Kingdom Ready Blog

Installment #6 in my “Common Sense” series.

Biblical Common Sense – Jesus – Jesus was seen!

Throughout the “Original” Testament God goes out of his way to say over and over that He is the one and only God of the universe and that He alone is responsible for all of creation. But God also reveals something else there and then confirms it later in the New Testament. God says that he CAN NOT be seen by man. In Exodus 33:20 God flat out tells Moses that “no man can see me and live”. Then in the Gospel of John we have collaborating texts like “No man hath seen God at any time” (John 1:18) and “You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form” (John 5:37). And in 1st Timothy we have the added facts that God is “invisible” (1 Tim 1:17) and that He “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see” (1 Tim 6:16).

Installment #5 in my “Common Sense” series.

Biblical Common Sense – Jesus – The Messiah is suppose to be…

Then there’s the Biblical expectations regarding the Messiah. The Hebrew people have historically viewed (as Judaism still does to this day) the Messiah as someone that would be a real human being directly descended from the lineage of King David. And they have this view point because that is just what Scripture clearly describes – a real human man was promised, not God acting as a man.

(Installment #4 in the series.)

Biblical Common Sense – Jesus – The Anointed of God

The term Messiah is the English translation for the Hebrew word “Moshiach” (or “Mashiach”), which means “God’s anointed, or “the anointed one (of God)”. The term was used to describe anyone who was “anointed” with holy anointing oil (e.g. Israel’s Kings, prophets, & priests) to signify being chosen for a task ordained/authorized by God. And in a deeper eschatological sense, Messiah also stood for the coming of THE final “Moshiach” from the Davidic line who would usher in the Messianic age (the “Olam Ha-Ba” or “the world to come”) and whose “kingship” would reign forever. 

instead of a 1st century Jew, he might have sounded something like this humerous little cartoon.  Jesus’ reply to the absurdity of Peter’s faux response here is exactly what anyone in their right mind would/should say.  “What???”

Original by Joe Perrott

Here is the second installment of my paper (“A Common Sense Approach to the Biblical Presentation of Jesus, Death, & THE Devil“) with us getting into the first main subject – Jesus.  Keep in mind that within each of the three main subject areas (Jesus, Death, & The Devil), there are many sub-topics.  We’ll cover these smaller sub-topics in individual, manageable posts here on the blog.

Biblical Common Sense – Jesus – “God’s son”

Understanding who Jesus is and how the Bible presents him is not all that difficult when one stops and uses good ol’ common sense to recognize the meaning behind many of the words of Scripture.

This is the second half of an article about the Comma Johanneum. To read part one click here.

Greek History

Now that I have recounted some of the Latin history of the Comma, I turn now to set forth the Greek evidence. In the following chart are some relevant Greek editions beginning with the most recent first.

Greek Orthodox New Testament (1904)

ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ Πατήρ, ὁ Λόγος καὶ τὸ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, καὶ οὗτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἕν εἰσι·καὶ τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες ἐν τῇ γῇ, τὸ Πνεῦμα καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὸ αἷμα, καὶ οἱ τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἕν εἰσιν

How the Most Trinitarian Verse in the Bible
Proves that the Bible Does Not Support the Trinity

The most Trinitarian verse in the Bible is found in 1 John 5.7 where the text reads “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.”¹ Recently in conversation with an acquaintance, I was challenged to accept the doctrine of the Trinity on the basis of this text. However, this scripture is fraught with difficulties and its history is long and dubious, involving both Greek and Latin manuscripts. Before turning to examine the Latin and Greek histories, I will begin by comparing two of the best known and most influential translations in English and German to more recent ones so as to demonstrate the exact difference between them. The words in bold below are known as the Comma Johanneum (henceforth Comma).

On May 1, 2011 pastor Steve Taylor of Lakeshore Bible Church in Tempe, Arizona, interviewed retired professional golfer and Christian author Kermit Zarley about his journey of faith. Zarley talks about how he came to question the doctrine of the Trinity because he read the text in which Jesus said that he did not know the timing of his second coming (Mark 13.32). This Scripture grabbed hold of Zarley and didn’t let him go. He knew the Jesus was God, and as such, knew everything that can be known. Was Jesus lying when he said he didn’t know? Did he lack omniscience? How could God not know something? Was Jesus schizophrenic? Such questions drove Zarley to re-examine his theology, by diligently studying both Scripture and Church History to unravel the truth about God and Jesus. After decades of research he has published his book, The Restitution of Jesus Christ, which teaches that the Father alone is God and Jesus is the human Messiah, the virgin-born Son of God.

Last October, I had the pleasure of attending Ken Westby’s One God Seminar. During that seminar I spoke on “Five Major Problems with the Trinity.” Click here to listen to the presentation. The talk was 36 minutes long and the remainder of the time addressed questions from the audience. Click here to download the notes. The rest of the 2010 conference is mostly available here (I’m still waiting on a couple of presentations).

By popular demand (2 requests!), here is the article from my website.

Introduction

One of the most hotly contested passages of Scripture is so well known that it has a name – the Comma Johanneum, or Johannine Comma. In this case, “comma” refers not to punctuation but to a clause. In the KJV, I John 5:7-8 reads as follows:

I John 5:
7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.