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by Chuck LaMattina of Grace Ministry International.

7. The self revelation, in the Old Testament, that only Yahweh (who is one person) is God.

“To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD [Yahweh] Himself is God; there is none other beside Him.” (Deuteronomy 4:35)

“Now see that I, even I, am He, and there is no God beside Me.”
(Deuteronomy 32:39)

“O LORD [Yahweh] of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are
God, You alone . . .” (Isaiah 37:16)

“You are My witnesses,” says the LORD [Yahweh], and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the LORD
[Yahweh].” (Isaiah 43:10, 11)

This is the fifth post in a moderated debate between Biblical Unitarian Danny Dixon and Trinitarian Marc Taylor. A complete list of posts can be accessed here.

In examining the discussion thus far, I see that I have presented a few points that I do not think Marc has dealt with well, and I will restate them as well as present my final constructive points for the readers’ consideration.

1. Jesus, Uniquely Begotton, Was “With God”

A big problem with the “hot button” social issues that get debated endlessly is that you often have people on both sides of the debate who misunderstand, oversimplify, or in some cases even misrepresent the opposing view.  The video I have linked here (I couldn’t get it to embed) gives a good, common sense, look at the abortion issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4W6GqzuxZY

Probably the best line in it was, “If your views on abortion can fit on a bumper sticker, you haven’t thought it through hard enough.”  I think this can also be said for all of the “hot button” social issues.  When I took a course on Ethics in college, the biggest thing I learned was that there are no simple answers.

Introduction

One of the figures that Scripture refers to, in both the Old and New Testaments, is “The Satan”. In addition, the New Testament refers to a figure called “The Devil”. For example, The Satan caused the catastrophes that befell Job, and The Devil is called “The father of lies”.

An important item to note is that the Hebrew word satan means “adversary”, or “accuser”; and the Greek word diabolos (from which we get the word “devil”) means “slanderer”.

As with many other Scriptural concepts, there are several different beliefs about who - or what - The Satan actually is, among various Christian groups. Basically, there are two main questions about The Satan, that these doctrines try to answer:

This is the fourth post in a moderated debate between Biblical Unitarian Danny Dixon and Trinitarian Marc Taylor. A complete list of posts can be accessed here.

Thanks, Marc.

First and Last

Let’s start by noting the weight of the instances that have Jesus calling himself “the First and the Last” in the book of Revelation, associating that designation as following his death and resurrection.

God cannot die (1 Timothy 1:17). The Trinitarian presupposition that Jesus was a mortal God-man can be read back onto the biblical text, but these are more naturally explained as speaking of Jesus who had a beginning when God gave him life (John 5:26; 6:57). He is not eternal. However, “First and Last” is a designation that only applies to Christ in Revelation, and it does so twice (1:17-18;2:8). Revelation talks about Christ being first, calling Jesus the ‘firstborn from the dead’ in Revelation 1:5. This fits the immediate context and the way that John looks at things overall.

Heaven.

Most people believe:
A.) Heaven is a place souls float up to, after their body dies, where they will see God, play golf, and live a life there, where the gates are pearly and the streets are golden.
B.) Heaven does not exist, except for it being the sky.

But, today, I would like to give a third option that the Bible offers us:
C.) Heaven is a place where our invisible God dwells, with His Son Jesus who sits at the right hand of God until the time of restoration is complete.  Jesus will come down to the earth to resurrect the dead, restore things, put all authorities and government under his feet, judge the world, so that the age of the Kingdom can begin, and then God will finally be able to come down and dwell with mankind on the new earth.

by Chuck LaMattina of Grace Ministry International.

6. It was God, the Father of Jesus Christ, who was the source of all the good works and miracles that Jesus did.

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” John 14:10

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—“ Acts 2:22

Last week, a number of us produced the following video. Thanks to Matt and Blake of Plasma Productions, and Nathan for his last-minute willingness to jump in and read the script, this eight minute video is now on youtube and gathering steam. Please link to it or embed it on your own website. It lays out in plain language five big reasons why the Trinity doesn’t make sense.

the challenge

Will you ask these five questions of your pastor or trusted Christian expert? Most people just believe in the Trinity because that is how they were raised. Tradition has been passed down from generation to generation and no one seems to be asking whether or not this doctrine is biblical. If you care about this subject, if this is important to you, if you want to know who God really is, then you owe it to yourself to wrestle with these questions.

This is the third post in a moderated debate between Biblical Unitarian Danny Dixon and Trinitarian Marc Taylor. A complete list of posts can be accessed here.

1. That the Lord Jesus is the First and the Last necessitates that He is Almighty God in that He always existed.

a. Brown: The formula “the first and the last” is only found as a self-designation of the exalted Christ (1:17; 2:8; 22:13). This goes back to the Heb. wording of the divine predicates in Isa. 41:4; 44:6; 48:12. In the Gk. translation of this expression the LXX has avoided the divine title of eschatos and uses a paraphrase instead, perhaps because of negative undertones. The formula belongs essentially to the synonymous phrases “the Alpha and the Omega” (Rev. 1:8; 21:6; 22:13; Alpha being the first, and Omega the last letter of the Gk. alphabet), and “the beginning and the end” (22:13). The application of these divine predicates to the exalted Christ means the ascription to him of a rank equal with God’s with the attribution of the functions of Creator and Perfecter (NIDNTT 2:58, 59, Goal).

This is the second post in a moderated debate between Biblical Unitarian Danny Dixon and Trinitarian Marc Taylor. A complete list of posts can be accessed here.

Seeing that there is only a 1500 word limit I was surprised to see that Danny didn’t select a few passages and give a thorough explanation/defense for his position. What he often did do is simply give a scant one or two sentence affirmation followed by several passages. The somewhat large amount of passage citations may look impressive and convince the unsuspecting but this shotgun approach still doesn’t hit its intended target of attempting to prove that the Father alone is Almighty God.