READ AND THINK! - 2

What follows are a couple of succinct articles that 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) Church leaders ought to re-examine God’s true identity

Dear Reader: The scriptures are pretty simple on this matter. They teach that there is ONE true God. For example, at John 17:3 Jesus said:
“…that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

ONLY means ONE.

Therefore, Jesus was saying that God is ONE. Then by using the word AND, Jesus was clearly showing that he was a separate person from his Father, hence: he (Jesus) was NOT the only true God.

Note at John 17:1 that Jesus “lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come…” So Jesus, on earth, was praying to the Father in heaven. To whom was Jesus praying to – himself? Could Jesus have been the Father then? [1] Also, John 20:17 makes it clear that Jesus has a God. There Jesus said to Mary: “I ascend unto my Father … and to my God …” Why would Jesus have a God if he himself was God? Jesus himself NEVER claimed to be God, but said that he was “SON of God.” – John 10:36.

The scriptures consistently teach that Jesus is God’s SON, NOT God; Luke 1:32; John 3:16; Romans 1:3 etc. Consistently too, the Scriptures use the expression, “God the Father” or “God our Father” such as at Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:2, 3; Galatians 1:1, 3; Ephesians 1:2; Philippians 1:2; Colossians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:2; 1 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:2 etc.
However, never once is the expression, “God the Son” used in the Scriptures. Rather, we read the expression, “Son of God.” Eg: at John 20:31; Acts 9:20; Romans 1:4; 2 Corinthians 1:19; 1 John 4:15 and 5:5, 10; Revelation 2:18 etc.
The expression, “Son of God” is completely different in meaning from “God the Son.”

Yes, God and His Son are one in unity, but not one in being the same person; John 10:30.
A number of church leaders (pastors, reverends, etc) are fully aware that Jesus is not God but God’s Son, but they appear to be too fearful to come forward and make the truth of God’s identity known, perhaps fearing that they will lose their positions. I’ve personally spoken with a religious leader who confessed that the Trinity is a man-made doctrine, as well as with others, who said that they know that Jesus is not God.

Christ said that the truth shall set a person free; John 8:32. I am therefore humbly appealing to church leaders to come together and reexamine the matter of God’s identity with an open mind.
Tell the people the truth; that God alone is God, the Father, the Almighty, Most High (Exodus 6:3; Psalm 83:18) and that Jesus is the Son of God. Make yourselves free by making the truth known.

A matter of serious concern.

[1] That rules out the Oneness doctrine which teaches that Jesus is God the Father!

2) Did Jesus ever claim to be God?

Dear Reader: Did Jesus ever claim to be the Almighty God? At John 3:16, Jesus referred to himself as God’s “only begotten son.” Other scriptures where Jesus referred to himself as God’s son include John 5:19, 20, 25, and John 10:36. Jesus’ apostles and disciples knew Jesus as God’s Son, not as God. Jesus even blessed Peter for accurately recognizing who he really is – God’s Son. – Matthew 16:16, 17; John 1:49; 2 Corinthians 1:19; Galatians 2:20; 4:4 etc.

Consistently, the Bible refers to Jesus as “Son of God” or God’s son – never as “God the son.” Why? Because Jesus is not God, but God’s son. No wonder that Jesus said at John 20:17 that the Almighty is his Father and his God. Why would Jesus have a God if he himself is God?

At Mark 13:32, why did Jesus say that he did not know the day nor hour when his coming shall be but only his Father knows? If Jesus is God, would he not have known? If Jesus is God, why did he say at John 14:28 that his Father is greater than him? The fact is: Jesus is the son of God. This is a very important fact to know according to John 17:3.

Let us not be fooled by any twisting of the scriptures to believe in a mysterious three-in-one God, an idea that came from pagan nations such as Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon, whose people worshiped three-in-one false gods.

DID GOD GIVE HIMSELF OR HIS ONLY SON? by GERALD IHLE

DID GOD GIVE HIMSELF OR HIS ONLY SON?

If Jesus is NOT God and Christians go on saying that he is, then something very profound is lost in theology.  To say that God died on the cross is to miss the suffering love the Father had for his tortured Son agonizing on the cross.  ...

I believe the Abraham and Isaac story is in the Bible for a reason.  God wanted to test Abraham to see if his faith was strong enough to obey him even if it meant giving up his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.  The story reveals the anguish of a dedicated father having to choose between his son or God. 
It was a hard choice.  Abraham was not asked to sacrifice himself!  His choice would be harder than self-sacrifice!  God never intended to let Abraham go through with it.  It was a test of love as well as of faith.  At the last moment God provided a ram for sacrifice in place of Abraham’s son.  Abraham was to call that place on Mount Moriah “YAHWEH WILL PROVIDE.”
[YAHWEH-YIREH]

So Abraham called the name of the place “YAHWEH will provide” as it is said to this day,
“On the Mount of YAHWEH it shall be provided” (Gen 22:14)

What God did not require of Abraham, he would fulfill in the same place at a later time in history, to show his love for the world by giving up his beloved Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for the salvation of a sinful world: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world” (1 Jn 4:9).  Rather than God giving up himself to death[1], the heavenly Father gave up his Son to die on the cross.
God required more of himself than he required of Abraham.

[1] Which GOD cannot do seeing that GOD CANNOT DIE!

The above was taken from
DID GOD GIVE HIMSELF OR HIS ONLY SON?

Some editing has been done.

WHY JESUS HAD TO BE A HUMAN by JESSE KNOWLES

WHY JESUS HAD TO BE A HUMAN

Many Trinitarians have a hangup to Unitarianism due to our offering praise to a (mere) man.  They have been told that praise can only be directed to God himself and not to a man He has given authority to.  But I find the Bible is clear as to why the Messiah must be a man and cannot be God himself.

Consider John 3:14 - "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up" (KJV)

Jesus was referring to the Old Testament, when the Israelites were suffering from poisonous snake bites (due to a punishment from disobeying God).  God told Moses to fashion a bronze serpent head and put it on the end of a pole.  He told him to hold it up and whoever looked upon it would not die but live and be saved.  We can see how that directly parallels Christ's Glory on the cross, and that's why he mentioned it.

The takeaway from this is that there isn't any intrinsic divinity within the bronze serpent.  It is that God's authority was in it.  What God had set forth would be accomplished; His future sinless messianic son would be glorified on the cross and whoever looked to Him, would be saved.

If we read Deut 18:14-20 you will find the prophecy given to Moses about Jesus (the coming prophet).  God gave Moses the reason why him being a man is necessary.

For this is what you asked of YAHWEH your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of YAHWEH our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die. YAHWEH said to me: "What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name."

- DEUT 18:16-19

We know this scripture is referring to Christ as Peter quoted it in Acts 3 and Stephen in Acts 7.

Clearly, no one can sit at the feet of God and gaze upon him or hear his voice and live.  He made this clear in Exodus 33:20, "you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live." God has put his authority in His man Messiah, whom man can gaze upon, and we are to listen to everything he tells us and see it as coming directly from God himself.

Notice also in verse 17 how God would raise up the Messiah "from among their fellow Israelites."  This agrees with Genesis 3 that he would be from Eve's seed and a descendant of Abraham and David as Matt 1:1 states.  He would be a son of man, in other words, a human being.

"Though he were a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him."- HEB 5:7,8

When you turn Christ into God, you put him out of our reach and remove all of his humanity.  It's a blessing to know the truth about Christ and see him as our human example.  We as humans are capable of obeying God just as he was.

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

The above was taken from
 WHY JESUS HAD TO BE A HUMAN

Some editing has been done.

Fellow Inheritors of the Kingdom by Wayne Stallsmith

Fellow Inheritors of the Kingdom by Wayne Stallsmith

I picked up Edwin Lutzer’s book, One Minute After You Die, again and started reading in Chapter 3: “The Ascent into Glory.”

His words are so melodious, but they have the taste and odor of pickle juice. What do I mean?

Lutzer is, alas, a fabricator of errant interpretations. Scripture immediately exposes his book title, One Minute After You Die, as fraudulent. Chapters one and two are a disaster of misinterpretation, but now we go to chapter three, and we find Mr. Lutzer continues his fabrications as if he were reading directly from a Plato trilogy!

Let me touch on a few statements in Chapter 3. On page 55, he quotes 1 Corinthians 3:21-23: “all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ to God,” citing death as God’s gift to us. What he does not see is a connection that has been a stumbling block for Trinitarians (among others). The passage reveals a clear subordination of Jesus, the Christ, to God. As the Trinitarian doctrine espouses Jesus to be God, the Trinitarians in this case are not able to explain how God can be subordinate to God. The passage concludes, “you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.”

On page 56 Lutzer again trips up, stating that the pagans could not rid Christians of the gift of death that would escort them into the presence of God. You might want to mail Mr. E.R. Lutzer the extensive list of “death” scriptures that explicitly reveal such is not the case. No one is escorted into the presence of God at death. ... I would remind Lutzer of Paul’s own words: “In this way [by resurrection or catching up to meet Jesus at his coming] we will come to be with Jesus” (1 Thess. 4:13-17).

At the bottom of page 56, our author offers this thought: “Similarly, death is the means by which our bodies are put to rest while our spirits are escorted through the gates of heaven.” Escorted by whom? Give me the Bible reference. “Our spirits are escorted” to heaven at death? [Rather] When a human being dies, the unity of body and soul die together; the body/soul combination is mortal. The Greeks (Plato) taught that the body is useless and death allows the soul to shed the body and take flight to live forever a life of its own. The Greek-trained Gnostic Christians, post-Bible times, recommended that they give the separated soul a destination: the good ones go to heaven (up there), and the bad ones go to the wretched chambers of Hades or to instant Hell-fire. In reality, however, Scripture states that the mortal body/soul, the whole person, rests or sleeps in death (Dan. 12:2) until the resurrection occurs at the return of Jesus at the sound of the 7th trumpet, and not a moment before
(Rev. 11:15-18). This Greek false teaching, espoused now by the majority of Christians, particularly Catholics and Calvinists, is a cleverly designed error that has become over the past thousand years “orthodox theology.”

In this same paragraph of his book, Lutzer refers to our “spirits” being escorted to heaven. But this is easily misunderstood as a conscious immediate life in heaven. Certainly at birth God sends an emission of His spirit to generate life in the child. That spirit of God [i.e. our breath] resides within the individual until he/she dies. The spirit has no form or identity, but God takes it back when life, our life cycle ends. Here’s the proof: “Who knows the spirit of man that goes upward, and the spirit of the beast that goes downward to the earth” (Ecc. 3:21). “The dust shall return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it” (Ecc. 12:7). Meanwhile “the dead know nothing at all…There is no activity in the world of the dead [gravedom, sheol, Hades]” (Ecc. 9:5, 10). The resurrection is the only way out of death (John 11:11, 14)!

The above was taken from
Focus On The Kingdom Vol. 18. No. 12

Some editing has been done.

Does Jesus Use of “I Am” Mean He Is God? by Alane Rozelle

Does Jesus Use of “I Am” Mean He Is God? by Alane Rozelle

In John 9:9, the miraculously healed but formerly blind man said, “I am,” exactly the same two Greek words that Jesus uses when he makes his “I am” statements (as recorded throughout the book of John). First, it’s interesting to note that when the blind man says in Greek “ego eimi,” it is usually and correctly translated as “I am he,” referring, of course, to his attempt to clarify to everyone that, “Yes! I am he; I am the one — the formerly blind man, but now I’m healed.” Yet when Jesus says the same thing precisely in order to identify himself as the Messiah (John 4:26), it’s usually rendered as “I am” or even “I AM” (CEB, ISV, JUB, TLV). This in turn is popularly, but quite erroneously, used to support the falsehood that Jesus was somehow claiming to be God, since in the OT God/Yahweh said to Moses “I am that I am”
(Ex 3.14, literally, “I will be what I will be”).

When Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman he was making the stupendous claim to be the Messiah, the Christ of the woman’s declaration in the verse immediately preceding (4:25). Elsewhere in John, Jesus is recorded as stating that he is the “bread of life” (6:35) and “the resurrection and the life” (11:25). But saying “ego eimi the bread of life” is nothing at all like declaring
“I am what I am/I will be what I will be” as said by God to Moses (Ex. 3:14).

Note that it’s not the “ego eimi” of God’s self-revelation that is the focus for those who say Jesus is God. The real declaratory focus are the subsequent two words — “o ohn” — the Divine identifiers, we might say. In the NIV God says to Moses: “I am [ego eimi] who I am [o ohn].”
“I am the Self-Existing One.” “This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am [o ohn] has sent me to you.’” But the English translations highlight the wrong two words, i.e., instead of ego eimi it should be o ohn: “o ohn [the self-existing one] has sent you.”
(cp. Philo, Life of Moses, vol. 1.75: “He who is”).

The NT writers never record Jesus using “o ohn” in reference to himself, let alone “ego eimi o ohn.” Furthermore, what other words would you have Jesus use in order to identify himself? For example, when you say “I am a teacher” or “I am Bob” or “I am the only one who has the key to that door,” if you were to write them in Greek the same words would be used as self-identifiers: “ego eimi.” There is no simpler and clearer way to identify you! Jesus never said “I AM” or “I am that I am” or “I will be what I will be.” He simply said, “I am the good shepherd; I am the way, the truth and the life; I am the vine”; “I am the Messiah” (John 4:25-26), etc. Like the healed blind man, Jesus was merely identifying himself for those asking or looking for him (cp. John 18:4-8).

Jesus from the beginning claimed to be the promised Messiah. He never claimed to be YHWH, the God of Israel (who is also the God of Jesus!). He never claimed to be “The Great I AM” of the OT. He did, however, repeatedly claim to be the unique Son of God, the Messiah lord (Luke 2.11,
kristos kurios) and this is not the Lord God. Jesus is related to the One Lord God in Luke 2:26 where he is the Lord’s Anointed (Messiah). Luke has brilliantly and precisely introduced the hero and principal “player” of his narrative in the two-volume (Luke and Acts) work he gives us. Luke wrote nearly a third of the NT.

What a blessed achievement! Luke and Jesus never for a moment believed that there are two who are both GOD. That would shatter the great commandment, which forbids any multiplying of God (Mark 12:29; John 17:3; 5:44; Mal. 2:10). Jesus rejected the blasphemy of claiming to be GOD! (John 10:33-36).


The above was taken from
Focus On The Kingdom Vol. 18. No. 12