The following article by Anthony Buzzard is from the July 2010 issue of Focus on the Kingdom. He quotes from A Theology of the Jewish-Christian Reality by Paul van Buren, p. 79-83.
“In the beginning was the Word; the Word was in God’s presence, and the Word was God. He was present to God in the beginning. Through Him all things came into being, and apart from him nothing came to be.”
Greetings everyone! Sorry I’ve been so busy lately (selling a house - buying a new one). I haven’t had much of a chance to write or post anything here on KR.
I did read this article by Ray Faircloth the other day and really liked it. There’s been a paper of his and one or two others referenced here on KR before, so the name may seem familiar. Though I believe Sean may have met him in person at a conference or two in the past.
Enjoy and may Yahweh bless you!
JESUS WAS NOT THE AGENT OF THE GENESIS CREATION
By Raymond C. Faircloth
THE IDEA OF AN AGENT OF CREATION
Posted in Our Father, Yahweh, Messiah Jesus, Doctrine, The Trinity, Church History, Ron's Articles, Theological Conference, monotheism, pre-existence, Jesus Only, Christology on June 10th, 2010 No Comments »
Joel Hemphill was a presenter/speaker at this year’s 19th Annual Theological Conference held in Atlanta, GA 4/25-4/28. Joel did a terrific presentation on the need for “Removing Greek Philosophy From Christianity“. If you’d like to view a video of it recorded there at the conference, you can watch it for free at Dan Gill’s wonderful 21st Century Reformation website: http://21stcr.org/multimedia/removing_greek_philosophy/removing_greek_philosophy.html. On that same page you’ll find a down-loadable PDF version of another one of Joel’s tracts - this one about some “Shocking Admissions” from various Trinitarian scholars. I like it so much, I thought I’d publish it here in the KR blog. I hope you enjoy as well.
Shocking Admissions
“Facing The Truth Regarding
The Doctrine of The Trinity”
by Joel Hemphill
Dear Friend:
Posted in Our Father, Yahweh, Messiah Jesus, Sean's Articles, Doctrine, The Trinity, holiday related, monotheism, pre-existence, Christology, Birth of Christ on December 9th, 2009 32 Comments »
Interpretation #1:
From eternity past the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit existed as a community of one, perfect in love, harmony, and joy. In the enternal counsels of this triune God the plan of salvation for the yet-to-be-created human race was decreed. The only question was who would go. Overwhelmed with self-sacrificial love, the Son volunteered to humble himself by uniting humanity to his divinity, veiling his deity by taking on human flesh. Two thousand years ago, this salvation plan was carried out by the second person of the Trinity. He entered the virgin womb of Mary and suddenly she became pregnant with God the Son. He was perfect God and perfect man, not half divine and half human like Hercules, but fully God and fully man in a totally unique way. This incredible event is called the incarnation—the moment when God became man for our salvation. In fact, the cross is not really the most important event for redemption, the incarnation is. For without the humbling act of God giving up his divine prerogatives to condescend to the lowly state of a first century Palestinian Jew, the cross would mean nothing. Thus, in the grand scheme of things, the incarnation is the premier event that brought God to man so that man could be reconciled with God.
Last month on both Saturday 6/13 and Sunday 6/14, I attended the 2009 One God Seminars put on by the ACD (Association for Christian Development). This was the first such conference I went to in person though I’ve read a lot about previous years conferences from this site (Sean has attended many), Anthony Buzzard’s Restoration Fellowship website & monthly newsletter (Focus on the Kingdom), and even the ACD Seminar organizer – Ken Westby’s website: http://www.godward.org/. I’ve always wanted to attend one, but for one reason or another never was never able to make the journey to the host location. However this year’s chosen location happened to be in my home turf of Dallas-Ft. Worth. And even more convenient was that the actual meeting location was a whole 15-20 minute drive from my house. What could be more perfect? I was very ecstatic about it and even more so when I learned that Sir Anthony Buzzard was going to be a presenter. I had always wanted to hear him speak in person and to have the chance to meet him and possibly have a discussion or two on our mutual biblical interests.
Randy recently made the following query:
I agree with your theology regarding One God… my question today tho after reading an article is how does one explain this verse which seems to speak of the pre-existance of Christ:
John 8:55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. 57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? 58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
I thought I would share with everyone a very interesting little pamphlet that I inherited from my parents that was a part of their theology study materials. I don’t know a date for this article, (there is none on the pamphlet), but I’m going to guess that it is from sometime between 1950-1970. I haven’t been able to find much on the author from internet searches and I haven’t seen the pamphlet anywhere else at all. I think though, it fits perfectly with everything else here on KingdomReady. Here it is with all bolding and quotes presented just as in the original. Enjoy!
CAN AN IMMORTAL BEING DIE?
by Milton C. Burtt