Tag Archives: theology

Oneness in Ecclesiastes

For the next installment of the Oneness in… series, I will examine the book of Ecclesiastes. The book of Ecclesiastes is known as the Book of the Preacher, due to the title being the Greek work for our English word preacher.  In its chapters, however, we find key evidence for God being one. Not a trinity of persons, but rather a single all powerful God who manifested Himself as a man for man’s redemption.

[Eccl 12:1 KJV] “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;”

[Eccl 12:6–7 KJV] “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”

In the twelfth chapter, Solomon makes some important observations. First, that Elohim is our Creator, and that our spirit will return to Elohim, or God who gave our spirit. Our spirit is the breath that was breathed into the clay formed by God in the 6th day, when he formed man of the dust of the ground.

[Eph 3:8–9 KJV] “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:”

God created all things by Jesus Christ, even mankind.

[Col 1:12–19 KJV] “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;”

Notice closely the words used by Paul, who was taught by the Sanhedrin member, Gamaliel I. …it pleased the Father that in him (Jesus) should all the fulness dwell… What Paul is saying is that Elohim, YHWH, God, the Father, the God of Abraham, chose to dwell in Jesus. God chose to limit His awesomeness in the body of Jesus. Think of the implications of this, that the all powerful, all knowing, all seeing God who formed man of the dust, and chose to breath life in Him, would chose to limit that power in the personage of human flesh, with all the limitations humans have, in the form of man, for our saving. He did it all for our salvation. There was no other God or person of God beside God when the Preacher (Solomon) said …remember thy Creator…

Solomon knew of only one God. Not a hydra god of three heads, or some convoluted god of three persons formed of one substance. That is a creation of man’s. It is not who God is. There is only one God, and He manifested Himself as the man, Christ Jesus, for our redemption.

The Preacher sums his book up by saying:

[Eccl 12:13–14 KJV] “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”

Fear God and keep his commandments… Note he did not say Fear God and keep their commandments, or Fear God and keep the Holy trinity’s commandments, or even fear God and keep the divine council’s commandments. No, just Fear God and keep his commandments.

Accordance Oneness Pentecostal Package

As many of you know, my favorite bible study app since moving to the Macintosh platform in 2010 has been Accordance. I just found out that Accordance now sells a packaged deal of oneness pentecostal theology books for $79.99. The books included are:

  • I Am, A Oneness Pentecostal Theology by Brother Norris
  • The New Birth by Brother Bernard
  • The Oneness of God by Brother Bernard
  • In Search of Holiness by Brother Bernard
  • Practical Holiness, A Second Look by Brother Bernard

I have read all five books in paperback form, but am Wishlisting this for Accordance do to the speed of Accordance in searching texts. On my mid-2010 Macbook Pro, the search results of the bible and other large texts produces instant results. Literally less than a second’s wait time for search results to be completed, and with the advent of version 10 of Accordance, new users will be introduced to a very clean and easy to use interface which was not the case with version 9; See my review of Accordance 9 here.

Apparently there is a conference special going on right now for $59.99 for all five volumes.

 

Serious feminist theology and apologetics

I just received something similar to the title of this post in my e-mail inbox today. Are you serious? The person was complaining about the Catholic church and their lack of support for serious feminist theology. Let’s consider this for a moment.
The definition for theology is the study of God. In order to study God, we have developed a systematic method called exegetical hermeneutics. Exegesis is the ability to extract information from the Scriptures to form doctrine (teachings). It’s antithesis is eisegesis, which is placing your own pre-conceived thoughts, ideas or opinions into the text by selecting verses that seem to support your theories when taken out of context and used collectively. Hermeneutics is the science of interpreting Scripture.
Feminism is defined as the teachings which advocate the social, political and other rights of women. So again I ask is this author serious? Although I don’t agree with the majority of the Catholic church’s teachings, I find this kind of statement ignorant. How can you have serious feminist theology? A man made teaching such as feminism woven into Scripture to support a liberal view such as this is a classic example of eisegesis at it’s best (or worst)!
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not for enslaving women to do men’s bidding, and I believe the Scriptures teach a message of marriage being a joint and equal venture, as long as each spouse is doing his or her role. What I hate is bad theology pushed on us by a special interest group.

What do you think of this?

Is Jesus God?

Well the simple answer is yes.  The fullness of the godhead dwells in Jesus according to Col 2:9.  But what does this verse actually mean?  I will be teaching on the oneness of God at Heritage UPC in Bristol Connecticut this coming Wednesday.  As a part of the class I use this verse to support the oneness theological position so I figured I’d take a deeper look into what this verse means. The pericope of scripture this verse is taken from teaches against thinking of Christ as yet another man made philosophy. The nature of God is not merely a philosophical point to debate but necessary to live an abundant life in God.

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; Col 2:9 NKJV

οτι εν αυτω κατοικει παν το πληρωμα της θεοτητος σωματικως; Col 2:9 SNT

So we have the Greek of the 1550 Stephanus New Testament and the New King James Version above for comparison.  Let’s take a look at each of the key words in this verse.

Dwells: According to Thayer’s definition there are two definitions of κατοικει.
  1. to dwell, settle; metaphorically divine powers, influences, etc., are said to dwell in his soul, to pervade, prompt, govern it.
  2. to dwell in, inhabit; God is said to dwell in the temple, i.e. to be always present for worshippers.
Fullness: Thayer’s definitions for πληρωμα are now listed.
  1. that which is (has been) filled; a ship inasmuch as it is filled (i.e. manned) with sailors, rowers, and soldiers also in the NT, the body of believers, as that which is filled with the presence, power, agency, riches of God and of Christ.
  2. that which fills or with which a thing is filled; of those things which a ship is filled, freight and merchandise, sailors, oarsmen, soldiers also completeness or fulness of time.
  3. fulness, abundance.
  4. a fulfilling, keeping.
Godhead: Next we’ll define θεοτητος.
  1. deity; the state of being God, Godhead.
Bodily: Finally, the last word to flesh out is σωματικως.
  1. bodily, corporeally; of the exalted spiritual body, visible only to the inhabitants of heaven.
The state of being God completely filled the corporeal body of the man Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  God tabernacled or dwells in the body of Jesus Christ so completely as to fill every cell and every fiber of the body of Christ.  This is explained further in the gospel of John.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
In this pericope of scripture we have John describing the godhead (state of being God) as the mind (thought, idea, expression both verbal and non-verbal) of God in which He created the universe and everything we humans can see and that logos became flesh and tabernacled (dwelt, inhabited) in the corporeal body of Christ.
So we see that Jesus refers to simultaneously the body of Christ (including flesh, soul and spirit) as well as the Spirit of God (whom Moses, Abraham, and Adam communed with also known as the Father and whom we modern Apostolics commune with known as the Holy Ghost).
Jesus Christ is both completely man and completely deity.

Terebinth Trees of Mamre


Abram built an alter to YHWH near a spot in southern Israel known as the Terebinth Trees of Mamre.  In Genesis 13:18 we read the final verse of this chapter where Abram moved to Mamre in Hebron.  Abram had just left Egypt with Lot in tow.  Their possessions were great, and a dispute broke out as the two family’s herdsman squabbled over who got the choicest of pastures. They decide to part ways. Lot moved to Sodom and Abram set up camp in Mamre. It was in Mamre that Abram got the news that Chedorlaomer and his cohorts had attacked Sodom and the kings that were with him and seized Lot and his possessions and took them away captive. Abram pursued them with several of his friends and eventually caught up with them near Damascus and killed Chedorlaomer and freed Lot.

Now Mamre was the site in the modern day city of Hebron that had a shrine dedicated to the Canaanite sky god El. Depicted to the right (click for larger image) is the Canaanite supreme deity El on top between two lions.  Abram seems to be surrounded by false gods at every turn he makes.  Needless to say, He chose to set up his tents in Mamre and dwell with the people of Hebron.  This El is the Ugarit word for god, and the word used throughout the region when refering to the supreme god. It is no wonder then that the Hebrew word Elohim which is used throughout the scriptures to refer to God comes from this word El.  Even the word YHWH spoken Jehovah or Yahweh in English derives it’s origin from these earlier Canaanite words.

What’s the difference between the Canaanite god and YHWH then?  Good question.  The difference is in the monothiestic beliefs of Abram among other things.  You see Abram was called specifically out of Ur and had to withdraw from the culture he knew to follow God who declared that He alone is God and there is none else beside him.  The Canaanite sky god El was the father of many lesser gods that were worshipped equally in a pantheon similar to the gods of the Greeks or Romans.

Abram’s God was the only living God who spoke and desired communion with His chosen people.  Why?  Because in the beginning when there was nothing; God existed.  He created the world as we know it and every rule or law we discover was known by God before man’s discovery.  It was God’s desire to be in fellowship with the creation he made.  Why is YHWH more powerful than the pantheon of gods through out the history of mankind?  Because He is and He is the I Am.