The New Testament documents, interpreted in their original, historical, and religious context teach that Jesus was a human being begotten by God via the holy spirit in the womb of his virgin mother, Mary. In other words, Jesus’ origin is found in his human birth, not in some pre-existent, spiritual existence. In this way Jesus is understood to be the literal descendant of the woman who was destined to crush the serpent (Gen 3.15); he is the descendant of Abraham through whom all nations (not just Israel) would be blessed (Gal 3.14, 16); he is the royal descendant of David (Luke 1.31-33) destined to rule on the Davidic throne in Jerusalem over Israel (and through Israel, the whole world, cp. Psalm 2.6-9). We are talking about a legitimate member of the human biological chain , begun by Adam and Eve in the beginning. This Hebrew idea of the human Messiah is at the heart of prophetic expectation throughout the Scriptures.
One of the most convincing reasons why I do not believe in the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity is because it began to develop after the Bible was finished being written. In other words, we have no book, chapter, paragraph, or verse in which the idea of the Trinity is explicitly stated. Furthermore, we understand that the earliest Christians were all practicing Jews–people who believe that God is an absolute unity (i.e. not one in three, but one in one). So, if the early Christian movement grew out of the soil of Jewish monotheism, at what point did the new idea that the Messiah would be God along with the Father and the Spirit arise? I’m not sure exactly who or when the first person wrote down trinitarian ideas. Some say Justin Martyr with his “logos christology” (the idea that Jesus pre-existed as the Word) was the first person to introduce the mutating virus that would eventually become the full blown Trinity in c. 145 a.d.. Others say it was Tertullian who introduced the word, trinitas twenty years later.
Hi folks!
Before you shout Heresy!! The words of the above title are not my words.
They are a part of a set of quotes from a TV advert/video about a book written by a pretty well known “Christian preacher”.
All quotations shown, I have personally verified and you can hear the man himself verbally verify the following assertions.
Here are his assertions…
- The Jews as a people did not reject Jesus as Messiah!
- Jesus did not come to Earth to be the Messiah!
- Since Jesus refused (by word & deed) to claim to be the Messiah, how can the Jews be blamed for rejecting what was never offered!
Listen for yourself! At
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8khCJTDD44
(There are many copies of this genuine TV advert/video on YouTube!)
Galatians 4:3-4
3 So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law
I just started reading through John D Crossan’s God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now. The first chapter explains what the Roman Imperial thought world was like just before and during the time of Christ. He goes to great lengths to demonstrate that Caesar Augustus was deified [made into a god] during his life time. I thought the following quotation was fascinating.
This is a subject that I’m writing a bit about elsewhere. I wanted to share a section of it, and hopefully more in the future as I work out the concept.
It’s clear from the Gospels that Jesus’ primary purpose was to preach “the good news of the Kingdom” and that He commissioned His disciples to continue preaching this message.
It might seem strange then that in a letter that has been described as “the Gospel according to Paul” – the letter to the Romans – there is no mention at all of the kingdom. On the other hand, while Jesus rarely used the word “grace” we find it is one of Paul’s favourite subjects. In Romans Paul used the word “grace” at least twenty times, although never using the word “kingdom”. Did Paul preach a different message? This is hardly possible, especially since we read in Acts that while in Rome he “boldly and without hindrance preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 28:31).
Luke Timothy Johnson is the RW Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta Georgia. He is well known in the field of New Testament scholarship by both liberal and convservative theologians. I was listening to a course he taught called Jesus and the Gospels in which he made the following statement.
click here to listen [4:16]
Most Christians see the holy spirit as the third person of the Trinity. However, the earliest Christians looked at the spirit as God’s energy or power to accomplish great deeds through them, psychologically (i.e. personal forgiveness, emotional healing, comfort, etc.), sociologically (the building of communities or fellowships through witnessing), and phenonomenologically (physical healings and other miracles). In fact this empowerment of the spirit was not looked at as a separate, nameless person but instead as the indwelling of ascended Christ. I appreciated this professor’s description of the spirit, what do you think?