Trinity vs. Oneness

When it comes to the doctrine of God, That is the doctrine of the trinity, I affirm Deuteronomy 6:4 "hear O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one." But I also affirm Acts 7:54-60. Stephen is about to be the first martyr of the Church and as he's coming to a close with his rebuke of the religeous of his day he looks upwards and sees an incredible sight.

But he (Stephen)
full of the HOLY SPIRIT, gazed into heaven
and saw the glory of GOD,
and JESUS standing at the right hand of GOD.
and he said,
"Behold, I see the heavens opened,
and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of GOD."

Notice Stephen is full of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is standing at God's right hand. All three are independently mentioned at the same time... Here you see a clear picture of the three persons of the Trinity, yet brining in Deut. helps to balance this. Three persons who are one, just like the old creeds of the Church confessed. Coming from a oneness background who only believed in different modes of God: Father, Son and H.S. they were all the same just different manifestations of God (like an actor putting on a different costume). Yet this chapter in the book of acts wont allow for it. You see Three at the same time.

A Theologians job isn't to make up ideas, their job is to explain what they read in the scriptures. "I see three persons in the one God." this isn't something man made, and godly men of old grappled with the text to fit the revelation of God in the O.T. with the further revelation of God in the N.T.

What ever happend to Christ in Christianity?

It's amazing, there's something missing in most of Christiandom...It's Christ.
He's missing from the Sunday-school class room, he's missing from the pulpit, and he's missing from church. It's frustrating being apart of a Mens group that talks about being a real man, being wild at heart, or whatever. Yet they don't bring Christ into the picture, or if they do it's a tag on the end with a lot of pop-physiology attached before it.

X-ianity, is the name of the game in America. I love what Paul Washer requires for missionaries in his ministry, "give me one man with a bible, who will walk into the middle of a town and preach till some one is converted or he's killed." We need Men of God who have that same attitude in our churches. Give me a Pastor, Teacher, Layperson who will take Gods word (the bible), stand up and speak truth till people are converted, confronted, transformed, or till they run him out of church or he's killed...

"God I pray for men of valor to arise. Men who will live holy before you, who will preach an unadulterated word, men who would not back down and who are empowered by your Holy Spirit to the point it consumes them. We are so week without you, help us to arise and by your power working within us fight for the faith once delivered."

Why History?

One reason I believe history is so important, is the fact it has the ability to help us not fall into theological darkness of our own age. One of the great truths of the Christian faith is that truth has always been truth. What was true 2000 years ago is still true today. History becomes helpful when we look back and see what other men of God have said in the past about God and his revelation of Himself in scriptures. One way it helps is that if church history for the last 2000 years has denied a certain doctrine, then it's a good chance that doctrine is wrong. Or if it has embraced a doctrine for the last 2000 years, it's a good chance that it's Orthodoxie, that is correct teaching. One example of this is the Trinity. For 2000 years is has been fought for and confirmed time and time again. Yet there is still people who deny the Biblical concept. Some on the basis that it doesn't making any sense, yet others on a misconception that the early church didn't believe in the Trinity and that it was a latter concept invented 300 years after the birth of the Church.

This is were history can at least to some extent come into play. It's true that the term Trinity wasn't used by the early Church (The Apostles), but that's not to mean the concept wasn't believed and embraced. The early church was birthed in a time of persecution, both from the Jews and from the Romans. False doctrines came both from outside and from with in the church. False views of Christ arouse, false views of the "God of the Old Testament" arouse, the heretics were undermining the faith by undermining the person and nature of Jesus. It was out of this that the Church Fathers arouse to defend what the scriptures reveled about God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Studying History shows that the early Church Fathers didn't come up with the idea of the Trinity, they just defended what the scriptures had already revealed.

No one is free.

We are slaves. We serve someone, something or some idea. Paul tells us that we are either slaves to Christ unto righteousness or we are slaves to sin, which leads to death (both physically and spiritually). The Longer I live the more I realize the truth behind Paul's words. In this life we have many things to pick and chose to serve. In the end it all boils down to serving God or the Devil. The pharisees thought they were serving God. They had all the outward manifestations of holiness. The Law, the dress, the honor of men. Yet Jesus tells them their father is the Devil, who was a lier from the beginning. I pray that as I grow in my walk with the Lord, I wouldn't just have the outward appearances of religion. But I would have and indwelling assurance that I'm serving Jesus. My Prayer is to be a slave of Jesus. Slaves only respond to their Master, may I truly by the grace of God be a slave to Righteousness and not sin.

I love the quote by John Owen.
"Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you."

You either obey God, or by default your obeying the Father of Lies. This life is war.

Paul Washer

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It's a war, war to the end...

"Heaven is ours already, only we strive till we have full possession."- Sibbes

God never promised heaven on earth. We see and can taste a little bit of heaven now, but yet it's still in the future. Were in the kingdom but the kingdom hasn't fully arrived yet. So we fight. By the power of the Holy Spirit within us we fight. Not against others but against ourselves. We make war against our flesh, or sinful desires, anything that would strive for 1st place in our lives other then God, we fight against.

Let the chips lie where they fall.

The Words an inn, it's not our home.

"The world is but a great inn, where we are to stay a night or two, and be gone; what madness is it so to set our heart upon our inn, as to forget our home?"

THOMAS WATSON

Resolved to Resolve: Life in Christ.

Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.
Resolved, that I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.

-Johnathan Edwards.
(These are two of the 70 Resoved's.)

May God so grant this generation to live a life like Edwards. To look into the things of God so deeply and then practically live them out. Not in a legalistic way, but in a God glorifying, God exalting and practical way.

"For to live is Christ and to die is gain." may we never, never for get the deep truths behind this Holy Spirit inspired word. It will help us live a life, like Edwards for the glory of God.

The Bruised Reed

"there is more mercy in Christ then sin in us."
-Sibbes

As the first day of the new year comes to a close, I pray that God would give me this year one request. That is to know Him more.