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 - One, Three or Both?
We just can't understand God. Trying to simplify HIm so we can understand isn't the answer though.
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:It tried to answer the problem, but it answered it in an unsatisfactory way, because there's no diversity in Allah. Now, mormonism did exactly the opposite. Mormonism which does it emphasize one or the many, the many, because there are multiple gods in Mormonism. In fact, one day, if you're a Mormon, you'll become a god yourself and you'll populate your own planet. Okay, so there's all these gods, so it emphasizes the many, but there is no balance. See, everybody's dealing with this. Okay, it's just, are they dealing with it adequately?
Speaker 2:In Christianity, there's unity and diversity in God, and I'm going to start to show you next week how interesting this all is. Because in the Bible take, for example, in the burning bush, here comes Moses, there's this bush burning, it's on fire, but it's not burning up, right, it's a strange sight. So he starts to approach it and this voice comes out of the bush says take off your sandals for the feet. I mean, the ground on which you are standing is holy ground, right. And he, moses, asks as he comes toward the bush what is your name? That I may tell the hebrews in egypt your name? And he says what I am, one or many one. Now, in the book of genesis, 126, 27, 28, he's on the sixth day and he's about to create man. And he says what? Let us which is the emphasis, the many in god. They're both true there's a unity and there's diversity in him, and that's the basis for all unity and diversity that we experience in our lives, all around us. This is why there are triads in creation. Now, by the way, triads what do I mean by a triad? I mean three in one.
Speaker 2:Okay, the people who founded this country, the United States of America, back in 1776 and later, when the Constitution in 1789, especially with the Constitution, they set up a particular type of government that we call a republic, the republic for which I stand right. When they did that, most of these men were influenced by Christian thinking. They actually did this purposefully, based on Trinity, when they set up our one government, with how many branches? Three, everybody learned this in government class right the executive branch, the legislative branch, the judicial branch. Why not four? Why not two? Why not just one? Because they recognize the importance of unity and diversity, because they already knew about unity and diversity in God and they wanted to reflect that.
Speaker 2:There are triads also, as I've mentioned. One of my favorite ones is in music. You have one piece of music but it has three parts rhythm, melody, harmony. Some people have pointed out things like the egg, which has the albumen, the yolk and the shell, and they say one egg but has three parts. Actually, if you get all involved, there's also an air sack, and you know. So my point in saying that's three parts. Actually, if you get all involved, there's also an air sac.
Speaker 2:So my point in saying that is that when you find a triad in creation, it's never going to be perfect representation of God. It can't. It's a finite thing. God is not finite.
Speaker 2:So when we see these triads, they're very interesting, but at some point they will break down as far as being a perfect reflection of who God is. Because? Why? Because you've got the creation down here and you've got the creator, and he's not subject to the limitations that we are subject to Now. So what does this mean about language and logic and category? Very simple Again. We have threeness and oneness down here in creation.
Speaker 2:Right Now, god is three in one, but guess what? Not in exactly the way that we experience in creation. It's similar, though, but we don't have a total grasp of him. This is the whole point. We do not have a total grasp of him. This is the whole point. We do not have a total grasp of the nature of god, it is. He is incomprehensible. Okay, we will never totally comprehend him. We can only understand in part who he is. But when we see three in one down here, here's the deal. It's a finite derivative of who he is, and that's why we have it, and that's why we have language and that's why we have logic, and it's the reason we have categories that we can trust, whereas the world's like we've got to have this concrete, universal a thing like a god, but there's not one there because we're in denial of that. So we just go on as if these problems are just going to go away Now. So this is the problem for pagans when do they get these absolute categories? So language and logic are not slipping and sliding all over the place.
Speaker 2:Here's the question Can you ever know a thing perfectly? What do you have to know in you ever know a thing perfectly? What do you have to know in order to know a thing perfectly? You have to have perfect knowledge of everything. Let me give an example. Do you know what a Morky is? It's a particular in the dog category. Well, here's the thing. Have you ever observed every single more key that has ever lived? Well, if you're not, how do you know what a more key is and what its characteristics are? Let's say you're a dog judge and you've evaluated 2,500 more keys and the 2,500 and first more key comes along and it has a different characteristic. Here's the question Is it a Morkey? Now, do we have to change the category to include this dog, or are we making a different category?
Speaker 2:This is what I'm saying about pagan knowledge. It's slippery, it's sliding, it's fuzzy, and the reason is because the categories that we set up are not built on absolute, infinite knowledge. That's why you are an economic guru, okay. You sit there and you watch markets. You take a pattern for the market. This year, you take a pattern. The second year, you're building a model right, based on patterns for the market. This year, you take a pattern. The second year, you're building a model right based on patterns in the market. Year three, you're building a pattern and you're saying oh, I see how this works. Year four boom, destroys your knowledge, covid.
Speaker 2:Okay, the point is in pagan knowledge. Here's the problem. The problem is you never know what the next piece of data is going to be. So you can never say you know something perfectly. In fact, as I said earlier, if you actually, as a person, claim to have knowledge, an absolute type of knowledge, you'll be considered arrogant and uncultured. But this is the problem for pagan knowledge you can never get certain knowledge because what you need for a perfect model is omniscience, and the only place you can get that is the Trinity.
Speaker 2:This is what we've seen in the whole story of evolution and creation debates over the last 200 years, starting in geology with Hutton and Lyell in the late 1700s and developing this discussion At the time that Hutton and Lyell started all this in geology. You know how much time they were trying to add to the biblical accepted age of the earth About 50,000 years, nothing, nothing I mean to compare to today, right? So on a pagan basis? Let's just say did Hutton and Lyle have knowledge on a pagan basis? Well, it was a 50,000 year old earth.
Speaker 2:What are they saying? The age of the earth is now 4.6 billion years old. That's a little different than 50,000. I mean, just slightly, just a hair off. I mean, are you kidding me? These aren't even close numbers.
Speaker 2:If I had $50,000, I'd be happy, but if I had 4.6 billion, you see the difference. Right, it's quite a bit of a difference and it keeps changing. It keeps changing. Do you really have knowledge? See, that's my point. No, there's no knowledge there.
Speaker 2:I had to learn all that stuff. I had to spit it on the test and get A's and stuff and become proctors and all this stuff for exams and teach labs and all that, and it was all what I don't know, stuff that's probably obsolete now. Why did I take up all my brain cells to do that? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, but I did it to get the grades right.
Speaker 2:So here's what Van Till stated at the end of this discussion of the one and the many, and he realized this in the 30s, the 1930s. He realized that Christianity is the only answer to the problem of the one and many that everybody is working with every day of their life, in their marriages, in their families, in their countries, in their local communities. They're dealing with every day of their life, in their marriages, in their families, in their countries, in their local communities. They're dealing with this problem all the time. And he said this Using the language of the one and many question. We contend that in God, the one and many are equally. Ultimate. Unity in God is no more fundamental than diversity, and diversity in God is no more fundamental than unity.
Speaker 1:The persons of the Trinity are mutually exhaustive of one another. 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. 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.