Once more (it [ is ] a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations,[b] and I will fill this temple with glory.
Hosea 2:6 & 7
See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more [ shall we not escape ] if we turn away from Him who [ speaks ] from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying,
Hebrews 12:26 & 27
No question about it; Jesus WAS a Man! The fact that Jesus WAS God is also unquestionable ( John 8:58-'Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.', et al )! As surely as the Holy Spirit ( hagios pneuma ) was God, so Jesus, as the Son of Man, was the Son of God as well! The question before us today, and probably the base, though not realized maybe, of much disagreement within the Body of Christ today, is whether Jesus is still the God-man, or whether He, like the Holy Spirit ( paraklētos-comforter/advocate ), was simply an eschatological phenomenon, sent to comfort the people of God for a certain period of time, to fulfill a certain Purpose!?
Admittedly, this notion is quite unorthodox, at least, according to the accepted orthodoxy, and will likely be considered by most to be heretical! Many Christians, both believers in fulfilled eschatology ( preterists ) and futurists alike may disregard this notion outright, but some may begin to see that this is an implication of fulfilled eschatology.
There are many Scriptures to which one could turn to see that the historical Jesus was both man and God. A few are Romans 1:3 ( 'born of the seed of David according to the flesh' ), I John 4:2 ( 'Jesus Christ has come in the flesh' ), Matthew 4:7 ( 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God' ), and John 14:9 ( 'He who has seen Me has seen the Father' ). There is at least one notable passage in the Hebrew Scriptures, as well, that show the Fatherhood of the Son of Man, Isaiah 9:6; 'For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.'
We have explored the ridiculous notion before, that the historical Jesus, who was unquestionably a man of flesh, with all the necessary attributes ( Luke 24:39-'a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have' ), could inhabit a spiritual realm ( 'Heaven' ), and while this notion IS quite unreasonable, it is also beside the point! As a flesh and bone Man, Jesus was imbued with Power from on High before He entered upon His priestly ( earthly ) ministry. Luke wrote that, upon Jesus' symbolic baptism in water 'the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased'. Now, whether or not this implies that the Man Jesus was not the Son of God before this is beyond the scope of this article, and will hopefully engender further discussion, but the point is that it is not recorded the the Spirit rested upon Him until this point in His earthly ministry!
Doubtless, then, there is a God-head ( at least least, eschatologically speaking ); Scriptures like Colossians 2:9 ( 'For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily' ) bear witness to this fact, but we, as believers in fulfilled eschatology today might ask ourselves whether this is still the case: is God 'three-in-one', as the doctrine of the Trinity simply states, or is He One in His People ( 'All in all'-I Corinthians 15:28 ), who are, corporately, the Son of God?!
Again, this not to try to lessen the impact of the historical Jesus ( 'Immanuel-God with us'- Matthew 1:23 ( Isaiah 7:14 ), but simply to propose that the doctrine of the Trinity, one of the most divisive doctrines in the world, might bear another look. How many people out there live righteously, loving their neighbor as themselves, and thus their God most of all, are shunned, or even worse, persecuted because they don't follow a doctrine that is not strongly mentioned in Scripture? With the advent of fulfilled eschatology, and the leaps in consistency which are being made, it is not too much of a stretch to propose that the Godhead, which, for eschatological purposes, was separated ( 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'-Matthew 27:46 ( Psalm 22:1 ); after that Purpose was fulfilled, became One again!
Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language......
If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him,
Every spirit that does not confess that[a] Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.
Admittedly, this notion is quite unorthodox, at least, according to the accepted orthodoxy, and will likely be considered by most to be heretical! Many Christians, both believers in fulfilled eschatology ( preterists ) and futurists alike may disregard this notion outright, but some may begin to see that this is an implication of fulfilled eschatology.
There are many Scriptures to which one could turn to see that the historical Jesus was both man and God. A few are Romans 1:3 ( 'born of the seed of David according to the flesh' ), I John 4:2 ( 'Jesus Christ has come in the flesh' ), Matthew 4:7 ( 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God' ), and John 14:9 ( 'He who has seen Me has seen the Father' ). There is at least one notable passage in the Hebrew Scriptures, as well, that show the Fatherhood of the Son of Man, Isaiah 9:6; 'For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.'
We have explored the ridiculous notion before, that the historical Jesus, who was unquestionably a man of flesh, with all the necessary attributes ( Luke 24:39-'a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have' ), could inhabit a spiritual realm ( 'Heaven' ), and while this notion IS quite unreasonable, it is also beside the point! As a flesh and bone Man, Jesus was imbued with Power from on High before He entered upon His priestly ( earthly ) ministry. Luke wrote that, upon Jesus' symbolic baptism in water 'the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased'. Now, whether or not this implies that the Man Jesus was not the Son of God before this is beyond the scope of this article, and will hopefully engender further discussion, but the point is that it is not recorded the the Spirit rested upon Him until this point in His earthly ministry!
Doubtless, then, there is a God-head ( at least least, eschatologically speaking ); Scriptures like Colossians 2:9 ( 'For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily' ) bear witness to this fact, but we, as believers in fulfilled eschatology today might ask ourselves whether this is still the case: is God 'three-in-one', as the doctrine of the Trinity simply states, or is He One in His People ( 'All in all'-I Corinthians 15:28 ), who are, corporately, the Son of God?!
Again, this not to try to lessen the impact of the historical Jesus ( 'Immanuel-God with us'- Matthew 1:23 ( Isaiah 7:14 ), but simply to propose that the doctrine of the Trinity, one of the most divisive doctrines in the world, might bear another look. How many people out there live righteously, loving their neighbor as themselves, and thus their God most of all, are shunned, or even worse, persecuted because they don't follow a doctrine that is not strongly mentioned in Scripture? With the advent of fulfilled eschatology, and the leaps in consistency which are being made, it is not too much of a stretch to propose that the Godhead, which, for eschatological purposes, was separated ( 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'-Matthew 27:46 ( Psalm 22:1 ); after that Purpose was fulfilled, became One again!
Let Us make man in Our image.......
Genesis 1:26
Clearly, God is a 'plurality of unity'; God is not three separate Gods, as some propose, but from the plural usage in the above passage as well as others, we can see ( understand ) a relationship within the Godhead! This relationship, as many have found, is mirrored in Nature itself, as can be, or has been, explained, for example, in the Sun. The Sun can be seen to be a singular body, but there are unseen effects from it, both heat and light. Not being a scientist, I cannot give you a perfectly scientific explanation, but aside from that, we have no way, with the senses, to measure either of these effects quantitatively. We cannot, except for the blessing of science, tell why it is cold and dreary one day, and why it is warm and bright the next. We simply bask in the warmth of the Sun, work in its light, and rest when it lends its light to the other side of the world!
Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language......
Genesis 11:7
Unless the translators of Scripture insidiously inserted these plural pronouns in certain places in their translations, there is definitely something going on here! Not a plurality of Gods, for there are numerous places, as well, where God either says out-right, as in the Shema, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one![a]' ( Deuteronomy 6:4 ) or implies, usually in the same passage ( Genesis 1:27-'So God created man in His own image' ) His singularity. There is no question; the Creator of the world and all things in it is One, but it is as obvious, from these and other Scriptures such as John 1:1-3 ( 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.' ) that He was, and is not, alone.
If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him,
and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
John 14:23
Here again, we have both the plural and singular pronouns, simply pointing to the fact that, as Jesus also said elsewhere, 'I and [ My ] Father are one'-John 10:30! Now that, as you have often read in these pages, God once again dwells in ( the midst of ) His people, we are not alone, as He is not alone! We may draw many conclusions from this, and throughout these writings and others probably, we have begun to explore the implications, but we have only begun to scratch the surface. Some, being braver then others, have adopted an heretical ( according to 'accepted orthodoxy' ) stance, while others, for various reasons and to varying degrees, have remained stagnant, not wishing to rock the boat or upset the apple-cart.
Whatever the case may be, let us conclude ourselves in this matter, realizing that we all have a long way to go ( infinitely ) to truly understand our relationship to and with God and each other! Most importantly, though, is to love God and our neighbor as ourselves, and to pursue the relationship that is patterned for us in the God-head!
Every spirit that does not confess that[a] Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.
I John 4:3
As with many other such statements in Scripture, this was most surely of an eschatological nature. Was Jesus God Himself? Doubtless! Is God a man? As surely opposite, 'No!' Though Jesus was a Man, it is undeniable that He ( God ) came in the flesh to fulfill one eschatological purpose. With the fulfillment of that purpose, though the Son of God retains His glory as one and the same as God the Father ( John 14:9 ), Jesus, as a man, is no longer, except through His people.
In conclusion then, having explored this before and drawn my own conclusions; I will end here and encourage each of you to be a good Berean, and to draw your own conclusions, as the Body of Christ; Amen!
Charles Haddon Shank
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