The Beauty of Biblical Terms
March 12th, 2012 by Guest Author
by Mike Hicks
My wife and I recently attended a baby dedication in our old church. During the message, my former Pastor noted, while condemning abortion, that Biblically a baby in the womb is a baby, not a “fetusâ€. He continued, “The word fetus isn’t in the Bible, so I don’t use it!†That is excellent advice, and in fact it is that very idea which began my departure out of Oneness Pentecostalism into the glorious truth of God the Father and His precious Son, Jesus Christ. Because my old Pastor believes that Jesus was God the Father in flesh (literally), he had a natural aversion to calling Jesus the Son of God. Instead, he would consistently “clarify†every scripture that he read which called Him the Son of God by saying “that word Son means flesh; the flesh of Godâ€. Finally, after letting this bother me slightly for years, it began to bother me a lot. I realized that if I ever mimicked the prayer in Acts 4:24-30 (by the name of thy holy child Jesus) I would likely raise eyebrows, and possibly be rebuked. Why is it that we have to constantly “clarify†Biblical words in order understand what they mean?
The fact of the matter is I spent years of my life twisting and perverting scripture in order to make it say what I thought it said. Rather than allowing the Bible speak to me and define its own terms, I was speaking to Paul, Peter, and John, informing them (actually the Holy Spirit) what words and terms they meant and therefore should have used, a process known as “eisegesisâ€. “Paul,†I would say, “I know you said that Jesus was a man appointed by God, but actually He was a God-Man. You know that, so why didn’t you tell anybody? You had the perfect opportunity in Lystra when the crowds cried out ‘The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men’. Why didn’t you?â€
To confine ourselves to Biblical terms as much as possible has a simplistic beauty in it. And to be honest with you, it’s extremely liberating. No longer do I feel the necessity to defend the Apostles for doing a poor job of transmitting Biblical truth. I can stand on the Word of God, rather than on my own word.
It’s true; Jesus actually is God’s Son. He is not just the “flesh†or “body†of God. He is a complete human being, God’s Son. Perhaps I should have stayed after the service and asked my old Pastor, since he doesn’t use unbiblical terms, to show me the scriptures that discuss “dual natureâ€, “God-Manâ€, “immortal soulâ€, etc. I don’t like confrontation, but perhaps I should pray the Acts 4 prayer: grant unto thy servant, that with all boldness I may speak thy word.
by Mike Hicks
Good post Mike,
Welcome to K.R.!!! I especially liked it where you said, “No longer do I feel the necessity to defend the Apostles for doing a poor job of transmitting Biblical truth. I can stand on the Word of God, rather than on my own word.”
If Y’shua were God, then why didn’t Y’shua come straight out and clearly state this fact???
And like you said, why didn’t the apostles come straight out and clearly state this fact???
Doubting Thomas,
Thanks for the welcome. It’s true. If the whole point of the New Testament was to prove that God became a man in order to forgive us, I suspect it would be clearer. Whereas it is abundantly clear that Jesus was a man, that God had a Son. Jesus shut the mouths of demons who were proclaiming Him to be Messiah. He didn’t even want that spread around initially, let alone that He was God!
A couple of questions that I never used to consider: Did Judas think he was betraying God Almighty? When Peter and the boys went back to fishing after Christ’s death, was it because they thought that God had died, so that was it? Or did none of the Apostles know until after the resurrection? Maybe only John, when he saw the Revelation? Why then did Jesus praise Peter for identifying Him as the Christ, the Son of God? Was Peter only half right?
I definately approached the Bible for the first time with the a priori assumption that Jesus was God, and I’m sure many others do too.
Mike,
Thanks for sharing a bit of your own journey. I can identify with you in many ways.
This is the irony. Sometimes we’re told Jesus was disguising his deity before the resurrection. Other times we’re told he publically claimed to be equal with God. It apparently depends on the situation.
In his book “The Forgotten Trinity”, Dr. James White tells us: “the trinity is revealed not in the Old Testament, or even in the New Testament, but rather in between the testaments, in the ministry of Christ and the founding of the church.”
It is astounding to me that apologists freely admit the trinity is not taught in scripture and then proceed to try to prove it from scripture.
Sarah,
(Quote) This is the irony. Sometimes we’re told Jesus was disguising his deity before the resurrection. Other times we’re told he publically claimed to be equal with God. It apparently depends on the situation. (End Quote)
Exactly. Thanks for putting it that way, I really appreciate it! Personally, I would have to disagree with Dr. White (yet again) as I don’t even see a “between the testaments”. I would argue that the Old Testament was still in force up until the “death of the testator”. When Jesus healed a certain leper, He told him to “go, and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.” – Luke 5:14 Not because Jesus was carrying this into the church, but because the Mosaic covenant was still in effect.
Indeed, if most Trinitarians knew how many admissions their own scholars made, I wonder how many of them would continue to hold onto it?