WHO IS JESUS FOR DUMMIES By Juan Baixeras

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.

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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?

1. A Godman
2. A God
3. 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.

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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."

1. Whom Did God appoint? A MAN.
2. 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.

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God bless you.

Some editing has been done

Countdown to the Kingdom of God

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

 

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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.

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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.