Tag: Trinity

Together in Love

John 14

April 11

Still gathered around the table in the upper room—the same table where the last Passover meal was shared—Jesus gives his disciples a series of encouraging remarks. One such remark has left many Biblical Unitarians scratching their heads:  

“Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14:11a). 

What does he mean… in? Jesus in the Father? And the Father in Jesus? 

I teach English to sixth graders for a living, so I’m well aware of how tricky prepositions can be. In, the supposedly simple, two-letter word, has 18 different usages according to the Oxford dictionary. Now consider we’re reading the translation from the original Aramaic words Jesus spoke to Greek to English, which has muddled the meaning even further. 

Fortunately for us, Jesus uses similar language just a couple pages later, in John 17: 

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). 

“I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” (John 17:26). 

In these passages, in refers to a tight bond. The intimate relationship between God and Jesus is available to you, too. You can have close communion with the church body, with Jesus, and with God himself. 

Now, it’s clear that Jesus wasn’t pointing to a trinity, but a… billionity. Okay, I made that word up (I have an English degree, so I get to do stuff like that). Through Jesus we have unity with God and unity with each other—with all the believers on earth. We’re perfectly bound together with love.

In love. 

Jesus is the glue that holds us all together. He takes a billion broken people and makes us Church. 

From him (Jesus) the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work (Ephesians 4:16). 

-Mackenzie McClain

Discussion & Reflection Questions: 

  1. Why did Jesus place such high importance on Church? What can we accomplish together that we cannot do on our own?
  2. Are you doing more than just sitting in the same row with people at Church? How are you, personally, contributing to the mission of the Church? 
  3. Thank God for your Church family. Pick a few fellow members and send them a card or a text, telling them of the impact they’ve made on your life. 
2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading PlanDownload

Following God not Man

Don’t Be Deceived!

1 Kings 12 28c NIV sgl

1 Kings 12-14

Perhaps we will be able to learn a thing or two about unity and peace and not being deceived and the supreme importance of following God’s purpose and plan as we read the historical accounts of the break-up of the Old Testament country of Israel.  What a sad and difficult time it must have been.

Remember back to those who had insisted that they wanted to have a king in order to be a real nation like all the neighboring tribes and countries.  Samuel told them they didn’t need a king if they had God, but they didn’t listen.  They wanted to be just like everybody else.  So, sure enough, they got themselves a king – and all the heartache and turmoil that comes with trying to follow man instead of God.

As we begin our reading today Israel had survived almost 100 years under 3 kings (Saul, David and Solomon).  And, as Solomon’s son Rehoboam is poised to take the reigns, the split comes and Jeroboam takes control of most of the country.  The land previously given to the tribe of Judah (home to Jerusalem and the beautiful temple Solomon built for the whole nation to worship the one true God in) remains as Rehoboam’s territory.  Jeroboam quickly decides he must build something for all the rest of Israel to worship, so that they don’t return to Jerusalem.  Two golden calves were created.  If the people knew God and their history a little better this should have sent all sorts of red flags.

God sent one new, large, red flag for the people.  A man of God came from Judah to speak God’s Word and reveal God’s power against this new idol worship.  He turns down King Jeroboam’s invitation to dinner because the word of the Lord said he must return home without eating or drinking in this land he was speaking against.  However, when an old prophet lies and says that an angel appeared to him and told him to have the man of God come to his house….the man of God goes.  But that same day judgement is prophesied against this man of God (from God through the previously lying prophet of God).  And sure enough while traveling home the man of God is killed by a lion (who “strangely” enough, does not eat him, just kills him).

I must say I have had some trouble with this story.  Here’s the man of God on special assignment from God – and doing it quite faithfully.  Speaking God’s word, showing God’s power, turning down even the King’s attempt to wine and dine him.  He seems totally devoted to what God wants him to do.  And, then, someone lies to him.  Someone who calls themself a prophet – should be a good person to listen to, right?

Not always!

Don’t believe every word from one who says they speak for God — without consulting what GOD has to say about it!  God had not changed what He had said to the man of God.  And, so that is what the man of God was responsible to be listening to and following.  The man of God was deceived because he listened to the lie – and it cost him his life.  God is serious about people following Him and His Word, rather than what man says about God.

So, too, today I fear there are many who, like the man of God in 1 Kings 13, are trying to speak God’s word – who are at the same time being deceived – and it just might cost them their lives – as it did for the man of God.   2 Timothy 3:13 lumps both the deceivers and those who are being deceived together in one sad group.   It seems harsh.  But, God has revealed himself as a jealous God who requires obedience to Him, and not to man and man’s ideas.  There is a price to pay for turning from His life-giving words of truth to the lies man (and even kings or “prophets”) have said about God and what He requires.

There are countless voices speaking today.  It can be hard to know what to believe and listen to.  The truth is not always spoken by the one who speaks loudest or longest or believed by the largest crowd.  But the truth is always in God’s Word.  Seek It!   And ask yourself – is it actually GOD’s Word you are following, or just someone who says they are speaking for God?  Are you following man-made traditions that have been handed down about God – or are you following GOD?  Do a little research and find out where the religious traditions you believe come from.  Do they come from God’s Word or from human traditions?  Did we get the idea of going to heaven when we die from the Bible or from Plato?  Did God, Moses, Jesus, the disciples and Paul teach about One God or about a triune God theory that developed centuries after Jesus’ life on earth?

How will you make sure you are not following a man-made religion – perhaps one just as dangerous as the golden calves Jeroboam set up in his country?  Not all lies and false gods are as blatantly obvious as a golden calf crafted by the king.  Sometimes it may come in the form of a seemingly harmless new word from the prophet, a slight contradiction or addition to God’s eternal Word.  Remember God is the perfect teacher – His words do not need to be added upon to be enhanced or explained better.   You are responsible for not listening to the lies.  God gave us the Bible – His Word that is full of truth.  Let’s dig in deep and find what it says and follow it with our whole being so we will not be led astray with a lie like the people who followed a golden calf built by a king or like the man of God who listened to the lie of the prophet rather than the word given to him by God.  There are consequences for what you believe and who you listen to and follow.  Take it seriously.  God does.

Marcia Railton

 

Today’s Bible passage can be read or listened to at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Kings+12-14&version=NIV

Tomorrow we will read 2 Chronicles 10-12 as we continue seeking God’s truth and how it affects our lives today in the 2020 Chronological Bible Reading Plan

The Son of God

1 John 5

1 John 5 5

This chapter was especially significant for our family about a year and a half ago when I (Bill) was coming to understand that God is One and that Jesus is His human Messiah. My wife points out the irony in the fact that while Trinitarians often go to the Gospel of John and the Epistle of 1 John for presumed evidences of the deity of Jesus, it was these two books that showed us that God is One person, and Jesus is God’s designated human Messiah.

1 John 5:1 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah) has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whomever has been born of him.”

How tragic that people who believe that Jesus is God condemn those who believe that Jesus is the Messiah. They say that unless you believe that Jesus is God, you are “denying Christ”. What a strange twist of Scripture. The Scripture says that “anyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah) is born of God…”

This Scripture does NOT say you are born of God if you believe that Jesus is:

  • A God-Man
  • co-eternal (“pre-existing”) and co-equal to the God the Father
  • of the same substance as the Father.
  • One person of a trinity in a godhead

These are all human inventions.  We should not turn to human inventions (5:21) while abandoning God our Father’s revelation of Himself and His testimony that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah). We don’t want to call God a liar (5:10) by twisting or distorting what God said, or by claiming God said something He didn’t.

“Jesus” is the name of the human person, born in Bethlehem. It is not the name of a pre-existent person of an eternal godhead. This human Jesus is the Christ (Messiah). This same human Jesus is the “Son of God” (5:2) a title which is parallel to and in many ways synonymous with “Messiah/Christ” (2 Sam. 7:14, Psa. 2:1-7). “Son of God” does not mean “God the Son”. There is no “God the Son” in the Bible.

The person who believes that Jesus is the Messiah is a child of God. If you love God, you will love that person, God’s child. If do not love that person, or reject that person, or call that person a heretic, the implication is that you do not love God the Father. Because whoever loves God the Father loves God’s child (5:1).

To love God’s child (the person who believes that Jesus is the Messiah) is a commandment from God (5:2-3; 3:23).

1 John 5:20 is a verse that Trinitarians claim shows “the deity of Christ”. Such a claim shows the weakness of evidence for the “deity of Christ” in the Scriptures. Their claims depend on dubious interpretations of a handful of Scriptures. For instance, from the whole Book of Romans, Paul’s treatise on matters of great theological importance, Paul supposedly told us that Jesus is God in one verse (Romans 9:5)!

I don’t think so.

There is a better way to understand Romans 9:5, just like there is a better way to understand 1 John 5:20. Below is a translation (RSV) that gets it right. I have capitalized “Him” for clarity whenever the pronoun refers to Almighty God:

“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, to know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”

In short, “This is the true God” does not refer to Jesus Christ, but to the One who is called two times “Him who is true” (cf. John 17:3), who is the Father of Jesus. Jesus the Messiah is His son.

Bill & Stephanie Schlegel

Kingdom Ticket – Paid

Will You Accept the Gift?

Hebrews 5_8,9

Hebrews Chapter Five

Hebrews chapter seven is known for being the chapter about Jesus being our high priest.  However, that theme is found in previous chapters, including chapter five.  Jesus being our high priest is one of the main themes of Hebrews.  God appointed Jesus to be our high priest.  Verse one shows us that the purpose of a high priest is “to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin.”  Jesus being our high priest acts on our behalf in relation to God.  He is our mediator between us and God.  Jesus being our high priest also offers a sacrifice for our sins.  A normal high priest like Aaron needs to offer sacrifices for his own sins and the sins of others.  However, Jesus had no need to offer a sacrifice for himself because he was sinless.  Rather, he offered himself up to be our permanent sacrifice for sins.  That is a sign of a high priest who loves us dearly.

One would think that since Jesus was perfect that he would not suffer.  However, Jesus “learned obedience through what he suffered,” (Heb 5:8).  Jesus truly did suffer when he was here on this earth.  Two examples that come to my mind are when Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died and when Jesus sweat tears of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane before he was crucified.  It’s through experiences like this that Jesus learned obedience.  It’s through experiences like this that we too can learn obedience.  It’s often through the most difficult times in life that people draw closer to God.  Job is a great example of this, as he lost nearly everything he had in one day.  However, he responded by worshipping and praising God.  He was brought closer to God and learned obedience through his suffering.

In verse nine, we see that “being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.”  Jesus truly was made perfect, and he was sinless.  He was the last person in the world who should have had to suffer on the cross.  However, because of his and our Heavenly Father’s great love, he did die and suffer on the cross.  Through his suffering on the cross, he became the source of eternal salvation!  Jesus paid our way to go to the Kingdom!  All we have to do is accept the free gift of God of eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.  Unfortunately, not everyone is going to accept that free gift.  Verse nine states that Jesus is “the source of eternal salvation to all WHO OBEY HIM.”  To accept the free gift of eternal life, we must obey Jesus.  We accept the gift through obedience and faith.  Similar to what we talked about yesterday, don’t belittle the consequences and meaning of sin because eternal salvation is granted to those who obey Jesus, not those who disobey.

Similar to the chapter break between chapters three and four, the chapter break between chapters five and six is an awkward break.  At the conclusion of chapter five, the author of Hebrews is talking about the difference between elementary and mature doctrines, and he continues the talk in chapter six.  The author compares the elementary and mature doctrines to milk and solid food.  A baby needs milk, and adults eat meat.  New Christians focus on the elementary doctrines, whereas the mature Christians should focus on the more mature doctrines.  Since it’s a weird chapter break, I also want to sneak peek to verse one as well.  Hebrews 6:1 states, “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity.”  Throughout the first six chapters of Hebrews we have seen some good proof to suggest that the Trinity may be false.  This is good proof as well.  Many people who claim they believe in the Trinity cannot even explain the Trinity themselves because it is so confusing and complex.  They have to use extra biblical illustrations to describe the Trinity.  The Trinity is anything but an elementary doctrine.  It is one of, if not the most, complicated doctrines out there.  However, the author of Hebrews states that the doctrine of Christ is supposed to be elementary.  Jesus being the Son of God does sound like an elementary doctrine to me, not the Trinity.  This is just some food for thought (pun intended).

I hope you have a great day!

In Christian love,

Kyle McClain

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