Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - A Masked God?
God is one. God is Three. Uh what? How does this work?
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament Framework. Today a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2:What is the deeply held belief that these folks hold, which is actually a conclusion? It's that God is an absolute one, with no diversity in himself. We would want to challenge that presupposition and discuss the concept of unity, meaning one God, but can you have diversity in that unity? Is that possible biblically? So, rather than start with this conclusion, we would want to back up and challenge the presupposition underlying it, because our view does not come from the idea of a solitary monotheism. Our view is monotheistic there's one God, but there is diversity of persons in this God, and so the problem with presuppositions is they're kind of like flypaper. I used to work in the lab with plants and of course, you've got to keep the little fruit flies off the plants. It's this yellow paper and if you grab it it's sticky on both sides. If you try to get it off that hand with using the other hand, it's now stuck on this hand, and that's kind of how presuppositions are. They're very difficult to get rid of because they are a person's core belief and they are really unchallenged and unchallengeable beliefs, and so it's difficult, like getting rid of flypaper, to get people to drop their presuppositions and start from another viewpoint.
Speaker 2:I'm talking with someone this week about the church being Jew and Gentile in one body, the body of Christ. We all know this. This is not that complicated thing to say, but this person wants to say that if a Jew has believed he's no longer Jewish. And I can't get him to drop that idea and accept that. There are passages that describe Jewish believers like 1 Peter is written to Jews of the dispersion who are believers. The olive tree in Romans 11, which has natural branches and it has wild branches. The natural branches in Romans 11, which has natural branches and it has wild branches. The natural branches are Jewish believers. They're the natural recipients of the benefits of this olive tree. And then you have wild branches and these are Gentiles who have been grafted into this tree and they're the unnatural recipients of blessings from the Jewish covenant. So but I can't get convinced this person that you can have Jewish believers and Gentile believers and we're all united in the church.
Speaker 2:They say no, if you're in the church you're neither Jew nor Gentile. You know Galatians 3.28. But Galatians 3.28 isn't saying there's no Jews or Gentiles. It's saying there's no Jew and Gentile. It's saying Jews and Gentiles have equal spiritual privilege. It's not saying you become a non-Jew if you're a Jew and you believe in Jesus, any more than it's saying if you're a Gentile and you believe in Jesus, you're no longer a Gentile. It's no more saying that if you believe in Christ, you're no longer a Gentile. It's no more saying that if you believe in Christ, you're no longer a man. Or if you're a woman and you believe in Jesus, you're no longer a woman, because Galatians 3.28 says that too right Neither male nor female. It's not saying that if you're a slave and you believe in Jesus, you're no longer a slave. Or if you're a free man and you believe in Jesus, you're no longer free, but you're a slave or something else. It's not saying that. It's just saying all these people have equal spiritual privileges, no matter their station in life. That's all that it's saying.
Speaker 2:But the point is I'm trying to get across is I cannot communicate with this individual about this very important topic biblically, because they have a presupposition and it's really unchallenged and unchallengeable, and so every time they go to a passage, they have to interpret it to fit their presupposition, because it's a deeply held, unchallenged and unchallengeable truth to them. So this is the challenge is to make sure our presuppositions are the correct ones and to challenge them personally, individually. So we've gone through some of these. If you start with this presupposition an ancient modal monarchianism, also known as Sibelianism for its founder, sibelius, and one of the derivatives of that was a concept of patropatianism, the idea that the father was crucified as well as modern oneness, pentecostalism you start with this one idea of God, this absolute one. Then you have to come to certain conclusions, because as you read the Bible, you say well, who's the son and who's the spirit and who's the Father? How does this all relate to the one God?
Speaker 2:So the way that they historically have done it is they said well, in the Old Testament God revealed Himself as the Father, in the Gospels God revealed Himself as the Son, and in the epistles and on down to our own day, he reveals Himself as the Holy Spirit. And these are three masks that God puts on, because there's one God. And he puts a mask of the Father on, then later he puts the mask of the Son on, then later he puts the mask of the Spirit on. We said well, that doesn't work so well because there are texts where, for example, jesus is talking to the Father, for example in his high priestly prayer of John 17. It's a dialogue. Is Jesus just changing masks? So he puts on his Jesus mask and then says something, and then he switches masks and puts on the Father mask and he receives what Jesus said to him. See, this doesn't work. See, it doesn't make much sense of these texts in the Bible. It also doesn't explain how the father is actually the father of the son, if they're really just the same person with two different masks on, does it? So you go through these and you wrestle with them, but in the end you say nope, that's not right, that doesn't fit what the text says.
Speaker 2:Another one that starts the same way with a presupposition of a solitary monotheism, is easiest to understand in the term adoptionism. But it's also held by modern Unitarians right down here in the street in Spokane. It's held by Judaism, it's held by Islam. So people hold this pretty much exact view today, or similar views. In this concept.
Speaker 2:The conclusion is that, well, only the Father is God and Jesus. He was given the godhood, or he was bestowed godhood at his birth, at his baptism or his resurrection. So he is a god, they will say. He's just not so. He's less in essence. He's just not so. He's less. In essence, he's not sovereign, righteous, just loving, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, immutable, eternal. He doesn't have those attributes of God. He has another set of attributes that are unique to him, that make him less than one true God, the Father, see. So we have to ask ourselves, well, does that fit? Does that fit what the Bible says?
Speaker 2:Well, it doesn't explain how Christ was with the Father before the incarnation. I mean, if he was created and born, then how was he with the Father before His birth? That doesn't fit. It doesn't explain the deity of Christ passages. It certainly doesn't explain why Jesus permits himself to be worshipped or will accept worship. I mean, let's think about it. Okay, if there's one true God, he's the only one who should be worshipped, right? I mean, would you worship a creature? Isn't that against one of the Ten Commandments? You don't worship anything in creation. Well, if Jesus is less than the one true God and he's a creation and he was just bestowed godhood and we worship him, or he accepts worship, wouldn't that be idolatry? Well, of course it would be idolatry. You would only worship the one true God. You wouldn't worship Jesus Christ because he's less than God. That would be idolatry. So again, this is a point. You see, this doesn't work. This will not fit with the Bible.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. Under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.