F4F | Steven Furtick Teaches Modalism Heresy

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Rosebro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. Now if you've ever heard of Stephen Furtick...

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who hasn't? Yeah go ahead and hit the like button on the video. Don't forget to subscribe.

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Ring the bell. We've been given information that Stephen Furtick in a sermon that he preached recently full -on taught the heresy known as modalism.

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Modalism is the belief that there is only one God who manifests in three different manifestations or forms.

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Sometimes he manifests in the form of God the Father. Sometimes he manifests in God the Holy Spirit.

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Sometimes he manifests as God the Son. And this is a heresy. It's absolutely not what the

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Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that there is one God, three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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And there are not three gods. There is only one God. We'll explain that along the way.

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We'll do a little bit of a primer on it. But the offending bit of information, we're gonna take a look at it out of context and then we'll go to the official sermon that's posted on the

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Elevation Church website so you can see what Stephen Furtick is doing. And then

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I'll give you a place to go. We'll do just a little bit of biblical work to show you that the Bible teaches there's one

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God, three persons, and so we'll go from there. Alright, so here's

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Stephen Furtick. And let me pull up my Safari web browser. That's the one where I go into the jungle with.

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Anyway, here is Stephen Furtick from the ghosted sermon preached about a month ago, a little more than a month ago, almost to the end of January now.

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And listen to what he says about John 16 verse 7.

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Now this little segment is not in the official sermon that's on the

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Elevation Church website, but I want you to hear what he says because he put this out on his Twitter feed because he thought he was really bringing the thunder here, but he all he was bringing was an actual, for real, heresy.

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In John 16 verse 7 he said, I tell you the truth, I know you're mourning, I know you're sorrowful,

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I know you don't want me to leave you, but I tell you the truth, it is for your good that I am going away.

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How could you say something like that, Jesus? How could you say it is good if you go away? We followed you, we trusted you, and now you're leaving us.

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No, I am not leaving you, I am changing forms. Yeah, no,

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Jesus was not changing forms. It makes you wonder, is Stephen Furtick's friendship, you know, and I would say, you know, slavish friendship.

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I mean, he's practically the lapdog of Bishop T .D.

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Jakes. It makes you wonder, has T .D. Jakes' heresy and modalism finally worn off on Stephen Furtick?

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Yeah, it looks like it. So he says, Jesus isn't saying, I'm not leaving you,

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I'm changing forms. John 17 doesn't say that. How could you say it is good if you go away?

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We followed you, we trusted you, and now you're leaving us. No, I am NOT leaving you,

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I am changing forms. See, up until now I have walked with you, but when

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I send my spirit, I will be in you. Wow, no.

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So I am NOT leaving you, I'm just changing locations. God said

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I didn't walk away. God said I'm working in this season. God said it doesn't matter who changed their mind about you,

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I chose you from the foundation of the earth. Yeah, now, I couldn't find that particular soundbite in the official

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Elevation Church version, but let me get the help of my friend and fellow

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Lutheran pastor Hans Feeney, the guy who put together the Lutheran Satire website, and his video titled,

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St. Patrick Bad Analogies, because I think this will help us out here. Let's listen in as Donald and Connell end up correcting

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St. Patrick. The Trinity is like water, and how you can find water in three different forms, liquid and ice and vapor.

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That's modalism, Patrick! Right, different forms, that's modalism, that's exactly what

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Stephen Furtick is teaching here. What? Modalism, an ancient heresy confessed by teachers such as Noatus and Sibelius, which espouses that God is not three distinct persons, but that he merely reveals himself in three different forms.

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This heresy was clearly condemned in Canon 1 at the First Council of Constantinople in 381 AD, and those who confess it cannot rightly be considered a part of the

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Church Catholic. Yeah, Church Catholic small c, the Universal Church, not Roman Catholic.

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So, Donald and Connell got it. This is what we call modalism. Now, what I want to do here is

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I want to go into the official sermon that was released at Elevation Church YouTube channel for January 27, 2020.

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The name of the sermon is Ghosted, and we're gonna listen to a little bit more of Stephen Furtick on this to, you know, basically say, is he really teaching modalism?

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Because when you consider the way he emphasizes his points here, the reality is he's teaching modalism.

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Ten days, that's a long time when you don't know. Talking about the time between Jesus's ascension and Christ sending the

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Holy Spirit. That's a long time to wait for something invisible. That's a long time to stay in faith.

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Ghosted. The Lord told me to preach on Ghosted. So now, direct revelation, the

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Lord told me to preach on Ghosted. Why didn't the Lord tell you that you were teaching heresy called modalism?

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Can't do that. This isn't a therapy session. It's a sermon, you know? And in little ways and big ways,

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I think we all can relate to something being taken suddenly from you that you had depended on, and it was actually like a part of you.

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It isn't always a person. Sometimes your season of life changes, and you didn't get any warning or a training manual for the next phase.

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I remember when my oldest son stopped letting me hug him in public.

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I mean, I'm one of these embarrassing dads. I just really love the gig no matter how much

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I joke about it. I remember going to hug him one time. It was about two years ago. He's 14 now. I went to hug him, and he did this

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Heisman move that I never saw before. He's like, God, Dad.

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I'm like, Dad? Who's Dad? I'm Daddy. Why'd you drop the consonant and the vowel?

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Sometimes. Why? We don't hug anymore?

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You don't love me? No, no, no, no, no. He didn't stop loving me. The love just changed forms.

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Yeah, the love just changed forms. So note, he's part of his different illustrations for the sermon here about how

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Christ has ascended, and he's gonna send the Spirit. He's trying to reiterate and really push into this idea that Jesus changed forms.

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Yeah, my question for Stephen Furtick immediately is going to be, what does he do with a passage, you know, like, let's see,

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Matthew chapter 3. Yeah, Matthew chapter 3, where Jesus is baptized by John the

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Baptist in the Jordan River. So here's what it says, Jesus came from Galilee, Matthew chapter 3 verse 13, to the

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Jordan to John to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?

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But Jesus answered him, let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. So then he consented, and when

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Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the

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Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him, and behold, a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved

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Son with whom I am well pleased. So my question is, if Jesus had to go to heaven in order to change forms so that he can send the

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Holy Spirit, which happens to also be him because he's changed forms, which is how modalism works, then how does he explain that God the

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Holy Spirit descended on Christ? How does he explain that the voice of the Father was heard from heaven saying, this is my beloved

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Son? Was God just engaging in theatrics? What was going on there?

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Yep, so we got some problems, major problems here, because in his supporting analogies here, he's basically saying things just change form.

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And now what he's going to need for me in this season is going to be different. He did not leave them.

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He changed forms. So Jesus didn't leave them. He just changed forms.

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That's modalism. And if people understood this, I wonder would more marriages make it?

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We think love goes away when butterflies do. So now we think there's no more love in the relationship.

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Maybe the love didn't leave. It just changed forms. And maybe we don't need to give up on relationships when feelings go away.

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It just changed forms. The love didn't leave. It just changed forms. You're like the way Jesus did when he went to heaven and sent the

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Spirit. He just changed forms. That's modalism, Patrick. But maybe we need to go deeper to a place of maturity that realizes

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I'm not always gonna get a goose bump. I'm a grown -up and I'm gonna do what

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I've got to do, and I'm gonna stay in Jerusalem and wait for the gift.

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Such a good sermon, Lord. Thank you for showing me this. It's not a good sermon. That's flat -out heresy, and God didn't show you this.

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Maybe you weren't ghosted. Maybe you were gifted. We can all look back and see some things that God put in our lives that were amazing.

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Sometimes what God allows to be removed from our life is just as significant as what he allows to be brought to our situation.

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Transform. Transform. Transform. Transformed.

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Said it twice there. Change form. Change form. Transform. Transform.

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Change form. This is modalism. He did not leave. He did not leave you.

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He is calling you deeper. He did not abandon you. He no longer wants to just be with you.

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He wants to be in you. So he had to change forms in order to be in you.

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This is flat -out heresy, man. This is flat -out heresy. That's what he could not get them to understand.

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They kept thinking it was something they could see. They kept thinking that it was something that their eyes could verify, and I'm glad for what he told them in John 16.

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Now this gives us another crack at the same verse from the the Twitter soundbite, the video soundbite that he put up, and let's see what he does with it in the official version of the sermon that was released by Elevation Church.

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He said in John 16, I think it's verse 7. Is that the right one?

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Yeah. Before he left, he said, I tell you, it is for your good that I'm going away.

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It is for your good that I'm going away. Unless I go away, the advocate will not come to you.

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But if I go, I will send him to you. I will send him. Mm -hmm.

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Yeah, so Jesus sends the Holy Spirit. He doesn't transform or change forms and become the

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Holy Spirit. I just exegete the grammar here, and you can see that Jesus considers himself to be a different person than the

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Holy Spirit, although they are the same God. I'll that in a minute. If I go,

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I can send you something greater. I know your hearts are filled with sorrow and mourning, and you have reason to mourn and be sorrowful.

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Nothing hurts like having something leave or change in your life, even if it's a positive change. It's painful.

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Even if something negative leaves your life, it still requires a recalibration to try to figure out how does life work without this.

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But he said it's for your good. Paul comes along later and says all things work together for good, and even when it doesn't feel good, it can be for good.

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This is the transformative power of faith. It's for good. He said it's good that I'm ghosting you.

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It's good that I leave in physical form, because then I can give you in spiritual form.

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Then I can direct you from a deeper place, and God is working for you right now.

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But it might not feel good to you, but it doesn't have to feel good to you to be good for you.

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Yeah, he's teaching modalism. No way around it. I do believe his friendship with TD Jakes has sent him into the abyss at this point.

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So the question comes up, you know, what does the Bible say here? And by the way, if you do not believe what

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God has revealed about Himself, but you make a God of your own making, that's called idolatry. Whether or not you called

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Jesus the Son of God or whatever. Modalism is a heresy because it's a different deity, and that deity doesn't exist, it can't save you.

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It's one that that human reason can understand, yet at the same time, human reason is not the dictator of what is true regarding the nature of God.

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Now I'm going to point you to a resource, and we'll put a link to it down below. This is from the website blueletterbible .org,

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and this is, if you google Robert Bowman Biblical Basis of the Doctrine of the Trinity, you can also find it that way, but we'll put a link down below.

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And Robert Bowman used to work for the late Walter Martin, and he wrote a book years and years ago, and actually decades ago,

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I bought it when it was brand new, Why You Should Believe in the Trinity, written against the heretics, the

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Arian heretics in the Jehovah's Witness cult. And this is just the simplest way of understanding what the

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Bible teaches regarding the Trinity. Now the word Trinity doesn't appear in Scripture, and I know some of you are already going to be coming in here, you're a

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Roman Catholic conspiracy person! You're under the sway of the papacy! No I'm not, and you're slandering me.

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The Bible teaches that there is one God and three persons. How do we know this? Real simple, real simple.

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The Scriptures are very clear that there is only one God. I'll walk you through those texts, yet Scripture clearly calls three different persons

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God. And we also see those persons interacting with each other. And so we'll take a look, just a real quick look at how this works.

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And so we're going to go into our Old Testament first, and we're just going to look at a few verses. Isaiah 43 10 is probably the clearest on this.

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You are my witnesses, declares Yahweh, my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am

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He. Before me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me.

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All right, really clear. There's only one God. All right, and there are other texts that make this also explicitly clear.

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There's just no way around it. Isaiah 45 5, I am Yahweh, there is no other. Beside me there is no

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God. I equip you though you do not know me. Isaiah 45 22, turn to me and save all the ends of the earth, for I am

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God and there is no other. So real quick, how many gods are there? One.

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There is only one, one God. That's it, one. And so that being the case, then we have a little bit of explaining to do because of the fact that, well, more than one person is called

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God. For instance, 1st Corinthians chapter 8, I will read verse 6 only because when it comes to the

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Father being God, I don't know of any heresies that deny that the Father is

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God. Everyone universally says, yes, the Father is God. But it's good to get at least at one verse into the mix, and you'll notice that Robert Bowman in his document gives many more verses than this.

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So 1st Corinthians 8, for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and in one

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Lord Jesus Christ, though through whom we are, through our all things and through whom we exist.

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You seem to have fumbled over that one, but you get the idea. The Father is God. There is a text that clearly says it.

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But what about Jesus being God? Is Jesus God? The answer is an emphatic yes.

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And let me give you some, just a handful of passages that clearly state this. In here, for instance,

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Colossians 2, 8 and 9, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human traditions, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

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For in him, in Christ, the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily.

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Titus 2, 13, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great

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God and Savior, Jesus Christ, clearly states that Jesus is

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God here. Another text that is just over -the -top simple to grab, John 1, in the beginning was the

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Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now you sit there and go, how does that work?

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Listen, I don't exactly know how it works. I just know that there is one God, and that there are three persons, and Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three gods, they're one

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God. They are three persons, and so when you say Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that's not three gods.

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And so here we got, in the beginning was the Word, anarchy, and halagos. So in the beginning was the

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Word, halagos, and the Word was with God, anarchy, and halagos, kai halagos, and proston theon.

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And the Word was face -to -face, proston theon was facing

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God, and anarchy, and halagos, kai halagos, proston theon, kai theos, and halagos, and God was the

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Word. That's what the text says. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, you say face -to -face with God, and the

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Word was God. How many gods is that? It's not two, it's only one, because remember what Isaiah says, there is only one

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God, there are no others. And then one of the most amazing texts, I mean that is super clear on this one, so remember when

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Jesus was resurrected in the Gospel of John, the night of his resurrection, he appeared in the upper room, and Thomas wasn't there, and the disciples told

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Thomas, we've seen the Lord, and he says, I'm not gonna believe it, I'm not gonna believe it unless I touch his hands and put my finger in his scars and things like that.

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So here's what John 20 -26 says, eight days later his disciples were inside again, and although the doors were locked,

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Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. And then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands, put out your hand and place it in my side, do not be disbelieving but believe.

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Now watch what Thomas says here, and this is an amazing confession of faith. And so Thomas answered him,

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Hakuriosmu kaiatheosmu, my Lord and my God. You can say, you are my

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Lord and my God. And that's his confession. Now, seeing the resurrected

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Jesus, Thomas says to him, you are my Lord and my God, straight out.

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Well, that being the case, if Jesus isn't God, then he has an obligation, biblically, to rebuke

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Thomas and say, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm just a creature, I'm not your God, what are you talking about? But notice what

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Jesus said, have you believed because you've seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

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And then there are other just amazing passages, like in the gospel of John chapter 8, one of my favorite texts here is in John chapter 8, there's this long -running verbal battle and sparring that Jesus is having with the

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Jews. And so I'll start at verse 31.

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And let me grab just a little bit of context here. In Exodus chapter 3, in Exodus chapter 3,

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Moses asked God his name, remember, at the burning bush.

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And Moses wants to know, alright, so if you want to send me to to the people of Israel and let them know that you're going to set them free from slavery and rescue them from Pharaoh.

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So Moses said, well, if I come to the people, this is Exodus 3 .15, if I come to the people of Israel, say to them, the

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God of your fathers has sent me, and they ask, well, what is his name? What shall I say to them?

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And God said to Moses, I am who I am. He said, say this to the people of Israel.

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I am has sent me to you. So what's the name that God gives to Moses to give to the people of Israel?

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The name is I am. Keep that in mind, because Jesus uses that for himself on many occasions throughout the

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Gospels, in fact, all four of them, but it's very predominant in the Gospel of John.

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So John 8 .31, so Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

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So they answered him, we are the offspring of Abraham. They've never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you'll become free?

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So Jesus answered them, well, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

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The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

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I know that you are offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.

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I speak of what I have seen with my father, and you do what you have heard from your father.

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So they answered him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you were

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Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who's told you the truth that I heard from God.

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This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did. So they said to him, we were not born of sexual immorality, we have one

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God, one father, even God. Now no, they don't believe Jesus is God, they are not listening to him at all, they're fighting him, and Jesus is making clear, if you were really of God, you'd be listening to me.

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So he says this, if God were your father, you would love me, for I came from God, and I am here.

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I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.

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You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning. He does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.

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When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.

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Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God.

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The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. Now the Jews are a little more than just a little bit upset and miffed that Jesus would say that their father is the devil, and so now they're gonna get really dirty, and they're gonna accuse

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Jesus of being a Samaritan, which is kind of a racial slur at the time, more than kind of it was, and claim that he's demonized, that he has a demon.

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So the Jews answered him, are we not right in saying that you are Samaritan and that you have a demon? Jesus answered,

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I do not have a demon, but I honor my father and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory.

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There is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.

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So the Jews said to him, well now we know you have a demon. Abraham died as did the prophets, and yet you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.

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So no, Jesus is putting his words on par with Scripture, even in their minds above Scripture, because Abraham heard the word of God and he's dead, right?

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And so they're saying, now you're totally demonized, Jesus. You're delusional. You're saying, if anyone hears my words and keeps them and believes them, you'll never taste death.

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Abraham died, Israel died, you know, Jacob died. Who do you think you are, right?

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So are you greater than our father Abraham who died, and the prophets who died?

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Who do you make yourself out to be, right? So they can see that Jesus is making himself out to be more than human, right?

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So Jesus answered, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my father who glorifies me, of whom you say he is our

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God. But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I don't know him, I would be a liar like you.

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But I do know him, and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day.

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He saw it and was glad. Now in verse 56, Jesus does something quite fascinating, and that is that he gives extra biblical information about Abraham as if he knew him personally, because there is no biblical text in the

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Old Testament that says that Abraham rejoiced that he would see Jesus's day, and that he saw it and was glad.

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No text says it. And they know this. They know their Torah inside and out, and they're going, no way.

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So at this point they detect that Jesus is acting like he knows Abraham. So the

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Jews said to him, you're not yet 50 years old, and you've seen Abraham. And Jesus said to them, watch what he says, truly, truly,

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I say to you before Abraham was. Ego eimi. I am.

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So Jesus takes the divine name from Exodus 3 and applies it to himself, and he says,

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I am. Now, the punishment in Israel, and according to the ancient theocracy of Israel and the civil code of the

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Mosaic Covenant, the punishment for blasphemy is what? Death.

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So they knew exactly what Jesus said. You know, before Abraham was.

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Ego eimi. I am. And so they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

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A little bit later, by the way, in John chapter 10, the drama here continues, and the

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Jews are wanting Jesus to just come right out and say, you know, who he is, and all this kind of stuff.

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And so, let's see here. All right, so watch this in John chapter 10.

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I'll start at verse 22. At the time of the Feast of Dedication, this took place in Jerusalem in the winter, this is

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Hanukkah. Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon, so the Jews gathered around him and said, how long are you gonna keep us in suspense?

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If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. So Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe.

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The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness about me, but you don't believe because you are not among my sheep.

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My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me, I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand, for my

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Father who was given to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hands. I and the

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Father are one. Whoa, so that's quite the claim.

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So the Jews picked up stones to stone him again, and Jesus answered, I've shown you many good works from the

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Father, for which of these, for which of them are you going to stone me? So the Jews answered, it's not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you a mere man, you being a man, make yourself

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God. And so note here that Jesus is basically saying,

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I and the Father are one, they pick up stones to stone him, and they knew exactly what he was saying, and they were gonna kill him for blasphemy on the spot, because he, a mere man, was making himself out to be

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God. But the thing is, is that Jesus is not a mere man. Romans chapter 1 makes this very clear, and here's what it says regarding Jesus.

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I'll start at verse 1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the

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Holy Scriptures, who concerning his son was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the

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Son of God in power according to the Spirit of Holiness by his resurrection from the dead.

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So you'll note that Jesus is both God and man. And so I'm gonna give you a document,

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I'll put a link to it also down below that'll help you out here to further expand this out.

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But no doubt about it, Jesus claimed to be God, claimed to be the Son of God. And when we say Jesus is

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Lord, right? No one can say Jesus is Lord except for by the Holy Spirit. When we say Jesus is

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Lord, what are we saying? And let's take a look at that. In Romans chapter 10,

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Romans chapter 10, there's a very interesting set of things that we need to consider here.

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And so when we say Jesus is Lord, what are we saying? We're saying he's God, he's Yahweh, I'll explain it here.

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So let me back up into the context, Romans 10 5. Moses wrote about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them, but the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring

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Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, it's in your mouth, it's in your heart, that is the word of faith that we proclaim.

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Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, what does it mean to confess that Jesus is

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Lord? If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart,

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God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

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For the scripture says, and you're going to note here, Paul here is quoting from the

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Old Testament, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same

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Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For, quote, everyone who calls on the name of the

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Lord will be saved. Now, so everyone who says that Jesus is

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Lord, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, that's quoted from Joel chapter 2 verse 32.

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Let's take a look at that and see what it means to confess Jesus as Lord. Joel chapter 2, and we'll take a look at verse 32.

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I always want to make sure I get things in their context, and we'll see what's going on here. So starting at verse 30,

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I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.

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Okay, who's talking? Yahweh is. The sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of Yahweh.

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So when you see in the Old Testament, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that's the divine name, that's

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God's actual name, it's Yahweh, and so that's the tetragrammaton behind it, and so you'll note

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I had that highlighted here in the Hebrew, that's God's name. So before the great and awesome day of the

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Lord, and so there's a tradition that when God's personal name shows up, you say

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Lord instead of his name. I don't abide by that tradition, but it's there nonetheless.

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So when the great and awesome day of Yahweh comes, it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on Yahweh shall be saved.

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Everyone who calls on Yahweh shall be saved. So Joel 2 .32 says everyone who calls on Yahweh will be saved, and what does that mean?

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Well, we just read it in the context there at Romans chapter 10, everyone who calls on the name of the

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Lord will be saved, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. In other words, to confess that Jesus is

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Lord is to confess that he's Yahweh, to confess that he is the God of the Old Testament in human flesh. There's just no way around it.

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All the texts make that very clear. Anyone who denies the deity of Christ is playing games.

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Now, the Jehovah's Witnesses, if you've ever talked with them, they deny that the Holy Spirit is a person, and they describe the

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Holy Spirit as like electricity, or a force, or magnetism, or something like that.

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But in Acts chapter 5, we have a clear passage that equates the Holy Spirit with God, and also takes away the idea that the

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Holy Spirit is some kind of emanation of force or anything like that. Here's what it says, a man named

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Ananias and his wife Sapphira, they sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds, and brought only a part of it, and laid it at the

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Apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why is Satan so filled your heart to lie to the

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Holy Spirit? So Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit. By the way, you cannot lie to electricity, that's silly.

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You cannot lie to gravity or magnetism, that's silly. So the Holy Spirit's a person, he can be lied to.

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But watch where he says this, Satan has filled your heart, you've lied to the Holy Spirit. Now by the way, a little bit of a note here,

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Ananias could have held...he lied by putting on the pretense that he was giving all the proceeds to the church.

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If he had said, I'm gonna give 80 % of the proceeds, I'm gonna keep 20 % for myself, because we've got some other business that we need to tend to, it wouldn't have been a problem, he would have been lying.

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But he's putting on the pretense that he's giving all the proceeds to the church, and as a result of that, he's lying.

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So you've lied to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land. While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?

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And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you've contrived this deed in your heart?

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You have not lied to man, but to God. So here, Peter uses the phrase, lies to the

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Holy Spirit, lies to God, synonymously, the Holy Spirit is

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God. And then one last bit from the Bible, the very first sentence of the

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Bible itself screams Trinity, it really does. And so here's what it says in the

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Hebrew, Barashit bara Elohim, eth ha -shamayim, va -eth ha -eretz.

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Translation, in Barashit, in the beginning, bara.

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Now let me tell you about bara. bara is the verb for create, and here it's showing up as the third -person singular.

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And nouns and verbs are supposed to agree with each other. So this is one of the most fascinating sentences in all of Scripture.

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Barashit bara Elohim. In the beginning, he created. And then you get to the word

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God, and it's the plural form. El would be your singular, and if the verb and the noun agreed, it should say

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Barashit bara El, but it says Elohim, which is plural, alright?

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So your verb and your noun don't agree, and the reason for this is because there is one

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God who exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And remember, when Jesus sends the disciples out to make disciples, he says, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name, singular,

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Hanamas, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One God, three persons.

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So in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Here you have a verb and a noun that do not agree.

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The verb is third -person singular, the noun is plural. Doesn't make any sense. I know the doctrine of the

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Trinity is a little bit difficult to explain. And then when it comes to the creation of man himself, you have these interesting words from God, then

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God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

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And then it says, so God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created them male and female, he created them.

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So you'll note, humanity is made in the image of God. And God says, let us make man in our image.

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Who's he talking to? He ain't talking to angels. This is the three persons of the Trinity discussing amongst themselves.

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So even the first chapter of the Bible, it's very, it's there, is the best way I can put it.

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Now I was going to tell you, there's one document that I want you to have access to, and let me pull it up.

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In fact, let me go back to, there we go. I want to go to piratechristian .com,

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piratechristian .com, this is our website, and Pirate Christian Radio, What We Believe, alright?

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And so, What We Believe, and in that section we've got a copy of the

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Athanasian Creed. And so this is the Church's ancient confession of the doctrine of the

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Trinity, and let me just kind of give you a flavor for what this is about. We'll put a link to it down below.

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Whoever desires to be saved must above all hold the Christian faith. Now it's used in the earlier forms, it's the word

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Catholic, and it's small c, it means universal. And so that scares people, because as soon as you say the word

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Catholic, everyone goes, you're endorsing the Pope! Must hold the universal faith.

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Whoever does not keep it whole and undefiled will without doubt perish eternally. And so the

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Christian faith is this, we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.

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For the Father is one person, the Son is another, the Holy Spirit is another, the Godhead of the Father and of the

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Son of the Holy Spirit is one, the glory equal, the majesty co -eternal, such as the

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Father is, such as the Son, and such as the Holy Spirit. The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the

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Holy Spirit is uncreated, the Father infinite, the Son infinite, the Holy Spirit infinite, the

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Father eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Spirit eternal, and yet there are not three eternals, only one eternal, just as there are not three uncreated or three infinites, but one uncreated, one infinite.

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In the same way, the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, the Holy Spirit is almighty, and yet there are not three almighties, but one almighty.

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So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three gods, but one

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God. So the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord, and yet there are not three lords, there is one

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Lord. And just as we are compelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge each distinct person as God and Lord, so also are we prohibited by the

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Christian, you can say Catholic or the universal faith, of the universal religion, to say that there are three gods or lords.

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The Father is not made, nor created, nor begotten by anyone. The Son is neither made, nor created, but begotten of the

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Father alone. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

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Thus there is one Father, not three Fathers, one Son, not three Sons, one Holy Spirit, not three

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Holy Spirits, and in this Trinity none is before or after another, none is greater or less than another, but the whole three persons are co -eternal with each other and co -equal, so that in all things, as has been stated above,

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Trinity and unity, and unity in Trinity is to be worshiped. Therefore whoever desires to be saved must think thus about the

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Trinity. Why? Because to deny the doctrine of the Trinity is to make up your own god.

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And so, modalism, false god. Arianism, false god.

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And as a result of it, they are condemned as heresies. Now the Athanasian Creed will go on to explain how the

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Incarnation of Jesus works, and so like I said, all these links will be there, as well as to the link to Robert Bowman's biblical basis for the doctrine of the

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Trinity, for further study on your part. The Bible clearly teaches this, although it doesn't use the word

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Trinity, and no, it's not some papal conspiracy. The Church has historically believed the doctrine of the

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Trinity, and the earliest of the Church Fathers affirm that. So hopefully you found this helpful.

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If so, all the information on how you can support us financially is down below in the description, by either becoming a supporter by becoming a patron on Patreon, sending in a one -time donation, or joining our crew.

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Now for everybody who joins our crew at Gunners Mate or above this month, in the month of March 2020,

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I will send you an autographed copy of my fine art photograph. It's not a painting, it's a photograph.

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It's titled Minnesota Winter Sunset, and I'll send you an autographed copy of that as my way of saying thank you for everybody who joins our crew at Gunners Mate and above.

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So if you found this helpful, again, the doctrine of the Trinity is non -negotiable. And sadly,

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Stephen Furtick, I think his friendship with T .D. Jakes has worn off on him, because he's teaching modalism,

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Patrick, and that's a heresy, and you need to avoid that like the plague, or you're going to end up, well, where all the other heretics are, and that's not with Christ.

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So if you found this helpful, all the information I can share the video is down below. So until next time, may

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God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ, his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.