by
Finis Dake
(1949)
FOREWORD: As I agree with Dake about 99% on this topic of the
facts about Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, I will not try to
re-invent the wheel but give you Finis Dakes study. Now Dake did
believe that the Holy Sprit was a THIRD bodily person of the
Godhead - which I do NOT believe the Scriptures teach, hence I
have edited those portions where he so taught. I have used *** in
a few places to give emphasis - Keith Hunt.
THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS CHRIST
The facts ... about God apply to the Lord Jesus Christ in His
preincarnate state as a Spirit Being, for He is one of the ...
distinct Spirit Beings making the Deity or Godhead. Until about
nineteen hundred years ago the second person of the Deity had the
same kind of Spirit body, personal soul, and spirit that the
Father ... still have. At that time one of the ... divine persons
... took human form to redeem the world. This is what has made
the difference between the members of the Godhead during the last
nineteen hundred years. The following study concerns the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ as the manifestation of the invisible
God among men:
1. THE PRE-EXISTENCE OF JESUS CHRIST
The Bible declares that the person we now know as Jesus Christ
was one of the ... divine persons of the Deity and that as God He
had no beginning. It is this time before He became a man that we
refer to as His pre-existence. Technically, there is no such
thing as existence before Him as God, but He existed before He
became a man. Mic.5:1-2 speaks of Him as existing from all
eternity. John speaks of Him as existing in the very beginning
with the Father (John 1:1-5). Jesus speaks of Himself as being
before Abraham and before the world was created (John 8:5,8; 17:
5,24). Paul speaks of Him as existing before all things and as
the Creator and Upholder of all things (Col.1:15-18; Heb.1:1-3,
8; 2:10). God the Father created all things by Him (Eph.3:9) and
the Holy Spirit (Gen.1:2).
II. THE DEITY OF JESUS CHRIST
1. DIVINE NAMES AND TITLES ARE ASCRIBED TO HIM. The following
list of divine names and titles given to Jesus proves that He is
by nature divine and a member of the Godhead. He is called God
and Immanuel (Matt.1:23; John 1:1; 20:28; Acts 20:28); Lord (Luke
19:34; Acts 2:36); Lord of All (Acts 10:36); Lord of Glory
(1 Cor. 2:8); Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace (Isa.9:6-7); Christ the Lord (Luke 2:26);
The Son of God (Matt.4:3; 14:33; Luke 22:70; John 1:34; Rom.1:4);
His Son (Matt.22:45; John 3:1618); My Son (Matt.3:17); The Only
Begotten Son (John 1:18; 3:16-18; 1 John 4:9); The First and the
Last, Alpha and Omega, The Beginning and the Ending (Rev.22:12,
13,16); The Lord (Acts 9:17); The Son of the Highest (Luke 1:32;
Mark 14:61); The Bread of God (John 6:33); The Holy One of God
(Mark 1:24); Thy Holy Child Jesus (Acts 4:30); King of Kings and
Lord of Lords (Rev.19:16); Lord and Saviour (2 Pet.3:2); and The
Word of God (Rev.19:13).
These and many other names and titles in Scripture prove the
Deity of Jesus Christ. Some of these are used hundreds of times
in Scripture. We must believe in the divinity of Christ if we are
going to believe the Bible.
2. DIVINE ATTRIBUTES ARE ASCRIBED TO HIM. This is clear from
Phil.2:5-11 where Paul speaks of Christ being in God's form and
that He laid aside this form and limited His attributes and
powers as God to become a man. Then after His earthly limitation
He had these powers given back to Him, as we shall see in Point
VIII below.
3. DIVINE OFFICES ARE ASCRIBED TO HIM. HE is called the Creator
(John 1:3; Col.1:16; Heb.1:1-3); Mediator (1 Tim.2:4-5; Heb.8:6);
Head o f the Church (Eph.1:22; Col.1:16-24); Saviour (2 Pet.
3:2); Judge (2 Tim.4:1); Preserver (Heb.1:1-3); Life Giver (John
10:28; 17:2); Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36); the Resurrection and
the Life (John 11:25).
These and many other offices and works of Christ prove Him to be
divine and one with the Father as part of the Deity. He is called
the fellow and equal to God as to divinity (Zech. 13:7; John
5:17-23; 10:30-38; 17:10).
4. DIVINE CHARACTER IS ASCRIBED TO HIM. All ordinary men are
sinners by nature (Ps.51:5; Eph.3:1-3; Rom.5:12-21). Christ is
holy by birth (Luke 1:35), righteous (Isa.53:11; Heb.1:9),
faithful (Isa.11:5; 1 Thess.5:24), true (John 1:14; 14:6), just
(John 5:30), guileless (1 Pet.2:22), sinless (2 Cor.5:21),
spotless (1 Pet.1:19), innocent (Matt.27:4), harmless (Heb.
7:26), obedient to God (John 15:10; Heb.5:8-10) and to His
earthly parents (Luke 2:51), zealous (John 2:17), meek (Matt.
11:29), lowly in heart (Matt.11:29), merciful (Heb.2:17), patient
(Isa.53:7), long-suffering (1 Tim.1:16), compassionate (Matt.
15:32), benevolent (Acts 10:38), loving (John 15:13),
self-denying (2 Cor.8:9), humble (Phil.2:5-11), resigned (Luke
22:42), and forgiving (Luke 23:34).
5. THE WORKS OF GOD ARE ASCRIBED TO HIM (John 1:3; Col.1:15-18;
Heb.1:1-3,10; John 5:19-23; Rev 3:14).
6. DIVINE WORSHIP WAS GIVEN TO HIM (Matt.4:9-10; 14:33; 28:9;
Luke 24:52; John 5:23; 14:14; Acts 7:59; Rom.10:9-13; Heb. 1:6;
Phil.2:10-11; Rev.5:12-14). Angels and men both worship Him, but
they both refuse all such worship for themselves (Acts 10:25-26;
Heb.1:6; Rev.22:8-9).
7. HIS NAME IS ASSOCIATED WITH THAT OF THE FATHER AND THE HOLY
SPIRIT AS BEING ONE OF ... THE DEITY (Matt.28:19; John 5:19-23;
14:1,23; 17:3; Rom.1:7; 2 Cor.13:14; 1 John 5:7-8; Rev.5:13;
7:10; 20:6).
8. EQUALITY WITH GOD IN DIVINITY IS DEFINITELY STATED (John
5:19-29; Phil.2:5-11).
9. DIVINE CHARACTERISTICS ARE ASCRIBED TO HIM (John 5:19-29;
14:26; Heb.1:9).
10. He is expressly called "God" and "Lord" (John 1:1-3; 20:28;
Acts 2:36; 20:28).
111. THE HUMANITY OF JESUS
1. HUMAN NAMES ARE ASCRIBED TO HIM: Rabboni (John 20:16), Messiah
or Christ (John 1:41; 4:25; Luke 2:26), Jesus (Matt.1:21), Master
(Matt.9:19), Son o f Man (Matt.8:20), Son of Mary (Mark 6:3), and
Son of Abraham and David (Matt.1:1), Seed and Offspring of David
(Rom.1:3; Rev.5:5; 22:16), The Second Man and The Last Adam (1
Cor.15:45-47), The King of the Jews (Matt.2:2), Lamb of God (John
1:29), and other names which prove His humanity.
2. HE IS CALLED A "BABE," A "CHILD," AND A "MAN" (Luke 2:16; Isa.
9:6; Acts 17:31; 1 Tim.2:4-5; Rom.5:12-21; John 8:40; Acts 2:22;
1 Cor.15:21,45-47).
3. PROPHECY THAT HE WAS TO BE BORN OF A HUMAN MOTHER PROVES HIS
HUMANITY (Gen.3:15; Isa.7:14; 9:6-7; 11:1; 53:1-12; Ps.22).
4. HISTORY RECORDING HIS CONCEPTION AND BIRTH OF A WOMAN PROVES
HIS HUMANITY (Matt.1:18-25; 2:2; Luke 1:32-35; 2:1-52; Gal.4:4).
5. HE HAD FLESH AND BLOOD LIKE ALL OTHER MEN (John 1:14; Heb.
2:14-15; 1 John 4:1-6; Luke 24:39; John 19:34).
6. HE HAD A HUMAN BODY (FLESH AND BONE - NO BLOOD NEEDED AS HE
WAS NOW IMMORTAL - KEITH HUNT) EVEN AFTER THE RESURRECTION (Luke
24:39; John 20:27).
7. HE HAD HUMAN LIMITATIONS AND PASSIONS LIKE MEN: He
wept (John 11:35), hungered (Matt.4:1-11), thirsted (John 4:7;
19:28), slept (Matt.8:24), grew weary (John 4:6), sorrowed (Isa.
53:3-4), suffered physical agony (Luke 22:44), craved sympathy
(Matt.26:36-40; Luke 22:15-27), was tempted in all points as men
(Heb.4:14-16), suffered physical death (John 19:30; 1 Cor.15:3),
and endured many human sufferings, as we shall see.
8. HE WAS HUMAN IN ALL THINGS and was subject to physical,
mental, and moral conditions of existence as other men (Heb.
2:14-17; 4:14-16).
9. HE LIVED A NORMAL HUMAN LIFE in total dependence upon God in
prayer and faith for daily grace for body, soul, and spirit, as
all human beings should do (John 5:30-46; 6:57; 7:16; 8:27-29;
Heb.5:7-9; Phil.2:5-10).
10. HE WAS LIMITED IN WISDOM, KNOWLEDGE, AND POWER LIKE OTHER MEN
AND WAS SUBORDINATE TO THE FATHER, as we shall see in Point VIII
below. In fact, His human nature is denied only by antichrists
and demons (1 John 2:18-23; 4:1-6).
IV. THE UNION OF THE TWO NATURES OF JESUS CHRIST
The above-indicated studies on the divinity and humanity of Jesus
Christ prove that He was a Divine-human Being. The orthodox
theory holds that the two natures of Christ were both complete in
themselves yet so organically and indissolubly united that no
third nature is formed thereby. It forbids us to divide the
person and confound the two natures of Jesus Christ. Being truly
divine He is a true representative of God, and being truly human
He is a true representative of man.
Christ constantly spoke of Himself as a single person and not as
two persons in one. There is no interchange of speech between the
two natures as between two persons. The attributes and powers of
both natures are ascribed to the one person so that they are
operated as part of a single individual. There is no double
personality, but one single unit of characteristics of both the
human and the divine. ***Just as any father and mother impart
certain traits to the offspring, making a single person with
characteristics of both parents, so the human and the divine were
united in the one person of Jesus Christ-with one body, soul, and
spirit and with one consciousness and one will.***
The Fatherhood of God and the motherhood of Mary produced a
single personality. After all, it must be remembered that God
made man with the same bodily parts as He has in His Spirit body,
only our bodies are earthly and human and His is spiritual and
divine. He made man with the same kind of soul with feelings,
emotions, passions, desires, and appetites, capable of the same
soul-acts as He Himself was, only our soul is finite and His is
infinite. He made man with a spirit with all the attributes and
powers that He has, capable of the same acts; only our spirits
are finite and His is infinite. In other words, man is endowed
with exactly the same traits, characteristics, attributes,
powers, feelings, and passions as God, only on a finite scale.
With this in mind one can see that the soul and spirit faculties
that were born in Jesus Christ by a divine Father and a human
mother were exactly the same as in any other being like God; so
when Christ acted and used any one attribute or power as a man it
was like the exercise of God in the same aspects, only His
faculties were perfectly untainted with the fall and its effects.
When Christ acted He was like man before the fall and not like
sinful man since the fall. Every fallen man when he is re-created
in Christ and made a new creature is capable of proper exercise
of his faculties in holy and lawful uses....
We may express it this way: man in his unfallen state acted
exactly like God in the exercise of his faculties, only his
attributes and powers were limited. He was capable of the same
powers and acts only on a finite scale. What is finite in man is
infinite in God. Holy man when he is energized and acted upon and
endued with supernatural powers can exercise his natural
attributes and faculties in a supernatural degree or measure,
depending upon what extent he is yielded to and energized by the
Spirit of God. For example, Christ and the disciples when endued
with power from on high were capable of God-action to destroy sin
and sickness as much as if God Himself were doing the work
without using them as instruments.
It must also be remembered that men when born again (begotten
again - not yet born - Keith Hunt) become partakers of the divine
nature and to the extent to which that nature controls and works
in and through their created faculties they live divine lives and
do divine works. In such men the created faculties are liberated
from evil acts and evil powers and become acts of divine energy
through the Holy Spirit. Just as Christ was perfectly helpless in
Himself and acted, spoke, worked, lived, and did all things
through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the believer to the
extent that he becomes like Christ becomes God-inspired and
God-energized and God-operated ... Thus the Christian fully
living in the fullness of God lives a divine-human life in the
Holy Spirit by the very presence and power of God in the human
soul and spirit.
If we can understand these things, we certainly can understand
how God could become so perfectly human and yet remain so
perfectly divine as to be a perfect union - God and man in one
personality. Whether the divine attributes and powers of God in
Christ were limited and to what extent is a great question in
Christian circles. Whether He laid them aside entirely for a
time, or whether they were possessed by Him and voluntarily
limited will always be a point of controversy. However, this much
is settled that He was limited in the days of His flesh, as we
shall see in Point VIII below; whether He was limited
constitutionally or voluntarily is not the point. It is a fact
that if it were done constitutionally it was nevertheless
voluntary as stated in John 10:18; Heb.10:5-9. He was not forced
to do one thing. Everything was a voluntary action on His part.
It matters not whether it was constitutional, or whether He still
retained all the divine powers and attributes in His person and
chose to limit their use for His time of life on Earth; the fact
remains that He was limited as a man, and if His choice was so
powerful as to do away with all use of them, what is the
difference between laying them aside and still retaining them
without power to use them?
It was important that He limit Himself as a man to set the right
example for man so that he can be inspired to live like God on
Earth by the same means Christ used. For all the arguments about
His having two personalities, two natures in one personality,
human nature without personality, or divine nature without human
traits - ***the fact will always remain that He was both human
and divine, and if some cannot understand the how of it, the fact
of it can be believed and must be if we want harmony of all
Scriptures. *** One certainty is that His human nature had no
separate existence before its union with the divine and is not in
itself a separate personality from the divine person who became
incarnated in human flesh.***
It was not only important that He have two natures, human and
divine, for the sake of man, but also for the sake of God, to be
a true mediator between God and man. His twofold nature gives Him
fellowship with both parties and capability of representing both
to reconcile both. As God He can uphold the dignity of Deity, and
as man He can be truly sympathetic and meet the needs of man.
Because He is God His atonement has infinite value and effect.
A further discussion of the dual natures will be given under
Point VIII below.
V. JESUS CHRIST IS NOT THE FATHER OR THE HOLY SPIRIT
Many are misled in making Jesus the only person in the Godhead
and more than what the Bible says He is and they rob the Father
and the Holy Spirit ... and make them less than what the Bible
says they are, thus depriving them of their rightful and separate
places in the unity of God ...
The following Points prove that Jesus Christ is not the Father or
the Holy Ghost:
1. The Father was in Heaven all the time that Jesus was on Earth;
so the Father could not have been incarnated in Jesus (Matt.
5:16,45,48; 6:1,9; 7:21; 16:17; 18:10; 23:9).
2. Jesus said He would confess men "BEFORE MY FATHER" and "
BEFORE THE ANGELS" and this He could not do if He were not a
separate person from the Father and the angels (Matt.10:32-33;
Luke 12:8-9; Rev.3:2-5). Such language would permit Him to be the
angels as much as it would permit Him to be the Father.
The word "before" means in the presence of, or face to face with,
and requires both the Father and the angels to be distinct
persons from Jesus. This word could never be used if only one
person were involved, any more than it could be in 1,767 similar
expressions in Scripture (Matt.14:6; 17:2; 1 Tim.5:19-20; 6:13;
Rev.4:5-6; 5:8; 7:9,11,15; 8:2; etc.).
3. Jesus always prayed to the Father and addressed Him as a
separate person from Himself (Matt.11:25; 26:39,42-46; Luke
10:21; 22:42; 23:34; John 11:41; 12:28; 17:1-25). In no place do
we read of the Father praying to anyone, but the Son constantly
prays to someone else outside of Himself.
4. The Father was OUTSIDE the body of Jesus protecting Him, so
could not be incarnated in Jesus, or be all of God INSIDE of
Jesus as some teach (Matt.2:12-23; 3:16-17; 17:5; Luke 22:39-46;
John 12:27-30).
5. All the Old Testament prophets quoted in the New Testament
prove that the Father is a separate person from the Son, for it
was the Father who spoke "by the prophets" and "through the
Spirit" CONCERNING the Son (Heb.1:1-3; Acts 3:21; Rom.1:1-4; 1
Pet.1:1-16; 2 Pet.1:21). Note THE SPEAKER and the person SPOKEN
OF in Matt.2:15,23; 4:6; 12:17-21; 22:41; 27:9-11; Luke 4:16-21;
24:27,44-46; John 18:9; Acts 2:22-34; 3:13-24; 4:25-31; 7:2-50;
8:32-37; 10:34-43; 13:23-41; Heb.2:3-9; 5:5-10). Human language
means nothing in the Bible if two ... are not understood in such
statements as these passages.
6. Both Jesus and Satan refer to the Father as a separate person
from the Son. "HE [one person] shall give HIS angels charge
CONCERNING THEE" (Jesus, the Son of the Father, another person,
Matt.4:6).
7. Jesus constantly referred to the Father as a separate person
from Himself and as being separated bodily from Him as far as the
Heaven is above the Earth (Matt.7:21; 10:32-33; 11:27; 15:13;
16:17,27; 18:10-35; 20:23; Mark 12:32; John 5).
8. The New Testament writers called the Father, "The God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," but such could never be if He
were the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph.1:3,17; 3:14; 1 Pet.1:3; Matt.
27:46; John 20:17).
9. The phrases "the Son of the Father" (2 John 3), "his Father"
(Matt.16:27; Rev.1:6; 14:1), "my Father" (used 57 times, Matt.
7:21; John 15:1; Rev 2:27; 3:5; etc.), "my God" (John 20:17; Rev.
3:12), and other like statements made by Jesus of His Father and
by others of God being the Father of Jesus could not be true if
Jesus were the Father and the only person called God. If Jesus
spoke of God the Father as being His Father and His God, then He
either lied or told the truth. Such language demands of us to
believe in another person who is the God and Father of Jesus
Christ. Not once did Jesus or any Bible writer use such terms as
Jesus, the Father, the Father Jesus, spirit-Jesus, Father Jesus,
one person in the Godhead, Jesus only, and other unscriptural
terms used by some people.
10. Jesus in parables illustrates His relationship to the Father
as that of a Son and as a separate person from the Father (Matt.
21:33-46; Luke 20:9-18; John 15:1-10). To believe in only one
person as being both the Father and Son in these passages is to
make Jesus a plain liar. If He said He was "the vine" and the
Father was "the husbandman" (John 15) and if God the Father is
compared to "a certain householder" and the Son is compared to
"his son" and "heir," then this relationship is the truth and
nothing but the truth, thus distinguishing two persons known as
"the Father" and "the Son" (Matt.21:33-46; Luke 20:9-18).
11. Jesus taught men to go directly to the Father in all prayer
and not pray to Him at all: "YE SHALL ASK ME NOTHING .... Ask the
Father IN MY NAME, he will give it you" (John 14:12-15; 15:16;
16:23-28). What could be clearer than that Jesus is not the
Father? If men are commanded to "ASK ME NOTHING" but to "ASK THE
FATHER" instead, then He is not the Father. ***It is one of the
most unreasonable doctrines under the sun to teach that Jesus and
His Father are one and the same person and that the body of Jesus
is the Son and the inner man of Jesus is the Father.*** It is
ridiculous to ask men to pray to one part of a person in the name
of another part of the same person, or to call two parts of one
person by different names - one part called the Father, or inner
part, and another part called the Son, or the body part, one part
to be the authority to go to the other part in prayer, or more
ridiculous still, as some people do, to ignore the Father part
and pray only to the Son, or body part. If the language of Jesus
does not refer to two persons, then we have to conclude that He
did not know how to use the human language.
12. On certain occasions Jesus thanked the Father, "looking up to
Heaven," where the Father dwelled (not looking inside of Himself
to a Father that dwelled within (John 11:41; Matt. 26:25-27; Mark
8:6; 14:23). Was Jesus giving thanks to Himself and teaching us
by example self-praise and self-worship, or was there a real
Father OUTSIDE of Him who dwelled in Heaven as a separate person?
13. Many statements were made concerning the Father that could
not have been true of Jesus: the Father was in Heaven while Jesus
was on Earth (Matt.5:1, 48); the Father knew things that Jesus
did not know (Matt.10:29-31; Mark 13:32; Acts 1:7; Rev.1:1); the
Father was "good," but Jesus did not claim any such quality in
Himself (Matt.19:17); the Father was on a throne, and Jesus was
not (Matt.23:22); Jesus is coming in the glory of the Father and
not in His own glory (Matt.16:27); Jesus prayed to the Father and
never to Himself (Matt.26:39-42; John 17); Jesus prophesied that
He would be exalted at the right hand of the Father (Matt.
26:64), and later the apostles said He was there (Acts 2:33-36;
Eph.1:20; Col.3:1; Heb.1:3; 8:1; 12:2; Rom.8:34). Stephen
actually saw Jesus with his own eyes on God's right hand (Acts
7:56-59). Jesus committed His spirit to God the Father at death,
proving He died, but the Father did not die (Luke 23:46). Others
saw Jesus as a separate person from the Father (Dan.7:9-14; Rev.
5:1-7).
14. Jesus claimed that He was SENT BY God, that HE CAME FROM God,
and that He WAS GOING BACK TO God (Matt.15:24; John 3:16-18, 34;
5:30,36-37; 6:29-40,44,57; 7:16,28-29; 8:16-18,29,42; 9:4; 10:36;
11:42; 12:45,49; 15:21; 16:5; 17:3,8,21-25; Gal.4:4; 1 John 4:9).
These Scriptures would not make sense if only one person were
referred to. The sense in which God sent Jesus is the same sense
in which Jesus sent His disciples (John 17:18; 20:21) and the
same sense in which the Father and the Son sent the Spirit into
the world (John 14:16-17,26; 15:26; 16:7-15). Being sent does not
make the one sent the same person as the one who sends. If so,
then the disciples all became Jesus Christ when they were sent by
Him.....
15. Jesus plainly told Peter that His Father in Heaven was not
"flesh and blood," and He told the Samaritan woman His Father and
His God was "Spirit" (Matt.16:16-17; John 4:24; 19:34). Because
Jesus was flesh and blood and did not claim to be "spirit" ... He
could not be the Father (Luke 24:39; John 19:34; Rom.8:3).
16. Peter received a revelation from the Father in Heaven of the
Sonship of Jesus (Matt.16:17) and also actually heard the
Father's voice from Heaven say of the Son on Earth, "This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him" (Matt.
17:5). Peter later testified that this voice came from Heaven and
that it was not a voice inside of Jesus (through practice of
ventriloquism). He said later that it came "FROM GOD the Father .
. . FROM the excellent glory . . . FROM Heaven" (2 Pet.1:16-18).
John the Baptist also heard this voice FROM Heaven while Jesus
was on Earth (Matt.3:16-17). They did not say Jesus was the
Father in Heaven speaking, and they never believed such.
17. The Jews never understood that Jesus claimed to be the
Father, but that He claimed to be the Son, thus making Himself
equal with God (Matt.26:64; 27:40-43; John 5:17-35; 6:45;
8:13-38; 10:34-39; 19:7). If He had claimed to be the Father, the
only God, all of God, and the only person of the Godhead, they
would have had a just case against Him, for not one of the
prophets ever foretold this doctrine, but they did say that God
would have a Son as a separate person from Himself.
18. Jesus called the Father "my God" even after the resurrection
(John 10:17; Rev.3:12; Ps.22:1-10). He could not be His own
Father and His own God. If He were the only person in the
Godhead, this would be a false statement.
19. The angel Gabriel, "the angel of the Lord" (whom some sects
say was God Himself) did not know that Jesus was the only person
in the Godhead, for he spoke of a God still in Heaven and called
Jesus only "the Son of God" and "the Son of the Highest" (Matt.
1:18-25; Luke 1:19,27-38; 2:21).
20. All the angels in Heaven were as ignorant as Gabriel, for
they praised and gave glory to a "God in the highest," who was
outside of the baby Jesus in the manger (Luke 2:8-16). It would
not be a sin for us to believe that they, being just from Heaven
and having come from the Father in the highest and having more
intelligence than any man, knew that there was still a "God in
the highest," who was one person, and that Jesus in the manger on
Earth was another person.
21. Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, and Simeon were also ignorant of
the theory that the baby Jesus was the Father and all of God, for
they talked TO and PRAISED a "God" outside of the baby Jesus
(Luke 1:36-56,67,79; 2:25).
22. The shepherds also belonged to the ignorant class and were
deceived by the angels, if some human doctrines are right, for
they said, "The Lord hath made known to us" about the baby Jesus.
Jesus was a new-born child - and was not big enough to make
anything known to the shepherds; so if "the Lord" had made known
something to them, then there must be a "Lord" outside of Jesus,
who did this (Matt.2:12; Luke 2:8-38).
23. Mary and Joseph acted in utmost ignorance that all of God was
in the baby Jesus when they brought Him to the temple "to present
him to the Lord" (Luke 2:23). Who was this "Lord," or "Jehovah
God," they presented Him to? How could they present the only Lord
to Himself?
24. In Luke 2:40-52 we have some senseless expressions if there
is only one person in the Godhead. Jesus whom some say is the
only God and Father Himself, says, "I must be about MY FATHER'S
business." Luke said, "The grace of God was upon him. . . . Jesus
increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man."
What Luke really meant, according to some, was that the grace of
Himself was upon Himself and that Jesus the only God and His own
Father increased in wisdom and in favor with Himself and with
man. Common intelligence rebels against such foolishness. Is it
any wonder that the subject of God is so hard to understand if we
prefer such nonsense to good sense?
25. Even demons knew that Jesus was not the Father, for they
called Him "the Son of God," thus demonstrating sense enough to
know there must be a separate person from the Son if there was a
Father who had a Son. They also called Him Christ, thus proving
they had sense enough to know there had to be someone else to
anoint Him and make Him the Christ, or the anointed of God (Luke
4:34,41).
26. John the Baptist knew the Father, but he did not know the Son
in the wilderness, for "the word of God," or of a person called
God, came to him in the wilderness while Jesus was still at
Nazareth and told him how he would know the Son (Luke 3:2; John
1:31-34). Shall we believe that the inner man of Jesus was in
the wilderness speaking to John while only the body of Jesus was
at Nazareth dead? ... Shall we also believe that the Father God
and all of God was in the womb of Mary and yet filled John the
Baptist at the same time? If John was filled with the Holy Ghost
all these years as is clear from Luke 1:15, if he did not know
Jesus, and if he was not filled with Jesus, then Jesus could not
be the Holy Ghost. If John knew the Father and not the Son, knew
God and not Jesus, then Jesus could not be the Father and the God
that John knew. There must have been one person called God that
John knew and there must have been another person called Jesus,
Who was also Deity, that John did not know, thus proving two
persons.....
27. God "gave his only begotten Son," but He Himself remained in
Heaven; so there must be two separate persons referred to in John
3:16-18, 31-36; Matt.5:45-48; 18:19; etc. If it is true, as some
argue, that God the Father is the inner man of Jesus and the Son
was the body of Jesus, that God the Father gave Himself and died
Himself, and that the Father inside of Jesus could say of
Himself, "I created the body you see. I am the Father and this
body is my Son," then the phrase "Son of God" should be
understood as 'body of God;' "sons of God" should be 'bodies of
God;' "my Son" should be 'My body;' "my sons" should be 'My
bodies;' "his Son" should be 'His body;' "his sons" should be
'His bodies;' and "thy sons" should be 'Thy bodies.' It should
make sense in every Scripture to substitute "body" for "Son" and
"Son" for "body." Try "body" for "Son" in Matt.11:27; John 1:18;
3:16-18,35-36; 5:21,25-26; 10:36; Acts 3:13; 8:3; 9:20; Gal.
2:20; Rom.1:9; 5:10; 8:29; Heb.1:2; 11:17, and see how ridiculous
such an idea is.
...............
TO BE CONTINUED
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