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Playing highlights from a debate held in Junction City, KS between Dr. Edward Dalcour from the Department of Christian Defense and Nathan Dudley from Faith Tabernacle. Visit wwutt.com for all of our videos!
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Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. Last week on November 11th, there was a debate here in our community between Dr. Edward Dalkor of Christian Defense Ministry and Nathan Dudley, pastor of Faith Tabernacle, the largest and most influential Oneness Pentecostal Church here in Junction City.
The debate was over the Trinity. Is God three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or is he just one person who sometimes manifests himself as Father, Son, or Holy Spirit? Faith Tabernacle has a dark history in our community.
Back in 1978, there was a young teenager who attended there. Beverly Ward was her name, 13 years old, who mysteriously disappeared from her home, abducted in the middle of the night. It was a big enough story that it was covered by the Washington Times and remains an unsolved mystery.
Nobody knows what happened to her. In 2002 or 2003, this was before I ever lived here in Junction City, her brother-in-law, Edwin Young, eventually became the pastor of Faith Tabernacle. A few years ago, now this has been since I've lived here in the community, back in 2012, Edwin's son, Jordan Young, was arrested on multiple counts of having sex with boys, and Jordan was a pastor there at Faith Tabernacle.
Edwin was accused of multiple affairs and embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars and abruptly just up and left the community. Nathan Dudley became the pastor following Young's sudden departure. Why anyone would want to continue to attend Faith Tabernacle after all of that is beyond me, but the church is still huge, largest seating capacity of any church in town, and it's still growing.
They also have their school, the Apostolic Academy, which is on the northwest edge of town, and that's where the debate was held. Christ the Redeemer in Manhattan, Manhattan, Kansas. For those of you who don't know Kansas, it's just 20 miles down the road from us.
We call it the Little Apple, Manhattan, Kansas. Christ the Redeemer Church sponsored Dr. Edwin Dalkor from Los Angeles to present the Trinitarian arguments. Nathan Dudley, of course, presented the opposing viewpoint, and he had the home field advantage.
Not only was the debate in his gymnasium, but the audience was about 500 oneness to 50 Trinitarians, and those numbers are not exaggerated. I'm probably even being generous on the number of Trinitarians that were in the room.
The location of the debate was also changed at the last minute from what I've been told, so that may have contributed to the crowd being more heavily of the Faith Tabernacle influence, and the attendance ratio was really not that big a deal since the reason for putting together the debate was to reach oneness with the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
Also in attendance that night, but completely unrelated to the debate, I don't even really know why he was there, was Roger Perkins, who produced an absolutely abysmal defense of the oneness position against Dr. James White in their debate in Australia a few years ago.
You can find that debate on YouTube. Perkins was even later accused of dishonesty having presented fabricated sources. Admittedly, Nathan Dudley was much more respectful in his behavior toward Dr. Dalkor than Perkins was toward Dr. James White.
I'm gonna play some portions of the debate here. I won't do it in its entirety because it's over two and a half hours long, but I'd like to highlight certain comments and respond to them. We're gonna begin with the Trinitarian case presented by Dr. Edward Dalkor.
This is unedited. I'm gonna be breaking in periodically here to add commentary.
Tonight's debate is vitally important because it deals with a topic that will essentially determine your eternal destiny. And we have countless passages that confirm this, like in John 4, 24, Jesus says, "'Those that worship God must worship him "'in spirit and truth, not spirit and emotion "'or what you feel, making your feeling, "'the ark of truth, but spirit and biblical truth.'".
Now, that is a hugely important point to be made. This issue will determine your eternal destiny. Trinity is an essential doctrine. The Apostle John wrote, 1 John 2, 22, "'Who is the liar but he who denies "'that Jesus is the Christ?
"'This is the antichrist, "'he who denies the Father and the Son.'". Jesus prayed to the Father in Matthew 11, 25, "'I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, "'that you have hidden these things "'from the wise and understanding "'and revealed them to little children.
"'Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. "'All things have been handed over to me by my Father, "'and no one knows the Son except the Father,. "'and no one knows the Father except the Son, "'and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.'".
John 1, 18 says, "'No one has ever seen God. "'The only God who is at the Father's side,' referring to Jesus, "'He has made him known.'. Jesus said in John 6, 46, "'Not that anyone has seen the Father "'except he who is from God.
"'He,' referring to himself, "'has seen the Father.'. In John 7, 28 through 29, Jesus said, "'He who sent me is true, "'and him you do not know. "'I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.'. In John 8, 18 through 19, Jesus was teaching in the temple and said, "'The Father who sent me bears witness about me.'.
And the Pharisee said, "'Where is your Father?'. Jesus answered, "'You know neither me nor my Father. "'If you knew me, you would know my Father also.'. In John 10, 14 through 15, Jesus said, "'I am the Good Shepherd.
"'I know my own, and my own know me.'. "'Just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, "'and I lay my life down for the sheep.'". In John 17, 26, in another prayer to the Father, Jesus said, "'I made known to them your name, "'and I will continue to make it known "'that the love with which you have loved me "'may be in them and I in them.'".
How is it that a person knows God as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit? Because God has made it known to them. They know the Father because Jesus, who is from the Father, has shown it to them.
They know the Son because the Father, who sent the Son, shows it to them. The Holy Spirit, who dwells within the true followers of Christ, testifies to the truth, as talked about in 1 John 5. Those who have the Father have the Son, and those who have the Son have the Father.
Those who do not know the Father do not know the Son either. They are, according to 1 John 2, 22, liars and antichrists. I emphasize these passages to point out to you just how essential the doctrine of the Trinity is.
What Dr. Dalcor has said is absolutely correct. The salvation of the soul hinges on this doctrine. As Dr. James White has said, the doctrine of the Trinity is the central doctrine to the Christian faith.
It is the doctrine that distinguishes Christianity from all other monotheist religions. Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Orthodox Jews, they all believe in one God, but they do not believe our one God is three persons.
Dr. Dalcor will expound on that as we go on here.
The fundamental issue here tonight is really not monotheism. The issue tonight is not if there is one God or not, because Trinitarians, oneness advocates, Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, they all believe in one God.
But rather, how did the true God reveal himself in holy scripture? And as we both agree, my opponent and I have radically different views. A oneness view is not a Trinitarian view. A Trinitarian view is not a oneness view.
We can't merge them together. We can't say, well, as long as you love Jesus, it's okay. No, they're ontologically different. We hold two different views of who God is. I'm a Trinitarian. By the grace and the sovereignty of God in my salvation, I see the holy and fallible in Aaron's scripture as presenting that there's one true God.
Simply, I see the apostolic doctrine being consistent with the old test of revelation, revealing that there are three distinct, self-conscious persons aware of their own existence, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who share the nature of the one being, co-eternal and co-existent.
Because the doctrine of the Trinity is so misrepresented by so many different groups, I think it's important that we understand at least two fundamental principles. Number one, the distinction that exists scripturally between being and person.
When I say I believe in one God, when Trinitarians say we believe in one God, we believe in one being, we're monotheists. But person is who something is. Being is what something is. Number two, the doctrine of the Trinity is squarely based on ontological monotheism.
What is ontological monotheism? It's one God, one true God by nature.
Now, that's the second time that Dr. Dalkor has used the term ontological. What does that mean? Well, he kind of defined it there. It's the nature of something or the study of its existence. By contrast, the oneness position is not interested in the nature of God.
The way they talk about God is just a what, he's not a who. In oneness theology, you have the same answer to both questions. What is God? He is God. Who is God? He is God, okay? So only the what is being explained.
There is no delving into the who when it comes to the oneness position. A common oneness belief is modalism, that God will manifest himself as a father or as a son or as a Holy Spirit. There are not three persons, there are simply three different modes, hence the term modalism.
But even there, you're still only answering the question of what. What is God? Is he a father sometimes? Is he a son? Yeah, sometimes that, and sometimes he's a Holy Spirit, but those are all what's, they aren't who's, according to the oneness position, does it make sense?
So what is God? Well, he's a father. What is God? Sometimes he's a son. Whereas the Trinitarian position, when we talk about God, who are we talking about? Is this the father or is it the son or is it the Holy Spirit?
Let me give you an example of this. In Isaiah 6, the prophet Isaiah looks into heaven and he sees the Lord God sitting upon a throne in heaven, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
What did Isaiah see? He saw God. Whom did he see? Well, we can delve into that answer further when we read John 1 18. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the father's side, he has made him known.
So if no one has ever seen God, then who did Isaiah see? Specifically, no one has ever seen God the father. The only God, the son, who is at the father's side, he has made him known. So who Isaiah saw was the son.
What he saw was God, whom he saw was specifically God the son. Anytime anyone in the Bible, Old Testament or New, saw God whom they saw was specifically the son of God. Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, John, all witnesses to God the son.
No one will ever see the father until they meet him in glory. Then we will see him as he is because we shall be like him. That's 1 John 3 2. This is what we mean when we say ontology or ontological monotheism.
It is the study of who God is. The oneness can only study what God is and any person believer or non-believer can do that. The oneness doesn't know who God is. And anyone who doesn't know who God is, does not know God.
Are you understanding the fundamentals here? They are still dead in their sins and their trespasses if they don't know God. And Jesus made that clear. Only the son reveals the father. Only the father reveals the son and the Holy Spirit who dwells within every believer is given by both and testifies of both.
Let's continue on.
We're not Mormons here. I don't think anyone holds to a Mormon view here. We believe in one God by nature. That has always been the Trinitarian view. One being by nature. Plainly the doctrine of the Trinity has been well-established as I will show contextually and exegetically by not only the multi-personal references in the Old Testament, but by the countless personal distinctions, grammatically speaking, in the New Testament.
In opposition to biblical Trinitarian, which I hold to and which I contend, my opponent sees God as Unitarian. What is Unitarian? It means that God is one person simply. That God exists as one person.
My opponent sees God as unipersonal or Unitarian, which is fundamentally the same as a Jehovah's Witness. They see God as one person. Muslims see God as one person. Christadelphians see God as one person.
It's fundamentally the same. It's a Unitarian construct. And as we will hear, my opponent no doubt will go to all the passages in the Old Testament that over and over that teach one God, that say one God.
Or I'm alone, I create by myself, so on and so forth. But without a definition of one, it's a meaningless assertion. Because we believe Trinitarianism asserts one God. If you don't define what you mean by one, it just hangs there meaningless.
It's assuming a conclusion that monotheism equals unipersonalism that has not been proven. And it will be an incumbent on my opponent to prove that by Holy Scripture.
So what Nathan Dudley ends up doing is exactly what Dr. Doug Core said he was gonna do. He goes to the Old Testament and quotes over and over and over again, passage after passage about how I alone am God and there is no other.
I alone create and no one else. But Dr. Doug Core has said explicitly, right, the Trinitarian believes that. There is no dispute there. At the end of Dudley's opening construct, the debate was really over.
By quoting passages that say God is one, he's only affirming Trinitarian theology. He did not expose or prove a single fault in the Trinitarian doctrine or more specifically Dr. Doug Core's arguments.
He did exactly what Dr. Doug Core said he was going to do. What I would like to do here is address the few arguments that Dudley made that were not among his multiple scripture passages, which the Trinitarian already affirms and holds to.
Deuteronomy 6 .4, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. There is only one God, period. I believe that, the Trinitarian believes that, Dr. Doug Core believes that. Isaiah 45, five through six, I am the Lord and there is no other.
Besides me, there is no God. I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the West that there is no other besides me. I am the Lord and there is no other.
No disagreement there. Love that passage. I quote it with the Mormons that I witnessed to because they believe that there are actually multiple gods. God is saying there is no other God besides me. So rather than once again, listening to Dudley rattle off verse after verse, which the Trinitarian already affirms is biblical truth about God, let's hear and respond to some of the more specific arguments.
Now you're gonna notice that the audio is significantly different quality than what I played from Dr. Doug Core. I don't want to accuse anyone of foul play, but during the debate, Dudley was unquestionably louder.
I went back to the back of the room during Dr. Doug Core's closing arguments and I could barely hear him in a gymnasium with amplified sound, but Dudley's voice was just booming. He has a louder voice anyway, but not that loud.
Thank you, brother Wild, and greetings to each and every one of you that have gathered here this evening for this very important discussion on the Godhead. As my opponent has already declared in the beginning comments of his presentation tonight, we are not debating a subject that is not specific to salvation, but this subject very much deals with the eternal destiny of souls, and so we take it very seriously when we approach the subject of who that Jesus Christ really is.
The first of all of the commandments that are given to us in the word of God deals with the numeric truth of God. God is very concerned about how many that we think of him as. There is no way that anyone should make a mistake concerning the Godhead.
Romans chapter one and verse number 20, the apostle Paul said, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
I would present for your consideration tonight that the Godhead is not nearly as complicated as some folks would try to make it.
Yeah, actually it is complicated. Why? Because he's God. He's infinite. His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts higher than our thoughts. We are man. We are finite. What can we know about God?
And he's absolutely more complicated to understand. In fact, it's impossible to understand God. We would not even know of God the Father or God the Son or God the Holy Spirit if God had not revealed it to us, as we had already read in Matthew chapter 11 and in other places.
When we hear that God is three persons and yet still one God, the reason why we scratch our heads and go, huh? Is because we're not God. If we were God, we would understand him fully, but because we're not God, we don't.
We as individuals, as finite creatures, cannot wrap our minds around the infinite complexities of God. And as long as we live in these mortal bodies, we never will. And God has told us we never will. Isaiah 55, nine, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Romans 11, 33, oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable are his ways. 1 Corinthians 1, 21, we cannot know God by the wisdom of man.
It is only by what has been revealed to us by God himself. So yes, knowing who God is, is complicated. Now we have from general revelation, an idea and an understanding of God being one God and yet three persons.
What kind of general revelation examples would I be talking about? Well, namely marriage. A husband and a wife are joined together and the two become one flesh, as Jesus describes in Matthew chapter 19.
So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Now this is not the same as the Trinity of God, but it is from this general revelation that we get some sense of God being one God, yet three persons. Just as a marriage, in a marriage, a husband and a wife are one flesh, but they're two persons.
So God is one God, but he is three persons. It's not exactly the same, but it's the crude example that we have been given. The earthly example that God has shown to us, revealing to us by general revelation, that he is one God and yet three persons.
Just as we are interpersonal beings and we have been made in the image of God to be interpersonal. So God himself is interpersonal. He is a community in and of himself, God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
So yes, knowing who God is, is complicated. It's supposed to be complicated. Remember what Jesus prayed in Matthew 11. You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, meaning the people who think they are wise, and you have revealed them to little children, specifically the children of God, adopted through Jesus Christ, by whom we cry out, Abba Father.
Now notice here that Dudley has equally recognized something that Dr. Dalcor stated, that salvation indeed hinges on this subject. So someone on this stage has to be a heretic, and both men have said so.
Either Dr. Dalcor is a heretic for being a Trinitarian, or Dudley is a heretic for denying the Trinity. They both cannot be sound in their doctrine. They both can't even be saved. One knows who God is, and the other one does not.
Now, I believe that my opponent tonight would concur that saying that there is only one Yahweh, and yet I heard him already declare that there was a Yahweh with a Yahweh. I don't know how that he comes up with two Yahwehs in the Word of God, and that's why that it is absolutely necessary for oneness believers to go through the Old Testament scriptures that declare that there's only one God, because Trinitarians say one thing, but they mean another thing.
What they say and what they mean do not concur one with the other. They say there's one God, but then they tell us that there is a God the Father and a God the Son and a God the Holy Ghost that are three different persons in the same God, that these three are one.
So Dr. Dalcor's definition of being Trinitarian isn't acceptable. Dudley is redefining Trinitarianism and essentially saying to his congregation, it's my definition of Trinitarianism that you must accept.
Trinitarians might say there's only one God, but what they say is they actually believe in three gods. That's bearing false witness. He is leading his followers astray and lying about a man that's up there on the stage with him.
Now, when he makes the comment about Dr. Dalcor saying that there was a Yahweh with a Yahweh, let me go back and grab that segment out of Dr. Dalcor's opening constructive. He was giving examples from the scriptures, particularly in the Old Testament of where we have God described in the plural.
We both agree, the oneness and the Trinitarian, that God is one God, but we also have occasions in the scriptures where God is referred to using plural pronouns. Here's an example referring to the story in Genesis 19.
We also have Yahweh to Yahweh correspondences like in Genesis 19, 24. If you remember in Genesis 18, there was three visitors. One of them was the angel of the Lord. We read in verse one that Yahweh appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mimra.
The angel of the Lord in 18 and 19 identified himself as Yahweh. And then we see the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. And in verse 24, we read, I'll read it from the Hebrew text. Let Yahweh, or then Yahweh, reign on Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire, from the Yahweh, from, Hebrew preposition there, from the heaven.
How does Yahweh reign fire and brimstone from another Yahweh in heaven? It's only consistent with monotheism in the context of Trinitarianism. The Septuagint reads, parakherios ectu urano. The Lord from the heaven, reign fire and brimstone from the Lord in heaven.
Yahweh doing something on behalf of another Yahweh. We see the same phrase of the sun in John 3 .13, where the son of man, we read, descended ectu urano, from the heavens. Both the Hebrew Septuagint and the Targum of Genesis 19 .24, irrefutably presents two distinct Yahwehs.
But there's one God revealed in three distinct persons. The way that verse reads in English.
Is really not much different. Genesis 19 .24, then the Lord reigned on Sodom and Gomorrah, sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. The Lord reigned from the Lord. The actions of two persons in the Godhead working in tandem to reign judgment down with fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah.
But Dudley lies to his audience when he tells them that Dr. al-Khor actually believes there is a God acting with another God.
Isaiah 44 and six, thus saith the Lord the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. I am the first and I am the last. And beside me there is no God. The reason that we're reading these scriptures is because that our opponent here this evening has already informed us that there is one God with another God.
But the God that we're reading about in the Word of God declares there is no other God beside me. The God that we're reading about in the Old Testament is telling us by his own testimony, is there any God beside me?
Yeah, I don't know any. Now my opponent knows of another one, but the God of the Old Testament doesn't know of another God.
No, once again, Dr. al-Khor does not believe there is another God. And Dudley is bearing false witness against him. He's manipulating his hearers by telling them, do not listen to what this man says, even about himself, listen to what I say about him.
But Dr. al-Khor affirms there is only one God. There's only one God in Genesis 19, 24, reigning judgment down on Sodom and Gomorrah. There is no other God besides that one. There's no inconsistency here.
The reason why Dudley sees an inconsistency is because he has long since rejected the foundations of Trinitarian doctrine. Foundation number one, monotheism. The Bible teaches there is only one true God, period.
End of story. Every Trinitarian believes that. Foundation number two, there are three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Foundation three, these three divine persons are co-equal and co-eternal.
Dudley accepts foundation one, he rejects foundation two, and therefore also foundation three. But by rejecting foundations two and three, what he believes is really no different than what Muslims believe, Jehovah's Witnesses believe, Orthodox Jews believe, they are fundamentally the same.
When we read the scriptures, God the Father and God the Son refer to one another as persons. Jesus prays to the Father. By the way, the prayers of Jesus are the Achilles heel for the oneness Pentecostal.
They have no idea what to do with that. If Jesus is God the Father, then he's praying to himself. Nowhere in the text does it remotely depict Jesus as praying to himself. How does Dudley deal with this?
Well, this is what I get from the members of Faith Tabernacle that I witnessed to. What they teach is that the human nature of Jesus, which they call the Son of God, is praying to his divine nature, which is God the Father.
So once again, according to the teaching at Faith Tabernacle, the Son of God is the human nature of Jesus. God the Father is his divine nature. That is what they teach. The scripture does not create that picture whatsoever.
Not one time in the Bible does Jesus ever refer to himself as the Father. Nowhere does the Father call himself the Son. It simply is not there. But that's how they deal with the prayers of Jesus.
And so that's why that we have to emphasize these things from the word of the Lord, because we are adherents to exactly what the scripture has to say. And I'm not going to, in any measure whatsoever, try to present to you an argument from the Greek, because I don't know Greek.
And my opponent, he's gonna use the Greek, but I'm gonna use the English translation of the word of God. Let me just affirm that I will use English translations from the word of God. We have the word of God already translated.
We don't need anybody else to translate the word of God for us. We have the word of God already translated from the Greek into the English. And so we can read what the English has to say, and we don't have to have an understanding of the Greek in order to know who God is.
All you have to do is read your English Bibles for yourself and you can find out for yourself who that Jesus Christ really is.
Right, well, I did that in the beginning. I read verses in English and showed who Jesus really is. He is the son of God, the second person of the Trinity. We can read the Bible in English and we can come to that conclusion.
Do we have to know Greek in order to know who God is? Of course not. And Dr. D 'Alcor has made no such statement. This is another way that Dudley is misleading his audience. He's making them think Dr. D 'Alcor is somehow communicating that if you really want to know God, you have to know Greek and Hebrew.
Knowing Greek and Hebrew helps to better understand all the little nuance and the richness of the biblical text. It helps you appreciate it better. There are certain details that knowing the Bible simply in English can't provide.
So knowing the Greek and the Hebrew gives us a broader understanding of it. Case in point, why does Dudley say that he will use English translations plural? Because when drawing from multiple translations, we get a clearer picture of what the text means to say.
And that's the exact same reason Dr. D 'Alcor is quoting from the Greek and the Hebrew. Quite frankly, Dudley is intimidated by Dr. D 'Alcor's more expansive education. Dr. D 'Alcor is not gonna say that because he's a humble man, but to level the playing field, Dudley has to dupe his audience into believing that the Greek and the Hebrew are irrelevant.
Here, Dr. D 'Alcor is playing the role of a teacher and Dudley is, he's the class clown. Now, Dudley is gonna go back to rattling off some passages here. So I'm just gonna skip ahead a little bit.
Now, I know he's gonna, and he's already talked about the plural verbs and nouns that are used in the Word of God to describe God. But what about the over 9 ,000 single verbs and pronouns that are used in the Scripture to describe God?
Are we going to take a few plurals and determine that because of those few plurals, that there is a trinity of persons in the Godhead? Are we gonna take all of the singular pronouns and determine that God is one with many different attributes that he's not three persons, but that God has, he does have a majestic plurality.
And it is a majestic plurality that you will find used not only by God, but you will find it used by kings in the Old Testament as well. And you will find it in reference to the golden calf that they created when they had come out of Egypt and they were in the wilderness.
Were there three golden calves? And yet that same term is used for the golden calf in the wilderness.
Exodus 32, four, and he, Aaron, received the gold from their hand and fashioned with it a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
So the single golden calf was an idol representing the Egyptian gods whom the Israelites were gonna worship in their idolatry. That's the context. It's not what Dudley says it is. Dr. Dalkor gave a full recognition to singular verbs and pronouns to describe God.
He said it in his opening construct. He said there are, of course there are, singular pronouns and verbs that describe God. So once again, the Trinitarian recognizes this. God is one God, period. He is one, there is no other God but him.
Dr. Dalkor recognizes the singular verbs and pronouns, but Dudley refuses to recognize the plural verbs and the pronouns. Like John 14, 23, Jesus said, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.
But Dudley is not going to address those. Instead, he says the reason why they're plural is because God is made up of many different attributes. Now, how does that make sense? Don't you have many different attributes?
You have many attributes, right? And do you ever refer to yourself as a we or an us? As God does. A woman can be a mom and a wife and a daughter. Does she ever call herself we? She can be smart and fun and athletic.
So therefore she's an us? We do not use plurals to describe ourselves based on multiple attributes and neither does God. Dudley next goes into another long string of passages that once again, the Trinitarian fully affirms.
So I'm going to skip ahead to another one of his arguments here.
It was mentioned in the remarks that were made by Mr. Dalcor, the verses scripture in the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter six and verse number three, where that God said, holy, holy, holy. The word says holy, holy, holy.
And then the inference is made that because that the word of God says holy, holy, holy, that there are three in the Godhead. And yet there are numerous, innumerable scriptures that I could read to you tonight that says this, then should I yet have comfort?
Yea, I would harden myself in sorrow. Let him not spare for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.
I just, I really had to laugh at numerous innumerable scriptures. How do you do that? Numerous innumerable. The passage that he quoted as Jeremiah 22 .9 is actually Jeremiah 22 .29, but I understand the mistake.
I make incorrect references every once in a while, too. I did so in a sermon just this past weekend, in fact. The passage in Jeremiah 22 .29 is more accurately translated land, land, land. And Dudley's own English translations that he draws from will say that.
It's talking to the people of the land. It's not referring to the planet Earth, context, context is so important. The point that Dr. Dalcor was trying to make with his reference to Isaiah 6 .3 and the praise to God as holy, holy, holy was not that it proves Trinitarian theology, but that it underscores it.
What do I mean by that? Well, all throughout the scriptures, we find Trinitarian themes. These are not outright statements regarding the Trinity, but they underscore or they accentuate. They bring a greater attention to the doctrine of the Trinity.
It's thematic all the way through the scriptures. Going back to Deuteronomy 6 .4, you find it there too. The Lord, our God, the Lord is one. How often is God mentioned there in that one verse describing him as one God?
Three times, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. One of the examples that I use with my congregation, which I used just this past weekend, in fact, is from the book of Revelation. The Bible is written very deliberately and intentionally.
So it is no accident that there is a beautiful theme throughout the book of Revelation that flows like a waltz. It's this dance that goes one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. It's not always an outspoken mentioning of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but the motif of the Holy Trinity underscores the entire narrative in the book of Revelation.
Reading from the very beginning, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even all that he saw.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near. So we have the revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son, which God, the Father, gave him to show his servants indwelt with the Holy Spirit, the things that must soon take place.
He, the Father, made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, the Holy Spirit, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, the Son, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, one, and blessed are those who hear, two, and who keep what is written in it, three, for the time is near.
One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. You see what I mean? Let's keep going. John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come.
One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. And from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.
Even so, amen. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. We could go on and on. I'm getting chills. I'm getting goosebumps reading it this way. It's beautiful. It's music in the scriptures. It's what both Jonathan Edwards and C .S. Lewis, unrelated to one another, described as this divine dance.
Isn't it gorgeous? But it is a beauty that you can only behold if you read revelation through the hermeneutical lens of the doctrine of the Trinity. And that's all that Dr. Dalkor was trying to emphasize.
He was not saying that holy, holy, holy proved the Trinity, but it accentuates it. It's an ongoing prevailing theme throughout the scriptures. When we behold the praises of God as given by those who are in heaven with him, who see him perfectly as he is, they praise him as father, son, holy spirit, holy, holy, holy.
Isaiah chapter 25 and verse nine tells us, and it shall be said in that day, lo, this is our God. Who is that talking? That's the Jews that are talking. How many gods do Jews believe in? How many gods did the Israelites have?
How many gods did Moses know? How many gods did Abraham know? None of them knew anything about a god, the son. They didn't know anything about a god, the holy ghost. And yet the devil believes in one god and trembles.
I'm afraid I'm gonna have to tell you this evening that my opponent, he knows more than God and less than the devil. Because he knows of another god besides God and the devil himself said, I don't know of any other god.
And God himself said he didn't know of any other god.
Once again, Dudley bears false witness, claiming that Dr. Alcor is preaching about another god besides God. And that Dr. Alcor is claiming to know more than God and less than the devil. The irony is that he actually has that flipped.
It is Dudley who believes in another god than the God of the scriptures. It is Dudley who is claiming to know more than the scriptures, but what he knows is actually satanic. First John 2 .22, whoever denies the father and the son is a liar and an antichrist.
If you happen to be a member of Faith Tabernacle and you came into this podcast, I hope and I pray that you would leave that church, come and talk to me and I would love to show you more from the scriptures who God is, who he is revealed to be according to the father and the son and the Holy Spirit.
I'm at First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, 1220 West 8th Street. We've got a big hole out front with all the renovations that we're doing, you can't miss us. If you can come to church on Sunday, 9 .30 Sunday school, 10 .30 is the worship service and we can talk right after service.
If you have never known Christ before now and what has been shown through these scriptures and you would like to be baptized for real this time, not that false baptism that Faith Tabernacle does, claiming that you have to speak in tongues and if you don't do that, you're not really saved.
Bible says nothing about that. Let's be baptized for real as Jesus commands it in Matthew 28 .19 in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit. For the rest of you, thank you so much for listening to the extended broadcast today.
I hope that you learned something else about the doctrine of the Trinity or just continue to reaffirm for you this wonderful biblical truth. If you'd like to do some additional reading, I recommend the Forgotten Trinity by Dr. James White or if you want something a little bit shorter, you can download this to your Kindle.
Look for an unpublished essay on the Trinity by Jonathan Edwards. It is wonderful. God bless. We'll continue our study of 1 Peter on Monday.
This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web and we thank you for selecting ours, but this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.
Find a good gospel teaching Christ-centered church to worship with this weekend and join us again Monday for more Bible study. When We Understand the Text.