means. Either we have no faith or trust that God will do something, or we have no faith or trust in God at all. That’s what this means.

The King James Version adds another even stronger Greek word into the mix: apeitheia. This means “disobedience” and is translated as such in modern translations:

Rom. 11:30 (KJV) For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief.

Interesting “not believed” in this verse is the apistia we saw earlier. As with apistia, apeitheia means even more than just disobedience. It means not to allow yourself to even believe or be persuaded. It is we who are limiting our belief.

What the Bible is telling us is we are not just neutral in our unbelief. We are rejecting what we think God has promised or even what He can do.

When my children were young and couldn’t swim, I would have them stand on the side of the swimming pool and jump into my arms. I was trying to teach them not to be afraid of the water. At first they would hesitate, but with some coaxing, they would finally have enough faith in me that they would jump, and I would catch them. That hesitation they felt wasn’t the sort of unbelief the passages above are talking about. The passages are talking about rejection of the belief I would catch them, that they were so unsure I would not catch them they would refuse to jump.

Is that who we are? Are we standing on the edge of the pool listening to God’s coaxing us to have faith, yet we refuse to jump?

Why Is this important?

I think the answer to that question is at times a shameful “Yes.” “Unbelief” doesn’t appear very often in the New Testament: only ten times in the English Standard Version. “Little faith” appears six times, and each time it is Jesus accusing His disciples of having little faith once saying if we only had faith the size of a grain of mustard seed we could move mountains(Matt. 17:20). We’re in good company with men God used to change the world.

How do we grow in our faith and trust in God, though? How can God help our unbelief? I think reflection on the things God has done that we have both experienced and witnessed helps, but God’s Word tells us of the great things God can and will do if we just fight off the temptation of unbelief.

I’m sure we have all been through tough times and seen God pull us out. We’ve all seen God’s mighty hand at work in our lives and in the lives of others. We’ve all read of the tremendous miracles of God recorded in the Bible. So what keeps us from believing then doing? Unbelief.

Let’s pray as the father of the demon possessed child did, that God would help our unbelief. We do need our faith and trust in God to grow. Let not God be limited by our hesitation to believe He will act.

What if the Bible Never Existed?

2 Tim. 3:16-17 (ESV) All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

So, by what Paul says here, Scripture is our source for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. What do people do who either don’t have the Bible or have rejected the Bible as uninspired?

In their book, An Introduction to Christian Philosophical Theology, Davis and Yang give four probable outcomes of a society without the Bible should they wish to understand salvation and how to arrive at salvation without Scripture:

“Legalism: A religious system that consists only of a set of rules that must be stringently followed.

“Ritualism: A religious system that prescribes ceremonial practices, perhaps to placate the gods or to engage in a trade in goods or services – for example, sacrifices for plenty of rain and crops.

“Relativism: The view that no particular set of beliefs or practices is correct or privileged – as long as you are sincere in what you believe and how you live, you are doing well.

“Nihilism: There is no answer to the question or no way of knowing the answer, so there is no hope of salvation – it is merely wishful thinking.” (Davis and Yang, p. 29-30)

As most of you know, there are two divine sources for information about God: creation and the Bible. These are called general revelation and special revelation respectively. We can learn a lot about God through His creation: God is orderly, creative, logical, caring, greater than the universe He created, and so on. It is our dependence on God’s Word which teaches us about God’s chosen people, their interaction with Him throughout their history, and, of course, the sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection of His Son in order that we might be offered eternal life.

Special revelation is not necessarily Scripture, though. It can also be dreams, visions, any sort of direct communication from God to man. Of course, these communications must be compared with the Scriptures themselves and discarded if they do not align.

We do seem to have evidence of some direct divine contact with men as long ago as perhaps 3000 b.c. Some of the names found in the ruins of Ebla, a city which thrived between 3000 and 2000 b.c., contain the name Ya, perhaps Yahweh. Names such as mi-ka-ya (“Who is like Yah”) and ish-ma-ya (“Yah has heard”) were found on tablets in the ancient city and may point to a public knowledge of Yahweh. The abbreviation of God’s name, “Yah,” is used throughout the Bible in the term “Hallelujah” where the “j” is pronounced as a “y.”

This might indicate God had contacted us through some sort of special revelation prior to Moses in order to guide men in righteousness even then. It could also have been passed down to their descendants by Adam and Eve through word of mouth.

Why is this important?

We see the need for some sort of contact whether written, as in the case of the Bible, or some sort of direct communication from God in the form of dreams or visions, for us not to wander off into some of the errors listed above by Davis and Yang. Scripture is the standard, the one true and reliable source for our knowledge of God and His will in our lives. It tells us specifically what God has done for us and how we please Him through obedience and displease Him through sin.

If there were no Bible, so much of what we know of God and of ourselves might never been realized.

The Woman Caught in Adultery

John 8:1-11 (NASB) But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 And early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them. 3 And the scribes and the Pharisees *brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the midst, 4 they *said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” 6 And they were saying this, testing Him, in order that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground. 7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And again He stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 9 And when they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the midst. 10 And straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” 11 And she said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go your way. From now on sin no more.”

This story of the woman caught in adultery is an interesting passage of Scripture as are all passages of Scripture. This one is disputed as to whether it is actually Scripture, though. The story doesn’t appear in the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament but is possibly referred to by the Church Father, Papias (60 – 130 a.d.). Since it doesn’t appear in a New Testament Manuscript until the fifth century, many scholars believe it was not included in the original text. Greek Scholar, F. F. Bruce, doesn’t even include it in his commentary on the Gospel of John because of this belief.

Other scholars believe it appeared in the original autographs but was removed because the early church thought it treated adultery less severely than it should. Adultery was apparently a problem in the early church perhaps due to the Roman and Greek culture of having a wife and a mistress.

A third camp believes this is a not Scripture but is a true historical event in which Jesus did address the adulterous woman and her Pharisee accusers. They believe this because the story appears in early extrabiblical writings such as Papias (60-130 a.d.), Didascalia Apostolorum (c. 230 a.d.), Ambrose of Milan (c. 340-397 a.d.), and Augustine (354-439). It also appears in the Latin Vulgate translated in the late fourth Century. The earliest it appears in a New Testament manuscript is in one of our earliest full version of the New Testament, Codex Bezae (c. 400 a.d.) and Codex Washingtonianus dated about the same time and contains most of the four gospels.

The story doesn’t always appear in John chapter eight either. Sometimes it appears in chapter 21 and even in Luke. Again, this leads some to think either it was removed and copiests didn’t know where to reinsert the story, or it was a non-biblical but actual historical event which some copiests wanted to include in the gospel.

I’m going to take the view it is Scripture until proven otherwise. Now let’s look a little at the text. There are some fascinating points to make here.

In verses six and eight, Jesus writes in the dirt. This is the only place in the New Testament where Jesus writes anything. In Exodus 31:18, God (YHWH) uses His finger to write His Law in stone: (NASB) And when He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.

Leviticus 20:10 says the Pharisees in our story should have brought the man who was committing adultery as well, and they were both to be stoned: (NASB) “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”

According to Deut. 17:7, the witnesses to the offense were to be the first to cast the stones:

(ESV) The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

So, legally, there was no one to pass judgment on the adulteress. Her accusers had left. Remember she was still under the Law. Jesus had not died and risen yet to bring on the New Testament Age. And, there was to be no divine judgment either since Jesus did not condemn her.

On a lighter note, the last sentence in the passage, “From now on sin no more,” bothered me. I asked Jesus several times in prayer why He would say that. The woman was born with a sin nature just as you and I were. She was going to sin again, maybe not commit adultery again, but she would sin.

I sometimes think my questions are Jesus’ current main source of laughter. He finally told me “Did you expect Me to say, ‘sin no more, and please cut back on the adultery?’” I got the point. Absolute holiness is our goal, and we can only achieve that through God’s forgiveness.

Why is this important?

We receive criticism from all sides as Christians. Many of these criticisms are directed at the reliability of Scripture. Some will say we have included disputed passages in our Bibles, and we need to have an answer for them. This is one.

Is Jesus Good?

Mark 10:17-18 (ESV) And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁸And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”

The question, “Is Jesus good?” seems pretty elementary. Of course Jesus is good, but the question has some application to the above verse. Some would say Jesus is denying His deity here, but is He? If we see Jesus is good, then the question He asks is whether the man who knelt before Him recognized who Jesus truly was: God the Son. At the same time, it would be an admission of deity, godhood, by Jesus. Let’s see if Jesus is good.

Hebrews 4:15 says Jesus is without sin:

¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

So, Jesus is without sin. If that doesn’t prove He is good, at least He isn’t bad, is He? But does Jesus ever claim directly to be good? Well, in the Gospel of John, He claims to be the good shepherd:

John 10:11 (ESV) I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

This shows His love for his sheep (followers). That certainly points to His goodness, at least in His role as Shepherd. There is another passage that might demonstrate more clearly just who Jesus is:

Col. 2:8-9 (ESV) See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. ⁹For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

This passage in Colossians would seem to present a major logical problem for those who would claim Jesus is denying His deity in Mark 10:17-18. Let’s look at the logic of it: If all the fullness of God dwells bodily in Jesus and God is eternally and infinitely good, then Jesus is eternally and infinitely good. If Jesus is eternally and infinitely good and the only being which is eternally and infinitely good is God, then Jesus is God. (If you’re into standard form categorical syllogisms, I’ve presented this argument in that form at the end of the post).

Why is this important?

I’m sure somewhere in the last couple of sentences, you might have said, “Boy, Mike, you’re sure getting nitpicky.” Well, sometimes we have to get nitpicky with those who can’t see the truth right in front of them. Jehovah’s Witnesses and others believe Mark 10:17-18 shows Jesus is denying that He is God. From what we have seen above, both biblically and logically, it’s obvious this is not what Mark is telling us Jesus is asking.

Going back to Mark 10:17-18, the traveler is simply being asked if he recognizes Jesus as God incarnate: (ESV) And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁸And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”

I agree with the psalmist:

Ps. 34:8 (ESV) Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!

——————————————

Syllogisms

Premise #1a – In Jesus, all the fullness of deity dwells bodily
Premise #2a – Deity (God) is eternally and infinitely good.
Conclusion #1a – Therefore, Jesus is eternally and infinitely good.

Premise #1b – If Jesus is eternally and infinitely good and
Premise #2b – And the only being which is eternally and infinitely good is God,
Conclusion #1b – Then Jesus is God

Being Refilled

Acts. 4:31 (ESV) And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

This passage used to really bother me. These are the disciples including Peter and John who are praying, so they are already filled with the Holy Spirit. Why, then, if they are filled with the Holy Spirit, why would they need to be refilled? Maybe I have an answer now. Let’s look at the word, filled, first.

Filled is used in several ways when it’s used to describing people. We can be filled with wrath (Luke 4:28), filled with fear (Luke 5:26), filled with madness (Luke 6:11). The word can even be used of a group such as in Acts 13:45 where the Jewish leaders were “filled with jealousy” or Acts 19:29 where a city is “filled with confusion.” In each of these passages, we see something, a powerful emotion in these cases, taking over a person or group and affecting their actions. In the same way, being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit should affect our actions, cause us to act in line with God’s will.

When we fill something like, say, a coffee cup with coffee, the coffee replaces the air that was in the cup. When an aircraft carrier floats in the sea, it displaces the water which would normally be there. So, filling doesn’t just add something; it reduces something else. When we are refilled with the Holy Spirit, I believe the Holy Spirit displaces much of what was there: our fleshly nature.

In our Christian life, we are truly filled with the Holy Spirit from the moment of conversion. When we need a particular additional filling or empowering of the Spirit, a sort of shot in the arm of power, we can pray and the Holy Spirit will displace more of our own will or fear. Speaking of a similar passage in Acts 4:8, the Faithlife Study Bible says this: “In Acts, this term seems to denote a special empowering by the Holy Spirit that is in addition to His work of enabling believers to trust God and to live faithfully (e.g., Acts 2:4; 4:31; 9:17; 13:9).

Paul sees this too. In speaking to believers (who already have the Holy Spirit within them, of course), he tells us to be filled with the Holy Spirit:

Eph. 5:18-21 (ESV) And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, ²⁰giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Interestingly, Paul here compares being filled with the Holy Spirit and being drunk with wine. Instead of being overwhelmed with “spirits,” we should seek to be overcome by the Spirit of God.

Why is this important?

Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California, used to say “If God guides, God provides.” This was often used in a financial sense such as “If God is telling us to purchase the Property on the corner of Fairview and Sunflower, He will provide the funds.” I think this motto also applies to any task God gives us and we need more power from Him to accomplish that task.

In Acts 4:31 above, John and Peter had just been warned not to preach Jesus in the streets of Jerusalem. They had been strongly threatened probably with death (Acts. 5:33), but they were released. A few days later, they were again brought before the council, and Gamaliel stepped in and said if what they were preaching was of God the council shouldn’t stand in their way. So, the Jewish leaders just had them beaten and threatened them again (Acts 5:40)

These were some of the least serious examples of persecution heaped upon the disciples, but because God the Holy Spirit filled them, they actually rejoiced they were worthy to suffer for Jesus’ name and continued to preach no matter the threat or consequences. (Acts. 5:41-42)

Isn’t this the sort of walk we want? Don’t we want God to fill us more strongly at times when we are filled with feelings of inadequacy or fear. The great advantage of being one of God’s children in times like these is the Holy Spirit has made Himself available to displace that inadequacy and/or fear in us. We need only ask Him.

Who Should We Pray To?

Recently I was engaged in a conversation about who we should pray to. We were talking about the Trinity and how, to some degree, each Person of the one God has particular roles. Only Jesus, for instance, died for our sins, not the Father or the Holy Spirit. This idea led to the question: do we pray to particular Persons for particular things? Let’s look at this:

The Father:

Jesus tells us to pray to the Father: Matt. 6:9 (ESV) Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” This is the “Lord’s Prayer,” of course, and in it Jesus lists some things to pray for: God’s Kingdom to come, God’s will to be done here and in heaven, for our daily needs, for forgiveness, not to be tempted, to be delivered from evil, and give praise to our God.

The Son:

Jesus says something similar, though briefly, about Himself in John 14:14 (ESV) If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. “Anything” would certainly include the full list of the Lord’s Prayer and then some. So, praying to the Son is as appropriate as prayers to the Father.

The Holy Spirit:

Acts 13:2-3 (ESV) While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” ³Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

This passage doesn’t directly state the disciples’ prayers and worship were directed to the Holy Spirit, but I believe it implies it strongly, especially in verse 3 after the Holy Spirit had answered their prayer and given them direction. So prayer to the Holy Spirit is just as appropriate as to the Father and the Son.

Why is this important?

The title question stems from our misunderstanding of our God, Yahweh, and our place in His care. Our God is one God. God is a gracious God. There is no pride in Him and, therefore, no prideful jealousy. Even if we could get it wrong, God looks at our hearts. He knows what you want to say and listens intently. He is infinite in all of His ways. He’s infinitely benevolent so is anxious to listen and respond to our benefit. He is infinitely knowledgeable to understand all we say and do, so He listens to our mistakes, our stumbling, our uncertainty in prayer and makes sense of those. No matter how great we think God is, He is greater.

We as His children cannot make mistakes in our prayers to this great and gracious God. We can’t pray to the wrong Person. We can’t pray in a wrong way if our heart is pure toward Him. If this is a concern for anyone you know, I suggest you point them to Romans:

Romans 8:26 (ESV) Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Giving Thanks

With Thanksgiving just a couple days past, I thought it would be fitting to list some ways we should give thanks to our Lord. In my research, I came across David’s song of thanksgiving given in 1 Chronicles chapter 16 (ESV). He said it much better than I can. So, here it is for you to enjoy and rejoice in:

⁸ Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;

make known his deeds among the peoples!

⁹ Sing to him, sing praises to him;

tell of all his wondrous works!

¹⁰ Glory in his holy name;

let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!

¹¹ Seek the Lord and his strength;

seek his presence continually!

¹² Remember the wondrous works that he has done,

his miracles and the judgments he uttered,

¹³ O offspring of Israel his servant,

children of Jacob, his chosen ones!

¹⁴ He is the Lord our God;

his judgments are in all the earth.

¹⁵ Remember his covenant forever,

the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,

¹⁶ the covenant that he made with Abraham,

his sworn promise to Isaac,

¹⁷ which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute,

to Israel as an everlasting covenant,

¹⁸ saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan,

as your portion for an inheritance.”

¹⁹ When you were few in number,

of little account, and sojourners in it,

²⁰ wandering from nation to nation,

from one kingdom to another people,

²¹ he allowed no one to oppress them;

he rebuked kings on their account,

²² saying, “Touch not my anointed ones,

do my prophets no harm!”

²³ Sing to the Lord, all the earth!

Tell of his salvation from day to day.

²⁴ Declare his glory among the nations,

his marvelous works among all the peoples!

²⁵ For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,

and he is to be feared above all gods.

²⁶ For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,

but the Lord made the heavens.

²⁷ Splendor and majesty are before him;

strength and joy are in his place.

²⁸ Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,

ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!

²⁹ Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;

bring an offering and come before him!

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;

³⁰ tremble before him, all the earth;

yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.

³¹ Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice,

and let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!”

³² Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;

let the field exult, and everything in it!

³³ Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy

before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.

³⁴ Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

for his steadfast love endures forever!

³⁵Say also:

“Save us, O God of our salvation,

and gather and deliver us from among the nations,

that we may give thanks to your holy name

and glory in your praise.

³⁶ Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,

from everlasting to everlasting!”

Then all the people said, “Amen!” and praised the Lord.

Why is this important?

1 Thess. 5:16-19 tells it all: Rejoice always, ¹⁷pray without ceasing, ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Our God is an infinite God who works continually in our lives, so there is no end to the list of thing we can thank Him for.

Christianity’s Essentials

The Five Essentials

I was asked the other day what test could be used to tell if someone was a heretic or just in error. I thought this would be a good topic to share here, so here goes.

There are five major doctrines the church has historically and generally used as a test of Christian organizations to see if they was not cultic: The Trinity, the deity of Christ, the bodily resurrection of Christ, salvation by grace alone, and the vicarious atonement. Denial of any of these has historically put an organization in the cult category. Let’s look at these very briefly:

The Trinity: Belief in the Trinity is to believe the one true God chooses to exist in three distinct persons; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit: one being but three persons. These three are coequal and co-eternal. We see this in Scripture here:

The Father is God: Gal. 1:1 (ESV) Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead

The Son is God: Titus 2:13 (ESV) waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ

The Holy Spirit is God: Acts 5:3-4 (ESV) But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? ⁴While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”

Yet there is only one true God: 1 Tim. 1:17 (ESV) To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Conclusion: The three persons are the one true God.

The Deity of Christ. This is the belief that Jesus is God the Son, in all ways equal in nature with the Father and the Holy Spirit:

John 5:18 (ESV) This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

The Bodily Resurrection of Christ. This is the belief that Jesus rose from the dead in the very body that died on the cross at Calvary.

Luke 24:36-39 (ESV) As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” ³⁷But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. ³⁸And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

Salvation by Grace Alone. This is the belief we are saved by God’s grace and not by anything we have done. Works have nothing to do with salvation.

Eph. 2:8-9 (ESV) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Vicarious Atonement. This is the belief that Jesus didn’t only die for the world corporately but for us as individuals as well. Vicarious just means “on behalf of another.” God is interested in all of mankind, but what about me, a lowly sinner. Is God interested in just me? In the Parable of the Lost Sheep, Jesus answers this for us:

Luke 15:3-7 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?”

God is looking to save you and me. That’s why salvation is such a personal experience.

Why is this important?

For the individual Christian, it is enough to rely on Jesus for your salvation. The above five doctrines can be useful for a Christian to examine an organization before they become involved in it.

A second danger of not understanding these doctrines is a Christian may have relied on Christ for their salvation but now thinks works are necessary for salvation, or Jesus is inferior in nature to the Father, or the Holy Spirit is just a name for God’s power. When they share their faith, they are sharing it in error. Maybe they are sharing a faith that is not a saving faith. Maybe they tell a seeker that Jesus is the Archangel Michael or God is really not triune but one person who relates to us in three ways, or maybe we don’t really need to rely on Jesus at all to be saved, that works need to be performed first. Is that a saving faith?

We are responsible before God both for what we believe and what we share with others. One day we will stand before God, and we will have to explain why we didn’t study our faith deeply enough to be able to explain it clearly and completely to others. We are expected to be able to give a clear and accurate representation of the Truth when asked.

2 Tim. 2:24-26 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, ²⁵correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, ²⁶and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

Another Jesus?

2 Cor. 11:3-4 (ESV) But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. ⁴For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

For the first few centuries of the church, Christian theologians struggled with one major problem: what to do with Jesus. The New Testament writers said Jesus was God (Matt. 1:23; John 1:1, 14, 5:18, 8:58, 20:28, etc.). The Apostolic Fathers (disciples of Jesus’ disciples) taught Jesus was God:

“For our God, Jesus Christ, was, according to the appointment of God, conceived in the womb of Mary, of the seed of David, but by the Holy Spirit.” (Ignatius’ Letter to the Ephesians, cir. 110 a.d.) Ignatius was one of the Apostle John’s disciples.

So, how does this work? We know of God the Father, but now God the Son is presented to the followers of the faith. We also know there is only one God. How can the Father and Son both be God when there is only one? This was a major difficulty in the early church and by the end of the third century, was a common topic of conversation not just among church leaders but also among the average believer.

A lot of theories were proposed. Most of these centered around the nature and character of Jesus which indirectly affects Trinitarian doctrine. Let’s look at some of these:

The Judaizers These folks were around during the time of the apostles. They taught Jesus was just a man and, therefore, His sacrifice wasn’t enough to save. Christians needed to continue in the Jewish rituals to be saved. The Jerusalem Council was convened to deal with this error in Acts chapter 15.

Gnosticism was an early heresy and stated Jesus was not a man at all but a phantom. The Gnostics thought the material world was evil and only the spiritual was good. As a result of this belief, they taught Jesus was good and so was not physical. He only seemed to be. This false teaching was common even in New Testament times and survived for centuries thereafter. It has reappeared in the modern Christian Science and Unity schools. John the Apostle wrote against it:

1 John 1:1 – 2 (NASB) What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life— 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us

Modalism was another early heresy and was developed by a guy name Sabellius in the early third century. He taught Jesus was just a “face” or mode of God, that God is only one Person but wears three different “hats” as the Father, the Son, or the Spirit depending on the need of the Christian. The early church saw this was contradictory to the standard writings of the church. The Bible teaches the three persons of the trinity interacting with one another and not acting as one Person.

Patripassionianism is a form of Modalism which teaches that Jesus is both God and man but the God “part” is the Father who indwells the Son. Only the Father is God, Jesus is a human. The belief taught “as the Son suffered on the cross, so did the Father.” This is contrary to biblical teaching since we see Jesus, the Son, addressing the Father a number of times and indicating the Father is in heaven while the Son is on the earth as in the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9).

Tritheism was an errant doctrine developed in the early third century by Dionysius of Alexandria to combat Modalism, but he pushed things too far and ended up teaching Jesus was one of three Gods: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The church pointed this out to Dionysius, and he quickly turned back to the classical Trinitarian view.

Arianism is a teaching begun by Arius of Alexandria (256-336 a.d.). He said Jesus was created and not God at all: “There was when the Word was not” was a famous saying of his. His teaching became so dominant by the beginning of the fourth century the Council of Nicaea was called by Emperor Constantine (an Arian) to decide whether Arianism or classical Trinitarianism was biblical. About 300 bishops were called together and argued the evidence. The Trinitarian doctrine we hold today was defended against Arianism and stood the test. Arius was excommunicated and cursed by the church.

Why is this important?

To have the wrong Jesus is to stand before God at the judgment and be rejected:

Matt. 7:21-23 (ESV) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²²On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Paul taught us to check what we believe against Scripture, to test our beliefs to see that we are in the faith, that we have the true Jesus. Let’s do that.

2 Cor. 13:5 (NIV) Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?