What trinitarians believe, is misrepresented by those in the LHMM. They spend time refuting a form of modalism, which is different than the trinity doctrine. Arguments like, "How could Jesus pray to himself, while here on earth?" is based on refuting modalism, and not the trinity doctrine. They set up a straw man argument and then proceed to defeat it with logic. If you don't understand the trinity doctrine and then proceed to disprove your misunderstanding you haven't really accomplished anything.
The following scripture passage strongly supports the Trinity.
“I and the Father are one.” Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?" "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God." John 10: 30-33 (NIV)
The verse “I and the Father are one” can not mean one IN PURPOSE as the LHMM claims. If it did, then the Jews would not wish to stone Jesus. In fact, they would be happy that he considers himself in the Father's will as they would also desire to be. Wouldn't the Jews, who lived in the time of Jesus and spoke his language understand better what he meant than we could today?
The Bible speaks clearly about The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are all spoken of with some similar attributes that can be used in reference to God only. The Bible also tells us clearly that there is one true God. The dilemma is then...how can we reconcile this apparent contradiction? The doctrine of the trinity does this by stating that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three different expressions or personalities of the one true God. "For there are three who bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one." 1 John 5:7-8
This solves several issues and problems in interpretation and practice for Christians. For example, Who do you worship or pray to? Jehovah the Father or Jesus? The trinitarian answer is that it is OK to worship or pray to both since they are expressions of the same God. Jesus accepted this idea when Thomas said "my Lord and my God!" John 20:28
An advantage of the Trinity is that it makes God very personal and caring. The idea that God Himself totally sympathizes with us and understands us...so much so that he is willing to enter our world and sacrifice even more than his Son...in a sense himself. In that way Christianity is totally unique from any other religion...in that God Himself came into our world to save us and in the process came to know us intimately. 1 Tim 3:16 "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory."
Does this seem so unreasonable? Isn't it somewhat attractive? When you look at the fruit of many Christians that believe in the Trinity you will see the doctrine does not do damage to the Christian faith. They often have more zeal for spreading the Gospel than those in the LHMM who call themselves missionaries and yet do little real missionary work.
LHMMers that do not believe in the Trinity often think they have more understanding about God and who He is than Trinitarians. This is an illusion. By stating the definitions of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in a different way it doesn't really mean you know any more. There is just as much mystery surrounding God that way. Often in life we will assign something a name and then somehow think that we know more about it when we don't. The more we understand, the greater we realize how much we do not know. Coming to terms and being OK with not knowing and fully trusting in God is the next step.
How important can the Trinity doctrine be for Christians if there is no way to understand it correctly without the aid of Russell or Johnson's writings?
A plain reading of the Bible will easily lead one to believe that Jesus is God. "For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself EQUAL WITH GOD." John 5:18 What about all the people that are just now getting the Scriptures in their native language? What hope is there for them to possibly understand God's Word?
Check out the sermon "Jesus: Avatar or God?" for an interesting discussion.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
The Great Pyramid
One of the beliefs of the LHMM is that the plan of God is illustrated by the Great Pyramid in Egypt. They believe that it Is referred to in the Bible by
Isaiah 19:19 "In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the LORD at its border."
Besides symbolism of the passages to various features of God's plan there are also measurements that they believe correspond to time features of God's plan down the the year, month, and day.
It is possible that there are some demonstrable and amazing scientific design features of the pyramid. This is good evidence to show that man is quite intelligent, ingenious, and even inspired even so long ago. Unfortunately, what they believe to be an amazing witness to God is not. Today it is a witness to Satan, the New Age movement. etc. It does not draw people to Christ. It is a distraction from Jesus for those that spend a lot of time studying it.
The people that studied the pyramid the most and wrote the major work entitled "Great Pyramid Passages" were John and Morton Edgar. They and others went overboard measuring things with precision entirely impossible to verify. A Swiss brother that came up with some of these ideas went to the extreme of calculating 20 decimal places of accuracy for the coffer. There are several verifiable errors in their writings regarding prophecy predictions using the pyramid, etc. None of these have been corrected or even pointed out in later writings.
In the Russell section on pyramids at watchthetower.com it shows scanned copies of the original volumes and how Russell changed the measurements in the Great Pyramid over time.
One of the most important classes to the LHMM is the Great Company...they even receive a heavenly reward. They are not represented anywhere in the Great Pyramid.
The LHMM teaches the death of Paul S.L. Johnson and Raymond Jolly are verified by time measurements in the Great Pyramid. If their death is symbolized in the Great Pyramid, it puts them on the same level as Christ in the symbolism. In addition, the method of determining the death of Jolly is a random measurement with no symbolism to the passages. Why isn’t Russell’s death shown if Johnson and Jolly were?
Other groups believe in the testimony of the Great Pyramid. The ISKCON (International Society of Krishna Consciousness) claim that the birth of Krishna and other incarnations of their gods are marked in the Great Pyramid. Bahai (a mix of Christian & Muslim faiths) have found teachings in the Great Pyramid as do the Freemasons.
Even if the Great Pyramid was truly what they say it is, it is quite an ineffective witness to God in today's world.
Isaiah 19:19 "In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the LORD at its border."
Besides symbolism of the passages to various features of God's plan there are also measurements that they believe correspond to time features of God's plan down the the year, month, and day.
It is possible that there are some demonstrable and amazing scientific design features of the pyramid. This is good evidence to show that man is quite intelligent, ingenious, and even inspired even so long ago. Unfortunately, what they believe to be an amazing witness to God is not. Today it is a witness to Satan, the New Age movement. etc. It does not draw people to Christ. It is a distraction from Jesus for those that spend a lot of time studying it.
The people that studied the pyramid the most and wrote the major work entitled "Great Pyramid Passages" were John and Morton Edgar. They and others went overboard measuring things with precision entirely impossible to verify. A Swiss brother that came up with some of these ideas went to the extreme of calculating 20 decimal places of accuracy for the coffer. There are several verifiable errors in their writings regarding prophecy predictions using the pyramid, etc. None of these have been corrected or even pointed out in later writings.
In the Russell section on pyramids at watchthetower.com it shows scanned copies of the original volumes and how Russell changed the measurements in the Great Pyramid over time.
One of the most important classes to the LHMM is the Great Company...they even receive a heavenly reward. They are not represented anywhere in the Great Pyramid.
The LHMM teaches the death of Paul S.L. Johnson and Raymond Jolly are verified by time measurements in the Great Pyramid. If their death is symbolized in the Great Pyramid, it puts them on the same level as Christ in the symbolism. In addition, the method of determining the death of Jolly is a random measurement with no symbolism to the passages. Why isn’t Russell’s death shown if Johnson and Jolly were?
Other groups believe in the testimony of the Great Pyramid. The ISKCON (International Society of Krishna Consciousness) claim that the birth of Krishna and other incarnations of their gods are marked in the Great Pyramid. Bahai (a mix of Christian & Muslim faiths) have found teachings in the Great Pyramid as do the Freemasons.
Even if the Great Pyramid was truly what they say it is, it is quite an ineffective witness to God in today's world.
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