One God Report

The biblical autumn festivals are coming up, including the of Festival of Tabernacles. John 7 describes how Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Tabernacles festival, only six months before he was crucified, buried and raised from the dead.

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In reading over John chapter 7, I’m struck by how the question on the people’s minds in Jerusalem at the Festival was not“Is this man God?”. Rather, the question people were asking themselves was “Is this man the Messiah?” For centuries, deity of Christ and Trinitarian theology have claimed that the Gospel of John is the book that presents Jesus as God. But to make that claim a person has to bring his own presuppositions to a few verses in John’s Gospel, while at the same time ignore the many times that John is really presenting Jesus as the Messiah.

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To proclaim “Jesus is God” and that the Gospel of John says so, is to proclaim a different Jesus, a different Messiah than the one the Gospel of John is proclaiming. “Jesus is God” is an anti-messiah claim, a claim that exchanges the real human Christ of the Gospel of John for another. It is a claim that is against the real human Messiah Jesus of the Gospel of John.

As presented in John’s Gospel, and indeed all of the New Testament, those that believe in Jesus do not believe that Jesus is God. Rather, those that believe in Jesus believe that Jesus is the Messiah. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born of God” (1 John 5:1).

It is a misrepresentation and perversion of Scripture to insist that “everyone who believes that Jesus is God has been born of God”.

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For full texts of this podcast see here:

https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2019/10/in-gospel-of-john-jesus-is-messiah-not.html

In the Gospel of John, “God” is never the Trinity. For instance, in one of the most well known verses of the Bible, whose reference is written out on posters at football games:

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Try substituting “God” in this verse with “the Trinity”.

“For the Trinity so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son…”

It doesn’t make sense.

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Many Christians think that the Gospel of John is the main New Testament book where Jesus is proclaimed as God, and that God is then somehow a Trinity. However, in not one occurrence of the 83 occurrences of the word "God" in the Gospel of John is God a Trinity.

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Rather, in the Gospel of John, the only true God, Jesus's God and our God, is the Father.

https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2019/10/did-trinity-so-love-world-in-gospel-of.html

In this episode we continue our discussion with Kegan Chandler, author of the recently published book Constantine and the Divine Mind, the Imperial Quest for Primitive Monotheism.

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We left off our last episode with Mr. Chandler describing how Constantine was associated with events that led to the important Church Council of Nicea in AD 325. Now we re-join the conversation with Mr. Chandler about to describe the significance of the Greek word homousias, which means something like “same substance” or “same essence”. Christians theologians to this very day describe Jesus as being the “same essence” with God the Father.

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However, the idea does not come from the Bible. So where does it come from? 

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Was Constantine an agent of God, or a representative of Jesus the Messiah? Or, was Constantine and his ideas about homousias, that the Father God and Jesus were the same substance, a proclamation of different Christ, a replacement Christ, an anti-Christ?

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Resource links for this episode:

Constantine and the Divine Mind, the Imperial Quest for Primitive Monotheism

https://wipfandstock.com/constantine-and-the-divine-mind.html

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“Revisiting Homoousios: Origins, Intentions, and Aftermath” (Kegan Chandler Presentation)

https://burieddeepblog.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/presentation-revisiting-homoousios-origins-intentions-and-aftermath/

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The Corpus Hermeticum, Poemandres, the Shepherd of Men

http://gnosis.org/library/hermes1.html

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Hermeticsim

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Hermeticism

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Lanctantius (advisor to Constantine)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactantius

This episode is part 1 of a two part interview with Kegan Chandler, who discusses his recently published book, Constantine and the Divine Mind, the Imperial Quest for Primitive Monotheism (also available on Amazon). Published by Wipf and Stock. https://www.amazon.com/Constantine-Divine-Mind-Primitive-Monotheism/dp/1532689926-

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Chandler describes for us who Constantine was and why he was and is significant for Christianity.

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Chandler explains that Constantine’s background in pagan monotheism caused Constantine to view the polytheism of the Roman Empire of the AD 3rd century as a main cause of many of Rome’s political, social and military difficulties. 

Constantine’s pagan monotheism, expressed in the veneration of the sun god Sol Invictus, laid the foundation for Constantine’s Imperial quest for a monotheism that would set his empire on a solid foundation.

Chandler reviews historical developments that led to Constantine’s promotion of Christianity as the, or an, expression of the supreme monotheistic god. Chandler explains the circumstances that led up to Constantine’s convening of the non-Trinitarian Council of Nicaea in AD 325.

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Also by Kegan Chandler:

The God of Jesus in Light of Christian Dogma

https://www.amazon.com/God-Jesus-Light-Christian-Dogma/dp/0967324939

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Chandler’s web page: https://burieddeepblog.wordpress.com/

Trinitarian theologians claim that since God the Son “took on” humanity, Jesus was not a human person. Otherwise Jesus Christ would be two persons (one divine person and one human person). Trinitarian theologians call the non-human personhood of Jesus Christ the anhypostasis (“without personhood”), and the divine personalizing of the human nature the enhypostasis. Schlegel examines the anhypostasis theory from a biblical perspective and finds the theory to be anti-Messiah.

This presentation was given at the Theological Conference of Restoration Fellowship on 7/31/2020.

To view a video of the presentation, click here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZb9Pm3iu9Q&feature=youtu.be

To see notes for the presentation, including links to articles referred to in the presentation, click here:

https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2020/08/jesus-christ-is-not-human-person.html

The Book of Revelation is “the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him” (1:1). From the very first verse we are told that Jesus is not God. God is differentiated from Jesus. The God of Jesus Christ gave Jesus Christ this revelation.

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In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is called the Lamb of God. 

In this episode we examine how, in the Book of Revelation, God is distinguished from the Lamb, and the Lamb is distinguished from God. Jesus Christ the Lamb of God is not God.

https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2020/01/in-book-of-revelation-god-is-not-lamb.html

In this episode I interview Forrest Maready, author of the recently published book called Red Pill Gospel: Christianity, before it was ruined by Christians.

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Forrest has some notoriety in the vaccination and pharmaceutical world, having previously written seven books on vaccinations (see website below).

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Forrest and his wife have  come to see that the Scriptures reveal that God is one, and that Jesus is God’s designated human Messiah.

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Red Pill is a movie reference that has taken hold in modern culture to mean a willingness to step outside one's normal, comfortable circumstances and take an objective look at reality, even though doing so may be painful. In the case of Red Pill Gospel, this means taking a look at non-biblical doctrines like the Trinity. Calvinism, which claims that God desires to consign most people to eternal conscious torment, also comes under scrutiny.

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I recommend Red Pill Gospel as a book that One God believers can give to family and friends to help them begin to see that much of popular Christianity is un-biblical.

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Toward the end of the interview we mention recent discussions by one God believers concerning what Forrest calls “Amish 2”, or “geographical clustering” – the potential for establishing a neighborhoods or communities of like-minded believers and families.

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Relevant websites for this podcast:

Red Pill Gospel http://forrestmaready.com/red-pill-gospel/

Red Pill Gospel on Amazon

Forrest Maready http://forrestmaready.com/

My Incredible Opinion (video) http://forrestmaready.com/videos/

In this episode we consider reasons why many Christians react negatively when hearing about faith in the One God of the Scriptures and in His human Messiah Jesus.

We break down the reasons for these negative reactions into two main categories:

1. Fear

2. Pride

After hearing this podcast we recommend this article for more analysis of peoples' reactions to faith in the One God revealed in Scripture:

5 Cognitive Biases that Can Affect Our Theology

https://onegodworship.com/5-cognitive-biases-that-can-affect-our-theology/

For many Christians this phrase “and the Word was God” is the main biblical evidence for the deity of Jesus Christ. But is it?

There are many problems with the “deity of Christ” interpretation of John 1:1. I currently have a growing list of 12 major problems with the deity of Christ take on John 1:1. It will take a separate podcast to describe all those problems. In the current podcast we mention a couple.

For instance:

1. The deity of Christ claim breaks a main rule of biblical interpretation. That rule is: “we must interpret a less clear passage in light of clear passages”. The language in John 1:1 is concise and somewhat obscure. How could it be, after the author distinguished the Word from God in his previous statement, “the Word was with God”, that in the next breath he said “and the Word was God”?

In so many other places in Scripture the person Jesus Christ is distinguished entirely from God, but the deity of Christ interpretation must ignore all these other Scriptures and claim that this statement, 1/3 of a verse in John 1:1, combined with another half a verse in John 1:14, is proof that Jesus is God and that God is more than one person. No other Old Testament prophet described such thing, no other Gospel writer made such a claim, but then, the writer of the Gospel of John comes along and says in a verse or two, “Surprise!  God is not really one person, he, or really they, are two.” Rather than break what Jesus called the greatest commandment, that “Yahweh your God is one” it would be much better to explore other possible meanings for “and the Word was God”.

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2. Further, the deity of Christ interpretation of John 1:1 contradicts itself. Deity of Christ interpreters want to say that the word “Word”, Logos in the Greek of John 1:1, is the eternal second person of the Godhead, the “eternal Son”. And like John 1:1b says, the Word was with God means that the eternal Son was distinct from but at the same time with God the Father forever. Let’s see if John 1:1 makes sense by substituting eternal Son for “Word” in John 1:1.

“In the beginning was the eternal Son, and the eternal Son was with the Father, and the eternal Son was the Father.” Even from a deity of Christ perspective, you can’t say that the eternal Son was the Father”.

Another way to state this problem is, if the word for God, theos, in both John 1:1b and John 1:1c refer to the Father, then deity of Christ theology is wrong. And, we mention a couple very good reasons why the word “God” in John 1:1c “and the Word was God” refers to the Father.

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3. Another problem with deity of Christ interpretation of John 1:1 that we mention is that it does not deal adequately with the past tense of John 1:1. Why did John say “and the Word wasGod.” If the Word is the eternal Son, the second person of a Trinity godhead, why didn’t John write “and the Word is God”? Was the Word only God in the past? Did the Word cease to be God?

These are only samples of serious problems with the deity of Christ interpretation of John 1:1. We continue in the podcast by suggesting a couple other ways in which the phrase “and the Word was God” is better understood.

To see fuller notes to this podcast click here.

https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2020/07/and-word-was-god-commentary-on-john-11c.html

In this episode we continue a discussion interpreting the first verse of the Gospel of John. Today’s episode is called “… and the word was with God”, a Commentary on the Gospel of John 1:1b.

We look at how the phrase “with God” is used in the Gospel of John and in other biblical literature to determine what the author meant by the phrase.

Even though John 1:1 is a favorite proof text for Trinitarians, there is no Trinity described in John 1:1. The word or title “God” in John 1:1, does not mean the Trinity. In fact, nowhere in John’s Gospel does the word “God” mean a Trinity. This is very strange for the book that is often appealed to as the main text as evidence that God is a Trinity. “God” in the Gospel of John is never a Trinity.

It will benefit the listener to know these two phrases in Greek. “with God” in Greek is pros ton theon. “with the Father” is pros ton patera.

Rivers explains why the Greek preposition pros, which normally means “toward” is best understood and translated in John 1:1 as “with” – “and the word was with God.”

A main point of our discussion is that the phrase “the Word was with God” refers to a human person, and not to either an abstract attribute, or to a 2nd deity along with God. The phrase occurs over 100 times in the Bible and in each case involves a person on earth relating to God in heaven.

Another point Rivers makes is that pros ton theon is not the language that is used of something that is in God’s mind, like wisdom, that is then personified as “with God”. In other words, pros ton theon does not describe something or someone that is “within God”. The grammar of “personified wisdom” in Proverbs 8 and other literature (biblical and non-biblical) is different than what we have here in John 1.

We suggest two options for understanding the phrase “and the word was with God”, and a third option that somewhat overlaps the first two.

Rivers suggests seeing the phrase “and the word was with God” as resurrection or ascension text, parallel to John 1:18, which describes the unique one who “is in the bosom of the Father.” He refers to the occurrences of pros ton theon in the Gospel of John (13:1-3, 3; 14:6, 12, 28; 16:10, 17, 28; 20:17) which in each case describe the person of Jesus going “to the Father”.

Bill suggests another possibility, focusing on the past tense of John 1:1b “the word was with God”. The author introduces his Gospel by declaring that in a parallel way to Moses, the one he describes in his Gospel, Jesus, was with God in a unique way. Jesus is directly compared to Moses in John 1:17. Jesus, like Moses, gained knowledge by being uniquely “with God”. How did Jesus get his great understanding? How did he know his unique calling as the Messiah? Like Moses, who was with God at the burning bush and on Mt. Sinai, the human Jesus was with God. Jesus said in John 8:38 “I speak of what I have seen with my Father”. In this interpretation, “the Word was with God” refers to the unique relationship Jesus had with God while he was on earth, before his death and resurrection.

The two options mentioned above are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Indeed, the third option we suggest somewhat overlaps the previous two. We suggest John may have had in mind the mediatorial role that Jesus had and has, as a priest who is said to be in God’s presence, “with God”.

The similar language in the First Epistle of John 1:1-3 shows that the eternal life which was with the Father is not an abstract idea, but is a description of the real human person, Jesus the Messiah, who the author saw, heard and touched.