Kingdom Ready Blog

For those that subscribe to Anthony Buzzard’s wonderful monthly newsletter “Focus on the Kingdom“, you have undoubtedly seen several announcements for the 2012 Theological Conference (the 21st) that will occur next week May 3rd – May 6th in Atlanta GA. I will be making my way there for my 3rd straight year!  It truly is a wonderful conference where Biblical Unitarian/One God Believers from all over the world can hear speakers, make new friends, and fellowship with one another.  Last year we had people from Europe, South Africa, South America, Australia, Canada, and from all over the USA.  Hope to see you there too!

2010 One God Seminar

October 23-24, 2010 * Seattle-Tacoma Area

Don’t miss our 9th annual seminar in this on-going series. This year we have a surprise speaker making a compelling case for the true identity of Jesus. Kermit Zarley, a noted Evangelical leader and author, has crippled Trinitarian arguments including the notion that Jesus was a preexistent God before becoming a man. His 600-page book, The Restitution of Jesus Christ, presents a high hurdle of evidence Trinitarians will not be able to jump. Kermit Zarley has authored other books on Christian themes, including one recommended by Billy Graham. He has produced a series of “Still Here” books to counter the popular rapture-promoting “Left Behind” series. He will present two seminar sessions.

I ran across this paper on Adam Pastor’s web site “Adoni Messiah“.  And it has a connection back to kingdomready in that the author of the paper was a presenter at the 2005 & 2006 One God Conferences that our own Sean Finnegan also attended.  Small world indeed. Speaking of which, Sean has the audio of the author presenting this very paper on the Christian Monotheism site at this link.

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.

A while back (a year ago, in fact) there was a long debate on this site about the Trinity, starting with the posting of a debate between Brant Bosserman and Sean Finnegan at the One God Conference.  The comments continued for a couple of months, and the thread was picked up again a few times since then, the most recent being February of this year.  One of the better arguments brought up by the Trinitarians was that Jesus said in John 2:19, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”  This is taken by Trinitarians to mean that Jesus raised himself from the dead.

Presented by Brant Bosserman and Sean Finnegan at the One God Conference, Seattle WA June 1st 2008, commentary by Sean Finnegan. Click here to listen the entire 2 hour debate or click on one of the parts below.

The debate was over whether God is a single individual (the Father of Jesus) or if he is a Trinity (three persons in one essence). The debate followed this format:

Introduction by Ken Westby and Tom Bosserman [10 min] listen or download

Sean’s Opening Statement [20 min] listen or download
Brant’s Opening Statement [20 min] listen or download

Presented by Sir Anthony Buzzard at the One God Conference, Seattle WA June 1st 2008, commentary by John Obelenus. Click here to listen.

Anthony opens up talking about singular pronouns, that echad really means one, and that elohim is not a collective noun – no Hebrew scholar says it is. He goes through some personal correspondence and scholarly works in which more and more Socinian Scriptural points are being conceded by self-professed Trinitarian important scholars. None of the approximately 11,000 occurrences of any of the words commonly used for God can be demonstrated to mean the triune God. And Trinitarian commentators are agreeing with this!

Presented by Ken Westby at the One God Conference, Seattle WA June 1st 2008, commentary by John Obelenus. Click here to listen.

Presented by John Obelenus at the One God Conference, Seattle WA June 1st 2008, commentary by Sean Finnegan. Click here to listen.

John seeks to deal with two major issues related to Jesus’ death for our sins: (1) the notion that God identifies with us through the incarnation and atonement (2) a flawed understanding of penal substitution.

Presented by Bob Woodburn at the One God Conference, Seattle WA June 1st 2008, commentary by John Obelenus. Click here to listen.

Bob begins by listing off the list of questions that have always surrounded the Trinity and incarnation, the cause for all the creedal statements and councils. He aims to find out how Jesus is God’s son, and God is Jesus’ father. We know that Jesus is human. And we know that Jesus has not sinned. How can that be since even Adam was instructed directly by God, created mature fell and sinned? He remarks that if the holy spirit is a third person – then “God the Father” is a misnomer, since the conception of Jesus occurred via the holy spirit. Rather this problems goes away when we understand that God is spirit and the holy spirit is God’s operational presence. “The holy spirit is just another way to talk about God, what God is, and what God does”.