THREE ARTICLES

Here are three excellent articles by three different authors which I came across whilst surfing the Net. I am confident you will find them most edifying!  (Some editing has been performed upon each of the articles) :-

1) Jesus is not the Almighty God

Trinitarian belief is that Jesus is the Almighty God. Throughout scripture God (Yahweh) is called Almighty God. In the book of Job it mentions Yahweh as the Almighty thirty-one times. Nowhere in scripture is Jesus ever called Almighty God.

Almighty means having absolute power; all-powerful; all controlling.El (God) Shaddai (Almighty).
This means that Almighty God does not need to depend on anyone for strength and energy. He is the source of power, [He is] self-sufficient. Thus, other mighty ones get their power, energy, and authority from the Almighty God. It is impossible for an Almighty God to have a God above him, otherwise the title and term is pointless.


Question: If Jesus is Almighty God, why does he have a God above him?
Jesus says in John 20:17,“Don’t hold on to me! I have not yet gone to the Father. But tell my disciples that I am going to the one who is my Father and my God, as well as your Father and your God.”


Question: How is it possible for Jesus to have a Father and God if he is the Almighty God? While Jesus was on the cross he cried out, "My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?"

Questions:

1. If Jesus is the Almighty God who is self-sufficient, as well as all-powerful, why is he crying to another God?
2. Is the Almighty God praying to Himself?

Question: Can the Almighty God die? No!
Jesus was a mortal being and died. He ceased to exist for three days until Almighty God raised him from the dead. Jesus the Messiah is the firstborn from the dead, raised to immortality! By making Jesus the "God man," having a "double nature," the above questions are ignored. Instead, one must indulge to philosophical thinking and explanations. As someone has well stated,"The doctrine of the double nature of Christ, like that of the trinity, is a doctrine of inference. Neither doctrine is declared in any verse, nor can they be expressed in the language of scripture. Scattered verses are assembled in quasi-syllogistic form, inferences are drawn from newly-created contexts, and it is assumed that the Messiah is both a mortal man and the almighty God. I know of no allusion in the Bible to the doctrine of the Two Natures, either with or without modification."
 (The Double Nature of Christ, Snedeker, 1998, pp. 6-70)

The trinitarian belief is full of contradictions when put to test in light of scripture. For example, in Rev. 1:6 we read,
He [Jesus] made us kings and priests unto his God and Father."

Question: If Jesus the Messiah, even after his resurrection, has a God and Father, how is it possible for him to be Almighty God? Trinity doctrine is not based on scripture, but is simply rooted in philosophy. Revelation chapter 3 [verses 2 and 12] ought to put the trinity assumption of the "God-man" doctrine to rest as well. Jesus repeatedly says in that chapter, "the sight of my God," "temple of my God," "name of my God," "city of my God," "from my God." While Jesus was on earth and after his resurrection, he never ceased to call God (Yahweh) his God and Father, thus he cannot be the Almighty God.
In Hebrews 1:9 it says concerning Christ,Therefore God, even your God, has anointed you."

Questions:

1. Who is greater in in authority; the one who anoints or the one being anointed?
2. Is God anointing Himself?
3. Can Almighty God be given anything He doesn't already possess?

Jesus says in Matt. 28:18, All authority hath been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Questions:

1. Who gave Jesus this authority?
2. Does Almighty God who has all authority have to give Himself authority?

In Philippians 2:9 we read,This is why God has highly exalted him [Jesus] the name that is above every other name.

Questions:

1. If Jesus the Messiah is the Almighty God, can he be exalted to a superior position than what he already owns?
2. Can Almighty God be given a name that he doesn't already possess?

This just shows that the Messiah, God's Son, can be exalted by his God (Yahweh), as well as be given a name above every other name by his God (Yahweh).


 

No other God and Savior

In Isaiah it says,You are My witnesses, says YAHWEH; and My servant whom I have elected; that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed; nor shall any be after Me. I, I am YAHWEH; and there is no Savior besides Me. (Isa. 43:10-11) What Yahweh is talking about is that there are no man-made gods that could rival Him or equal His power. The scripture always says Yahweh is the only Savior and God. And we see in scripture that God has used men to be saviors and as God. 

Examples: 

• And when the children of Israel cried unto YAHWEH, YAHWEH raised up a saviour to the children of Israel, who saved them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.(Judges 3:9)
• But when the children of Israel cried unto YAHWEH, YAHWEH raised them up a saviour, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a man left-handed. And the children of Israel sent tribute by him unto Eglon the king of Moab. (Judges 3:15)
• And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people; and it shall come to pass, that he shall be to thee a mouth, and thou shalt be to him as God. (Ex. 4:16)
• And YAHWEH said unto Moses, See, I have made thee as God to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. (Ex. 7:1) 
• Yahweh is King of eternity, but He let Solomon be a King on his throne.
• Then Solomon sat on the throne of YAHWEH as king instead of David his father, and prospered; and all Israel obeyed him. (1 Chron. 29:23)

Though men were saviors to the children of Israel, Almighty God used Jesus, a man, to be the savior of the world (John 4:22; 1 John 4:14; Acts 2:22). Yahweh used men to be Savior, God, and King, but that didn't make them the Almighty God. The same can be said of Jesus in that he is not God, King, Savior, or Lord because of his nature; it is because Yahweh, for the reason of his eternal plan, has given all this to His only Son.

Magistrates are called God because God (Yahweh) has given them authority. 

The Jewish law of agency is expressed in the dictum, a person's agent is regarded as the person himself.  ...

Yahweh is the only true God as Jesus stated in John 17:3, And this is everlasting life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

A point well made is that - "The Father the PRINCIPAL, the Son the AGENT." 

[The PRINCIPAL: The ultimate Savior and God is Yahweh. He is the only Almighty God. 
Jesus His human Son, is YAHWEH's AGENT.]

2) Truly The Son of God

Who is Jesus of Nazareth? When he walked upon this earth over nineteen hundred years ago he asked his disciples: “Whom do men say that I, the Son of man am?” They answered that some declared him to be John the Baptist, while others claimed that he was Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets.  He said to his disciples, “But whom say ye that I am?” (Matt. 16:15). Here we find the correct answer as to whom Jesus is. The man who knows and believes this and can give this answer from the depth of his heart in spirit and in truth is blessed. He has had revelation from heaven through the word of truth. Hear the answer of truth!
“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). 

Unless we come without any strings attached, without any wresting or twisting of these words, and believe them just as they are stated, we cannot know the living God. Neither do we understand His plan of salvation.“Thou art the Christ,” means, “Thou art the Anointed One.” Now those who contend that Jesus was God Himself or the High God; can never believe that Jesus was the Anointed One. Why? Those who advocate that Jesus is God Himself claim there is a triune God and therefore Jesus is equal to and co-existent with God the Father.

In Acts 10:38 we find these words: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.” Let us think honestly and clearly before God. If Jesus were God Himself or [person] of a trinity Godhead, equal and co-existent with two other [persons] in a Godhead of three, it would be impossible for him to be anointed by any one of the other two. That would make one of them greater than he. The Bible clearly states that “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.” If God had not anointed Jesus with the Holy Ghost and with power, could he ever have accomplished anything worthy of mention? How many sins could he have forgiven? How many sick could he have healed? Could he have raised the dead? 

You see, Jesus was not God, but was the Son of God and was dependent upon his Father. (John 5:19-21) Now hear the Word of God. It may change your theology; it may destroy what you have believed for years; but it is the truth.  

• John 5:19 states, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do.” Look closely at this for a moment. If Jesus were God Himself, or even equal with God, then Jesus could do nothing of himself and neither could God. Someone will say that he can do what he sees the Father do. That is true. Jesus can do what he sees his Father do, but if they are equal, God must also see His father act before He is able to do His wonderful acts. God has no father. Even a child prejudiced to the teachings of men can see the error in this line of thought.
• John 5:20 states, “The Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.” Now if Jesus were God Himself, or equal with God, and had been with God from all eternity, would God have to show him the works that He did? Friends, the doctrines of the trinity and of the pre-existence are doctrines of the devils that are to destroy men’s faith in the true God and in Jesus His Son.
• In John 5:26 and 27, we read, “As the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.” Now you either believe this or you deny it. Notice, the Father has life in Himself. God only has immortality, but how did Jesus get life? The Father gave it to him, both natural life through birth, and immortality through a resurrection. If Jesus were God Himself or equal with God, God could not give him life, for he would already have it even as the Father has it . Then again, how did Jesus get his authority to execute judgment? Hear again the Word of God. God gave it to him. Could Jesus be as great as the Father, if the Father is the one who anointed him with power and gave him life and gave him his authority? The only reason Jesus has the authority he now has is because God gave it to him.
• In John 5:30 Jesus repeats again, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” Could Jesus do anything of himself alone? He said he could of his own self do nothing.

Did God ever do anything by Himself? In Isaiah 44:24 it is said of God, “I am YAHWEH that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.” Many say that Jesus helped to create the earth or that he was the Creator, but here the speaker said, “I stretched forth the heavens alone and spread abroad the earth by myself.” Jesus said, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” 

The disciples of Christ knew full well that Jesus was not God, neither any part of a trinity Godhead, but was the Son of God, begotten by the Spirit and power of God according to the Scriptures born of the virgin Mary. Born – really born – not incarnated, but born! [begotten!] 

...

The Scriptures declare that Christ died for our sins. (1 Cor. 15:3) According to the Scriptures, the Son of God, born of a virgin, brought into existence by the power of God, being anointed with life from God, power and authority from God, died for our sins, thus giving his entire life for us. But, thanks be to God, God raised him up from the dead.The world, by accepting the pre-existent theory and the doctrine of the trinity, deny the flesh and bones [human being] that God caused to be born to be our Savior. 

...

Today more people believe and pay tribute to and glorify and pray to a false Christ, who never did die for them, than they that accept a flesh-and-bones [human] Savior who died on a tree for our sins. The false Christ is the pre-existent Christ, the trinity Christ, the Christ that is said to be God Himself. The true Christ is the Son of the living God and the anointed of Him.

In John 6:57 we find, “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father.” Notice that the living Father sent the Son. Could one God be equal with another when one was sent of the other? Notice also Jesus said, “I live by [through] the Father.” Without the Father, Jesus never would have existed and had life. In John 7:16 Jesus said, “My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me.” If Jesus were God Himself or a part of a trinity God, how could he say,
“My doctrine is not mine”? If Jesus were equal to the Father and the doctrine he was giving was not his, does Jesus have a doctrine just as equal and powerful and strong as the doctrine of his Father? And does the Holy Spirit also have another doctrine? Would their doctrines be the same or different? Jesus gave us to know that he had nothing to do with the origin of the doctrines which he spoke. They originated with the Father, and the Son spoke the doctrines of the Father. 

In John 7:28 Jesus said, “Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not.” If Jesus were God Himself, would he not have had to send himself? He said, “I am not come of myself.” Friend, did you or I come of ourselves? We had nothing to do with it. We did not come into existence by our will, for we had no will, no life, no intellect, until we were born. The same is true of Christ. Jesus did not come of himself, but God sent him. If there were three equal Gods, why would one God send another one of the other two to die? If one could send one of the other two to die, would not the one that had power to send be greater? 

When God spoke of Jesus in the Old Testament He said: 

• Deuteronomy 18:18   I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee (Moses), and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.   
• Deuteronomy 18:19   And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. Jesus spoke Gods words that he himself gave to him. 
• 1 Chronicles 22:10   He shall build an house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever. 

...

May God help you to believe in His Son, even as the Ethiopian eunuch, who said,
“I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

• 1 John 4:15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God,
  God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
• 1 John 5:5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
• 1 John 5:10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
• 1 John 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

3) Apostolic Revelation? 

When the Apostolic [that is, the Oneness] movement came into the knowledge of Jesus name baptism we were taught that Matt 28:19 was explained by saying, "The name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost is Jesus." The great teachers of the day, Goss, Rowe, Haywood, and many others who came up believing the trinity now taught the people that there was no trinity, but Jesus only.The oneness movement began and stuck to its guns that Jesus was still God, but not a trinity. He was God robed in flesh. Some came to know better, but most did not.When we take another look, we find that the brethren were right about there being no trinity and that Jesus name baptism was correct, but we need to review what the Apostles preached and come to present day truth. 

We [Apostolics] as a movement now know Jesus is NOT God, but the Son of God as the Apostles preached. 

Oneness is just another form of Trinity. 

Instead of Jesus being the 2nd person of the Trinity, the Oneness brethren have Jesus being the 2nd office or manifestation of God. That is NOT what the Apostles preached. [In fact, neither notion is what the Apostles preached.] 

I suggest you go back and review what the Apostles preached in Acts Chapters 2, 3, 4, 10, 13 and 17. You will see they preached Jesus is that man ordained of God to die, be buried, and whom God raised from the dead, whom God anointed, empowered, glorified and exalted to be the judge of the living and the dead. In the book of Acts we have the Apostles preaching the Gospel with absolute clarity. Hear how they preached:

• Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you Acts 2:22
• This Jesus hath God raised up, Acts 2:32
• God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Acts 2:36
• The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son [Servant] Jesus; Acts 3:13
• Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord (God); And he (God) shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Acts 3:19-20
• By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.Acts 4:10
• How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him Acts 10:38
• Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; Acts 10:40
• Of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus: Acts 13:33
• But God raised him from the dead: Acts 13:40
• God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
  Acts 13:33
• But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. Acts 13:37
• Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: Acts 13:38
• Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. Acts 17:31

Never once did any of the Apostles preach or intimate that Jesus was God, a god or a demigod. They preached Jesus, the man of God's approval. 

But, since then theologians of Christianity have distorted the Gospel once delivered to the saints. But, we who love truth thank God from the heart He has restored the truth of the knowledge of the Son of God to we who by our Lord Jesus do trust in the Living God who raises the dead. Hallelujah. 

When will my Apostolic Oneness brethren wake up?

Kermit Zarley proclaims "Who Jesus Is"

What follows is an assortment of various articles by Kermit Zarley, proclaiming "Who Jesus is!"
Although I don't agree with Kermit Zarley on all his (other) views, nevertheless, his Christology and how he expresses it, is most excellent (I do also recommend his book!) 

[Therefore in presenting these articles, some editing has been done; and inclusion of links to his blog does not necessarily imply my endorsement of Zarley's views as presented on his blog.]

Thomas Said to Christ, “My Lord and My God.” 

He Meant “God’s in Christ,” 

to which We Should Agree

When the risen Jesus appeared to his gathered disciples on the first [Passover] evening, the Apostle Thomas was not present (John 20.19-24). They later told him they had seen Jesus. Thomas then said he would not believe it unless he saw Jesus himself (v. 25).
One week later the risen Jesus appeared again to his gathered disciples, with Thomas present. Jesus spoke to him, and Thomas replied, “My Lord and my God” (John 20.28).
Most Christians have believed that Thomas then called Jesus “God.” And most New Testament (NT) scholars claim it is the strongest biblical evidence that Jesus is God.
On the contrary, no other NT character calls Jesus “God,” which would depart from Jewish monotheism. Plus, John records two occasions when Jesus’ antagonists accused him of making himself out to be God, which he then denied (John 5.18-47; 10.30-37).

Christians as well as historical-critical scholars have exceedingly misunderstood Thomas’ words “my God.” Their interpretation that Thomas here calls Jesus “my God” ignores this gospel’s context, which unlocks the meaning of Thomas’ confession.

For instance, John records that the risen Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene a week prior to this Thomas incident. He told her, “go to my brethren, and say to them, ‘I ascend to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God’” (John 20.17). So, the risen Jesus called the Father “My God.” But, how can Jesus be God if he has a God? Indeed, John would not have meant that Thomas called Jesus “my God” when this author had just recorded that Jesus called the Father “My God.”

Then, one verse after Thomas’ confession John concludes his gospel by writing, “Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed … but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20.30-31).
This statement would be anti-climactic following Thomas’ confession if he therein called Jesus “my God.” And calling Jesus “the Son of God” does not mean he is God.

The key to understanding Thomas’ confession “my God” is in the conversation John records that Jesus had with the apostles Thomas and Philip at the Last Supper, only ten days prior. Jesus told them he would soon go to “my Father’s house” (John 14.2), referring to his heavenly ascension which will soon follow his impending death and resurrection. Then John adds,
4 “And you know the way where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, how do we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own initiative; but the Father abiding in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.”

Jesus’ words, “the Father is in me,” must have left a strong impression on Thomas. Indeed, they are the key to correctly understand what doubting Thomas later meant when he said to Jesus, “my God.” That is, Thomas acknowledged what Jesus had taught ten days prior, that God the Father is in Jesus.

Jesus had taught the same thing many days earlier. He had said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10.30). His Jewish opponents misunderstood him and were about to stone him. They accused him of “blasphemy,” saying, “You, being a man, make yourself out to be God” (v. 33).
Jesus implicitly denied this and explained the oneness as “the Father is in Me, and I in the Father” (v. 38).
Scholars call this the Mutual Indwelling.

Some ill-taught Christians get confused about Jesus’ words in John 14.9—“He who has seen me has seen the Father.” They think he therein claimed to be the Father. In the third century, Sabellius taught that Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit were one person, and the Church rightly declared it heretical. Jesus and NT writers constantly distinguished the Father and Jesus as two separate individuals.
The Johannine Jesus taught similarly on other occasions. Once, when he attended a feast at Jerusalem, “Jesus cried out and said, ‘He who believes in me does not believe in me, but in Him who sent me. And he who beholds me beholds the One who sent me’” (John 12.44-45). Again, Jesus was talking about
God the Father. In fact, the Father sending the Son is the most prominent theme in the Gospel of John, occurring 40 times.

This indwelling of God in Christ, and God sending Christ, reflects the concept of agency.
In antiquity, especially in the business world and among Jews, a principal would select someone to represent him as his agent. It was common knowledge that a man’s son usually proved to be the best candidate as his agent. So, with the son as agent, dealing with a man’s son was akin to dealing with the man himself, as if the father was in his son.
The Johannine Jesus taught this concept of agency in various ways concerning himself and God his Father. Jesus often said the Father had given him his words and deeds (John 12.49; 14.10, 24; 17.8). And he said of the Father, “My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me. If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from myself” (7.16-17). Notice he distinguishes himself from God. Another time Jesus said, “I have come in my Father’s name,” and he then called the Father “the one and only God” (5.43-44). This is similar to what the Johannine Jesus later prayed to the Father, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (17.3).

To rightly understand Jesus in the Gospel of John, Agent Christology can hardly be over-emphasized. It is the corrective to misinterpreting several Johannine texts in which Jesus is wrongly identified as God, claiming to be God, or God becoming a man.
Moreover, in John’s gospel Agent Christology, also called Sending Christology, is the primary focus of saving faith for believers (John 16.27-30; 17.8). As God’s supreme agent, the Johannine Jesus functioned as God without actually being God.

In my book, The Restitution of Jesus Christ (2008), I devote 17 pages to explaining Thomas’ words
“my God” in John 20.28 and cite 38 scholars. In using John 14.9, 11 as key to understanding Thomas, I regard this as the pinnacle of my research in this book.
It is a God-in-Christ interpretation of Thomas’ words “my God” in contrast to the traditional Christ-is-God interpretation of them.
(Buy this book at servetustheevangelical.com. See our website christiansforonegod.com.)

The above article was taken from:

Thomas Said to Christ, “My Lord and My God.” He Meant “God’s in Christ”

Is Jesus God Because He Is Lord?

During antiquity, calling a man “Lord” usually was intended as no more than a polite address. On the other hand, kings were often addressed as “Lord” to signify their vested authority. Among Jews, rabbis could be called “Lord” to indicate both.
The early Jewish Christians’ primary creedal statement was that “Jesus is Lord.” The Apostle Peter preached about it in his first sermon on the day of Pentecost following the Christ event. He proclaimed of Jesus, “let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2.36).
And the Apostle Paul wrote, “no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12.3).

Jesus had approved of his disciples calling him “Lord.” Right before partaking of the Last Supper, Peter called Jesus “Lord” (John 13.9). Jesus soon affirmed this designation by saying, “You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am” (v. 13). Jesus seems to have used these two titles interchangeably. Calling Jesus “Lord” therefore meant that he was the sole teacher of his disciples.
The synoptic gospels reveal that their writers viewed these and other similar terms interchangeably, and therefore synonymously, when applied to Jesus. For example, when Jesus and his disciples were crossing Lake Galilee in a boat and a storm threatened to swamp them, they awoke Jesus by crying out for help. Matthew says they addressed him as “Lord” (8.25); Mark records it was “Teacher” (4.38); Luke reports they said “Master” (8.24). And at Jesus’ transfiguration, Matthew says Peter addressed Jesus as “Lord” (17.4); Mark records it was “Rabbi” (9.5); Luke reports he said “Master” (9.33).

No writer of the New Testament (NT) reflects this brief confession that Jesus is Lord more than does Paul. In his ten epistles, he applies the word “Lord” to Jesus nearly 230 times, whereas he calls him “the Son (of God)” only 17 times.
The Lordship of Jesus Christ is without a doubt the dominant theme in Pauline Christology.

………………………………………

For him, God is “the Father” and Jesus is “the Lord.” For example, Paul writes that
“there is but one God, the Father,… and one Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 8.6).

Paul, as with many other early Christians, sometimes proclaims Jesus’ Lordship in his evangelistic messages. For instance, when the fear-stricken Philippian jailer asked the imprisoned apostles Paul and Silas,
“‘Sirs [1], what must I do to be saved?’ They said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved’” (Acts 16.31). And Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome, “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10.9).

But what did Paul and these other early Jewish Christians mean by their proclamation that Jesus is Lord? They meant no more than that Jesus ought to be obeyed regarding his instruction in righteousness. Only if we obey to some extent Jesus’ teachings as a lifestyle can we truthfully say that he is the Lord of our lives.
Many traditionalists (those who believe Jesus is God) contend otherwise. They allege that the NT designation of Jesus as Lord goes farther. They say it indicates that he is God due to the practice of the Septuagint—the third century BCE Greek translation of the Old Testament which scholars designate as LXX. It uses the Greek word kurios to translate the Hebrew word “YHWH” (Yahweh), which is God’s name (see Exodus 3.13-16). YHWH occurs 6,519 times in the Hebrew Bible. ...

But authorities now agree that first century CE copies of the LXX did not substitute words for God’s name. In 1978, George Howard explained, “Recent discoveries in Egypt and the Judean desert show that in the pre-Christian Greek Bible the tetragrammaton was never represented by the surrogate kurios and in addition was usually left untranslated. It was reproduced in archaic-Hebrew or square Aramaic letters or in the transliterated form of IAW…. The practice of surrogating the divine name in writing with kurios, as we find it in the Christian copies of the Septuagint, is a Christian innovation that in no way reflects the appearance of the Bible which the NT writers used…. the early church was accustomed to seeing the Hebrew word יהוה written in their Greek OT, not the surrogate kurios.”

In fact, Jewish copies of the LXX consistently replace kurios with YHWH!
Moreover, Paul does not provide any evidence in his letters that his application of kurios to Jesus is a substitute for YHWH, as if declaring Jesus is Yahweh. James Dunn says of “Lord” in Paul’s letters, “kyrios is not so much a way of identifying Jesus with God, but if anything more a way of distinguishing Jesus from God.”

Paul, in one of his letters, quotes a hymn which some traditionalists have cited as major support for their belief that Jesus is God. It says of Jesus, “God highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow,… and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2.9-11; cf. Isaiah 45.23). These traditionalists claim that the first occurrence of “name” refers to “Lord” (kurios) and that it therefore indirectly identifies Jesus as God due to the Septuagint practice mentioned above.

Citing a translation practice to prove a theological interpretation of the Bible is a dubious practice. Moreover, “Lord” is a title, not a name. Neither is “Lord” God’s name.
Rather, YHWH is God’s name. And Paul’s hymn likely means “the name” bestowed on Jesus is the name “Jesus.”
In sum, the NT accounts of the early Christians calling Jesus “Lord” indicate no more than their recognition of his God-given authority to rule and their voluntary submission to be ruled by him. And Paul, the premiere proponent of Lordship Christology in the NT, provides no evidence that he equates the words “Lord” and “God.”

The above article was taken from:
Is Jesus God Because He Is Lord?
[1] Incidentally, the word 'Sirs' in Acts 16:30 is the Greek word 'kurios' i.e. lord.
So the jailer analogously said, lords, what must I do to be saved? He referred to Paul and Silas as 'kurios' -- lord!

What Must Christians Believe?

Christians sometimes do not agree on what constitutes a genuine Christian. Yet most agree that a person must believe in Jesus. But what does it mean to believe in Jesus? On matters of faith, Christians should appeal to the Bible.

Jesus was a Jew. Jews believed that their God promised to send a king to deliver them from Gentile oppression, gather all Diaspora Jews to their ancestral land, and make Israel the chief of all nations in a worldwide government of peace. They identified this promised king as “the Messiah.” 

Messiah translates mashiach in the Hebrew Scriptures, meaning “the anointed (one).” Thus, God would anoint this king with his (Holy) Spirit. Christians claim, and the New Testament (NT) affirms, that to be a Christian a person must believe that Jesus is Israel’s promised Messiah. “Christ” is the English word for Messiah. The early Jewish believers in Jesus called him “Jesus the Christ.” They soon dropped the definite article to form a new name for him—Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus. By calling him the Christ, they soon came to be called “Christians” (Acts 11.26). This label signifies, first and foremost, that these early believers in Jesus regarded him as the Christ.

Luke relates in his book of Acts about the evangelistic activities of these early Jewish Christians and the content of their message. He says as soon as the Apostle Paul was dramatically converted from being an enemy of Christians to becoming one of them, he traveled about “proving that this Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 9.22). It was his fundamental message. For, Luke later informs that Paul was “solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ” (Acts 18.5 NASB). Luke adds that Paul “powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ” (v. 28).

Christians also insist that to be a Christian one must believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Indeed, the core message of the NT gospels is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God
(Matthew 1.1, 16; Mark 1.1; Luke 1.32, 35; 2.11; John 20.31). Luke says Paul “began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying ‘He is the Son of God’” (Acts 9.20).

But what does it mean that Jesus is the Son of God? Most Christians have understood it to mean that Jesus is God. They have believed that he preexisted as the eternal Logos-Son and came down from heaven to earth to become a man, called “the incarnation.”
Christians have believed this because church fathers erred by interpreting the status of Jesus as the Son of God according to Greek metaphysics. They reasoned that just as a man procreates a son to become a man, so God generated a Son who must be God.
Consequently, the Nicene Creed of CE 325 declares that Jesus is “very God of very God,” also called “the deity of Christ.” And this creed pronounces anathemas (curses) on those who deny this declaration. Popular American Presbyterian Reformed theologian R.C. Sproul asserts, “A denial of Christ’s deity is the essence of unbelief.”

No way! Gabriel announced to the virgin Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy child shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1.35). So, Jesus is the Son of God because God supernaturally accomplished his conception, which does not make him a deity.

Christians rightly proclaim that a person must believe Jesus arose from the dead to be a Christian. The Apostle Peter made Jesus’ resurrection the centerpiece of his evangelistic preaching (Acts 2.24, 32; 3.15; 4.10). And the Apostle Paul says Jesus’ resurrection testifies to his being the Son of God (Romans 1.4). Paul defines the Christian gospel, saying that “Christ died for our sins,…was buried, and that he was raised on the third day” from the dead (1 Corinthians 15.3-4). Paul says these are of “first importance,” meaning it is necessary to believe this to be a genuine Christian. If believing Jesus is God is of first importance, why didn’t Paul include it?
Paul never says Jesus is God.

Most Christians also rightly claim that we must believe Jesus is Lord in order to be saved. Paul wrote, “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved” (Romans 10.9). Indeed, “Jesus is Lord” was the first Christian creed (1 Corinthians 12.3). It means people are real Christians if they let Jesus become Lord of their lives by living to some extent a lifestyle in obedience to him. He had said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7.21).

Christians also rightly claim that people must believe in Jesus as their Savior to be a true Christian. That is, we must believe, as Paul states above, that Jesus died on the cross bearing our sins as a sacrificial atonement. Then God will forgive us, cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and make us a member of his family. An angel announced this at Jesus’ birth, “today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2.11).

Jesus being the Savior is implied in his name. The Gospel of John says of him, “But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name” (John 1.12).

What does the name Jesus mean?
Jesus and Israeli Jews in his time spoke Aramaic as their native language. The name Jesus translates the Aramaic Yeshua or Yeshu. Ye is the shortened form of God’s name, which is YHWH, which can be rendered Yahweh or Yehvah. Shu(a) means “to save” or “salvation.” So, Yeshua means:
“Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh is salvation.” It means that Yahweh saves through Jesus.

An angel implied this when he said to Joseph in a dream that Mary, his soon-to-be wife, “will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1.21).

………………………………………

In sum, the NT proclaims that to be saved, and thus be a real Christian, we must believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, that he is Savior by dying for our sins, that he arose from the dead, and we must allow him to be Lord of our lives. But the NT never says we must believe that Jesus is God in order to be a genuine Christian.

The above article was taken from:
What Must Christians Believe?

As a Sinless Man Christ Made Him a Name, 

But God Become Man Detracts from his Fame

I believe the Christian story is far greater if Jesus was no more than a man and therefore not God. And I believe that is what the Bible teaches. Many of my Christian brethren (I know–most of them don’t think I’m their brother in Christ because that’s what they have been taught), besides objecting to my assertion that Jesus was and is not God, they are offended that I say Jesus was a ... man. I don’t mean by this to be disrespectful of my Lord and Savior, Jesus. Heaven forbid!

Jesus’ virgin birth and sinless are extremely important to my Christology. The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus had to be sinless in order for him to become the Passover lamb who died for his people on the cross as our Savior from sin. His being without sin thereby fulfilled God’s requirement that the sacrificial lamb be without spot and blemish. And I believe Jesus’ virgin birth is indicated in his favorite title he used for himself, which I believe he drew solely from “one like a son of man” depicted in Daniel 7.13-14.
(I think the “one like” [Aramaic ke] indicates his virgin birth.)

Apparently, it’s easy for God to be sinless. For the Bible says, “God cannot be tempted by evil” (James 1.13). Guess who wrote that? Jesus’ brother James. Yet, all three Synoptists tells us that right after John baptized Jesus, the holy spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where he fasted for forty days and the devil tempted him with three huge temptations (Matt. 4.1-11; Mark 1.12-13; Luke 4.1-13). And Jesus emerged victorious over them and all subsequent temptations. The author of Hebrews says Jesus was “without sin” because he “learned obedience through what he suffered,” thus “having been made perfect,” and he “was heard because of his reverent submission” to God (Hebrews 4.15; 5.7-9; 7.28 NRSV). Paul says he “knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5.21). And Peter quotes Isaiah saying, “he committed no sin” (1 Peter 2.22; Isaiah 53.9 LXX). Does all of that sound like someone who is both fully man and fully God, which the Bible nowhere proclaims? I don’t think so. And how could Jesus have been made perfect if he was God, since God is always perfect?

Dutch theologian Ellen Flesseman-Van Leer writes in her little book, A Faith for Today (ET 1980), that Jesus’ “complete obedience was not superhuman” (p. 67). She adds, “He was not only fully man, but also man as God intended him.” She means God made man, intending him to be what Jesus became.

Some Christian scholars question that if Jesus was both man and God, he could not have been fully man. One reason is his temptations could not have been real since God cannot be tempted.

It wasn’t easy for Jesus to emerge victorious over all sin and become our Savior. That’s why God rewarded him mightily and will do so even more in the future. Furthermore, the Bible predicts that all those who cast their lot with Jesus–and thereby conquer sin in their own lives to some extent by making him Lord (cf. Revelation 2-3)–will participate in his great reward. Paul quotes a hymn that says since Jesus so “humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death … Therefore God also highly exalted him” (Philippians 2.8-9; cf. Isaiah 52.13). The writer of Hebrews exhorts us to be “looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12.2). And John ... quotes the risen Jesus as saying to the church of Laodicea, “To the one who overcomes I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne” (Revelation 3.21 NIV).

Scripture is clear: God exalted Jesus because Jesus did God’s will by overcoming.
That is what makes the Christian story so absolutely fantastic! It’s because Jesus was a man like us, except for his virgin birth and sinlessness, and he overcame. But if he was God, how can he truly be rewarded? God can’t be rewarded! This story about Jesus overcoming temptation and sin, dying on the cross for us, and being rewarded so magnificently for it makes absolutely no sense to me if he was God! (Yet that is what I believed for 22 years, but mostly because my church taught it to me.)
So, I think the post-apostolic church dogma that Jesus is God to some extent ruins the Christian story. How so? It inhibits our appreciation for the awesome task Jesus accomplished for us in overcoming sin in order to become our Savior.

The above article was taken from:
As a Sinless Man Christ Made Him a Name, But God Become Man Detracts from his Fame

Some editing has been done on each of the above articles.

Therefore, Zarley concludes by saying “So, I think the post-apostolic church dogma that Jesus is God to some extent ruins the Christian story. How so? It inhibits our appreciation for the awesome task Jesus accomplished for us in overcoming sin in order to become our Savior.”

To which I say a hearty ...  Amen!

15 Scriptural Reasons for the Biblical Unitarian Position by Kegan A. Chandler

15 Scriptural Reasons for the Biblical Unitarian Position

by Kegan A. Chandler

1) Scripture Always says
God is One, Never says God is Three or Three-In-One


Jesus says the greatest commandment is to understand that God is one and to love Him.
Nowhere does any Scripture attest that God is three.

HEBREW TESTIMONY
Deuteronomy 4:35
YHWH, He is God; there is no other besides Him.

Deuteronomy 32:39
See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me.

Deuteronomy 6:4
Hear, O’ Israel,YHWH is our God, YHWH is one.

Isaiah 46:9
I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me.

Nehemiah 9:6
You alone are YHWH…
Malachi 2:10
Do we not all have one Father? Has not one God created us?

JESUS’ TESTIMONY

Mark 12:29
And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, "Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord."

John 5:44
"…you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God."

APOSTOLIC TESTIMONY

Romans 3:30
… Since indeed God is one.

1 Corinthians 8:6
…for us there is but one God, the Father.

Galatians 3:20
Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one.

James 2:19
You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder



2) Jesus Says The Father is the Only One Who is Truly God

We are instructed to believe in two distinct individuals, one of which is God, the other is not.

JESUS’ TESTIMONY

John 17:1-3
Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, "Father… This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."

John 14:1
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; Believe also in me."

John 8:17-18
"I am one witness, and my Father who sent me is the other."

APOSTOLIC TESTIMONY

1 Corinthians 8:6
Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

1 Timothy 2:5
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

3) Jesus Has a God


How can Jesus be God and have a God?

JESUS’ TESTIMONY

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.'"

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; and I will also write on him my new name.

Mark 15:34
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"


 
APOSTOLIC TESTIMONY

Ephesians 1:3
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Ephesians 1:17
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

Romans 15:6
…so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:3
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

2 Corinthians 1:3
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort…

4) God is Not a Man – Jesus is a Man


If God tells us plainly that He is not a man, how can we say there is a man who is God?

WHO GOD IS NOT:

Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
Hosea 11:9
I will not execute My fierce anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, And I will not come in wrath.

1 Samuel 15:29
Also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind.

Job 9:32
"For He is not a man as I am that I may answer Him, that we may go to court together."

WHO JESUS IS:

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

Acts 17:31

For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.

1 Timothy 2:5
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

Romans 5:15
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man (Adam) how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!

5) Jesus Prayed to God


Why would Jesus pray to God if he is God? If Jesus was praying to himself, or another part of himself, then it was just a game and not real, desperate supplication to a higher power. The Bible says Jesus prayed to "God" not just to "the Father".

Luke 6:12
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.

Hebrews 5:7
In the days of his flesh, he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his piety.

Mark 1:35
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

Matthew 11:25-26
At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth"

Matthew 14:23
After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.

Luke 22:32
But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.

John 12:27
"Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!"

6) God Cannot Be Tempted, But Jesus Was Tempted in Every Way As We Are


The Bible clearly tells us that Jesus was tempted and had to be tempted in every way. If Jesus is God, and since God cannot be tempted, then Jesus was not really tempted and it was all a farce. To be tempted means there is the possibility that evil may be chosen, which is impossible for anyone that is supposedly 100% God Almighty.

GOD CANNOT BE TEMPTED IN ANY WAY

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

JESUS WAS TEMPTED IN EVERY WAY

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."

Luke 4:2
… for forty days, being tempted by the devil.

7) God Cannot Die, Jesus Died


God alone has inherent immortality. If God died, the universe would collapse.
The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus died. It does not say that only a part of Jesus died.

GOD IS IMMORTAL

Romans 1:23
"and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles." -- Romans 1:23

1 Timothy 6:16
"God, who alone possesses immortality…"

JESUS DIED

Mark 15:44-45
Pilate wondered if he was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether he was already dead. And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.

1 Corinthians 15:3
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance; that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.


8) Jesus is Subordinate to God

The Trinity says that the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit
are co-equal.
The Bible says Jesus is not equal with God, rather it says that God is Jesus’ boss

John 14:28
… The Father is greater than I.

1 Corinthians 11:3
But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.


9) Jesus Does Not Do His Own Will


If Jesus is God, how can Jesus not seek his own will, and yet be always seeking his own will?

Luke 22:42
… not my will but Yours be done.

John 5:30
… I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.

10) Jesus Does Not Have Inherent Power or Authority


If Jesus is God Almighty, how is it that he so often claims to have no power, no authority, no initiative? How is it that the Apostles even claim Jesus was not the origin of Christ’s power and works

JESUS’ TESTIMONY


John 8:28
"I do nothing of my own initiative."

John 5:30
"By myself I can do nothing…"

John 5:27
"and He gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man."

John 14:10
"…the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works."

APOSTOLIC TESTIMONY

Acts 2:22
"Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know--

Acts 17:31
For He (God) has set a day when He (God) will judge the world with justice through the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead."

Romans 10:9, Acts 13:30, 2:24, 10:40, etc.
But God raised him from the dead…


11) Everything Had to be Subjected


If Jesus is God from all eternity, how could it be that there was a time when things were not subjected to him? The New Testament says that there was a time when Jesus was subjected beneath the angels and did not have authority over all. This could never be of someone whom the Trinitarians claim never experienced a single moment where he was not fully God Almighty. God can never be put beneath His creations. Furthermore we see that it was not Jesus who subjected the world to himself, rather it was God that did it for him.

Ephesians 1:22
And He (God) put all things in subjection under his (Jesus) feet, and gave him (Jesus) as head over all things to the church, which is his body.

1 Corinthians 15:27
For "God has put all things in subjection under his feet." But when it says, "all things are put in subjection," it is plain that He (God) is excepted who put all things in subjection under him.

Psalm 110:1
YHWH says to my lord: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."

Hebrews 2:9
but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

12) Jesus Was Given a Name Higher Than the One He Had


The Bible says Jesus was given a name above every name because of his obedience. This obviously means that beforehand his name was not above every name. He had to die so that he could become the Lord of all creation, meaning he wasn’t beforehand.

Phillipians 2:8-11
… He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason God also highly exalted him, and bestowed on him a name which is above every name, That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Hebrews 1:4
So he has become as much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they.

Romans 14:9
For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

13) Jesus Hands the Kingdom Over to God


If Jesus is God come to rule the world in the Kingdom, why would he hand the Kingdom over to God in a final act of submission so that "God" may rule over everything including Jesus?

1 Corinthians 15:24-28
then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For "He has put all things in subjection under his feet". But when he says, "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that he is excepted who put all things in subjection to him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all.

14) Jesus, the Second Adam


The New Testament constantly refers to Jesus as the Second, or the Last Adam, saying that Adam was a prototype of the Messiah. The Biblical Unitarian position clearly and perfectly explains this comparison: Jesus was ontologically exactly like Adam, who was the first human son of God. Adam was the human son of God who failed, Jesus is the one who is victorious. God’s solution to the problem of sin and death: another Adam, God’s only legal option according to Romans 5:12-19.
The Christian story is essentially the tale of two Adams, one who disobeys and loses the Kingdom, the other who obeys and reclaims the Kingdom.

Luke 3:38
…who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the son of God.

Romans 5:14
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 15:21 and 22 (NRSV)
For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being. For as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.

15) Jesus, Exactly Like His Brothers


The Bible says that Jesus is like me in every way, and actually had to be in order to atone for my sins. But if Jesus has two natures, two wills, or anything of the sort, then he is not like us in every way. Furthermore, God doesn’t have brothers or fellows, so how is it that the Bible says Jesus has these things?

Hebrews 2:17
Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Romans 8:29
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

Psalm 45:7
Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.



This article was taken from a set of Articles to be found at the Kingdom and Glory Fellowship

"You Must Believe that I Am He" by Kegan A. Chandler

"You Must Believe that I Am He"

by Kegan A. Chandler

Matthew 16:13-20 (NASB) --

¹³Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking his disciples, ¹⁴ And they said, say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.¹⁵ He said to them, ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, the Christ, the Son of the living God.¹⁷ And Jesus said to him, Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.²⁰ Then he warned the disciples that they should tell no one that he was the Christ.

 
All Christians are asked this question by Jesus:
Who do you say that I am?

Like Jesus’ disciples reported, there are many people who have many different views about Jesus. As C.S. Lewis, MacDowell, and other popular Trinitarians have rightly claimed, it is impossible to simply accept Jesus as a “good and moral teacher” because to do that one would have to accept that his teachings were good, including his teachings about himself and his claims to be extraordinary. However, Lewis and MacDowell famously put forth this unfortunate argument to people when they are considering Jesus: He must be either God, a Liar, or a Lunatic. They claim that these are our only options when trying to understand Jesus: He was either God, a liar who claimed he was God when he knew he was not, or a lunatic who thought he was God when he really wasn’t. However, this is an extremely shallow and fallacious argument. They are excluding the other possibility regarding Jesus’ identity, silencing Jesus and His Apostles! Jesus is neither God, a liar, or a lunatic.

Rather, Jesus is exactly who he says he is: the Christ.

It is the sad reality that the majority of Christendom has been taught that they must believe that Jesus is God to be saved. This mandate carries absolutely no Scriptural authority, but what it does carry is 500 years of Orthodox debate behind it. It would not be until the formation of the Athanasian Creed circa 400-500AD that Christianity at large would begin to profess the belief in Jesus as God as the only way to salvation. But did Jesus ever claim this? What about his disciples?

I recently purchased a copy of the New Inductive Study Bible (Updated NASB) from Harvest House Publishers. While a wonderful Bible and certainly the most literal of the mainstream translations, I found some curious statements in this edition’s preface to the Gospel of John. Upon reading it, I realized just how deeply the Trinitarian teaching that one must believe Jesus is God to be saved had consumed Christianity:



"God in the flesh! What would He be like? What would He do? [ . . . ] And how would people know He was God?
[ . . . ] What about those who refused to believe He was God?"
As I read this I thought to myself, "Indeed, how would people know that Jesus was God? Maybe Jesus should tell them! It’s a shame that he never did." And what about those who refuse to believe in the Trinity even though Jesus never explained it to them? The opinion of the Trinitarian remains to be seen. Let us read on:
"God in the flesh. The incarnation would be hard for some to believe, but their belief or unbelief would be a matter of life or death"
Apparently, your life depends on a belief in Jesus as God incarnate. But if this is the essential truth, if holding this belief is the only way to salvation, why do neither Jesus nor his disciples talk about it? If we believe that acceptance of the Trinity is absolutely necessary for escaping damnation, then we must also believe that though Jesus had countless opportunities to tell us how to be saved, he felt he had more important things to talk about. Throughout the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we do not receive an explanation from Jesus that he is God, much less the impression that God is three distinct, co-equal, co-eternal persons. Neither does he tell us about any of the necessary components of the Trinity; his dual natures, his two wills, etc.

In Harvest Houses’ preface to John, we find this proposition in the section entitled "Things to Think About":
" 1. Do you believe that Jesus is God and live accordingly? And what if you don’t? (John 8:24) "
They reference John 8:24 to show us what will happen to us if we don’t believe that Jesus is God. So by all means, let us go there and find out!
"Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." -- John 8:24 (NASB)
What does Jesus say here? Be careful not to put words in his mouth. Jesus says unless we believe that he is someone, we will die. In this statement, he does not tell us who that someone is, therefore the burning question still remains:
Who is he?! Jesus, in this particular verse, has not answered any questions about who he is, he has simply said that you must believe that he is. In the very next verse, the people will even ask him: "Who are you?" Clearly, nothing was explained in verse 24, because the people are still asking the question in verse 25! But the Trinitarian proudly leaves this solitary verse on the table as if it were the ultimate doubt-crushing proof about Jesus’ divinity. In keeping with the Trinitarian tradition, this verse has been wantonly extracted away from the rest of the passage which gives it life. John 8:24 has been cut off from it’s life-support and left dangling in the open air like a deflated balloon; incredibly useless on it’s own and miserably abused to "support" whatever cause the extractor desires.

We cannot neglect the rest of the passage for therein lies the answer to the question of who we have to believe that Jesus is. Harvest House has either disingenuously not referenced the following text or they have ignorantly missed it, like most Christians. This is the unhappy effect that our modern translations (with their verse and chapter divisions) can achieve when coupled with a teacher willing enough to recklessly isolate statements to gain the upper hand in doctrinal debates. Let us read John 8:24-28:
"Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. So they were saying to him, "Who are You?" Jesus said to them, "What have I been saying to you from the beginning? I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but he who sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these I speak to the world." They did not realize he had been speaking about the Father. So Jesus said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught me."
-- John 8:24-28 (NASB)
Who is Jesus? The Son of Man. Son of Man is the title of the Messiah. So what exactly does Jesus say we must believe about him in order to be saved? Did he say we have to believe he is God in the flesh? A Trinity of co-equal persons? No. We must believe that Jesus is the Messiah or we will die in our sins. This is the truth! Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God just as Peter confessed at Caesarea Philippi:
"He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."" – Matthew 16:15-16
This is exactly what the Bible says we must believe about Jesus. This is what the disciples believe, because it is what was affirmed to them by Jesus. This is what Jesus claims because it is the truth. Why should we not, as Christians, cling to the claims of the Bible regarding how to be saved?
"Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him." -- 1 John 5:1
"Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God."
—1 John 4:15
"do you say of him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because
I said, 'I am the Son of God '?" – John 10:36
"Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said,
"Truly this was the Son of God!"—Matthew 27:54
"Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"
– 1 John 5:5
None of these verses concerning Jesus’ claims about himself and about what people need to believe about him to be saved contains anything related to Jesus being God, or anything related to the Trinity. Instead, they contain the simple message: in order to be saved you must believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

Belief in the Trinity as necessary for salvation is expressly absent from the teachings found in the chronicles of the Early Church. Peter, when preaching to the thousands of Jews gathered on the Day of Pentecost, told them exactly what they needed to do to be saved. This is the birthday of the Church—the beginning of the Jesus movement amongst the people of Israel. One would think that if the Trinity were necessary to receive salvation, Peter would tell them about it. Here is the Church’s inaugural sermon, void of the Trinity, which men believed and were saved:
"Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know-- this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. "But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. "For David says of him, 'I SAW THE LORD ALWAYS IN MY PRESENCE; FOR HE IS AT MY RIGHT HAND, SO THAT I WILL NOT BE SHAKEN. 'THEREFORE MY HEART WAS GLAD AND MY TONGUE EXULTED; MOREOVER MY FLESH ALSO WILL LIVE IN HOPE; BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO HADES, NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY. 'YOU HAVE MADE KNOWN TO ME THE WAYS OF LIFE; YOU WILL MAKE ME FULL OF GLADNESS WITH YOUR PRESENCE.' "Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. "And so, because he was a prophet and knew that GOD HAD SWORN TO HIM WITH AN OATH TO SEAT one OF HIS DESCENDANTS ON HIS THRONE, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY. "This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. "Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. "For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: 'THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, "SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET."' "Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ-- this Jesus whom you crucified." Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. "For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself." And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!" So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. [ . . . ] praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
-- Acts 22-41, 47
This is the debut message of the Church of Jesus Christ. This would have been the perfect opportunity for Peter to tell the people how to be saved through belief in the Trinity. If we adhere to the profession of the Athanasian Creed, that if you don’t believe in the Trinity you are damned, then we also should say that no one in the Early Church was saved. What’s worse, they apparently thought they were saved, but they really weren’t! It says that three thousand people were saved on that day through the content of this message, and many more were saved daily… what a tragedy that Peter was such an inept Apostle that he failed to communicate the most essential truth of Christianity: that Jesus was God incarnate and that there was another person called the Holy Spirit that was God too. Too bad for these poor Christians, their salvation was fraudulent and thank goodness for us that we had those philosophers in Alexandria to guide us to true salvation! What a farce.


This article was taken from a set of Articles to be found at the Kingdom and Glory Fellowship