GOD IN CHRIST JESUS (& a few comments from slr)
Apr
11
Written by:
Monday, April 11, 2011 2:54 PM
GOD IN CHRIST JESUS
By John Paterson
Printed 1st In GT HAYWOOD’S “Voice in the Wilderness” in 1920
Reprinted in Cochrane Wi. By D.I. Hammergren for A.D. Urshans “Witness of GOD”
Excerpts taken from a 1962 addition made available in 1964
When beginning a study of the doctrine of the Godhead we need to recognize these facts :
1) "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine" (II Tim. 3: 16) .
"Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of GOD" (Matt. 4: 4). "For ever, 0 LORD, Thy word is settled in heaven" (Ps. 119:89).
We dare not twist Scriptures because they are hard to understand, lest the sentence of destruction from the Spirit of God fall upon us - read II Peter 3: 16.
Many, finding seeming contradictions, have clung to the lesser and have ignored the greater passage; but rest assured, perplexing passages only become so to us when we come in contact with a great truth plainly revealed in other passages. In such cases let us cleave to revealed truth which is, of course, the greater passage, and expect God, Who cannot lie, to illumine and harmonize the obscure passage.
Scripture is NOT so written as to compel people to believe it; in fact, Isaiah 28: 13 indicates that Scripture is purposely so arranged that unless men are careful to be rigidly honest with God they become snared by the letter of certain passages through neglecting to ascertain their spiritual complement as found elsewhere in the- Bible.
We must have it settled in our hearts 'that "God cannot lie"; then all so-called contradictions will vanish.
2) Let us remember that Creeds and Catechisms are not the Bible.
Some creeds deny healing, but the Bible teaches it (Mark 2: 10);
some detest "tongues", but the Bible is emphatic regarding the signs (Mark 16: 16 - 18; Acts 10:45, 46);
some mock at the Second Coming of Christ, but the Bible is full of it (Acts 1: 11; I Thess. 4: 16 - 18);
and it is the Athanasian Creed (written A.D. 484) and the Catechism which say, "There are three persons in the Godhead, etc." - but NOWHERE in Scripture do we read this.
Google < Athanasian Creed >
Read the Wikipedia article
Absolutely fascinating
I did not read the whole of it
just the fascinating part
We will proceed to deal briefly with this question from its foundation.
Do you remember the six blind men of Hindustan who so foolishly described the elephant? All differed; all were partly right, yet all were wrong.
You’ve gotta read this…
( http://homepage.usask.ca/~wae123/misc/prose/hinustan.htm )
Or just google < six blind men of Hindustan >
There are many "blind men" trying to explain the Godhead in the same fashion.
Some "can plainly see that Jesus is very like a man";
others say He is an angelic creature - this, and nothing more.
And nearly all of them imagine that the.
Father. is a visible Being, displaying those physical features which we, in our finite thinking, ordinarily associate with Personality, namely, a body, hands, feet, eyes, etc; and, since the Son has all these bodily characteristics, they jump to the conclusion that Father and Son are two separate and visible Persons.
To complete matters, they proceed to endow the Holy Spirit with a body of their own imagination, and, like the six Hindustani who declared the elephant to be everything except an elephant they too have "discovered" that there are three Persons in one Godhead.
seems the JESUS warns us of this phenomenon
when HE says in Mat 15:14 … “if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”