Psalm 119:105:Â Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Recently I have been driving down some country roads at night. It always amazes me when I come across people riding a bike along a busy road in the middle of the night, without any lights or reflectors to make themselves visible. One guy was skateboarding at night in a t-shirt and shorts despite below-freezing temperatures, and wearing all black. Fortunately my car headlights always enabled me to see (and avoid) these travelling daredevils.
The Scriptures clearly say that no man can see God and live (Ex 33:20). But the Scriptures also describe many instances of people “seeing†God, even meeting with him “face to face†(Gen 32:31, Num 12:1-8). How then are the apparent “contradictions†reconciled? Some resort to adopting a Trinitarian perspective of God, and claim that when He appeared to His people in the Old Testament it was in the form of Jesus, the pre-incarnate Son of God, who is also God. However, to assert that God is more than one person is to divorce oneself from the God of the Old Testament and to deny the foundational Jewish belief that there is but one God, YHWH. This fact is clearly stated in their creed in Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!†Thus, the answer to the mystery of the apparent “God sightings†in the Old Testament must be approached solely from a Hebraic perspective, with the knowledge that God is One and has never been seen or heard by man (John 5:37). It is only by applying the thoroughly Hebraic law of agency to the Scriptures, that seeming inconsistencies are resolved and the true nature of God and His Messiah remain undefiled.
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The author of Hebrews writes that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever†(Heb 13:8). This beautiful statement is true and always will be, for Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35). However, this does not mean that the Jesus who is being preached in hundreds of thousands of churches across the globe today is the same Jesus who walked the face of this earth some two thousand years ago. In fact, in many churches, there is a different Jesus being preached. This “Jesus†is God in the flesh; he is one person with two natures: the human and the divine1. He is the second member of the Trinity, co-eternal and co-equal with the Father and the Spirit. He is the preexistent Son of God who left heaven, “became human without ceasing to be God,†and died for the sins of mankind2. This “Jesus†is not the Jesus of the Bible and certainly not the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. The real Jesus is exactly who he claimed to be, exactly who his closest followers understood him to be, and exactly who the Scriptures declared him to be: the human Messiah, the Son of living God (John 20:31).
Unlike many of the most influential heroes of history, Jesus was not born to wealthy parents with a silver spoon in his mouth. He wasn’t born in a hospital or even at home, but in an indoor barn or cave. In fact, the best Joseph and Mary could do for a cradle was a feeding trough (Luke 2:7). When the time came to offer the firstborn sacrifice at the temple, they could not afford the standard lamb but instead had to offer the alternative poor man’s sacrifice of two turtle doves (Luke 2:24; Lev 12:8). It is one thing for someone who has every advantage—an expensive education, access to power, and every comfort—to succeed in life, but for someone born to an obscure couple, from an obscure hamlet, in an obscure province without any of the advantages money and status could provide to change the world in a mere thirty years of life—now that is impressive! Jesus’ life is so significant that thousands of years later we count dates from him forward (A.D.) and from him backward (B.C.). He is the hinge, the one at whom the calendar resets, the one who changed everything.
I read this article awhile back and found it interesting. And I thought it would be good to post here on the KR Blog. I hope you find it interesting as well. Enjoy!
Biblical Unitarianism from the Early Church through the Middle Ages
by Mark M. Mattison
The term “biblical unitarianism,” as used in this journal, denotes a non-Trinitarian theology which is consistent with the inspired Word of God. It is our belief that this understanding of the Scriptures is not new, but has been propagated at various times and places throughout church history. The purpose of this article is to lay a foundation for the future discussion of this topic.
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First, however, we must define our terms.
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Alright, time for me to get back on track and start the New Year right with a post in Week #1! So here we go with something short & easy.
Before Christmas I uncovered in a packed-away attic box – a TON more pamphlets, books, leaflets, and other treasures of theology that my parents had collected back in their day. There’s a ton of stuff from individuals, Advent Christian publishers, The Restitution Herald (in Oregon Illinois), and the Layman’s Home Missionary Movement. This particular one here is from the Layman’s – or LHMM for short. There’s no copyright or published date on it so I’m not sure from when it originates. But I’d guess from the 1940’s – 1960’s. I saw the title listed on another site associated with the LHMM, but not the actual content of the piece. Therefore I thought I would re-publish it to the world-wide-web for all to enjoy.
To understand this term, one must also seek to understand other closely related phrases, like sons of men and children of men. Firstly, all of these terms are applied to mankind in general. These terms indicate the difference between God and the human race. The phrase son of man is the strongest way to distinguish between deity and humanity!
Psalm 115:16 (usage – children of men)
Consider the contrast between God and mankind: God dwells in heaven; man dwells on the earth.
Psalm 145:10 – 13 (usage – sons of men)
Here’s another contrast between God and mankind: God is big, strong, powerful and eternal; man is small, weak and temporal.
Well, it’s been quite awhile since I’ve posted an article here. Far too long in fact. I apologize for my hiatus. No real good excuses, just the usual things in life that pull us in all directions – job, kids, family commitments, home projects, watching too much football (yes I really do enjoy watching college and professional football – maybe too much), etc.. And probably the worst and certainly dumbest thing is just getting out of the habit. Of course it seems that may be the case with a lot of my fellow KR contributors. But let’s see if I can start a trend of coming back to the well here. Let’s see if I can start off easy and work back into pushing out some fresh content for those have kept coming here and visiting the site.
Read the rest...(637 words, 1 image, estimated 2:33 mins reading time)
The Scriptures clearly say that no man can see God and live (Ex 33:20). But the Scriptures also describe many instances of people “seeing†God, even meeting with him “face to face†(Gen 32:31, Num 12:1-8). How then are the apparent “contradictions†reconciled? Some resort to adopting a Trinitarian perspective of God, and claim that when He appeared to His people in the Old Testament it was in the form of Jesus, the pre-incarnate Son of God, who is also God. However, to assert that God is more than one person is to divorce oneself from the God of the Old Testament and to deny the foundational Jewish belief that there is but one God, YHWH. This fact is clearly stated in their creed in Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!†Thus, the answer to the mystery of the apparent “God sightings†in the Old Testament must be approached solely from a Hebraic perspective, with the knowledge that God is One and has never been seen or heard by man (John 5:37). It is only by applying the thoroughly Hebraic law of agency to the Scriptures, that seeming inconsistencies are resolved and the true nature of God and His Messiah remain undefiled. 
Well, it’s been quite awhile since I’ve posted an article here. Far too long in fact. I apologize for my hiatus. No real good excuses, just the usual things in life that pull us in all directions – job, kids, family commitments, home projects, watching too much football (yes I really do enjoy watching college and professional football – maybe too much), etc.. And probably the worst and certainly dumbest thing is just getting out of the habit. Of course it seems that may be the case with a lot of my fellow KR contributors. But let’s see if I can start a trend of coming back to the well here. Let’s see if I can start off easy and work back into pushing out some fresh content for those have kept coming here and visiting the site.