A Short Dissertation on the Christology of the Bible
by a
gentleman who goes by the name of "Seeker"
Taken from the
Net
This is an attempt to bring some clarification to all of the unproven and
misleading theories on the personhood of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living
God. Please read and prayerfully consider what is written herein and approach it
with an open mind. The scriptures used throughout are from the NASB, but please
feel free to look them up using any version you like. I pray that God will help
you to truly KNOW the Messiah, the Son of God.
Shouldn’t we know our
Savior? The One who redeemed us unto eternal life and shed His blood for us? But
how can we know Him if we have the wrong perception of who or what He actually
is? How can we be like Him as we’re commanded to, if we think He’s something
He’s not? In order to know Christ we must first lay the groundwork of knowing
who or what God is.
1. How Many Gods or Persons within God?
Let’s see what the Old Testament says:
Deuteronomy 6:4, Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is
one!
Isaiah 43:10, Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be
none after Me.
Isaiah 44:6, … there is no God besides Me.
Isaiah
45:5, I am the LORD, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no
God…
Isaiah 46:9, For I am God, and there is no other; {I am} God, and
there is no one like Me,
Let’s see what the New Testament says:
Mark 10:18, And Jesus said to him, Why do you call Me good? No one is good
except God alone.
Mark 12:29, Jesus answered, The foremost is, 'HEAR, O
ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD';
John 5:44, How can you believe,
when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is
from the {one and} only God?
John 17:3, This is eternal life, that they
may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
1
Corinthians 8:6, yet for us there is {but} one God, the Father, from whom are
all things and we {exist} for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all
things, and we {exist} through Him.
1 Timothy 2:5, For there is one God,
{and} one mediator also between God and men, {the} man Christ Jesus,
The
Jews of Jesus time, and apparently Jesus and Paul (from the scriptures above),
thought God was one being; it was the bedrock of their faith. As Anthony Buzzard
[& Charles Hunting] state in [their] book
[1] The Doctrine of the
Trinity – Christianity’s Self-Inflicted Wound,
“Not once do we find Jesus
criticizing his fellow countrymen for holding an inadequate understanding of the
number of persons in the Godhead.”
If there is only one God (and
according to the above mentioned scriptures there is), then who is this one
God?
Let’s see what the Old Testament says:
NOTE: we must remember that when the Old Testament uses LORD in all capital
letters, it is a place where the Tetragrammaton
(YHVH or YHWH - Yahweh) was
used in the original.
As quoted earlier:
Deuteronomy 6:4, Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our
God, the LORD is one!
Isaiah 45:5, I am the LORD, and there is no other;
Besides Me there is no God…
So YHVH (LORD) is the one true God. There are
many, many examples from the Old Testament, but for the sake of space and time
these two should suffice. They clearly say that YHVH (LORD) is the only
God.
Let’s see what the New Testament says:
Mark 12:29, Jesus
answered, The foremost is, 'HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD (YHVH) OUR GOD IS ONE LORD
(YHVH)';
Since Jesus quotes Deut. 6:4 in Mark it is clear that the one
God – YHVH in the Old Testament is the same one God in the New Testament. As we
have already quoted, Jesus said the following, in John, while praying to the
Father:
John 17:3, This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
And Paul says:
1
Corinthians 8:6, yet for us there is {but} one God, the Father, from whom are
all things and we {exist} for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all
things, and we {exist} through Him.
John and Paul in 1 Corinthians tell
us who this one God – YHVH – is; He is the Father. So the Father in the New
Testament is synonymous with YHVH in the Old Testament. Both Testaments say that
YHVH, or the Father, is the ONLY God.
Some will say “I thought Jesus was
God the Son”? No, the Bible says Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Man
(“God the Son” is a term invented by men and is not found in the Bible). He is
the Son of Man because His mother was Mary (human, mankind), and He is the Son
of God because His father was God.
Granted, many beings are called god:
Angels, OT judges, Moses, Jesus, Satan, etc, but not in the sense that John
means it in the above passage. Did this make them co-equal with God?
Was
Christ co-equal with God while on earth or was He subordinate to God while on
earth? Most people would say he was subordinate simply because the evidence in
scripture is overwhelming, but while many would say He was subordinate, a good
portion of these would also add that “His human side was subordinate – not His
God side”. Is this splitting of Christ’s nature into a “God” side and a “human”
side Biblical - separating Jesus into two parts? Here is an interesting
scripture:
1 John 4:2, By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit
that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
An
ancient text for 1 John 4:1-2 is reconstructed from Irenaeus (Ch. 16:8, ANF,
Vol. 1, fn. p. 443); it gives a slightly different reading:
Hereby know ye
the spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth Jesus Christ came in the flesh
is of God; and every spirit which separates Jesus Christ is not of God but is of
antichrist.
Socrates the historian says (VII, 32, p. 381) that this
passage (from Irenaeus) is the true reading and that it became corrupted by
those who wished to separate the humanity of Jesus Christ from his divinity. Is
this separation Biblical?
Let’s see what the scriptures say about His
position while on earth:
Matthew 20:23, …but to sit on My right and on
{My} left, this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been
prepared by My Father.
Matthew 26:39,… My Father, if it is possible, let
this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.
Matthew 26:53,
Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My
disposal more than twelve legions of angels?
Mark 10:18, And Jesus said
to him, Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.
Mark
13:32, But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor
the Son, but the Father {alone.}
Mark 15:34, Jesus cried out with a loud
voice… "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?"
John 4:34, Jesus said
to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His
work.
John 5:19, …Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of
Himself, unless {it is} something He sees the Father doing…
John 5:20,
For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is
doing…
John 5:22, For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given
all judgment to the Son,
John 5:26, For just as the Father has life in
Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself;
John
5:30, I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment
is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent
Me.
John 5:36, But the testimony which I have is greater than {the
testimony of} John; for the works which the Father has given Me to
accomplish--the very works that I do--testify about Me, that the Father has sent
Me.
John 7:16, So Jesus answered them and said, My teaching is not Mine,
but His who sent Me.
John 7:28, Then Jesus cried out in the temple,
teaching and saying, You both know Me and know where I am from; and I have not
come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know.
John
8:26, …but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these
I speak to the world.
John 8:28, …and I do nothing on My own initiative,
but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.
John 8:40, But as it
is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard
from God...(notice he doesn’t say “which I heard from the Father” – but “God” –
I thought Jesus was God?)
John 8:54, Jesus answered, If I glorify Myself,
My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, 'He is
our God';
John 10:35-36, If he called them gods, to whom the word of God
came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him, whom the Father
sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am
the Son of God'?
John 12:49, For I did not speak on My own initiative,
but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment {as to} what to
say and what to speak.
John 14:10, Do you not believe that I am in the
Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on
My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.
John
14:28, …If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for
the Father is greater than I.
John 17:3, This is eternal life, that they
may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have
sent.
John 18:11, …the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not
drink it?
No hint of a “man side” and a “God side”. We shouldn’t try and
make scripture fit our doctrine, but we should make our doctrine fit scripture.
It is interesting that the majority of texts come from John – the one gospel
that Trinitarians and others like to use to prove Jesus is God.
Let us
now look to see if Christ was subordinate to the Father after His resurrection
and ascension:
1 Timothy 2:5, For there is one God, {and} one mediator
also between God and men, {the} man Christ Jesus, - notice he’s still called a
man after his resurrection and ascension.
1 Corinthians 8:6, yet for us
there is {but} one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we {exist} for
Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we {exist} through
Him.
1 Corinthians 11:3, But I want you to understand that Christ is the
head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of
Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:24,28, then {comes} the end, when He hands over
the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all
authority and power. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself
also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God
may be all in all.
Revelation 1:1, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which
God gave Him…
Thus far we have seen that there is only ONE TRUE GOD and
that this one God is YHVH of the Old Testament and the Father of the New
Testament. We have seen that Jesus was subordinate to this one God both while on
earth and after His resurrection and ascension. If Jesus is not the ONE TRUE GOD
then what is He? Was Jesus a pre-existent being or an angel? If Christ was a
pre-existent being above the angels, he could not have been eternal; only God is
eternal. If He is been here from sometime before the creation of the earth
then why do we never hear from him or about him in the Old Testament? Some would
say that we do! They would counter that He was Michael the Archangel; others
would say He was the Angel of YHVH. The chances of this are so remote that we
won’t consider them in too much depth other than to quote a couple of
scriptures:
Hebrews 1:1-2, God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in
the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to
us in His Son…
1 Peter 1:20, For He was foreknown before the foundation
of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of
you.
When the Apostles in the New Testament go to such great lengths to
explain to us who Jesus is, why do they not say He was Michael? Why do they not
say He was the Angel of YHVH? In the beginning the Apostles didn’t understand
everything Jesus was telling them, but by the time they wrote the New Testament
(which I’m sure most reading this believe is inspired) they had been
endowed by the Holy Spirit.
What about the passages that say Jesus
created the world? Let’s look at them:
Eph. 2:10, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Eph.
3:9, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for
ages has been hidden in God who created all things; (the KJV has the words “by
Christ Jesus” at the end of this verse, but the earliest manuscripts do not have
this).
Col. 1:16, For by Him all things were created, {both} in the
heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for
Him.
The only one that says anything was created BY Christ is Col.
1:16.
Here the Greek word “en” occurs twice. The first time it is
translated as “by”, and the second time it is translated as “in”. The normal use
of this Greek word is “in”. This word should be translated as “in” just as it is
in Eph. 2:10 and its second occurrence in Col. 1:16 by the same translators.
Here it is in the Revised Standard Version (RSV):
Col. 1:16, for in him
all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities--all things were created
through him and for him.
The word that is translated as “through” in Col.
1:16 is the Greek word “dia”. It can have the meaning of “because of” or “on
account of”. Jesus is the reason for all of creation – both physical and
spiritual. Many reputable Greek scholars such as J.H.Moulton in Grammar of New
Testament Greek say that Colossians 1:16 should be rendered “for because of
him”, and the Expositor’s Greek Commentary says on this verse: “en auto: This
does not mean ‘by him’ ”. You’ll also notice that Col. 1:16 does not say that
Christ created the Heavens and the earth. It says “in him all things were
created, IN heaven and ON earth…”. It then goes on to tell us that these are
thrones, dominions, principalities, and authorities. Christ was put over
everything and given the authority to restructure the arrangements of spiritual
powers and rankings.
I Peter 3:22, who is at the right hand of God,
having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been
subjected to Him.
Eph 1:21-22, far above all rule and authority and power
and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the
one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as
head over all things to the church,
Col 2:10, …He is the head over all
rule and authority;
Phil 2:9-11, For this reason also, God highly exalted
Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name
of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under
the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.
As for Eph. 3:9, the KJV has extra wording on
the end of Eph. 3:9 in which they translate the Greek word “dia” as the English
word “by”, when, once again, it should be translated either as “through” or as
highlighted below (if the words are really supposed to be there, which is highly
doubtful), just as the NASB and RSV translators do in Col. 1:16 near the end of
the verse. Here are the definitions of both words in Strong’s:
En – a
primary preposition denoting (fixed) position (in place, time or state), and (by
implication) instrumentality (medially or constructively), i.e. a relation of
rest (intermediate between 1519 and 1537)
-- in, by, with etc
Dia - a
primary preposition denoting the channel of an act
-- through a) of place 1)
with 2) in b) of time 1) throughout 2) during c) of means 1) by 2) by the means
of 2) through a) the ground or reason by which something is or is not done 1) by
reason of 2) on account of 3) because of for this reason 4) therefore 5) on this
account
Here are just a few scriptures that show God – YHVH – created
everything.
Gen. 1:1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth.
Isa. 42:5, Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and
stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath
to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it,
Isa. 45:12, It is
I who made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with
My hands And I ordained all their host.
Isa. 45:18, For thus says the
LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it,
He established it {and} did not create it a waste place, {but} formed it to be
inhabited), I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Even if Jesus did not
take part in creation did He pre-exist (can one exist before they exist)? The
Old Testament type was “a lamb from among the flock”; one without spot or
blemish. Jesus had to be one of us, not God masquerading as a man who was not
really “tempted in every way as we are” and who could not really die, and not
some Angel or pre-existent being.
As [2] J.A. Baker states:
“It
simply is not possible at one and the same time to share the common lot of
humanity and to be aware of oneself as one who has existed from everlasting with
God”. And as stated in [3] “One God and One Lord – Reconsidering the Cornerstone
of the Christian Faith”: …if Jesus were aware of being “God” in some way, or
could remember his former state of glory in heaven, then his experience of
earthly life would be very different from ours. Consequently, our ability to
identify with both his overcoming temptation and leaving us a righteous path to
follow is seriously compromised. We are then essentially left without a
“mediator”, but are being asked to be like God Himself, instead of developing
absolute trust in God, our heavenly Father, as Jesus did, and becoming like him
as he said we could and should.
Did He pre-exist in God’s mind as the Word – Logos – Reason – Plan for
everything that would happen? Yes! Did God foreknow Jesus in a very real way?
Yes:
1 Peter 1:20, For He was foreknown before the foundation of the
world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you.
Here’s
what Strong’s says the definition of the word “foreknown” (proginosko) is:
1)
to have knowledge before hand
2) to foreknow
a) of those whom God elected
to salvation
3) to predestinate
How do you foreknow someone who has
always existed?
Did God foreknow us? Yes!
Romans 8:29, For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined {to become}
conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many
brethren;
Eph. 1:4, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of
the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love
2 Tim.
1:9, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ
Jesus from all eternity,
God did foreknow us, but we did not pre-exist
except in His heart and mind.
Did the Apostle John pre-exist?
John
1:6, There came a man sent from God, whose name was John.
We know the
Apostle John did not pre-exist, but when we see this same type of wording (“sent
from God”) applied to Jesus, we somehow read pre-existence into it.
2. Did/Does Jesus have a God?
Let’s see what the scriptures say:
Matt 27:46, About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying,
"ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN
ME?" (also in Mark 15:34)
John 17:3, This is eternal life, that they may
know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John
20:17, Jesus said to her, "Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to
the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I ascend to My Father and
your Father, and My God and your God.' "
Some may say that Jesus made
these comments in the flesh while on earth. Even though this is not a good
argument – this splitting of Christ into two natures (as we have seen), this
argument certainly doesn’t hold water for the remainder of these verses, which
are after his Death, Burial, and Resurrection.
Romans 15:6, so that with
one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
2 Cor 1:3, Blessed {be} the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
2 Cor 11:31, The
God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not
lying.
Eph 1:17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of
Him.
1 Peter 1:3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Heb 1:9, "YOU
HAVE LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATED LAWLESSNESS; THEREFORE GOD, YOUR GOD, HAS
ANOINTED YOU WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS ABOVE YOUR COMPANIONS."
Rev 1:1,
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants,
the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated {it} by His
angel to His bond-servant John,
Rev 1:5-6, and from Jesus Christ, the
faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the
earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood-- and He
has made us {to be} a kingdom, priests to His God and Father--to Him {be} the
glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Rev 3:12, He who
overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go
out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of
the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My
God, and My new name.
Many Trinitarians subconsciously read the word
“Father” in place of God when they see Jesus and God in juxtaposition; reading
their own theology back into the scriptures.
3. Was He a Man?
Let’s see what the Old Testament says:
Deut. 18:15, The Lord your God will
raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you
shall hear,
Numbers 24:17-19 "I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but
not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Scepter shall rise out of Israel,
And batter the brow of Moab, And destroy all the sons of tumult. 18 And Edom
shall be a possession; Seir also, his enemies, shall be a possession, While
Israel does valiantly. 19 Out of Jacob One shall have dominion, And destroy the
remains of the city."
II Samuel 7:12-13 When your days are fulfilled and
you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come
from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for
My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
Isaiah
11:1-3, There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall
grow out of his roots. 2 The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit
of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of
knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. 3 His delight is in the fear of the
LORD,
Isaiah 49:1-8, "...The LORD hath called me [Jesus] from the womb;
from the bowels of my mother [Mary] hath he made mention of my name [Matthew
1:20-21, Luke 1:28-33]....in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me...And now,
saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant... to him whom man
despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth [referring to Christ Jesus]...have I
[God] heard thee...have I [God] helped thee: and I [God] will preserve thee
[Jesus, the Christ], and give thee for a covenant
[New
Testament]..."
Jer. 23:5, "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD,
That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and
prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
The
following verse in Daniel is a prophecy of the future ascension of Jesus to God
to receive his dominion and glory. Daniel is seeing this vision from a Heavenly
point of view; hence the “coming with the clouds of heaven” is actually a vision
of Jesus’ coming to the Father after His resurrection ... Here He is called
the Son of Man.
Daniel 7:13-14 I was watching in the night visions, And
behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to
the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. 14 Then to Him was
given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass
away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.
Zech.
6:12-13, Then speak to him, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, saying:
"Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out,
And He shall build the temple of the LORD; 13 Yes, He shall build the temple of
the LORD. He shall bear the glory, And shall sit and rule on His throne; So He
shall be a priest on His throne, And the counsel of peace shall be between them
both." '
There are many more Messianic prophecies but it is widely known
that the Jews never expected anything other than a human Messiah. However,
couldn’t the Jews have gotten it wrong (as they often did in Jesus time)? They
may have gotten it wrong in their extra-biblical writings and musings, but not
in the inspired Word of God. Some might say it was simply veiled in the Old
Testament that the Messiah was actually going to be God himself and this wasn’t
revealed until the New Testament; let’s take a look at the following passage in
the Old Testament:
Psalm 110:1, The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at My
right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet."
Let me
again quote from Anthony Buzzard’s [& Charles Hunting's] book [1] The
Doctrine of the Trinity – Christianity’s Self-Inflicted Wound.
It has
been argued by some that this verse should be rendered ‘God said to my God…’
They insist that David knew of a duality in the Godhead and under inspiration
declared the eternal Sonship and Deity of the one who was to become the man
Jesus. Such a theory involves a misuse of the Hebrew language which can easily
be cleared up. The two words for ‘lord’ in the sentence ‘the LORD said to my
lord’ are significantly different. The first ‘LORD’ is Yahweh… [and] refers to
God, the Father, the One God of Israel (as it does on some 6700 occasions). The
second word for ‘lord’ (here, ‘my lord’) is adoni, meaning according to all
standard Hebrew lexicons, ‘lord,’ ‘master,’ or ‘owner,’ and it refers here, by
way of prediction, to the Messiah. If David had expected the Messiah to be God,
the word used would not have been adoni, but adonai, a term used exclusively for
the One God. Psalm 110:1 provides a major key to understanding who Jesus is. The
Hebrew Bible carefully distinguishes the divine title adonai, the Supreme Lord,
from adoni, the form of address appropriate to human and angelic superiors.
Adoni, ‘my lord,’ ‘my master’ on no occasion refers to the deity. Adonai, on the
other hand, is the special form of adon, Lord, reserved for address to the One
God only. A reader of the Hebrew Bible is schooled to recognize the vital
distinction between God and man. There is an enormous difference between adoni,
‘my master,’ and adonai, the Supreme God. No less than 195 times in the Hebrew
canon adoni marks the person addressed as the recipient of honor but never as
the Supreme God. This important fact tells us that the Hebrew Scriptures
expected the Messiah to be not God, but the human descendant of David, whom
David properly recognized would also be his lord. It is unusual for scholarly
writing actually to misstate the facts about a word appearing in the Hebrew or
Greek text. Astonishingly, however, a remarkable error crept into statements on
high authority regarding the identity of the Messiah in this crucial
Christological passage in Psalm 110:1. Notice now the evidence of widespread
confusion in the treatment of this Psalm. The status of Jesus as the human adoni
has proved to be an embarrassment to later ‘orthodoxy.’ A Roman Catholic writer,
in an effort to support his traditional doctrine of the eternal Son, states: In
Psalm 110:1 ‘Yahweh said to Adonai: Sit thou at my right hand.’ This passage is
cited by Christ to prove that he is Adonai, seated at the right hand of Yahweh
(Matt. 22:44). But Adonai ‘my master,’ as a proper name is used exclusively of
the Deity, either alone or in such a phrase as Yahweh Adonai. It is clear, then
that in this lyric Yahweh addresses the Christ as a different Person and yet
identical in Godhead. The information is incorrect. The second lord of the
Hebrew text is specifically not adonai but adoni. The latter is never a divine
title. The former always designates the Deity. The whole Trinitarian argument
from this Psalm fails because the facts of the language are wrongly
reported.
That pretty much says it all. The Old Testament seems
pretty clear that the Messiah who was to come was going to be a true,
flesh-and-blood, man.
Let’s see what the New Testament says:
Can God
be tempted? Not according to James:
James 1:13, "God cannot be tempted with evil" Jesus was tempted…"
Luke
4:1-2, "And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led
by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil."
Luke 22:28, "Ye are they which have continued with me in my
temptations."
Hebrews 2:18, "For in that he himself hath suffered being
tempted..."
Hebrews 4:15, "...but was in all points tempted like as we
are..."
If his temptations weren’t real then he wasn’t “in all points
tempted like as we are”. If there was no real possibility of Jesus giving in to
these temptations, then they weren’t really temptations. Do any other New
Testament scriptures insinuate he was a man?
John 8:40, "But now ye seek
to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of
God..."
The rest of these verses are the Apostles speaking after Jesus’
resurrection.
Acts 2:22-24, 22 Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man
attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him
in your midst, as you yourselves also know-- 23 Him, being delivered by the
determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands,
have crucified, and put to death; 24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains
of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.
Acts
2:36, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made
this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."
Acts 3:22, "For
Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up
unto you of your brethren..."
Acts 13:23, "Of this man's seed (David's)
hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour,
Jesus:"
Romans 5:19, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made
sinners, so by the obedience of one (one man, Jesus Christ, verse 15) shall many
be made righteous."
1 Corinthians 15:21-23, "For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam (a man) all die,
even so in Christ (a man) shall all be made alive. But every man in his own
order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward..."
1 Timothy 2:5, "For there is
one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;"
The
above verse in 1 Timothy should be clear enough. Notice it does not say “one
mediator between ‘the Father’ and men”, but “between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus”. If Jesus were God, this scripture wouldn’t make any
sense.
Hebrews 1:4, having become so much better than the angels, as He
has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
Hebrews
1:11-12, For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all
of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12 saying: "I
will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will sing
praise to You."
Hebrews 5:7-9, when He had offered up prayers and
supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him
from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, 8 though He was a Son, yet
He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been
perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey
Him,
Hebrews 7:14, For it is evident that our Lord was descended from
Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning
priests.
Rev. 5:5, and one of the elders said to me, "Stop weeping;
behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has
overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals."
For Christ to truly
come from the tribe of Judah, he had to be of Mary’s egg. Not an angel put in
her womb and not God himself entering Mary’s womb, but an actual baby conceived
in her womb from her egg (not from Joseph, but from God – virgin birth). The KJV
uses the words “sprang out of Juda” in Hebrews 7:14. The Greek word is
“anatello” and means “rise – to cause to rise – of the earth bringing forth
plants – etc.”
Luke records the conversation between the Angel and Mary
in this way:
Luke 1:35, The angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit
will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for
that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.
The Greek word
here translated as “for that reason” (therefore in the KJV) is dio, and it means
“wherefore; on account of”. The reason Jesus would be called the Son of God was
because the Power of the Most High God was going to overshadow Mary and she
would conceive, and for that reason, or on account of this, He would be called
the Son of God.
We have seen that Jesus was a man, a mediator between God
and man; we are to be like Christ – heirs with Him; God is our Father and Christ
is our Brother:
Acts 3:22, Moses said, 'THE LORD GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR
YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL GIVE HEED to
everything He says to you.
Romans 8:17, and if children, heirs also,
heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with {Him} so
that we may also be glorified with {Him.}
Romans 8:29, For those whom He
foreknew, He also predestined {to become} conformed to the image of His Son, so
that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
Hebrews 2:11-12, For
both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one {Father;}
for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, "I WILL
PROCLAIM YOUR NAME TO MY BRETHREN, IN THE MIDST OF THE CONGREGATION I WILL SING
YOUR PRAISE."
This should have thoroughly proven that Christ was a man;
not a half man, not sort-of-a-man, not possessing a man’s body, not God
masquerading as a man, but a real flesh-and-blood man. There is nothing to make
us think He is one-third of a triune being. He is not co-equal and co-eternal
with the Father. He is the Son of Man and the Son of God – He is our Lord and
Savior.
1 Corinthians 8:6, "But to us there is but one God, the Father,
of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are
all things, and we by him."
Phil. 2:11, and that every tongue will
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
4. Why a Man?
First of all when man sinned God required that blood be shed to pay for those
sins.
Gen. 9:4-6, 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is,
its blood. 5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand
of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of
every man's brother I will require the life of man. 6 Whoever sheds man's blood,
By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made
man.
Blood had to be shed; without the shedding of blood there is no
remission of sins:
Hebrews 9:22, without shedding of blood there is no
forgiveness.
But God cannot shed blood; He is not flesh and
blood.
Matt. 16:17, And Jesus said to him, Blessed are you, Simon
Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal {this} to you, but My Father who
is in heaven.
Because blood is required, God set up the whole sacrificial
system, but it was only a shadow or type pointing to the Messiah. This is the
reason that the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament did not truly atone for
sins.
Hebrews 10:4, For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and
goats could take away sins.
Man sinned, so man’s blood is required.
Again, God’s blood is not required – God is not a man and He cannot die.
Numbers 23:19, God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man,
that He should repent.
By looking at Adam Christology we can see another
reason Jesus had to be a true man (another Adam). The first Adam messed things
up and the second Adam came to fix them.
1 Cor 15:45, So also it is
written, "The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL." The last Adam {became} a
life-giving spirit.
Romans 5:14-19, Nevertheless death reigned from Adam
to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the
transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free
gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much
more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ,
abounded to many. 16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one
who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in
condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in
justification. 17 For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one,
much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
will reign in life through the One [man], Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore, as
through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation,
even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting
in justification of life. 19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made
sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.
1
Cor. 15:21-22, For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of
the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made
alive.
Do you see the pattern emerging here? Man sinned so man has to pay
for those sins. Therefore God, in his amazing foreknowledge and grace, had a
contingency plan from the foundation of the world. He would have a man be born
in the fullness of time. God’s Spirit would overshadow Mary and she would
conceive and give birth to the Messiah who would pay for man’s sins.
The
first Adam was called the Son of God because he was made by God; he was a true
man, made by God
Luke 3:38, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of
Adam, the son of God.
Therefore, the second Adam had to be a true man,
made by God. God created man (Adam) who had the capability of sinning (human
nature), but not a propensity toward it (sin nature). He made him genetically
perfect and hoped he would be behaviourally perfect. Once he disobeyed and ate
of the forbidden fruit, sin nature entered the picture. The birth of our Savior
was from God impregnating Mary, creating another genetically perfect man and
hoping he would be behaviourally perfect. God was responsible for the flawless
genetics, but he could not be responsible for the flawless behaviour. Man is a
free will being and as such must choose to obey or disobey. The first Adam chose
to disobey; the second Adam was obedient in every way. We again quote from [3]
“One God and One Lord – Reconsidering the Cornerstone of the Christian
Faith”:
In essence, God took a risk and trusted that the Last Adam
would trust Him. This is love in action: taking a risk, giving second chances,
demonstrating commitment to a promise.
The Bible is basically a story
about two Adams and the two “races” they fathered. Romans 5:12-21 could be
summarized like this:
Two Adams
Two Sons of God
Two men
Two gardens
Two
temptations
Two decisions
Two results
Two races
Remember this?
Hebrews 4:15, "...but was in all points tempted like as we
are..."
Can we really say he was “tempted like as we are” if he existed
from eternity past, had a knowledge of this existence, and knew he would return
to being God himself? I quote [4] J.A.T. Robinson:
The traditional
supranaturalistic way of describing the Incarnation almost inevitably suggests
that Jesus was really God Almighty walking about on earth, dressed up as a man.
Jesus was not a man born and bred – he was God for a limited period taking part
in a charade. He looked like a man, he talked like a man, he felt like a man,
but underneath he was God dressed up – like Father Christmas…Indeed, the very
word “incarnation” (which, of course is not a Biblical term) almost inevitably
suggests it. It conjures up the idea of a divine substance being plunged in
flesh and coated with it like a chocolate or silver plating…The supranaturalist
view of the Incarnation can never really rid itself of the idea of the prince
who appears in the guise of a beggar. However genuinely destitute the beggar may
be, he is a prince; and that in the end is what matters.
If it is a
requirement that we believe in a Trinitarian God, a Binitarian God, or a God
Family; if it is a requirement that we believe Jesus was anything other than the
Son of God; why didn’t Peter mention it when he preached this sermon to JEWS
(who were extremely Monotheistic and had no conception of the Trinity) in Acts
chapter 2 right after he had received the promised Holy Spirit (which should
have led him into all truth)?
Acts 2:22-42, Men of Israel, hear these
words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and
signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know-- 23
Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you
have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; 24 whom God
raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He
should be held by it. 25 For David says concerning Him: 'I foresaw the Lord
always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. 26
Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will
rest in hope. 27 For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow
Your Holy One to see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the ways of life;
You will make me full of joy in Your presence.' 29 Men and brethren, let me
speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and
his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that
God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to
the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, 31 he, foreseeing
this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not
left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God has raised
up, of which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore being exalted to the right hand
of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He
poured out this which you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend into the
heavens, but he says himself: 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand,
35 Till I make Your enemies Your footstool." ' 36 "Therefore let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both
Lord and Christ." 37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and
said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we
do?" 38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and
to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." 40 And with
many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, "Be saved from this
perverse generation." 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized;
and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. 42 And they
continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking
of bread, and in prayers.
As stated earlier, these people listening to
Peter were from all over the known world (Roman Empire), but were of the Jewish
religion and were in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. The Jewish religion
had no concept of a Trinity. These 3000 people could not have had any concept
that Jesus was God himself, yet 3000 people were saved and baptized that day!
Amazing isn’t it!
It is amazing how the Jews were disingenuously trying
to drum up charges against Jesus. At one point they say the
following:
John 8:41, "You are doing the deeds of your father." They said
to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God."
And
then at another point they say Jesus was making himself equal with God because
He said that God was His Father:
John 5:18, "Therefore the Jews sought
the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also
that God was his Father, making himself equal with God."
They were
speaking out of both sides of their mouth – anything to try and trap Him.
5. Conclusion
Let us not destroy the historical Lord, Jesus Christ by making Him an
eternal, pre-existent, omnipotent, untemptable, co-equal God who masqueraded as
a man for a short time. He was a man in whom God dwelt, and through whom God
spoke and worked and manifested Himself; a man who’s Father was God; a man who
submitted to and God - "Not my will, but Thine, be done" (Luke 22:42). The
doctrine of the Trinity is not scriptural. The idea of 3 co-equal, co-eternal
members of a Godhead is not to be found anywhere in the scripture; to quote
Anthony Buzzard [& Charles Hunting] one last time from [their] book [1]
The Doctrine of the Trinity – Christianity’s Self-Inflicted
Wound:
“Could it be that today’s Trinitarians inadvertently, and in
sincerity desiring to exalt Jesus, fall into the trap of ascribing to the
Messiah a position as God which he never claimed for himself? A claim to be
Deity in the Trinitarian sense would actually be blasphemous by Jesus’ own
standards, since he repeatedly affirmed that his Father was the only true
God."
Footnotes
1. This book by Sir Anthony Buzzard [& Charles
Hunting] can be purchased either by logging on to
http://www.abc-coggc.org/coggc/books.htm or by calling 1-800-347-4261.
2.
This quote is from the book, ‘The Use of the Fourth Gospel for Christology
Today’, by J.A. Baker
3. To read excerpts from this book or to purchase,
log on to
http://www.biblicalunitarian.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=47
4. This quote is from the book, “Honest to God” pg. 65-66
