Adoni Messiah

A COMPILATION OF POSTS PERTINENT FOR THIS ADVENT SEASON! - PART 1 of 4

2011-12-31T11:22:00.000-08:00

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Advent

Advent is from the Latin word adventus and describes the season of waiting ... and celebrating the birth of the Lord Messiah. It reflects the Jewish people's waiting for their God, YHWH, to bring them deliverance from their oppression, by bringing them an anointed King to lead them from the throne of David, in a Kingdom that would have no end.

Adventus is translated from the Greek word found in the Bible - parousia -

"Now, dear brothers and sisters, let us clarify some things about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we will be gathered to meet him." 2 Thessalonians 2:1.

"The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" is translated from the Greek words, "parousias kuriou iēsou" which is translated as literally -
"the coming of lord or master Yehoshua."

So, for Christians, ... We are ... waiting in great expectation for Jesus' second coming to the earth, to finally accomplish God's plan of that everlasting Kingdom He promised us, here upon the earth.

Prayer
Dear Father in Heaven,
Thank You for knowing the beginning and the ending of this great story of mankind! Your plan is just and righteous and true. We know your word will be accomplished through Jesus. This Advent Season, let us take the time to reflect upon Your son - his birth in Bethlehem over two thousand years ago, and upon his second coming, in which we eagerly await! Prepare our hearts and minds, over the days to come, to truly celebrate all that Jesus means for us and how he has brought us such great hope and joy for today and for the age to come!

In Jesus' Name I pray,
Amen.

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Many people are falsely taught that Jesus claimed to be the God of the Old Testament, "I AM who I AM" from Exodus 3:14. They use the text John 8:58 to prove this, when Jesus states, "I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am he." Except some Bibles translate it and even change the capitalization to have Jesus saying,
"before Abraham was born, I AM." However, this is very misleading and incorrect. This phrase is taken from the Greek words "ego eimi" which is translated "I am he," such as in John 8:28 when Jesus says, "then you will know that I am he." (correctly translated in most modern NASB translations), and again in John 4:26-27 when he is speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well about whether he is the Messiah who is called the Christ.

If it was to read "I AM" then its original Greek would be "ego eimi ho hown." But, it's not and he is not the "I AM" or YHWH of the Old Testament. Jesus is the promised Messiah to whom the Jewish people had been prophesied would be coming, and who were waiting and eagerly anticipating at this time!   He is simply stating in my paraphrase, "Before the foundation of the world, I am he, the Messiah. I have been in God's plan all along! And here I am! Don't you recognize me as sent by God? Don't you see, by all the miraculous signs I've performed by God's power, that He really did send me to be the Anointed One, the King of His Kingdom?"

But, the Pharisees didn't believe Jesus was sent by God, but of the Devil! They were hard nuts to crack. Jesus spoke cryptically to them, not exactly making it easy for them, because he knew their hearts were hardened.

In John 8, Jesus is attempting to tell the Pharisees that he not demonic, but here to glorify God. Jesus told them that he not only knew the Father, but kept (obeyed) His word - God's spoken logos.

Jesus goes on to explain that Abraham rejoiced to see the day of the Messiah, saw it and was glad.   Hebrews 11:13 testifies to this as well, by stating,
"All these [great fathers of the faith] died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having SEEN THEM and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on earth."

Abraham had faith that one day, his seed [Jesus] would bring about a blessing for the entire world, so that they could inherit the land forever, at their resurrection.  ...  Abraham may not have known that the Messiah's name would be Jesus and at what point in history, his coming would occur, but he believed this promise of God, this Gospel message, and saw it by faith and rejoiced.

This verse does not mean that Jesus was existing before Abraham was born, but that the Gospel or the plan of God existed long before any of them were born. The Hebrew people had such great faith in the fact that when God speaks, it will be accomplished, that they saw His word as if it was already done....but they died without seeing the complete fulfillment of it. To this day, we are still awaiting our Lord to return to the earth to accomplish God's logos.

It is only through the miraculous birth, life, preaching, and death of this Messiah, that God has revealed His great mystery to us ~ that we, even Gentiles, can be saved by faith in this Jesus, so that we, too, can be inheriting the coming Kingdom of God. That is great news, indeed, ...

Jesus is truly the Messiah, and he will be coming back soon! This is what the Advent is all about, dear ones! Let us rejoice as we see the Day approaching.

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The appearance of the angel Gabriel, announcing the good news to Mary, that she will conceive a son in her womb.

The angel proclaims to her about this son, Jesus:

"He will be great,and will be called the Son of the Most High;and the Lord {YAHWEH} God will give him the throne of his father David;and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever;and his kingdom will have no end."
Luke 1:32-33.

For today's devotional, let us focus on Jesus' position as the anointed King, sitting on the throne of David forever, reigning over a kingdom that will have no end.
As we have been discussing some of the prophecies weaved throughout the Old Testament of the coming Messiah, this angel's proclamation also echoes the promise made to Israel's King David, hundreds of years before Jesus' birth.

Read 2 Samuel 7:12-16
"When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers [die], I will raise up your seed after you, who will come forth from you and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My Name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever."

Thoughts

God, through His prophet Nathan, spoke His word to David, first referring to David's son, Solomon, but ultimately prophesying something much deeper, about the Messiah and the everlasting kingdom that is yet to come. It's important when we study our Bibles to connect the dots, and God's promise to David that He would establish the throne of David's descendant forever, makes us immediately think of the Messianic prophesies found in the book of Daniel.

Daniel 7 provides us more details of this everlasting Kingdom that God will give to David's descendant.

"And to him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. " (7:14)
"But the saints [that's hopefully you and me!] of the Highest One ... will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come." (7:18)
"Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One;
his kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all the dominions will serve and obey him." (7:27).

Gabriel announced not only the miraculous conception of a baby boy, but oh, so much more than that! He was announcing that the long-awaited Messiah -
the descendant of David who was promised by God to rule and reign forever in an everlasting kingdom - would be born to Mary. She was the favored one chosen to birth and mother this child who would later be given a dominion by the Most High God. This good news was incredible! Mary didn't ask, "To what kingdom do you refer?" for she had been taught the Hebrew Scriptures and knew that the Jewish people were looking forward to the consolation of Israel and
the LORD's {YAHWEH's} Christ (like Simeon - found in Luke 2:25-26).

Today, we can rejoice over Christ's birth just as Mary and David did, because we, like them, know God's word will be fulfilled just as was spoken to them. Elizabeth told Mary when she saw her, "And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord. {YAHWEH}" (Luke 1:45) and David, after hearing God's promise, prayed "And now, O Lord God {O Adonai YAHWEH}, Thou art God and Thy words are truth and Thou hast promised this good thing to Thy servant." (2 Samuel 7:28).

We know how the story ends. "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and he will reign forever and ever."
Revelation 11:15. ...

Let us add more depth to our celebration, by understanding that we are rejoicing in the birth of our King and waiting expectantly for his return. When he returns, he will begin to establish that everlasting Kingdom and we "will reign upon the earth" with him. (Revelation 5:10b). Blessed are we who believe that God's word will be fulfilled through His Son, Jesus.

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Prayer
Dear Father in Heaven,

You, alone, are God! We praise Your Holy Name and give You the Glory for bringing us salvation through the miraculous birth of Your Christ! The more we study and learn about Your coming Kingdom, the more we can begin to grasp the significance of Christ's role in it. Our faith that You will fulfill what You have promised, increases, and our certainty that Christ will accomplish Your will grows stronger. Let our knowledge bring about an increase in our boldness and confidence to share this good news of a coming Kingdom with others. Let us spread the news, far and wide, that Jesus is the King of this Kingdom, and we will someday rule and reign with him upon the earth, that we will inherit as adopted sons and daughters of the Most High God. You are good to us and we are grateful for Your mercies, new each day!
Thank You for the gift of Your Son and may we use today to rejoice in our King.

In Jesus' Name we pray,

Amen.

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{This Advent season} should automatically shift our thinking to the birth of Christ Jesus. We are {supposedly} celebrating his birthday, after all! So the facts of his birth are important to us. In fact, by examining the information that God provides us about the details and prophecies of Jesus' birth, this process provides for us both, a deeper understanding and a richer comprehension of whose birth in which we are rejoicing. By looking closely at Scripture, we gleam just who Jesus is.

Read Psalm 2:7
"I will surely tell of the decree of Yahweh: He said to me, "Thou are My son. Today, I have begotten thee." Psalm 2:7.

Thoughts

This is well accepted in the realm of Biblical scholarship, that this Scripture is a Messianic prophecy. There is no doubt that this verse refers to the Messiah. It plainly states that Yahweh (note: a singular 'He') who is the Most High God, says to His Anointed (Mashiyach - meaning king or messiah), "You are My son."

When I first began studying this and realized that Jesus was called the "Son of God" and also went by title, "the Son of Man," I merely assumed that Jesus was part God and part man. A god-man sort of creature, much like the Greek mythology characters who came to earth, cast from heaven. Jesus had God as his Father and Mary, a human as his mom, so I reasoned that must be what he was. Then I learned that the Trinity theory believes that Jesus is not merely a part of anything, he is 100% man, while being 100% God at the same time. They, too, call Jesus a God-Man, but are very defensive if you call Jesus a man and often deny that Jesus was a man. Both assumptions (mine and theirs) are wrought with error, that only further study can reveal. People have written books on this subject, but I will attempt to explain it in one "brief" blog article. Wish me luck!

Let's begin with Gabriel's message to Mary in Luke 1:35:

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason, the holy thing begotten shall be called
the Son of God."

The reason Jesus is called "the Son of God" is because he was miraculously begotten by the Spirit of the Most High God. Jesus was not born like we are - of a man and a woman - but he was miraculously begotten in the womb of Mary, by the power of God. And for this reason, he will be called the Son of God.

So, what does that old word, 'begotten' mean? The word 'begotten' found in Psalm 2:7 is from the Hebrew word "yalad" which means: to generate, to bear a child, to come into existence. {I John 5:18 (not KJV)} tells us Jesus "who was born of God." The original Greek word for born is "gennao" - which means: begotten, coming into existence. Matthew 1:18 states, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows." The word "birth" can be translated as 'genesis' or the beginning, derived from the same Greek word for born: "gennao." Jesus was brought into existence by the Father. He was created, begotten in time. Jesus had a beginning. There was a time he did not exist. Jesus did not exist before his miraculous birth brought about by the power of the Most High God, Yahweh, who calls Jesus "His Son" because of this fact.

I do not believe Jesus is Yahweh, nor is he part-God, part-man (as I once erroneously thought) nor a god-man, as what is popularly taught in churches across our nation as an ... incarnated god dwelling in the flesh, temporarily. At all. I have studied this for myself, and once my beliefs were just merely based on what I thought, combined with conjecture; but now what I believe is based on the evidence of the study of Scripture and truth. I am still learning and sharing what I learn as I go! How important it is, that we keep this state of mind as a humble student of Scripture, always yearning to understand and learn more, and willing to correct ourselves when we discover something new that may prove our old way of belief had errors.

Jesus was called the title, "The Son of God" because of his miraculous birth and this important position of Anointed King (a.k.a. "Messiah"), that he was given by his Father.

That position comes with glory, exaltation, power, dominion, authority, and is above all other names and esteemed rulership positions in the heavens and the earth.

In fact, an interesting detail is that Adam is called "the son of God" in Luke 3:38, and Jesus is later called the "last Adam" in I Corinthians 15:45. Both were 100% man, not a god-man, and both shared a very unique trait - that both were uniquely created by Yahweh. One brought death into the world by his disobedience; while the other brought the resurrection of the dead and eternal life.

Today, I have begotten Thee.
Yahweh, the God of the universe, begat Jesus into existence by His power. He created him with a divine purpose and a special relationship with Him that no one before him or after him will ever experience. God's fullness dwelled in Jesus and His Spirit anointed him in a measure that is beyond the scope of what we will ever be privileged to share, but we too have God's fullness dwelling in us and His holy spirit anointing us as believers. We get a small taste of what was made available to Jesus, which was on a much more grander scale. He is the only begotten Son of God. We can be called the sons and daughters of God, but it is no way near THE Son of God title that was bestowed upon Jesus.

There is still only one true God, who is our Heavenly Father (see John 17:3); and His Son, Jesus who He has begotten, to be a light to the world, in order to save us. Today, let us conclude with this passage from 2 Corinthians 5:18-21:
"Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself, through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word [logos] of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He [God] made him [Jesus], who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him."

In other words, get right with God! And after you do, we have been given the ministry to help others get right with God! God made Jesus to be sin on our behalf, so that we can be made holy, blameless, and righteous by Jesus' atoning sacrifice of his blood that covers our sins and blots them out in the sight of our God! God provided this opportunity for us to inherit eternal life, because of His miraculous begetting of His Son, Jesus.

{This Advent season} is not the celebration of God coming down to be born in the body of a baby to save mankind Himself, as a man. This is such a distortion of the message!!!

{Rather it is} the celebration of God miraculously providing a man, who was able to live a sinless life, in order to be our blameless Lamb, sacrificed upon a cross, for the sins of mankind. He was a unique man, able to live without sin, because of his unique birth! We give glory to God for saving us and reconciling us to Him, through the ministry and work of Christ Jesus!

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in him, should not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16.

This is the message that the bells should be tolling ...
"Glory to God in the Highest,
and on earth, peace among men with whom He is pleased."
Luke 2:14.

We will indeed have peace, when we get right with God, by accepting and believing in His son, Jesus, who bled and died for our sins, in order to save us.

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Prayer
Dear Father in Heaven,
Glory to You, the Most High God, who begot Jesus by Your power! You had a plan for him, as the redemption for mankind, since before the foundation of the world. At the right time in history, You brought him into existence and revealed Your great plan for us. In fact, You revealed the mystery that one day, not just Your chosen Jewish people would be saved, but that we, too, (Gentiles) could be grafted in as part of Your family, to be heirs of the Kingdom, and co-heirs with Christ Jesus! What a gift You have given the world, if we would only receive it and believe it. I pray that ..., eyes will be opened and ears will hear the beautiful redeeming tale of the birth of Your son and how we can all be reconciled to You, through Your Son's sacrifice of his life. Grant us boldness and opportunities to share this with a hurting world, beat up by guilt, condemnation and shame. They need Your peace and Your forgiveness, God. Let us love them enough, to share the ministry of reconciliation with them.

In Jesus' Name I pray,
Amen.

The above posts are the work of Angela Hays Moore.

Some editing has been done.

They were taken from:

A COMPILATION OF POSTS PERTINENT FOR THIS ADVENT SEASON! - PART 2 of 4

2011-12-31T11:15:00.001-08:00

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Read Isaiah 9:6
"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;

And the government will rest on his shoulders;

and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty Hero, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Thoughts

Wonderful Counselor

Indubiously, every Advent Devotional book you will ever purchase or any Christmas sermon series you will hear preached across America, will mention Isaiah 9:6. They do not use it, however, to teach us how Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah will be called Wonderful Counselor, referring to how this Messiah will be anointed with the Spirit of Yahweh ~ with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength and the spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh resting upon him (Isaiah 11). This special anointing of God upon this King, who will sit upon the throne of David to reign over this everlasting Kingdom, will provide more wisdom and counsel to this man, than anyone else would normally receive. Although the Scriptures tell us that the kings of Israel were regularly anointed by God to lead His people ~ such as King Saul and King David ~ this anointing of God's Spirit will be even greater upon this child who will be [was] born to us. The Hebrew word translated to be "wonderful" is 'pele' which is a noun meaning "a wonder, a miracle, a marvel, used to represent something unusual or extraordinary" or used here as an adverb to describe how this Messiah will be able to miraculously counsel his people. So Isaiah's prophecy teaches us that this Messiah will have an extraordinary anointing to counsel his people with the wisdom God provides.

Mighty Hero

The popular books will not teach you that the Hebrew word "gibbor" translated as 'mighty' is an adjective that means brave, strongly, manly, vigorous and it refers regularly to warriors, heroes, and champions in battle. This adjective has been used to describe angels, God, and in Psalm 45:3,
the Messiah - 'o warrior one' or as 'o mighty one' in other translations.

The problem with translating the Hebrew Scriptures into English, is that we are often at the mercy of the translators' opinion of which English word to choose that best fits the context of the verse. Sometimes, they choose erroneously, based on their bias, as they attempt to prove the divinity or deity of the Messiah. That is why it is so important to go back to the original word to determine what Yahweh is communicating to us, still today. Is Yahweh telling us in this Scripture that the Messiah would be the second person of the Godhead, "God the Son," ... incarnated in the flesh of this child to be born? Or was He telling us that this Messiah, anointed King, would be "el" meaning: mighty one, hero. Yes, this word 'el' can also be translated for God or god, but it is a word that has been translated in other verses as well, to designate men of power or high rank, (Eze. 31:11); mighty men (Job 41:25), or mighty warriors (Eze. 32:21).

"And I saw heaven opened; and behold a white horse, and he who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness, he judges and wages war. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses. And from his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it, he may smite the nations; and he will rule them with a rod of iron; and he treads the wine press of fierce wrath of God, the Almighty." Revelation 19:11, 14-15.

The problem with using this verse (Isaiah 9:6) as a proof text for the Trinity, to attempt to prove that Jesus is Yahweh or deity, is that we lose the significance of what Isaiah is communicating to us - that this Messiah will be a brave champion in battle for his people and he will bring about God's wrath on those who reject Him. It changes the entire meaning and message significantly!

Everlasting Father

This name is often translated as 'Eternal Father,' but I think this, too, should be examined more closely. The Hebrew is 'aviad ab.' The Hebrew 'aviad' is from the noun, 'ad' which can refer to the continuance of a king on the throne, such as in Psalm 132:11-12:

"Yahweh has sworn to David, a truth from which He will not turn back;
"Of the fruit of your body, I will set upon your throne.
If your sons will keep My covenant, and My testimony which I will teach them,
their sons also shall sit upon your throne forever [ad]."

This term can be translated 'everlasting, forever, eternity,' referring to a future age without end. Many want to teach that this means that Jesus was 'eternal' and thus had no beginning; therefore he is able to have pre-existed as 'God the Son' before he was born. But this text teaches no such concept. It's not just not there.

Father:
I've read commentaries on this Scripture, and most writers spend their time trying to convince people that this does not teach that Jesus is the Heavenly Father, the 1st person of the godhead, but only the 2nd person of the godhead. If you begin to believe Jesus is the Father, then you will believe a Oneness doctrine, not a Trinitarian creed, and they definitely don't want you to be confused there! So, that causes them to look a little deeper to explain how the name "Everlasting Father" does not mean the Messiah will be "God the Father incarnated as the Son."

Here is a great and quite simple explanation provided by the Christian Monotheism's website:

"Because the Messiah will be the one to establish the age to come, raise the dead into it, and rule over it, he is called “the father of the coming age.”

Prince of Peace

The Messiah will be called Prince of Peace. Acts 5:30-31 states:

"The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as
a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins."

The Most High God wanted to bring His people the knowledge of salvation and the forgiveness of their sins, made possible when He miraculously begat a baby in a virgin, named Mary. Through Jesus, we can be reconciled to Yahweh, thus gaining the greatest gift of peace afforded to mankind. Redemption through belief in the Son of God, gives us peace with our Almighty God. We are no longer at odds with Him, but are completely forgiven by the blood of His Lamb.

"I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David, there has been born for you a Savior,
who is Messiah the Lord." Luke 2:10-11.

Good news, indeed, that we joyously celebrate this Advent Season!

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Prayer
Dear Father in Heaven,

Today, we thank You, Yahweh. We thank You for the descriptions you have provided through Isaiah, that gives us a better glimpse of who our Messiah is and what he is truly like. Please forgive us of making up our own ideas and placing them upon him, true or false! May we instead, study your Scriptures to get a more accurate view of who our Lord and our Messiah truly is, and give You the glory and praise for providing us salvation through him! Jesus is our Lord and Savior, the Son whom You have given to us, to bring us eternal life in that kingdom one day! Let us be ready and watching and take great comfort and peace, knowing we are right with You.

In Jesus' Name we pray - Wonderful Counselor, Mighty Hero, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,

Amen.

For further study

Check out this great article - Isaiah 9:6 - and especially note this point:

Furthermore, “he will reign on David’s throne (v. 7), which could never be said of God. God could never sit on David’s throne.
But God’s Messiah, “the Son of David,” could (Matt. 9:27, et al). Thus, a study of the verse in its context reveals that it does not refer to the Trinity at all, but to the Messiah, the son of David and the Son of God.

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During this Season of Advent, we continue to pour through the passages found in the Old Testament that prophesied the birth of the Messiah and how the New Testament Scriptures prove that this man, Jesus, truly was, and is, our Lord Messiah. One such fact is the prophecy of where this Messiah would be born and the tribe from which he would descend.

Read Micah 5:2-5a.

“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah,

from you one will go forth for Me [YHWH] to be ruler in Israel.

His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of old.

Therefore he will give them up until the time,

when she who is in labor has borne a child.

Then the remainder of his brethren will return to the sons of Israel.

And he will arise and shepherd his flock in the strength of YHWH,

in the majesty of the name of YHWH his God.

And they will remain, because at that time he will be great to the ends of the earth.

And this one will be our peace.”

Micah 5:2-5a.

Thoughts
1) The prophet Micah records that the ruler of Israel, sent by Yahweh, would be from Bethlehem, from the tribe of Judah. Here are the Scriptures, Old and New Testament, that show this:

Matthew 2:1: "After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived unexpectedly in Jerusalem."
Luke 2:4: "And Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David."
Matthew 2:6: "And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah; because out of you will come a leader who will shepherd My people Israel."
John 7:42: "Does not the Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David's family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?"
Hebrews 7:14 "For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests."
I Chronicles 28:4 "Yet YAHWEH, the God of Israel, chose me from my whole family to be king over Israel forever. He chose Judah as leader, and from the house of Judah he chose my family, and from my father's sons he was pleased to make me king over all Israel."
Matthew 1:1-17 "The book of origin of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham... Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers, Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar.... and Matthan fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah...."
Luke 3:23-38: "....son of Simeon, son of Judah...."

2) ...  One MEGA HUGE part of the Messiah's role is to shepherd his flock in the strength of YHWH, in the majesty of the name of YHWH, his God. Our Messiah will be great to the ends of the earth and will be our peace.

Gabriel tells Mary, "He will be great," in Luke 1:32. The word "great" is from the Greek transliteration "megas" from which we get our word, 'mega' meaning: very great; big; mighty; large! In Micah 5:4, "he will be great" is translated from the Hebrew word, "gadal" meaning: to grow up; to become great; to be large; to be highly valued.

When you learn that this Messiah will rule and reign to the ends of the earth, over all people and all governments, tribes, and nations, you can quickly surmise just how 'great' or mega this ruler will be! He will shepherd his people on behalf of his God, in the strength and majesty of Yahweh. He will be ruling from the throne of David, as a world leader, like no one has yet to see before. There have been various 'world empires' and 'world leaders' in our history (read Daniel chapter 2), but we have yet to see someone like the Messiah, who will literally rule the world, and his saints, with him.

3) He will be our peace.
This theme of Jesus' peace keeps coming back throughout these Advent devotionals. Jesus told his disciples, appearing to them after God raised him from the dead:
"Peace to you! As the Father has sent me, I also send you." After saying this, he breathed on them and said, "Receive the holy spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." John 20:21-23.

Jesus gives us sweet, sweet peace, by the forgiveness of our sins. God gave Jesus the authority to forgive us our sins, as Jesus grants us this same authority over men. We carry the message to men of reconciliation to our one LORD God, through our Lord Jesus. It is a heavy responsibility to share this message of peace with others, and it must not stop with ourselves! What a shame it would be that we rest in this blessed peace of forgiveness, and it goes no further. Instead, we are challenged and commanded by our Messiah to spread this peace with others. Many people are in torment, depressed, and struggling with such deep wounds, guilt and shame. We hold the precious gift of peace to share with them ... that can alleviate their burden and bring them peace and joy in Jesus.  ... it is the one thing that will bring them the one thing that they lack: peace, knowing they will inherit everlasting life in the coming Kingdom of God. You may be the only one in their life, who knows of this and can share this with them. What will happen to them, if you remain silent?

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Prayer
Dear Father in Heaven,
As we see the details of the Old Testament prophecies of Jesus' birth unfold, we come to see how Your hand was in each minute detail, of even where his birth would take place! We also realize just how great Jesus is and why! He will rule and reign in Your strength and majesty one day, upon this earth, and we look forward to it with great anticipation! How our hearts yearn for a leader who will bring about a righteous government and shepherd us with Your love.

We thank You, Yahweh, for the gift of Your son, who brings peace to our hearts and souls at this time of year. There is no better place to be than basking in the warmth of Your love and forgiveness, knowing we are right with You. Knowing Christ and being baptized in the forgiveness of his name, gives us confidence to approach Your throne to ask You anything, to praise You, to lift Your Name on High! Let us not keep this good news to ourselves, but give us boldness and confidence to share it with others, who may be hurting, broken, and fighting despair.

In Jesus' Name we pray,
Amen.

Further Study:
Please take the time to read my blog entitled, "Celebrating the Coming Christ" for a more in depth look at our Scripture passage, Micah 5:2-5.

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Today's Scripture passage will probably not be one of the Messianic prophecies you will typically find in your Advent Devotional book, but it should be! It is the main reason Jesus was sent by God ~ to restore God's people and save them.

Read Psalm 80: 14-15, 17-19

"Return, God of Hosts. Look down from heaven and see;

take care of this vine, the root Your right hand has planted,

the shoot that You made strong for Yourself.

Let Your hand be with the man at Your right hand,

with the Son of Man You have made strong for Yourself.

Then we will not turn away from You; revive us, and we will call on Your name;

look on us with favor, and we will be saved."

Thoughts
Let's unpack this Scripture and see what we find in its rich, fertile ground for us, today!

1) The word 'root' that "Your right hand has planted" is literally 'shoot' [from the Hebrew word kannah]. The NASB translates this verse much more accurately based on the original Hebrew:

"Even the shoot which Your right hand has planted, And on the Son whom You have strengthened for Yourself."

Here is a paraphrase of this passage: "and for the King Messiah, whom You have strengthened for Yourself; that is, for the sake of Christ, whom You have appointed to work out the salvation of Your people by his great strength, and who was to come from this vine, or descend from Israel; for the sake of him destroy it not, nor suffer it to be destroyed; and is the same with the Son of Man."

Jesus, the King Messiah, is that offspring from the tribe of Judah and the seed (or blood relative or descendant) of David, ... who Yahweh, the one true living God, has planted. Yahweh has planted, [begotten, created, originated] this offspring of David to be His agent; to be in this esteemed position of great power, and He has therefore given His authority and rulership to this Son of Man. (see Daniel 7)

"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the shoot [from the Greek word rhiza] and the descendant of David, the bright morning star."

2) Jesus - God's right hand man!

"Let Your hand be with the man at Your right hand, with the Son of Man You have made strong for Yourself."

Many people shy away from calling Jesus a literal 'man,' but that is what Scripture teaches us that he was and is still, today! This is what is so absolutely astounding about Jesus ~ the fact that God would exalt a human being to sit at His right hand, ascended into the heavens! Isn't it incredible?

How worthy is the Lamb who sits at the right hand of our God!!!!!

"Therefore, let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah!" Acts 2:36.
"Men of Israel, listen to these words: This Jesus the Nazarene was a man pointed out to you by God with miracles, wonders and signs that God did among you through him, just as you yourselves know." Acts 2:22.
"For there is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself - a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time." 2 Timothy 2:5.

3) God's right hand equates to a position of power and authority over the heavens and the earth.

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."
Acts 2:33: "Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this which you both see and hear."
Mark 16:19: "So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God."

The phrase 'let your hand be' "denotes a request from a subordinate to a superior", my Bible commentary notes tell me.
"The transfer of divine power flows through God's hand and into His agent."

"The man at Your right hand" is usually a king who received his appointment and approval by Yahweh. To be sitting at the right hand of God is the most esteemed, powerful position of the universe! Jesus' position as firstborn of the dead, due to his complete and utter obedience to his God, gained him the right, the privilege and honor, to sit there, until the time of restoration, when he will come down from heaven to the earth, to begin to establish his Father's kingdom. (Acts 3:21).

4) The last phrase we will look at today is: "look on us with favor, and we will be saved."

It makes me think of the angels proclamation to the shepherds announcing the birth of the Messiah:
"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors." Luke 2:14.

... We too, give glory and praise to our Most High God, because He has looked upon us with His favor, to bring us salvation, through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

I Thessalonians 5:9 tells us, "For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ."
2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."

We have a loving God, who has supplied us a sacrificial Lamb to atone for our sins. He is waiting patiently for each one of us to come to repentance. To acknowledge and confess our sins and our need of a Savior. God is that Savior, through His provision of Jesus, our Lord Messiah, if we believe in him. We not only are required to believe, but we need to act on that belief. By faith, we need to make the choice to be baptized and then begin to live, day by day, in submission to our Lord and Master, thus becoming a follower of Christ Jesus. It's not an easy path, but a well rewarded one, my friend!

If you've never made the decision before, to become a follower of Jesus Christ, Romans 10:9 tells us "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Don't wait! Do this today, and then contact someone; find a Bible-believing church, so you can begin your walk as a believer, and know with certainty, that the hope of eternal life in the coming Kingdom will be yours to inherit, at the day of our Lord's return.

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Prayer
Dear Father in Heaven,
I pray today: revive Your people. Breathe new life back into us and let us return to our first love - Jesus Christ! Renew our minds with Your word and transform us into a people who are bold, confident and on fire for Your promise of salvation to us, through Your Son. Forgive us for our complacency, our lukewarmness, and our selfish motives to look inward, rather than outward and Upward! Stir us up Father, and fan into flame the gifts You have given us that we will use them to bring You glory and honor today!

We praise You for the gift of Your Son, through whom You have miraculously brought us favor and salvation, so that on the day of his return, we will be ready, alert and watching. Forgive us of our sins, Father, and let us be found pure, blameless, holy and righteous, by Jesus's cleansing blood. Because of his obedience, to the point of death, we, too, might be saved from Your wrath and be resurrected one day, to receive our gift of immortality ~ eternal life in the age that is to come. What a glorious day that will be!

May those who are reading this, have hearts that will be stirred, softened, and made willing to hear Your word of the Kingdom and Messiah Jesus; turn from their sins; repent; be baptized; and be saved. That is my prayer this day. Help them to gain a sense of urgency...that tomorrow may never come. Today is the day to make that choice.

In our Lord Messiah's Name ~ JESUS ~ we pray,

Amen.

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{During this Advent season} you often hear people state that because Jesus is called "Immanuel" by Matthew, that it tells us that Jesus is therefore God or "Deity."
Today, we will look into this name of Immanuel to determine what it meant to God's people and what it means to us, today.

Read Matthew 1:20-23

But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived [lit. begotten] in her is by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him "Immanuel," which is translated "God is with us."

(HCSB translation)

Thoughts

In this text we just read, Matthew applies Isaiah 7:14 to Jesus ~ "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14.

Let's begin, by examining the phrase "the Lord Himself." There are many 'lords' in Scripture, but this particular "Lord", found in Isaiah 7:14 is from the Hebrew "Adonai" which the Hebrew scribes were very careful to designate to Yahweh, the only true God, only. Other men, angels and even the messiah are called 'lord' but those lords are from the Hebrew word, "adoni." So knowing this Lord is "Adonai", tells us that Yahweh, Himself, is providing a sign. I believe it's important to know just who is behind the orchestration of a sign to His people!

The next thing we need to understand is the context of Isaiah chapter 7. It was first spoken to King Ahaz, about 700 years before Christ. At this time, Ahaz is King of Judah and he is about to go into war against two kings - King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah of Israel. Ahaz is worried, so God sends His prophet, Isaiah, with a word from Him, to assure Ahaz that these kings will not attack him. To provide confidence that God's word is trustworthy, God provides a sign - a virgin will become pregnant, give birth to a son, and name him "Immanuel," which means in Hebrew literally: "with us is God."

In other words, the name "Immanuel" is a sign to the people, that God has not abandoned them; that He has not forsaken them; that He is surely still with His people and will help them.

Now read Isaiah 8:10:

"Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; State a proposal, but it will not stand, for "God is with us." (or "Immanuel").

I think this text puts the meaning of "Immanuel" into the right perspective ~ that "Immanuel" means that God has spoken and His plan will be the one that is accomplished. Not man's plan, but Yahweh of hosts' plan; the One who is holy, who we should fear, who is mighty and powerful. We do not need to fear man, when God is on our side!

Now, as we read the text in Matthew, where he records the angel's proclamation to Joseph that Mary, still a virgin at the point of this miraculous conception by the Spirit of God, will have a son, who will save his people from their sins; He then applies this text in Isaiah 7:14 as prophetic of the Messiah. This time in history, God is again providing a sign to His people that He is still with them. His sign is that this son will be born of a virgin and will be called "Immanuel" which means
"with us is God," or "God is with us."

Matthew accurately applies this Scripture to the Messiah, as a sign that this child will mean that God is still with His people. For in John 3:16-17, Jesus tells us

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him."

God is not abandoning His people. He has provided us our way of salvation, through His son, so that we can inherit eternal life in the coming age.

Jesus said in John 14:6: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me."

The only way to be reconciled to God [to get right with Him] and be found holy, blameless and pure [totally forgiven of our sins] on the day of our Lord's return? Through this man, Jesus, who is the Lamb of God, whom God provided to His people for their salvation.

It does not mean that Jesus is God, nor does it mean that God temporarily came down to dwell among His people as a human or in the flesh of a body.

The name "Immanuel" is giving us the assurance that God has not abandoned us, but instead, has provided us a way to inheriting the Kingdom of God and eternal life in this coming Kingdom! His provision is through the miraculous begetting of this child, the prophesied Messiah, who will someday rule the world.

Praise to Yahweh, the Most High God, for His gift to His people, through Christ Jesus! We are saved! {Throughout this season}, let us rejoice in the knowledge and understanding that God has not forsaken us. Whatever we may be facing - tough economic times; marital problems; rebellious children; a prodigal son or daughter; health issues that may be chronic or life threatening; joblessness; or some heartache or hurt that seems to never quite heal... let us take comfort in knowing that our God is with us.

"Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9.
"I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, and of the son of man who is make like grass?" Isaiah 51:12.

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Prayer
Dear Father in Heaven,

My heart goes out to people who are hurting and struggling at this time of year. Those who may not share their personal, private struggles with anyone, but suffer quietly, feeling isolated, discouraged and alone. I pray that they will learn to seek You and find You, and rest in the assurance that You are with them. Help them to know that they are not alone.

And as You provided Your son, Jesus, as a sign that You have not forsaken us, let us be a sign to those hurting in the world; an real flesh and blood indication that You have not forgotten them, either. Open our eyes to see the world as You do, and let us take time out of our busy lives, to show them Your love, Your kindness, and Your comfort in tangible ways. Remind us today, that it's not about us, but about loving You and loving others. Help us to reach out to them Father and show them Your way to experiencing joy, hope, and peace, through Your only begotten son, Jesus ~ our Lord, our Messiah, our Savior.

Thank You for speaking to us, even today, through Your word. Let us have eyes to see and ears to hear, the magnificent message that You bring to us. Let our hearts be open and receptive, so that we can turn to You, to be healed, to be saved, to be rescued and redeemed.

In Jesus' Name we pray,

Amen.

The above posts are the work of Angela Hays Moore.

Some editing has been done.

They were taken from:

A COMPILATION OF POSTS PERTINENT FOR THIS ADVENT SEASON! - PART 3 of 4

2011-12-31T11:13:00.001-08:00

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Read Matthew 1:18

"This is how Jesus the Messiah was born.

His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph.

But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin,

she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit." Matthew 1:18 (NLT)

This is the same verse, but from a different translation, varying it just slightly:

"The birth of Yeshua The Messiah was thus:
when Maryam his mother was engaged to Yoseph before they would have a conjugal relation she was found pregnant from The Spirit of Holiness." Matthew 1:18 (Aramaic Bible in Plain English).

Thoughts

Mary became pregnant through or from the power of the holy spirit. It is a tiny preposition translated from the Greek "ek or ex" which means:
from, from out of, because, by reason of, by the means of.

Luke chapter 1 gives us further insight into how this genesis took place.

34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 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.” 36 “And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month.” 37 “For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Mary was curious how this would be accomplished, so she asked! The angel graciously explained it to her ~ The holy spirit would come upon her and the power of the Most High God would overshadow her. If you're like me, you may be wondering what that means exactly! These are times when I wish the Bible was just a wee bit longer and provided us more details! However, if we do a little digging, we might get an idea of what this 'coming upon' and 'overshadowing' from or through
the holy spirit meant.

First, it's important to define the holy spirit. Pastor, book author and speaker, Greg Deuble defines it best:
God's Spirit: the mind and energy behind the works and word of God.

"The Spirit of God," "God's Spirit" and "the Holy Spirit", are all the same - the ruach [Hebrew] or pneuma [Greek] meaning Spirit = God's power = mind = Presence = Breath= wind = word. These words have all been translated for ruach or pneuma. If you can imagine a strong rushing, moving wind that has the power to create a universe from nothing; enter into people to give them supernatural abilities that they would not normally have; blind or confuse men in battle; or divide a sea, holding back the waters so much, that the land is dry to walk upon... you get just a small inkling of what God's Spirit is capable of!

During the vision of the transfiguration (when Jesus is seen on the mountain speaking with Moses and Elijah), "a cloud appeared, overshadowing them, and a voice came from the cloud: This is My beloved son; listen to him!" Mark 9:7. This word "overshadowing" is the same one used in Luke 1:35. It simply means that a cloud was casting a shadow upon them, enveloping them.

It is reminiscent of the glory of Yahweh, in the Old Testament, "when Moses went up the mountain, the cloud covered it. The glory of Yahweh settled on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day, He called to Moses from the cloud. The appearance of Yahweh's glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop. Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain..." Exodus 24:15-18.

In other words, when Moses, and later Jesus and the disciples, went up to the mountain to have an experience with the Most High God, they did not actually see Him
(for Scripture tells us that no man has seen God - "the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, the only one who has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, no one has seen or can see Him, to Him be honor and eternal might. Amen." I Timothy 6:15-16).
Instead, they saw Yahweh's glory, being represented as a cloud ~ a symbol of God's presence.

God's Spirit and Voice

In the genesis [the beginning, origin] of creation, "the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. The God said..." Genesis 1:2.
His Spirit was hovering, or the Hebrew transliteration ~ "rachaph" which means to flutter, move, shake. His breath, His wind, His power, was moving and accomplishing His spoken word. At creation, He spoke things that did not exist, into being.

"Ascribe to Yahweh, you heavenly beings, ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength.

Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due His name;
worship Yahweh in the splendor of His holiness.

The voice of Yahweh is above the waters.

The God of glory thunders ~

Yahweh, above vast waters,

the voice of Yahweh in power,

the voice of Yahweh in splendor.

The voice of Yahweh breaks the cedars; Yahweh shatters the cedars of Lebanon...

The voice of Yahweh shakes the wilderness,

Yahweh shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of Yahweh makes the deer give birth and strips the woodlands bare.

In His temple all cry, "Glory!"

Yahweh sat enthroned at the flood;

Yahweh sits enthroned, King forever.

Yahweh gives His people strength;

Yahweh blesses His people with peace."

Psalm 29:1-5;8-11

We can surmise something similar happened to Mary for the genesis of this miraculous baby to be begotten in Mary's womb, just as God's Spirit hovered over the waters, as He spoke creation into being. "By faith, we understand that the universe was created by God's command so that what is seen has been made from things that are not visible." Hebrews 11:3. Yahweh's Spirit hovered, moved, overshadowed Mary, and His voice caused Mary to become pregnant, just as His voice spoke the world and the first Adam into being. Yahweh's voice in power, in splendor did this mighty thing! The heavenly host praised Yahweh and ascribed to Him, and Him alone, the glory that is due His name!

It was God's power that accomplished His spoken word [logos] of the Messiah, being miraculously begotten in Mary, without her knowing a man. When we wonder, how can this be? We are reassured by the angel's proclamation to Mary, "For nothing will be impossible with God." If God can speak it, He can do it. It's that simple. He is that powerful and mighty. He is that great and awesome of a God. Now, it is time for us to give Him the glory that is due Him. Yahweh, He alone, is the one true, living God, who orchestrated this magnificent miracle of a bringing a baby boy into existence within a woman, without a man. Yahweh, alone, is the one whose power is so incredible, that He can bring a human baby into the world, without an earthly father.

GLORY to our Most High God!!!!!!!

Often times, during this ... season, Yahweh is left completely out of this miracle or His part in this amazing feat is downplayed, when mainstream churches state
"the 2nd person of the godhead chose to come down to take on human flesh, while still being God Almighty and Jesus at the same time." The glory then goes, mistakenly, to something else entirely, then to the one to whom it is rightly due:
Adonai (Lord) Yahweh, the one and only living God and Creator of the universe!

I challenge you today ~ give Yahweh the glory that He is due for the miracle of our Christ's birth, for which He is entirely responsible! Without Yahweh's Spirit, miraculously begetting this baby, we would have no hope. We would have no future. We would have no forgiveness. We would have nothing.

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Prayer

Dear Father in Heaven,

Today, we give You the GLORY that is due You, for Your amazing power that works through Your Spirit, which You have provided within believers, today! We are simply in awe of how You can speak and Your word is performed. Your word is always accomplished and fulfilled, through the power of Your holy spirit.

Forgive us, Father, if we have given Your glory to another. Let us ascribe to You, glory, strength and honor! Let us worship You and see that You alone, are God. Let us be more like Moses, who wanted to see Your glory, to spend time with You, and sometimes escape to the mountain for long periods of time to hear from You. We might not be able to escape somewhere private, Father, for we have responsibilities, jobs, families, marriages, and commitments that we must keep, but we pray that You show up today in our devotional time. Speak to us. Let us hear Your still small voice, whispering to us Your will, Your purpose, Your plans for us, and let us feel the warmth of Your love envelope us today. Let us see Your glory and ascribe that glory to You!

Thank You for giving us Jesus. As we get busy, with our shopping, baking, and preparations for the holiday, with family gatherings and church festivities, let us not lose sight of what You did for us and how exactly this came to be!

In Jesus, Your son's Name, we pray,
Amen.

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Read Luke 1:35:

And 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 this reason,

the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God."

Luke 1:35

Thoughts

Let's start with the 2nd phrase first ~ "the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God" We will attempt to break it down a bit so we can understand it a little more! Ready?

Holy. It's from the Greek word, "hagios" and means set apart by or for God, holy, sacred.

Offspring. It's from the Greek word, "gennaó" and means beget (procreate a descendant), produce offspring; begotten. ...

Jesus, from his birth, was set apart for God. It reminds me of a similar story of Samson, found in Judges 13:

Then the angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman and said to her, "Behold now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son. Now, therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines." Judges 13:3-5. From the womb, this baby Samson, was set apart for a special purpose that Yahweh had planned.

The great prophet, Samuel, was also dedicated and promised to Yahweh, even before he was born - "So I have also dedicated him [Samuel] to Yahweh; as long as he lives, he is dedicated to Yahweh." His mother praises Yahweh, and even prophesies of the Messiah in I Samuel 2:10 "Those who contend with Yahweh will be shattered; against them He will thunder in the heavens, Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth; and He will give strength to His king and will exalt the horn of His Anointed [Messiah]." Some Bible scholars think that Hannah is speaking prophetically of God's everlasting Kingdom here on earth, under the rulership of the Messiah.
I believe they are correct.

In Psalm 119:73a, David pens, "Thy hands made me and fashioned me."

In Jeremiah 1:4-5, Jeremiah writes, "Now the word of Yahweh came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet of the nations."
(Consecrated means to make clean, dedicate, to be sacred, to be devoted, to show oneself holy, to be selected for God.)

When you consider that the angel was telling Mary that this baby, who will be begotten in her womb, is set apart for Yahweh - to be holy - it is because he has a special purpose planned long ago by His heavenly Father.

Jesus' Purpose

"But he [Jesus] said to them, "I must preach the Kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose." Luke 4:43.
This everlasting Kingdom that is to come, in which Jesus will sit upon the throne of David, to rule and reign the entire earth - that is the subject he was preaching to the people! That kingdom is the purpose for which he was sent by God. When it begins to dawn on us, that this everlasting Kingdom of God is the central message of the entire Bible, something will click and understanding will increase, a hundredfold! From before his birth, even since before creation, the plan for this Messiah was set in stone. Jesus was destined to be great and take this esteemed, highly exalted position over mankind, even having been placed in authority over the angels! Incredible!

"the Son of God"

"The Son of God" is a title which was given to Jesus, for the explicit reason that he was miraculously begotten or brought into existence by God. Just as in Luke 3:38 in Jesus' genealogy, where it lists each man and whose son he is, Adam is listed as "the Son of God." It was not because he was "God in the flesh" which is popularly believed of Jesus, because of this title, but because Adam had no earthly father and had been created by God; for this reason, Adam was called "the Son of God."

"And for this Reason"

kai - and, even, also, namely

dio - for this reason, because, due to, therefore, on account of.

These two tiny words join the sentence of how the Spirit of God will be miraculously begetting the baby in Mary, to the title of what this child will be called.
In other words, it is namely because of God's supernatural intervention of His power that this baby would be generated in the womb of Mary, and because of this miraculous conception, this baby will be called the Son of God. It does not infer that Jesus would have part God-genes or God's chromosomes making up his genetics. It does not mean that Jesus would be both 100% man and 100% God, as {trinitarians} teach in mainstream Christianity, based on their creed from 325 AD. It only means that because of Jesus' miraculous birth caused by Yahweh's Spirit, he will be designated a special, unique position as "the Son of God," "the last Adam", and after his willingness to give up his life for the atonement of our sins ~ and then be raised back to life from the dead ~ Jesus is then considered the 'firstborn of the dead,' or the 'firstborn of creation.'

God does not become the created;

He does not become a man;

Yahweh does not take on the flesh of a man or baby.

These erroneous teachings convolute the plan and purpose of God for Jesus and the reason Jesus was begotten. It muddies the water, so people can't quite see the real Jesus, who is to be our living water. People are dying of thirst for Jesus, because they have been sold down the river with an incomprehensible creed that was never taught by the man whom they claim to follow. Let the cry for reformation of the Church be heard around the world, as we go back to believing and following the Jesus of the Bible, who is not Yahweh, but a man, miraculously begotten by Yahweh in the womb of a young virgin named Mary.

As you read through these Advent Devotionals, you might think they sound repetitive, or like I'm attempting to beat a dead horse. However, the truths of who Jesus is, of why he was begotten, and the plan for the Kingdom that God has designed for mankind, in order to grant us eternal life on this earth ~ they are weaved throughout all of Scripture, and a basic understanding is a crucial foundation for your salvation. It is like putting pieces of a puzzle together, and if you borrow a piece from a completely separate puzzle and try to fit it in, it will make the picture distorted from what the original artist had intended. Things won't quite fit and you'll always never quite get it.

Many people might say, "well the puzzle looks fine. What does it really matter? It's close enough. No one can really see the whole puzzle. Just accept the puzzle pieces you've been given, and go on. Don't let it bother you." But, I blog to differ! It DOES matter, and the result, when you start using the right puzzle pieces, is a glorious vision of your hope! When you catch the vision of what that coming Kingdom is all about and who your true King is, then you will sit up and take notice! You will want to learn more! You will want to obey more! You will begin to fall on your face in worship of the Most High God! You will begin to grasp just how much He loves us and has made a way for us, through His Son.

This {season}, do not celebrate the birth of God! Instead, celebrate the birth of God's Son. It makes all the difference in the world.

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Prayer

Dear Father in Heaven,

Today, we simply just praise You for who You are. You are Yahweh. You alone are God. Only You are good. You miraculously brought into existence this man, Jesus, in the womb of his mother, Mary. How the world dramatically changed when You performed this miraculous feat! We praise You for Your plan and purpose for him, and for us, as well.

Jesus' purpose was to preach the Kingdom of God to people. As his followers, should our purpose look any differently? Give us confidence and boldness to proclaim this message to people to whom You send us.

Your plan for us is a wonderful future in this coming Kingdom of God! "For I know the plans that I have for you, plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope." Let us be prepared for that hope and not ashamed to speak of it. "Sustain us according to Your word, Father, that we may live. And do not let us be ashamed of our hope."

In the Name of Jesus, the Son of the living God,

Amen.

...

Have you ever heard people call Mary, "the mother of God?" Many people believe that Jesus wasn't a man, but the second person of a triune godhead, who came down to be born as a baby, to dwell in human flesh. So, when they call Mary the "the mother of God," they mean the mother of "God the Son."

Today's devotional will look into whether Mary is the mother of God, or not.

Read Luke 1:39-45:

Now at this time Mary arose and went with haste to the hill country, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth (Mary's relative). And it came about that when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby [John the Baptist] leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the holy spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice, and said, "Blessed among women are you and blessed is the fruit of our womb!"

And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what has been spoken to her by the Lord."

Luke 1:39-45

Thoughts

Let me draw your focus into Elizabeth's question, as she was filled with the holy spirit, "And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Here, the text tells us that Mary is the mother of Elizabeth's Lord. What Lord is she referring to? Is it the same Lord as the next one she refers to in Luke 1:45 ~ "blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what has been spoken to her by the Lord," or are there two "Lords" in this paragraph?

Typically, when we have a question about Scripture, there are many other places within the Bible that will consistently give us other verses to clue us in to help us find the answer.

Luke 1:68: Zacharias (Elizabeth's husband, also filled with the holy spirit as he is prophesying), says this: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people." Luke 1:68.
Here, the Lord references the Lord God, who is a singular "He."
Luke 2:26 "and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ."
Here, the Lord is also referring to the Lord God. The Christ is obviously Jesus.
So we could accurately say 'the Lord God's Messiah is Jesus.
Luke 2:11 "for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."
Here, "the Lord" is referring to Christ.
Ephesians 1:3 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ."
This Scripture calls Jesus Christ "our Lord" and also mentions "the God and Father OF Jesus."
Acts 2:36 "Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ-- this Jesus whom you crucified."
In this text, God actually makes Jesus to be Lord.

So by looking at these verses (and there are MANY, many more!), we can see that there are two "Lords" -
one is the Lord God and the other is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Two very distinct "Lords" who the writers differentiate between with great clarity.

David's Lord

This brings us to the conversation Jesus had with the pharisees about the Christ's title of "Lord":

Matthew 22:42-45, Jesus asks the Pharisees, "What do you think about the Christ, whose son is he?" They said to him, "the son of David." He said to them, Then how does David, in the Spirit, call him "Lord," and he quoted Psalm 110:1. If David then calls him "Lord," how is he his son?

Jesus quotes the prophetic Scripture from David in Psalm 110:1 showing the Pharisees that David calls the Messiah "Lord":

"A Psalm of David. The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand Until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."
Here, Jesus is using this Old Testament prophecy to explain to the Pharisees that the Christ [the Messiah/Anointed One] is David's Lord.

What trips many people up is in the New Testament, where both God and His Messiah are called "Lord." The word "Lord" in the New Testament is translated from the Greek word, "kurios." People are falsely led to believe that "Lord" = "God," so when they read Jesus is Lord; and God the Father is Lord; they are reading "Jesus is God" and "God the Father is God", but this is not what it means...at all! This is why it is so crucial in our study, to look at the entire Bible for our theology!
The Old Testament provides us insight into whether or not all "Lords" are the same and mean "God" every time it is used.

Does "Lord" Mean "God?"
In the Old Testament, mostly written in the Hebrew language, the writers had two words that they translated into the English "Lord":
1) Adonai
2) adoni

Both are translated as "Lord" in the Old Testament, but the first one, "Adonai" always refers to Yahweh, the one and only living God.

The second "Lord" - "adoni" is a Hebrew word that means "master" and is used as a title for men and angels,
but never for Yahweh, the LORD God.

For example, Sarah calls her husband Abraham, "Lord" in Genesis 18:12, "Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord (adoni) being old also?" I Peter 3:6 tells us, "just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear."

The word Lord means "master" and signifies that we are willing to obey our Lord. So, in Romans 10:9 when Paul tells us, "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved," he is telling us that we need to make Jesus our master and obey him.
He is not telling us that we must believe Jesus is the Lord God, Adonai Yahweh!

The Lord our God is one Lord.

Now, let us examine Jesus' words closely in Mark chapter 12:

Jesus answered the scribes of which commandment is the most important,
The foremost is "Hear O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord." Mark 12:29

With just a little big of digging, we see that our Lord God consists of only one Lord, not two, not three!

It is important to distinguish that in Psalm 110:1, Adonai Yahweh (the Lord God) is speaking to adoni Messiah (the Lord Messiah).
There are obviously two lords in this verse, and throughout Scripture, but only one Lord of these two, is
Yahweh, the Lord God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
The Lord God and Father made Jesus to be Lord (master) and Christ for His people!

John 17:3 tells us plainly who is God and who is the Christ:
"And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."
Our Heavenly Father is Yahweh, our one and only true Lord God. Jesus is our Christ, our Messiah, our Lord.

"Mother of my Lord" versus "Mother of my God"
Obviously, if one does not understand the difference between the "Lords" in Scripture and erroneously believe that the word "Lord" = "God" every time it is used, then hearing Elizabeth's proclamation that Mary is the mother of her Lord, one would then come to the conclusion that Mary is the mother of her God!

However, when we understand that Jesus is the Lord [adoni] Messiah, then it makes perfect sense for Elizabeth to proclaim that Mary is the mother of her Lord Messiah, who will someday grow up to be her Lord and King. She is not saying that Mary is the Mother of Yahweh, the one true God and Father of Jesus, who spoke of the Messiah through His prophets of old.  ...

Let us understand with a little more clarity, just who our Lord Messiah is, who our Lord God has sent us, to be our salvation, our redemption, our King of a coming Kingdom.   Let us celebrate the birth of our Lord Messiah and praise our Lord God and Father, for this miraculous gift He has given to all people!

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Prayer

Dear Father in Heaven,
This study that we did today on the word "Lord" gives us valuable insight on who You are, and who Your son, Jesus, is. I pray that this knowledge and understanding will bring about some much needed clarity within believers, and that it can begin to overcome the false assumptions and teachings that they have held for many years, taught by well-meaning people. Open our hearts and our minds to Your teaching, Your understanding, and Your knowledge. Let Your Spirit help us to understand what You want us to learn.

We recognize the fact that we will not be able to understand everything. We know that there are some things that we just have to accept by faith and wait until the return of our Lord Messiah, to find the answers. However, let that acknowledgement not close us off from learning and understanding what we can about You and Your son! Let us seek You and find You. Let us pursue You and your Kingdom, as if looking for a lost and valuable pearl. Let You, Your righteousness and Your coming Kingdom be our focal point this Advent Season, as we look forward to the coming of our Lord Jesus, who will raise our loved ones to immortality and change us, in the twinkling of an eye. For this day, Father, we eagerly await!

In our Lord Jesus Christ's Name we pray,
Amen.

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How many times do we get our beliefs, traditions and theologies from song lyrics, rather than Scripture? How often do we get an image of how something is, but when we really begin to study something in the Bible, we realize we've made some false assumptions and it wasn't there at all or somewhat altered, subtly tweaked so that its truth is smudged? A great example of this is the lyrics from "We Three Kings" ... :

We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Following yonder star

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright

Westward leading, still proceeding

Guide us to thy Perfect Light

Born a King on Bethlehem's plain

Gold I bring to crown Him again
King forever, ceasing never
Over us all to reign

Frankincense to offer have I
Incense owns a Deity nigh
Prayer and praising, all men raising
Worship Him, God most high

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume

Breathes of life of gathering gloom

Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying

Sealed in the stone-cold tomb

Glorious now behold Him arise

King and God and Sacrifice

Alleluia, Alleluia

Earth to heav'n replies

In today's devotional, we'll look at a few details of the story of the visiting Magi and the King of the Jews, whom they sought to find to bow before as King, Lord Messiah.

Read Matthew 2:1-4, 7-12:

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold magi from the East arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. And when Herod the king heard it, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he began to inquire of them where the Christ was to be born.” Matthew 2:1-4.

Then Herod secretly called the magi, and ascertained from them the time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make careful search for the child; and when you have found him, report to me, that I too may come and worship him.” And having heard the king, they went their way and lo, the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them, until it came and stood over where the child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

And they came into the house and saw the child with Mary his mother; and they fell down and worshiped him; and opening their treasures they presented to him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their own country by another way.
Matthew 2:7-12.

Thoughts

The Magi

Magi - pronounced “may-ji” is from the Greek word, "magos" and were a caste of wise men specializing in astrology, medicine and natural sciences suspected to be either from Arabia or Persia. The Nativity scene and popular Christmas carols sing of three kings visiting from afar, but Scripture omits how many men make up the plural “magi” or wise philosophers group who arrived.

The three gifts that these magi brought to the child (Jesus who is estimated to be two years olds by this time, with the young family now residing in a house), consisted of gold, frankincense of myrrh. It was custom in the East to give gifts to someone superior in rank, and the Magi recognized this child born as the King of the Jews. The gifts were symbolic and held meaning, denoting Christ's future destiny:

The gold signified royalty and was given to Jesus as future King.
The Frankincense is a resin or oil from the Boswellia tree. "Ancient people burned frankincense, believing it to carry their prayers to heaven." Its use as incense illustrates Jesus' future role as our High Priest and mediator, between God and man.
Myrrh is "an Arabic word for bitter, and it is considered a wound healer because of its strong antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties. One of its many uses was as an embalming material, used in Egyptian mummies. As an embalming ointment, the gift of myrhh signified that Jesus would die for the sins of the world as
the Lamb of God. In fact, Myrrh was one of the spices used to prepare Jesus' body for burial."

When presented to the King of the Jews, the magi in verse 11, 'fell down' - Barnes' notes Bible Commentary tells us
"This was the usual way of showing respect or homage among the Jews," and
worshiped him ~ "Did him homage as King of the Jews." (See further study notes below).

King of the Jews, the Christ

When the Magi come to Jerusalem, inquiring about the child who had been born "King of the Jews", Herod then begins to question the religious leaders of the Jewish people to find the location prophesied where "the Christ" was to be born to answer their question. This tells us that the title, “King of the Jews” is synonymous in the people’s minds to the title, “the Christ.” Christ means “Messiah” or “Anointed One” and this specific Christ of whom they were speaking, was to be the anointed King of the Jews, who would one day, sit upon the throne of his father, David, to rule their Kingdom forever. We know this for certain, due to the angel, Gabriel’s proclamation to Mary before his birth.

How ironic it is then, that by the end of Jesus’ life and ministry, we find Jesus standing on trial for this very thing.

“Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor questioned him, saying, “Are you the King of the Jews?” and Jesus said to him, “It is as you say.”
Matthew 27:11.

Pilate, later in verse 22 asks the Jewish people, “Then what shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!”

The Jewish people in that crowd, obviously did not believe that this man, Jesus, was their prophesied Christ, the King of the Jews, so they chose to crucify him upon a cross.

And they put up above his head the charge against him which read, “This is Jesus the King of the Jews.” Matthew 27:37.

We are all familiar with how the story goes. Jesus dies on the cross, as an atoning sacrificial Lamb of God for all people, and then lies dead in a tomb for three days. On the third day, God raises him back to life, and he goes on to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom for another forty days, before ascending to the heavens, to sit at the right hand of his God, until the time of restoration. He ascends in the clouds with his disciples looking on.

Right before his ascension, his disciples ask him, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the Kingdom to Israel?” Acts 1:6.

Many religious people of our day have scoffed at the disciples when they asked such a question. ‘Do the disciples not realize, even at this point, that this Kingdom that the Jewish people were looking for, would not be literal, that it is a spiritual concept only?’ However, I believe the disciples were spot on with their question.
Remember, Jesus was the Christ, the King of the Jews. He was born with this destiny and it had yet to be accomplished.
The only missing element of this man’s royal destiny and purpose to rule and reign upon the throne of David, was WHEN.

Jesus’ answer to them was, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.” Acts 1:7. “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father alone. For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.” Matthew 24:36-37.

In other words, no one knows the day or the time of Christ’s return to the earth, when he will restore the Kingdom to Israel, and ultimately rule the world, with his saints. Only God our Father, knows this date, and we are to live ready, waiting in expectation, and alert, so that we are not caught unaware at his second coming.

...

Prayer

Dear Father in Heaven,

How awesome it is that we can study Your inspired Scripture that is God-breathed, and grasp the beauty and significance of who Jesus is to us and to all mankind! ...
We can come to you afresh with worship for bringing us our King!

He came the first time as a newborn baby, miraculously begotten by You. Mary and Joseph, Gabriel, Elizabeth, the shepherds, the angels, and now the Magi, all recognized this Jesus as the Christ, the King of the Jews, who would one day rule and reign upon the throne of David forever. His purpose, his life, even his death, are all revolving around this Kingdom that he will usher in, when he returns to the earth one day. No one knows when that time will be, but we pray that we will be ready and watching!

Every devotional on the birth of Jesus seems to hammer the point even further, that this man Jesus, is our Messiah, our King of a coming Kingdom, our mediator,
our High Priest, our sacrifice for our sins, to reconcile us with the one and only living God - You - Yahweh, who created us for this very purpose, to dwell with You for an eternity when You finally come down to the restored earth to dwell with mankind. It seems almost repetitive to hear this over and over again, but how can we discuss the birth of Your only begotten Son, without talking about the purpose and destiny for which he was created?

So many Christians during this Christmas season, celebrate "the Deity of Christ," "the Incarnation of Christ", and try to prove that Jesus is You, but the more we study the details of this, the more it becomes glaringly obvious that You have given us the gift of eternal life through Your Son, not through one 'who' - the second person of a triune God 'what.' (three who's in one 'what' is how the Trinity is typically explained to those who dare to question it). We pray that those who have accepted this Trinity doctrine and believed it as truth, will see that this creed is not found in Scripture.

Open their eyes to see that the Son of God is an uniquely begotten man, who You have exalted to be our Lord and Messiah. Let us give homage to him as our King and continue to worship only You as the supreme Adonai Yahweh, Almighty God of the universe.

In Jesus' our mediator's Name we Pray,

Amen.

For further study:

Should Jesus be worshiped? This blog article, "Should We Worship Jesus" written by Sean Finnegan, addresses this topic from a Biblical viewpoint. In Matthew 2:8 "worship" is translated from the Greek word, "proskuneó" which means "to kiss the ground when prostrating before a superior; to fall down/prostrate oneself to adore on one's knees; to do obeisance." It can be translated as 'bow' or 'worship' depending on the translators' choice.

Sean writes:

Translations and Bias

Most translations are carried out by Christians who believe Jesus is God. As a result, they usually render proskuneo as “worship” when it is done to Jesus and “bow” when it is done to humans. Consider the following examples taken from the NASB:

1) Mat. 4.10

Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’”

2) Mat. 2.8
And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, so that I too may come and
worship Him.”

3) Rev 3.9

Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie– I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you.

In the first verse Satan tries to get Jesus to do proskuneo to him. Jesus replies that one should only do this to God. In this case the translators correctly translated it “worship” since it is the kind of proskuneo that is done to God alone. In the second instance Herod tells the Magi that he wants to come and recognize the baby Jesus as the “King of the Jews” by bowing before him. However, the translators, overcome by their bias that Jesus is God (even as a baby!), rendered the word as “worship.” In the third instance, again the same word proskuneo is used, but this time, since the Christians are receiving proskuneo, the translators used the words “bow down” rather than “worship.”

If our translations said “bow” every time someone came up asking Jesus for healing or when the disciples recognized him as the Son of God (the rightful Davidic King), there would be no issue. In other words, I am suggesting that the proposition,
“In the Bible Jesus is worshiped,” is not actually true.
People did not worship Jesus, they bowed before him out of respect for what he could do for them or because they recognized him as the Messiah.

As Christian monotheists we freely and with great joy bow before Jesus and do proskuneo to him, since he is the God-anointed ruler of the world to come. However, this should not be confused with the worship we render God, which is much higher since our attitude when bowing before the Father of Jesus is that he is the one true God, the only one we love and serve with everything in us
(Deut. 6.4-5).

The above posts are the work of Angela Hays Moore.

Some editing has been done.

They were taken from:

A COMPILATION OF POSTS PERTINENT FOR THIS ADVENT SEASON! - PART 4 of 4

2011-12-31T11:11:00.000-08:00

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Read Acts 2:41
"So then, those who had received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls."

Thoughts
Our thoughts today come from Bible Scholar, Sean Finnegan. He wrote an article, "The Kingdom and Your Response" on the Kingdom Ready blogsite back in July, 2011 and it fits perfectly here today, as our conclusion to our Advent Devotionals. Listen to Sean's words ~

The Coming Kingdom

Before the Kingdom comes, a terrible time of darkness, violence, and tribulation will come. Just when it seems that all hope is lost,
Jesus will come in the clouds, resurrect his followers, and establish his reign on the earth.

For the first thousand years, Jesus will rule the earth from Jerusalem. During this time, many regular people will also be living. Thus, it will be the responsibility of the followers of Christ to function as priests to these people and administer the government.

While this new theocracy is proceeding, the earth itself will be restored, like an antique car, to its former state of perfection (the Garden of Eden). After the thousand years, everyone who was not part of the first resurrection will be judged, Satan will be destroyed, and then God Himself will come perpetually to dwell on the earth with His children.

In order to give you an understanding of the Kingdom, we have selected ten attributes to explain:

The faithful of all ages will inherit the land that was originally promised to Abraham. Planet Earth will be totally restored to Paradise. There will be no famine, no pollution, no harsh weather, no natural disasters, and no deserts. The entire creation will be changed to facilitate the worship of God. In fact, a jewel filled, custom designed city made by God Himself, New Jerusalem, will come down out of heaven and be established over the Old Jerusalem. This new city will be made of all sorts of precious stones and gold. You may have heard of the “pearly gates;” they are a feature of this massive and beautiful New Jerusalem.
The saints will enjoy resurrected bodies for eternity. This means they will never again be afflicted with broken bones, deterioration, bad eyesight, bruises, scrapes, disabilities, etc. Those who are lame today will in that day leap like deer, and those who are blind today will see with perfect clarity in the Kingdom. The bodies will be immortal; so, no matter what happens, death is not a concern.
Rewards will be given to the saints for the deeds they have done in this life. Those who endured persecution or were martyred will be given rewards for their faithful service to the Ruler of heaven and earth.
There will be peace—no more war, violence, anger, bullying, or anxiety. In fact, even the animals will be at peace with each other and mankind. That means that you would be able to have a lion as a pet. The carnivorous animals will be changed to herbivores and will no longer be afraid of humans.
Justice will be pervasive in the Kingdom. The poor, orphans, downtrodden, and less fortunate will get their just due. The arrogant, wicked, and rebellious will be destroyed so that there will never again be someone to take advantage or harm the people of God.
All the people in the final Kingdom of God will be holy. They will no longer be tempted to sin. The struggle will have been won, and they will be empowered to live righteously every moment of every day forever. Never again will the saints need to repent, feel guilt, or experience shame towards God because of sins committed.
The citizens of the Paradise of God will be filled with unimaginable joy. Singing, dancing, and celebration will abound. Furthermore, nothing will be in existence to take away joy—no more pain, suffering, or weeping. The only tears that will be shed will be because of happiness.
You will be able to have fellowship with the saints. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Peter, Paul, and John will make up your dinner party along with anyone else who has entered the Kingdom. Loved ones will be reunited and spend as much quality time as they desire. What’s more, Jesus himself will be present and available for conversation and companionship. Since you will have infinite time, you can spend however much time you like with each person who is living in the Kingdom of God.
We will get our knowledge of God directly from the Source. No longer will there be misconceptions about His nature, plan, and intentions. God Himself, Yahweh, the Father of all, will teach us everything we need to know. We will know Him as well as He knows us today.
The Father will be dwelling on the earth; we will be living with Him forever. The Bible teaches that He will light up New Jerusalem so that even the sun will dim in comparison to His glory. We will be able to speak to Him face to face and enjoy His love directly. We will see the Holy One and experience Him firsthand.

This Kingdom, this Paradise, this Utopia, is on its way. Its arrival is imminent. God Himself has promised it and will accomplish it in His time. Why hasn’t Jesus come back yet? What is taking so long? The Bible teaches that God is very patient because He wants everyone (including you) to have a chance to accept the message before it is too late.

Our Response

Are you ready? If not, there are certain required actions that you must take. Just as when you are going on a long trip, there are preparations to be made. According to Jesus, you must hear, understand, accept, and hold fast to the gospel of the Kingdom, and then you must bear fruit—live the way that he has commanded.

Hear: Everything starts with this. If you do not hear the message of salvation, then you are dead in the water. But hearing is not enough…
Understand: There is no magical formula in Christianity. Just saying the words of the sinners’ prayer is not enough. You must truly understand that the Kingdom is coming and that Jesus died for your sins so that you could enter it. Furthermore, you should understand two key words: (1) Christ and (2) Lord.
The term “Christ” means “anointed.” But anointed for what purpose? Jesus is the Christ anointed to be the King of the Kingdom. Therefore, every time you read Christ, you may substitute mentally: the King of the Kingdom. Secondly, “Lord” means boss or master. If Jesus is your Lord, then you will do what he says. Even so, having this understanding is not enough…
Accept: You have to accept the gospel as truth. Faith is the basis of everything. Additionally, there needs to be repentance—true heartfelt sorrow and a desire to change anything and everything for the one who died for your sins. Confess that Jesus is your Lord and be baptized in his name. Commit to following his words for the rest of your life. Yet, even acceptance and belief are not enough…
Hold it Fast: God honors your right to choose. If you change your mind and decide that you do not want to be in the Kingdom, He will not force you to be there. If you truly desire to be with Him forever in Paradise, then there is nothing that He will not do to help you get there. As with marathon racers, the beginning of our faith is not as important as the end. You must hold fast to your faith until the end. God does not want part of you, He wants your whole life. Still, holding your faith fast until the end is not enough…
Bear Fruit: Your life as a Christian is like a fruit tree. If you have received the seed of the gospel and it has taken root in faith, then you will have corresponding fruit—actions. Rather than living the old way according to your own desires, you need to live according to what God desires for you. Those who demonstrate the fruit of immorality, impurity, sex outside of marriage, jealousy, outbursts of anger, and drunkenness will not inherit the Kingdom of God. However, the fruit of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

All of these elements are essential. You must hear the message of salvation (the Kingdom and the Cross). You must accept it (believe it, repent, confess, and be baptized). You must hold it fast a lifetime. You must bear fruit—behave the way God wants. Christianity is no cakewalk but the glorious future Kingdom, and fellowship with God today, make it all worthwhile."

(written by Sean Finnegan)

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Prayer
Dear Father in Heaven,

Today, we not only celebrate the birth of Your son, Jesus, but we also celebrate the fact that this isn't all that there is! You're not finished with us, yet! We wait expectantly, for the second coming of Jesus, to the earth, to accomplish what You have set forth for him to do. He will fulfill Your word and bring about justice, peace and joy, as he rules from the throne of David, in a Kingdom that has no end.

Let us not miss this opportunity that You have given us, to receive eternal life in this Kingdom! Let us not let another moment go by, without first, making sure that we are saved and born again, confident that we will someday inherit this Kingdom that is to come. Open our hearts and our minds to Your beautiful truths and amazing promise that You will accomplish, through Your son. If we haven't already made the decision to be baptized, let us do so today! Help us see the urgency of this and procrastinate no longer!

If we haven't already, let us understand, accept and believe these truths, and then begin a new life, living in total, committed, radical submission to our Lord Messiah and following his words, faithfully, unwavering! Let us then begin to see the fruit of a believer come forth in our lives, and see that You are indeed, working in us, through Jesus, transforming us, changing us, renewing our minds, forgiving us, and conforming us to the image of Your son.

We await expectantly for the day, when we will all be made perfect together, completed by You, at the day of our Lord's return. This is the hope for which we are called. This is the reason we celebrate. This is the purpose for which You sent Your son. This is the eternal life which You have promised. This is why we live, hope and have our being in You. In You, we will never be disappointed. Your word is trustworthy. Your word is true. And we know, Your word will be accomplished and fulfilled soon.

Come Lord Jesus, Come.

In our Lord Messiah's name, JESUS, we pray,

Amen.

...

The above post is the work of Angela Hays Moore.

Some editing has been done.

It was taken from:

Advent 25

So, Is Jesus Almighty God?

2011-11-19T01:49:00.000-08:00

So, Is Jesus Almighty God?

The Bible Says that God is not a Man.

The Bible says:

Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man..."

1 Samuel 15:29 "And also the Strength of Israel...is not a man..."

Job 9:32 "For he is not a man, as I am ..."

Hosea 11:9 "...For I am God, and not man..."

Jesus is called a man many times in the Bible:

John 8:40 "...a man who has told you the truth..."

Acts 2:22 "Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know."

Acts 17:31 "He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed"

1 Tim. 2:5 "...the man Christ Jesus."

God is not a man, but Jesus, is a man, therefore, Jesus is not God.

The Bible Says that God Is Not a son of man.

Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man...nor a son of man..."

The Bible often calls Jesus "a son of man" or "the son of man."

Matthew 12:40 "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

Matthew 16:27 "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels;..."

Mark 2:10 "But so that you may know that the Son of man has authority..."

John 5:27 "And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man."

In the Hebrew Scriptures, the "son of man" is also used many times as a synonym for "man". Ezekiel is very often called by this title. (Job 25:6; Psalm 80:17; 144:3; Ezekiel 2:1; 2:3; 2:6; 2:8; 3:1; 3:3; 3:4; 3:10; 3:17; 3:25).

God would not contradict Himself by first saying He is not a son of man; then become a human being who was called "the son of man". God would not have done so because He is not the author of confusion. Also, human beings, including Jesus, are called "son of man" specifically to distinguish them from God, who is not a "son of man" according to the Bible.

The Bible Says that God is Greater than Jesus.

John 14:28 "...My Father is greater than I."

John 10:29 "My Father...is greater than all..."

Jesus cannot be God if God is greater than him. The trinitarian belief that the Father and son are equal is in direct contrast to the clear words from Jesus.

The Bible Says that Jesus Recognized and Prayed to the Only True God.

Jesus prayed to God with the following words:

John 17:3 "...that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."

Jesus prayed to God all night:

Luke 6:12 "he continued all night in prayer to God."

Here is an example of Jesus praying to God:

Matthew 26:39 "...he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, O My Father..."

The writer of Hebrews said:

Hebrews 5:7 "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;"

Who was Jesus praying to when he fell on his face with loud cries and petitions? Was it himself? Was Jesus crying in tears to himself? Surely the answer must be a resounding 'No.' Jesus was praying to "the only true God." Jesus was the servant of the One Who sent him. Can there be a clearer proof that Jesus is not God?

The Bible says that the disciples did not believe Jesus was God.

The Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament details the activity of the disciples over a period of thirty years after Jesus, ascended into heaven. Throughout this period, they never referred to Jesus as God. For instance Peter stood up with the eleven disciples and addressed a crowd saying:

Acts 2:22 "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know."

For Peter, Jesus was the servant of God (confirmed in Matthew 12:18):

Acts 3:13 "The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus."

Acts 3:26 "God raised up his servant Jesus..."

When faced by opposition from the authorities, Peter said:

Acts 5:29-30 "We must obey God rather than men! The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree."

The disciples prayed to God just as they were commanded to by Jesus in Luke 11:2, and considered Jesus to be God's servant,

Acts 4:24 "...they raised their voices together in prayer to God. 'Sovereign Lord,' they said, 'you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.'"

Acts 4:27 "...against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed..."

Acts 4:30 "...through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

The Bible says that Jesus is God's servant, chosen one, and beloved.

Matt. 12:18 "Behold, My servant, whom I have chosen, in whom My soul is well pleased."

Since Jesus is God's servant, Jesus cannot be God.

The Bible says that Jesus could Not Do Anything of himself.

John 5:19 "The son can do nothing of himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing."

John 5:30 "I can of mine own self do nothing."

Jesus did not consider himself equal with God, rather he denied doing anything of himself.

The Bible says that God performed miracles through Jesus.

Matt. 9:8 "But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men."

Acts 2:22 "a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst."

Acts 10:38 "...he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him."

If Christ was God, the Bible would simply say that Jesus did the miracles himself i.e. of his own power, without making reference to God. The fact that it was God performing the miracles through Jesus; shows both that God is greater than Jesus and that Jesus is not God.

The Bible says that Jesus is subordinate to God.

1 Corinthians 11:3 "Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God."

1 Corinthians 15:27-28 "For he [GOD] hath put all things under his [Jesus'] feet. But when he [GOD] saith all things are put under him [Jesus], it is manifest that he [GOD] is excepted, which did put all things under him [Jesus]. 28 When he has done this, then the son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all."

Since Jesus is subordinate to God, he is not God.

The Bible says that Jesus grew in wisdom and learning.

Jesus grew in wisdom, but Almighty God has no need to learn anything:

Psalms 147:5 "Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite."

Luke 2:52: "And Jesus increased in wisdom."

God does not need to learn, but Jesus learned.

Heb. 5:8 "Although he was a son, he learned obedience..."

The Bible says that Jesus had limited knowledge.

Mark 11:12-13 "On the next day, when they had left Bethany, he became hungry. 13 Seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if perhaps he would find anything on it; and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs."

It is clear from these verses that the knowledge of Jesus was limited on two counts. First, he did not know that the tree had no fruit until he came to it. Second, he did not know that it was not the right season to expect figs on trees.

Mark 13:32 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the Father."

Since Jesus, does not know, he is not all-knowing, he is not omniscient. Therefore, he cannot be the all-knowing God.

The Bible says that Jesus was tempted, but God cannot be tempted.

Heb. 4:15 "...tempted in every way - just as we are..."

James 1:13 "...for God cannot be tempted by evil..."

Since God cannot be tempted, but Jesus was, therefore, Jesus cannot be God.

The Bible says that Jesus' teachings were from God, thus NOT from himself.

John 7:16-17 "Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. 17 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself."

Jesus could not have said this if he were God because the doctrine would have been his.

The Bible says that Jesus died, but Almighty God cannot die.

1 Timothy 6:16 "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen."

Revelation 1.18 "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; ..."

The Bible teaches that Jesus died. Jesus testified that he was dead! God cannot die! God alone has immortality which means God cannot die! Immortal means, "not subject to death." Jesus died so he cannot be God.

The Bible says that Jesus now lives by the power of God.

2 Corinthians 13:4 "For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you."

Romans 6:9-10 "Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God."

Jesus cannot be God because his very existence, his very life, now depends on the power of GOD. And all the saints have this very same hope!

The Bible says that Jesus called the Father "my God."

John 20:17 "I ascend to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God."

Rev. 3:12 "... the temple of my God... the name of my God... the city of my God... comes down out of heaven from my God."

Jesus did not think of himself as God, instead Jesus' God is the same as ours. Even in his resurrected, glorified state; he recognizes he has a God! So Jesus cannot be God.

The Bible says that God cannot be seen, but Jesus was seen.

John 1:18 "no man has seen God at any time."

1 John 4.12 "No man hath seen God at any time."

1 Timothy 6:16 "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen."

Yet many people had seen Jesus! Thus, Jesus cannot be God.

And the List goes on ... ... ...
and on ... ... ...
and on ... ... ...
of Scriptural statements which clearly show that
the Lord Jesus the Messiah is not Almighty GOD!

NB: The above was based upon a post taken from another source on the Net. I have therefore added more verses and modified accordingly. One simply cannot argue against the truth of Scripture!

WHO IS JESUS FOR DUMMIES By Juan Baixeras

2011-10-04T16:30:00.001-07:00

WHO IS

This paper deals with the subject of the Trinity, specifically, in relation to Trinitarian claims that Jesus is fully God and fully man at all times, his divinity being inseparable from his humanity.

Many Trinitarians will probably stop right here. The reason is that since their faith in this doctrine is so weak to start off with, they try to avoid reading anything that contradicts their beliefs. At least that was my excuse. But what have you got to lose? If you read this paper and still believe the Trinity is Biblical, then your faith will be even stronger because it will be based on fact, and not just blind faith. If on the other hand you find that the Trinity is not Biblical, then your faith will also be stronger, because you will have removed a false teaching from your beliefs. It is a win win situation.

This short paper is not going to deal with all the arguments against the Trinity. It is specifically going to cover several verses which I consider to be the clearest verses on this topic that do not have any other ways of being interpreted. This is going to be about as easy as it gets.

...

This is not a scholarly work, it is for anyone with an I.Q. above 70. It is enough information to make you kick-start your curiosity about this Doctrine. Let us begin.

First I have to make something crystal clear. I am going to list some verses, some very easy verses. None of these verses are disputed verses in which different people have different interpretations for them. I am just going to write them out for you and let you think about them, with a comment or two from me of course. Please just read them like you would read the morning paper. JUST READ. Do not try to guess a hidden meaning in them, just read what they say. For a few of these verses we do need to understand a couple of meanings. Don’t worry, they’re easy.

YHWH – In the Old Testament this is the name of God. It has no vowels, thus it is unpronounceable. People later added vowels to come up with Yahweh so that they could pronounce it. Some English Bibles translated YHWH as Jehovah, but most English Bibles instead of writing YHWH, just put "the LORD." Notice that "LORD" is in capital letters when it refers to YHWH. This only applies to the Old Testament.

Christ – This is not Jesus' last name. It is his title. Christ is English for Messiah. Messiah means anointed. Jesus Christ means Jesus the anointed. Anointed by what you may ask? Anointed by the Spirit of God.

Lord (kyrios) - Most people when they hear this title think immediately of God Almighty. As we covered earlier, God's name is YHWH. This should not be confused with the title kyrios (Lord), which was used for Jesus throughout his whole ministry. Trinitarians will argue that this title of Jesus confirms his divinity, but even before his resurrection people addressed him as Lord. Why? For the same reason that many other people in the Bible and in his day were addressed as Lord. It was a title of authority and respect. Moses is referred to as lord in:

Numbers 32:27 – "The Gadites and Reubenites answered Moses, Your servants will do as you command, my lord."
1 Samuel 1:26 – "Hannah, his mother, approached Eli and said: Pardon, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood near you here."
1 Samuel 24:9 –"David stepped out of the cave, calling to Saul, My lord and my king."

As Scripture proves, Moses, Eli, and Saul are referred to as lord, but this does not mean that they are God. It is a title of authority and respect. There are many more verses like these. The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible volume 3 pg. 960 states:

Lord - its meaning signified nothing more than "sir," a title of respect, or ... "master,"

There is an excellent example in John 4:11: Here the Samaritan woman has just met Jesus, he has not yet told her that he is the Messiah. They have just met, yet she addresses him as kyrios, which in the New American Bible is translated as "sir."

"The woman said to him, Sir (kyrios), you do not have a bucket and the cistern is deep."

The word in this passage is kyrios. It is applied to Jesus, and it is used as a term of respect, as "sir."

The Apostles used this title as a means of respect and also as "master." This is why Jesus is called Lord in the New Testament. He is our King, our master, our Lord. Like the Lord of a castle. He is the Lord of the [coming] kingdom of God.

Trinitarian definition of God – When Trinitarians say "God," they mean the combination of all three persons, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. If they want to refer to one specific member of the Trinity they will use the corresponding name such as "the Son" etc.

That’s it for the definitions, whew! I hope that wasn’t too deep. Okay, one set up verse. Trinitarians will agree that there is only one God who is called Yahweh. The problem is that they include Jesus as a member of Yahweh. But for now, we both agree that the only God is Yahweh.

Isaiah 45:5 – "I am the LORD (YHWH) and there is no other, there is no God besides me."

This is pretty simple. YHWH is the ONLY God. So far, so good.

Exodus 3:15 – "Thus shall you say to the Israelites: The LORD (YHWH), the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you."

Okay, the God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the LORD (YHWH).

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob = YHWH.

Acts 3:13 – "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus."

Does this verse imply that Jesus is the God of Abraham etc.? Of course not! Just read it. The God of Abraham glorified who? Himself? No! He glorified his servant Jesus. This is not difficult. Jesus is obviously not the God of Abraham etc. He is the God of Abraham’s SERVANT. Who is the God of Abraham? YHWH. And YHWH is who? The ONLY God. So Jesus is not God? Of course not. He is God’s anointed.

Acts 10:38 – "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all oppressed by the devil, for God was with him."

Who anointed Jesus? It doesn’t say the Father anointed Jesus, it says GOD. You can obviously see that Jesus is not the God that anointed him. If I said, "The king anointed Bob," would you think that it meant that Bob is the king? Of course not. Jesus is the servant whom God anointed to do his will. That is the whole purpose of anointing someone, to give them the wisdom and power that they will need in order to serve God. Does it make sense to you that God would anoint God with God? Let's look at a Messianic prophecy in the Old Testament.

Isaiah 61:1 – "The spirit of the Lord GOD [Lord YHWH] is upon me, because the LORD (YHWH) has anointed me."

By reading this verse it is plainly clear that the person who is being anointed is not YHWH. YHWH is anointing this individual. Now watch how Jesus uses this verse to refer to himself. Jesus uses this verse to say that he is the one that the Scripture spoke about. That he is the one whom YHWH has anointed. Who is YHWH by the way? That's right, the ONLY God.

Luke 4:18-21 – "He (Jesus) unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me,’… He (Jesus) said to them, Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."

Okay now, don’t panic, this is simple. Look at Isaiah 61:1, YHWH anoints someone other than YHWH. Jesus in Luke claims that he is that person whom YHWH has anointed. Next!

1 Cor. 8:6 – "Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are and for whom we exist, and one Lord (This Lord is not a translation of YHWH, it is kyrios i.e. master, king etc.) Jesus Christ."

It doesn’t get any easier than this. Who is the one God? The FATHER! That’s it, period! The Father is the only one who is considered God. Jesus is our Lord (master, king). You will always see that the only one who is referred to as God is the Father. From the passage above, do you honestly read that and come away with the fact that Jesus is the one God? It is obvious that the one Lord [- the one kyrios in this verse] is not the one God. Only the Father is God. It never says, "Peace from God the Father and God the Son." Why not? Didn’t the Apostles know that the Son is God? Not even close! Now get comfortable, and look at the following:

1 Cor. 1:3 – "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
2 Cor. 1:2 – "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
Philippians 1:2 – "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Thessalonians 1:1 – "To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Thessalonians 3:13 – "To be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus."
2 Thessalonians 1:2 – "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
2 Thessalonians 2:16 – "May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us."
Philippians 4:20 – To our God and Father, glory for ever and ever. Amen."
Colossians 1:2 – "Peace from God our Father."
Ephesians 4:6 – "One God and Father of all."
James 1:1 – "James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Timothy 1:2 – "Peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord."
2 Timothy 1:2 – "Peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord."
Titus 1:4 – "Peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our savior."
Philemon vv. 3 – "Peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
Galatians 1:3 "Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

So who is the ONLY one who is referred to as God? That’s right, the Father. There is no way that in these sentences you can come out with the idea that Jesus is God. They always say, "peace from God AND, I repeat, AND the Lord Jesus Christ." They are separate individuals. Jesus Christ is not considered by any stretch of the imagination, "God" by these authors.

If I said,

"Peace from John our president and the chief of staff Mike."

"Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." (for comparison)

Is there anyway that you would read the verse above and come away thinking that Mike, the chief of staff is the president? No way! But wait, it gets even better.

In these next verses, Jesus, who Trinitarians claim is fully God at ALL times, has a God. How can this be? These must all be typos. No, all the Bibles in the world have been tampered with.

1 Peter 1:3 – "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
2 Cor. 1:3 – "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
2 Cor. 11:31 – "The God and Father of the Lord Jesus knows, he who is blessed forever, that I do not lie."
Revelation 1:6 – "Who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father."
Ephesians 1:3 – "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Ephesians 1:17 – "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory."

Wow! The Apostles must have drunk a little too much wine when they wrote this. Don’t they know that Jesus is God? How can God have a God? He can’t. That’s why when I ask this question to pastors the only answer they can give me is that it’s a mystery. Do you know how naive and gullible that sounds?

These verses above are not profound theological statements. They are for the most part just greetings. No one has ever disputed these verses. Just read them! Then read them again! Then yell them at the top of your lungs because "Yes!" You too have been duped by this false, non-Biblical, contradictory and incomprehensible mumbo jumbo passed on as the Trinity.

The Messiah is supposed to have a God because he needs to be anointed by God in order to do wonders and signs on behalf of God. Let’s look at Micah 5:3 which is a Messianic prophecy:

Micah 5:4 – "He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the LORD (YHWH), in the majestic name of the LORD (YHWH), HIS GOD."

The Christ will have a God? Yes! Who will it be? Look at the verse above, YHWH. Does Jesus know that he is supposed to have a God? Of course he knows! Look below, these verses are all Jesus speaking:

John 20:17 - "I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."

Matthew 27:46 - "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

Revelation 3:12 - "Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God."

Revelation 3:2 - "For I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God."

So Jesus did know that he has a God. As sure as bees buzz. Jesus really needed his God in order to resurrect.

Hebrews 13:20 – "May the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant."

Acts 5:30 – "The God of our ancestors raised Jesus."

Who raised the great shepherd from the dead? The God of peace, the God of our ancestors (which we covered earlier). The Trinitarian alternative is that God raised himself from the dead. But how can God raise himself if he is dead. Then God was not really dead. For that matter, how can you kill God?

If you buy this Trinitarian explanation, than you deserve to be a Trinitarian.

Do you honestly read that verse and think that the great shepherd is God? Remember Micah? The shepherd has a God called YHWH.

Micah 5:4 – "He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the LORD (YHWH), in the majestic name of the LORD (YHWH), HIS GOD."

By the way, what happened to the Holy Spirit in all these greetings? I guess he must have been the least favorite of the Apostles because he’s not mentioned even once in those verses. I wonder why? It’s because the Holy Spirit has always been considered to be the presence and power of God, i.e. the mind of God. Psalm 139: 7 states:

"Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?"

But it was never, ever considered to be the third person of a triune God.

So Jesus is not God, he is a man anointed by God? Are you sure about this? As sure as woodpeckers peck. How do you understand the following verses?

Acts 2:22 – "Jesus the Nazorean was a MAN commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through him in your midst."

Now you tell me which part of this verse is hard to understand. What is Jesus according to Peter?

A Godman
A God
A man

If you chose answer c, you are correct! If you chose any other answer, you need to read it again. Well, Peter probably meant something else. What? I don’t know. That must be the only verse in the New Testament that says that. Not quite.

...

Acts 17:31 – "God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now He demands that all people everywhere repent because He has established a day on which He will judge the world with justice through a MAN He has appointed, and He has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead."

Whom Did God appoint? A MAN.
Who appointed this MAN? God.

Now you’re getting the hang of it.

1 Timothy 2:5 – "For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the MAN Christ Jesus."

1. Who is the mediator? The MAN Christ Jesus.

2. Who is he the mediator between? God and men.

He is not the mediator between himself and men, but between God and men. You can see that Jesus is not considered in the term "God."

1 Corinthians 15: 21 –"For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man"

So wait, I think I’ve got it now. He is a MAN anointed by God. Yessirree Bob! Hallelujah! So that’s what Peter was saying in Acts.

Acts 10:38 – "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy Spirit and power."

1.Who did God anoint? Jesus.

2.Who anointed Jesus? God.

It’s easy once you get the hang of it. The problem with Trinitarians is that in order to substantiate the Trinity, they have to read a passage like this and then say that Jesus is God. You can read, can’t you? It doesn’t say that Jesus is God. But they have to stick to it or their whole doctrine is ruined. So basically they end up with the following interpretation of such a simple verse

"How God anointed God with God."

Is that what you get out of it? As Isaiah pointed out earlier, the Messiah is a man anointed by YHWH. He is supposed to be a prophet from among their own kinsmen. The following is a Messianic prophecy spoken by none other than Moses.

Deuteronomy 18:18 – "And the LORD (YHWH) said to me, I will raise up for you a prophet like you FROM AMONG YOUR OWN KINSMEN, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him."

Did the Apostles know that Jesus was a MAN from among their own kinsmen? Of course they did. They quoted this verse in reference to Jesus in Acts.

Acts 3:20-22 – "And that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment and send you the Messiah already appointed for you…For Moses said; A prophet like me will the Lord (YHWH), your God raise up for you FROM AMONG YOUR OWN KINSMEN."

Wow! They did know! Of course they knew. This is what the Old Testament predicted of the Messiah. Let's now look at the famous suffering servant of Isaiah 53 states:

Isaiah 53:3 – "He was spurned and avoided by men, a MAN of suffering."

The Apostle Matthew quotes Isaiah 53 in Matthew 8:17. Peter quotes Isaiah 53 in 1 Peter 2:22-24. Isaiah 53 is quoted all over the place in the New Testament by all the Apostles. Of course they knew.

Now other things are starting to make sense. Trinitarians claim that since Jesus is fully God at all times, that he is omniscient. That’s a big word. It means all knowing. It means Jesus knows everything about everything. But that’s not what these simple verses say. Revelation’s opening verse states;

Rev. 1:1 – "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him."

1.Whom did God give a revelation to? Jesus.

2.Who gave Jesus a revelation? God.

3.Did Jesus know everything? Nope.

4.Does it make sense to you that God would have to give himself a revelation? Nope.

Mark 13:32 – "But of that hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, NOR THE SON, but only the Father."

Do I need to say anything about the verse above? Does Jesus know the hour? Nope. Then he is not omniscient.

Only two more easy verses. This is Jesus himself speaking:

John 17:3 – "Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ."

1.Who does Jesus consider the first "you" to be? The ONLY true God.

2.Does Jesus think that he himself is that "you"? Not according to this verse.

3.Who sent Jesus? The only true God.

If Jesus did not consider himself to be God, why should we? Jesus always pointed us to the one who is greater than he, The God of Abraham. Here is probably the simplest verse in the whole Bible on this matter.

Mark 10:18 – "Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone."

If you have trouble with this one, I do not think there is much else I can say. Does this sound to you like Jesus believes himself to be God?

CONCLUSION – Jesus is exactly who the Old Testament said he would be, the Christ. A man anointed by the Spirit of God. Jesus knew that he was the anointed one and so did the Apostles and all his followers. It was only centuries later when pagan philosophers had converted to Christianity that this simple truth was almost completely obliterated. If this isn’t the great apostasy, I don’t know what is.

The verses that we have covered are not verses that are difficult by any stretch of the word. They are not even disputed. But ask a Trinitarian to explain one of these simple verses and watch what happens. It’s better than television!

With this knowledge, the Bible is going to start making sense to you like never before. You will no longer have to do mental gymnastics mixed with painkillers for your headaches anymore.

...

God bless you.

Taken from: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/5257/one.htm - Some editing has been done

Countdown to the Kingdom of God

2011-09-16T00:58:00.000-07:00

Countdown to the Kingdom of God
A Christian View of the End of the Age (Luke 21:20-33)

Theologians are fond of using a complicated word — eschatology — to describe the doctrine of “last things.” In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in biblical “last things.” It had often been thought that eschatology was the least important of Christian doctrines, but the “last is destined to be the first,” and students of many denominational persuasions are now recognizing that “last things” in Scripture are the foundation of everything else.

In the Bible the things of the future are all-important, but the moment of death is never the center of hope for the future. Instead, the Kingdom of God which will be realized when Jesus returns is the main focus of expectation. Matthew, Mark and Luke all report Jesus’ extended discourse about the end of the age delivered on the Mount of Olives (Matt. 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) as he sat with his disciples looking west across the valley at the beautiful Temple buildings.

We will examine in some detail a part of Luke’s account of this memorable last sermon. Our text has often seemed obscure and “Jewish” to Christians brought up in the West. Most of us have been unconsciously influenced by Greek ways of thinking, and the thought of a climactic, catastrophic end to society as we now know it has seemed alien and unwanted. But Luke, like the Hebrew prophets before him, had no difficulty with talk about final judgment and the end of the world [age]. On the contrary, he has set his whole two-volume treatise on Christianity (Luke/Acts) within the framework of the Kingdom of God, which is itself an “end of the world” concept. Luke sees the entire ministry of Jesus as a demonstration of God’s Kingdom invading Satan’s evil dominion, and he expects a final dramatic appearance of the Kingdom at the end of the age (not quite “the end of the world” as some of our versions have taught us to think), when the Son of Man comes back in glory. In the future Christians are to be assured that the Kingdom of God is about to come (Luke 21:31, GNB).

Luke works with a specific program in mind. Jesus is the promised Messiah who after his resurrection and ascension must remain in heaven at God’s right hand until “the time comes for the restoration of all things spoken of by the prophets” (Acts 3:21). And what the prophets of the Old Testament expected was a final establishment of God’s kingdom worldwide, brought about by the Messiah, the promised One, who would appear in power and glory. This Kingdom of God is the primary concern of all preaching of the Gospel, though we sometimes think of it wrongly as a kind of curious appendage tacked onto the rest of Christianity. Jesus described his whole purpose and mission as the preaching of the Kingdom (Luke 4:43) and Paul ended a long ministry by tirelessly proclaiming the Kingdom to the Jews and Gentiles (Acts 28:23, 31).

Let us begin with a look at the climax of the drama leading to the return of Jesus at the end of the age. In Luke 21:28, 31 we read, “When you see all these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near...When you see these things happening recognize that the Kingdom of God is near” (NASV).

Unfortunately there has been much disagreement about “these things,” and the sequence of events which Jesus predicted would occur before his return. The principal difficulty has been the reference to the surrounding of Jerusalem by armies in verse 20 of our text. The problem is this: what event did Jesus describe when he foresaw a siege of Jerusalem? Was it the attack on Jerusalem mounted by the Roman armies in AD 70? If so, why does the coming of the Son of Man seem to happen in immediate connection with the crisis in Jerusalem?

Various attempts have been made to explain the puzzle. Some skeptics, who do not seem to be worried that Jesus made a serious mistake, say that he expected to return shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Being limited in his understanding, as they think, Jesus was wrong to expect his return shortly after AD 70. Other commentators feel that Jesus described both the fall of Jerusalem and the end of the age without telling us that centuries might elapse between the two events. A more recent “solution” — if that is the right word — is to maintain that Jesus threatened the end of the age in AD 70, but only if there was no response to the Apostolic message. Since many did accept the Christian message, the world was allowed to continue. This seems to be very far-fetched.

We will delay trying to resolve our problem at this stage and look briefly at the parallel accounts of Jesus’ prophecy given by Matthew 24 and Mark 13. In any study of Jesus’ teaching it is wise to compare the parallel passages because they almost always throw light on each other. The marginal references supplied in many Bibles are most useful for finding the corresponding material in the other gospels.

If we start with Matthew 24, we should turn first to the 15th verse of that chapter which corresponds to the first verse of our text — Luke 21:20. We notice at once that Matthew describes the appearance of the “Abomination of Desolation” in the holy place as the trigger for an awful period of trouble described as “great tribulation” in verse 21. “Immediately after” the time of trouble, verse 29 says, “the sun will be darkened” and Christ will return in splendor (v. 30). Certainly if we read this account as little children, without any preconceived ideas about what it ought to mean, we find that Jesus described a complex of events — Abomination of Desolation, Tribulation, Heavenly Signs, and Second Coming, all destined to happen in quick succession, just before the Son of Man appears. What gave us this impression were the words “immediately after” in verse 29, linking the time of distress with the cosmic disturbances and the arrival of the Son of Man.

Let us go now to Mark’s version to see whether he confirms our impression. Instead of the words “immediately after,” he writes “in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light...and then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with power and great glory”

(Mark 13:24-26). Mark presents us with exactly the same connected sequence.

Back to our text in Luke 21. I think we will have to agree that the outline of the story given by Luke is very much like Matthew’s and Mark’s. The movement of thought is essentially the same. Luke also describes a single complex of events, comprising an unparalleled time of distress, cosmic signs and then the dramatic arrival of the Son of Man. Luke gives us a picture of the scene external to the city while Matthew and Mark point to an abomination in the Temple. Note that Luke’s description of the time of trouble has a finality about it: these are “days of vengeance in order that all things which are written may be fulfilled” (Luke 21:22). Jerusalem’s suffering will be caused by Gentile nations who will trample the capital under foot — but for a limited time only, “until,” as verse 24 says, “the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” Following the time of tribulation the signs announcing the Second Coming will appear in heaven. Luke, like Matthew and Mark, allows for no chasm of intervening time between the attack on Jerusalem and the end of the age.

The close chronological connection between the fall of Jerusalem and the return of Jesus has caused commentators great difficulty, as has also Jesus’ solemn statement in verse 32 of our text that “this generation will not pass until these things take place.” Did Jesus then expect to return within a generation? And how shall we resolve the problem posed by his association of an event in AD 70 with the end?

It will be wise to accept the prophecy at face value and understand that Jesus expected a final siege of Jerusalem just before his return. That is certainly what he describes. Were these events to take shape in our own time (and no one of course should try to set dates) there would be no reason, given the present Middle East situation, why there should not be a climax to the struggle for power in Israel involving other nations and perhaps the major powers. We cannot compel Jesus to have described the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70! Moreover, scholars have shown that what actually happened in AD 70 in Jerusalem — the attack on the city and the flight of the church to Pella — does not correspond closely to what Jesus describes. This gives us further reason to think that Jesus had in mind a crisis in Israel just prior to his return, not in AD 70.

Confirmation that we are right to read our text according to its natural sequence comes from the book of Daniel. It is not always realized, due to a general neglect of the Old Testament, that Jesus, in describing events leading up to his return, did not, so to speak, “pull his prophecy out of the air.” There was already a well-defined basis for knowing the future, and it was found in the Old Testament prophets, especially in the visions given to Daniel in the 6th century BC. Much harm has been done to the Bible by people who pride themselves on having a “modern scientific worldview” which does not find acceptable the notion of predictive prophecy. There is no reason at all, however, to think that Jesus shared this “modern” outlook. He obviously treats Daniel, as did many of his contemporaries, as a book of predictions concerned with the events of the end-time.

We do not have time, obviously, to examine the book of Daniel in detail, but we can simply point out that Daniel 7, 8, 9, 11, 12 provide us with a description of a terrible anti-Christian tyrant on the rampage, trying to destroy Temple worship and persecuting the saints for a period described cryptically as “a time, times, and half a time,” or some 3 1/2 years. Remarkably, this period appears several times again in the book of Revelation showing that Jesus and John shared a common idea of future events following the information given to Daniel. We can add that Paul, too, in II Thessalonians 2 described a final time of trouble under the shadow of a Satanic human figure. And Paul’s description goes back to Daniel 11.

In our passage in Luke, we learned that Jerusalem is to be trampled down until the times of the Gentiles are complete, that is, until Jerusalem is rescued by the Son of Man arriving as Luke (21:31) and Daniel (2:44) say, to set up the Kingdom. Very probably, in speaking of the times of the Gentiles, Jesus was relying on a verse in Daniel 7:25 which predicts that the Gentile tyrant will oppress the holy people for “a time, times and half a time.” Luke speaks of “wrath to this people” (21:23). Again, Luke describes the prelude to the arrival of Jesus as “days of vengeance in order that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” Daniel 8:19 had spoken of the “final period of indignation” connected with “the time of the end.” Luke’s and Jesus’ reliance on Daniel is unmistakable.

There are still other echoes of Old Testament prophecy in Luke 21:20-33. A passage in Isaiah 5:30, describing an attack by Assyria, seems to have supplied material for Luke’s phrase “perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves” ([Luke ch. 21] v. 25). Isaiah had predicted that the invading nation (Assyria) “shall growl over Israel in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold there is darkness and distress; even the light is darkened by the clouds.” [Isaiah 5.20] The expression “in that day” is used with great frequency in the Old Testament to describe the Day of the Lord.

You will be wondering what Jesus meant by his remarkable promise that “this generation will not pass until all things come to pass.” Would not his audience have understood him to mean that those listening would survive to see the difficult times and the great Day itself? A Western 20^th-century audience might well so understand the word “generation.” But linguists have shown that New Testament writers using Greek words found in the Old Testament Greek Bible — the Septuagint — might well mean by “generation” something like “evil age.” So Jesus may very well be saying: “This evil age, in which society is opposed to God, will not come to an end until all the distressing events leading to the end are finished.” The word “generation” does not therefore necessarily mean a limited period of 40 or 70 years. Reading it without reference to its Hebrew background has led some to fix on certain dates in this century for the Second Coming — with disastrous results.

A second question may come to mind. Why did Jesus speak earlier of the destruction of the Jerusalem of his day? Can he really have meant the destruction of a city existing much later? It is characteristic of the Hebrew mind that it can think of various temples on a single site as one Temple — a kind of “corporate” temple. We find this principle illustrated in Haggai 2 where “this temple” meant not only a past but also a present and future house of God on the same site. It is possible for Jesus to combine the destruction of the city and temple of the far future with a reference to the city existing in his time.

A third issue that has claimed much too much attention in some “fundamentalist” circles is the question about the presence of Christians in the “time of distress.” Much juggling of texts and many exegetical feats have persuaded some that Jesus would return before the tribulation period to remove Christians to heaven. Luke’s simple sequence of events can help us resolve the question. It is when Christians witness the chaotic events associated with the time of trouble and the following cosmic disturbances that they are to “lift up [their] heads because [their] redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). Luke certainly knew nothing of a so-called “pre-tribulation rapture.” His close colleague, Paul, wrote urgently to the Thessalonians to explain that “the coming of the Lord and our gathering together to him” could not happen until after the arrival of the Antichrist whom Jesus would destroy at his coming (II Thess. 2:1-3, 8). This passage, which supplements Luke 21, should be studied carefully. Paul has actually anticipated the 19^th- and 20^th-century idea that Christ will return in two stages —and refuted it!

What are the practical implications of all this for Christians today? First we should realize that Jesus and the early Christians set us an example by their eager longing for the Second Coming. Rather than thinking of death as an escape from the body to heaven, they looked forward to the resurrection and the time when the earth would be liberated from all its oppression and insecurity. This could only happen when the Kingdom of God was perfectly realized on earth. And it depended on the return of Jesus. Hence their strong emphasis on that great future climax in history.

There are psychological benefits in possessing a confident view of the future. The mass of data provided by the Bible in regard to the future of the world is there for good reason. Christians are not supposed to be in the dark about God’s purpose in history. If they often express uncertainty about where the world is going, it is because of neglect of the essential information given by Scripture. The root of the problem is the Greek orientation to “last things” which began to control the thinking of the Church soon after the death of the Apostles. “My impression,” says a scholar writing about the “last things,” “is that the consensus of opinion in the Church is still more dominated by an extra-Christian idea of the immortality of the soul, than by any conception formed after listening faithfully to the New Testament witness” (Neill Hamilton, “The Last Things in the Last Decade,” Interpretation, April, 1960). How true that is!

The Church must learn to listen to everything that Jesus has to say, including his instructions in Luke 21. If we have lost some essential part of the Christian vision, our text will prompt us to regain it. This does not mean that we should set dates or try to identify the European Union or the world banking system with the Antichrist. Some contemporary systems of theology, well known in America, forget that the Bible does not predict events in Europe, though it does deal with the future of Israel and surrounding nations just before the return of Christ. For some time students of prophecy have been locked into a rather curious idea that Daniel spoke of a revived Roman Empire in our time. The subject of his vision was in fact the great empires occupying the territory of ancient Babylon. It is from that geographical arena in Asia that he expected a final tyrant to emerge as the climax of human evil. His career would be ended by the advent of the Kingdom of God in power (Dan. 11:45, Luke 21:31). Luke’s Christianity was informed by a rich heritage in Old Testament prophecy, much of which has simply been disregarded by churches. The challenge to rediscover the Christian message about the future faces all of us.

The coming of peace on earth, when the lion will lie down with the lamb, is the subject of the famous prayer which Jesus taught us: Thy Kingdom come! It is the prospect of taking part in that Kingdom which should spur every believer on to holy living and separation from the counter-kingdom of Satan. This is the practical purpose of sermons on the Olivet discourse — to hold out to us and to the world the hope of a glorious future for our earth, and to forewarn us and our children of what surely must come to pass. In preparing for the great Day, whether we meet it by surviving till Jesus comes or through death and resurrection, let us “be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless” (II Pet. 3:14), “fixing our hope completely on the grace to be brought to us at the Revelation of Jesus Christ” (I Pet. 1:13).

Biblical Common Sense – Jesus – Not Equal, Not the Same! By Ron Shockley

2011-08-17T04:28:00.000-07:00

Biblical Common Sense – Jesus – Not Equal, Not the Same!

(The final installment in Ron Shockley's series about Jesus)

The following common sense arguments regarding how The Bible clearly demonstrates that God and Jesus are not the same being are ones that tend to come up quite often among those promoting Jesus as God. Many times I have been told in discussions with those wishing to support a Trinitarian or even a Oneness/Modalist viewpoint that these are simply tired old arguments. Yes, the arguments are centuries old and people often tire of them. But that doesn’t mean that they still aren’t valid objections. And their validity remains all the more significant due to the fact each of these are easily answerable when one uses common sense as their guide.

Scripture calls Jesus a man while telling us that God is NOT a man.

Acts 2:22 “Jesus of Nazareth was a man commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.”

Acts 17:31: “Because He has established a day on which He will judge the world with justice through a man he has appointed, and He has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead.“

Vs.

Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent;..”

Hosea 11:9 “…For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst,…”

Scripture tells us that Jesus prayed to and has a God. Yet God doesn’t pray to anyone because He alone is God.

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.’”

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.”

Vs.

Isaiah 44:6 “”Thus says YAHWEH, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, YAHWEH of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me.”

Isaiah 45:6 “That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me. I am YAHWEH, and there is no other,”

Isaiah 45:18 “For thus says YAHWEH, 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 YAHWEH, and there is none else.”

Scripture tells that Jesus was tempted. Yet God cannot be tempted.

Matt 4:1 “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
(see also Mark 1:13 & Luke 4:2)

Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

Vs.

James 1:13 “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”

Scripture tells us that Jesus died. Yet God is immortal – incapable of dying.

1 Cor. 15:3 “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures”

Vs.

1 Tim 1:17 “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Unless you are forcing yourself to hold onto the post-Biblical creeds of man, the honest, logical, and common sense conclusion should be that Jesus is NOT literally God himself. Jesus is just who God promised His Messiah to be,
a special human MAN who would be brought into being at a point in time from the Hebrew people and “anointed” with God’s Spirit so that he could accomplish all the God wanted him to do.
This is said perfectly several times in the book of Acts.

Acts 2:22 “Jesus of Nazareth was a man commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.”

Acts 10:38: “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”

Acts 17:31: “Because He [God] has established a day on which He will judge the world with justice through a man he has appointed, and He has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead.“

Jesus is the promised HUMAN Messiah – the descendent of Eve, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, & David. He is the greater Moses who was to come FROM his own people. He was to speak and do all that God assigned him to do. Does God tell Himself what to do? Does God anoint Himself? Does God pray to Himself? Does God go directly against what He promised and foretold about HIS begotten Son? NO.

Let the plain common sense truth of Scripture speak for itself.
Jesus is the Son OF God, the Messiah. Jesus is not God Himself.

The above article was taken from:

Biblical Common Sense – Jesus – Not Equal, Not the Same!

Extracts from the first seven installments are contained in the July, 2011 blog entry below.

Biblical Common Sense by Ron Shockley

2011-07-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

Biblical Common Sense by Ron Shockley

Biblical Common Sense – Introduction – What is it & Why is it important?

Common Sense, what is it? Well according to Merriam-Webster the proper definition is as follows:

Common Sense: sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts.

Wow. What an easy to comprehend definition. The very definition of common sense almost seems like “common sense”. To be able to make a sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts sure sounds right. It sounds like what we should always strive to do. And people do exactly that all the time, everyday. When we drive to work and see that the sky is overly cloudy and looks like it might rain, we know it wouldn’t be wise to leave our car windows down. If your battery powered flashlight starts getting dimmer, you understand that you might need to put new batteries in it. Part and parcel of common sense is paying attention to the obvious. It is using the knowledge and experience of life to see and comprehend accurately what is right in front of us. Again, common sense is plain ordinary good judgment that is not based on any specialized knowledge.

...

Like everything else in life, I try to use a common sense approach to Scripture. I feel that it has to make sense at the most basic level. If God is communicating to humanity throughout the generations of time through the written word (which I firmly believe He does through The Bible), then having it make sense to people is of primary importance. Of course right here the skeptic or the Atheist could chime in and say that the Bible defies common sense. They would say that tales of the supernatural and miracles are contrary to logic and rational thought, much less common sense. From the viewpoint of a non-believer that can appear to be true. But once the existence of God is recognized and faith in Him and His Holy Scriptures becomes your axiom, then miracles and other supernatural occurrences become not just possible, but entirely logical. However the point of my presentation is not a defense of theism or The Bible, but is that within the framework of God’ written word, what practically all of believers of Scripture feel is the truth given to us from God, common sense still must be applied to it in order to properly understand what God is communicating to us. What God articulates to us as rational cognitive thinking beings must make sense to us in order for us to understand Him. Common sense is a part of how we think and make logical judgments about life and the world around us. That is how God created us. Common sense was made into our mental makeup by God. Hence the popularly heard term “God-given Common sense” is very accurate. And if God gave it to us, we should definitely strive to use it as a proper guide through his written word. His instructions throughout the Bible – beginning to end, should be read using God’s gift of common sense.

...

Biblical Common Sense – Jesus – “God’s son”

Understanding who Jesus is and how the Bible presents him is not all that difficult when one stops and uses good ol’ common sense to recognize the meaning behind many of the words of Scripture.

As a child growing up in a strong, Bible-believing family I learned about Jesus from a very early age. Frequently my mother would read to me from my storybook bible and from it I came to learn about all the great characters of Scripture. From the start, I recognized that of all the characters in The Bible, Jesus was extremely important and special. After all, he was said to be the Son OF God. And this is the beginning of where God-given common sense comes into play. Like every other child who learns that Jesus is the Son of God, I had no problems figuring out that Jesus and God were two different beings. The very words Father and Son let me know that God was the Daddy and Jesus was His son. Human fathers and sons do share being related, but they are ALWAYS two different individuals. Using father and son as descriptor nouns is incredibly easy to understand because we have that example provided for us in our own lives. A father and a son (or a mother and daughter if you’re female) are two different individuals. This is easy to see and is simple common sense!

Another detail that is easily grasped is that a Father is ALWAYS older than his Son. When one hears that this person is the father and this person is his son, no one would think for a second that they both have existed for the same amount of time. Fathers are always older than their sons because fathers bring them into existence. Sure a young child doesn’t get all the nuances of this and parents hope the reproductive details of how human fathers “create” their sons & daughters is something that comes when the child reaches an appropriate age, but it is still something that a registers in the brains of children as a part of common sense. Fathers are older than children because once again that is how the example works. Throughout all of humanity, not to mention all of the animal world, fathers are older and are in existence longer than their sons because in order for a father to have a son, he must already be in existence and then be able to conduct a creative act to bring a son (or daughter) into existence. This is how God designed things. For God to make such a design and then use the easily identifiable terms “Father” and “son” to communicate to us in a way that totally contradicts His design defies common sense at its most basic level.

Biblical Common Sense – Jesus – “This is MY son”

There are two different events recorded in the New Testament where God himself vocally indicates that Jesus is His son. First at his baptism we have the accounts the three synoptic gospels.

Matt 3:16-171 After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

Mark 1:10-11 Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; and a voice came out of the heavens:
“You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”

Luke 3:21-22 Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”

The second account occurs at the transfiguration and is also recorded in the three synoptic gospels.

Matt 17:5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said,
“This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”

Mark 9:7 Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!”

Luke 9:35 Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!”

In these six accounts of the two different events, we have a voice calling Jesus “His son”. Common sense should tell us here that this voice belongs to God and that Jesus is NOT that God doing the speaking. The voice of God calls Jesus His Son. The overall aspect of these two events much less the words given “My beloved Son” should easily provide common sense clues that Jesus and God are two separate entities. If not we have a deception on our hands of the highest order. If Jesus was God – especially in an Oneness/”Jesus Only” sense then we are being tricked by a great act of ventriloquism. God would be performing an outright ruse to fool everyone into thinking that God and His Son were separate Father and Son entities. It would be a charade performed for the audience’s benefit (both to the people present to those events and to the many more who have read the record of those events since then in the written form of Scripture.

Biblical Common Sense – Jesus – The Anointed of God

The term Messiah is the English translation for the Hebrew word “Moshiach” (or “Mashiach”), which means “God’s anointed, or “the anointed one (of God)”. The term was used to describe anyone who was “anointed” with holy anointing oil (e.g. Israel’s Kings, prophets, & priests) to signify being chosen for a task ordained/authorized by God. And in a deeper eschatological sense, Messiah also stood for the coming of THE final “Moshiach” from the Davidic line who would usher in the Messianic age (the “Olam Ha-Ba” or “the world to come”) and whose “kingship”
would reign forever.

But let’s go back and look at what is being said here with the word itself. If we are to honestly examine the actual, basic definition of the word, common sense should tell us that if the Messiah is someone whom God “anoints”, then it is someone OTHER THAN God. God is anointing/authorizing somebody else to perform a task. This is a very simple concept that seems to be lost or ignored by those promoting the Trinity belief that Jesus is the Messiah who is also God. If the word “Messiah” is to have any true meaning at all either Jesus is God and is NOT the Messiah. Or Jesus is the Messiah who is someone other than God. There is no other option. It is totally absurd to say God “anoints” Himself.

Biblical Common Sense – Jesus – The Messiah is suppose to be...

Then there’s the Biblical expectations regarding the Messiah. The Hebrew people have historically viewed (as Judaism still does to this day) the Messiah as someone that would be a real human being directly descended from the lineage of King David. And they have this view point because that is just what Scripture clearly describes
– a real human man was promised, not God acting as a man.

The “Original” Testament starts such a path almost from the beginning with God giving a prophecy that one day a literal descendant of Eve would defeat the Serpent (Satan) in Genesis 3:15.

Gen 3:15 – “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

Later in Deuteronomy 18:15 & 18, God promises to bring up a future prophet like Moses from among the people of Israel’s own “brethren”.

Deut 18:15-19 “YAHWEH your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. This is according to all that you asked of YAHWEH your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of YAHWEH my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.’
“YAHWEH said to me, ‘They have spoken well. ‘I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. ‘It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.’

Isaiah 11 promises the Messiah will come out of the human line of Jesse and that God’s Spirit “will rest on him”.

Isaiah 11:1-2 “Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of YAHWEH will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of YAHWEH.”

Isaiah 42:1 describes the Messiah as God’s “servant” His “chosen one” whom God places (anoints) his Spirit upon.

Isaiah 42:1 “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. ”

Isaiah 52:14 again states that God’s servant will be a man.

Isaiah 52:14 “He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

In the book of Jeremiah the Messiah is declared to be “raised up” as David’s “righteous branch” (23:5)

Jer. 23:5 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares YAHWEH, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land.”

And that this “leader shall be one of them and their ruler shall come forth from their midst” (30:21).

Jer. 30:21 “Their leader shall be one of them, And their ruler shall come forth from their midst; And I will bring him near and he shall approach Me; For who would dare to risk his life to approach Me?’ declares YAHWEH.”

Of course it couldn’t be said any clearer than in 1st Chronicles 17:11-14, where God promises that the Messiah will be one of David’s “descendants” and “shall be of your sons”.

1 Chron 17:11-14 “When your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up one of your descendants after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. “He shall build for Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. “I will be his father and he shall be My son; and I will not take My lovingkindness away from him, as I took it from him who was before you. “But I will settle him in My house and in My kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.”

Then we have the Messianic promises that David himself wrote in the book of Psalms. Starting in Psalm 2 saying that God’s anointed will be “begotten” at a point in time (2:7) and will be established from David’s “seed forever” (89:4).

Psalm 2:7 “I will surely tell of the decree of YAHWEH: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.”

Psalm 89:4 “I will establish your seed forever And build up your throne to all generations.” Selah.”

Psalm 89:27 has God making the Messiah “My first-born”. This doesn’t make sense if Jesus were God, how would God make himself his own first-born?

Psalm 89:27 “I also shall make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth.”

And finally we come to Psalm 110. Here all doubts are erased and the precise declaration is provided that God’s anointed Messiah would be a human man and absolutely not God himself.
Psalm 110:1 is THE verse in the Original Testament that shows the clear distinction between God and the Messiah.

Psalm 110:1 “The LORD [YAHWEH] says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” ”

It shows that there are TWO Lords. One is the LORD God Almighty and the other is addressed with the honored but fully human title of Lord.
No wonder it is the most quoted verse in the New Testament from the Hebrew Bible! To explain further, I’ll quote Anthony Buzzard as he says this better than I ever could.

“It tells us that the relationship between God and Jesus is that of Deity and non-Deity. The Messiah is called adoni (my lord) and in every one of its 195 occurrences adoni (my lord) means a superior who is not God. Adonai on the other hand refers exclusively to the One God in all of its 449 occurrences. Adonai is the title of Deity and adoni never designates Deity. If the Messiah were called Adonai this would introduce “two Gods” into the Bible and would be polytheism. Psalm 110:1 should guard us all against supposing that there are two who are God. In fact the Messiah is the supreme human being and agent of the One God. Psalm 110:1 is the Bible’s master text for defining the Son of God in relation to the One God, his Father.”
(Sir Anthony Buzzard – Focus on the Kingdom – article “Adonai and Adoni (Psalm 110:1)”)

Again here is where common sense should keep us straight. Scripture promised a real, human man that would be a literal descendent of Eve, a literal descendent of David, a great human prophet “like Moses”. If this is what was promised by God, then this is what it had to be. Anything else would be deceptive. To have this be a divine member of the Godhead, or God appearing in human form, makes all these written promises from God not really mean what they say. A pre-existent, unbegotten being just isn’t human. And such a being is not an actual descendent of anyone since by definition that being would have existed BEFORE they ever did.

Biblical Common Sense – Jesus – Jesus was seen!

Throughout the “Original” Testament God goes out of his way to say over and over that He is the one and only God of the universe and that He alone is responsible for all of creation. But God also reveals something else there and then confirms it later in the New Testament. God says that he CAN NOT be seen by man. In Exodus 33:20 God flat out tells Moses that “no man can see me and live”. Then in the Gospel of John we have collaborating texts like “No man hath seen God at any time” (John 1:18) and “You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form”
(John 5:37). And in 1st Timothy we have the added facts that God is “invisible” (1 Tim 1:17) and that He “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see” (1 Tim 6:16).

Yet according to all the biblical records, Jesus was seen and heard by thousands of human beings and was perceived totally as a fellow human. How could Jesus be God in human form if God has made it abundantly clear that he can NOT be seen? Sure the typical Trinitarian response tends to be something along the lines of that since Jesus put on “human nature” that allowed him to be seen and heard just like a normal human being. So perhaps the more important, critical common sense question here would be WHY? Why would God state that he couldn’t be seen, yet then turn around and come down into human form TO BE SEEN? It seems illogical not to mention totally contradictory.

The fact of this is amplified even further when one looks at the record of the events at Sinai. In Deuteronomy 4: we find God making the concise effort to tell the Israelites that they
“saw no form” (verse 12), and that they needed to “watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day YAHWEH spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, so that you do not act corruptly and make a grave image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female” (verse 15 &16). Here God specifically went to the trouble to prohibit the Israelites from attempting to worship him in human form (or any form for that matter). Yet according to the Trinity belief (as well as Oneness), God turned right around and did this EXACT thing by appearing in human form as Jesus. This seems absurdly contradictory and well beyond the realm of good common sense.

Biblical Common Sense – Jesus – Two Adams

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans and 1st Corinthians detailed comparisons of Jesus and Adam. Paul even termed Jesus the “Last Adam”. This is because he recognized critically important parallels between these two individuals. Adam, the father of the human race brought death upon everyone because his disobedience took away the ability for humans to live eternally. The perfect obedience of the Last Adam, Jesus the Messiah, gave humanity a way to overcome death and live eternally as originally planned.

Romans 5:12-19 (NRSV)
(12) Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all, because all have sinned—
(13) Sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law.
(14) Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.
(15) But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.
(16) And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification.
(17) If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
(18) Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.
(19) For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

1 Corinthians 15:20-23
(20) But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep
(21) For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.
(22) For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
(23) But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming,
(45) So also it is written, “The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

For Paul’s two Adam analogy to work, Jesus must be on the same level as the original Adam. For a “Last Adam” to logically be in the “Adam” category then he has to be a man just like the first.
God or the 2nd member of The Trinity coming down to earth in human form just isn’t an “Adam” at all. He would be God – the creator of Adam. Sure, God could come down and get it right. But it was a man that got us into this mess in the first place. Shouldn’t common sense tell us that if a man that was created perfect by God and used his free will to disobey God and bring sin into the picture, then another perfectly created man with free will should be the logical counterpart to obey God and provide an escape from sin?

Common sense and the plain meaning of words makes it easy. Jesus is called a man and is referred to as the last “Adam” because he is a MAN on the same level as the original MAN that Paul compares and contrasts each to the other. Both were perfectly created by God. Both were without sin but with the capacity to sin. Adam chose to disobey and brought sin and death to his race. Jesus chose to obey and brought about a new future for his race – eternal life instead of ... death. The simple bottom line is that Two Adam analogy posits that Adam and Jesus were both men – both real human beings. Both were called son of God because God was their Father more so than any other humans that ever existed. Yet only one lived up to the name and expectations of his Father and Creator! None of this analogy works properly if Jesus is God.

The above extracts were taken from

1. Intro

2. Jesus – God’s Son

3. Jesus – “This is MY Son”

4. Jesus – The Anointed of God

5. Jesus – The Messiah is suppose to be…

6. Jesus – Jesus Was Seen!

7. Jesus - Two Adams

Extracts from Focus on the Kingdom - May, 2011

2011-06-18T16:56:00.000-07:00

Extracts from Focus on the Kingdom - May, 2011

... The Gospel of the Kingdom is to resound to the far corners of the globe. Only then, Jesus said, can "the end come." Only "when this [well-known to the NT] Gospel of the Kingdom has been preached everywhere, internationally" can the end come (Matt. 24:14). Christians are called "disciples of the Kingdom" in Matthew 13:52.

There will be one single Parousia, and Paul described it as the event at which the saints living at the time, or sleeping in death (Ps. 13:3; Dan. 12:2; 1 Thess. [5:10]) will be caught up to meet
the Lord Jesus, to escort the royal personage as he heads towards the earth (1 Thess. 4:13ff.). "Whether we are sleeping or awake [at his coming] we will live together with him" (1 Thess. [5:10]). In order to begin to live with him at his return, we must be dead before that time! As in Daniel 12:2, and as in the case of the dead, sleeping Lazarus, resurrection always means the coming back to life of formerly dead persons. ...

Hal Lindsay has caused a considerable confusion by forgetting that that great event in 1 Thessalonians 4 is called by Paul the Parousia, (i.e. THE Second Coming), and there is no other [coming]
(1 Thess. 4:15). Jesus gathers the saints as he said, "immediately after [post] the tribulation of those days" (Matt. 24:29-31). And Christians, Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 1:6-8, must expect affliction and trouble until "the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed in flaming fire taking vengeance on his enemies." That is not secret event. Paul could not have written this if he expected a relief from suffering 7 years earlier! Nor would Jesus advise fleeing to the hills, if "lift-off" is promised.

Although Harold Camping of Family Radio says that the end of the world will occur on May 21, he will be proved wrong very soon, after selling lots of books, as he also did in the 80's with another failed prediction. ... The SDA's were sure that 1844 was the Second Coming and JW's knew that 1914 was the date! But the mathematics behind these failed prophecies are now seen to be quite unintelligent!

...

Jesus' Long-Form Birth Certificate Released by Luke and Matthew, 2000 Years Ago

... Some of the public seem terribly exercised about the right of President Obama to be in office. The issue is where was he born? Where is he from? The public seems unconcerned about the angel Michael-Jesus (promoted by 7 million JW's) or the God-Jesus offered them by standard forms of the faith, propagated weekly by the slogan that Jesus IS God. How many YHVH's does that make, since the Father is certainly Yahweh? Sounds like two, which is one too many. Matthew provides basic information about the ORIGIN of Jesus, genesis of Jesus. This is not just his birth, but his origin. Who was Jesus originally? We can know about the origin and the birth certificate of Jesus by reading Luke and Matthew.

The JW's invited us recently to take part in the celebration of their annual Passover, and their tract told us that Jesus "came down from heaven" as a transformed angel. What they did not say was that "every good gift comes down from heaven" (James 1:17; 3:15). What they did not say is that Jesus said his "flesh, which is bread, came down from heaven" (John 6:51). Is this not obviously non-literal language?

...

Who is the Blessed Seed of Abraham?

... The golden key verse in Galatians 3:29 :- "if we are biblical Christians, we are reckoned as Abraham's children (seed) and are thus heirs to the promises." This verse is a backbone to NT theology and when neglected or rejected leads to the collapse of much of NT theology. Without this text firmly in place all sorts of chaos results. Some lost track of Galatians 3:29 when they misapplied "I will bless those who bless you" to the physical descendants of Abraham. But that is to misunderstand Galatians 3. The Christian concern is not with the politics of this age. Galatians 3:29 defines who for the moment are the true seed of Abraham. Jesus spent a lot of his time trying to persuade hostile Jews that unless they accepted him as Messiah they no longer counted as the true people of God. The time is coming, Hosea says, that Israel, now reckoned as "not My people" (Hos. 1: 9-10) will one day repent and be restored. But that has not happened yet.

I personally find verses like Matthew 19:28 and Galatians 3:29 absolutely thrilling as well as humbling. Imagine that! We, whoever we are in terms of national background, are now honored by the great God with the status of Abraham's sons and daughters, because we have believed and obeyed the unique and final agent of God, the Lord Messiah Jesus (Luke 2:11). And if we are now constituted the children of Abraham then we are going to inherit the very promises made to Abraham and to Jesus. "The promise to Abraham," we remember, was that "he would inherit the world" (Rom. 4:13). Sounds awfully like the almost entirely ignored saying of Jesus that the meek are going to inherit the earth (quoting about 6 passages in Ps. 37). And Matthew 19:28 spells out in the plainest terms the role of the Apostles in the future Kingdom on earth, when Jesus comes.

Dispensationalism which underlies most American "fundamentalist" churches has given away the promise of Matthew 5:5 to unconverted Jews and thus robbed true Christians of their inheritance and Abraham's. The meek will inherit the land - not "go to heaven." Unconverted Jews must accept the Messiah who has come, in order to inherit the land and be true children of Abraham.

The Second Coming and Christian Destiny

... Yes, indeed, Jesus is coming visibly. He is really coming back. But the NIV gets it all wrong when it says that Jesus went back to heaven at the ascension (John 13:3; 16:28; 20:17). ...

The Second Coming is not a "drive through" by which the Messiah swoops down in the clouds only to do a U-turn and disappear again into heaven. That would not be a Second Coming at all. This non-second coming would mean that 23 million SDA's are right (and I fear they have been misled here on a large scale), when they say that only the Devil will be on earth for a 1000 years. It is the Devil who does not want Jesus back on earth. That will be the time when he is bound and imprisoned not on earth but in the abyss, and his crippling present "deceiving of the whole world" (Rev. 12:9) will come to a screeching halt (Rev. 20:3).

It is fascinating to me that A.T. (not J.A.T.) Robertson in his famous word pictures (available with BibleWorks software) says that it is unclear what Jesus meant in Matthew 19:28. Unclear? Jesus had just been asked the worthy question by Peter: "What can we expect to receive as reward at the end of this titanic struggle against the forces of popular religion? What's in it for us?" Jesus was fully responsive and certainly not rebuking with his forthright answer. "Let me tell you on the authority of the God I serve, Amen, amen I tell you: at the rebirth of the world, when the Son of Man sits on his throne of glory, you too will be seated on 12 thrones to administer the 12 tribes of Israel."

How many sermons are you hearing on these shatteringly interesting words of Jesus? My impression is that in church people would just like to think that Jesus died and rose, but not much else in the teaching of Jesus seems to get the sort of publicity it deserves. This text of course is repeated in Luke 22[:29-30] where the new administration, with the 12 tribes regathered in the land, is said to be the core of the New Covenant. The apostles are promised seats at the dinner table with Messiah! And positions of administrative responsibility with Messiah.

Acts 1:6 arises out of this major topic of course. "Is this the time for you to restore the Kingdom to Israel?" This is the question, I remind you, and do tell all your friends, where Calvin commented, "There are more errors in that question [about the restored national sovereignty to Israel] than there are words." About 16 errors! ...

"Jewish Roots"

Much time has been wasted on a false attempt to get at the Jewishness of Jesus in areas where no challenge to mainstream is necessary. I mean the emphasis by some on the Jewish calendar and especially the claim that the fourth commandment is now binding on us all in the letter.

The NT seems quite content with the use of "Lord" (Kurios) for God and, as Joe Martin points out, stresses the use of "Father," now that the Son has come. This is the wonderful new thing in the New Covenant. The NT actually takes the idea of the name of YHVH, "the one who is and was and is to come," and puts it into Greek for us in Revelation 1:4, 8; 4:8; 11:17; 16:5.

What is not always noted is that when Jesus is called "lord" (following the adoni, "my lord," of Ps. 110:1), the Greek very frequently has the definite article "the Lord (Jesus)." When Kurios is without the article it very often (not invariably) designates the LORD GOD (Kurios, Yahweh). One cannot say "the Yahweh," or "my Yahweh." It is a proper name.

...

Then the important issue of the future and final restoration of national Israel (Rom. [Chs.] 9-11). "The deliverer will come and remove ungodliness from JACOB."

Paul has "great sorrow about my natural kinsmen, who are Israelites" (not the church). Happily there presently is an Israel not limited to physical Israel, i.e. true believers, the Israel of God of Galatians 6:16, the true circumcision, which is us (Phil. 3:3; Gal. 3:29, as distinct from the "Israel of the flesh" (1 Cor. 10:18). The real international children of Abraham are now drawn from both Jews and Gentiles, via Isaac and Sarah, and the promises. The children of the flesh are not currently the same as the Israel of the spirit. The New Covenant has included us all, Americans, Brits, Australians and people of every nation in the true people of God, what Paul calls the "true circumcision" (Phil. 3:3).

Then Paul goes on: The Gentiles not pursuing righteousness attained the right way and Israel (i.e. Israelites) seeking it with Law did not. My prayer is for THEIR salvation (not the church). They (not the church) have a zeal for God but without the right knowledge. Israel knew, but did not respond. "I stretched forth my hand to a disobedient and obstinate people" (not the church).

There is currently a remnant, however; the rest (not the church) are hardened and are enemies of the Gospel. They do not now count as God's true people. If they do not continue in hardness they can be grafted in again. A partial hardening has happened to them (not the church) UNTIL the full quota of Gentiles has come in and so "all Israel," the ones now partially hardened, will be saved:
i.e. "blindness will be removed from Jacob." From the point of view of the Gospel THEY (not the church) are enemies for your (the church's) sake. So now, in the "now" of that future, they will be shown mercy.

This leads to Matthew 19:28 and Acts 1:6 and Micah 2:5 and Isaiah 19. Here we have whole nations who are God's people, a thing impossible today since the kingdoms of this world are not yet the Kingdom of God.

Denominations

It is interesting to challenge audiences with the rather bewildering state of disagreement by major blocs of those claiming to believe: How did the Watchtower Society manage to convince millions that Jesus is Michael the archangel? In Hebrews 1 there are two passages which absolutely exclude the idea that Jesus was ever an angel. Listen! "Jesus is far superior to the angels, for to which one of the angels did God ever say 'You are my Son; Today I have begotten you'?" [Heb. 1:5] Then, "To which one of the angels did God ever say, 'Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool'?" (Heb. 1:13). To no angel did God ever say the things he said only to his SON, Jesus. Very convincing also is the fact that Michael is said to be "one of the chief angels" (Dan. 10:13). One of a category of archangels. Jesus is not one of any category. Jesus is unique in his category as the sole Messiah, Son of David, of God and of Mary. JW's claim to be "one of Jehovah's Witnesses" - and they mean just that. Show them then that Jesus cannot be "one of the archangels." He cannot therefore be Michael. Anyway a holy angel is immortal, and so Michael could not have died for the sins of the world as the Son of God who died!

How is it that 1 billion people, not more nor less intelligent than ourselves, can believe that Mary was sinless, that she never had normal relations with her husband and was taken physically to heaven at death? That she and other "saints" respond to the lighting of candles and to prayer?

How do you get 23 million SDA's to believe that when the millennium comes the earth will be vacated of human beings and only Satan will remain on the earth? You achieve this amazing feat when a single lady, Ellen G. White persuaded them all that she was "more than a prophetess." But did anyone note what she did with Isaiah 24:6 which states that after a vast depopulation of the world effected by the Day of the Lord, the great and terrible day of the LORD's wrath, "few men are left." Ellen White, if you will look at her tome The Great Controversy (p. 769), you will find that she simply left out the words "few men are left" in Isaiah 24:6. This persuaded her millions of followers of an empty earth for 1000 years. She also predicted the Second Coming for 1844, and when it did not happen, she constructed a theory which stated that a special new event happened in heaven in that year. Later SDA scholars who challenged this were dismissed.

...

Do Evangelicals Preach the Gospel?

Following Steve Katsaras' challenging and radical appeal for belief in the right Jesus and not a threatening "another Jesus," may I ask kindly a similar radical question?

I start with a fascinating quote from the mammoth three-volume tome by G.N Peters, The Coming Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am still thrilled and impressed with one of his opening statements:

"The New Testament begins the announcement of the Kingdom in terms expressive of its being previously well-known...The preaching of the Kingdom, its simple announcement, without the least attempt to explain its meaning and nature, the very language in which it was conveyed to the Jews - all presupposed that it was a subject familiar to all. John the Baptist, Jesus and the Seventy all proclaimed the Kingdom in a way without definition or explanation that indicated that their hearers were acquainted with its meaning" (Vol. 1:181).

The Testimony of John the Baptist and Jesus to the Kingdom of God

"Jesus frequently appealed to the Old Testament as a divine revelation whose meaning he and his audience held, or ought to hold, in common ["If you misunderstand the OT you will automatically misunderstand the New."]

Moses, according to Jesus, had written about the Messiah. But if one were not prepared to believe what Moses wrote, it would be impossible to believe what Jesus said (John 5:46-47). After the resurrection Jesus chided the disciples for their failure to grasp what the prophets had spoken (Luke 24:25-27). This implies that what the prophets wrote was intelligible. There existed already clear evidence of the trustworthiness and factuality of the prophets' predictions. Micah had predicted the birthplace of the Messiah. Isaiah had foreseen the Messiah's activity as a miracle worker and healer (Isa. 35:5-6)." (Micah had predicted the details of the origin of the Messiah as being from ancient times. The translation "from everlasting" in the KJV is very misleading.)

Peters again: "The meaning Jesus attached to the word Kingdom of God can only have been the meaning given to that phrase in the Old Testament. If another concept were intended by 'Kingdom of God,' some explanation would be required at the beginning of John the Baptist's ministry to avoid misunderstanding. The facts are that John makes his announcement of the Kingdom on the presumption that his audience knew what the Kingdom was. They reacted by coming to John for baptism. They could not have done this in the absence of information about what the Kingdom was."

Jesus spoke to Israel, to whom the oracles of God had been entrusted (Rom. 3:1-2), and according to Paul he came to confirm the promises made to the fathers (Rom. 15:8; Acts 13:32). The Kingdom was itself the subject of the divine promise as "the kingdom which God has promised to those who love Him" (James 2[:5]). It is impossible therefore that Jesus could have opened his ministry in Galilee by announcing the Kingdom of God in any sense other than that which was intelligible to himself and his audience.

Now what was that sense? Though the phrase "Kingdom of God" does not appear exactly in that form in the Hebrew Bible, the idea is so ubiquitous that John Bright declares that the whole Bible might rightly be called the book about the coming Kingdom.

A locus classicus for defining the Kingdom of God is 1 Chronicles 28. King David addressed an assemblage of officials declaring that God had chosen him to be king over Israel forever (1 Chron. 28:4). Likewise God had selected Solomon to sit on the throne of the Kingdom of the LORD [YAHWEH] over Israel [1 Chron. 28:5]. Solomon was duly crowned king of the united kingdom of Israel. They "anointed him as ruler for the LORD [YAHWEH]" (1 Chron. 29:22), whereupon "he sat on the throne of the LORD [YAHWEH] as king in the place of David his father; and he prospered and all Israel obeyed him." [1 Chron. 29:23] Subsequently Abijah succeeded to the throne of Judah and when confronted with the opposing armies of Israel under Jeroboam, he reminded the latter that "the LORD [YAHWEH] God of Israel gave the rule over Israel to David forever and his sons by a covenant of salt" (2 Chron. 13:5). It would therefore be unwise for Jeroboam to "resist the Kingdom of the LORD [YAHWEH] in the hands of the sons of David" (2 Chron. 13:8).

There can be no doubt that the Kingdom of the LORD [YAHWEH] means the Kingdom administered by the royal house of David. It still means that. The Davidic covenant had named the Davidic throne as the Kingdom of God when Nathan had said to David, "I will settle him [David's descendant] in my house and in my Kingdom forever and his throne shall be established forever"
(1 Chron. 17:14).

The Kingdom of God therefore meant the empire ruled by the dynasty of David over Israel in the promised land. Its capital was Jerusalem, and it functioned on behalf of God Himself and could therefore be called both God's Kingdom and David's Kingdom.

The political and territorial nature of the kingdom is made clear in numbers of other significant passages in the Hebrew Bible. The prophet Obadiah describes the Kingdom of the LORD as a time when Israel rules over former enemies. The supremacy of Israel is achieved when "deliverers ascend Mount Zion to judge [in the Hebraic sense "administer"] the mountain of Esau, and the Kingdom will be the LORD's [YAHWEH's]" (Obad. 21). Again the political and territorial character of the Kingdom of God is crystal clear. So it is in Daniel 2:44 where "the God of Heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these other [preceding] kingdoms and it will itself endure forever."
This empire is further described as a time when "the saints will possess the kingdom and all kingdoms and dominions will serve them" (Dan. 7:22, 27). It is located "under the whole heaven"
[Dan. 7:27].

Kingdom data appears in equally unambiguous terms in Isaiah 16:5: "A throne will be established in lovingkindness and a judge will sit on it in faithfulness in the tent of David." Micah's Messianic prediction foresees a time coming when "the LORD [YAHWEH] will reign over Israel in Mount Zion...Even the former dominion will come, the Kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem" (Micah 4:7-8). It is a well-known fact that the Targums [Jewish commentary] elucidate these passages with the paraphrase: "The Kingdom of God will be revealed." Zechariah forecasts that the Messiah will "speak peace to the nations and his dominion will be from sea to sea, and from the River [Euphrates] to the ends of the earth." [Zec. 9:10] Sounds very much like the promise of the One God, the Father to His Son: "Ask me and I will give you the ends of the earth as your inheritance." [Psa 2:8]

Two further passages are of prime importance for establishing the territorial and political nature of the Kingdom as well as its thoroughly spiritual dimension as a kingdom initiated by Yahweh Himself. In Isaiah 40[:5] "the glory of the LORD [YAHWEH] is to be revealed." This will mean the evangelization of the cities of Zion when the Lord GOD [Lord YAHWEH] "will come with might with his arm ruling for him." [Isaiah 40:10] Once again the Targum recognizes in these events the revelation of the Kingdom of God. Zephaniah reports that following a period of severe judgment, and beyond the Day of the LORD, "the King of Israel, the LORD [YAHWEH], will be in their midst." [Zeph. 3:15] Zion is comforted with the promise that the LORD will be present as a victorious warrior (Zeph. 3:17). The LORD [YAHWEH] of course will be there in the presence of His unique Son the returning Jesus.

Finally in Isaiah 52:7 there is a passage saturated with Gospel and Kingdom terminology. The announcement is made to Zion that "Your God reigns," resulting in the restoration of Zion and the comfort and redemption of Jerusalem (Isa. 52:8-9, just what the NT saints were expecting). The Kingdom thus established is viewed by "all the nations" (Isa. 52:10). Appropriately the Targum sees in these events the setting up of the Kingdom of God. The phrase "your God reigns" or more accurately "your God has assumed kingship" marks a definite new era of history on earth. There is nothing abstract about the kingdom, nor is the eternal sovereignty of God the subject of these grand prophecies. It is rather a political event marking the intervention of the deity to take control of the Kingdom by installing His ruler as head of a theocracy in Jerusalem. The basis of the concept is found in the Davidic covenant which anticipates a descendant, a member of the House of David presiding over the kingdom in the promised land. Compare Psalm 96[:10]: "The LORD [YAHWEH] has assumed his kingship." He has begun to reign in a way in which he has not yet ever done. Exactly as Revelation 11:15-18 predicts that at the 7th trumpet, the moment when the now sleeping dead return to conscious existence, the LORD [YAHWEH] and His Messiah will begin to reign (the aorists are ingressive, meaning that the action begins).

In view of this mass of convergent evidence it must be plain that when Jesus announced the Kingdom of God, he did not need to tell his audience that there was going to be such a thing. It is surprising that commentaries have not made the political, territorial and national aspects of the Kingdom God known to readers. It must be clear that Jesus was not talking into the air when he announced the near approach of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom was something deeply embedded in the national consciousness of Israel and unambiguously defined by the Hebrew text and Targums. What has severely hampered understanding of the nature of the Kingdom of God is the well-worn theory that Jesus must have been speaking of a spiritual and not a political and geographical kingdom.

A Jew might legitimately object that a kingdom managed by the anointed Messiah ruling in Jerusalem is utterly spiritual. It is both spiritual and political, both national and universal. The fallacy of so much commentary and unexamined church tradition has been to set spiritual against political as though these are mutually exclusive ideas. However in Scripture this is not the case. A prophecy which spelled out the geographical place on earth at which the Messiah was to be born (Micah 5:2) was no less spiritual than the prophecy of his suffering for the sins of the world (Isa. 53). The prophecy which announced the conception of the Messiah from a virgin was equally and thoroughly spiritual, though related to a particular Israelite virgin living in a specific location and an exact time in history, 6 months later than the conception of John the Baptist.

It cannot be reasonably argued that Jesus meant anything by Kingdom of God in Mark 1:14-15 than his heritage had transmitted to him. Only on that basis can his opening gospel salvo have been intelligible. Only on that simple basis can he not have wiped out OT Scripture! There is a mass of New Testament evidence to corroborate the local, geographical and political nature of the Kingdom. Two passages in Luke tie the kingdom to geography. There was an occasion during the ministry of Jesus near Jerusalem that his audience thought that the kingdom would appear immediately.
[Luke 19:11-27] Of course, the King was in the proximity of the Kingdom's capital city, the city of the great King. Their conception of the Kingdom as having its capital in the holy land was absolutely right. Now Jesus did not correct this expectation. The parable he gave was to clarify the fact that the Kingdom would not appear immediately. He taught that there was to be an interval during which he as Messiah would be absent. During that time he would acquire his right to rule in the Kingdom. He would then return to rule in the Kingdom, dealing at that time with opponents who resisted his royal authority. Jesus would then be in the position of judge and would be authorized to "slay his enemies" who did not want the Messiah to rule over them! A shattering warning for us all.

Luke reports also that Jesus expected that many would arrive from east, west, north and south and join the resurrected patriarchs in the Kingdom of God (Matt. 8:11; Luke 13:28-29). The picture would naturally evoke in the minds of those familiar with the Hebrew Bible the Messianic banquet described by Isaiah 25:6-7 as a dinner including fine wines. The banquet was to take place "on this mountain," that is, in Jerusalem.

All this may be obvious to Abrahamically trained people, but it is certainly not clear in the various evangelical circles I have recently encountered. All I heard about was "heaven." The political and territorial nature of the Kingdom is absent from that "heaven" Gospel. The question is, how far can one misdefine the Kingdom of God and still count the resultant message the true Gospel?

Might not Jesus say to churches today, "You are gravely mistaken, not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God"? Jesus had just explained to them the rather elementary fact that since God is the God of the living and since it was well recognized that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were still dead and buried, then that future blessed resurrection was the only way that the faithful dead could be reunited in one glorious throng ready to take up their positions in the Kingdom.

Bishop [N. Tom] Wright for all his skills and talents still does not get this right! He speaks of the resurrection as "life after life after death." But then curious blindness leads him to tell us that the Parousia in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 happened in AD 70!

All this about the Kingdom and the Gospel, I think we need to be reminded, is not just "eschatology." It is the throbbing and life-giving heart of the saving Gospel as Jesus and Paul preached it. The cry still goes out from the risen Messiah: "Repent and believe the Gospel of the Kingdom" (Mark 1:14-15). "I must preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God: that is why God sent me" (Luke 4:43). That cry is summarized in the Great Commission to baptize everyone everywhere who will respond to the Gospel as Jesus and Paul preached it. The command to baptize is not an optional extra! It is part of the handful of very simple and basic commands. Peter is insistent that even after Gentiles had received the spirit they be baptized in water. Who can prevent the water? he asks. [Acts 10:47-48]

... Baptism in water is one of those very basic simple NT teachings, practiced by Jesus, John, Paul and Peter. It is a NT given, not open to question, if words have plain meanings. ...
("Who can forbid the water…?")

... The 1000 years - I would urge us all to be able to defend the truth of the millennium with passion and excitement. It might be good to not get excessively overheated about an immediate second coming. Adventists have a record over the past centuries of "knowing that world events show that Jesus is bound to come almost immediately." This of course never means that we should be asleep. We should be "always abounding in the work of the Lord" (1 Cor. 15:58).

We should pay attention too to both Jesus' and Paul's warnings that certain events must happen first. I suggest that the Markan "When you see the Abomination of Desolation standing where HE ought not to" (the RV corrected the KJV as early as 1881) was the main sign Jesus gave of the impending end. He was asked, "What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?" There is a single Antichrist figure (1 John 2:18), whom Jesus slays with the breath of mouth at his coming in 2 Thessalonians 2:8. This figure for Paul is traced to Isaiah 11:4 where the King of Assyria is the expected final tyrant. The Beast in Revelation is also seen as a HE, a single person, when John gives him a masculine pronoun in Revelation 17:11 and 13:14 (the word for Beast is actually neuter, so John is making a special point here, as Mark in Mark 13:14: "the abomination standing where HE ought not to"). The Beast/Abomination is a person, just as that wicked person comes to "his end" (Dan. 9:26b) in the final and decisive destruction brought by God in Jesus.

Father and Son

As [Biblical] unitarians I think we have to be careful to remain both Father and Son centered. Paul thanked Jesus for putting him in ministry and Jesus was worshiped not as God but
as the human lamb. ... Jesus is that one man mediator, and comforter. ...

We certainly all have our work cut out to be "steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our toil is not in vain" (1 Cor. 15:58). Jesus and Paul did not have to face quite the chaos of clamoring religious arguments and divisions we have today. Finding and holding truth may seem rather like finding a needle in a haystack. But I am convinced we have truths to which we must hold fast for our own salvation and in order to pass them on, polished and refined, to our successors. It still remains an overwhelmingly interesting fact that Jesus promised to send scribes, trained Bible personnel (Matt. 23:34), and he interpreted as among the righteous those "instructors" who make many righteous (Matt. 13:43; Dan. 12:2). A very unpopular text is Isaiah 53:11 where the Messiah, servant "makes many righteous by his knowledge." The Son came "to give us an understanding that we might come to know God" (1 John 5:20).

All this is based on Abraham's and Jesus' example, so loved by Paul, who twice quotes the amazingly simple truth that Abraham believed God and this was reckoned to him as making him right (not wrong), straight and no longer crooked (Gen. 15:6 cited by Paul in Gal. 3:6 and Rom. 4:3). To Abraham was promised "progeny, prosperity and property." We become heirs of these promises through the "obedience of faith" (Rom. 1:5; 16:26) and in Jesus.

Jesus Clearly Is Not Almighty God, If Jesus is Almighty God ...

2011-05-11T16:10:00.000-07:00

I came across some articles on the Net which consisted of:

1) a coherent and indisputable case for the difference between the ONE Almighty GOD, the Father; and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ;

2) followed by some very pertinent questions.

What follows therefore, is a combination of extracts from these articles:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jesus Clearly Is Not Almighty God

JESUS never claimed to be God. Everything he said about himself indicates that he did not consider himself equal to God in any way--not in power, not in knowledge, not in age.

In every period of his existence, whether on earth or in heaven, his speech and conduct reflect subordination to God.

God is always the superior, Jesus the lesser one who was created by God.

Jesus Distinguished From God

TIME and again, Jesus showed that he was a creature separate from God and that he, Jesus, had a God above him, a God whom he worshiped, a God whom he called "Father." In prayer to God, that is, the Father, Jesus said, "You, the only true God." (John 17:3) At John 20:17 he said to Mary Magdalene: "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." ...
At 2 Corinthians 1:3 the apostle Paul confirms this relationship: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Since Jesus had a God, his Father, he could not at the same time be that God.

The apostle Paul had no reservations about speaking of Jesus and God as distinctly separate: "For us there is one God, the Father, . . . and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 8:6, JB) The apostle shows the distinction when he mentions "the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels." (1 Timothy 5:21, ...) Just as Paul speaks of Jesus and the angels as being distinct from one another in heaven, so too are Jesus and God.

Jesus' words at John 8:17, 18 are also significant. He states: "In your own Law it is written, 'The witness of two men is true.' I am one that bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me." Here Jesus shows that he and the Father, that is, Almighty God, must be two distinct entities, for how else could there truly be two witnesses?

Jesus further showed that he was a separate being from God by saying: "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone." (Mark 10:18, JB) So Jesus was saying that no one is as good as God is, not even Jesus himself. God is good in a way that separates him from Jesus.

God's Submissive Servant

TIME and again, Jesus made statements such as: "The Son cannot do anything at his own pleasure, he can only do what he sees his Father doing." (John 5:19, ...) "I have come down from heaven to do, not my will, but the will of him that sent me." (John 6:38) "What I teach is not mine, but belongs to him that sent me." (John 7:16) Is not the sender superior to the one sent?

This relationship is evident in Jesus' illustration of the vineyard. He likened God, his Father, to the owner of the vineyard, who traveled abroad and left it in the charge of cultivators, who represented the Jewish clergy. When the owner later sent a slave to get some of the fruit of the vineyard, the cultivators beat the slave and sent him away empty-handed. Then the owner sent a second slave, and later a third, both of whom got the same treatment. Finally, the owner said: "I will send my son [Jesus] the beloved. Likely they will respect this one." But the corrupt cultivators said: "'This is the heir; let us kill him, that the inheritance may become ours.' With that they threw him outside the vineyard and killed him." (Luke 20:9-16) Thus Jesus illustrated his own position as one being sent by God to do God's will, just as a father sends a submissive son.

The followers of Jesus always viewed him as a submissive servant of God, not as God's equal. They prayed to God about "thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, . . . and signs and wonders are performed through the name of thy holy servant Jesus."
--Acts 4:27, 30, ...

God Superior at All Times

AT THE very outset of Jesus' ministry, when he came up out of the baptismal water, God's voice from heaven said: "This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved." (Matthew 3:16, 17) Was God saying that he was his own son, that he approved himself, that he sent himself? No, God the Creator was saying that He, as the superior, was approving a lesser one, His Son Jesus, for the work ahead.

Jesus indicated his Father's superiority when he said: "[YAHWEH's] spirit is upon me, because he anointed me to declare good news to the poor." (Luke 4:18) Anointing is the giving of authority or a commission by a superior to someone who does not already have authority. Here God is plainly the superior, for He anointed Jesus, giving him authority that he did not previously have.

Jesus made his Father's superiority clear when the mother of two disciples asked that her sons sit one at the right and one at the left of Jesus when he came into his Kingdom. Jesus answered: "As for seats at my right hand and my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted by my Father," that is, God.
(Matthew 20:23, JB) Had Jesus been Almighty God, those positions would have been his to give. But Jesus could not give them, for they were God's to give, and Jesus was not God.

Jesus' own prayers are a powerful example of his inferior position. When Jesus was about to die, he showed who his superior was by praying: "Father, if you wish, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, let, not my will, but yours take place." (Luke 22:42) To whom was he praying? To a part of himself? No, he was praying to someone entirely separate, his Father, God, whose will was superior and could be different from his own, the only One able to "remove this cup."

Then, as he neared death, Jesus cried out: "My God, my God, why have you deserted me?" (Mark 15:34, JB) To whom was Jesus crying out? To himself or to part of himself? Surely, that cry, "My God," was not from someone who considered himself to be God. And if Jesus were God, then by whom was he deserted? Himself? That would not make sense. Jesus also said: "Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit." (Luke 23:46) If Jesus were God, for what reason should he entrust his spirit to the Father?

After Jesus died, he was in the tomb for ... three days. If he were God, then Habakkuk 1:12 is wrong when it says: "O my God, my Holy One, you do not die." But the Bible says that Jesus did die and was unconscious in the tomb. And who resurrected Jesus from the dead? If he was truly dead, he could not have resurrected himself. ... So it was "God [who] resurrected [Jesus] by loosing the pangs of death." (Acts 2:24) The superior, God Almighty, raised the lesser, his servant Jesus, from the dead.

Does Jesus' ability to perform miracles, such as resurrecting people, indicate that he was God? Well, the apostles and the prophets Elijah and Elisha had that power too, but that did not make them more than men. God gave the power to perform miracles to the prophets, Jesus, and the apostles to show that He was backing them. But it did not make any of them part of a plural Godhead.

Jesus Had Limited Knowledge

WHEN Jesus gave his prophecy about the end of this [age], he stated: "But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Mark 13:32, ...) Had Jesus been the equal Son, part of a Godhead, he would have known what the Father knows. But Jesus did not know, for he was not equal to God.

Similarly, we read at Hebrews 5:8 that Jesus "learned obedience from the things he suffered." Can we imagine that God had to learn anything? No, but Jesus did, for he did not know everything that God knew. And he had to learn something that God never needs to learn--obedience. God never has to obey anyone.

The difference between what God knows and what Christ knows also existed when Jesus was resurrected to heaven to be with God. Note the first words of the last book of the Bible: "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him." (Revelation 1:1, ...) If Jesus himself were part of a Godhead, would he have to be given a revelation by another part of the Godhead--God? Surely he would have known all about it, for God knew. But Jesus did not know, for he was not God.

Jesus Continues Subordinate

... Jesus was subordinate to God. After his resurrection, he continues to be in a subordinate, secondary position.

Speaking of the resurrection of Jesus, Peter and those with him told the Jewish Sanhedrin: "God exalted this one [Jesus] . . . to his right hand." (Acts 5:31) Paul said: "God exalted him to a superior position." (Philippians 2:9) If Jesus had been God, how could Jesus have been exalted, that is, raised to a higher position than he had previously enjoyed? He would already have been an exalted part of the Trinity. If, before his exaltation, Jesus had been equal to God, exalting him any further would have made him superior to God.

Paul also said that Christ entered "heaven itself, so that he could appear in the actual presence of God on our behalf." (Hebrews 9:24, JB) If you appear in someone else's presence, how can you be that person? You cannot. You must be different and separate.

Similarly, just before being stoned to death, the martyr Stephen "gazed into heaven and caught sight of God's glory and of Jesus standing at God's right hand." (Acts 7:55) Clearly, he saw two separate individuals--but no holy spirit, no Trinity Godhead.

In the account at Revelation 4:8 to 5:7, God is shown seated on his heavenly throne, but Jesus is not. He has to approach God to take a scroll from God's right hand. This shows that in heaven Jesus is not God but is separate from him.

In agreement with the foregoing, the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England, states: "In his post-resurrection heavenly life, Jesus is portrayed as retaining a personal individuality every bit as distinct and separate from the person of God as was his in his life on earth as the terrestrial Jesus. Alongside God and compared with God, he appears, indeed, as yet another heavenly being in God's heavenly court, just as the angels were--though as God's Son, he stands in a different category, and ranks far above them."
--Compare Philippians 2:11.

The Bulletin also says: "What, however, is said of his life and functions as the celestial Christ neither means nor implies that in divine status he stands on a par with God himself and is fully God. On the contrary, in the New Testament picture of his heavenly person and ministry we behold a figure both separate from and subordinate to God."

In the everlasting future ..., Jesus will continue to be a separate, subordinate servant of God. The Bible expresses it this way: "After that will come the end, when he [Jesus ...] will hand over the kingdom to God the Father . . . Then the Son himself will be subjected to the One who has subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all."
--1 Corinthians 15:24, 28, NJB

Jesus Never Claimed to Be God

THE Bible's position is clear. Not only is Almighty God, [YAHWEH], a personality separate from Jesus but He is at all times his superior. Jesus is always presented as separate and lesser, a humble servant of God. That is why the Bible plainly says that "the head of the Christ is God" in the same way that "the head of every man is the Christ." (1 Corinthians 11:3)
And this is why Jesus himself said: "The Father is greater than I." John 14:28, ...

The fact is that Jesus is not God and never claimed to be. This is being recognized by an increasing number of scholars. As the Rylands Bulletin states: "The fact has to be faced that New Testament research over, say, the last thirty or forty years has been leading an increasing number of reputable New Testament scholars to the conclusion that Jesus . . . certainly never believed himself to be God."

The Bulletin also says of first-century Christians: "When, therefore, they assigned [Jesus] such honorific titles as Christ, Son of man, Son of God and Lord, these were ways of saying not that he was God, but that he did God's work."

Thus, even some religious scholars admit that the idea of Jesus being God opposes the entire testimony of the Bible. There, God is always the superior, and Jesus is the subordinate servant.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If Jesus is Almighty God ...

Then why is "God, head of Christ just as Christ, is head of man"?(1 Cor. 11:3)
Then why does Scripture consistently phrase Jesus as a separate person from God?
(John 20:17; John 14:1; Mark 10:18; John 17:1-3; etc.
Also in heaven, 1 Cor. 11:3; Luke 22:69; etc.)
Then how can Jesus have a God? Could Almighty God have a God?
(Mic. 5:4; Ps. 45:6, 7; 89:26; John 20:17; Rom. 15:6; 2 Cor. 1:3; Eph 1:3; Col 1:3; Mark 15:34; John 17:1-3;
Also in heaven, Rev. 1:6; 3:2, 12)
Then why does Rev. 3:14 say that Jesus is "the beginning of the creation of God"?
Then why is he subject to GOD, like we're subject to him?(1 Cor. 15:27, 28; [Eph. 1:22])
Then why does Jesus not know what God knows?(Matt. 24:36, [Mark 13:32]; Rev.1:1; Luke 8:45)
Then why is Jesus still subject to God when he is as high as he will ever be?(1 Cor. 15:27, 28)
Then why is he not powerful enough to subject things to himself?(1 Cor. 15:27, Eph. 1:17, 22)
Then why would he have to be given any power and authority?(Mt. 28:18; 11:27; [John 5:27]; 17:2; 3:35; 2 Pet. 1:17)
Then why did he have to learn anything?(Heb. 5:8; John 8:28)
Then why is speaking against him not as bad as speaking against the Holy Spirit?(Mt. 12:31,32; Luke 12:10)
Then why did Jesus call the "Father...the only true God"?(John 17:3)
Then why did he need to be saved?(Heb. 5:7; John 12:27)
Then why did he have to be exalted to Leader and Savior?(Acts 5:31)
Then how could he be exalted and given a higher name than he had?(Phil. 2:9-11; Heb. 1:2-4)
Then why did he have to be given life in himself?(John 5:25,26)
Then how could Jesus be tempted by Satan when God cannot be tempted with evil?(James 1:13)
Then why did he worship the Father?(John 4:22-23)
Then why can he not do anything on his own?(John 5:19; [8.28])
Then why would he pray to anybody?(Luke 22:44; John 17:1,2; Heb. 5:7)
Then how can he be God's servant?(Acts [3:13,26], 4:26,27,30)
Then how could he receive strength from an angel?(Luke 22:43)
Then how could he be a mediator between God and man?(1 Tim. 2:5)
Then why did Jesus say GOD was "good" in a way that Jesus was not?(Mark 10:18)
Then how could he get commanded to do anything?(John 12:49; Deut. 18:18)
Then why did Stephen see two separate entities, [the glory of] GOD and Jesus, and not just one God or three persons?(Acts 7:55)
Then how could he be seen at GOD's right hand?(Luke 22:69; Acts 7:55; Rom. 8:34)
Then how could Jesus be exalted (not to become God Himself, but) to the position of the "right hand OF God"?(Acts 2:33)
Then why would he have to receive a revelation from God?(Rev.1:1)
Then how could he have a Father?(John 20:17)
Then why did he not come in his own name?(John 5:41-44)
Then how could he appear before GOD?(Heb. 9:24)
Then how could he die? Can God die? Can part of God die?
(Rom. 5:10; Acts 5:30; 1 Cor. 15:3; Hab.1:12; cf. 1 Tim. 6:16; Num. 23:19; Ps. 90:2; Dan. 6:25-26)
Then why is it that God resurrected Jesus?(Acts 2:32)
Then why can we see him if "no man has seen God at any time"?(John 1:18)
Then why is there not one clear scripture where Jesus is called "God the Son," (equal to those declaring "God, the Father)?

The Trinity Delusion - 3 Articles

2011-04-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

Three further articles from the "Trinity Delusion" website.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Article 1)

Shema: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
"The LORD our God, the LORD is One." (Deuteronomy 6:4).

The above verse is the simplest form of the Shema. The Hebrew text literally says, "YHVH our God YHVH is one." While we don't know for certain, and the matter is often disputed, the letters "YHVH" are usually understood by most Christian scholars to have been pronounced as "Yahweh" or "Yahveh." The word "Jehovah" is simply an anglicization of Yahweh just as Peter is an anglicization of the Greek name Petros and Jesus is an anglicization of the Greek name Iesous and Aramaic Yashua.

The Shema is a basic confession of Jews and Christians. It declares that God is one. We must ask ourselves a very important question. If God is "One" then in what way is God "one"? Just how is God "one"? What did God intend for us to understand by these words? And when other passages such as "there is no other but He" are considered, how do such words impact Deuteronomy 6:4? More importantly, what did God intend the ancient Jews to understand by these words? Are we to believe the above confession is intended to convey that God is one "substance," or that God is one trio, as Trinitarians want us to believe? Or did God intend to convey that He is one person? Did God want the Israelites to understand the Gentiles had many gods but the Israelite God in contrast was one substance? Is such a proprosal even reasonable?

The Shema identifies the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But just who was the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob? Was Abraham's one and only God just one person? Or was Abraham's one and only God three persons in number? Was Isaac and Jacob's one and only God just one person? Or was Isaac and Jacob's one and only God three persons in number? Just who was Israel's God? Who was Jesus' God? Was Jesus' one and only God a three person being? Or was Jesus' Father alone his one and only God? And if God is a three person being, why does the Bible indicate the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had a servant-son named Jesus?

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His servant-son Jesus (Acts 3:13).

Jesus was an Israelite. He was the King of the Jews. Jesus stressed the vital importance of the Shema:

One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, "What commandment is the foremost of all?" Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'Hear O Israel. The Lord our God the Lord is One' and 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this, `You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." So the scribe said to Him, "Well said Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."" (Mark 12:28-34).

The Jewish scribe refers to this one God as "He." Now we must ask ourselves just who this Jewish scribe had in mind when he used the word "He." The Lord our God the Lord is one "He" and there is no other God but this one "He." Is it reasonable or or is it disingenuous to suggest this Jewish scribe had a three person being in mind and worshiped a Triune God? Or did he have one person in mind? Well we know from Scripture, and Jesus' own words, that the Jews considered their God to be one person - the Father (John 8:41,54). Are we really to believe this learned Jew was referring to a three person God? Let us also not forget that the statement "the Lord our God the Lord is one" is understood in terms of the words "there is no other but He" (see Deut 4:35). And we must also take very careful note of something Jesus says here. Jesus told this man he had answered wisely. Are we to believe Jesus was being sarcastically coy? We know this scribe was referring to someone he perceived to be one person, the Father. How then did Jesus say the Jewish scribe answered wisely if indeed God was actually a three person being? And when Jesus prayed the above words, as Jews do, just who did he himself have in mind? Did he really have a three person God in mind as Trinitarians would have us believe? Or did he simply have his Father in mind? In Jesus' own mind, just who was that one and only God whom they were talking about? One person, or three? Who was Jesus' one and only God?

"I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God" (John 20:17).

Jesus was the son of God. Who is "God" in the term "son of God"? Jesus? A three person being? Or is Jesus the son of the one God who happens to be his Father? Plainly, we are to understand that God is one and Jesus is another and God is Jesus' Father and Jesus is God's son. Does it really make sense to then claim the Son of God is God? Would it make any sense to claim the son of Adam is Adam or the son of David is David or the son of Noah is Noah?

Jesus said he was ascending to his God. This was the God that Jesus and the Jewish scribe were discussing and "there is no other but He." And Jesus clearly identifies his one God as his Father, not a Triune God. His Father was his one and only God. Jesus then goes further and reminds us that his God is our God. There is no difference between Jesus' God and our God. And of course there shouldn't be any difference or we would have two Gods/gods on our hands. If indeed there is only one God then Jesus can't have a different God than his followers. Did Jesus worship and serve a three person God? Or did Jesus worship and serve his father as his one and only God? To reasonable people who are honest with themselves, the answer is obvious. Jesus' God was his Father alone. And Jesus tells us that his one and only God is also our God - the Father.

Ask yourself a very important question and try to be reasonable and honest with yourself. Ask yourself, "Who was Jesus' God?" Now ask yourself if this was the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob who sent his servant-son Jesus? Now ask yourself if a Triune God is the same God Jesus served. And if not, ask yourself if this Triune God is another God?
"My God and Your God" - Jesus

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Article 2)

Jesus and a Jewish Scribe

Jesus prayed to his Father and identifies his Father as the only true God:

Father.... this is eternal life, that they may know You, the Only True God and Jesus Christ whom You sent.

The Only True God, Jesus' Father, sent Jesus. In Mark chapter 12, there is an interesting exchange between the Jew Jesus and a Jewish scribe:

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?" Jesus answered, "The first is, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." And the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that He is one, and there is no other but He; and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And after that no one dared to ask him any question.

Now let us stop for a moment and ask ourselves a very important question. Just who was this Jewish scribe talking about when he said, "HE is one" and "there is no other but HE"? Is it reasonable to suggest this scribe had a three person being in mind? Or is it more reasonable to suggest he had one person in mind?

[The Pharisees]: "We have one Father: God." (John 8:41).

The Jews never perceived God to be anything but one person. It would be ridiculous to claim this Jewish scribe had anyone but one person in mind. Jesus confirms this fact:

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 8:54).

Jesus confirms that his Father was the God of the Jews. Jesus too was a Jew. Now notice how Jesus responds to the Jewish scribe.

And the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that He is one, and there is no other but He; and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."

Jesus wasn't a Trinitarian either. Both the Jewish scribe and Jesus the Jew had the same idea in mind when they said that God is one - Jesus' Father, one person.

Now it gets even more interesting. Notice how the Jesus said, "The Lord our God the Lord is one" and the Jewish scribe responsed to that statement by saying, "you have truly said that He is one, and there is no other but He." Clearly, the Jewish scribe is emphasizing the exclusivity of the God which they have in mind. He says that Jesus had just said "there is no other but He" indicating this is what the Shema is supposed to indicate.
And Jesus confirms this fact by saying he had answered wisely. We find the same idea at Deuteronomy 4:35. We must ask, "there is no other but WHO exactly"? Who did Jesus and this Jewish Scribe have in mind exactly? The honest and reasonable person knows the answer.

Jesus' God was his Father and his Father alone. And it is for this reason that we find Jesus teaching his disciples:

"I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God" (John 20:17).

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was one person, Jesus' Father (Acts 3:13). Jesus' God was his Father. Our God is Jesus' Father. Jesus taught us the truth explicitly when he said, "my God and your God." Let us not serve a different God than Jesus.

Do you thus requite the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your Father, who created you, who made you and established you?....See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God besides ME (Deuteronomy 32:6,39).

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Article 3)

Jesus Christ's One and Only God

"The LORD our God, the LORD is One." (Deuteronomy 6:4).

Jesus was a Jew. He was an obedient Jew. When Jesus confessed to God, "the LORD our God, the LORD is one" just who did he have in mind? A three person God? Or his Father alone?

Read the following Scripture verses and see if you can determine if Jesus' one and only God was a one person being or three person being.

He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, 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 from my God out of heaven, and my own new name." (Rev 3:12).

"My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46).

But I know that you have not the love of God within you. I have come in the name of my Father, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? (John 5:43-44).

The Head of Christ is God. (1 Corinthians 11:3).

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:3).

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus. (2 Corinthians 11:31).

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 1:3).

The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory (Ephesians 1:17).

We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:3).

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:3).

[Jesus] has made us kings and priests to his God and Father. (Revelation 1:6).

Father.... this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John 17:3).

Clearly, the one and only God of Jesus Christ was not a three person being but was his Father alone. Jesus' God was His Father and Jesus' Father was His God. We have not the slightest reason to believe any differently. And since Jesus is not a polytheist he taught us that his God is to be our God.

I am ascending to my Father and your Father and my God and your God (John 20:17).

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The above extract of articles taken from:
The Trinity Delusion

The Trinity Delusion - 4 Articles

2011-04-11T11:54:00.000-07:00

What follows are four excellent articles from the "Trinity Delusion" website.

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Article 1)
Does worship of Jesus demonstrate he is God?

"Let all the angels of God worship him."

Trinitarian Claim

A very common claim by Trinitarians is to claim "Jesus is God" because we find both men and angels worshiping Jesus in the Bible.

Examination of the Claims

Proskyneo and the English word "Worship."

In Greek, there are two words which have been translated as "worship." Neither one of these Greek words do themselves contain the whole constellation of ideas which are usually associated with the English word "worship." In many minds, the English word "worship" is something one only does to the one God. This article deals with the Greek word proskyneo and demonstrates why Trinitarian claims concerning this particular Greek word are false.

This claim is extremely disingenuous because the English word "worship" does by itself imply a special kind of devotion to a divine being and in Christianity, God. However, what Trinitarian apologists often do not disclose is that the English word "worship" is used to translate two different Greek words, proskuneo, and latreuo. The first Greek word means simply to bow down before a higher authority. The second word refers to do divine service such as temple service. Most of the Trinitarian claims concern the word proskyneo and we shall soon see here that this word was used by the ancient Greek speaking people to refer to "worship" of ANY higher authority.

1. How the Greek word proskyneo is used in the Bible.

There are many, many examples in the Scriptures that show us how this Greek word is used. The corresponding Hebrew word is shachah. If we translated the word proskyneo as "worship" then Lot worshiped two angels (Genesis 19:1-2), Abraham worshiped the Hittites (Genesis 23:7,12), Isaac blesses Jacob to have all nations on earth worship him (Genesis 27:29), Jacob worshiped Esau (Genesis 33:1-4), Joseph's brothers worship him (Genesis 37:9-10; 42:3-6; 43:26-28), Abigail worshiped David's servants (1 Samuel 25:40-41), ... the sons of the prophets worshiped Elisha (2 Kings 2:15), David worshiped the Temple (Psalm 5:7) and all the people of Israel worshiped King David (1 Chronicles 29:20). And there are many more examples.

2. The Magi

Trinitarians will even sometimes use the example of the Magi to insist that proskyneo worship of Jesus necessarily demonstrates he was God. But this particular claim is absurd. ... We are told they came to bow down before a human King, not to God. They came to proskyneo worship a human infant not God. The reason they came to proskyneo worship this human being was because he was the King of the Jews.
Again we see that the reason they would do proskyneo worship was because they were respecting a higher authority.

3. Matthew 4:10: You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only

However, Trinitarians can't seem to get these facts through their heads or perhaps more rightly, they don't want to get the facts straight in their minds. And so they ignore the facts and appeal to some of their other mistaken interpretations of the Scriptures. One example of this kind of blunder is Matthew 4:10 where Jesus is being tempted by the devil to accept authority over the whole world if he will only bow down and worship him. Jesus then responds by quoting the Law, "You will worship the Lord your God and serve Him only." As usual, Trinitarians are so blinded by their own desires they do not see the problems with their own claims.

First, if the Trinitarian interpretation of this verse had any merit, then Lot, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and David were all sinning when they proskyneo worshiped other identities and indeed David even worshiped the temple. Even further, according to the Trinitarian interpretation, the whole assembly of Israel then sinned when they proskyneo worshiped both YAHWEH and the King. [1 Chronicles 29.20]

Secondly, Trinitarians completely fail to see the time frame when Jesus made this statement. Jesus was made lower than the angels. And in Hebrews 1:6, all the angels were to bow down before Jesus only after God had raised him from the dead, after God gave him all authority in heaven and upon the earth, after God made him Lord, and after God sat him down at his right hand making him superior to the angels just as we read at Hebrews 1:4-5.

Furthermore, the word "only" in this verse [Matt 4.10] does not qualify the word proskyneo which is translated as "worship." It only qualifies the word latreuo which is translated as "serve." Nowhere is Jesus given latreuo worship. ...

In his temptation, Jesus was being tempted to DISOBEY God and rather do the devil's will. Jesus' response was that he would rather submit to his God and Father's authority and serve Him alone.

4. The Angels Worship Jesus

Another blind claim is to say that since the angels worshiped Jesus (Hebrews 1:6) then he must be God Himself. However, this completely ignores the context which tells us precisely WHY they are to bow down in subjection to Jesus. Being a man, the writers tells us that Jesus was made lower than the angels (2:7) but now in his resurrection he is crowned with glory and honor (2:7) and in this way has become superior to the angels have inherited a better name than the angels (1:4). In his resurrection God made him "Lord" (Acts 2:36) giving him all authority in heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18) when he sat Jesus down at his right hand. In this way, he became superior in position to the angels, his God anointing him to be above the angels (Heb 1:9).

You have put all things in subjection under his feet. (Heb 2:8). Jesus is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, and having angels and authorities and powers subjected to Him. (1 Peter 3:22)

It is quite clear why angels are to proskyneo worship Jesus. He now sits in a position higher than the angels ... and in this way he has become better than the angels.

Indeed, carefully regard the following:

Then King David said to the entire assembly... Then David said to all the assembly, "Now bless YAHWEH your God." And all the assembly blessed YAHWEH, the God of their fathers, and bowed low and WORSHIPED YAHWEH and the King.... Then Solomon sat on the Throne of YAHWEH as King instead of David his father; and he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him.
All the officials, the mighty men, and also all the sons of King David pledged allegiance to King Solomon. (1 Chronicles 29).

Notice how King [Solomon] had sat on "the throne of YAHWEH" and all the assembly of Israel proskyneo worshiped both YAHWEH and King David. And indeed, the entire first chapter of the book of Hebrews is about the fact that Jesus has sat down at the right hand of God; ... And Jesus has not only been given authority over Israel like his father David but he was given authority over all things when God raised him from the dead. The one God has put his son in charge of everything. For this reason also, we are told that God has appointed a man through whom He, God, will judge all men (Acts 17:30-31).

5. Peter and Cornelius

Another way Trinitarians attempt to misrepresent the facts is by quoting the following passage:

"When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter raised him up, saying, "Stand up; I too am just a man." (Acts 10:25-26).

The word here too is proskyneo. Here, Trinitarians often claim, is evidence that Peter knew that nobody was to bow down before anyone but God. However, this is reading an extraneous concept into the text. Peter is not a King nor was there any reason for Cornelius to bow down to him.
Cornelius was bowing down to Peter because God had given him a vision to send men to bring Peter to his household. Hence, Cornelius was in a state where he perceived that God himself considered Peter to be a very important man. But Peter was taught by Jesus to serve and not lord over anyone. Hence, Peter was taught by Jesus to serve people and not have them bow down to him.

In the Scriptures, it is plain that there was nothing wrong with bowing down in subjection to higher authorities (proskyneo) other than God. However, there was a big problem with bowing down before the host of heaven or other gods. God forbids anyone to do this type of thing. But he forbids no one from bowing down before higher authorities. In fact, we read at Romans 13:1ff that the authorities which exist were estalbished by God. To refuse to bow down before these authorities is to disobey God.

In his temptation, Jesus was being tempted to DISOBEY God and rather do the devil's will. Jesus' response was that he would rather submit to his God and Father's authority and serve Him alone.

...

Conclusion

When we have all the facts before us the truth is plain to see. People all over the Bible are bowing down before higher authorities who are not God. The Israelites were not allowed to bow down before other gods since doing so would be a gesture that they were submitting to the authority of these gods and not to Yahweh their God, a jealous God. And when we come to the New Testament, we find people appropriately bowing down before the higher authority Jesus because he is the King of Israel and because he is the Son of God Most High.
He was royalty and humans bow down before royalty, their King, and rightly so. God has appointed all authorities in heaven and on earth. And when the man Jesus is resurrected and ascends to the [right hand of] God, all creation is subject to him. We are told this resurrected man is above all other authority and rule with all the angels subject to him. Indeed, we are told that God made him "Lord" in his resurrection (Acts 2:30-36) and have given him all this authority (Matthew 28:18) having sat down at the right hand of God until he puts all his enemies under his feet. The Trinitarian claim is a farce.

Notes:

Proskyneo: The word proskyneo simply means "to bow down before," or to prostrate one's self before another in the sense that one is acknowledge his low estate as compared to the high estate of the person he is bowing down before. It is a gesture of submission to a higher authority. This Greek word does not come packed with the the constellation of religious ideas that we have with the English word "worship."

Latreuo. This Greek word is still not exactly the same as the English word "worship" but it is much closer and usually denotes religious worship. It carries the idea of serving a higher authority in a religious or spiritual sense. While this word also does not itself connotate service to a divine being, the concept of serving a divine being is indeed usually implied.

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Article 2)
Mark 2:7

Who can forgive sins but God alone?

The Trinitarian Claim

Trinitarians claim that only God can forgive sins. In this passage, the Pharisees declare that only God can forgive sins. But here Jesus forgives sins and therefore it is claimed he must be God.

The Trinitarian Response

Trinitarians here resort to a nullification of Jesus' words. Their response usually goes something like, "Are you saying Jesus is not good?" suggestively implying that the issue is about moral goodness. Your response should be, "No, I am saying Jesus himself said only his God is good. Would you like to know why he said this?"

Examination of the Claim

Trinitarians Missing the Very Point of this Narrative

Who can forgive sins? Answer: The one whom God gave authority to forgive sins. The man Jesus of Nazareth that's who!
And not only Jesus of Nazareth but since his resurrection there are others as well. At times, Trinitarian promotions of their favorite doctrine clearly reveal their total disregard for the real message in deference to their apologetic mission. Trinitarians here make the same mistake as the Pharisees. It is the Pharisees who insisted only God can forgive sins. The very point of this account is to illustrate how Jesus demonstrated the Pharisees were dead wrong.

Let's note what Jesus says in the same account written by the hand of Matthew:

"But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he then said to the paralytic, "Rise, take up your bed and go home" (Matthew 9:6).

Notice what Jesus does here. The Pharisees charge that only God can forgive sins. But Jesus tells them that the Son of man has authority to forgive sins on earth and he is healing the paralytic to prove to these Pharisees with this sign that he has this authority. He asks, "Which is easier?" Is it easier to do a miracle or forgive a man's sins? Obviously, it is the latter. So Jesus does the more difficult to prove that he has the authority to do the easier thing. Man was given this authority and Jesus is demonstrating to the Pharisees that their notion that God alone can forgive sins is in error. Trinitarians should take note.

Now let us carefully note what Matthew has to say in his parallel account of Mark's account:

"When the crowds saw it, they were awestruck, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men (Matthew 9:8).

Yes, the crowds were quite amazed by the fact that God had given such authority to men to forgive sins. Jesus had proven the Pharisees to be completely wrong.
Notice how we are told that God gave this authority to men, clearly showing us that Jesus as a man was given this authority by his God.
So, what more do we need to say here? The Trinitarian abuse of Mark 2:7 to promote their doctrine is an absolutely apalling example of their errors. The passage demonstrates that the Pharisaical notion that only God could forgive sins was wrong and Matthew writes that the crowds were amazed that God had given such authority to forgive sins to men. We should also take note here that God is distinguished from the man Jesus in this passage. Perhaps, one could make up a little story here that the crowds didn't realize Jesus was God yet. Well, that wouldn't make any difference at all. Matthew wrote this passage under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and he said that God had indeed given such authority to men, and the man who had been given this authority, happened to be Jesus the Nazarene.

Let's look at Mark's parallel passage and we will insert the phrase Matthew left out of the same account in his Gospel.

And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, lying on his bed, and when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, my son. Your sins are forgiven." And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming. [Who can forgive sins but God alone?]" But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, "Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, "Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins," he then said to the paralytic, "Rise, take up your bed and go home." And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were in awe, and they glorified God who had given such authority to MEN." (Matthew 9:2-8; Mk 2:7).

If anything this passage militates heavily against Trinitarianism because it illustrates that God gave authority to men in the giving of this authority to the man Jesus. It not only distinguishes God from the man Jesus but it also shows us that if Jesus was God, why would he need to be given this authority from God in the first place? After all, Trinitarians claim Jesus assumed humanity and did not leave behind his divinity. But here we see God had given him that authority. Now that we have demonstrated these facts, the Trinitarian has no alternative but to claim God gave this to Jesus "in his humanity." But what will do that for him? One minute he claims that Jesus can do certain things "because he is God" and the next minute is insisting God had to give him this authority "became he was a man." So which is it? God did not give authority to a human nature; God gave authority to a person because that person was himself a man.

The Trinitarian apologetic is once again is shown to be extremely disingenuous. The passages themselves tell us that the reason Jesus was forgiving this man's sins was that he as a man who was given authority to do so by God, not because he was "God," and so the Trinitarian finds himself not serving the teaching of Jesus but falling down flat on the side of the Pharisees.

Jesus gives this same authority to his apostles. After he rose from the dead, he breathed the Holy Spirit upon them and told them that if they forgave the sins of any they were forgiven and if they retained the sins of any they were retained. Before Jesus said this he said, "As the Father sent me, I also send you" and breathed the Spirit into them. [John 20.21-23]
When Jesus was baptized at the Jordan, he was given authority in the same way by the Spirit to forgive sins. And later, he sent his Apostles to do the very same thing. God has granted this authority to men through His Holy Spirit that lives in these men who do forgive sins in his name. And the Father sent Jesus, now he also sent his Apostles. This is why they baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. They had the authority given to them to do these things in the name of Jesus by the Spirit he gave them just as Jesus did these things in the name of his God and Father. As he himself said on this occasion, "Just as the Father sent me, I now send you."

The teaching in this gospel is that God had given authority to forgive sins to men. To prove he had this authority, he asked which was greater, to forgive sins, or to heal a crippled man. And so he healed a crippled man to prove he was given the authority to forgive sins. We are plainly told by Peter that God had anointed him with such authority (Acts 2:22; 10:38; cf. Luke 4:18). Who can forgive sins but God alone? Those who have been given that authority in the Holy Spirit. And the man Jesus was given that authority by God at the Jordan. Indeed it is by God dwelling in Jesus in the Spirit that sins were forgiven.

Conclusion

The very point of this narrative is to demonstrate that God had given authority to a man, the man Jesus, to forgive sins. And Jesus demonstrates to the Pharisees that he had been given this authority by doing the greater miracle, healing the paralytic.

"They glorified God, who had given such authority to men."

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Article 3)
Does the title "Lord" indicate that Jesus is God?

Trinitarian Claim

Trinitarians sometimes make the claim that the word "Lord" is a term which does by itself signify that "Jesus is God."

Examination of the Claim

1. Many Lords in Scripture

There are numerous characters in the Bible who are called "Lord." The word "Lord" is simply a term used to refer to someone with a higher authority.

The following examples show how the word is used in Scriptures to refer to an array of different individuals:

Abraham is Sarah's Lord

So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "After I have grown old, and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure?" (Genesis 18:12; cf. 1 Peter 3:6).

Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him "Lord" (1 Peter 3:6).

Two Angels are Lot's Lords

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he arose to meet them, and bowed himself with his face to the earth, and said, "My Lords, turn aside, I pray you, to your servant's house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise up early and go on your way." [Gen 19:1-2]

The Philippian Jailer calls Paul and Silas "Lords."

"Lords, what must I do to be saved? (Acts 16:30).

There are numerous characters in Scripture who are called "Lord." And as we can see, it has nothing to do with deity. You may also note how Trinitarians traditionally refrain from translating the word as "Lord" in verses like Acts 16:30 above. However, this is misleading since it is the exact same Greek word [Kurios] that is used to refer to the Lord Jesus. The word [Kurios] was quite simply used to refer to anyone who had authority over someone else.

2. God made Jesus Lord

The word "Lord" is a term which refer to authority. When Jesus rose from the dead he said, "All authority in heaven and upon the earth has been given to me" (Matthew 28:18). At Acts 2:36 we read that God made Jesus Lord when He raised him from the dead.

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. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: 'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, until I make your enemies Your footstool." ' Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."

The falsity of the Trinitarian claim is manifested when we realize that if the word "Lord" meant "God" then Trinitarians would have to say that God made Jesus "God" when he raised him from the dead.

God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knew 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. (Philippians 2:9-11).

4. The word "Lord" in the Hebrew Scriptures

Understanding the use of the English word "Lord" in the Old Testament is a bit more complicated than it is in the New Testament. The reason for this is that most English Old Testament Bibles use the word "LORD" to translate the tetragrammaton "YHWH," that is, "Yahweh." Jews, not wishing to pronounce the divine name used the term "Adonai" in place of "YHWH." Adonai is the word we translate as "Lord" in English Bibles. So when you see the word "LORD" with all capital letters in English Bibles, it translates ... "YHWH." ... Adonai is a special Hebrew word used only to refer to Yahweh God. [Translated 'Lord' in our English Bibles.]
Another Hebrew word "Adoni" is the normal Hebrew word for "lord." This distinction is very important. But there is a reason for the difference in the one vowel between these two words. When referring to someone other than God as "Lord" the word "Adoni" was always used. This one letter makes a very significant difference just as the one letter between "He" and "She" makes a big difference in English. ...
The Hebrew word "Adoni" occurs nearly 200 [actually 195] times in the Old Testament. In each and every single occurrence, it is a reference to a human superior and not a reference to God.
And indeed, this is also the very same word used at Psalm 110:1 in reference to the Messiah, "The LORD said to my Lord," that is, "[YAHWEH] said to my Adoni." ...

Conclusion

It is quite clear from the evidence that once again the Trinitarian claim is utterly false. Yes the one God is Lord but that does not mean someone who is Lord is God.

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Article 4)
Psalm 110:1

"The LORD said to my Lord"

Trinitarian Claim

Trinitarians sometimes claim this verse refers to God the Father speaking to the Son at some point in the past.

Examination of the Claim

1. Peter Affirms that the first "Lord" or "YAHWEH" is God the Father

Therefore, having been therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens but he himself says, 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool.' Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. (Acts 2:34-36).

Peter is here referring to David's prophetic word in the Spirit whereby his seed Jesus would ascend to the right hand of the throne of God the Father ... Obviously, in Psalm 110:1 Yahweh is the Father of Jesus and not Jesus.

2. Peter Declares this Psalm was Fulfilled when God raised Jesus from the dead and made him Lord

This Jesus God raised up again, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens but he himself says, "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool.' Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. (Acts 2:34-36).

Clearly, Peter teaches us that Psalm 110:1, "The LORD said to my Lord" came to pass when God exalted the man Jesus to his right hand having raised him from the dead and making him "Lord."

Analysis of the Evidence

1. The Whole Psalm 110 and Hebrews Chapter 5

YAHWEH says to my Lord [Adoni], "Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool." YAHWEH sends forth from Zion your mighty sceptre. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people will offer themselves freely on the day you lead your host upon the holy mountains. From the womb of the morning like dew your youth will come to you. YAHWEH has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." YAHWEH is at your right hand. He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will judge among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.

Now carefully observe what the Hebrews writer says:

So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, "You are my son, Today I have begotten you," just as He says also in another passage, "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 5:5-10; cf. 7:1-15).

And again, we find that that Psalm 110:1 was fulfilled when Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. In Acts, Peter quotes Psalm 110:1 and indicates this came to fulfillment when God raised Jesus from the dead and made him "Lord" sitting Jesus down at his right hand. In Hebrews, the writer quotes Psalm 110:4 and indicates this was fulfilled when Jesus became High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek when God raised him from the dead.

2. Jesus' Challenge

In this passage David refers to the Messiah as "my Lord" and the LORD, YHWH,¹ is speaking to David's Lord. Jesus of Nazareth had challenged the Pharisees with this passage. And here in that very same passage, we have Jesus affirming that YAHWEH his Father is not only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but that his Father is that one God of the Shema, "the LORD our God the LORD is one."

Jesus said to them, "Is not the reason why you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, "I [YHWH] am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong." And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?" Jesus answered, "The first is, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord [YHWH] our God, the Lord [YHWH] is one, and you shall love the Lord [YHWH] your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." And the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that He is one, and there is no other but He, and to love him with all the heart, and with all the mind, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And after that no one dared to ask him any question. And answering, teaching in the temple, Jesus said, "How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, declared, "The Lord [YHWH] said to my Lord [Adoni], Sit at my right hand, till I put your enemies under your feet.' David himself calls him Lord, so how is he his son?" And the great crowd heard him gladly. (Mark 12:24-37; see 11:27).²

At Psalm 110:1, we have YHWH speaking to the Son and YHWH is obviously the Father, thereby excluding Jesus from being YHWH. Peter testifies that YHWH here is the Father of Jesus Christ. And in the context of the Shema where Jesus acknowledges that YHWH is that one God that he himself serves, an obvious reference to his Father, Jesus challenges the Pharisees on Psalm 110:1 where he identifies himself, not as YHWH, but as Adoni, the "Lord" of David to whom YHWH is speaking to in that passage.
Jesus therefore identifies the one God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and also the one God of the Shema as his Father. And when a scribe responded to Jesus saying that He is one, and there is no other, Jesus responds by saying he answered wisely. This passage presents a clear testimony that Jesus acknowledge the Father alone as the one and only God.

Conclusion

The Bible quite clearly shows us that Psalm 110:1, "The LORD said to my Lord," is prophetic and came to pass when God raised Jesus from the dead and made him "Lord" just as Psalm 110:4 came to pass when God raised Jesus from the dead. Additionally, in the context of this verse, Jesus is identifying his Father as the one YAHWEH of the Shema where he and a Jewish scribe whole-heartedly agree, "there is no other but HE."

Notes:

1. The English word "LORD" in all capital letters is used to indicate the divine name YHWH, the tetragrammaton, which is believed to be pronounced "Yahweh." ... Later Jews preferred to used the word "Adonai" in place of the divine name.

2. Matthew and Luke's account:

But Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living." And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord [YHWH] your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets." Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, "What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." He said to them, "How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him Lord [Adoni], saying, "The Lord [YHWH] said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet'? If David thus calls him Lord, how is he his son?" And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did any one dare to ask him any more questions. (Matthew 22:29-46).

But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord [YHWH] the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him." And some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you have spoken well." For they no longer dared to ask him any question. But he said to them, "How can they say that the Christ is the son of David? For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, "The Lord [YHWH] said to my Lord [Adoni], Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a stool for your feet.' David then calls him Lord [Adoni], so how is he his son?" (Luke 20:37-44).

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The above extract of articles taken from: The Trinity Delusion

Our “Lord” is not our “God”

2011-03-12T16:39:00.000-08:00

Here is another article (slightly edited) by Mark, the author of the previous post (please see: Did our “God” Die on the Cross?)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our “Lord” is not our “God”

There are quite a few theories that try to reconcile why Jesus is not specifically called “God” in Scripture with the possible exceptions of the few contested verses we have discussed elsewhere, even though it is argued that He equally deserves this title in spite of this fact. One argument is that the authors of Scripture were simply ignorant of this truth:

“If His followers lagged in recognizing His deity, this was not because He was not God or did not sufficiently manifest His deity. It was because they were foolish and slow of heart to believe what lay patently before their eyes.” -Warfield, B.B., Princeton Theological Seminary;”The Deity of Christ.”

So these Spirit-lead authors drafting Scripture oftentimes years after their earthly experience with Jesus and the apostles who directly learned from Jesus were just “foolish?” ... This is a difficult argument for me to wrap my mind around given that we are entrusting these “foolish followers” with essentially channeling God’s Spirit to convey all of God’s truths to us. So this justification doesn’t make much sense to me. Another popular argument is that they intentionally avoided this title for Jesus. This theory usually mirrors that of the following Trinitarian authors:

“Critics of the doctrine of the deity of Jesus often ask why, if Jesus is God, the New Testament does not refer to him more often as God. The answer is twofold. First, the New Testament writers were generally very careful to avoid making statements that would have implied that Jesus was the Father. While affirming Jesus’ divine status in many ways, they maintained a clear distinction between the persons of the Father and the Son. Since they commonly applied the name ‘God’ to the Father, they tended not to use that name for Jesus except in ways that did not confuse the two persons. The second reason is that the theological and religious roots of the New Testament were deeply monotheistic, and its authors sought to affirm Jesus’ deity in ways that people would not perceive as undermining their Jewish monotheistic heritage.”-Bowman & Komoszewski; “Putting Jesus in His Place,” p 144

So let’s consider what these authors are proposing. They are claiming that the New Testament writers were actually strategically avoiding this title for Jesus although they believed using it for Him was essential for our faith!? These authors believe again that in their Spirit-lead wisdom, the followers of Jesus couldn’t conceive of a way to clarify to those seeking answers one of the “basic truths” of Christianity, and so they chose to avoid it? They couldn’t say, “Yes, the Father is God, but Jesus is fully God too, they are actually both the one true God.” The early Christian creeds and Church fathers seemed to articulate this theory easily enough once it was agreed upon. And what about quotes like “I and the Father are one” and “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father?” If they were so afraid to call Jesus “God” because of the possible implication that they were saying He was the Father, how did quotes of Jesus like these creep into Scripture? These quotes seem to look without the context of the rest of Scripture as if Jesus was actually making this exact claim that it is argued that they were trying so diligently to avoid, that He “was” the Father as Modalists assert? And were the authors of Scripture so afraid of identifying Jesus as the Father that they completely avoided conveying this “truth” of a complicated multiple-party God to us in all of Scripture? Explaining this awkward theory of a collective “God-unit” was never even attempted!? Are we really ready to argue that although the authors of Scripture believed this concept was the central tenet of our faith, they chose rather to avoid the topic altogether?

But then in the chapter following the one quoted above by Bowman and Komoszewski, these authors propose the rationalization that it is appropriate to define Jesus as “God” in spite of the fact that those that wrote the New Testament avoided the THEOS title for Him because they instead chose to refer to Him as “Lord.” And these authors then argue that this title was understood by the Jewish culture to be referring explicitly to their God, YAHWEH:

“the apostles and their associates immediately began speaking of Jesus as ‘Lord’ in a way that strongly indicated that he was God himself. The crucial religious context of this divine sense for Lord was the Jewish practice of using the term in place of the Old Testament name Yahweh, or Jehovah, (YHWH).…The basic confession of early Christianity that ‘Jesus is Lord’ (Rom. 10:9, 1 Cor. 12:3; Phil. 2:11) turns out to entail the most astonishing and radical claim that any first-century Jew might have made: that the crucified man, Jesus of Nazareth, was Jehovah.”-Bowman & Komoszewski, Putting Jesus in His Place;” p 157, 170

So now these same authors claim that by saying “Jesus is Lord,” the authors of Scripture were trying to convey that they believed “Jesus is YAHWEH?” But I thought the authors of Scripture “sought to affirm Jesus’ deity in ways that people would not perceive as undermining their Jewish monotheistic heritage?” Which one was it? Were the authors of Scripture explicitly calling Jesus “Lord,” or KURIOS, purposefully to identify Him as YAHWEH to the Jewish people who had a “Jewish practice of using the term in place of the Old Testament name Yahweh” as these authors allege, or were they intentionally avoiding calling Jesus “God,” or THEOS, because they did not want to “undermine their Jewish monotheistic heritage?” Wouldn’t calling Him a synonym for YAHWEH, in fact the exact Greek term KURIOS used throughout the Septuagint to replace the Hebrew name YAHWEH, have been more inflammatory than just calling Him THEOS? Why were they so intentional in calling Jesus “Lord” throughout Scripture but yet refused to call him “God” if in fact the two terms are interchangeable for each other as is asserted by these authors? Does it seem logical that they meticulously refused to call Jesus “God” because of the possible confusion with the “God” of the Jewish people, but then in turn intentionally called Him “Lord” hundreds of times to allegedly convey that He was in fact their God, YAHWEH, to those same Jewish people? Those that manufacture this argument that the Greek term KURIOS was applied to Jesus to identify Him as YAHWEH are doing so because they are personally at a loss for why Jesus is not called “God” in Scripture and, therefore, are reaching out to this term “Lord” that they fully realize wasn’t exclusively used for YAHWEH.

Yes, KURIOS was used throughout the Septuagint to translate the name YAHWEH, but these authors and others like them seem to be intentionally avoiding the large variety of contextual uses for this term in Greek culture. The term “God” is a class designating the nature and substance of a being. And because in Judeo-Christian history, there is only one being in this class, it is commonly used as the proper name of this being. The term “Lord” however is a designation of power and authority. Literally a title bestowed on another because of this position of authority given to him. ...

And as we will see shortly, in Greek culture this title of “Lord” was assigned to various different levels of authority, from an individual with higher socioeconomic standing than you, to political leaders, to Christ and then also to the Lord God. A good verse to show the way multiple Hebrew terms were translated as KURIOS or “Lord” is the following Messianic prophecy from the Hebrew text:

⁴³He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’ {KURIOS}? For he says, ⁴⁴’The Lord {KURIOS} said to my Lord {KURIOS}: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. “’-Matthew 22:43-44

So did Matthew mean “YAHWEH said to my YAHWEH” as is alleged? No, he didn’t. Matthew most likely understood the various cultural applications of this term because this quote from the Old Testament actually is translated from two different Hebrew terms, YAHWEH and ADON [actually in Psalm 110.1 the Hebrew word used is: adoni.] And both of these terms are almost exclusively translated into Greek as KURIOS and then into English as “Lord:”

The LORD {YAHWEH} says to my Lord {ADON[I]}: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”-Psalm 110:1

The Hebrew term ADON[I], which is one of the terms translated into Greek as KURIOS and quoted to reference the Messiah above, primarily refers to someone of an authoritative position, a master, a king or oftentimes the Messiah as shown in the Psalm above or the various other Hebrew verses below:

“See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord {ADON} you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD {YAHWEH} Almighty.-Malachi 3:1

Then he prayed, “O LORD {YAHWEH} , God of my master {ADON[I]} Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master {ADON[I]} Abraham.”-Genesis 24:12

The LORD {YAHWEH} was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master {ADON}.-Genesis 39:2

So the first point of significance is that the Greek term KURIOS is used as a replacement for a number of Hebrew terms and doesn’t seem to be solely a replacement for the one God they know as YAHWEH. But if these authors are correct and it is true that the apostles or Jewish culture in general at the time chose to use the term KURIOS as a means to convey that they were actually speaking of or to YAHWEH, then we have bigger issues to discuss. Even though none of the following uses of this Greek term are translated into English as “Lord,” they each use the same term as a form of respect for a person of authority. These authors claim that there was a “Jewish practice of using the term in place of the Old Testament name YAHWEH.”

This is true, but it is not the entire picture. There was also a Jewish practice of using this term for a position of authority as both Abraham and the Egyptian referred to as ADON above were both translated into Greek in the LXX as KURIOS. So when the master of the house, in addition to Philip, the “gardener” at the tomb, Paul and Silas, and most significantly, Pilate were referred to with this title, did they believe these men were equal to YAHWEH as well?

I would argue that they did not. And the interesting thing about this first verse below is that it is actually the Jewish Pharisees, who presumably knew exactly what “Jewish practices” were, that referred to Pilate with this same title which is alleged to be used by them “in place of the Old Testament name YAHWEH:”

⁶²The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ⁶³“Sir {KURIOS},” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’”-Matthew 27:62-63

Would these Jewish men dare use the title of KURIOS for Pilate if in any way they thought it should be exclusively reserved for YAHWEH? And because they must have been speaking Greek with Pilate, this is most likely the exact word they used dictated by Matthew. Obviously this is not an entirely true statement that they used this term as a replacement for their God, evidenced also by the following uses:

It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master {KURIOS}.-Matthew 10:25

They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir {KURIOS},” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.”-John 12:21

“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir {KURIOS}, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”-John 20:15

²⁹The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. ³⁰He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs {KURIOS}, what must I do to be saved?”-Acts 16:29-30

This term has unfortunately been translated into English in different ways as shown above, mirroring the multiple words it was translated from in Hebrew, so most do not recognize its multiple uses. There are three major Hebrew words translated as KURIOS in Greek and then as “Lord,” “Sir,” or “Master” in English. The first is YAHWEH, often translated in all caps as “LORD,” which exclusively refers to the one true God of the Jewish people. The second is ADON[I] which is addressed above. The vast majority of the time this term is a generic title used as a reference to a person given a position of authority, a “master.” And the third is the emphatic form of ADON, ADONAI, which is translated “Lord,” and ... exclusively again refers to the one true God, YAHWEH, as in the following verse:

I said to the LORD {YAHWEH}, “You are my Lord {ADONAI}; apart from you I have no good thing.”-Psalm 16:2

There are also various verses where authors of Scripture seem to distinguish between the terms THEOS and KURIOS. So if they believed them to be interchangeable terms, why the use of them to distinguish between two separate beings?

By his power God {THEOS} raised the Lord {KURIOS from the dead, and he will raise us also.-1 Corinthians 6:14

“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God {THEOS} has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord {KURIOS} and Christ.”-Acts 2:36

And in this last verse, “God” made Jesus “Lord?” How do you make someone a God? And at what point in time was He made YAHWEH if the two terms are interchangeable? Peter is obviously using the term [“Lord”] as a position of authority, not as a synonym for YAHWEH.

So it is important to distinguish between the use of the Hebrew terms YAHWEH, ADON[I] and ADONAI because they had very different cultural meanings to the Jewish people and the authors of the New Testament, even though in Greek, they are each translated with the same term KURIOS. These separate meanings for this term had to have been clearly understood by those who knew Greek because the term was used interchangeably for many different individuals who were obviously of different authoritative positions.

Adoni Messiah

A COMPILATION OF POSTS PERTINENT FOR THIS ADVENT SEASON! - PART 1 of 4

A COMPILATION OF POSTS PERTINENT FOR THIS ADVENT SEASON! - PART 2 of 4

A COMPILATION OF POSTS PERTINENT FOR THIS ADVENT SEASON! - PART 3 of 4

A COMPILATION OF POSTS PERTINENT FOR THIS ADVENT SEASON! - PART 4 of 4

So, Is Jesus Almighty God?

So, Is Jesus Almighty God?

The Bible Says that God is not a Man.

The Bible Says that God Is Not a son of man.

The Bible Says that God is Greater than Jesus.

The Bible Says that Jesus Recognized and Prayed to the Only True God.

The Bible says that the disciples did not believe Jesus was God.

The Bible says that Jesus is God's servant, chosen one, and beloved.

The Bible says that Jesus could Not Do Anything of himself.

The Bible says that God performed miracles through Jesus.

The Bible says that Jesus is subordinate to God.

The Bible says that Jesus grew in wisdom and learning.

The Bible says that Jesus had limited knowledge.

The Bible says that Jesus was tempted, but God cannot be tempted.

The Bible says that Jesus' teachings were from God, thus NOT from himself.

The Bible says that Jesus died, but Almighty God cannot die.

The Bible says that Jesus now lives by the power of God.

The Bible says that Jesus called the Father "my God."

The Bible says that God cannot be seen, but Jesus was seen.

And the List goes on ... ... ... and on ... ... ... and on ... ... ... of Scriptural statements which clearly show that the Lord Jesus the Messiah is not Almighty GOD!

WHO IS JESUS FOR DUMMIES By Juan Baixeras

Countdown to the Kingdom of God

Biblical Common Sense – Jesus – Not Equal, Not the Same! By Ron Shockley

(The final installment in Ron Shockley's series about Jesus)

Biblical Common Sense by Ron Shockley

Biblical Common Sense by Ron Shockley

Extracts from Focus on the Kingdom - May, 2011

Jesus Clearly Is Not Almighty God, If Jesus is Almighty God ...

The Trinity Delusion - 3 Articles

The Trinity Delusion - 4 Articles

Our “Lord” is not our “God”

And the List goes on ... ... ...
and on ... ... ...
and on ... ... ...
of Scriptural statements which clearly show that
the Lord Jesus the Messiah is not Almighty GOD!