Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Knowing God

The philosopher Socrates is famous for his exhortation, "Know thyself!"  But if you do not know God, you do not know yourself or anyone else.  All right understanding comes from the holy Spirit.  Since the Lord Jesus said that God's Spirit guides us into ALL truth (Jn. 16:13), then there is NO truth that can be had without it.  Humans can have earthly knowledge; they can know how many pints are in a gallon and how many feet are in a mile.  But knowledge about life, knowledge of what is truly good or truly evil, comes only from knowing God.

Nobody on earth knows God or can know Him unless he is baptized with the holy Spirit (with the evidence of the Spirit's voice being heard).  The day you receive the holy Spirit is your first day in God's school.  Even ministers who have not received the holy Spirit baptism, regardless of their titles and degrees, are completely blind to eternal truth.  When I was in the seminary, I heard more truth in one sermon from an old holiness minster with a third grade education than I heard the entire semester from some of my professors.  In the kingdom of God, knowledge is not a matter of earthly education; it is a matter of revelation.

We know whatever we know about life only to the extent that we know God.  This is why Jesus said that to know God and His Son is eternal life (Jn. 17:3).  Without the knowledge of God, there is only confusion and strife, and eventually, death.  But with the knowledge of God, there is righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit.


Thursday, May 10, 2012

Trinitarian Discussion Group

I was invited recently to join a Christian discussion group based in Great Brittain. I was invited by the leader of the group because she had read an article I wrote concerning the Father and the Son, and she thought the other members of this invitation-only group would be interested. I gave it a try. What I found there were amateur theologians, throwing around big words that none of them understood and quibbling over issues that didn't even matter, or in some cases, even make sense. After making a few replies to some comments there, I decided just to post the following few comments and move on. Maybe somebody in the group is sincerely looking for true relief from that pretentious madness.

My post:

There is no such thing in heaven as a Holy Trinity of three (no, one) co-equal, co-eternal person/s who make up the one (no, three) true God. It is Christian mythology not found in the Bible, and for good reason.  The Father is a person, with a body, the Son is a person, with his own body, and the Spirit is the holy, eternal life they share.  There is nothing more to it than that.

As for the old argument that the Spirit is a person because it is said to do things that only a person can do, please take the time to find out what the Bible says that YOUR spirit can do.  Paul even told the Corinthians that his spirit would be with them when they met.   Did Paul teach that HIS spirit was a person?   And if HE had a son, would he, his son, and his spirit then comprise "a Trinity of co-equal persons" who would then make up the real Paul, in homoousiac, ontological essence? *sigh* Can't you see the nonsense of it all, my friends?

As for the Son being called "God", others were also called "god" who were anointed by God, including Moses and Israel's leaders.  Besides, as the author of Hebrews states, the Son was God's agent for creating "the worlds", later pointing out that, surely, the one who created things deserves the tile, "God" (especially if Moses and others bore that title).

Be real, now.  None of you understands or can explain your own trinitarian terms, such as "the essence of God", "equal, ontological Trinity" and other such non-sensical, trinitarian language.   Let Jesus relieve you of the burden of carrying that excess, empty baggage around, "lest, as the serpent led Eve astray by his craftiness, your thoughts should be led astray from the simplicity that is in Christ."