F4F | Trinitarian Take Down of Brandon Tatum

Fighting for the Faith

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:14

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

00:21

This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. Now, we're going to kind of step out of, like, the normal type of people that we offer biblical critiques for because the fellow that we'll be critiquing is a very well -known conservative

00:39

YouTuber. And I'm a conservative. I know some of you might be shocked to hear that, but you shouldn't be.

00:45

But so I want to make this clear that I am not going after his politics at all.

00:51

I am instead going to be taking on the things that he's spoken regarding the doctrine of the

00:58

Trinity. The fellow in question is Brandon Tatum. He has over a million subscribers on YouTube and is doing quite well,

01:05

I would say, on YouTube. But it has recently come to light that he has taken overt swipes at the biblical doctrine of the

01:15

Trinity. We'll listen to just a little bit of what he said, but I want to spend the majority of this episode explaining to you, biblically, how does one come to the conclusion that there is one

01:30

God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we're going to look at the clear passages on this. We're going to let the

01:35

Scriptures speak. We're going to acknowledge the fact that nowhere in the Bible does it say the word Trinity.

01:40

No, it's not said. Trinity is a word that was created to describe, in one word, what is revealed regarding the nature of God.

01:50

But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let me whirl up my desktop.

01:56

Look at that scene. Warm, warm. I'm in North Dakota. Sometimes I have to show warm summer scenes from Southern California to warm me from my core out.

02:09

But anyway, I digress. Let's take a look here. What I've done is I've taken

02:14

Brandon Tatum's video, and wow, is it long. The guy, in fact, the best way

02:21

I can describe many of his arguments, they are some of the most embarrassingly cringeworthy false statements

02:28

I've ever heard in my life as far as attacking the doctrine of the Trinity. And so we'll start with like the least cringey bits and at least get him to say that the

02:40

Bible doesn't teach the doctrine of the Trinity. Then what we're going to do is we're going to go into the biblical text. I'm going to show you a great resource for walking through.

02:49

How do we know that the doctrine of the Trinity is biblical? How can we believe that Jesus is

02:55

God in human flesh, the son of God in human flesh? How do we know these things? And so we'll take a look.

03:01

It's not going to be exhaustive because there is so much that it takes a really long time to do.

03:07

And then we'll take a look at some of Brandon Tatum's more arguments.

03:13

And so the idea here is we're going to front load the biblical teaching. We're going to teach you the truth and fact check me all you want.

03:20

It's going to show that the scripture is very clear on this. And then we'll take a look at just the egregious argumentation of Brandon Tatum and really call for him to repent and abandon the false

03:34

God that he's created using his own logic and embrace who God is and who

03:39

Christ is. So here we go. Let's listen to the opening bit here on his diatribe against the doctrine of the

03:47

Trinity. Let's see. Freedom fighter. Our God is three in one father, son, father, spirit, son.

03:53

That is not in the Bible. Freedom fighter. I love you, but that's not in the Bible. Three in one is not in the

03:59

Bible. God the son is not in the Bible. The Trinity is not in the Bible. Three persons is not in the

04:06

Bible. Co -equal, co -existent, co -eternal, none of that is in the Bible. That is an ideology that was made or expound upon at the

04:17

Nacian Council in 325 AD. And in 325

04:22

AD, there's no record of anybody believing in three in one until 25 AD.

04:27

They didn't even— Now this is what we call a false narrative, okay? So this is a common thing.

04:33

People who deny the doctrine of the Trinity, what they end up doing is creating a conspiracy narrative to explain where the doctrine came from.

04:41

And then they make overt claims that this is nowhere taught in Scripture. So let's front load this particular episode of Fighting for the

04:49

Faith with biblical teaching. And it's going to be a long episode, so grab something to write with, to take notes, follow along with your

04:57

Bible if you would like to. And what we'll do here is I'm going to show you a resource.

05:03

The name of the resource is Robert Bowman, Jr.,

05:09

The Biblical Basis of the Doctrine of the Trinity. I'm going to put a link to it down below in the description. Robert Bowman was a fellow who worked at the

05:18

Christian Research Institute under the late Dr. Walter Martin. And when I was coming up, you know, and being trained in Christian apologetics, countercult apologetics against the

05:28

Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, the Oneness Pentecostals, and people like that, Bowman's work on the

05:33

Doctrine of the Trinity was, I found it to be really good and biblically just sound and solid.

05:41

And the concepts that he puts forward are very, very easy to grasp. So the best way

05:46

I could put it, this is a resource. If you want to do a deep dive on the Doctrine of the Trinity, this is the place to go.

05:53

There will be a link to it down below. All of that being said, let's kind of work out how this all works biblically.

06:02

We're going to start with the fact that the Bible makes explicit statements.

06:08

There is only one God. Full stop.

06:14

No apologies. There's only one God. And that God is Yahweh.

06:19

That's the personal name of God. In the Hebrew, we refer to that as the Tetragrammaton, the personal name of God, Yahweh.

06:28

In fact, I'll show you this. Let me give you an explicit statement. Isaiah 43 .10, one of the clearest out there.

06:34

You are my witnesses, declares Yahweh. And then you'll note here, in the Hebrew, that word that I've highlighted, that's the name of God, Yahweh.

06:43

So I don't know why our modern translations do this. But in the

06:49

Old Testament text, whenever the personal name of God appears, Yahweh, they always put capital

06:55

L, capital O, capital R, capital D. This was kind of an invention of the

07:01

Pharisees, and it still bugs me that it's been carried over into our modern translations because there's no reason for us to follow that convention because the

07:12

Pharisees are people who are heretics. They were false teachers. And their claim was, well, the commandment says, thou shalt not take the name of the

07:22

Lord your God in vain. So what we're going to do is we're going to make it impossible for you to take God's name in vain by not allowing you to say his name.

07:30

So any time a Pharisee would read a Masoretic text and the personal name of God appeared, they would always say

07:41

Adonai, which is Lord, rather than Yahweh, which is the personal name of God.

07:46

And I think you do violence to a proper understanding of Scripture when you follow this convention, personally.

07:52

Although I would note that there are elements of it in the New Testament, but there's never a command that tells us we can't invoke

08:00

God's real name. So all that being said, you are my witnesses, declares Yahweh. You are my servant whom

08:06

I have chosen so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He.

08:12

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

08:18

Before me, no God was formed, nor will there be any after me. Straight out. There's only one

08:24

God. Full stop. So then it continues, Isaiah 45, 21 and 22.

08:31

Here's what it says. Declare and present your case. Let them take counsel together. Who told this long ago?

08:38

Who declared it of old? Was it not I, Yahweh? And there is no other

08:44

God besides me, a righteous God and a Savior. There is none besides me.

08:50

Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God. There is no other.

08:59

So, this gets at what we call monotheism. There is only one

09:04

God and Yahweh is it, all right? So thus says Isaiah 44, verse 6, thus says

09:10

Yahweh, the King of Israel and His Redeemer. Yahweh sabaoth. Hmm. Yahweh, the

09:17

King of Israel and His Redeemer, Yahweh sabaoth. Ooh, look at that. Isaiah 44, 6 kind of hints at a plurality.

09:24

I'm just saying, one that is very akin to what we see in the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 1.

09:29

But that's a complicated text and I'll walk you through it. So then God goes on to say, who's like me? Let Him proclaim it.

09:36

Let Him declare it and set before me, since I appointed an ancient people, let them declare what is to come and what will happen.

09:44

I forgot one little part. I better go back and reread this bit. Let's get this.

09:50

Yahweh and His Redeemer, Yahweh sabaoth. I am the first and I am the last.

09:58

Besides me there is no God. I am the first and I am the last.

10:04

Now, we'll talk more about this in just a second. So Yahweh is the first, He is the last.

10:09

Besides Him there is no God. Who is like me? Let Him proclaim it. Let Him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people.

10:16

Let them declare what is to come and what will happen. Fear not, nor be afraid. Have I not told you from of old and declared it?

10:24

You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? There is no rock. I know not any.

10:30

Now I would note something here and that is, is that again, coming back to these words, I am the first and I am the last.

10:37

Besides me there is no God. Do you know Jesus uses those very words Himself in Revelation chapter 22.

10:45

Revelation 22, Jesus speaking, says, Behold, I am coming soon. Who's coming again?

10:52

Oh yeah, Jesus is. Look at this. I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done.

11:00

I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

11:07

Well how many firsts and lasts are there? One. That's what it says.

11:14

I am the first and last. Is there a God besides me? There is no God. That's what Isaiah 44 says. But Jesus says He's the first and the last.

11:21

So you can tell here in some of this language, and this is one of the major points that Bowman makes in his document, is that phrases that are exclusively reserved for Yahweh of the

11:32

Old Testament are used in conjunction to or pointing, you know, are used specifically regarding Jesus.

11:38

In fact, when we take a look at two particular cross -references in the Old Testament, it becomes painfully clear that Jesus is none other than Yahweh Himself.

11:48

And I'll show you that as we work through this. Now let me give you some explicit texts that overtly say that Jesus is

11:56

God. And we'll save some of the more contested texts for a little bit later.

12:02

For instance, John 1, verse 1. But John 20, verse 26, this is eight days after the resurrection.

12:11

Remember, on the day of the resurrection, Thomas wasn't there when Jesus appeared in the upper room and said,

12:16

I'm not going to believe that Jesus is risen from the dead unless I put my fingers in His side and touch the nail parts and stuff like that.

12:25

And so it says this, eight days later. So it's the following Sunday. His disciples inside again, and Thomas was with them.

12:33

Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. And then he said to Thomas, put your finger here, see my hands, put your hand, put out your hand and place it in my side.

12:46

Do not disbelieve or do not be disbelieving is kind of how the Greek works, but be believing.

12:53

Do not disbelieve, but be believing. And here's an important bit. I have talked with Jehovah's Witnesses, I've talked to Oneness Pentecostals, who always have a fancy way of blunting and misdirecting what is being said here.

13:08

And so I would note this. So Thomas answered him, okay, apakrithe, now, by the way,

13:15

I have a degree in biblical languages and I teach Greek to seminary students.

13:22

Just saying, okay. So I know Greek, been there, done that, and teach it now.

13:29

So all that being said, so apakrithe, Thomas answered them and said to them, said to him, auto.

13:39

So here we got to be very specific on the details. What Thomas says next, he says specifically to Jesus.

13:49

That's the whole point of the dative singular there. And that is that he says to Jesus, so he said to him, have you, my

13:57

Lord, sorry, Thomas answered him, my Lord, hakuriosmu kaihateosmu.

14:03

You are my Lord and my God. One sentence, both statements being said regarding Jesus.

14:10

And I would note for those of you out there who don't know Greek, who seem to think that it's a big deal when theos appears without the definite article, and then it's a bigger deal when it shows up with the definite article, which basically means you don't know how anarthurus nouns work, especially in predicate nominative sentences, but that's a whole other conversation.

14:30

We'll have it a little bit later. The whole point is that the definite article appears twice in Thomas's confession.

14:40

Hakurios, ha means the, the, kurios, the Lord, mu, of me. The Lord of me, kaih, ha, definite article, theosmu, the

14:50

God of me. What Thomas is saying, you are my Lord and my God.

14:56

And what Jehovah's Witnesses say, oh, what Thomas was doing here was, uh, was taking

15:01

God's name in vain and going, OMG, uh -uh. If he were saying, OMG, then

15:07

Jesus should have rebuked him because he was blaspheming. And then I've heard one of his

15:12

Pentecostals say, he was saying to Jesus, you're my Lord. And then he looked up and said, you're my

15:18

God. No, this is ridiculous. All right, that's absolutely ridiculous because epen auto, he said to him, and that's a dative singular of autos, singular.

15:36

Thomas said these things to Jesus, and Jesus doesn't rebuke him. Jesus said to him, have you believed because you have seen me?

15:45

Believe what? That he's his Lord and his God. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. So Thomas confesses

15:52

Jesus to be his Lord and his God using the definite article ha for theos. And yeah, so yeah,

15:59

I'm going to go with Thomas on this since Jesus gave him the thumbs up. And that's a clear text right there.

16:06

Let me give you some more. The Apostle Paul in Romans 9, verse 5 says this, to them, talking about the

16:11

Jews, belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the

16:17

Christ, ha Christos. And then we've got this interesting sub part of the sentence, who is

16:24

God overall? Blessed forever. Amen. So it says of the

16:33

Christ that he is God overall. Blessed forever. Amen. How many gods are there?

16:40

One. Now I'm going to note here, nobody ever challenges the statement, the

16:45

Father is God. I've never run into a heretic that denies the deity of the

16:51

Father. But Robert Bowman's outline takes you through explicit texts that say that where the

16:58

Bible calls the Father God. But here now we've got texts that explicitly say the

17:05

Son is God. How many gods are there? One. And yet the

17:10

Apostle Paul confesses that the Christ is God overall.

17:17

Strange statement for a Jew to make if there's only one God, right? And there is only one God. That's kind of the point.

17:23

So Paul also says this in Titus chapter 2, I'll read 11 through 13. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness, worldly passions, to live self -controlled and upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great

17:44

God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Here Paul says that Jesus is our great

17:53

God and Savior, referring to Christ, waiting for the blessed hope and the appearing of our great

18:00

God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now let me do something here. Okay, yep, in the appearing of our great—waiting for the blessed hope and the appearing of our great

18:10

God and Savior, Jesus Christ. All right, just wanted to check something in the Greek there. All right. Next, I would note this also.

18:17

Paul, talking about Jesus, says this in Romans chapter 1, starting in verse 1. Paul, a servant, a doulos, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the

18:32

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

18:39

Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our

18:44

Lord. So if you haven't seen the video that I've done against Todd White and his inability to understand what's called the hypostatic union, what has to deal with the deity of Christ, one

18:58

Jesus, two natures, a human nature and a divine nature, we'll put a link to that video also down below for the—so that you can take a look at that, and that's a deeper dive into what's called the hypostatic union or the incarnation of Christ.

19:13

So Paul confesses that Christ has two natures. He has a human nature that is descended from David, and he is also declared with power to be the

19:23

Son of God. Now if you're sitting there going, well, Son of God, that doesn't mean that Jesus is God.

19:28

Well, actually it does. Yeah, it does, and here's the reason why. And so I'm going to make sure

19:34

I know where to come back. I want you to listen to this portion of Scripture, all right? So here's what it says in John chapter 10, starting at verse 22.

19:43

At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter. This is Hanukkah. So this is the celebration of Hanukkah.

19:51

Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him,

19:56

How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you're the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus told them,

20:03

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

20:15

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

20:24

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one's able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

20:30

And here it comes. I and the Father are one. So the

20:36

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

20:41

For which of these are you going to stone me? The Jews answered, It's not for a good work that we're going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself to be

20:54

God. All right?

20:59

So the idea here is this, is that Jesus, in using the scriptures for himself, talking about how

21:07

God is his Father, to say that Jesus is the Son of God is to basically say that he is

21:16

God, making himself equal with God. So coming back then to our statement here, so he was declared to be the

21:24

Son of God in power, equal with God. And I'll show you that in another text from the

21:29

Apostle Paul. Peter says these same things, by the way. 2 Peter chapter 1 says this,

21:36

Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our

21:46

God and Savior Jesus Christ. Peter says that Jesus is our

21:52

God and Savior. So I'm going to go with Paul.

21:58

I'm going to go with Peter. I'm going to go with Jesus. All right? Best way to put it.

22:03

Now, one of the arguments, and you'll hear Brandon Tatum make an argument like this, well, you've got a problem.

22:09

You who believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, because God can't die. And it says that Jesus died.

22:15

Has he never read Acts 20, 28? Here's what the Apostle Paul says to the pastors of the congregations in the city of Ephesus.

22:25

They had gathered for, you know, to kind of say their final farewells to the Apostle Paul. And Paul gives them a very strong warning.

22:32

Here's what he says. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the

22:37

Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, and watch this statement, which he obtained with his own blood.

22:50

When did God bleed? God is Spirit. But here the Apostle Paul says that the church was obtained by the blood of God.

23:03

Oh, I know when God bled on the cross, when God the Son bled, suffered, and died for your sins and mine.

23:13

Note the Apostle Paul says that God obtained his church by God's own blood.

23:22

I mean, it just goes on and on and on. Again, these are clear passages in this regard. Hebrews 1, just a magnificent Christological section.

23:31

And the punch comes in verse 8, but I want to read this in context. Here's what the inspired author of Hebrew writes.

23:38

Hebrews, he says, long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his

23:45

Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

23:57

Jesus is the exact imprint of God's nature. He upholds the universe by the word of his power.

24:05

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

24:16

For to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you?

24:22

Or again, I will be to him a father, he shall be to me a son. And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all

24:30

God's angels, what? Worship him. God, the Father, commands the angels to worship the

24:37

Son. This is an important bit, by the way. Of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire.

24:46

But of the Son, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and forever, and the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

24:55

So here in Hebrews 1, verses 6 and 8, we have just clear, clear, unmistakable biblical teaching that Jesus is

25:05

God. Number one, God the Father commands the angels to worship him. So in this regard, then,

25:11

I think we should take a look at Revelation chapter 19. I want you to take a look at that in this regard.

25:18

Revelation 19, verse 9. So the Apostle John, he's being shown things up in heaven, and he has an angel as his tour guide, if you would.

25:28

And so the angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who were invited to the marriage supper of the

25:33

Lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words of God. Then I fell down at his feet to worship him.

25:42

But he said to me, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus.

25:51

Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Now note,

25:57

Scripture is clear. You cannot worship any other being other than God. God forbids it.

26:04

Here, an angel was about to receive worship by the Apostle John. He said, no, you must not do that.

26:12

But, well, what happened here is that in Hebrews chapter 1,

26:20

God the Father commands all the angels to worship the Son. And God the

26:25

Father says of the Son, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

26:32

Now I'm going to add one more tab here. I'm going to pull something up in the book of Colossians.

26:39

Colossians chapter 1, and I'm going to add two to the mix too. All right.

26:44

So in Colossians chapter 2, sorry, chapter 1, we have redemption of our sins.

26:52

Ah, here we go. Listen to this just wonderful text. Okay. And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

27:06

So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the

27:19

Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved

27:27

Son, in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of our sins, of Christ. He is the image of the invisible

27:34

God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him, all things were created in heaven on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him.

27:49

He goes on to say, this is kind of an interesting statement in chapter 2. Let's, chapter 2, see to it that no one takes you captive, 2 verse 8, by philosophy and empty deceits, according to the human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ.

28:08

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

28:17

It's unmistakably clear. Now, I've made the statement already, and now it's time to back it up, that Jesus is

28:24

Yahweh. Nobody doubts that Yahweh is the name of the God of the Old Testament, but we have texts that make it very clear that Jesus is

28:32

Yahweh. One in particular, and one of the clearest, is found in Romans chapter 10.

28:38

We'll apply our three rules for sound biblical exegesis, context, context, and context. And what we're going to note here is that when we look at the cross reference, it's unmistakable who

28:48

Jesus is, all right? So Paul, writing in Romans chapter 10, says, Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does or keeps on doing, poieo, keeps on doing the doing, the commandments shall live by them.

29:04

But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring

29:09

Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say?

29:15

The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is

29:22

Lord, and what does that mean? Yahweh, I'll show you.

29:29

That Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved, for the scripture says, and note here, the

29:41

Apostle Paul is making it painfully clear that he is now quoting from the Old Testament. For the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.

29:53

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call upon him.

30:03

For, quote, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

30:10

Note, who is this referring to? Jesus. But when you look at the cross reference, it's

30:18

Joel 2, verse 32. I'll keep it in context. Joel 2, verse 30 says this,

30:24

I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of the

30:32

Lord, Yahweh, comes. It shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh shall be saved.

30:41

For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there shall be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, among the survivors shall be those whom

30:49

Yahweh calls. Everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh shall be saved.

30:56

That's the Lord right here. But Paul says, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, referring to Jesus, will be saved.

31:04

Mm -hmm. Paul, here through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, teaches us that Jesus is

31:10

Yahweh. But that's not the only time he does that. There's another text in Philippians chapter 2, you may be familiar with this.

31:18

Philippians chapter 2 says this, let each one of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. So have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the morphe, form, you could say by nature,

31:32

God. He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. Now, a little bit of a note here. This text is saying that Jesus is equal with God.

31:39

He is in the morphe, the form of God. That's what Jesus is. The whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily.

31:46

Jesus is God. If I were to say, you know, I've decided I'm going to be humble.

31:53

Yeah, I'm going to humble myself and I'm not going to consider equality with God to be something that I should grasp for.

32:03

Should I be commended for doing that? No, if I were doing that, you'd say, finally, you've come to your senses because you're not

32:11

God. There's nothing commendable about admitting that you're not something.

32:20

But the whole point of this text is that if Jesus isn't God, it doesn't make any sense as an example for us to follow.

32:27

Because there's no merit in what Christ is doing by saying, well, I'm not God, if he isn't.

32:33

The whole point here is that this is how we relate to each other as equals, as humans. And here it says,

32:39

Jesus, even though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. Instead, he emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form.

32:52

He humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. And now the cross references are going to scream here because the text just said that Jesus is by nature

33:02

God. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

33:08

Wait a second. Who has the name that is above every name? We'll take a look at the cross reference in a minute.

33:13

So that at the name of who? Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

33:24

Lord. The glory of God, the Father. Now let's take a look at what that's referring to, because the cross reference is very clear that the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess.

33:37

Isaiah 45, 21 through 23. Declare and present your case.

33:46

Let them take counsel together. Who told this long ago? Who declared it of of old? Was it not

33:51

I, Yahweh? And there is no God besides me. A righteous God and a Savior. There is none besides me.

33:57

Turn to me and be saved, O the ends of the earth. For I am God, there is no other. By myself

34:03

I have sworn and from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return.

34:10

To me every knee shall bow. In every tongue shall swear allegiance.

34:16

Wait a second here. Yahweh is the one speaking. And Yahweh in Isaiah 45, 23 says, to me every knee will bow.

34:24

But what does Paul say? That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess.

34:31

It's another text that shows that Jesus is Yahweh of the Old Testament. And you get a note here. The scriptures are rich with these examples.

34:40

Example after example after example. And one that I think bears talking about at this point in this context would be the fact that Jesus had this annoying thing that he kept doing and that he kept using the name of Yahweh for himself.

34:56

And the name of Yahweh that was given, another alternate name was the

35:02

I Am. In Exodus chapter 3 verse 13 it says this, Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and I say to them, the

35:11

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

35:16

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

35:24

I am has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel.

35:31

Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you.

35:37

This is my name forever. So I Am and Yahweh are the two names given by God regarding himself in Exodus chapter 3.

35:47

All of that being said, I want to show you another text where you may not be familiar with and one that you should be familiar with, and it has to do again with worshipping

35:55

Jesus. So we already noted that worshipping anybody else except for God is strictly forbidden.

36:01

Angels don't even allow themselves to be worshipped. Well consider this text, one that you may be very familiar with, talking about Jesus walking on the water and having

36:09

Peter come out of the boat. Here's what it says. Immediately, this is after the feeding of the 5 ,000, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds.

36:20

After he dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. And when evening came, he was there alone.

36:26

But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, so the wind was against them.

36:32

And in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, it is a ghost!

36:42

And he cried out, and they cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately spoke to them, saying, take heart.

36:50

And then, so he said to them, tharsate, take heart, be courageous, ego, eimi.

36:59

Now a little bit of a note here. Eimi itself is the verb to be. Jesus didn't say,

37:05

I am. He said, I am. Ego, eimi.

37:11

He used the divine name for himself here. Do not be afraid. Take courage.

37:16

I am. Mephobista. Do not be afraid. And Peter answered him,

37:22

Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. And he said, come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.

37:29

And when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Good prayer, by the way.

37:35

It's a great prayer. So Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying, oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?

37:41

And then when they got back into the boat, the wind ceased. And let me add a little bit more context here.

37:51

And let's do this. I'm going to just add a little bit more context. Here we go. And the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshiped

37:59

Jesus, saying, truly, you are the Son of God.

38:08

Oh, Jesus receives worship. Look at that. They worship

38:14

Jesus, confessing him to be the Son of God. And then in this text, Jesus uses the divine name, I Am, for himself.

38:22

All right? Next text, Gospel of John. Gospel of John, this is chapter 9, where the healing of the guy who was born blind.

38:33

He was put on trial for being healed by Jesus. Awkward, right?

38:39

So we'll pick up where, you know, for his second appearing before the Pharisees. A second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, give glory to God, we know that this man's a sinner.

38:49

He answered, well, whether he's a sinner, I don't know. One thing I know is I was blind, and now I see. And they said to him, well, what did he do?

38:56

How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again?

39:02

Do you also want to become his disciples? So they reviled him, saying, you are his disciple. We are disciples of Moses.

39:09

Now, here's the thing. Has this guy been taught by Jesus anything? No. He's just been healed by Jesus.

39:15

So this guy hasn't been catechized yet. So we know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we don't know where he comes from.

39:21

So the man answered, well, this is an amazing thing. You don't know where he comes from. Yet he opened my eyes.

39:26

We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.

39:32

Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he can do nothing.

39:39

Yeah, that's right. This guy's standing on his ground, right? Defending Jesus, the one who opened his eyes. So they answered him, you were born in utter sin and you would teach us.

39:48

So they cast him out. So the guy was excommunicated from the synagogue for what?

39:54

Being healed by Jesus and believing that Jesus is from God. And in one of the most touching moments in Jesus's earthly ministry,

40:04

Jesus seeks this fellow out who has just been excommunicated for being healed by Jesus. And so it says they,

40:12

Jesus heard that they cast him out and having found him and said, do you believe in the son of man? He answered, well, who is he, sir?

40:19

So that I might believe in him. And Jesus said, you have seen him. It's he who's speaking to you.

40:26

He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Jesus. Again, if Jesus isn't

40:32

God, him accepting worship like this is utter blasphemy. And they worshipped

40:39

Jesus. Disciples worshipped Jesus. This guy worshipped Jesus. Man, it's all over the scriptures.

40:45

You see stuff like this. So, all right. So those are some of our primer texts.

40:51

But let me get to the kind of the big one. Okay. Gospel of John chapter eight. This is the big ego -y me text.

40:59

All right. And I mean, big one. So Jesus is having, how shall we say it, a little bit of a running battle with the

41:07

Jews who do not believe in him. He's going to address people who believe in him, but he's got the detractors nearby who are just in his face.

41:15

And so this is an interesting exchange. John 8, 31. Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, and listen to the statement, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

41:28

Now, the Jews are people of the book. They have the Old Testament. They have the Torah. They have the writings.

41:33

They have the prophets. So Jesus here talking about his words in this way, at the very minimum, puts his words on par with scripture.

41:43

Puts his words on par with the word of God, or the words of God. So you will know the truth.

41:50

If you abide in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. So they answered, we're offspring of Abraham.

41:57

We've never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free? So Jesus answered them, truly, truly,

42:04

I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. Slave doesn't remain in the house forever. The son remains forever.

42:09

So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you're the offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.

42:19

I speak of what I've seen with my father, and what you have heard from your father. Now, note, we already know from John 10 that they're going to try to stone

42:31

Jesus for making himself equal with God by saying God is his father. So they're already starting to key in on Jesus' language here.

42:39

So they answered him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works

42:45

Abraham did. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.

42:52

This is not what Abraham did. You're doing the works your father did. And they said to him, we were not born of sexual immorality.

42:59

You have one father, even God. And Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me, for I came from God, and I am here.

43:06

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.

43:13

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

43:22

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

43:29

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

43:36

The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. Now things are going to get really nasty.

43:44

So the Jews answered him, are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and you have a demon? Now a little bit of a note, in Jesus' time, the phrase

43:51

Samaritan was a racial epithet. Okay, so yeah, they're pulling the race card here and accusing him of something.

44:00

All right, are we not right in saying you're a Samaritan and that you have a demon? Jesus answered, I don't have a demon, but I honor my father.

44:05

You dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory. There's one who seeks it, and he's the judge. So truly, truly, amen, amen.

44:11

I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. Here he goes again.

44:17

Now Jesus has not only said that his words are on par with God's words, now he says something that their minds are, they're not wrapping their heads around and they're thinking this shows that either

44:29

Jesus is demonized or cracked or something. Because they say, Jesus says, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.

44:42

Really? Okay, and now watch their line of argument. So the Jews said to him, now we know you have a demon. Abraham died.

44:49

Did Abraham hear God's words? Yeah, he did. Did he die? He did. How about the prophets?

44:55

Did they hear the words of God? They did. Did they die? They died. Okay, so here's, this is the point that they're trying to make here.

45:04

Christ is making a claim that if you keep my words, you're never going to die. I mean, Jesus is making his words way more powerful than even the words that Abraham heard or the prophets heard.

45:16

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

45:25

Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? Right? And the prophets who died, who do you make yourself out to be?

45:38

And they can see this here. Who is this man that his words are going to keep us from tasting death?

45:44

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

45:50

God. But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I don't know him,

45:55

I'd be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. Your father

46:00

Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. Now here's the important bit. Nowhere in the

46:07

Old Testament does it talk of Abraham like this. Jesus is giving information about Abraham that is not in the

46:15

Bible. It's not there. And he's talking about Abraham in a way as if he knows him intimately and saw this time when

46:26

Abraham saw the day of Jesus and rejoiced. But Jesus, you know, he's only 30 -something years old, right?

46:36

So, and the Jews pick up on this. So the Jews said to him, you're not yet 50 years old and you've seen

46:42

Abraham? And Jesus said to them, amen, amen.

46:49

I say to you, amen, amen. Lego human. Truly I say to you, before Abraham was,

47:06

I am, ego, amy, I, I am.

47:16

Jesus invokes the divine name for himself here. And that's the point. So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

47:25

Now again, what gives us clarity regarding why would they pick up stones? It's coming back then to John chapter 10.

47:32

In John chapter 10, you have the Jews picking up stones to stone Jesus.

47:37

So Christ here, again, I told you that you do not believe the works that I do in my Father's name. They bear witness about me.

47:43

But you don't believe because you're not my sheep. Jesus is picking up on the same thing. My sheep hear my voice. I give them eternal life.

47:50

They will never perish. No one will snatch them. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one's able to snatch them out of my

47:56

Father's hands. I and the Father are one. They picked up stones to stone him. Jesus answered them,

48:01

I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you stoning me? The Jews answered him, it's not for the good works, but because you, a mere man, make yourself

48:11

God. That's the point.

48:17

So Jesus made himself to be God because he is God. And when Jesus uses the divine name from Exodus 3 for himself, that's why they picked up the stones in John 8, because he was making himself out to be

48:28

God. Blasphemy requires you to say something blasphemous. And saying that you're

48:34

God, and saying that you are I Am, they would consider that to be blasphemy.

48:39

That's kind of the point. Now, let me show you one more text. This one's a little bit more—actually,

48:44

I'm going to show you two. This one's going to be the more complicated of the two. But here's the much disputed text that is—I mean,

48:54

I'm going to be blunt. You spend four or five classes in Greek, and you will immediately know what is going on here.

49:08

Okay? I think it's chapter 4 in Mounce's book, we talk about predicate nominatives.

49:13

I teach from Mounce's The Basics of Biblical Greek, and it's chapter 4, it talks about the verb amy and also predicate nominatives.

49:22

Okay? So let's take a look at this text. Okay? So guys like Branham Tatum, the

49:29

Jehovah's Witnesses, and the one that's Pentecostals, they have a hilariously awful argument, which shows that they just don't know

49:38

Greek. I'll give you some resources on this. Okay, so in the Greek, enarche, in the beginning, ein, was.

49:45

In enarche was—enarche ein halagas. Kai halagas ein proston theon, kai theos en halagas.

49:52

So you can take this and kind of chop it up into three bits. Okay, enarche ein halagas. In the beginning was the word.

50:00

Okay? Now in Greek, I need to make this kind of a point here, is that the definite article, the word that gets translated as the in English, that in Greek, there are multiple different ways in which the word the can appear, because there are different cases for nouns.

50:18

So the noun will have a different case depending on the function that it serves in the sentence.

50:24

If the noun is the subject of the sentence, it'll be in the nominative.

50:31

If it's showing possessive nature, a possessive feature to it, that something belongs to somebody, then it'll appear in the genitive.

50:39

If it's the indirect object, it's in the dative.

50:45

And if it's the direct object of the sentence, then it will show up in the accusative.

50:50

I know that doesn't make any sense to most people, but suffice it to say here, we have lagas, and the definite article shows up in the nominative singular form here, ha.

51:01

So enarche ein halagas. In the beginning was the word. Next sentence. Next part of it.

51:07

Kai halagas. Again, notice the subject here. Kai halagas ein pros tontheon.

51:13

And the word was pros tontheon, was toward God, you can translate pros as with.

51:20

It's kind of getting at this idea of face -to -faceness, but that may be pushing pros just a little too hard.

51:28

So in the beginning was the word. The word was with, and then you'll note, tontheon. We've got the appearance of the definite article here.

51:35

But this is the much disputed third portion of the sentence. Kai theos ein halagas.

51:43

And what people who don't know Greek, and that's the only way I can put it, try to make hay with, is that the word for God, theos here, it's in the nominative, by the way, that's an important bit, that it doesn't have the definite article.

51:57

And there are times when something doesn't have the definite article where you can put the word a or an in front of it.

52:05

So they want to say, so in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was a God. And as soon as you do that, it's like, you guys don't know how predicate nominatives work, do you?

52:17

Because when you understand that, it's quite devastating. So let me explain.

52:23

Okay, so here's the sentence.

52:32

I am Chris. All right, there's your sentence. I am Chris. This is a predicate nominative.

52:38

Okay, I is the subject of the sentence, am is the verb, it's the linking verb to be, and the last noun,

52:48

Chris, tells you who I am. I am Chris. In Greek, in Koine Greek, when you have a predicate nominative statement like that, you have to have the subject, you have to have the linking verb to be, and then the noun that's in the predicate, in the predicate position, will always be in the nominative, and it doesn't have or take a definite article.

53:15

Okay, so let me see if I can give you an example here. All right, let me open this up.

53:20

All right, let's see here. In fact, what I'm going to do, I'm going to just duplicate this tab. Duplicate, and we are going to go,

53:30

I am, and I'm going to just type in, and door. Okay, and let me, let me expand this here.

53:41

I don't want to look at Proverbs. I want to look in the New Testament. Okay, okay. Truly, truly,

53:47

I am the door. Okay, I am. Okay, so, ego, a me, hei, thura.

54:00

All right, so here we have an example, I am the door, of a predicate nominative sentence.

54:07

Okay, thura is going to be a feminine singular nominative.

54:13

That's what this is. So, and you're going to note that hei thura shows up, and the verb

54:18

I am isn't there. the reason why is because when you have predicate nominative, sometimes you don't even have to put the verb in the case, okay?

54:26

So I am, ego imi he thura, I am the door. And in this particular case, what's interesting is thura has the definite article.

54:38

So the word that's in the predicate spot is the word I, ego.

54:44

And so when you take the predicate nominative sentences and you reverse the word order, where you throw the subject in the back end and you put the predicate in the front end, that's oftentimes used to make an emphasis, is the best way

55:03

I can put it, to really kind of punch something here. If you were to put this in its proper order, it should be reading, the door

55:13

I am. But by Jesus throwing the predicate noun in the front, the one that doesn't have the definite article,

55:22

I, he's making a big statement, I am the door. Now, let me give you some resources on this so that you can have a better place to go, all right?

55:32

So we talk about this, and I'm going to show you something here. So we're going to take a look at the credentials of Daniel Wallace, Dr.

55:39

Daniel Wallace. And I'm going to have to make this bigger because that just is small. Okay, Dr.

55:45

Dan Wallace. Dan is the Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.

55:51

He's taught there for more than 32 years. Executive Director of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, here in a

55:57

BA at Biola University with a major in Biblical Studies, minor in Greek. Graduated Magna Cum Laude from Dallas Seminary with a

56:05

THM degree, with the equivalent of a major in Old Testament Studies and a double major in New Testament Studies.

56:11

Graduated Summa Cum Laude, we got all that. He's done postdoctoral study at Tyndale House, Christ College, Clare College, Westminster College, Cambridge, the

56:20

Institute for Nest—I can't even pronounce that. I don't do German. Let's see here.

56:27

Tübingen University, Glasgow University, right. He's a member of several scholarly societies, including the

56:34

Studorium Novi Testamenti Societas, Institute for Biblical Research, Society for Biblical Literature, American Society of Paprologists, and the

56:45

Evangelical Theological Society, former president. You get the idea. Dan Wallace has got some street creds when it comes to Greek.

56:52

And I'm going to show you this because what I just said regarding how the predicate nominatives work, he affirms all of that.

57:00

And this is an exegetical insight that he – that is published in Bill Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek.

57:08

This is written by Daniel B. Wallace. And here's what he says. So the nominative case is the case that the subject is in.

57:16

We already discussed that. When the subject takes an equivalent verb like is, the verb to be, a me, okay, i .e.

57:24

a verb that equates the subject with something else, then another noun also appears in the nominative case as the predicate nominative, all right?

57:34

So I said, I am Chris. In Greek, that ego would be the subject, a me is your verb, and then

57:45

Christos, my name is Chris, I'm not really a messiah but I'm named after Christ, I am

57:52

Chris, that Chris is going to be the predicate case, right? The predicate nominative.

57:58

So in the sentence, John is a man. I better make this bigger, hang on a second here. In the sentence,

58:03

John is a man, John is the subject, man is the predicate nominative, John is a man.

58:09

There we go. In English, the subject and the predicate nominative are distinguished by word order.

58:17

The subject always comes first. Not so in Greek. Since word order in Greek is quite flexible and is used for emphasis rather than strict grammatical function, other means are used to distinguish the subject from the predicate nominative.

58:36

For example, if one of the two nouns has the definite article, it is the subject.

58:43

As we have said, word order is employed especially for the sake of emphasis. Generally speaking, when a word is thrown to the front of the clause, it is done so for emphasis.

58:54

When a predicate nominative is thrown to the front of the verb by virtue of word order, it takes on emphasis.

59:02

A good illustration of this is in John 1, verse 1, you know, part C. The English versions typically have, and God was the word.

59:11

But in Greek, the word order has been reversed, and it reads, and God was the word.

59:17

Now note here, ain here is the verb to be. Theos, because it doesn't have the definite article, is the predicate nominative, and it's been thrown to the front of the sentence, and that means it's been thrown in there for emphasis.

59:35

And that's what Daniel Wallace is saying. Halagos, that's the subject of the sentence. How do we know? Because it has the definite article.

59:42

So, as this then works out then, it should say, and God was the word.

59:51

John here is not saying that the word was a God. He's saying God was the word.

59:57

It's to emphasize the deity of Christ, and that's what Daniel Wallace is pointing out. So, we know that the word is the subject because it has the definite article, and we translate it according to the word, and the word was

01:00:08

God. Two questions, both of theological import, should come to mind. Why was theos thrown forward?

01:00:14

And two, why does it lack the article? Okay? Legitimate questions. In brief, its emphatic position stresses its essence or quality, what

01:00:22

God was, the word was, and how one translation brings out this force. Its lack of a definite article keeps us from identifying the person of the word,

01:00:33

Jesus Christ, with the person of God, the Father. That is to say, the word order tells us that Jesus Christ has all of the divine attributes that the

01:00:41

Father has. Lack of the article tells us that Jesus Christ is not the Father.

01:00:48

John's wording here is beautifully compact. It is, in fact, one of the most elegantly terse theological statements one could ever find.

01:00:55

As Martin Luther said, the lack of an article is against Sabellianism. The word order is against Arianism.

01:01:02

So, to state it another way, look at how different Greek constructions would have rendered it. Okay, so Sabellianism is a modalism.

01:01:11

This is what T .D. Jakes is, he's a modalist. So, and if it had been kai halagas ein hatheos, and the word was the

01:01:21

God, then you have Sabellianism, you have modalism, the heresy of modalism of T .D.

01:01:26

Jakes. Okay, and then if the word order had been kai halagas ein theos, without a definite article there, then that's not a predicate nominative, then.

01:01:38

It's not in the truest sense. And the word was a God, that's Arianism. But what does the biblical text say?

01:01:47

Kai theos ein halagas, and God was the word. Biblical orthodoxy. Jesus is

01:01:53

God, and has all the attributes that the Father has, but he is not the first person of the Trinity. All of this is concisely confirmed in kai theos ein halagas.

01:02:03

Again, that's Daniel Wallace, and again, you know, his credentials are here. What we'll do is

01:02:09

I'll put links down below to both of these resources in the description, and if you would like a little bit of, like, a primer on Greek that's available for free online, there's a website called ntgreek .net,

01:02:22

and Lesson 4 talks about predicate nominatives and the predicate position.

01:02:28

So you can learn for yourself. And like I said, you learn this really early in Greek 101.

01:02:34

And so anybody who says that the text you read, and the word was with God and the word was a

01:02:40

God, means that they bailed out of Greek 101, like, in week four. And they don't know

01:02:49

Greek. That's all I got to say about it. So we'll put the resources to that. All of that being said, there was one other text

01:02:55

I wanted to get to. Told you it was going to be a long episode. I think we're going to end up calling this a

01:03:01

Trinitarian takedown of Brandon Tatum. And that is that there is a big to -do about – and from time to time

01:03:10

I get questions about this – people, you know, I say that Christ raised himself from the dead.

01:03:17

And they say, where does it say that? Well, in John 2. So after clearing out the temple, making a court of whips and driving the money changers out,

01:03:28

Jews come stomping in and want to know Jesus' credentials and the authority for him to act like he runs the place.

01:03:35

So the Jews said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things? Jesus answered, destroy this temple in three days,

01:03:41

I will raise it up. And the Jews said, it's taken 46 years to build this temple, and you're going to raise it up in three days?

01:03:51

But he was speaking about the temple of his body. Mm -hmm. So when, therefore, he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the

01:03:59

Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. Jesus raised himself from the dead. And also, the resurrecting work is also a tribute to the

01:04:06

Father and the Holy Spirit. Now, I would note also then in this regard, if you fill out the rest of the teaching here, the

01:04:13

Holy Spirit is explicitly called God as well. And Robert Bowman does a great job of fleshing that out in this document, which again, we're going to put a link to this.

01:04:21

So if you want to go further on this, you kind of get the idea. But to kind of then wrap this up,

01:04:27

Matthew 28, the Great Commission, you have Jesus explicitly laying out that there is

01:04:35

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, the 11 disciples went to Galilee, Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

01:04:47

Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And there is no manuscript that contradicts this, none.

01:04:55

All of our manuscripts affirm that in the name, singular, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

01:05:02

And I would note that this is perfectly consistent with Jesus' baptism.

01:05:08

When Jesus was baptized, what does it say happened? In Matthew chapter three, when

01:05:13

Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.

01:05:21

And behold, the voice from heaven said, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. All three members of the

01:05:26

Trinity, the one God, there's one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, they were all there.

01:05:34

And is it any wonder that Matthew concludes his gospel with Christ's words to baptize in the name, singular, of the

01:05:43

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So there's your primer on what the

01:05:48

Scriptures teach regarding the Trinity. One God, the

01:05:53

Father is called God by Scripture, Jesus is clearly called God by Scripture, and the Holy Spirit is called

01:05:58

God by Scripture. There's not three gods, there's only one. Just saying.

01:06:04

All right, so all of that being said, that's the primer. Let's take a look at some of the just cringe stuff that Brandon Tatum has said in attacking the doctrine of the

01:06:15

Trinity, which shows he doesn't know his Bible as well as he claims that he does.

01:06:21

And the so -called scholars that he's reading are a bunch of wingnut wackerdoodles who are a bunch of theological conspiracy theorists who do not abide and accept what

01:06:31

God has revealed regarding himself and who Jesus is. They're guilty of heresy. They've made a

01:06:36

Jesus after their own image in accordance with their own reason. But their Jesus doesn't exist and can't save.

01:06:43

So let's listen to Brandon Tatum. Let's see. Freedom fighter. Our God is three in one,

01:06:48

Father, Son, Father, Spirit, Son. That is not in the Bible. Freedom fighter, I love you.

01:06:53

Yeah, I just showed you a text that said that, and Jesus himself said in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, namas, singular.

01:06:59

I love you, but that's not in the Bible. Three in one is not in the Bible. God the Son is not in the

01:07:05

Bible. Oh, sorry, anoma, name, anoma, namas is law. In the name, anomas, the singular,

01:07:12

God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Trinity is not in the Bible. I just showed you that it is.

01:07:17

Three persons is not in the Bible. I just showed you that it is. Co -equal, co -existent, co -eternal, none of that is in the

01:07:25

Bible. That is an ideology that was made or expound upon at the

01:07:31

Nicaean Council in 325 AD. That's weird, I didn't even quote Nicaea, I just quote the scriptures.

01:07:38

And in 325 AD, there's no record of anybody believing in three in one until 25

01:07:44

AD. You haven't even studied patristics, have you? They didn't even believe in three in one.

01:07:51

They believed that the Father and the Son were both God, and the Holy Spirit hadn't been talked about until 500

01:07:57

AD. Where did you study patristics? So in 500 AD...

01:08:02

I studied patristics at American Lutheran Theological Seminary. It wasn't the focus of my degree, but I had several classes on patristics, and what you're saying is not true.

01:08:11

They created the God family, and they pushed that forward. Three in one, and one in three. You talk to people about this, and they're so confused, they can't even explain it.

01:08:20

I just explained it, just walking through the fact there's one God, and Scripture calls three different persons

01:08:26

God. The Father is God, the Son, Jesus Christ, is God, Holy Spirit's also

01:08:31

God. It's because it's not supported scripturally. That's weird, all

01:08:37

I used was the Bible, dude. Somebody said biblical scholars are even confused about the Trinity. No, they're not.

01:08:44

Orthodox biblical scholars are not confused about it at all. Listen, y 'all, I don't want to bust your bubble, and don't get mad at me, don't unfollow me.

01:08:51

You're supposed to love me, that's what God said. Well, I love you enough to tell you the truth. You're speaking heresy. But you need to know the history of what you believe.

01:09:00

You clearly don't. The three in one was created. No, it wasn't.

01:09:07

That's revealed in Scripture. It's not biblical. Just showed it to you from the Bible. I can just read you a

01:09:16

Scripture. I'll just read you a Scripture. I'm just gonna randomly pick a Scripture, and you tell me what you think this means.

01:09:24

This is so embarrassing, as far as an argument goes. I'll let him spin it out. I read this yesterday.

01:09:30

We will go to, um, let's go to John 3.

01:09:36

It's one of my favorite Scriptures. Let's see. I'm gonna read you a Scripture in a second.

01:09:41

Hold on one second. Let's go to John 3. I'm gonna read some Scriptures. John 3, and we'll start at 1.

01:09:49

All right, so for the sake of time, I'm gonna speed him up at particular points, not to be disrespectful, just because I want you to hear him in context.

01:09:58

So let's let him spin this out, and if I move things forward a little quicker, understand it's just to kind of keep the pace moving.

01:10:04

And this is Jesus in his communication with Nicodemus, okay? Now, there was a man, and I'm reading from the ESV, which I think is the most consistent

01:10:10

Bible translation, based on my research. I'm reading from the ESV. There was a man, they used the word man, of the

01:10:15

Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. Literally called him a man. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him,

01:10:22

Rabbi, think about this, Nicodemus was a Jew. Nicodemus was of the Pharisees. Nicodemus was an intellect. He came to Jesus and called him

01:10:28

Rabbi. He didn't call him God, he didn't call him a second person, he called him Rabbi. He said, we know that you are a teacher come from, didn't say first person of the

01:10:34

Trinity, didn't say Trinity, said you are come from God. Okay, let me show you something here.

01:10:39

I'm gonna do a quick search for something here. We're gonna look for the words, logical fallacy, argument from silence.

01:10:54

Okay, I want you to see this. Okay, so an argument from silence. Let's see here, this is probably a graphic.

01:11:03

Argument from silence, drawing a conclusion based on the silence of the opponent when the opponent is refusing to give evidence for any reason.

01:11:10

Okay, so his argument is that, look, Nicodemus comes to Jesus in John chapter three and he doesn't say, we know that you're from the

01:11:18

Trinity, therefore that means that there's no Trinity. All right, it's a complete argument from silence.

01:11:25

So if we were to go to John chapter three, okay, now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the

01:11:32

Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher from God, for no one else can do the signs that you do unless God is with him.

01:11:40

Jesus answered, amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born anothen, born from above or again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

01:11:47

Nicodemus said, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

01:11:54

And Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit of spirit.

01:12:02

Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

01:12:11

So it is with everyone who's born of the spirit. And Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be?

01:12:16

And Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel and yet you don't understand these things? So Jesus is instructing

01:12:24

Nicodemus and coming to Jesus, he's kind of sorted out.

01:12:30

He's got to be from God, but he's coming for more clarification. And Jesus is giving him clarification and he's scratching his head going, all right.

01:12:40

So the fact that Brandon Tatum is going to Nicodemus and saying, well, he didn't say we know that you're from the

01:12:48

Trinity. This is an argument from silence. This is a completely convoluted argument that ignores the fact that Nicodemus is being instructed by Jesus and this has nothing to do with Jesus's deity per se.

01:13:02

Let me back this up because, I mean, this is so embarrassingly bad. I mean, the fact that he's putting this forward as an argument shows he should not be teaching theology anywhere.

01:13:14

And he needs to find a sound church with a real pastor who knows how to rightly handle God's word. To him, rabbi.

01:13:20

Think about this. Nicodemus was a Jew. Nicodemus was of the Pharisees. Nicodemus was an intellect. He came to Jesus and called him rabbi.

01:13:26

He called him God. He called him a second person. He called him rabbi. He said, we know that you are a teacher, come from, didn't say first person of the

01:13:31

Trinity, didn't say Trinity, said you are come from God. For no one can do these things that you do unless who? God is with him.

01:13:38

They are, Nicodemus, a scholar, is already separating the difference between God and Jesus. It's a good separation. One of the most cringe -embarrassing arguments

01:13:52

I've ever heard in attacking the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the

01:13:57

Trinity. Let's move along. Think about this for a minute. Think about this. I want you all to think about this as it relates to the Trinity. Don't get mad. Just hear me out.

01:14:03

God cannot die. God cannot die. God is a spirit. God cannot die, right? We already dealt with this, okay?

01:14:11

Let's let him spin this out. If Jesus was God, then he couldn't have died on the cross.

01:14:18

He was acting like he was dead, he was faking dead. God is not subject to a flesh. God is not subject to death.

01:14:23

God cannot die. So people need to rephrase what happened to Jesus on the cross if you're going to say that Jesus was God, right?

01:14:29

All right, we dealt with that already. Let's go back to the Gospel of John. Sorry, Acts chapter 20, verse 28.

01:14:41

This is so cringe. Paul writes, Pay careful attention to yourselves and all the flock in which the

01:14:47

Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

01:14:54

God doesn't bleed. So how do you explain that, Brandon Tatum? See, his arguments are just groan, cringe.

01:15:03

I mean, they're not even, I'll be blunt, they don't really deserve to be answered.

01:15:09

But the problem is he's got over a million viewers on YouTube, so you kind of have to. But showing you just how completely sophomorish and absurd his argumentation is, is a necessary part of demonstrating that this guy's speaking falsities.

01:15:27

The Trinity exists because you say it exists. It's not because the Bible says it. Think about this. Why are you using a word that's not in the Bible? Just don't use the word. I'm going to tell you this is how you wake up to the

01:15:34

Trinitarian falsehood. This is how you wake up to it. Only use words that are in the Bible. I did.

01:15:39

I only used the Bible, and I only used the words that were in the Bible. There's one God, the Father's God, Jesus is clearly called

01:15:45

God, so is the Holy Spirit. Just only use words that are in the Bible. Don't use God the

01:15:50

Father, I mean, God the Son, because God the Father is in the Bible. Don't use God the Son, don't use God the Spirit, don't use the second person of the Trinity, third person of the Trinity, don't use co -equal, co -eternal, three in one, don't use none of those words because none of those are in the

01:15:57

Bible. Only call Jesus what they called him in the Bible. I only used the Bible in my teaching of the doctrine of the

01:16:04

Trinity there. And you have nothing to say about the Trinity. Well, call Jesus what they called Jesus.

01:16:10

Nicodemus called Jesus a man. Nicodemus is your authority.

01:16:17

It's so bad. We continue. The Trinity is not even close.

01:16:23

You're going to see three persons, you're worshipping three gods. It doesn't matter how many times you say you're not, you're worshipping three gods. The Scripture is clear, there is only one

01:16:29

God. I already showed that, and yet Scripture says the Father's God, and clearly says the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is

01:16:34

God. Yet there are not three gods, there's only one. Demonstrate that from Scripture. Because I'm just going to explain it to you, it's very simple.

01:16:41

If Jesus is God, the Father is God, and the Spirit is God, and they're three separate persons, right? They have three separate wheels.

01:16:48

Because Jesus said, not my wheel, but thy wheel, O Lord. You're not using any text there, dude. Where's your text?

01:16:54

And you're going to note, my question is that since Scripture is clear that Jesus is God, who was he praying to in the

01:17:01

Garden of Gethsemane? Who was he praying to? His Father, right? And yet Jesus is also

01:17:08

God in human flesh. So you're going to note here, your whole reasoning falls flat when you consider what the text just say.

01:17:17

Not my words, but the words of the Father that's in me. He said, Father, why have thou forsaken me? Jesus was forsook by the

01:17:23

Father. Jesus never said anything that was his words, only the Father's words that was in him. Jesus didn't have his own spirit, he had the spirit of the Father in him. Now, you tell me...

01:17:29

Bad Christology there. If God can die. So, Jesus died on the cross.

01:17:35

I can't do my fingers like this because my fingers are messed up. I'm going to have to use some different fingers. These three. Jesus died on the cross.

01:17:42

So did God die? Did a part of God die? Or was it all made up? Well, Acts 20, 28 says that God bled.

01:17:48

What are you going to do with that? The Bible didn't say the flesh died. The Bible didn't say a part of Jesus died. The Bible didn't say his spirit died. It said

01:17:53

Jesus was dead. Now, if you're dead, you have to be resurrected, right? If Jesus... So know what he's doing here.

01:17:59

And this is the technique. He's not actually exegening any text. Not. He's not really exegening.

01:18:05

What he's done is creating these narratives based upon what seems reasonable to him. And the false narratives that this is all some kind of conspiracy concocted by people long after the fact.

01:18:17

But none of this holds up to any scrutiny at all. It's embarrassing listening to him. He had to be resurrected if the flesh died, and that was the end of it.

01:18:25

Now, if Jesus is dead, and he had to be resurrected, who resurrected Jesus? Well, Jesus said in John 2, to tear down this temple,

01:18:32

I will raise it up again in three days. Pointed that out already. The Father?

01:18:38

Like, who resurrected Jesus? Somebody said Jesus accepted worship so that he was God in human flesh. Yeah, Jesus did accept worship.

01:18:45

You are presuming. When people say Jesus did this, that's not what the Bible says. That's not what any theology says.

01:18:51

That's what people assume. I just showed you the text. Two points. Two places.

01:18:57

After Jesus walks on the water and the guy who was born blind in John 9. There is a difference between worshipping

01:19:02

God and worshipping a leader. There's a difference. People bow down to Moses. People bow down to Jesus. People bow down to David.

01:19:09

People bow down. They call it, if you look at the word in the Greek, it means to bow down to. You can bow down to a man and acknowledge him as a man.

01:19:14

The difference between worshipping... I already showed you from Revelation 19 that that proskuneo there, that the angel wouldn't allow

01:19:24

John to proskuneo him, to worship and bow down before him. Yeah, Jesus accepted worship.

01:19:30

And, of course, we have all these texts that clearly say that Jesus is God. It's that if the man is receiving worship as God, that's the difference.

01:19:37

You can worship the Bible, you can worship a lot of different things. You can worship the devil, they don't make him God because he receives worship. Come on, man. Come on, y 'all.

01:19:43

Some people used to worship David. They used to bow down, David was the king. The point is, Jesus accepted worship. And if he wasn't

01:19:49

God, he shouldn't have. But David did not accept worship as God. Okay, showing honor to a king is different than worshipping a rabbi.

01:19:58

Very different. He was the king. People acknowledged him and worshipped him and bowed down to him as king. They didn't bow down to him as God.

01:20:05

When they would worship the false images, they didn't make the images God, because they worshipped him. It was a false worship. All right,

01:20:11

I'll keep going. So are you saying that the disciples falsely worshipped Jesus and Jesus didn't rebuke them? That doesn't make any sense.

01:20:19

Everywhere in the Bible, the Father was God. The Father has never been a part of nothing. The Father has always been God. Yahweh is God. If you understand the words in the

01:20:25

Bible, God had a name, and it was Yahweh. It was the Tetragrammaton. The Tetragrammaton is God. Tetragrammaton. And I already showed you from Joel chapter 2, as well as Isaiah 45, that Jesus is

01:20:38

Yahweh. Yeah. God's name that was so holy that they did not want to write it in the Old Testament, so they put the word

01:20:44

Anani, which was translated in bold caps as Lord and God. The NIV leaves that out, so at least people are confused. The King James has it in there, so people know what

01:20:49

God's name is. Yahweh is God the Father. And if you look at it, Yahweh was God the Father.

01:20:54

Yeah, then how do you explain how Paul uses, you know, Joel chapter 2 in relation to Jesus in Romans 10?

01:21:02

You know, all who call on the name of the Lord, on Jesus, will be saved, and yet this text that he's quoting from Joel says all who call on Yahweh will be saved.

01:21:11

Paul is equating Jesus with Yahweh. And Jesus was not Yahweh. Yahweh is the

01:21:17

God of the Bible. Yeah, Jesus is Yahweh. We have two texts that make that clear. Philippians 2 cross -referenced

01:21:23

Isaiah 45. Romans 10 cross -referenced Joel 2. It's called the Tetragrammaton.

01:21:28

It's four Hebrew letters. We have a certain store that shows the Tetragrammaton. Yahweh. Yahweh is the Father of Heaven. There's one

01:21:33

Yahweh. There's nobody beside Him, nobody next to Him, nobody before Him, nobody after Yahweh. So I'm just giving you all some knowledge. Yahweh is God the

01:21:38

Father. No, you're not giving us any knowledge at all. You're just spewing your ignorance. Jesus is not

01:21:44

Yahweh. Man, I'm telling you, when you see this, you're going to be just as irritated as me. It's like, why do people, why do we mislead so easily? They could have called

01:21:50

Jesus God a thousand times. Jesus has never been called God in any scripture in the Bible. Never. How was

01:21:58

I able to pull all those texts showing that Jesus is God? I mean, how was

01:22:05

I able to do that? Yeah. From Thomas saying, you are my

01:22:12

Lord and my God, to Paul saying that Jesus, the Christ is God over all, to Titus chapter two, why are we waiting for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great

01:22:22

God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Peter himself saying that Jesus, so to those who obtain a faith of an equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our

01:22:35

God and Savior, Jesus Christ. We talked about the fact that Paul says that God bled.

01:22:41

He purchased the church through his blood. And even the Father commands all of the angels to worship

01:22:46

Jesus and says of the Son, your throne, O God, is forever. So, I mean, just, it's unbelievable.

01:22:55

He sits there and argues about how he knows his Bible. He's been reading it since 2008. He's not a newbie to any of this stuff, and yet he has the audacity to spew something as easily demonstrably shown to be false as these words.

01:23:11

Man, I'm telling you, when you see this, you're going to be just as irritated as me. It's like, why do people, why do we mislead so easily? They could have called

01:23:16

Jesus God a thousand times. Jesus has never been called God in any scripture in the Bible. Never. They had a thousand opportunities to say,

01:23:22

Jesus is God. You're God. You're God. God. Yeah, and yet I showed you all the texts where it says that Jesus is

01:23:28

God. Man, we got one. John, thanks a lot for the super chat.

01:23:34

58. Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. They took up stones to cast at him. They were going to stone him because he called himself

01:23:41

God. That's not the Bible. Yeah, it is. He's using the name of God from Exodus 3 for himself.

01:23:50

Let me read the scripture in the Bible because he did not call himself God. If you're saying that that scripture is, let me get it out of the

01:23:55

Bible. And he said, so the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old and have yet seen

01:24:00

Abraham? Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

01:24:06

Not anywhere in the scripture it says they were going to stone him because he called himself God. Okay, I'm going to back this up. Listen to what he says.

01:24:14

I'm going to slow it down. Listen again. They were going to stone him because he called himself God. That's not in the

01:24:20

Bible. It says, Jesus said, I am, and I'm going to talk about that in a second. So they picked up stones to throw at him.

01:24:28

Now, again, just a chapter and a half later,

01:24:34

John chapter 10. So the Jews picked up stones to stone again, to stone him.

01:24:43

And Jesus answered them, I've shown you many good works from the father for which of these are you going to stone me? The Jews answered him, it's not for a good work that we're stoning you because for blasphemy, because you a mere man make yourself

01:24:52

God. Yet, this fellow,

01:24:58

I mean, listen again to what he said. It says, they were going to stone him because he called himself

01:25:06

God. That's not in the Bible. Yeah, actually it is. The Jews answered him, it's not for good work that we're going to stone you, but for blasphemy because you being a man make yourself

01:25:15

God. Now, I could belabor the point, and this is like every time

01:25:21

Brandon Tatum opens his mouth to attack the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the

01:25:26

Trinity, he shows that he does not have the qualifications as a biblical scholar or somebody who has actually done a very good study on this.

01:25:35

It's so easy to refute him. It's embarrassing. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

01:25:42

And so Brandon, if you have the opportunity to see this video, I'm calling you to repent. The Jesus you believe in is not the biblical

01:25:49

Jesus at all. He can't save you. The biblical Jesus is Yahweh in human flesh.

01:25:55

He is God in human flesh. The disciples said that. Peter said it.

01:26:00

Paul said it. He received worship. He is, as Matthew says,

01:26:06

God with us, quoting from Isaiah 9. That's exactly who

01:26:11

Jesus is. And your Jesus, who is not God in human flesh, isn't a real Jesus. He's a

01:26:17

Jesus of your own making, and you have twisted the scriptures in order to make them conform with your reasoning and your understanding, rather than bending the knee to what

01:26:27

God has revealed regarding His nature. Therefore, your Jesus can't save you, so you need to repent.

01:26:33

Now, hopefully, y 'all found this helpful. If so, all the information on how you can share the video is going to be down below in the description, as well as the links to the different resources that we've made available.

01:26:46

And share this with people to warn them that, you know, you might like Brandon Tatum's politics.

01:26:52

You might like some of the things he has to say in the realm of conservative politics, and that's all fine and good, but you don't want to listen to his theology.

01:27:00

And we need to pray for Brandon, that Christ, the real Jesus, would grant him repentance, and that he will embrace and believe what

01:27:06

God has revealed about himself in Scripture. So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and His vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.