Department of Christian Defense
Defending the Gospel
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Jehovah's Witnesses
Debates FEATURED ARTICLES
Corralling the New Testament Canon
The Trinity in the Old Testament
How to Respond to Attacks on the Deity of Christ by Muslims & Jehovah’s Witnesses The Mormon (LDS)view of Jesus Christ
Mormonism & Black Skin
"Firstborn" & the JWs
New World Translation
The Security of the Believer:
Perseverance of the Saints A Word on The cross-work of Jesus Christ does not put the elect in a potentially saved state; rather it secured salvation for the ones that the Father gave to Christ:(John 6:37-40, 44). Christ’s death also secured reconciliation for His elect (cf. Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:18-19; Col. 1:21-22; Heb. 9:12). He voluntarily gave Himself as a ransom for His chosen, on their behalf (cf. Mark 10:45; Rom. 8:32; Gal. 1:4; 3:13; Eph. 5:25-26; 1 Thess. 5.9-10; 1 Tim. 2:6): “For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people” (Luke 1.68). Note the usage of the Greek preposition huper (“on behalf of,” “instead of”) to describe the actual and literal substitutionary death of Christ: “[the Father] delivered [paredōken; i.e., delivered up for sacrifice] Him over for [huper, lit., “on behalf of”] us all” (Rom. 8:32; emphasis added); “who gave Himself for [huper] our sins” (Gal. 1:4; emphasis added; cf. 3:13); “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for [heauton paredōken huper] her” (Eph. 5.25; emphasis added). Further, to emphasize the nature of the substitutionary work of Christ on the behalf of His elect, the preposition anti is utilized in Mark 10:45: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for [lutron anti] many” and Matthew 20:28, which reads identically. After careful lexical and linguistic study, Greek scholar, Daniel Wallace, concludes: "In summery, the evidence appears to be overwhelmingly in favor of viewing anti in Matt. 20:28/Mark 10:45 as meaning in the place of and very possibly with the secondary meaning in exchange for. . . . (GGBB, 367). In 1 Timothy 2:6, Paul combines the compound antilutron and huper to clearly denote what Jesus Christ literally did for His people—a ransom in their place: “who gave Himself as a ransom for [antilutron huper] all.” But because of His great love and mercy for His chosen, He not only invites them, but infallibly deliverers them: “you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).
As Paul rightly says, “By His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1.30). He literally substituted Himself on behalf of His people absorbing the wrath that was due to our account because of sin. His cross-work satisfied the requirements of God's law.
It was the perfect justice of God, which required that the perfect demands of the law should be met (cf. Rom. 3:25-27). Christ Jesus perfectly met those requirements by substituting Himself in our place. ----------------------------------------------- |
The atoning cross-work of God the Son was not a vague non-specific universal work for which no one is actually (but only potentially) atoned, but rather it was a *definite atonement and according His perfect *sovereignty and pleasure of His own will (cf. Eph. 1:4-5, 11).
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Update: T. D. Jakes Changes his Doctrinal Statement
Oneness advocate and popular TV evangelist T. D. Jakes (of the Potter's House church in Dallas, TX) has changed (reworded) his doctrinal statement regarding God. His old statement read:
THREE DIMENSIONS OF ONE GOD. . . . Triune in His manifestation, being both Father, Son and Holy Ghost AND that He is Sovereign and Absolute in His authority. We believe in the Father who is God Himself, Creator of the universe. (Gen. 1:1; John 1:1).
Here his denial of the biblical definition of the Trinity is crystal clear. Describing God as "THREE DIMENSIONS" and saying God is "Triune in His manifestations" is decidedly Oneness, not Trinitarian. His statement before this one (1998) read in part: "God-There is one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in three Manifestations: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."
But as of recently, he changed it
again. Now it reads: "There is one God, Creator of all things, infinitely
perfect, and eternally existing in
three manifestations: Father, Son
and Holy Spirit." As we can see, the "Belief Statement" on the Potter's
House website (http://www.thepottershouse
ALWAYS
BEING READY TO MAKE A DEFENSE
See The Rise of False Teachings within the Church
A Definitive Look at Oneness Theology: Defending the Tri-Unity of God (by Edward L. Dalcour, University Press)
"For those who do not have time to conduct the exegetical work necessary to refute Oneness claims but who wish to be theologically informed or to discuss the doctrine of the Trinity with theologians in the United Pentecostal tradition, Dalcour has provided a valuable resource."—John D. Laing, Professor of Systematic Theology and Philosophy, Southwestern Theological Seminary, Harvard School for Theological Studies.
A Definitive Look at Oneness Theology critically examines the claims of Oneness theology in light if biblical exegesis. It provides an exegetical refutation to chief Oneness theological assertions, such as the notion that (a) God is unipersonal (i.e., monotheism equals unipersonalism or unitarianism), (b) Jesus is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, (c) the Son did not exist before Bethlehem, (d) the Son is not God, (e) the Son did not become flesh, (f) one must be water baptized (“In the name of Jesus”) in order to be saved (as with the UPCI). This book also provides a positive presentation of the doctrine of the Trinity (ontological, economical, and soteriological) READ MORE. Oneness Pentecostals and other Oneness (i.e., “Jesus Only”) groups make up one of the largest and fastest growing anti-Trinitarian professing Christian constructs world-wide--and yet, they are one of least written about, spoken out against, and thus evangelized non-Christian cults. See A Concise Look at Oneness Beliefs
Interview on the Doctrine of the Trinity
the Substance & Essence of Jesus Christ Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also (emphasis added). Ø He has power to forgive sins (cf. Matt. 9:6) Ø He is greater than the temple (cf. Matt. 12:6) Ø He is Lord of the Sabbath (cf. Matt. 12:8) Ø He is the King of a kingdom and the angels are His gathering His elect (cf. Matt. 13:41; Mark 13:27) Ø He is the Messiah, the Son of the living God (cf. Matt. 16:13-17) Ø He was to be killed and raised from the dead (cf. Matt. 17:9, 22-23; 19;26:2; Mark 8:31; 9:31; Luke 9:22; 18:31-33; John 2:19ff.) Ø He is omnipresent (cf. Matt. 28:20; John 14:23) Ø He is omniscient (cf. John 2:24-25; 6:64; 16:30; 21:17) Ø His is omnipotent (cf. Matt. 8:27; 9:6; 28:18; Heb. 7:25) Ø He gave His life as a ransom for many (cf. Mark. 10:45) Ø He gives eternal life (cf. Luke 10:21-22; John 5:21; 10:27-28) Ø He is the monogenēs theos, “unique/one and only God” that came from heaven (cf. John 1:18; 3:13) Ø He pre-existed with and shared glory with the Father (cf. Micah 5:2; John 1:1; 17:5; as will be shown in chap. 4) Ø He is Immutable (cf. Heb. 13:8) Ø He was worshiped (cf. John 9:35-38; Heb. 1:6)
Virtually every New Testament book teaches the full deity of the Son, Jesus Christ, explicitly or implicitly. This is exegetically seen in passages such as Matthew 1:23; Luke 10:21-22; John 1:1, 18; 5:17-23; Jesus’ seven absolute egō eimi, “I am” statements (viz. John 8:24, 28, 58; 13:19; 18:5-6, 8); John 20:28; Romans 9:5; 1 Corinthians 2:8; 16:22; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Philippians 2:6-11; Colossians 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:16; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:3, 8-10; 2 Peter 1:1; 1 John 5:20; Jude 4; Revelation 1:8; and 5:13-14. The biblical evidence is massive. In the New Testament, Jesus received religious proskuneō, “worship” - for example, by the men in the boat (cf. Matt. 14:33) and the blind man (cf. John 9:35-38). In Hebrews 1:6, the Father commands “all the angels of God” to proskuneō, “worship” the Son. This kind of worship was clearly religious in nature - for the setting is in the heavens before God the Father. In Revelation 5:13-14, the Father and the Lamb receive the same kind of blessing, honor, and glory and the same kind of worship: “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever. And the four living creatures kept saying, ‘Amen’ and the elders fell down and worshiped [proskuneō].”
Note that these acts of proskuneō, “worship” to the Son were not merely in the context of honor and/or falling prostrate before another in mere “obeisance” (as the Jehovah’s Witnesses bible [NWT] says in Heb. 1:6 and other passages where Jesus received worship). Rather the Son was worshiped in a religious context - namely, worship that was reserved for God alone (cf. Exod. 20:5) - creaturely worship is highly forbidden by the Lord. This revealing truth shows that the Son shares the very essence of God the Father. He is God in the same sense as that of the Father (cf. John 1:1b): “Who always being the brightness of His glory, the exact representation [image] of the nature of Him” (tēs hupostaseōs autou, i.e., nature of the Father; Heb. 1:3; translation mine).
Scripture presents a clear Christology The Son of God, Jesus Christ is the second Person of the Holy Trinity. The Son is fully God co-existing with the Father (cf. John 1:1; 17:5). He became man (cf. John 1:14). He was sent by the Father (cf. John 6:37ff.) to redeem the elect of God by His sacrificial death on the cross (cf. Mark 10:45; Rom. 5:9-11; 8:32). The Son is the only Mediator between the Father and man (cf. 1 Tim. 2:5). Thus, the Christ of biblical revelation is the divine Son, a personal self-aware Subject distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus affirmed that unless one has accurate knowledge, assent and trust in the Son of biblical revelation he would perish in his sins (cf. John 8:24). The rejection of the unipersonality and deity of Son and the rejection of the personal distinctions between Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit rejects the very nature of the triune God Himself (cf. John 17:3; 1 John 2:22-23). Hebrews 1:2, 8, 10: In these last days [God the Father] has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. . . . But of the Son He [the Father] says, “YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER. . . . And, YOU [the Son], LORD, IN THE BEGINNING LAID THE FOUNDATION OF THE EARTH, AND THE HEAVENS ARE THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS.”
NOTES [1] Rule #1 is also signified by the abbreviation, TSKS (i.e., The-Substantive-Kai-Substantive).
Therefore, having been
justified by faith, copyright:
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