In the first Century, Christians came up with a symbol to show if
they were a Christian. They did this because of the persecution of
Christians that was prevalent in the first few hundred years after
Christ. The symbol was a fish. Christians today still slap a bumper
sticker of the “Jesus fish” to their cars and call themselves
Christians. The reason those first Century Christians chose a fish was
because of its letters. They made the acronym utilizing the letters
that made up the Greek word for fish, ichthus (ἰχθύς). Each
letter stands for Jesus, Christ, God’s Son, Savior. That last word is
where the title of this article is derived. Soteriology is the study of
salvation (from σωτήρ (sōtēr) meaning “savior”). You have to start from why salvation is needed.
When
God created the world, he was fully present with his creation. When
men sinned, that made a separation between humans and God, “Behold,
the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull,
that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between
you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he
does not hear” (Isaiah 59:1–2, ESV). God cannot look upon evil, “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong,”
(Habakkuk 1:13a). There is a need for a savior because sin and evil
are prevalent in the world and God wants to be fully present again.
Stanley
Grenz noted, “In his response to Arius, Athanasius showed that the
deity of the Spirit is necessitated by soteriology. If the Spirit who
enters our hearts as believes is not the actual Spirit of God, then we
have no true community with God.” In other words, you are not saved if
you do not have God’s Spirit. Paul lays this out beautifully concerning
the Ephesians’ salvation in 1:3-14, but look specifically at verses
13-14, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the
promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we
acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” It is impossible to have salvation (sōtēria) without “the promised Holy Spirit.”
Casey McDonald's Podcast
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Trinity
People through church history have been hesitant to use
unbiblical terms. One of the restoration
pleas that developed was from Alexander Campbell, “Where the Scriptures speak,
we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent.” Because of this mentality, which is helpful,
many stay away from any term that cannot be found in the scriptures. If Christendom was to follow through with
this, topics like “providence” and “restoration” must be avoided because of
their lacking appearance in the Bible.
Christians are affirmed that God does provide and he desires to restore
his people back to fellowship with himself.
Thus, providence and restoration are topics Christians cannot afford to
avoid. The same is true with the
Trinity.
The Holy Spirit as part of a divine Trinity may be
confused as tri-deism. The divine plural
seen in Genesis 1-11
has similar implications to the concept of a Triune God. The Holy Spirit is not some arbitrary thing
or “glorified ‘it’” as Earl Edwards puts it.
The word for “spirit” is a neuter noun, but when the personal pronoun is
used in conjunction with the Holy Spirit it is the masculine, “he.” Let not the believer in God be confused about
the oneness of God,
And God spoke all these words,
saying, “I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land
of Egypt, out of the
house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make
for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the
earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God… (Exodus 20:1–5a, ESV).
The eternally present, divine, equal, and unified Trinity
does not consider its three “persons” as separate. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit make up the
one God of Abraham, who formed Adam and created the world, who came in the
flesh then died leaving the Comforter until judgment day. These three persons of God are evident in the
baptism of Jesus (Matthew
3:16-17) and his great commission before he ascends to be with the
Father (Matt. 28:19).
Friday, December 2, 2011
Theology
Theology is a fancy word for the study of God (theos). People carry many different ideas about who God is and what his nature entails. There is a plural nature to God seen very early in the Bible, “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). The narrator uses these plural words (us and our) to describe God. Some theologians explain these plurals used in Genesis 1-11 and other places in the Bible to portray a divine counsel of sorts that includes celestial beings. Since God and the Spirit of God are mentioned in the text, that suggests that the plurality of the one God is solely at work in this creative act. As seen in Christology, God’s son was present during the creation process and is an entity of the unified Godhead seen at work in creation and certainly part of these plurals.
The
study of God encompasses the Trinity.
One cannot get around the idea of three “persons” in one substance when
Paul writes things like, “…be filled with the Spirit…giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Ephesians 5:18c, 20). There are truly three parts of God and man
has come up with countless metaphors to try and explain this. Sometimes metaphors can be very dangerous
though because they may leave someone with the wrong idea. Let us stick to the Bible when trying to
explain the plural nature of the one God.
Deuteronomy 6:4
does this beautifully, “Hear, O Israel:
The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Trinitarian Christians are not polytheists or
tri-deists, but believe in one God that has different roles that are named in
the Bible as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
A
temptation might be to make God modal who puts on different masks through
history to play different roles. The
problem is we see all three “characters” on the seen at Jesus’ baptism. The Son was baptized, the Spirit of God
descended on him, and the Father spoke from heaven declaring favor for his son.
(Matthew 3:16-17). We must be careful to explain God to others
and not give the impression we worship three different gods, but only the one
God who is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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