Kingdom Ready Blog

The following post is by our brother, Patrick Navas, the author of the book Divine Truth or Human Tradition? You can listen to an audio interview with him on the Truth Matters website.
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Hello Everyone,

I just had an interesting but sad encounter with a Trinitarian man at a restaurant called Panera Bread here in Valencia.

He overheard me talking about the Scriptures and our home fellowships with my cousin and introduced himself when we were done with breakfast. He asked about our home fellowships, our group name, and about our “distinctives.”

A Prophet Like Moses

The children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years because the older generation did not believe God nor trust Him to enable them to overcome the inhabitants and enter the Promised Land. When Moses told the new generation about God’s promises, he referred back to the land promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Numbers 32:8-13). He warned them against forgetting about God after He would bring them into this wonderful promised land (Deuteronomy 6:10-12).

The Promises To Abraham

Abraham is called the “Father of them that believe” in Paul’s writing about him in Romans and Galatians. His life was a pivotal point in the unfolding of God’s plan of salvation. The first eleven chapters of Genesis span a period of roughly 2,000 years, from creation through Noah and his descendants. Then the next fourteen chapters focus on the life of this one remarkable man. Of all the people in the Bible, Abraham is the only one who is called the friend of God (James 2:23).

This week I’m beginning another series from my website.  The foundation for our understanding of the Kingdom of God is found in the Old Testament.  Throughout its pages we see the purpose of God unfolded from creation, through Abraham, Moses, David, and the Prophets.  In part 1 we will see that from the beginning God has always wanted man to dwell on the earth that He created.

In The Beginning

Acts 5:3-4 is often used to prove that the holy spirit is God. Ananias is said to have lied to the holy spirit in verse 3, and it is equated with lying to God in verse 4. The holy spirit refers to the power and authority of God, which in this instance was invested in Peter. Just as “grieving the holy spirit” is another way of saying “grieving God,” saying he “lied to the holy spirit” is another way of saying he lied to God. This is showing the connection between God and His spirit which was working in Peter and the other apostles.

There has been much misunderstanding about the holy spirit. The King James and some other versions of the Bible most often use the phrase “Holy Ghost” but the word “ghost” carries different connotations today, and most Christians generally prefer “Holy Spirit.” Most of mainstream Christendom believes that the holy spirit is a person, specifically the third person of the Trinity. I deal with the Trinity in relation to Who is Messiah in a Closer Look article. Historically the belief in the holy spirit as the third person was even later that the belief that Jesus was God. The deity of Christ became official doctrine in 325, while the holy spirit was not established as the third person of the Trinity until 381.

Part of the hope of the Gospel is that one day the world will be restored to its original state, when Christ rules in God’s Kingdom. Jesus refers to this in Matthew and uses another word from the same root as gennao, the word for born or begotten.

Matthew 19:
28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration [paliggenesia] when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.