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.

Biblical Common Sense by Ron Shockley

Biblical Common Sense by Ron Shockley

 

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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.

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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. 

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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