Christ is Still King

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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and we're going to pray and we're going to get into our mini study. I do have to watch my time because I have to drive out to radium there.

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So let's pray. Heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, we come to you in humble awe.

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You are the one true God and there is none other like you. So come, we pray, bless our hearts, our minds as we study your word.

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Send your spirit into our lives so that we may grow in love and in grace, so that we may go forth into all the world, proclaiming your gospel so that others may learn of your saving grace.

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All this we ask in Jesus' name, amen. All right, so being Trinity Sunday, it is important,

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I think, from time to time to make sure every one of us has a proper understanding of the doctrine of the

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Trinity. Now real quick, let's see, Heather McDonald says, what is a good resource for gaining knowledge on the social justice gospel and how to refute it?

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So all right, so that you know, social justice is a kind of an insipid thing because it plays off of real justice.

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We as human beings, we recognize that there is a real thing in justice. As far as a good resource on this matter,

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I would have to actually think about that because I would want somebody, I would want you to read somebody who at least understands what social justice is, isn't engaging in just pure rhetoric to refute it, but would look at it in a way of trying to understand where people are coming from, and then give a biblical basis for why it comes up short as a movement.

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And I would note that John MacArthur has done some work on this, and Phil Johnson has, but I always have to say those guys are

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Calvinist, so you have to, you know, I love Phil Johnson, he's a good friend, but we have some sharp disagreements sometimes.

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But I would point out that what he, what Phil Johnson has noted regarding some of the deficiencies of the social justice movement, and you'll kind of see this, is that what it does is it convicts people of sins that they haven't committed.

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And what it ends up doing is, and then it doesn't offer an absolution, it is only a condemnation thing.

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So when you look at social justice as it relates to like critical race theory, all right, so critical race theory comes out of the

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Frankfurt School, and really it has its basis in kind of Marxist theory and socialism and stuff like that.

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But the way it's manifested in our time is that if you are merely white, if you are white, and especially if you're a male, and then throw into boot that you're a

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Christian white male, then you are automatically a racist. You are automatically a racist.

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And so we've got a problem here because the fundamental assumption behind racism is that there are different races.

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There isn't. As Christians, we recognize that all of us come from the

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Trinity. All of us have our Genesis from Adam and Eve. We're all directly related to that.

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So there is only one, one race. So already we've got a problem because we've got an issue here.

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So then if you want to talk about maybe there's a tendency towards biases related to people who have the same ethnic origins that I do, we could talk about that.

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But what ends up happening is, is that everything is then filtered through power. And this is kind of a postmodern mindset.

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Everything has to do with power. So we are the oppressors. If you're a white male

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Christian, you are the oppressor, and everybody else is the oppressed. Well, the thing is, is that that is just not how this works, okay?

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So the idea here is, is that I'm okay with somebody pointing out there are ways in which you

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Rosebro have failed to love your neighbor and talk about all the different neighbors that I have.

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So you can talk about it in those terms, but this is not how they talk about it. And I would also note that kind of the big cry right now is they're saying no justice, no peace.

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Well, okay. So basically what they're basically saying is, is that we are going to engage in social injustice unless we get the outcome of justice that we want or demand regarding what has happened regarding George Floyd.

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But the reality is this, is that when we look at the, you have to look at the narrative that's coming out of the

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African American communities within the United States. And they have a compelling case that we must address.

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And the compelling case is that there is systemic police brutality that they are suffering.

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And they can point to instances, George Floyd just being one of them. There's a whole series of, so when they're shouting, say their name, say their name, say their name, they're referring to a series of not only men, but also women of the

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African American communities who are dead right now, who should be alive. And what ended up happening is they had a run in with police for one reason or another, and they were unarmed.

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And so you think of the gal who was killed by the police officers who were serving a knockless warrant, which, you know, so they were knocking on, they didn't even knock on the person's door.

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They just barged right into their apartment building. And the lady's shot at the police officers, not knowing that they were police.

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And they fired back and killed this woman. And it turns out they had the wrong address anyway. They, you know, there were no drugs in her house at all.

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And so this is a woman who should be alive today, who isn't. And my question is, since when did they start coming up with knockless warrants?

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Okay, well, how is that? How is that, you know, a situation that's not going to create death?

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Okay, that doesn't sound right to me. So, but the issue is, is that they take all of these instances, and it gets rolled up into the overarching narrative of critical race theory and social justice, and their claims that there still are lingering forms of systemic racism within the

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United States that goes back to the time of slavery here in the United States, and especially in the post

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Civil War America. Now, rather than having a civil conversation about this, what they're actually doing is engaging in an ideology and basically tarnishing, saying everybody who's white is a racist, and you have privilege.

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You know, whether you recognize it or not, you, the reason why you're doing well in the society is because of privilege, because of white privilege.

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And their primary focus then is on how they've experienced police brutality, people who have died after having a run -in with police over traffic violations or whatever, and the terrible things that have happened.

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And so rather than being willing to sit down and having a conversation, now it's devolved into this social justice, anti -social justice, alt -right, weird, rhetorical battle that's taking place, and what's missing in all of this is any kind of anchoring in the law of God.

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So I find it fascinating that people are rioting and they're holding up George Floyd as an example of a wrong that needs to be righted, but they're not saying it in the way that I can embrace.

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For instance, you know, so there's, you know, there's pictures of George Floyd with the protesters out there saying, you know,

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Black Lives Matter. And of course other people, while meeting, are responding, well, all lives matter.

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But the thing is, is that both of those rhetorical slogans are falling short in some manner.

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Now, what I haven't seen, and I've been looking for it as I've been watching the news, are people who have a poster that says, thou shalt not kill.

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I want you to think about that for a second. Could you imagine how different the whole thing would take is if somebody had made a poster, an image of George Floyd, and they had said, thou shalt not murder, right?

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Okay, taken the commandment, thou shalt not murder. And their protest was that he was murdered.

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And I believe, personally, after watching the video of the arrest, my opinion at this point, and I have to say it like that because, you know, in the

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United States, someone is innocent until proven guilty. My opinion is that the video of the arrest of George Floyd, I believe that a murder took place.

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That is what I absolutely believe, that that man was murdered. That the force that was used on him was not only unjustifiable, that it was over the top and proved to be deadly.

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It's like, you know, and so the retaliate, you know, the people crying out for justice in this case,

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I think they're crying out for it properly, at least at the core. But the thing is, they're not saying thou shalt not murder.

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They're saying all, you know, that black lives matter. And see, that's a different rhetorical spin on all of this.

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And one that I, as a Christian, and as somebody who's careful to note what we have to look at as a standard that we can all agree on, it is absolutely clear that the purpose of the government, and I know

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I'm doing a little mini study on this right now, because the reality, Heather, is I do not know of a book off the top of my head that addresses this biblically.

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Romans 13 makes it very clear what the purpose of the government is. So Romans 13 says,

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So let every person be subject to the governing authorities. There is no authority except for from God.

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Those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.

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Now, this does not mean that we have to bend the knee to a totalitarian government. That's ridiculous. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.

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Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is

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God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God and an avenger who carries out

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God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be in subjection not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.

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So this is why, then, we pay taxes and things like this. So I think you can make a case that something wrong has gone on here, because a man who was not armed, he was murdered by a police officer.

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And granted, he was high at the time, but being high doesn't warrant the use of deadly force for the purpose of arresting somebody.

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So we could point to this and say, listen, the government here has stepped out of line and gone beyond its mandate from God, and it is a mandate from God.

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They are to punish the evildoer. And so we must take into consideration, then, the claims of injustice on the part of police from those coming from communities that are primarily ethnically black, and their claim that they are being made to fear the police even when they have done nothing wrong.

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Now, that's a problem, all right? And so that has to be addressed, but it has to be addressed outside of the concept of social justice.

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It needs to be addressed under the, what is the mandate for the government? The government is to punish the evildoer.

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The government is not to oppress people who have done nothing wrong. And I've been pulled over a few times in my life for traffic violations, and I have never had a police officer knock me to the ground and hold my neck until I passed out for being pulled over for a traffic violation.

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And there are instances of this that have taken place that are readily available on the internet, and the

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African American community is saying, we are in fear of the government because they are acting in a way that they are not merely punishing evildoers, they are treating us all as criminals.

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And so there's something that has to be addressed in that manner. So, but the solution for Christians, we've got to come at this dialogue with a set of ground rules, and the ground rules has to be the law of God, and the ground rules also have to be what is the role of the government.

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And where the law of God has been broken, we have to say that regardless of whatever, however much melanin, the stuff that makes our skin either dark or white, it doesn't matter how much you have of that or not.

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If you've broken the law, you've broken the law. And then there's an appropriate response on the part of the government, depending on what the crime is, the presenting crime at the time.

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But, you know, so there's issues that have to be addressed, but the reality is the rhetoric that is taking place is making it impossible for there to be sane conversation about what really appears to be real problems in our society.

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And so I do not believe for a second that I am a racist merely because I'm white, that's just nonsense, and anybody who says something like that needs to take a class on exactly how justice works, because in our jurisprudence somebody is innocent until proven guilty, and what they assume is guilt, and there is no way of proving innocence, okay?

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So I am a racist merely because I'm white, which is nonsense, okay? That's just ridiculous, okay?

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So there is no sense of justice, somebody's innocent until proven guilty, there is no process by which somebody then, in social justice, there is no process by which somebody can go through to be able to defend themselves against particular charges, and in their way of thinking, and this is sad, among many of the social justice elite, there is no absolution.

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There is no absolution, there is only power. And so the way it works out is that what they'll say is, you have privilege because you have white power, and so the solution to them is you abdicating your power and giving it to them, okay?

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And that's their definition of justice. So already we've got some big problems, really big problems, because all of their assumptions are wrong, and the way they are prosecuting this is ideologically based, not biblically based.

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So we as Christians, we have to bring a biblical, some biblical parameters into this discussion, and note that there is enough blame to go around on both sides that, you know, when it comes to sin, but the

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Church's job, by the way, is not to punish the evildoer, the Church's job is to proclaim the gospel so that the evildoer can be forgiven and absolved.

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So we've got to recognize that in all of this too. So anyway, I think you kind of get the idea, but so Heather, so good question, and my apologies for my rambling answer, but anyway, you get the idea.

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So all right, Elizabeth says, I often use three -candle explanation for those who don't get the Trinity. Separate candles, three wicks, when flames are put together, it becomes one flame, but still separate candles and wicks.

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What do you think? Is this okay? Elizabeth, I'm going to say this, when it comes to the Trinity, every metaphor breaks down.

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Every one of them breaks down at one point or another. I recognize that you mean well in this, and I mean, even

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St. Patrick used the clover, right? But even that one breaks down at some point. So every analogy that we have here will at some point break down, so keep that in mind.

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So Heather says, I like Phil also, I'll definitely look what he said on social justice, thanks. Okay. My children are needing me, so I'll be leaving.

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Bye, Jenny. Okay, thank you very much. And then Eric says, and Oz, the same thing happened to a fella in jail, he was a local boy, and I know some of his family, five years old and still no justice.

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They are using Black Lives Matter to have protests here against COVID -19 restrictions.

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Yeah, see, that's ideological. Melanin, thank you, MJ and Carlos. Yeah, I just reach into my bag of words in my mind and sometimes pull out the wrong ones, that's how that goes.

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Sorry for asking such a big question, are you turning off the Trinity? That's not a problem, Heather. Okay. All right. Okay. It's okay, we know you're

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Canadian, got it. All right. All right. So, real quick here. Now, I'm going to give you a resource in the chat window,

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I'm going to give you a link, and the link is there for everybody to see, and it's the one that says www .blueletterbible

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.org. Let me show you where that link takes us. And this is a great resource online regarding the doctrine of the

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Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity is explicitly taught in Scripture, although the word

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Trinity itself does not appear in Scripture. Trinity is a word that was coined that captures or encapsulates what the

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Bible teaches regarding the nature of God. And so, let me do it this way here.

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I'm going to see if I can—Holy Trinity graphic.

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Let me see if I can find something really quick. Here's the one I want. Okay. So, the image that I use when

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I teach people the doctrine of the Trinity, and let me see if I can find one that's a little bit bigger.

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Let's see here. That'll work. Open image in new tab. Here we go.

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Okay. This one even has a fancy Gothic font. So, it's got to be holy.

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It's got to be right if it uses a font like that. Anyway, so basically the idea is this, is that there is one

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God, and so this kind of works out propositionally. Scripture explicitly teaches that there is one

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God. There are no other gods. The gods plural just don't exist, not in the truest sense, and I'll show you those texts.

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And yet the Scriptures explicitly say that the Father is God, that the Son is God, and that the

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Holy Spirit is God. There are clear texts that all say the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is

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God, and they're smattered throughout the Scriptures. But the other thing is, is that—the other thing we know is that the

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Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father, and the

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Spirit is not the Son. It's weird how that all works, because here's the thing. They interact with each other, all right?

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So Jesus says he's going to send the Spirit, while Jesus also prays to the Father.

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And so the idea then is, is that how does a being like this exist? I don't know.

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So what the idea is, is that the doctrine of the Trinity is merely to say the same thing regarding the nature of God, which he has revealed about himself in Scripture.

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And you'll also note that God also prefers male pronouns for himself. That's a really scandalous thing to say.

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But anyway, you get the idea. So in the resource that I gave you, Dr. Robert Bowman, who used to work for the late

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Walter Martin and wrote a book on the doctrine of the Trinity back when Walter Martin was alive, and he did a lot of work against the

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Jehovah's Witnesses in that regard. So what ends up happening is that this is kind of the outline, and you can follow this resource and it's just a great one.

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If you want to do an exhaustive study on the doctrine of the Trinity biblically, this is a great resource to help you do that.

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So I'll walk you through some of the basics here. So there are explicit statements that there is only one

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God, and I want to show you a few of them. Hang on a second here. Isaiah 43 .10

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is the one I consider to be the clearest, but I'm going to copy this and I'm going to go to my

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Hebrew Bible here real quick here, and I want Isaiah. There we go.

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All right, so Isaiah 43 .10 reads as follows, You are my witnesses, declares

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Yahweh, my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.

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

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That's pretty clear, okay? Before me no God was formed, nor will there be any after me.

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So the scripture's clear, there is only one God. Other texts that say this, Isaiah 44 .6, thus says

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Yahweh the King of Israel and his Redeemer, Yahweh Tzavaoth, the Lord of Hosts, I am the first,

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I am the last, besides me 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, let them declare what is to come and what will happen.

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Fear not, nor be afraid, have I not told you from of old, and you are my witnesses. Is there a

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God besides me? There is no rock, I know not any. Well, that means there's only one

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God, right? And then here we go, Isaiah 45 .5, I am Yahweh, there is no other, besides me there is no

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God. I equip you, though you do not know me. So that's just a sampling of the texts that explicitly teach that there is one

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God. So then, you'll note then that the outline also then has, talks about how the

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Father is called God. Now I will say this, in all of my years of dealing with and addressing heretical teachings,

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I have yet to see a single heretical group deny that the Father is

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God. I have yet to see that group, okay? So, I don't spend too much time working on the deity of the

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Father just because that's kind of the given, that's the one that everyone's willing to give you. Where the action is going to be at is going to be especially regarding the second person of the

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Trinity, God the Son, and who Jesus Christ is, and so you've got that.

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And then also in the Jehovah's Witnesses heresy, which is a modern day manifestation of what is known as the

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Arian heresy, which is a denial of the deity of Christ. Christ is just a God -like creature in the

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Arian heresy, but the Jehovah's Witnesses also deny that the Holy Spirit is a person, and they claim that the

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Holy Spirit is like electricity or magnetism. The Holy Spirit is a force, it is an it, not a he.

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And so that's kind of a fascinating bit there. So we'll take a look then, how then do we look at Jesus being

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God? And so you'll note that there are explicit statements regarding Jesus that he is

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God, and I'm going to just give you a few of those so that you can see how this works. All right, so we'll start with one that is highly contested, but still we own it, is

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John chapter 1 verse 1, and I'll show you the correlation between this and the first sentence of the

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Bible. So John 1 1, this is like the Genesis 1 of the

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New Testament. John 1 1 says, in the beginning was the Word. And so in RK, in the beginning was halagos.

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Lagos here, you've heard Jesus referred to, and by the way, if you ever hear anyone refer to Jesus as the logos, slap them for me, okay?

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Gently, just gently, and say, you need to learn Greek, okay? Because it's omicron, omicron, it is not omega, omega.

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So it is pronounced lagos, it is not logos, all right? Just so you know, that's the proper way to pronounce it, lagos.

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So Christ is the lagos. In the beginning was the lagos. Kai halagos and halagos, the

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Word, was pros ton theon, was with God, or face -to -face with God, and kaitheos and halagos, and God was the

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Word. So let me read it in the English, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was

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God. Now, so here's how this works. Remember what we confessed in the Athanasian Creed. The Holy Spirit is infinite, the

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Father is infinite, the Son is infinite, yet there are not three infinites, there's one infinite, okay, right? So you'll know, in the beginning was the

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Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. How many gods is that? One.

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You go, well, how is that possible? I don't know. We're talking about God here, okay?

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So in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. Now let me give you another text, but before I do that, let me show you the correlation then.

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So when John 1, 1 references in the beginning, okay, that's an important theologically charged statement.

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And the reason why it is a theologically charged statement is because that is saying that the universe that we exist, that we live in, it had a what?

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A beginning. What was there before that? Well, there was no before. Because time and space, you can't, okay, before that there was just eternity, and eternity is a time and space is a creation of God, which has a beginning.

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So your cross -reference for this then is Genesis 1, and the first sentence of the

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Bible is screaming Trinity, by the way. Okay, so here, the Hebrew here is on the left -hand side of the screen, and I'll read this out for you and point out the important bits here as it relates to the doctrine of the

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Trinity, because it's there in this first sentence. So here we've got the first word, be.

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Be means in, in Hebrew. Next word, reshit, beginning. So in the beginning, and then we have our verb bara, and bara means to create, and this is a third -person singular verb, which means that the noun that is doing the verb should be a singular noun, proverbially a singular masculine noun, but it's not.

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Okay, this is where it gets weird. So, bereshit bara, in the beginning, and you can say He created, but then what's the noun?

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Elohim. Elohim is the Hebrew plural of the noun

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God, which is El. So this one reads weird. So, bereshit bara

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Elohim, in the beginning, He created. Who created? God's created. God's created what?

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Eth ha'shamayim va 'eth ha 'eretz, God's created the heavens and the earth.

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So how is it possible that the verb is singular, but the noun is plural? Answer, the

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Trinity. So the very first sentence of the Bible is screaming at you,

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Trinity, Trinity, Trinity. And of course, we heard those words that when it came to the creation of man, what did

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God said? So Elohim, God's said, let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea.

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So here we've got the Trinity discussing amongst themselves, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit saying, let us make man in our own image.

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Now, along these lines then, also consider Isaiah chapter 6. This is kind of, this is ancillary stuff, but I'll show you some other clear stuff in this regard.

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In the year the King Uzziah died, Isaiah says, I saw the Lord, Adonai, in this particular one, sitting on a throne high and lifted up.

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The train of his robe filled the temple, and above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, with two he flew, and one called to another.

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And here it is in the Hebrew, kadosh, kadosh, kadosh, holy, holy, holy, the triple holy,

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Yahweh, Sabaoth. So, melo, ha, sefim,

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I've gone beyond all of this here, but kadosh, kadosh, kadosh,

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Yahweh, Sabaoth, and then the whole world is filled with his glory, all right?

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So here you've got the triple kadosh, the triple holy, which again kind of screams trinity.

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But then coming back to Jesus himself, consider in this regard John chapter 20.

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So, the day of the resurrection, if you remember, Jesus appeared in the upper room, and when he appeared in the upper room, you know, the disciples were all there and they were happy to see him, but Thomas missed the first meeting and he said he wasn't going to believe unless he saw

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Jesus. So, John 20 verse 26 says, eight days later his disciples were inside again.

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

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Do not be disbelieving, but believe. And what does Thomas say regarding Jesus? Thomas answered him, my

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Lord and my God, okay? And in the

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Greek it says, you are my Lord and my God. All right, so Thomas just confessed

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Jesus to be his God. Now, if Jesus isn't God, what's he obligated to do at this point?

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Go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down there Thomas. Thomas said, I'm just a man just like you, right?

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But he doesn't. What does Jesus say? Have you believed because you have seen me?

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Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Believe what? That Jesus is Lord and God, all right?

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So, you get the idea. So, there are plenty of passages then, and the study that I've given you will help flesh that out.

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And Jesus himself even invokes the divine name, I Am, for himself, which just about gets him stoned in John 8, 54.

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Many things I have shown you from the Father, which of these do you stone me? Not for these, but for you being a mere man, make yourself

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God. Okay? Interesting stuff going on there. But other texts we have that explicitly describe

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Jesus as being God. And so, let me give you another one that a lot of people are not familiar with.

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In the Gospel of John, not Gospel, in the book of Acts chapter 20, we have the

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Apostle Paul giving his kind of like last words to the pastors in the

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Church in Ephesus, and he gives some kind of word of warning to them.

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And so, in verse 26, it says, And so, let me just ask you real quick, can you tell me, when did

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God bleed? Well, on the cross, right?

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That's kind of the idea. But then also a clear confession regarding Christ's deity is found in Colossians chapter 2, and here's what it says, starting at verse 8,

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See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, not according to Christ.

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For in him the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily. Did you catch that?

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In Jesus, the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily. And you have been filled in him who is the head and rule of all authority.

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So, in Christ, the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily. This then jives perfectly with a text like in Romans chapter 1, where it says that Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets, in the holy scriptures concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, but was declared to be the son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead,

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Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, by the way, when we say that Jesus is the son of God, we are saying that Jesus is

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God. That's exactly what the scriptures teach in this regard. So, let me give you another text along these lines so that you can see what's going on here.

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Oh, I'm in Roman's hands. John 5. I want John. There we go.

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All right. So, here we got this interesting thing where Jesus is condemned for healing a guy on the

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Sabbath. I mean, can you believe that? Healing a guy on the Sabbath. So, there's these

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Pharisees at this point who are trying to figure out who broke the Sabbath here. So, they asked this fellow, you know, who's been, who's carrying his mat on the

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Sabbath. They say, it's not lawful for you to take up your bed. But he answered them, the man who healed me, that man said to me, take up your bed and walk.

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So, they asked him, who's the man who said to you, take up your bed? He says, now the man who'd been healed did not know who it was, for it was

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Jesus had withdrawn as there was a crowd. And so, Jesus found him and said in the temple and said to him, see you are well, sin no more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.

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So, this guy rats on Jesus. And so, the man went away, told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

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And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, my father is working until now, and I am working.

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And so, this is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, he wasn't, he was breaking their rules, not the rules of God regarding the

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Sabbath. But he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God.

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Okay? Now, another text in this regard is also helpful, and that's in Philippians chapter three, two, sorry, two,

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Philippians chapter two, in what's called the Christ hymn. Here's what it says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

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Let each 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.

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Who though he was in the form, morphe here, you can translate as by nature, although he was by nature

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God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant.

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Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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And you'll note that this whole analogy, this mindset of Christ that we're told to hold up, wouldn't make any sense if Jesus wasn't by nature

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God, or equal with God. You know, so for instance, if I were to say to my wife, honey,

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I've decided that I am no longer going to consider myself equal with God. Would she consider me to have done something virtuous by saying that I no longer consider myself equal with God?

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She'd say, you're an idiot, because you were never equal with God. So she would never, she would not consider that to be virtuous, she would consider me to be, you know, kind of moronic.

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But note here, Christ is by nature, he's equal with God, and the beauty of the incarnation is that he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant.

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Although he was king of kings and lord of lords, he is found in the form of a slave. So we are to consider others as more equal than ourselves.

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That's the whole point of that text. And then a text, I may have done this recently in the

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Kongsvinger class, but Romans 10 is a very, very helpful scripture, because in Romans chapter 10, 13,

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Paul cites Joel chapter 2, verse 32. And in this regard, this is a very helpful thing because Joel 2, 32 is talking about Yahweh, about the one true

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God. And so when we confess that Jesus is Lord, we're not saying Jesus is my boss, or Jesus is my manager.

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When we say that Jesus is Lord, we're actually confessing him to be God. That's the point.

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So note what Paul says, the scriptures say, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. There is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same

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Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. And then he says, for everyone who calls on the name of the

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Lord will be saved. And the reverend here is Jesus. So if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is

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Lord, that's verse 9, and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So the question is, what does it mean to confess that Jesus is

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Lord? Well, answer, that's found in the cross reference that Paul uses in verse 13, and that cross reference is found in Joel 2, 32.

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So when we pull that up, Joel 2, 32 in particular, let's see here.

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Okay, so, all right, here it is.

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

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The sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of Yahweh comes.

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So here we've got the divine name being invoked, all right, Yahweh. Yahweh is the name of the one true

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God. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh shall be saved.

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So note, the Hebrew text says Yahweh, but here's the thing, what

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Paul does in Romans 10 here then is saying in verse 13, everyone who calls on the name of the

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Lord will be saved, that's to call on the name of Jesus. So Jesus is

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Yahweh. He's the Yahweh of the Old Testament. He is the God, he's the

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God of the Old Testament in human flesh. You know, in him the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily.

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So those are examples of texts. And let me do this, I'm going to do a quick word search.

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Great God, let's find this. Here it is,

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Titus 2, another great text. The heretic, the late heretic

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John Shelby Spong hated this verse, by the way. He railed against this verse every opportunity he had.

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Titus 2 .11, the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness, worldly passions, to live self -controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great

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God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Well, that looks like Jesus is our great

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God and Savior, because he is, right?

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So another great, great text, all right? So those are like your go -to text in defending and embracing the fact that Jesus is

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God. So remember the graphic here. So nobody challenges that the

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Father is God, but in the study that I gave you, there's plenty of passages that say the Father is God.

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And now we've looked at these texts that say that the Son is God. Anyone unconvinced at this point that the

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Son is God, our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, okay? So the scriptures make it clear, yet there's only one

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God, there are not multiple deities. Now before I get too far, let me check questions on this so I don't get past everybody.

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And Elizabeth says, can we use the term Godhead? Yes, people do use that term. I do find it to be a term that is a little bit fuzzy in how to nail it down and define it.

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So I personally don't like to use it, but I do not think that somebody is erring grievously if they do.

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So that's just personal preference. I like tighter language that is more specific, and I find that Godhead can be a little bit confusing.

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Tony says, what do you think of F .F. Bruce's study book, The Gospel of John? I think

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Walter Martin once mentioned the Trinity being triplex, not one plus one plus one, but one times one times one times one.

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Yes, Walter Martin did use that analogy of multiplication, and again, every analogy, including that one, has some flaws in it.

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So there is no perfect analogy, and I understand that when people use analogies like that, they're trying to help somebody grasp the concept.

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But note this, that the clever heretic will always find the flaw in the analogy to shoot down the doctrine of the

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Trinity. So just make sure that you make it clear. It's an analogy, it's kind of like this, but even this analogy has flaws.

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There is no perfect analogy. Okay. One is Pentecostals. Carlos and MJ say, use

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Isaiah 9 -6 to argue that Jesus is the Father. Can you please explain that verse? As we know, that's not the case.

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What does everlasting Father mean? So in this particular case, to say that Jesus is the everlasting

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Father is simply to basically say that He is one member of the Trinity. Okay, and you'll note that what you end up doing, and let me kind of put it to you this way, is what heretics do is they take unclear passages and they use them to obliterate the clear texts.

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Okay, so we'll note that to call Jesus the everlasting Father, our cross -reference would be where Jesus says to Thomas, where Thomas says, show us the

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Father, and that's enough. And Jesus says, have I been with you this long, Thomas? Anyone who has seen me has seen the

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Father. Now that doesn't mean that Jesus is the Father, but the idea here is that Jesus is the same

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God as the Father. And so there's your cross -reference, and yet Jesus is very clear that He prays to His Father.

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So let's see here. Father, think.

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Okay, and I want Gospels. Hang on a second here. Let me go that direction.

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All right. So note, Matthew 1125, at that time Jesus declared,

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I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and the understanding and revealed them to little children.

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So note, Jesus prays to the Father. And the Oneness Pentecostals, what the problem that they have is, is that if Jesus is the

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Father and also the Spirit, because Oneness Pentecostalism teaches that the

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Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, but they are all different manifestations of the one

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God. All right? So sometimes God manifests as the Father, sometimes

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He manifests as the Son, sometimes He manifests as the Holy Spirit, but we've got a problem, and that is that Jesus prays to the

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Father as being somebody who is different than Him, even though He is the same

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God as Him. And so what's the Oneness Pentecostals explanation for all of this?

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Well, Jesus is engaging in some kind of theatrics, but then I would also remind you that the

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Holy Spirit and the Father show up at the baptism of Jesus. And this is an important bit here.

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So Matthew 3 .13, Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him.

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John would have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? But Jesus answered him, let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill our righteousness.

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Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the

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

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Son, with whom I am well pleased. So the Oneness Pentecostalism has a problem here, because there is the

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Son in the water, and the voice of the Father is heard from heaven. How do you explain? Well, so God's engaging in some kind of theatrical appearances here, and making it appear as if there's a distinction between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as far as persons are concerned, when there isn't.

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So Oneness Pentecostalism falls flat on so many fronts, but that's the gist of it.

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So your cross -reference is going to be where Jesus says that he and the Father are one, and so that's referring to them being one by virtue of them being

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God. Okay. Elizabeth says, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.

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Glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And the

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Word became flesh and dwelt among us, the ESV, and we have seen his glory as of the only Son from the

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Father, full of grace and truth. I would note this, that that only begotten,

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I think, is a better translation of monogenes in John 1 .14 than the

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ESV's translation of only. And so I would say that I would favor the

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King James translation of monogenes in John 1 .14 over the

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ESV's translation. And you'll note, as somebody who knows the biblical languages, I exercise the prerogative to do that because I know what the texts say in their originals.

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So, Athanasian Creed, can you help me understand the text? The Father is not made, nor created, nor begotten by anyone.

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So this is Stephen. The Son is neither made nor created but begotten of the Father alone. The Holy Spirit is of the

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Father, the Son neither made nor created nor begotten but proceeding. I struggle with being begotten and the

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Holy Spirit proceeding. It's confusing since all three are eternal. So here's Stephen, I would note this, that this is one of the earliest ways in which the

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Church distinguished the persons of the Trinity, and it distinguished the persons of the

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Trinity by noting words that were unique to those persons. So, for instance, finding words that are unique for the

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Father only is a challenge. So the

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Athanasian Creed picks up on a formula that the Church ancient used to use, that the Father is not created nor begotten.

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Begotten, by the way, does not mean that Jesus has a beginning, it's just a word that's used about Jesus, that's monogamous.

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And so the Son then is neither made nor created, so this is an important thing, but it is said of Jesus that He is monogamous, that He is begotten, that He is the only begotten of the

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Father. So what does it mean, begotten of the Father? We're not exactly sure how to explain it, but begotten is a word that is used only of Jesus, only of the

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Son of God. Begotten is not a word used of the Father, and it is not a word used of the

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Holy Spirit. Now there is a word that is used in Scripture regarding the Holy Spirit that is not used regarding either the

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Father or the Son, and that word is proceeding, and so, or proceeds.

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So you'll note then that begotten and proceeds are words that are uniquely used for either the

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Son or the Holy Spirit, and that's the point. So when the Athanasian Creed uses this formula, not made or begotten, and then begotten and then proceeds, it's trying to basically say that Scriptures do say things about the

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Holy Spirit that it doesn't say about the Son and about the Son that it doesn't say about the Father or the Holy Spirit. That's the point of those distinctions, okay?

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So, God, the only begotten one. Christ, yeah, that's Jesus. Jesus is the only begotten one, and that's only true of the

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Son, not of the Father or of the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth says, how on earth does

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Judaism explain the plurality of God in Genesis? Oftentimes they will say that this is kind of a majestic use of the word of the plural, which means that God is just really great.

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It's kind of a majestic use of Elohim, and I find it to be completely insufficient.

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And I will say this, that biblical scholars and biblical theologians of Judaism prior to the incarnation of Christ, so second and third century before Jesus was born, noted that there's a plurality within God.

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They see it in the Old Testament text, it's there, and so you have to read some older Jewish scholars on this, you know, but they do recognize that that exists in the

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Old Testament. Okay, so, Carlos Nemj, so we also see Christophanies everywhere in the

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Old Testament pointing to the deity of Christ. Oh, yes we do. The fourth man in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that's a great example.

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Also, read about the angel of the Lord's appearance with the parents of Samson, okay?

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That's a great account in the book of Judges, and there's no mistaking it, that's God who was there, okay?

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So, Elizabeth says, is there an order to the Trinity? I would say that the Athanasian Creed makes it clear that none is before or after the other.

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It is a kind of a human tradition that goes back to the

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Great Commission, where we refer to the Trinity in this order when Jesus says, baptize them in the name of the

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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So we follow that order of the doctrine of the Trinity in ordering them, because Christ has given that in our baptismal formula, but again, the

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Athanasian Creed makes it clear, none is before or after the other. So they are co -equal, all right?

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All right, so, yes indeed, two powers in heaven. Okay, now,

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I have to do this, I have to stop here, because I physically have to drive to another church, and it takes me a while to get there, and if I show up late, then the divine service starts late, and people get really grumpy at me.

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So, but I would say this, the text to go to regarding the

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Holy Spirit being God, I believe it's in Acts 5. Yes, it's the story of Ananias and Sapphira.

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If you want to see the text related to the Holy Spirit being God, it's very clear that Peter says that they lied to the

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Holy Spirit, and in so doing they lied to God. That's the text that you want to go to, and there are other passages that describe the

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Holy Spirit as being God, so there you go. All right, so peace to you brothers and sisters, and Lord willing, if I'm still breathing, we'll have a divine service and Bible study next week as well.