Arminian Today

I have been reading Winkie Pratney’s book, The Nature and Character of God, and in the book Pratney opens up by writing a short chapter on human fallacies.  His main point is that there is no such thing as a “perfect theological system.”  Because we are sinners beholding a holy and perfect and infinite God, we make errors about Him and His Word and His nature.  Pratney points out that we all work from various backgrounds and when we study God, we bring our flaws into our studies whether we see them or not.  Both Arminians and Calvinists do this when we debate one another.  We tend to only see our point of view and none other.

Some can take Pratney to a point I don’t believe he intends and make all theology ambiguous.  There is certain biblical truths that are clear and worth defending such as the existence of God, the Trinity,  the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ including His virgin birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His vicarious death, His resurrection, and His bodily ascension to the right hand of the Father where He now lives to intercede for the saints until His second coming in the future, heaven and hell, sin, etc.  I don’t believe that all theology is intended to be illusive and unknown.  This is the emergent, post-modern view that theology should not be fixed or as Brian McLaren likes to say, “Stuffed and mounted on a wall for all to see.”

However, I do think that we all could use a little humility when it comes to theology.  None of us are perfect (Proverbs 20:9).  We all need God’s grace for our salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9).  None of us know God perfectly.  None of us have figured God out unless you are in a cult which it seems most cults have God figured out.  None of us have a lock on truth.  I fear the person who has perfect theology as I believe that it’s just a matter of time before their perfect theology comes crashing down.  I have learned over the years to not box God in.  He is God and He will not be controlled by human beings.

There are certain people in the Church who would cast someone out for not holding to, for example, literal creationism.  I hold to this but I don’t doubt that others who disagree with me can still love the Lord.  I don’t cast aside people who hold that God gives them personal revelations though I do seek to make sure they are basing all that they “hear” on the Word and not subjective experience.  I don’t throw away people who believe in conditionalism when it comes to hell such as Edward Fudge whom I consider a true brother in the Lord.  I don’t cast aside Calvinists who disagree with me over much of my own theology.  I don’t cast aside even my own Arminians who disagree with me over eternal security.  I believe that we need to have much grace for one another as none of us have a perfect knowledge of God.

If we can learn anything from the early Church Fathers it’s that they debated theology.  I have next to me a book by David Bercot called, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs.  The book is an A to Z book with quotes from the early Church Fathers on mostly theological themes.  Bercot is selective in his usage of the fathers so one must be careful when reading the book.  However, the book shows that the fathers did not all agree perfectly.  They correctly saw that they had their various views based on their backgrounds from paganism and culture to the tools they had before them.  They were not always charitable toward one another and even killed some whom they branded “heretics.”

On the next post, I will give the rules that Winkie Pratney gives in his book about studying God that I believe are very useful to us as well.  Our passion should be to know God (John 17:3) and we should not shy away from seeking to know Him in truth simply because we are flawed.  If anything, this should drive us to always be studying God and His Word since we make mistakes, we change our views, and we tend to be influenced by what is around us and what we listen to and read.  Pratney’s points about studying God are well put and I believe you’ll find them very helpful.

Often the god that we serve is the one that we create with our minds.  Our gods are much like us.  They tend to tolerate our sins.  They tend to be there to meet our needs.  They tend to bow down to us rather than us to them.  Our gods are limited in their power and are boxed in by our doctrines.  Our gods are just like us in almost every way including in how they look complete, at times, with flesh and bones like us.  Our god is not eternal in the true sense of the word.  Our gods are not pure and lovely.  Our gods exist for one purpose: to fulfill our every wish and desire.

How different those gods above are to the God of the Bible.  The God that we encounter in the Bible is not like us at all.  He is the uncreated one.  He is the eternal one.  He is timeless.  The God of the Bible has no beginning or end (Genesis 21:33; Psalm 41:13; Romans 16:25-26).  We are so limited in how we view time and eternity because we have nothing to compare it with.  We say that we believe God is eternal but we really don’t understand what that really means nor what that looks like.  We say that God is the uncreated one since He is eternal and since He created all things by His own power (Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 11:3) but we have no clue what they looks like since everything we see (including ourselves) was created.

Yet the one attribute of the God of the Bible that separates Him from all other false gods is His holiness.  C.S. Lewis said that it was God’s grace that makes Christianity unique among world religions and while I do agree with Lewis, I believe that the one attribute that is mostly displayed in the Scriptures is not the grace of God nor the mercy of God nor the wrath of God nor even the power of God but it is God’s holiness.  God’s holiness makes God altogether different from us.  The holiness of God separates Him from His creation.  And yet when we encounter the true understanding of God’s holiness, the cross of Jesus Christ becomes the much more precious to us.  When we see the holiness of God, we see our sinfulness in light of His perfection and we see that we have no defense but only can plead the blood of Jesus to wash away all our sins.

In Isaiah 6, Isaiah the prophet of Yahweh encountered the Lord.  Ironically, two different Hebrew words are used in Isaiah 6 about God.  In verse 1 the Hebrew name Adonai is used but in verse 3 the divine name of God, Yahweh, is used.  Adonai pictures the lordship of God and His eternal reign.  In Psalm 110:1 we read that Yahweh speaks to Adonai.  Psalm 110:1 is the most quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament because it directly points to Jesus Christ who was God manifested in the flesh (John 1:1).  Jesus was the one being spoken to in Psalm 110:1 according to Hebrews 1:13.

What we learn from Isaiah 6 is that when we encounter the utter otherness of God, His absolute holiness, His uniqueness.  This causes us to see ourselves in light of who He truly is.  Notice that Isaiah’s reaction is to cry from deep within himself, “Woe is me!”  Isaiah didn’t begin to sing to God.  He didn’t begin to laugh in God’s presence.  He didn’t begin to lift his hands in worship of God.  He didn’t break out in declaring the glory of God.  He falls on his face and cries out, “Woe is me!”  This dread comes over him.

What will it be like on that day when I leave this earth and enter into God’s presence?  I believe that we really don’t grasp the holiness of God.  Notice in Isaiah 6 something about the angels that Isaiah mentions here.  He says that these angels have six wings on them.  Two of them were to cover their faces and two to cover their feet and two to fly with.  The glory of God is so great and His holiness is so supreme that even these created angels (who have never sinned) must cover their eyes lest they look on the glory of God.  What kind of God is this?  How holy must He be that even His own angels who are there for His bidding cannot even look upon His glory?  How much more can we?  Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:16 that God dwells in “unapproachable light”.  Isaiah saw this glory and he fell on his face in utter ruin.

In Revelation 1:12-16 John saw Jesus in His glory.  In Revelation 1:17 we read that John did just what Isaiah did, he fell on his face in ruin.  Even John the beloved saw how holy Jesus was at that moment and he too fell on his face in ruin.

This should be us as well.  So much about God is beyond me.  While I try to understand God, I never will.  I know that He loves me in His Son and that I can know Him through His Son (John 17:3) but God is so holy, pure, powerful, wise, etc. that I really can’t grasp Him.  And rightly I shouldn’t.  The gods of paganism are easy to figure out.  The false gods look like us and act like us.  But the God of the Bible is beyond our imagination.  He is too pure and holy to approach but through the grace given to us in Christ Jesus (Hebrews 4:14-16).  Isaiah 6:3 was the Hebrew expression for emphasis.  Isaiah is not just saying, “God is holy” but Isaiah is showing us, “Look, God is holy, God is holy, God is holy!”  God has never nor will He ever sin.  He thinks nothing evil and nothing evil can enter into His presence.  No doubt He sees all evil but He Himself has never been and can never be touched by evil.  He is absolutely holy.  He is absolutely, altogether different from us.

This holiness should make us tremble.  How can we serve such a God?  How can we even pray to such a God?  And it’s here that the cross of Christ is magnified through us seeing the holiness of God even but for a glimpse.  The cross shows us not just the great love of God for us (John 3:16) but also the holiness of God in dealing with our sins (1 John 2:1-2).  Jesus fully satisfies the wrath of a just and holy God against sin (Romans 3:21-27).  Through Christ, we can have peace with God (Romans 5:1).  Through Christ, we are imputed with righteousness (Romans 10:4).  Through Christ, we can now pray and worship in the presence of God.  While we still don’t see God in all His glory, we can at least come to Him through His Son and someday see Him face to face (Revelation 22:3-4).

How I long for that day when I can see the Lord face to face and I know that I too will cry with Isaiah, “Woe is me!” yet I will be able to also rejoice that my sins were washed away through the precious blood of Jesus Christ, God’s perfect Lamb (John 1:29; 1 Peter 2:21-22).

Check out Amazon.com today to receive a great deal for the Kindle.  You can get the book, The Holiness of God, by R.C. Sproul for free.  This book is one of my favorite books of all time and if you have never read this book, I would encourage you to purchase this book and see why I rank it so high.  Sproul exalts the holiness of God and shows biblically just how holy this God that we worship truly is.

Let me get back to the doctrine of the Trinity.  As I noted in the post prior to this post, Dr. R.C. Sproul stated that what separates Christianity from all other religions is the doctrine of the Trinity.  Christians do not worship the same God as those in Islam or Judaism.  The gods of Islam and Judaism are not the same either.  Occasionally I will hear someone claim that we Christians worship the same God as the god of Judaism but this is not true.  The doctrine of the Trinity is opposed by Judaism.  While I believe that the Old Testament alludes to the doctrine of the Trinity, the New Testament (which Judaism rejects) clearly teaches the doctrine of the Trinity.

In a previous post on the Trinity I noted that the Father is God.  Today we turn our attention to the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, as being equal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is not a little like God nor is He a little lower than God but He is in fact co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father and with God the Spirit.  Three persons in the one Godhead.  Three persons but only one God.  Not three separate persons meaning there are three Gods but one God and yet three persons.  By no means do I believe that our minds can grasp such a concept.  God is beyond us (Romans 11:33-36).  I am thankful that the God of the Bible is beyond me for if I were able to figure Him out (as the gods of cults typically is) then He would cease to be God.  Indeed, God is mysterious.  His wisdom, His power, His beauty, His person – they are all beyond my understanding but I am thankful for this (Isaiah 44:7-8).

The study of the deity of Jesus Christ is a long study since the purpose of the Bible is to reveal Jesus.  The purpose of the Bible is not to reveal that God is our creator (though He is) nor to reveal to us our purpose in life but to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done for us on the cross and through His resurrection (John 20:31).  Hebrews 1:1-3 glorify Jesus and show us the purpose of the Bible.  1 John 5:13 says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.”  The entirety of Scripture is about Jesus Christ.  So a study of His deity can be a very long study.  In order for me to study His deity, I want to focus on several aspects of His deity and how we can prove that Jesus is God.

I once handed out blank pieces of paper to a church and asked them to 1) write down five passages of Scripture that teach that Jesus is God, and then 2) five verses that teach salvation by grace through faith.  Hardly anyone could do it.  Few know why they believe what they believe. Yet 1 Peter 3:15 tells us that we are to be ready to give a defense of our faith and that hope that is in us.  Sadly, few know where we can turn to to prove that Jesus is God.  Few know how to teach someone true salvation through the Scriptures.  We rely on subjective feelings instead of the authority of the Word of God to lead us.  This should not be.  We should seek to study the Bible so that we can stand firm in our faith and help others to know the Lord Jesus through preaching the gospel to them.  When cults come to our doors, we should be able to provide a defense of our faith and show them from the Word of God their errors.  We don’t have to be an expert in Mormonism or Islam to share our faith but we should be able to know what we believe from the Scriptures especially concerning key doctrines such as the deity of Jesus Christ or the doctrine of salvation.

So let us begin our study of the Son of God by examining the major verses about His deity before turning to the Gospels to examine all the claims of Jesus that He made that showed His equality with God.

The New Testament by far has much to say about the doctrine of the Trinity.  The Trinity plays a key role in the birth of the Messiah.  In Luke 1:35 all three persons of the Trinity are involved in the birth of the Messiah.  At Jesus’ baptism, again all three persons of the Trinity are involved with Jesus’ enduement of power (see Matthew 3:16-17).  In Jesus’ final commission to His Apostles He gave them the command to go and make disciples and baptize them in the Trinitarian formula (see Matthew 28:19).

Other passages in the New Testament you can reference concerning the doctrine of the Trinity include:

• Matthew 12:18, 28; 22:43-44
• Like 3:21-22; 24:49
• John 1:33-34; 3:34-35; 14:11-26; 15:26; 16:7-15; 20:21-22
• Acts 2:32-33, 38-39; 10:36-38
• Romans 8:9-11, 26-27; 15:16
• 1 Corinthians 6:15, 19; 12:4-6
• 2 Corinthians 1:20-22; 13:14
• Galatians 4:4, 6
• Ephesians 2:13, 18, 22; 3:14-19; 4:4-6
• 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14
• Titus 3:4-6
• Hebrews 9:14
• 1 Peter 1:2; 3:18
• 1 John 4:2, 13-14
• Jude 20-21

In my studies on the doctrine of the Trinity, I have already noted that the basis for the Christian belief in the Trinity is not based on logic but upon Scripture.  Scripture teaches that there is but one God (Exodus 8:10; 20:3; Deuteronomy 4:35; 6:4; 1 Kings 8:23; Nehemiah 9:6; Psalm 18:31; 86:10; 96:4-6; Isaiah 43:10-11; 45:21; 46:9; Zechariah 14:9; John 17:3; Romans 3:20; 1 Corinthians 8:4-6; Galatians 3:20; Ephesians 4:6; 1 Timothy 2:5; James 2:19).  Yet all three persons within the Godhead are called God.  The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all called God.  You will notice also that Jesus is never called the Father the Father is never called the Son and the Holy Spirit is never called the Father, etc.  The three persons in the Trinity are all co-equal and co-eternal.  How this is so is a mystery but we either must reject what the Bible teaches about God or we accept that God is beyond our reasoning.  Many cults choose either to reject what the Bible says or they twist the passages of Scripture to fit their small views of God.

In this post I wish to show the Fatherhood of God.  In the Bible God shows Himself as a Father from the beginning of time.  Both the Old and New Testaments teach that the Father is God.  Notice for example Paul’s words in Galatians 1:1 (NASB): “Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead).”  And then notice Galatians 1:4 (NASB): “who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”  

The first time the name “Father” referring to God appears in the New Testament is from the teaching of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 5:45.  Several more times in the sermon on the mount does Jesus refer to God being our Father (see Matthew 5:48; 6:1, 4, 6, 8-9, 14-15, 18, 26, 32; 7:11, 21).

In the Old Testament God often is referred to as being a Father to Israel.  In Exodus 4:22 God even calls Israel His firstborn.  The Israelites are called the children of God in Deuteronomy 14:1.  God the Father is called Israel’s creator in Deuteronomy 32:6.  Several times in the Old Testament is God referred to as Father to both the Jews as a nation and people individually (see Psalm 86:26; Isaiah 63:7-9, 16; 64:8; Jeremiah 3:4, 19; 31:9; Malachi 2:10).

There is certainly a sense in which God is the Father of all of humanity (Numbers 16:22; Acts 17:28-29; Ephesians 4:6; Hebrews 12:9) but for the child of God in Christ Jesus, the relationship is much, much more intimate and deeper (Psalm 103:13).  Paul describes this unique relationship that disciples of Jesus Christ have with God the Father in Romans 8:15-17 (see also Galatians 4:6).  I love how Paul puts our relationship with God in perspective in 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 when he wrote, “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.”  

The delight is that we can be children of God through faith in Christ Jesus for as many as are baptized into Christ Jesus are children of God (Galatians 3:26-27).  Through faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus, we have peace with God the Father (Romans 5:1).  Jesus brings us into the very presence of our holy God who accepts us in Christ.  What a wonderful and merciful Father we have in God.