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 - Republic Government starts with the Trinity
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I'm so glad that the Founding Fathers of these United States were not Jehovah's Witnesses. Why? Because they refute the fact that the Holy Spirit is God, and without a solid understanding of the Trinity, three persons in one perfectly unified and equal in nature and power, the Founding Fathers would not have developed our form of government keeping a balance of power and we could easily have become like Russia.
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 And Lesson Preview
SPEAKER_00Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, the full lesson from Jeremy Thomas. Here's a hint of what's to come.
SPEAKER_02See, the Father got three through six, that's four verses. The Son got seven through twelve, that's six verses, and the Spirit got two verses. Now this is going to be interesting because when we get into the early church creeds, like the Apostles' Creed, and then later we'll look at the Nicene Creed. You'll also want to look at the same thing because all three talk about Father, Son, and Spirit, but you want to ask yourself, which one do they give the most discussion about? And are they trying to reflect what the Bible does with respect to the three members of the Trinity as far as emphasis?
SPEAKER_00There are some who argue that doctrine is unimportant in our daily lives. Or at least they would argue that many doctrines do not really have an impact on how we think, how we should think, how we live our lives. And yet there are doctrines that are critical to our daily living, and in fact have an almost universal daily impact. Especially for those of us living in the West.
Why Doctrine Changes Daily Life
SPEAKER_01The Trinity is one such doctrine.
SPEAKER_00Perfect unity, perfect balance of power, God in three persons. That well-developed doctrine by the Western Church gave rise to our Western forms of government, particularly in the US, where you have three branches equally powerful holding each other in check and in tension. It is the doctrine of the Trinity of God that gave rise to this political doctrine. And it is what has kept us separate and distinct from a country such as Russia where that doctrine wasn't held, and thus another entity was available and open to step in and replace the Son or the Holy Spirit. You see, biblical doctrine does have an impact on our daily lives. And it has an impact on our history and how we live today.
Five Core Trinity Claims
SPEAKER_02Okay, we're going to return a little bit to the Trinity, which we introduced last week. This is necessary, right? Because if you're introducing the third person of the Trinity on the day of Pentecost and you're talking about the Spirit of God now, and he becomes a prevailing figure for the church, then we like to see him in the context of who he is by nature as one of the members of the triune God. So remember, when we start to talk about the Trinity, ultimately it's incomprehensible. God himself is incomprehensible. How unsearchable are his ways. He's unfathomable. We can't exhaust him or contain him in our mental faculties. But at the same time, the scriptures teach that we can know God. We can know him to the extent that he has revealed himself to us in the Word. And so we can know Him truly, but we can't know Him exhaustively. So there are five basic points that we made much earlier in this series on the Trinity. And so briefly, those five points are God is one, meaning there's one God. There's not a plurality of gods. And yet God is also three. There's a threeness to God. And we say God in three persons, blessed Trinity. This threeness refers to eternal distinctions, and we'll develop this point today, not just his roles. And then there is subordination within the Trinity, but that subordination does not refer to essence, meaning it's not that the Son, who is subordinate to the Father, is somehow less than the Father in his essence. They are all equally God. And then lastly, with respect to God's works, the triunity is perceived as both threeness and oneness, meaning that all the works that he does. For example, one of the main works we think of is salvation. Salvation is God the Father is involved in salvation, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. So they're all involved, but there's always going to be one member of the Trinity who seems to be the center or spotlight. So when we think of salvation, obviously, which member of the Trinity do we think of as taking the spotlight? Well, God the Son, Christ. But that doesn't mean that the Father and the Spirit aren't involved. So that's what that point is all about. So we're going to focus this week on C, D, and E, and then move into issues in church history with the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed, and talk about some of the political ramifications around the world, especially in Eastern Europe and Russia, because there are implications for in church history for why those countries are the way they are, and why, for example, the political tyranny and oppression that we see in Russia and Eastern Europe in the last 20, well, even now, versus what we have here in the West. And there are differences that relate directly to the Trinity, relate directly to the Son, and directly to the Spirit. And this is a church controversy that happened hundreds and hundreds of years ago, known as the Filioque Clause, but all these in all these tiny, what Edward Gibbon called, you know, trivial matters, are not really trivial in the end, because millions of people have lived under these regimes and suffered because of failures in theology. And that's what's behind these things. So very, very important. There are real world repercussions to these things. So I'm going to move ahead. Don't forget this diagram. It's just an ancient diagram of the Trinity that's very simple. There's one God, there's three persons, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, right? But the Son is not the Father. The Father is not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not the Son. So we don't think of God as like having three masks. And he puts on mask A and says, I'm the Father. And then he says, takes that mask off and puts on mask B, the Son, and then takes that off and puts on mass C, the Holy Spirit. No, he is actually three separate persons. He doesn't just change masks. That's called modalism. It's an ancient heresy that some people use to try to describe the Trinity,
Economic Trinity In Ephesians 1
SPEAKER_02but it's not scriptural. So we've already gone through these points. Let's go on to letter C. God's threeness refers to eternal distinctions, not just roles, meaning that God is three in person, and that these three persons are eternal distinctions. So we're gonna I'm gonna introduce two terms here. One is called the economical trinity, and the other one is called the ontological trinity. And if you read systematic theology books, you'll find these terms because theologians have tried to talk about God and they've tried to therefore classify things so we can think. That's what we do as humans. We classify so we can categorize things and think. The economical trinity is interested in looking at God's relationship to creation. Okay, so it's not looking at God within himself. That's called the ontological trinity, and we'll talk about that in a minute, but it's looking at God as He is related to His creation. So this is only something you can talk about once he's created. Uh before the creation, you could not talk about the economical Trinity because there was no creation for him to be directly related to. He could only be discussed within himself, and that's what we call ontological trinity. So we'll look at both. But um, so the economical trinity looks at God's relationship to creation from the standpoint of the distinct roles of each member of the Trinity. For example, the Father is the planner of salvation, the Son is the executor of salvation, and the Spirit applies salvation. So let's look at Ephesians chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 through 14. Consider many to be like the longest sentence in the Greek text.
SPEAKER_02They divided it up in our English because it's just too many words. But um Ephesians 1, 3 through 14 is really a single sentence, but it deals with the three members of the Trinity. Verses 3 through 6 deal with chiefly the Father. Verses 7 through 12 deal chiefly with the Son, and verses 13 and 14 deal chiefly with the Spirit. So the Father, Son, and Spirit are all related to our salvation, and that's what these verses are describing. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Well, God and Father. The God and Father. And He's blessed us in every in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy, blameless before Him in love. He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will. And then you'll see a phrase to the praise of the glory of His grace. And that's a phrase that is used in each section related to each member of the Trinity. So it always closes with a phrase, to the praise of the glory of his grace. That's the God the Father's grace. And this was bestowed on us freely through the beloved. But then in verse 7, it shifts, and the main focus now is on the Son. So let's look at bits of it. In him we have redemption through his blood. Well, whose blood? Well, Christ's blood, the second person of the Trinity. The forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his kind intention, which he purposed in him. That's the Father purposed in the Son, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of times, a future period of time. That is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens, things on earth, and so forth. And it goes on. To the what? To the praise of his glory. Whose glory? Christ, the second person of the Trinity. So verses three through six are chiefly about the Father. Seven through eleven, I'm sorry, twelve, are about the Son. And now we move to verses thirteen and fourteen, and you get two verses about who? The Spirit. In him, that's Christ. You also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him that's in Christ with the Holy Spirit of promise, the one who is given to us as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the ultimate redemption of God's possession, which is our bodies, our resurrection body. To, and there it is again, to what? To the praise of his glory. Okay. So it's very structured in Paul's thinking: a section on the Father, a section on the Son, a section on the Spirit. And an observation I want you to all make is who got the most verses? The Son. Somebody said it real quick. The Son. See, the Father got three through six, that's four verses. The Son got seven through twelve, that's six verses, and the Spirit got two verses. Now, this is going to be interesting because when we get into the early church creeds, like the Apostles' Creed, and then later we'll look at the Nicene Creed. You'll also want to look at the same thing because all three talk about Father, Son, and Spirit, but you want to ask yourself, which one do they give the most discussion about? And are they trying to reflect what the Bible does with respect to the three members of the Trinity as far as emphasis? So this first point is about them all being involved in salvation, Father, Son, and Spirit, right? But in the eternal counsels of God, the Father would serve a specific role. That is basically the architect of the plan of salvation. The Son would serve another role, basically the executor of the plan of salvation, and then the Spirit would serve a third role relative to salvation. That's the one who secures it or seals it. He seals the deal. So, for all those who don't believe in the Trinity, what do you do with these verses? You know, each section said, to the praise of his glory. That's to the Father, to the praise of his glory to the Son, to the praise of the Spirit. And so that's pretty Trinitarian. Very strongly Trinitarian. So it's not just a verse. I mean, this Trinity thing is enmeshed in the text of the Bible. And so this point of threeness and uh is referring to eternal distinctions because they decided these things, like such as their role relative to salvation here, prior to the foundation of the world. It wasn't the Father that was crucified, for example. It was decided eternal in the eternal counsel of God that it would be the Son. And so that's the first point under God's threeness. It's referring to eternal distinctions, not just roles.
Ontological Trinity And God’s Aseity
SPEAKER_02Of course, they do have roles. God's threeness, again, here let's talk about the ontological Trinity. Now, this is not talking about God in relation to creation. Um, we just saw that in Ephesians 1. Salvation is something that occurs inside creation. Um, so it's God's relationship to us in terms of salvation in creation. But what about God and his relationship within himself independent of any creation? I mean, God was there before it says in the very first of the Bible that he created, there was simply God. God in three persons, right? And so we call this the ontological trinity. It is concerned with God within himself as both a unity and a diversity, a unity as one God, a diversity in the three persons. And he could express himself entirely as such without any creation there. So, God the Son, for example, we always call him the Son, and we always call the Father the Father. But did did God the Son become the Son at His incarnation? Well, if He did, then that would mean that the Father became the Father at the Incarnation, too, right? Because you can't have a Father without a Son. And so, no, this is an these are eternal distinctions, Father and Son. He's eternally the Father, and the Son is eternally the Son. They didn't become these things. In himself before the creation of the world, there was Father and Son. So we are looking at God ontologically without respect to any creation, and he is who he is, whether or not there is even a creation, right? The attribute you we, we one of the attributes you we use to explain this is we say God is immutable. Meaning what? That he never changes, right? Now, if God the Son became the Son, then there would be an essential change in God, would there not? And if God the Father became the Father, then again you would have an essential change in who God is. So, no, they didn't become father and son, they have always been. One of the attributes not commonly discussed, but one we'll mention now, is called asseyity, or for short, some people just call it a say. They say God is a say, or the asseety of God. And what this means is that God is self-contained. Meaning he doesn't need anything outside of himself. Um, he's wholly complete within himself, and it can express himself completely out of it just within himself. Um for example, in Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17, he's asking the Father to restore him to his glory, to his presence, that he may love him as he loved him before the foundation of the world. So one of the attributes of God is love, right? Could God express that before there was even a creation? The answer on the basis of John 17 is that yes, he could. Now, take another concept of God from Islam, uh, where we have a solitary monotheistic God named Allah. In other words, there's no diversity of person within Allah, it's just Allah.
SPEAKER_01Now, does Allah have an object in which to love before Allah created?
SPEAKER_02Well, if he's just a solitary person, there's no other person there, then he cannot express this attribute of love. Meaning that in order for Allah to love, he has to create an object for him to love. This means that Allah is not self-contained. I'm just pointing out a flaw in a concept of God. Allah is limited. Allah has to create if he's gonna be able to exercise a quality that he supposedly possesses, which is love. But of course, that characteristic is not very predominant in the concept of is of Allah, is it? Um look at the terror, uh look at the hate. There's not a lot of love in Islam, and many Muslims that come to Christ, the reason they come to Christ is because they realize that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son. And so for them, it's it's realizing that that one true God is actually a God of love, and Allah is a false God. So um it's interesting to think about God in this sense, that he's wholly complete in himself or self-contained. We call that aseety. Now, um,
Begotten Not Made And Arius
SPEAKER_02this is where we enter into some subordination, is the fourth point under these five propositions, some subordination within the Trinity. And when we talk about subordination, we are making sure that we do not say that it refers to the essence of any one of the persons. Um the scriptures teach directly that the Son is begotten of the Father. We just quoted John 3.16, but you know, take a look at John. John says this a lot. He talks about the only begotten, which is this Greek word monogenais. The monogenais. And uh you see it in John 3.16, you see it in John 3.18. We know John 3.16, right? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. John 3.18, he who believes in him is not judged, he who does not believe has been judged already because he's not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
SPEAKER_01Take a look at John 1.18. John 1.18.
SPEAKER_02Usually not the verse that we memorize, uh, but definitely one worth memorizing. It also uses the only begotten. No one has seen God at any time.
SPEAKER_01The only begotten what?
SPEAKER_02God, the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him, which is the Greek word exegete, exegeomai. He has exegeted him. What does exegete mean? Out, ex, you know, like out, like the exodus to come out, to draw, to draw out. So what did the only begotten God, which is obviously a reference to the Son, what did He draw out? He drew out who the Father was, he has exegeted him, he has explained him, he has shown us who the Father is. They kept saying, Show us the Father, right? What did Jesus say?
SPEAKER_01If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
SPEAKER_02He said, Why did he say that? Just look at me. I am exegeting him, I am showing you who he is in nature. And so we have this description, though, of the Son being begotten. You never read the Father is begotten, and you never read of the Spirit being begotten. So we need to understand what this word begotten means, and specifically that it signifies that he took a subordinate role. A subordinate, but that doesn't mean inferior. So this is a voluntary role that the second member of the Trinity took. He is the only begotten. Now, this is the point in church history that starts the story that ends up resulting in the oppression and tyranny, political tyranny in Eastern Europe and Russia. Okay. And this discussion started around, let's just say, about 300 AD, with Arius. And Arius came along and he saw this concept of the only begotten, and he developed the concept that the second person of the Trinity, because he was begotten, was a creature and not eternal. That he was made, and therefore the first thing that God created. And therefore, of course, this impacts the Trinity, right? Because well, if he was created, he's not God in the same sense that the Father is God. Definitely not on that level. So Arius interpreted Jesus as having a beginning and not being co-eternal with the Father. He was in Arius' eyes the first creation of God. And that's why you'll read in the early creeds things like about the Son, it will say, begotten, not made. Because they're reacting to Arius, that heresy had to be stopped. Now, what then does it mean? Begotten? That's the key, right? Arius was mistaken on the meaning of this term. Most people think of this term, probably the first time they read it, as born.
SPEAKER_01Begotten. Born.
SPEAKER_02That's not exactly the meaning of the term. The term has its origin actually in the days of Genesis 22, when there's a story of Abraham and Isaac. And Abraham is told to take Isaac up to Mount Moriah. So if you take a look at Genesis 22:2, you'll see the origin of only begotten. That it wasn't new with Jesus in John 3.16 or something. That this has been around, and that we understand it because we've already previously understood Genesis 22. You'll see it in Genesis 22, God testing Abraham, saying to him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am. And he said, Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land Moriah, offer him there as a burnt offering, right? Take your son, your only son. That's the root and origin of the concept of only begottenness. Because let me ask a question. At this time, did Abraham have other sons? Well, yes. So how can you say, take your son, your only son, if he has other sons? Because the concept of only son or only begottenness is not just having birth.
SPEAKER_01That's not the concept of it. Look also at verse 12.
SPEAKER_02The angel is speaking to him, and he and uh the angel says to him in verse 12, Do not stretch out your hand against the lad and do nothing to him, for I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. Again, are you serious? This is not his only son. Not only in the sense of natural birth, but he is the only son, or the monogenaes in the biblical sense of what it means. What then does it mean? It means one who is uniquely brought into the world to serve a specific or vital link in the sovereign plan of God, someone who is uniquely born so that they are a part of the sovereign plan of God.
SPEAKER_01Was Isaac uniquely born? Well, anybody today who's 90 years old giving birth to babies? Has anybody in the history of the world since then, at 90 years of age, had a baby? I think we're safe to say no, nobody has. So this was a unique birth.
SPEAKER_02A monoganais, a unique one, and he is the heir. Isaac is the heir of the promises that God made to Abraham. And so when we read that of Jesus in John 1 or John 3, what are we reading? We're reading, for God so loved the world that he brought his unique one, the heir, who is the sovereign link in his plan into the world, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, right, but have everlasting life. That's what we're reading. And so this is what it means to be begotten, that the second person of the Trinity took on a specific role as the begotten one, and he subordinated himself to the Father to serve in this capacity, to serve us, to serve us with salvation. So the Son is subordinate to the Father in role, not in his essence. He is truly God of truly God,
Filioque Clause And East West Split
SPEAKER_02and he has all the attributes of God, right? Now the Spirit, the Spirit, there's another term used for the Spirit. The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Spirit proceeds. And this is the little phrase I'm going to talk about a little bit called the Filioque Clause. And you say, why do you have to use Latin? Well, because this is the way it's talked about in church history. Uh scholars use Latin to categorize everything. But it just means and the son. That's what it means. And the son. So the question becomes later in church history: does the spirit proceed from the Father alone, or does the Spirit proceed from the Father and the Son? Okay. So this helps us understand a little bit about the Spirit and his role of subordination within the Trinity. The Western or Latin churches, which ultimately came centered in Europe, you know, in Roman Catholicism, in Italy, you know, Rome, clarified at the Council of Toledo in 589 A.D. that the Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son. And they really added this phrase about and the Son to go against Arianism, which had been disputed, you know, they'd already discussed that 350 years before. So this is really just a clarification so that the Arians didn't get the idea, people who were still thinking in terms of Arianism, that the Son was not powerful enough to send the Spirit. Because in Arianism, if he's just creation, if he's made, uh, he can't be part of the sending of the Spirit. Only the Father could do that. And so they were clarifying to lock up all possible ways people could get around this, that it wasn't just the Father who sent the Spirit, but it was also the Son. So they added the little Filioque clause to the Nicene Creed. Now, the problem with this is that the Eastern churches, which came down in Eastern Orthodoxy, Greek Orthodoxy, and you know the Russian Russian Orthodox Church, these churches weren't invited to the Council of Toledo. And they had played part in writing the Nicene Creed centuries before. So, first of all, they were kind of offended, like you didn't invite us. And so when they heard about this addition and the sun, they ended up rejecting it. Out of hand. Now, what they should have done, of course, is check the scriptures to see if these things are so. That's always the final thing, not whether somebody offended you or not. I may offend you, but if what I say is true, okay, great, right? Um you can get over me because the scriptures are true. That's what counts. Look at John. So let's look at some of the passages. John 14, 26.
SPEAKER_01What do the scriptures say on this point? John 14, 26.
SPEAKER_02Jesus, you know, if you have the red letter edition, of course, you can see very quickly that Jesus did these words. It says, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name. So here it says, the Father will send, and the way that Jesus is connected to the Father's sending is that he will be sent in Jesus' name, right? So in some way, the Spirit, or I mean the Son is linked into the sending process. But that's not totally clear. So let's take a look at chapter 16, verse 7. And again, if you have the red letters, you can tell easily that Jesus said this, right? John 16, 7, but I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage that I go away. Now, when did he go away? We studied it already in the book of Acts, right? He went away in Acts 1 at the ascension. He says, It's to your advantage that I go away. If I do not go away, the helper will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. Now, wait, you said in chapter 14 that it would be the Father who would send him in your name. Now you say you will send him. So, at any rate, the Western churches said what? We need to add to the Nicene Creed that the Spirit proceeds from the Father, and we need to add and the Son to account for these passages. And by doing that, we'll shut down Arianism forever because Arianism is saying Jesus isn't even God. And so we can't have that. So this will lock the door on that. We will shut the door on this heresy. Unfortunately, they didn't because there's still a group of, it's it's remarkable, there's a modern group of Arians still, they don't go under the term or name Arians, but they are the Jehovah's Witnesses. And they are very, very close to ancient Arian beliefs. And so we'll talk about them some. But this is the description of the spirit proceeding from the Father. Now, the the Eastern churches, again, they didn't get invited to the conference, they didn't get to vote on whether we should add and the son, the Filioque clause. So they got mad and they rejected it. And ever since then, the Eastern and Western churches have been divided. And they've never been able to get past this point. And the Eastern churches, which Greek Orthodox, you know, and the Russian Orthodox Church basically went their own ways. And you can see what has happened politically in those areas of the world. And fundamentally, the reason that they have had political tyranny and oppressive regimes is because they've had a weak Christ. Because the East did not want to develop the second person of the Trinity's role in the Godhead, they had a weak Christ, and as a consequence, whenever you have a weak Christ, there's a void or a vacuum, and something has to fill that void.
SPEAKER_01And the thing that will always fill the void is the state. The state will take power and it will become the savior. It will be the proclaimed, self-proclaimed savior of those people, and it will prevail and dominate them.
SPEAKER_02And that's what happened to these. But we'll talk about that later. But what happened in the West? Constitutionalism, liberty. There is balance in the authority structure. Once you have a strong Christ, and the West developed the theology of the Trinity, they really focused on Christ, they really developed Christ, they also developed the Spirit. So you had three in one, and they are all equally authoritative, because they're all equally God. And that created a diversity of power within the Trinity, right? Three persons but one God. So there's diversity of power in the authority structure. And what do you see in constitutionalism? A balance of powers. And what do we also see in the West? We see balance of authority structure in other social structures, such as marriage, husband and wife.
SPEAKER_01Different roles, but equal in essence.
SPEAKER_02Each being fully human, but serving in the respective roles. That nice balance that we have, friends, that's just that's not everywhere in the world. The reason we have that nice balance is because we have the Trinity developed in Western theology of Europe and moving to America. We have the same thing in family and so forth. So we have this nice balance of authority structure because ultimately in the West they developed the full Trinitarian theology, and that has filtered down into all of our structures in life. Now, so this clause became very important in church history. Now, Edwin Gibbon, who wrote a very important work on the fall of Rome, he looked at this dispute in church history and he kind of mocked the whole thing. He said, Doesn't matter one iota. The iota is the smallest letter in the Greek language. So it's one of the letters that are 22 letters of their alphabet, the iota. And uh he said, doesn't matter one iota. You probably heard that too. Doesn't matter one iota. That's coming from Gibbon. You may not have read the book, but that's where it came from. Uh he said this whole dispute between the East and West didn't matter one iota. It was just silly dispute. Now, what he was referring to actually was there are two words, what the Arians use and the words the Athanasians use. And the Athanasians were more, they were Trinitarian, and the Arians were not. They didn't believe that Jesus was God. He was just made, he's just a creature. But it's an interesting story because in the Greek the the word homoousias means of the same substance. And that's what the Athanasians were saying. They were saying Jesus Christ is of the same substance as the Father, meaning he's of the equal essence. He's God. That's what they mean. Homo, meaning same ousias, same substance. But the Arians said, no, he's homoiusias. And it has a little iota in there. And that's the only letter that's different between those two words. That is the only letter. Homoi means like, not same, but like. He's like the father, but not the same. And Gibbon said, it doesn't matter one iota. He's making a play on that one letter in the word homoysius versus homo homoousius.
SPEAKER_01So the thing is, it does matter one iota.
SPEAKER_02Tell the people in Russia or Eastern Europe that it doesn't matter when they understand their history and the implications of what transpired in 589 A.D. at the Council of Toledo versus people in the West, who have historically enjoyed much more freedom and balance of authority, structure, and power. It matters one iota. That iota is everything, because on one hand you've got Trinitarianism, on the other hand, you don't have Trinitarianism at all. And therefore, you're always going to have concentrated power, you're going to have political tyranny whenever you don't have Trinity at the forefront. And that's why, by the way, the Russian Tsars and everybody who's ever ruled Russia has always wanted to keep Russian Orthodoxy as the only true church in the Russian people's eyes. And that's why today 71% of Russians believe that the only really true church is the Russian Orthodox Church. They got that because their political rulers know that we have to keep a weak Christ if we are to keep power. Because a weak Christ is what creates a vacuum, and that's the vacuum where we come in and we exert power and rule over Russia.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02Very, very, very important stuff. Now, um, and the reason it's important is you can see it's it's not this is not just theory. Okay, you can talk about the Trinity, people say, oh yeah, yeah, the Trinity. They don't think it has any practical value. I'm telling you, it has affected millions and millions of people's lives. Uh, it's very practical in the way that people think. So, this whole idea that the Spirit is sent not only by the Father, but also by the Son, is critical in church history for the development of a strong
Strong Christ And Political Freedom
SPEAKER_02Christ and, of course, a strong spirit. But having said all that, who does the Spirit magnify or point to? Is the Spirit always pointing to Himself?
SPEAKER_01Or is the Spirit always pointing to who?
SPEAKER_02Christ. He's always pointing to Christ. Even in the Gospels, you know, we know that the Holy Spirit is doing miracles through the Messiah, but who is the one who's on display doing the miracles? The Son. And that's what people are seeing, right? Because the Holy Spirit is the behind-the-scenes player. This will help us when we come to Pentecostalism, right? Because in Pentecostalism, the movement where you see lots of tongue speaking, and sometimes you have people, you know, barking like dogs or rolling down the aisle, holy laughter and all this other thing. Who is the main person that is being put on center stage in Pentecostalism? Okay, the Spirit. And yet the Bible never presents the Spirit in this light. And this helps us understand where there could be error, right?
SPEAKER_01And so always the Spirit will point to Christ.
SPEAKER_02Now, um, with respect to God's work, the Trinity is perceived as both threeness and oneness. This is the last of the five points on the Trinity. With respect to God's works, the Trinity is perceived as both threeness and oneness. I've given some examples with salvation already. But here's some other ones. Um all three members of the Trinity are indwelling. You're in John, right? So let's just go over to John 14, 10, and 11.
SPEAKER_01John 14, 10 and 11. This might not be the word the verses I was looking for.
SPEAKER_02Maybe they are. Let's see. Um John 14, 10. Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak of my own initiative, but the Father abiding in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works. No, these are not the verses I was looking for. Uh where is it that is it 1423? Is it 23? Yes, 23. Sorry, I had the wrong verse. But the fathers and the sons, sons and the father. Okay, that's complicated. That's talking about the interpenetration of the Trinity. It's they're distinct people, but they interpenetrate one another. Difficult point. But verse 1423, Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him. Now wait a minute, I thought it was the Holy Spirit that indwelt us. Now you're saying the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit indwell us? Yes. Yes. And Paul says this later in Galatians 2.20. He says, It's not I who live, but Christ lives in me. How could he say that? Why didn't he say, but the Spirit lives in me? Because that well, they're both true. He could have said it either way. But um, the Trinity indwells. But here on this point of indwelling, who which member of the Trinity do we usually talk about being the one who indwells us? Who gets the spotlight here? The Spirit. The Spirit, right? He's the one we emphasize there. But hey, that doesn't mean the other members of the Trinity aren't involved. They are. Here's another one. All three members of the Trinity are involved in giving spirit or in spiritual gifts. Uh 1 Corinthians 12, 4 through 6. Usually when we think about, let's look at 1 Corinthians 12. Usually when you think about spiritual gifts, which member of the Trinity do you think about? The Spirit. Well, it's spiritual gifts. It's the Holy Spirit, right? He does that. Yes, he does do that, but is he the only one who's involved in this?
SPEAKER_011 Corinthians 12, 4 through 6. Verse 4.
SPEAKER_02Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same what? Spirit. Okay. And there are varieties of ministries and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God. Now there you have in verse 4 the Spirit. In verse 5, the Son. In verse 6, you have the Father. And you see, they're all involved in the gifts, the ministries where we use those gifts and the effects of those gifts. But usually we think only of the Spirit. But the point is to show that with respect to God's works, the Trinity is perceived both as threeness
Spirit’s Spotlight And Modern Errors
SPEAKER_02and oneness. I'm pointing out the threeness, spirits involved, sons involved, and the fathers involved. But usually one gets the spotlight. Usually one gets the spotlight.
SPEAKER_01Now, there are errors concerning the third person of the Trinity, right? And this is what
SPEAKER_02Makes us want to study it further. Because we have to make sure we understand what the scriptures actually teach. I mean, the scriptures are the authority, they're the text. Whatever it says. It doesn't matter what so-and-so said. It doesn't matter what I say. What matters is what the text says. If I don't explain it correctly, then I'm wrong. Right? So there are errors. The spirit, first of all, here's an error. The spirit is not a person, but the spirit is a force. These are Jehovah's Witnesses. Okay? What I call modern Arianists. So what they actually say in their doctrine is that the Spirit is not a separate person in the Trinity, but he's an active force. So he's a powerful energy of God that influences and accomplishes God's purposes. So he's just a force. So when it says things like the Spirit of God, it's not talking about a person. You're not supposed to think that, they say. You're supposed to think of some energy that God, or some influence that God is exerting. So of course they Jehovah's Witnesses don't see a Trinity, right? They just only believe in one God, and Jesus is made, and then there's the Spirit, He's a force. Okay. So let the force be with you, I guess. You know, I don't know. But that's Jehovah's Witnesses. The Spirit's not a person, he's a force. Now, Unitarianism, you can figure that one out pretty quick. Are they Trinitarian? No, they're Unitarian. So again, they're not Trinitarian, so they don't believe Jesus is God. They don't believe the Spirit is God. But what do they believe about the Spirit? Well, he's the divine breath, and He's a mystery, the mystery that gives life. You know, God breathed into man and he became a living soul and so forth. And he also moves among and within people. So actually, that's really similar to Jehovah's Witnesses, isn't it? I mean, Jehovah's Witnesses call him a force. Here they call him a mystery, a divine breath that gives life. But it's almost the same as what Jehovah's Witnesses believe. And then, of course, the third one, the Spirit is the focus. He becomes the focal point, the center stage persona. That's Pentecostalism, where what they claim about baptism of the Spirit, and we've been talking about that in the past weeks, the Spirit baptized on Pentecost, Acts 2, Acts 8, Samaritans, Acts 10, Gentiles, Acts 19, disciples of John. And all those four groups spoke in tongues, right? And God was signifying, hey, they're all in one body, the church. Not four different churches, one church. And so the spirit does that. We talk about that, but here's what they say about spirit baptism. A person may be spirit baptized sometime after their conversion. Okay, not at the conversion, but sometime after. And this is considered a second work of the spirit that may be signified by speaking in tongues. So the person may speak in tongues to demonstrate that they have this second baptism. And so they're gonna hold to the non-cessation of certain spiritual gifts, you know, things like tongues, prophecy, word of knowledge, interpretation of tongues, of course. They're gonna hold that those things come all the way down to our day.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02And through this, there is this centralizing of the spirit. There's this overemphasis on the spirit. Like the spirit does not put himself on the pages of scripture in that light. He is, again, more behind the scenes. And so this kind of points out, hey, there's some things that could be wrong here, right? Um, so that all said, let's conclude with a few things. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Was this a right addition? Well, yeah, John 16, 7. I mean, Jesus said, if I don't go, I will not send the Spirit. So it's good for you to go, it's to your advantage. So, yes, he was involved in the sending. That is what produces the concept of a strong Christ in a theology. Because, see, if he's not, if he, if he, if he's not God, well, he can't send the spirit, you know. And then you have a much weaker Christ, and that's what I was saying happened in the East, okay, with the Eastern churches. They all divided at the Council of Toledo. Um, and they've never had a strong enough Christ. Now, here's just a look at the Apostles'
Creeds Compared And Closing Prayer
SPEAKER_02Creed. The Apostles' Creed is believed to have been handed down from the Apostles, but it it it we know it's been in other hands, and it has uh undergone some revisions in the early centuries of the church. But basically, uh church history scholars agree that this does basically reflect what the apostles thought about the three members of the Trinity. And the first thing I want you to just observe, just look at this. The first paragraph's about the Father, the second's about the Son, the third is about the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01So who gets the most attention? Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_02When we read Ephesians 1, 3 through 14, we saw six verses given to Christ, four to the Father, and two to the Spirit. So he was predominant in Ephesians 1. And who did they recognize as took the predominant role? They took the Son. That's very interesting. And of course, you can read what they say about him here.
SPEAKER_01Umtice what they say about the Holy Spirit in the third paragraph. What do they say about the Holy Spirit? I believe in him. That's it. That's all they say. I believe in the Holy Spirit. That's all they said. Interesting, right?
SPEAKER_02Now let's see the Nicene Creed. It was developed probably up to about the Council of Toledo, about 600 years after Christ. So here's what they have about the Father. That's the paragraph. First of all, let's just look at how much they wrote about the Father. They added a little bit here, like one sentence. That is seen and unseen. They added that. Here's the Son, okay, that's the first page on the Son. And then there's the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01So you've got Father, basically one sentence, Son, Spirit. Now, again, who gets the most treatment? Okay, the Son. But look how much they expanded the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02I mean, in the apostles' creed, we believe in him. That's all they said. Now you get you got a lot of stuff. So let's go back here and look a little bit at what they said about the Son. We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father. Eternally begotten. Meaning he's from the eternal counsels of God, the Son would play a unique role by having a supernatural birth that would be central to God's sovereign plan. Okay. He's God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made.
SPEAKER_01Why don't they put that in there?
SPEAKER_02Arius. Arius said he was made. So what'd they say? Not made. Begotten, not made, because begotten doesn't mean made. Okay. So they're putting all this in there, then they go through his work and so forth. And all that's lovely. Um, what did they do with the Holy Spirit? As we said at this council, Toledo 589, they added a little phrase here that the Eastern churches didn't like. They said, We believe in the Holy Spirit. Well, the apostles' creed said that, but that's all it said. Then they said, He's the Lord, he's the giver of life, and that he proceeds from the Father and the Son. And with the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets. So now he's involved in Scripture, right? We believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Now let's just stop with this. What does that mean? One holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Most of us in our minds, what do we think when we think of Catholic?
SPEAKER_01Well, that's that's what we should think, right? We might think of the Roman Catholic Church, right? But that's not what the word means. What does Catholic mean? Universal, right?
SPEAKER_02They were not talking about the Roman Catholic Church at all. Okay? They were saying we believe in one universal anapostolic church. They're talking about the universal church. Do we believe in the universal church? Of course we believe in the universal church. That's all believers from the day of Pentecost up to this present hour. You know, the universal church, not a local church, but the universal one, all believers. So that's all I mean there. We believe in one holy, universal, and apostolic church. Some have commented that, in fact, when you put the words Roman and Catholic together, you've created a contradiction.
SPEAKER_01Because Roman is particular, it's one church, and Catholic is universal.
SPEAKER_02It's not particular, it's the opposite. So those terms seem to conflict. But uh, at any rate, um, this is a much extended description of what they believed about the Holy Spirit. So these doctrines that we study today and we find so precious, like the Holy Spirit, like the Son, like the Father, these have undergone a lot of thought in church history before we get down to our day. And some of the thought actually resulted in tremendous division that has affected world history and the kinds of political rulers that people have lived under. So it is very important, and I want just to highlight that, right? It's very important to have a proper understanding of God in every person.
SPEAKER_01Blessed. And it's also important to just give thanks to because what we live under in the West is very different from what people live under in Russia and in Eastern Europe before the fall of the wall, right?
SPEAKER_02Um so that concluded next week. What we're gonna start to do is we're going to develop the works of the Holy Spirit. What is he doing in our life? And how do we live the Christian life? And we talked about it some, but we're gonna go back through it in a lot more detail this time. All right, let's uh have a word of prayer, and then those who are serving, if you come forward and we're gonna put someone on display, right? One of the members of the Trinity. We're gonna put that the Lord Jesus Christ. Because he said, I want you to remember, remember what he did on the cross.
SPEAKER_00Thank 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.