SUMMARY: BLASPHEMY is:
1. Jesus ALWAYS says that He is the SON of God.
2. The Jews claimed
John 10:33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not;
.....but for Blasphemy;
.....and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
3. Jesus called those who accused Him with blasphemy, BLASPHEMERS.
John 10:36 Say ye of him,
.....WHOM "Whom" is not the "Father."
.....the
.....Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world,
Thou BLASPHPHEMEST
.....because I said, I am the SON OF GOD
John 10:37 If I do NOT the works of my Father, believe me not.
"I" AM is not MY Father. "I AM is the SON."Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit--the Word of God, Logos, Regulative Principle
John writes that Antichrist denies the one god the FATHER and one SON Jesus Christ
Blasphemy: Claiming the Baptism of The Holy Spirit. North Boulevard Church of Christ East and West.
The Baptism (overwhelming) of HOLY SPIRIT (No 'the') was promised only to the Apostles in the upper room. The WIND was the Returned Jesus as Holy Spirit breathing which always produces words: WORD or Logos, the Regulative Principle which outlaws any role other than PREACHING the word by READING the Word in the ONCE A WEEK Day of REST which defines SCHOOL as the way to refresh the HUMAN spirit.
The Baptism of Fire is reserved for the Viper Race (serpents) including Scribes and Pharisees: Speaking your own Words, singing, playing instruments, drama or anything beyond REST which means A School (only) of Christ (only).
The Abomination of Desolation: first defined as the instrumental-trinitarian worship at Mount Sinai.
Trinity as “Necessary” Fact in Alexander Campbell’s “Christian System of Facts" Review of John Mark Hicks. 4
The Bible Command Lectio-Divina
1.01.15 A form of a trinity John identifies as ANTI-Christ was first preach at Freed Hardeman College and first published in 1942 by H. Leo Boles and dispersed by the GA.
- --God the father as a separate person
- --God the Spirit as a separate person
- --God the Son as a separate person. They insert JESUS
- --All three people always existed.
- --They are all three equal in power although each one has their own talent and their own dispensation.
- --They commune or have fellowship: God couldn't exist without someone to love.
- --They hold committee meetings to make decisions.
- --Father and Son HAVE HAD their chance to rule and we live in the reign of The Holy Spirit person and ACTS is the ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT PERSON.
- --Being postmodern (mark of delusion) the Spirit Person speaks to them extending GRACE for deliberately sowing discord.
It is easy to select out a passage and let that trump all of the other evidence. Defining words as they were used at the time is absolutely necessary if you are of the rare, little flock engaged in SEEKING HIM.
John 17:1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
Notice that Jesus the Man did not have power or life within Himself. In John 6 He said MY WORDS are SPIRIT and they are LIFE. Jesus dispensed power by SPEAKING the Words which God breathed into Him..
John 17:2 As THOU hast given him POWER over all flesh,
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee
the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly,Whatever the state of the spirit OF Jesus He says that it was not as one of the three GOD PEOPLE.
that God [Theos] hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified,
both Lord [Kurios] and Christ.
House is the laity exclusive of priests or Levites.
John 17:4 I have glorified thee on the earth:
I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do
g1093. ghv ge, ghay; contracted from a primary word; soil; by extension a region, or the solid part or the whole of the terrene globe (including the occupants in each application): — country, earth(-ly), ground, land, world.
Luke 19:9 And Jesus said unto him,John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own SELF with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
This day is salvation come to this house,
forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.
Luke 19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Luke 19:12 He said therefore, A certain nobleman
went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.
5] et nunc clarifica me tu Pater apud temet ipsum claritatem quam habui priusquam mundus esset apud te
Whatever existed as one of those "secret things" it is absolutely clear that:
1Cor. 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.You have have YOUR WORLD VIEW but Jesus doesn't pray for the world and He HIDES from the wise or SOPHISTS meaning speaking about yourself for hire, singing, playing instruments or acting: these are MARKS for avoidance for the LITTLE FLOCK.
1John 2:22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?
He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
The Son was made LORD and CHRIST by the one God the Father: Jesus is not ANOTHER God in addition to the Father.
Notice that Jesus followed the 40 DAY PLAN which is a TEST and not a MEANS for getting stuff from God.
Jesus MANIFESTED THY NAME but He did not hang around to CULTIFY you with plans and programs as fraud.
John 17:6 I have manifested thy name
unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world:
thine they were, and thou gavest them me;
and they have kept thy WORD. [The MARK]
John 17:7 Now they have known that all things
whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
Notice that the SENT was Jesus MANIFESTING GOD'S NAME" to those who would be part of the NEW WORLD it would create but not the universe.
WITH is the Greek:
Jehovah said that there was not god or elohim BESIDE HIM. God's breath (spirit) comes from Him and a word is articulated when it strikes one's "ears."pa^ra ra^, ta p. tinos . denoting motion from the side of, from beside, from:
all that issues from any one, as commands, commissions, Id.An.2.3.4, etc.; or promises, gifts, presents,
The same word was used of John the Baptist:
John 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.John was not a god person but he issued out from alongside of God because God SENT him..
John 1:6 There was a man SENT FROM GOD whose name was John.
John 1:7 The same came for a witness,
to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
John 1:8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
Jesus was SENT from God before John because God planned it to be
Rev. 13:7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
Rev. 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Rev. 13:9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
Matt. 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit theJohn 17:8 For I have given unto them the WORDS which thou gavest me;
and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee,
and they have believed that thou didst send me.
UNITY is abased only on the WORD of God which in fact is like a sword and Jesus did not bring peace in the sense of bonding with false teachers just to show how graceful you are.The priesthood of Jesus existed in the Mind of God honored by Abraham.
Heb. 6:20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.John 17:8 For I have given unto them the WORDS which thou gavest me;
and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee,
and they have believed that thou didst send me.
UNITY is abased only on the WORD of God which in fact is like a sword and Jesus did not bring peace in the sense of bonding with false teachers just to show how graceful you are.
John Mark Hicks at Rochester University forces Alexander Campbell to defend the trinity in the face of his frequent denial and saying that it is irrational and unscriptural. Hicks says that Campbel said that it was NOT irrational and NOT unscriptural. The removal of Christ from the confession of some churches now identified as A Family of God is specificially based on the pagan belief that God IS a family or tribal group. That turnes church from synagogue or "school of the Bible" into a commune with the intention of controlling the time and money of the members: thus the rise of the Staff Infection to regulate the tribal members.
John Mark Hicks Alexander Campbell on Trinity and Christology
Collection of proof of the relationship to the ONE GOD the Father in Heaven and Jesus of Nazareth whom God made to be both Lord and Christ. John identifies this two fold fact and defines as antichrist those who deny it.
No Private Interpretation (further expounding)
2 Peter 1
2 Peter 2 Instrumental Music is Corruption
2 Peter 3. End time Musical Mockers
See Father Son Holy Spirit Trinity: there is ONE GOD Person.
Augustine A Tretise on Faith and the Creed
Athenagoras - The Trinity
Theophilus who first used the Word Trias
The Gift of The Holy Spirit One
The Gift of The Holy Spirit Two
Barton W. Stone Christian Messenger 1826. 1. We shall begin with the Trinity, and inquire whether this doctrine is fundamental, or whether the notions formed of it ought to be terms of communion among Christians. The orthodox notion of Trinity seems to be this: that there are three persons in the same one Being, substance, or nature, which Being is God.
Some, thinking it humility to discard reason from religion, content themselves with believing in three persons in the one Godhead, without attaching any ideas to the doctrine, calling it an incomprehensible mystery.
Others contend that there are three intelligent persons, or conscious agents, in the one divine essence, or Being, God.Alexander Campbell Atonement: "A. C.'s Reply to B. W. Stone." MH (June 1840): 246-250
Others reject this as tritheism, and contend that these three, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, are three distinctions, or three modes, or three relations, or three perfections, or three somewhats, existing in the one God;
which distinctions they do not profess to understand, but which must be so defined
to exclude the idea of three distinct Gods,
or three distinct spirits, or three distinct minds.
However jarring and discordant their notions may be, and whatever ideas their language may communicate;
Yet it is believed, that none have affirmed or contended, that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are three distinct, intelligent Spirits; but all affirm that God is one intelligent Spirit--
none have contended that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three distinct, intelligent minds, but all agree that God is one infinite, intelligent mind. Why then this endless controversy about unintelligible language and notions?
in your kind epistle of November 11th, you asked me for my definition of a Unitarian, and assured me that you denied the name, though often applied to yourself, and urged me to say whether I "designed to co-operate with Trinitarians against Unitarians," &c. I felt it my duty to make the proposition alluded to in your letter of March 30th. I have done so in the full persuasion that the contemplated discussion is not only expedient, but necessary, and that it can be so managed as to disabuse the public mind of injurious prejudices both against you and myself.
You have long disavowed Unitarianism, and I have also disavowed Trinitarianism and every other sectarianism in the land; and therefore that morbid state of feeling elicited by these partizan wars about the polemical abstrusities of metaphysical abstractions, which, in its excessive irritability, forbids the scriptural investigation of the great points which have been so often distorted and mangled on the racks and wheels of party discord and proscription, should have no abiding in our minds, much less prohibit a scriptural examination of the facts, and precepts, and promises, on which these unhallowed theories have been reared. and I most sincerely supplicate the FATHER OF LIGHTS to subdue our spirits and to imbue them with the holy spirit of the gospel of [247] Christ
Jack Cottrell, The Holy Spirit's Work in Conversion "Traditional, orthodox Christian faith says Jesus Christ is not only equal with the Father; he is also distinct from the Father in that he is a separate, distinct person, i.e., a separate center of consciousness with his own distinct thoughts, emotions, and actions."See John York and Rubel Shelly's claim to be BORN FROM ABOVE. Of humans this speaks of being born of a goddess: otherwise, we are born AGAIN or REgenerated when we are baptized.
NO ORTHODOX TRINITARIAN TAUGHT THAT. There is ONE GOD and ONE LORD Jesus as the Christ. The "tri-nature" where Paul compared God's Spirit to our spirit is father, son and spirit: not God, Jesus and the spirit person (people)
All pagans had triads: father, mother and son. In Jerusalem overcome by Hellenism the Father was Zeus, the Son was Dionysus and the mother was Demeter (etc).
WE CAN GO ON AND ON TO SHOW WHY YahShua CHRIST CAME TO DEFEAT THE PAGAN TRINITIES.
Is. 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it;
he hath established it, he created it not in vain,
he formed it to be inhabited: I AM the LORD; and there is none else.
Is. 45:19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth:
I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain:
I the LORD speak righteousness,
I declare things that are right.
Is. 45:20 Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations:
they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image,
and pray unto a god that cannot save.
Is. 45:21 Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together:
who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time?
have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me;
a just God and a Saviour; [h3467 Yasha Yaw-shah Jehovah-Saves Zech 6 Jesus]
there is none beside me.
Is. 45:22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth:
for I am God, and there is none else.
Is. 45:23 I have sworn by myself,
the word [Dabar=Logos] is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return,
That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
Rom. 14:9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, tWater baptism is the way to CONFESS God.
hat he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
Rom. 14:11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord,
every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God.
Luke 7:30 But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves,
being not baptized of him.
John 12:42 Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him;
but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him,
lest they should be put out of the synagogue:
John 12:43 For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God
Pagans believed that there were many GODS (elohim) always in a trinity "family", but there is only ONE LORD (Jehovah). That is why the term LORD GOD is used to distinguish from the always-pagan FAMILIES of gods who fought it out on the face of the earth (according to the Babylonian records some 3,000 years old when Moses was born) and which he corrected after Israel had fallen from grace because of musical idolatry at Mount Sinai.
Gen. 2:4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created,
in the day that the LORD God MADE (Asah) the earth and the heavens,
The Jews made and make the SHEMA the foundation stone of their CONFESSION that there BE NOT THREE GODS as the neo-trinitarians must confess.
Deut. 4:7 For what nation is there so great,
who hath God so nigh unto them,
as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?
Deut. 6:3 Hear therefore,
O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee,
and that ye may increase mightily,
as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee,
in the land that floweth with milk and honey
Deut. 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
Deut. 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Here defines the SOLE role of the synagogue which quarantined those not of Levi from the later sacrificial system: this enabled everyone to know the Word of God and take it home with them.
Deut. 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
Deut. 6:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house,and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Jer. 3:23 Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills,
The Zoe Group tries to violate this each year.
and from the multitude of mountains:
truly in the LORD our God is the salvation [teshuah] of Israel.
Because we be of the earth God inhabited "a body prepared for me" as Jesus of Nazareth and FULL DEITY dwelled in Him: if you deny that you are called ANTI-Christ.
JESUS CONFIRMED THE SHEMA: IF YOU CANNOT SAY THAT THEN TOO BAD, TOO SAD
Jesus said that as SON, the Father was within: see the Son and you see the Father. When Jesus as Christ had been WITH the apostles the Spirit was with them. The Spirit OF Christ is Christ's OWN Spirit: God always had his Word and His Spirit with Him. ALL classical "triads" define it the way Jesus did in John 12f where John 16 warns about PROVERBS to fool the clerty.
John 3:31 He that cometh from above is above all:
he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth:
he that cometh from heaven is above all.
John 3:32 And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth;
and no man receiveth his testimony. [NO, the Spirit does NOT speak to them]
John 3:33 He that hath received his testimony
hath set to his seal that God is true.
Acts 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized:
and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
Luke 7:30 But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God
against themselves, being not baptized of him.
John 3:34 For he whom God hath sent
speaketh the words of God: [Speak is defined as opposite of poetry or music]
for God giveth not the Spirit by measure [METER] unto him.
John 3:35 The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.
John 14:10 Believest thou not that I am IN the Father,
and the Father IN me?
the words that I SPEAK unto you I speak not of myself:
but the Father that DWELLETH IN me, he doeth the works.
The Father Thinks (that's what Jesus said)
He sends out BREATH (Spirit) as the invisible carrier
The Son articulates the BREATH into audible words.
Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him,
The first of all the commandments is,
Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength:
this is the first commandment.
John 20:28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
Mark 12:31 And the second is like, namely this,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
There is none other commandment greater than these.
Mark 12:32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth:
for there is one God; and there is none other but HE:
Mark 12:33 And to love him with all the heart,
and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength,
and to love his neighbour as himself,
is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
Mark 12:34 And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him,
Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.
And no man after that durst ask him any question.
If you DENY that FULL DEITY as "Father, Son and Spirit" was made visible and audible in Jesus of Nazareth then you are FAR, FAR away from the kingdom and you are ANTI-Christ says John.
Jesus and everyone else did not preach the gospel of the gospel (a few facts ABOUT Jesus): they taught the gospel of the Kingdom. Without being born of WATER and SPIRIT you cannot either SEE or ENTER the kingdom.
Those who were saved at baptism were ADDED to the Church by Christ and their spirits translated into a heavenly kingdom.
DEFINING AWAY THE ALWAYS PAGAN FATHER
Parables were to fool the foolish "doctors of the law" and the matriarchal religion and to confirm the assembly as synagogue or ekklesia as a School of the Word--ONLY. The "dove" visual parable was to declare the Logos as the SON of a FATHER rather than the DAUGHTER of the pagan MOTHER.
The triads involving the "son" as the "logos" all point to musical, sexual and homosexual practices as in the Abomination of Desolation in 2 Maccabees.
If Jesus claimed to be God then they demanded SHOW US THE FATHER. He made it perfectly clear that He was the SINGLE person who embodied their old Abomination of Desolation of Zeus worship which was musical and perverted.
John 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also:To deny that Jesus Christ made visible and audible the ONE GOD of the faitful Jews is THE definition of anti-christ.
and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
John 14:8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
John 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, a
nd yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
he that hath seen me hath seen the Father;
and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
John 14:10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?
the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself:
but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
John 14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
A Gathered People: Revisioning the Assembly as Transforming Encounter by John Mark Hicks, Johnny Melton and Bobby Valentine. These people really lust to drag you back under the sacrificial system which was the worship of the starry host to which God abandoned them because of musical idolatry at Mount Sinai. LU is in big trouble. THE BOOK for your review.
I am not sure why one would try to slather the trinity over Campbell when he repudiated it along with most if not all Restoration Scholars.
The Catholic Encyclopedia confesses that things like "candles and music" were added because they were common to all pagan cults. All of those defending the TRIAS which was defined over 300 years too late CONFESS that it is a blend of Jewish Monotheism and Pagan trinities all of whom were domineering and evil and controllingWere any one to ask me, Can there be three distinct persons, or even being, in one God? I would say,
Reason informs me not,
and revelation does not assert it.But if asked, Can there be one, and one three in the same sense?
But I am not more confounded than delighted with the idea of the One, Self-existent, and Eternal God.... All the names of God are, with the exception of this one, the names of relations.
I reply, Both reason and revelation say No.The Encyclopedia Americana 1956
"Christianity derived from Judaism and Judaism was strictly Unitarian (believing in one God). The road which led from Jerusalem to Nicea was scarcely a straight one. Fourth century trinitarianism did not reflect accurately early Christian teaching regarding the nature of God; it was, on the contrary, a deviation from this teaching."
As John thinks that the Word and Spirit emerged out of God as Eve and Cain emerged out of Adam and Eve,
The New Catholic Encyclopedia 1967
"The formulation 'one God in three persons' was not solidly established, certainly not fully assimilated into Christian life and its profession of faith, prior to the end of the 4th century."
The New Encyclopedia Britannica 1976
"Neither the word trinity, nor the explicit doctrine as such, appears in the New Testament, nor did Jesus and his followers intend to contradict the Shema in the Old Testament: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord' (Deut. 6:4). . . The doctrine developed gradually over several centuries and through many controversies. . . . By the end of the 4th century . . . the doctrine of the trinity took substantially the form it has maintained ever since."
The Complete Word Study Old Testament 1994
"To the Jew, (Deut. 6:4-9) this is the most important text in the Old Testament. Jesus himself called the injunction in 6:5 'the first and great commandment' Matt.22:36-38. . . Moses is teaching not only the priority of belief in one God, but also a means to preserve that belief. As time went on, the proper understanding of the Shema with its spiritual implications was no longer grasped by the people. This absence of saving knowledge became a factor in their spiritual downfall."
The Neo-Trinity emerging along with the Commune concept of church is a popular theme among theologians who primarily speak to and for theologians:
Paul Tillich notes that it is calling God a person which reeks of Unitarianism
"There is much gnostic Marcionism in them, that is, a dualistic blasphemy of the Creator God. They put the Savior God in such opposition to the Creator God that, although they never fall into any real heresy, they implicitly blaspheme the divine creation by identifying it with the sinful state of reality.
Against this tendency Irenaeus said that God is one; there is no duality in him.
Law and gospel,
creation and
salvation,
are derived from the same God." (Tillich, Paul, A History of Christian Thought, p. 42)On the contrary, the neo-trinitarians use these three functions to demand a Father person, a Son person and a Spirit person.
So, being god He made sure that He did not need a community of separate persons in order to carry out all of the three-fold operations.
"This God is never called a person. The word person was never applied to God in the Middle ages. The reason for this is that the three members of the trinity were called personae (faces or countenances): The Father is persona, the Son is persona, and the Spirit is persona. Persona here means a special characteristic of the divine ground, expressing itself in an independent hypostasis.
"Thus, we can say that it was the nineteenth century which made God into a person, with the result that the greatness of the classical idea of God was destroyed by this way of speaking... but to speak of God as a person would have been heretical for the Middle Ages; it would have been to them a Unitarian heresy, because it would have conflicted with the statement that God has three personae, three expressions of his being. (Tillich, Paul, A History of Christian Thought, p. 190)
YOU MUST TAKE THE MARK IF YOU WANT TO JOIN THE 'BROADER EVANGELICAL WORLD.'
World Wide Church of GodCornelius Plantinga thinks that the social nature of the trinity in Gregory of Nyssa
McDonald, Brett D - private
orca.byu.edu/download.php?file=jug/docs/2006/McDonald...pdf"In 1997,
the Worldwide Church of God dropped both its objections to the doctrine of the Trinity and certain Pelagian tendencies and was accepted as a member of the National Association of Evangelicals.
"Many Latter-day Saint Philosophers consider trinity to be a description of the relationship among the members of the Godhead.
"Initially, the social analogy might appear to be no better off than the egg analogy. No member of a family is itself a family; thus, we seem to be faced again with the suggestion that NO member of the Trinity is God.
Though there are three distinct portions of the egg (the shell, the yolk and the egg white), the unity of God seems to be lost as each portion of the egg is something entirely different in composition, form, function, etc."B) Towards a Uniform Definition
John Hicks describes the revival of social trinitarianism as “one of the most significant developments in contemporary theology.” Along with this revival has come a certain amount of confusion concerning what exactly qualifies as a social model of the trinity.
In his lucid treatment of the issue, Cornelius Plantinga sets out the three conditions necessary for a theory to qualify as social and they bear repeating:
(1) The theory must have Father, Son, and Spirit as distinct centers of knowledge, will, love, and action. Since each of these capacities requires consciousness, it follows that, on this sort of theory, Father, Son, and Spirit would be viewed as distinct centers of consciousness or, in short, as persons in some full sense of that term.While safeguarding the real personhood of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, valid ST argues that God is one in three specific ways. There is “only one font of divinity, only one Father, only one God in that sense of God,”8 there is “only one divine essence or set of excellent properties severally necessary and jointly sufficient for their possessor to be divine,” and there is “only one divine family or monarchy or community, namely, the Holy Trinity itself.”9
However, no matter how related and unified these Persons are, for ST they remain numerically distinct. Thus, Richard Swinburne concludes his argument with the assertion, “I believe that there is overriding reason for a first God to create a second God and with him to create a third God…”10 10 Richard Swinburne, “Could There Be More Than One God?” in Faith and Philosophy vol. 5 No. 3 (July 1988) 233-234.
That would mean that Father, Son and Spirit must all have their own 'spirit' or mind: that makes 6 persons :-)
HERE is the Egyptian trinity worshipped musically at Mount Sinai: For that God "turned them over to worship the starry host" or Sabazianism now restored fully. It agrees with Boles and some sects of the Church of Christ who envision three, separated, free-standing "persons" each with their OWN complicated nature and having different apptitudes. Benny Hinn postulates that the Spirit must have HIS own "body, soul and spirit" and comes up with about 12 members of the Family of Gods.
2) Any accompanying sub-theory of divine simplicity must be modest enough to be consistent with condition (1), that is, with the real distinctness of trinitarian persons. And (3) Father, Son, and Spirit must be regarded as tightly enough related to each other so as to render plausible the judgment that they constitute a particular social unit.
With regard to the dividing of the Persons, those cannot well object who hold the doctrine of the diversity of substances in the Divine nature.
For it is not to be supposed that those who say that there are three substances do not also say that there are three Persons.
So this point only is called in question: that those attributes which are ascribed to the Divine nature we employ in the singular.Alexander Campbell does not draw analagies when he speaks of Adam, Eve and Cain but gives an example of the oneness of three members of a family. Before making this into a patternism of the trinity you should remember that the other account is that God created Adam, then all of the beasts of the field for Adam to "commune" with long before he formed Eve which account may be an effort to put women below animals.But our argument in reply to this is ready and clear.
For any one who condemns those who say that the Godhead is one,
must necessarily support either those who say that there are more than one,
or those who say that there is none.That makes you an atheist or a polytheists: either one denies that Christ came fully in the Flesh and that full Deity dwelled in Him. That would not seem too difficult for God to do.
This COMMUNITY is never with EXTERNAL persons: Why would the Psalmist be more powerful than God?
Psa. 4:4 Stand in awe,
and sin not: commune with your own heart
upon your bed, and be still. Selah.Psa. 77:6 I call to remembrance my song in the night:
I commune with mine own heart:
and my spirit made diligent search.
See Tertullian Against the Valentinians for the "growing theology" which is anti-Biblical. When you hear of any EMERGING theology you can always track down the very words of the new revelation out of old superstition and heresy.
That is very enlightening since no historic trinitarian ever saw God separated into three beings: I bet they would burn you if you "emerged" that back in the days of scholarship.
So, you know WHERE Hicks is coming from which denies that full Deity dwelled in and so constituting ANTI-Christism but constituting enough compromise with truth to sell books to the Evangelicals. This fits the LU dogma formulated by H. Leo Boles which defines the Godhead as a FAMILY of kith and kin or a TRIBE all united as one in purpose: friendly tribalists!
Before beginning this review of John Mark Hicks on the Trinity of Alexander Campbell at Rochester, we should not that most people are not aware of the meaning of the historic trinity. As viewed in one sect of the Church of Christ the trinity is defined as three, separated Divine Beings able to hold converse where each is uniquely suited as the Father God under the Old Testament, the Son God in the New Testament dispensation and the Holy Spirit in charge of the dispensation of the Holy Spirit.
This leads to rejecting most of the Bible in this "postmodern" age and accepting humans guided by the Holy Spirit for THIS dispensation.
And the NAMES of each of the God Persons are worshipped separately and individually. We will hear Hicks warn about EACH of the three getting their share of the glory.
Father, Son and Spirit are interpreted as the names of the three God persons. I have added necessary synonyms."
This was outed in the Church of Christ--East Wing at FHU in 1938, first printed in 1942 and became the foundation of preaching and Sunday School lessons: I returned to Mid Tennessee and found them actually worshiping the three NAMES of the three people.
H. Leo Boles: Christ, the Word, is the agent (deputy, broker) through whom God created all things; the Holy Spirit gives life, enacts laws, and organizes (establish, institute, construct) the material universe.
Creation was not finished (full-fledged, done) until the third member of the Godhead functioned. (H. Leo Boles, H. Leo, The Holy Spirit, p. 37, Gospel Advocate)
The Divine Family... suggests the close relation that exists between the members of the Godhead, and also that they constitute a family (clan, kith, lineage, race); it suggest that they are closely related, that they are akin. (relatives, same lineage, same tribe) This term expresses an interest in each other and a cooperation (teamwork, collaboration, partnership) in activities. P. 21I have had to track down some of the "end notes" for your edification. John Mark Hicks delivered a scholarly paper entitled:
Personality in God is the sum total of the infinite attributes resident in the inmost depth of his one divine nature; the three persons in the Godhead
are the three individualities (distinctiveness),
the three personal centers of consciousness,
the three separate (apart, divided, independent, disconnected, distinct)
self-conscious and self-determining (self-deciding)
The Mormons say: "In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the Gods; and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world and people it....In all congregations when I have preached on the subject of the Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods." Joseph Smith, (Founder and First Prophet), History of the Church, Vol 6, pp. 308,474.
Harvey Floyd: The word with (in Jn 1:1) implies communion, the association (alliance, organization, league, club) of persons. As literally as this can be translated, it is 'the Word was face to face with (confronting, disputing, in the face of, countering) God, he was toward God (pros ton theon)... There are two actors (cast of characters) in the drama (play, show, performance), and they are face to face with each other. They are on the stage at the same time... What we have is the doctrine of the Trinity: that God is a triad, that God is one God indeed, but his unity is a complex unity, a unity that exists in diversity. (Floyd, Harvey, Is the Holy Spirit for Me, p. 12, 20th Century Christian.)
Trinity as “Necessary” Fact in Alexander Campbell’s “Christian System of Facts”
John Mark Hicks
Lipscomb University
Christian Scholars Conference
Rochester College
June 2007
John Mark Hicks: begins with the statement:
A religion not honoring God the Father of all--not relying upon the person, mission, and death of the WORD INCARNATE--not inspired, cherished, animated, and inflamed by the Holy Spirit dwelling in my soul, is a cheat, a base counterfeit.PERSON is never used in the "a person in the family of God" sense which is the foundation for becoming a Community church which is defined clearly as "commune." The WORD is the LOGOS or Regulative Principle: It is opposite to personal opinions, personal experiences, introductions, poetry, singing, playing instruments or acting. All of these influence the Mind which makes understanding the LOGOS impossible. The Logos cannot be preached or sung: it can only as commanded be READ or PREACHED by READING. John does not say that Jesus of Nazareth had Jehovah or the Lord-God living inside of Him: the Spirit rested UPON Him. God is not stupid as claimed: He could have had John say that "In the beginning was the MAN Jesus of Nazareth.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Rational Principle,
and the Rational Principle was with God,
and the Rational Principle was God.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that
YE present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your REASONABLE [logikēn l Logical-spiritual] service. Romans 12:1
The Rational Principle always existed and as SPOKEN WORDS the Rational Principle is made visible-audible. God created all things by His Regulative Principle or His Governing Principle. God's REASON is not a person: that is why refuting the
One God the Father
And One Mediator between God and man
The MAN Christ Jesus
Is defined as ANTICHRIST
Jesus in John 14 defines the Father (within the Son) as the only THOUGHT. The Spirit is the "breath" which does not have thought but conveys invisible power. The Son articulates the "breath" into Words. Indeed, spirit never speaks of a "people" but is literally the wind or by analogy BREATH.
Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, Vol II p. 482-483 by Robert Richardson in part. Memoirs.XV.html
"I admire your scrupulosity about Bible terms and Bible ideas. I venerate the man that venerates the word of God. God himself honors with special tokens of his love the man that trembles at his word. You know I have never been solicitous of reputation at the hands of a downy and stall-fed orthodoxy. I never have courted such popular applause. Well, then, I am not to be suspected of any leaning that way. But after placing myself in every attitude favorable to an impartial consideration of all these great points, I do, while deprecating much of the unauthorized though consecrated jargon on trinity, unity, atonement, sacrifice, etc., etc., and lamenting the fragmentary caricatures, rather than expositions of the true doctrine by weak and conceited expositors of that school;
nevertheless, the true and proper divinity or godhead of my Lord Messiah and the real sin-expiating value and [482] efficacy of his death, and of his death alone, based upon his peerless worth and divine majesty, are the rock of my salvation--the basis of all my hopes of immortality--the very anchor of my soul amidst the shaking of the earth, the upheaving of the ocean and all the tumults and debates of the people."A religion not honoring God the Father of all--
not relying upon the person, mission and death of the Word incarnate--
not inspired, cherished, animated and inflamed by the Holy Spirit dwelling in my SOUL,
is a cheat, a base counterfeit, and not that athletic, strong and invincible thing which armed the martyr's soul
against all the terrors that earth and hell could throw around the Redeemer, his cause and people."
The SOUL is LIFE and is not the BODY: He did not say that a holy spirit person lived INSIDE of the carnal body.
2Cor. 1:22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
The GIFT is A personal holy spirit or A good conscience or consciousness or a Co-perception of the Word. In 2 Corinthians 3 Paul affirmed that readers of the Old Testament were blind and deaf and could not READ the word nor HEAR it when it was read in the synagogues once each week--the PATTERN in fool
Gal. 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit OF his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Spirit means wind or breath: it speaks of the mind or mental disposition of our own mind. If we have the MIND of Christ we will take on the form of a servant.
"With regard to the operation of the Spirit THROUGH the Word on sinners and on saints, while we strongly affirm the fact of his sanctifying, reviving, cheering and saving efficacy THROUGH the word of PROPHETS and APOSTLES, we ought to teach no new terms, phrases or dogmata--preach good news to sinners and teach holiness to the converted--teach the Christians to pray for the Spirit in all its holy influences, and to lift up their voices to the Lord for all his promised aids.
Eph. 2:17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
Eph. 2:18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Spirit or Word is ministered by preaching that which is written for our learning:
John 6:63 It is the SPIRIT that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing:Eph. 2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners,
the WORD that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
John 6:45 It is written in the prophets,
And they shall be all taught of God.
Every man therefore that hath heard,
and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
This refutes the trinitarian dogma that it is a PERSON called The Holy Spirit who must invade your person to enable you to hear the Word
Luke 8:11 Now the parable is this: The SEED is the WORD of God.
1Pet. 1:23 Being BORN again, not of corruptible SEED, but of incorruptible,
by the WORD of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
and cometh down from the Father of lights,
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
James 1:18 Of his own will BEGAT he us with the WORD [Logos] of truth,
that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Acts 2:41 Then they that gladly received his WORD were baptized:
and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls
but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
1Tim. 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayestEph. 2:20 And are built upon [Edified by] the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God,
which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone
The dogmatic popular affirmation that the Holy Spirit was "poured out" upon unbelievers to work in them regeneration and faith, which in Mr. Campbell's view rendered the word of God of no effect, had led him to assert the claims of the latter [WORD] as God's power to salvation.
He did not deny that "influences" of various kinds might accompany that WORD, but on these he declined to enlarge, and was careful to distinguish them from converting power, which he conceived to reside exclusively in the word or gospel itself, just as the vegetative power or life resides in the SEED sown in the earth, and not in any of the circumstances, such as the sowing, the heat or the moisture, which attend its development. As the healing power of the physician is in his medicine, so Mr. Campbell regarded God's healing power as contained in the gospel, and forbore to confound with it those influences by which sinners are induced to receive it, just as he distinguished the healing power of the physician from any of the influences which might induce the patient to take the medicine he prescribed.
He believed in spiritual ministries of various kinds, and, that invisible beings, as he had said in his discussion with Mr. Waterman,
"by an acquaintance with our associations of ideas, our modes of [489] reasoning, our passions, our appetites, our propensities and, by approaching us through these avenues, could lead us backward or forward, to the right or to the left, as their designs might require.
This is possible and compatible with our views of spiritual influence. It is more than possible--it is probable. I might advance farther and say it is certain; for it has been done." These "accompanying influences," however, of whatever nature they might be, material or spiritual, human or divine, Mr. Campbell regarded as NO part of the gospel, and as adding to it no power.
The ONE God the Father made Jesus of Nazareth to be His Audible and Visible WORD.
His Authority from God was validated by His resurrection.God's Word God used to create all (John 1) is that which God SPOKE (Genesis 10). Campbell denies that Jesus of Nazareth existed prior to his birth: he was the seed (sperm) of Abraham.
Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly,The WORD which God spoke by His own "spirit" in creation is made visible and audible in "a body prepared for Me" meaning Christ to indwell. That does not make the WORD of God now Incarnate into a separate god person in thebeginning.
that God
hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified,
both Lord and Christ
Rom. 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,The Term "The Holy Spirit" disappears as each Apostle perfected His Part. Thereafter the SALUTATION is always in the name of Father and Son.
separated unto the gospel of God,
Rom. 1:2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)
Rom. 1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
Rom. 1:4 And declared to be the Son of God with power,
according to the spirit of holiness,
by the resurrection from the dead:
1Cor. 1:1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus ChristJohn Mark Hicks: A God that we can comprehend is an idol--a thing unworthy of adoration.
through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
1Cor. 1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth,
to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints,
with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,
both theirs and ours:
1Cor. 1:3 Grace be unto you, and peace,
from God our Father,
and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
2Cor. 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia:
2Cor. 1:2 Grace be to you and peace from God our Father,
and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
2Cor. 1:3 Blessed be God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
Gal. 1:1 Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man,
but by Jesus Christ,
and God the Father,
who raised him from the dead;)
Gal. 1:3 Grace be to you and peace
from God the Father,
and from our Lord Jesus Christ,
Eph. 1:2 Grace be to you, and peace,
from God our Father,
and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Eph. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Col. 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:NO HUMAN CAN HEAR THE INAUDIBLE GOD
Col. 3:10 And have put on the new man,
which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Heb. 1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets,
Heb. 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, (His Word)
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Heb. 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
1Pet. 1:10 Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently,Gal. 1:1 Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man,
who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pet. 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time
the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify,
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ,
and the glory that should follow.
but by Jesus Christ,
and God the Father,
who raised him from the dead;)
Gal. 1:3 Grace be to you and peace
from God the Father,
and from our Lord Jesus Christ,
Eph. 1:2 Grace be to you, and peace,
from God our Father,
and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Eph. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
That's why God the Father made Jesus of Nazareth to be both Lord and Christ.
2Pet. 1:17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory,
when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
2Pet. 1:18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard,
when we were with him in the holy mount.
2Pet. 1:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; bebaios
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
2Pet. 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
2Pet. 1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
John 5:37 And the Father himself,The Jews did not have the WORD of Moses dwelling in them and therefore could not hear the words of Jesus Christ.
which hath sent me,
hath borne witness of me.
Ye have neither heard his voice at any time,
nor seen his shape.
John 5:38 And ye have not his word abiding in you:
for whom he hath sent,
him ye believe not.
John 5:39 Search the scriptures;
for in them ye think ye have eternal life:
and they are they which testify of me.
John 5:40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
An isolated sentence from MH No VIII-Vol Iv August 183
22. But were I, my dear sir, to put a few questions to you on the comprehensibility of your views of God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit, do you think you could stand upon your principles?
Methinks I see your causeway to the skies taken up stone by stone,
until, like the earth, you hang upon nothing midway between two opposing powers.
A God that we can comprehend is an idol--a thing unworthy of adoration!
Of course, making God into three persons each with "their" own centers of concience IS making an idol.
4.--We worship God the Father, as the Father, as our Father who is in heaven, and on him alone all our worship terminates.
But we regard Jesus as Emanuel, God with us, God manifested in our flesh, and to the glory of the Father we worship him as the Father has commanded;
because he is the delight of his Father, and there is no idolatry in worshipping him
in whom the Father delights as his own image--as his own Word--which to us is God: for "the Word is God."
It is in the economy of redemption we have the subordination of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;
or Jehovah, revealed in the names of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. By this revelation we are to walk on earth.
But in heaven, after the redemption is consummated, we shall have better eyes and better understandings; and when the remedial system terminates we are told that new developments of God will be made. Let us then wait that day.
27. I am sorry to be obliged so often to remind my friend that the word God is a relative term; and that thereforeThat has the Campbells denying that Jesus Who was made our Lord not including Him with the Father OUR ONLY GOD.
the Father being our only God,
and Jesus our only Lord,
is wholly an economical arrangement in the Remedial scheme. If there had been no sin, there could have been no Christianity, no Saviour, no Prophet, no Priest, no King. Sin is the sole cause of Christianity; but it is not the cause of the creation of him that was made flesh.
Since the neo-trinity demands three equal, eternal, separated persons with separated "centers of consciousness" the Campbells cannot be used to support the three-equal god persons.
Stone above notes: The orthodox notion of Trinity seems to be this: that there are three persons in the same one Being, substance, or nature, which Being is God.John Mark Hicks: The “Christian Religion” confesses one “divine nature” and “three persons--the FATHER, the WORD and the HOLY SPIRIT.”
TO BROTHER HENRY GREW.
My principal objection to the popular doctrine of "the Trinity"
is not that it is either irrational
or unscriptural,
to infer that there are three Divine persons in one Divine nature.
The Westminister Confession of Faith:
That these three equally have one thought, purpose, will, and operation, and so one God;--
or, to use the words of the Westminster Confession,
"In the Unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternal.I say I object not to this doctrine because it is contrary to reason, or revelation, but because of the metaphysical technicalities, the unintelligible jargon, the unmeaning language of the orthodox creeds on this subject,The word they used was personae and not person in the neo-scholarly revival of always-pagan trinity of gods usually Father, Mother and Son. Jesus said that His name included the aspects of Father, Son and Spirit: Campbell knows of no instance when people confessed three NAMES of Father, Son and Spirit and forces us to take note.
and the interminable war of words without ideas to which the word Trinity has given birth.
For example, in the same section from which I have quoted the above words is found the following jargon: "The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son."Were any one to ask me, Can there be three distinct persons, or even beings, in one God? I would say,
Reason informs me not,
and revelation does not assert it.
But if asked, Can there be one, and [99] one three in the same sense?
I reply, Both reason and revelation say No.
But then no Trinitarian or Calvinist affirms that the three are one, and the one three, in the same sense.
John Mark Hicks: As every cursory reader of Alexander Campbell knows, the esteemed Reformer wanted to represent biblical ideas with biblical terms. Consequently, he rejected the use of terms such as “Trinity,” “Trinitarian,” “Triune God,” “Eternal Generation,” “Eternal Procession,” as “metaphysical jargon.” He never wanted to engage in what he called “metaphysical abstractions” or “abstract speculation.”Persona. (Plural: personae.) Latin word translated as "person." Tertullian used this word in his trinitarian formula, "una substantia et tres personae" ("three persons in one substance").
Early Latin usage did not restrict the word to its modern meaning of a self-conscious being. At that time, it could mean a mask worn by an actor, a role in a drama, or a legal party to a contract.However, it apparently could also apply to individual persons. It did carry connotations of individualized personality that the Greek word hypostasis did not have originally. Although the Nicene Creed used hypostasis, which was later translated as "persona," Tertullian had already used persona much earlier to describe the members of the trinity.
As the Romans absorbed the elements of Etruscan culture, the term underwent a rapid expansion. In the Roman theatre it was used more generally to designate the mask through which the actor spoke the character (we still preface plays with the dramatis personae), so that it referred to that which represented the character and at the same time was the device through which the actor sounded the character's spoken words (per-sonare ). This close association with the spoken word recommended the term to the Latin grammarians who divided the speech-forms into first, second and third persons: "I, thou, it; we, you, they."
Again, Campbell is not saying that he SUPPORTED the trinity but objected to the jargon as we noted above:
My principal objection to the popular doctrine of "the Trinity"
is not that it is either irrational
or unscriptural,
to infer that there are three Divine persons in one Divine nature.
However, his lesser objections was that it was irrational and unscribtural.
It IS irrational and unscriptural but this is not the worst part of an invented dogma.
but because of the metaphysical technicalities,
the unintelligible jargon,
the unmeaning language of the orthodox creeds on this subject,
and the interminable war of words without ideas
to which the word Trinity has given birth.For example, in the same section from which I have quoted the above words is found the following jargon: "The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son."
Quoted from McGrew above.Alexander Campbell was less concerned with the "jargon" than with the fact that the jargon taught things that were neither Biblical nor rational and all of which were divisive because they refused to "speak where the Bible speaks" which Paul put to the elders as "teach that which has been taught."
John Mark Hicks: Nevertheless, by the late 1830s Campbell was concerned about the relationship between his reforming movement and the Unitarians of the New England Christian Connexion.
In the 1840s this blossomed into a clear renunciation of the theological core of Unitarianism and the embrace, despite his avoidance of scholastic language, of some quite explicit Trinitarian perspectives.
Alexander Campbell did not base his theology on what other people believed: much less did he preach any kind of Trinitarianism as a way to SIDE with them to oppose the Unitarians. Campbell was well educated and knew that no one in history thought of a "trinity" as three members of a family each of whom must have his share of the glory. If he had ever read the John literature he would have heard Jesus radically preempt any latter day tritheism.
A common feature of Campbell is to say that B is better than A. However, he does not thereby accept A as valid. Trinitarians are better than unitarians ONLY because they believe that Jesus as the Christ had a divine nature and that He died as a real sacrifice.
Alexander Campbell Being Anti-Unitarian did not make him a trinitarian.
Many persons have been called Unitarians, and some have so called themselves,
who believe in the death of Christ as a sin-offering,some repudiating the phrases "eternal son," "second person," "consubstantial" "co-equal," "very God of very God," "Supreme Deity," &c.; &c.;
who reject trinitarianism
because of its unscriptural, unintelligible, and barbarous phraseology;
regarding it as a system of polytheism;
who, nevertheless, know not what to say or think of the pre-existent or ante-human state of the author of Christianity;They reject these terms because to them barbarous and incomprehensible; but have no distinct idea or name for the antecedent state, relation, or character of Him that was made flesh.Indeed, what nature has in it degrees of comparison! It is not the divine, the angelic, the human.'
I have long taught that the Trinitarian, Arian, and Sabellian theories are wholly a corrupt speech--irrational and unscriptural speculations.of some quite explicit Trinitarian perspectives.
But there is this difference: All Trinitarians believe in the divine nature of Jesus Christ, and in his death as a real sacrifice for sin--an expiatory offering, without which there could be no remission.I believe this most sincerely, but without any fellowship for their humanisms, their barbarous diction, and unscriptural modes of reasoning on the subject.Therefore that Unitarianism which I repudiate denies both the divine nature of my Redeemer, and the necessity of his death as a sin-offering in order to remission.On the other hand, Alexander Campbell addressing Unitarianism c.1840
'Sir, do you believe that Jesus Christ was a human man--a supreme man?' Would he not reply, 'Sir, with me, man is man. I know nothing of supreme humanity, nor of supreme divinity. If any being be human, he is human; if he be divine, he is divine, possessed of a nature which has no positive, comparative, or superlative degrees in it. Indeed, what nature has in it degrees of comparison! It is not the divine, the angelic, the human.'
In a literal sense there is:
One God the Father
One Lord the Son who as man mediates.
I have collected several passages which prove this two-fold relationship.
John 5:43 I am come in my Father’s name,
and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
In an econominal sense there is:
Father or Thought in all classicall trinities.
Spirit or Breath spirit or breath is what passes between Father and Son.
Son or articulated Word.
Acts 2:34 For David is not ascended into the heavens:
but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord,
Sit thou on my right hand,
Acts 2:35 Until I make thy foes thy footstool.
Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly,
that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified,
both Lord and Christ.
Acts 13:33 God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children,
in that he hath raised up Jesus again;
as it is also written in the second psalm,
Thou art my Son,
this day have I begotten thee.
Acts 13:34 And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead,
now no more to return to corruption,
he said on this wise,
I will give you the sure mercies of David.
As the "son" Jesus said that He dwelled in the "father" and the "father" dwelled in him. However, at His baptism the dove as prove of SONSHIP rather than DAUGHTERSHIP rested UPON and never went IN as in INSIDE OF any person.
It is false teaching to claim before God and man that Campbell said that he did not object to Trinitarianism because it was unbiblical or irrational. He SAID that it was irrational AND unbiblical but HE didn't have to go that far to refute a patternism which would never fit into any rational (spiritual) mind or anyone who had read the Bible and history.
John Mark Hicks uses this as SIDING with the Trinitarians: it is just siding with the notion that most Trinitarians do not deny the divine nature of Jesus Christ. Here we may note that "Jesus of Nazareth" had a birth and a beginning and became a son: he was the "body prepared for me" or for the CHRIST OF GOD. Others believed that "Jesus" preexisted. As the prepared body He is then called Jesus Christ:
THE PROPHECY BY THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST
And the spirit (7307) [1] of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of [2] wisdom and [3] understanding, the spirit of [4] counsel and [5] might, the spirit of [6] knowledge and of the [7] fear of the Lord; Isaiah 11:
Spiritus
a breathing or gentle blowing of air, a breath, breeze
1. The air: imber et ignis, spiritus et gravis terra
2. The breath of a god, inspiration:
2. Spiritus, personified, a spirit
And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: Isa 11:3
Prov. 1:22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
Turn you at my reproof: behold,
I will pour out my spirit unto you,
I will make known my words unto you. Proverbs 1:231 Corinthians 1:30 But of him are ye IN Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us
wisdom, and
righteousness, and
sanctification, and
redemption:
Ephesians 1:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may give unto you
a spirit OF wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him;
It is not out of order to say that Jesus of Nazareth as a man could not have sanctified or redeemed us: Jesus Christ has all of the authority of Father, Son and Spirit. But, these are not names of separate gods. When He departed the physical realm he said "the flesh counts for nothing." He said my WORDS are SPIRIT and they are LIFE. Therefore, He continues to speak to us through the Word .
Campbell said that he rejected the Trinitarians humanisms, their barbarous diction, and unscriptural modes of reasoning on the subject. So, I am not sure that one could say that he accepted: "explicit Trinitarian perspectives if there is no language to explain it.
"Therefore that Unitarianism which I repudiate denies both the divine nature of my Redeemer, and the necessity of his death as a sin-offering in order to remission.
Hicks is correct that the Campbells along with all historic scholars defended speaking where the Bible speaks as directly commanded and this would preclute any theological intrusions and necessary divisions.
"It is long since we proposed to abandon all this style, and to call Bible things by Bible names. Our brethren have generally agreed to do so; but in their definition of certain Bible names,
However, this was not a nice theological concept: when you do not speak where the Bible speaks:
"I have sometimes seen a sense imposed upon them wholly modern, and which would ultimate in a doctrine as certainly unapostolic as either Arianism or Trinitarianism.
From remedial reading I understand that when Campbell denounced Unitarianism it was because of their denial that God had vested full deity in Jesus the Christ. He DID NOT by default SIDE with Trinitarians.
John Mark Hicks: Campbell’s concern, of course, began with his relationship with Barton W. Stone and the Western Christians. In an opening dialogue with Barton W. Stone in 1827, Campbell described his confession of the one God as involving “three beings” (accommodative language in his mind--“I shall call them”) or “persons.”The TWO in all of the saluations is God the Father and Jesus of Nazareth whom God made Lord and God. The pre-existent one was the Word of God which trinitarians define as the Son of God when the One God "speaks."
These three, “the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit,” are “each and together one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.”To Grew: Were any one to ask me, Can there be three distinct persons, or even beings, in one God?
I would say, Reason informs me not, and revelation does not assert it.
But if asked, Can there be one, and [99] one three in the same sense?
I reply, Both reason and revelation say No.
But then no Trinitarian or Calvinist affirms that the three are one, and the one three, in the same sense.
In our nature there is no more than I, and thou, and he, as respects primary relation. There is no more in the angelic, and the Bible reveals no more than I, and thou, and he in the divine. But not turning aside to answer objections which are anticipated, be it observed that I make not this a matter of inference only;
for there is an association of the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the revealed relation of the three persons, I, thou, and he, and just in the dignity of these three. "I send thee," "I and thou send him," "Jehovah and his spirit has sent me." On this principle the Christian economy is arranged and developed. So I read the volumes of revelation. These reflections premised, I proceed to answer your ingenious questions:
Were you asked, "Do you, in calling Jesus the one Lord, include or exclude the Father from the nature and essential attributes of the one Lord?" what would you answer? Would you not say, "The Father is not excluded; for certainly he is the one absolute Lord: for so the Prophets have named and addressed him a thousand times.
But now he has made Jesus Lord. So that in the new economy
the Father is our only God,
and Jesus is our only Lord."
The Scriptures nowhere teach me that the Son in his high personal nature had a beginning of being or existence; "the Word was in the beginning with God," even that Word "which was made flesh and dwelt among us." "The Word was God," and, as such, I venerate "the Word made flesh," "as God manifest in the flesh."
Undoubtedly, Alexander Campbell had read son John Calvin who speaks of the "three aspects" within the One God. Therefore, his concern was for the "language" of the trinity which COULD BE interpreted as three, separated Beings. Denying that the "us" in Genesis speaks of the trinity, John Calvin wrote:
But, Father, Word and Spirit are never the NAMES of persons: all scholarship used the word PERSONAE but never on pain of great hurt ever called them PERSONS or separated beings.This, however, I regard as beyond controversy, that from the peculiar circumstance of the passage itself, a title is here ascribed to God, expressive of that powers which was previously in some way included in his eternal essence.
He hath made the earth by his power,
he hath established the world by his wisdom,
and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding. Jer 51:15When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens;
and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth:
he maketh lightnings with rain,
and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures. Jer 51:1626. "Let us make man." Although the tense here used is the future, all must acknowledge that this is the language of one apparently deliberating. Hitherto God has been introduced simply as commanding; now, when he approaches the most excellent of all his works, he enters into consultation. For more notes on the Holy Spirit - Mind connection Click Here.
Jesus as the WORD is the LOGOS or rational discord of God:
1. plea, pretext, ground, would have admitted of an explanation,
2. statement of a theory, argument, to be explained
c. in Logic, proposition, whether as premiss or conclusion
d. rule, principle, law, as embodying the result of logismos
4. thesis, hypothesis, provisional ground,
5.reason, ground 6.formula (wider than definition, but freq. equivalent thereto), term expressing reason,
7.reason, law exhibited in the world-process,
c. in Neo-Platonic Philos., of regulative and formative forces, derived from the intelligible and operative in the sensible
IV. inward debate of the soul 1.thinking, reasoning, explanation, universe opposite perception,
in Logic, of discursive reasoning, opposite intuition
2. reason as a faculty,
V. continuous statement, narrative (whether fact or fiction), oration lego
4.speech, delivered in court, assembly
VI. verbal expression or utterance, lego, lexis
Lexis A.speech, opposite ôidê, 1.art of song 5. = eppsdê, spell, incantation2. common talk, report, tradition d. the talk one occasions, repute, mostly in good sense, good report, praise, honour,
4.text of an author, opposite exegesis [Peter's private interpretation outlaws exegesis]
3. discussion, debate, deliberation, c. dialogue, as a form of philosophical debate,
1. divine utterance, oracle, expression, utterance, speech regarded formally,
X. the Word or Wisdom of God, personified as his agent in creation and world-government,
NT identified with the person of Christ,John Mark Hicks: Campbell is willing to “conscientiously and devoutly pray to the Lord Jesus Christ as though there was no other God in the universe than he.” Campbell is willing to do this because Jesus participates in the one divine nature that is Jehovah.
First: We noted above that:
that worship is to Jesus because God the Father made Him His Son. Note that it is God's Word which was His eternal Son.
4.--We worship God the Father, as the Father, as our Father who is in heaven, and on him alone all our worship terminates.
But we regard Jesus as Emanuel, God with us, God manifested in our flesh,
and to the glory of the Father we worship him as the Father has commanded;
because he is the delight of his Father, and there is no idolatry in worshipping him
In whom the Father delights as his own image--as his own Word--which to us is God: for "the Word is God."
It is in the economy of redemption we have the subordination of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; or Jehovah, revealed in the names of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. By this revelation we are to walk on earth.Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly,
that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified,
both Lord and Christ.
Second: Thomas Campbell wrote:Here is Barton W. Stone on The Trinity. I believe the issue was over the atonement and not over the "trinity" which both Campbells reject and make statements quite identical to the Bible and all of history. From An Address to the Christian ChurchesIs it asked, how can one and the self-same indivisible and undivided essence exist in three distinct personal characters? [a "character" is a mask or a personae used by Classic Trinitarians. Of course, we cannot understand how mankind made in His image exists as ONE BEING but having different relationships]
Again, is it asked how the Divine Being can exist in and to itself, under a threefold relation; or,
how one and the self-same being can exist in three distinct intelligent subsistencies or personal characters, each of them still continuing to be the self-same individual Being, actually three, yet severally one?...Is it farther queried, how could the Father bring forth or exhibit his Son in human nature, or how could divinity and humanity be so united as to constitute but one individual person?
We might as rationally query, how can soul and body, matter and mind be so united as to make but one individual being or person?
Paul uses this to explain that the Holy Spirit is the Mind of Christ. After adressing the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God Campbell notes:
John Mark Hicks: In this initial literary exchange between the two, Campbell worries that the Stoneite Christians are characterized by “Arian or Unitarian” understandings of the person of Christ and that they hold “some peculiar views of atonement.” By so doing, Campbell fears, they will become yet another sect among many and the name “Christian” will become as “sectarian” as “Lutheran, Methodist, or Presbyterian.”And that, therefore, in the mean time, we ought to reject as unscriptural,
all invocations or forms of address immediately directed to the Holy Spirit, as innovations in the worship of God, who alone has a right to prescribe both the matter and manner of his own worship, even of that worship which he will be graciously pleased to accept as right and pleasing in his sight.
There was never a merger: the agreement was between only those representatives of the two groups and reached no further. It was denounced widely and the agreement to jointly participate in certain projects and meet in the same buildings at times did not constitute a union: Stone put "union" over doctrine which was a pretty simple if pure concept. The agreement presented by John Smith defined something the Christian Church or Disciples never intended to keep. That "friendly agreement" ceased with the first Society and certainly no longer existed after the first imposed organ intending to sow discord.This doctrine is also contained in the creeds of every sect of Christians with whom I am acquainted. "There is but one only living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, without body, parts or passions." Conf. Fth. chap. 2, sec. 1st. There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts. Meth. Dis. chap. 1, sec. 2."If then all agree, that there is but one only living and true God;
all must agree that there are not two or three such Gods.If all agree that this one only God is an infinite spirit without parts;
all must agree that this infinite spirit is not a compound of two or three spirits, beings, or Gods. These things are abundantly evident, concerning which there can be no dispute."The word Trinity is not found in the Bible. This is acknowledged by the celebrated Calvin, who calls the Trinity "a popish God, or idol, a mere human invention, a barbarous, insipid, and profane word; and he utterly condemns that prayer in the litany--John Mark Hicks: While Campbell relunctantly accepted the “merger” between the Campbellite Reformers and the Stoneite Christians in the early 1830s, by the end of the decade Campbell is quite concerned about the latter’s Christology. The Eastern embrace of Unitarianism generated concern that the Western Christians would settle into this theology if not the name.O holy, glorious, and blessed Trinity, &c. as unknown to the prophets and apostles, and grounded upon no testimony of God's holy word." Admon. 1st. ad Polonos--Cardale's true Doct.--The language, like the man, I confess is too severe.
The invented Stone-Campbell Movement is denied by Burnett.
William J. Nottingham Global Ministries.
"My point here is that the first missionary society was the product of a long and intense process which generated considerable soul-searching. There were shared biblical principles and at the same time fundamental differences in theological opinion. Disagreement grew
concerning congregational ecclesiology,
commonality in mission with other Christians,
and also perhaps communion of the Holy Spirit.
This tension would eventuate in separate bodies and institutions of the 20th and 21st centuries. [Disciples and NACC] A full appreciation is probably hidden from us in the distance from ante-bellum times. But the nature of the Bible's authority,
the relatively new idea of the autonomy of the local congregation,
and the centrality of millennialist eschatology for these men and women,
with men doing most of the writing which is left to us, seem to me to be mysteries that can only be observed from different angles and rarely entered into existentially by later generations like our own.
This is evidenced in the decisions concerning missionaries growing out of this fervor leading up to the Cincinnati convention: Dr. and Mrs. James T. Barclay were the first. It was in their parlor in Washington, D.C., 1843, that the congregation had been organized which became the Vermont Avenue Church and in 1930 the National City Christian Church.
They went to Jerusalem, not because of Acts 1:8 "beginning with Jerusalem" as a popular Disciples legend has it, but because it was taken for granted by Alexander Campbell and his followers that the Jews were to be converted before the return of Christ.
That was a false assumption: the Millenial Harbinger's major thrust was not to SUPPORT Millerism but to defeat it. Campbell denies that Jesus will return to Canaan. Because the Church of Christ did not believe in William E. Miller [Ellen G. White]. You will notice that it was the Disciples who were tilted by Miller.
The title of Campbell's journal proclaimed clearly the eschatology of the pre-Civil War spirituality, so neglected in our denominational memory by scholars and theologians since then.
Notice that Campbell spoke of THE PROTESTANT THEORY: not his because he speaks where the Bible speaks and insists on a NEW HEAVEN and a NEW EARTH and that you could not convert people after the literal earth was burned up.
In the Millennial Harbinger of 1841,
we read in what is called The Protestant Theory:
"The Millennium, so far as the triumphs of Christianity is concerned, will be a state of greatly enlarged and continuous prosperity, in which the Lord will be exalted and his divine spirit enjoyed in an unprecedented measure. All the conditions of society will be vastly improved; wars shall cease, and peace and good will among men will generally abound. The Jews will be converted, and the fullness of the Gentiles will be brought into the kingdom of the Messiah."
The founding of the American Christian Missionary Society cannot be separated from the millennialist eschatology of the period
The Disciples followed the Millerites: not Campbell.
nor from the pragmatism which required a foreign dimension to keep pace with other denominations or to outgrow them! D.S. Burnet's book The Jerusalem Mission and Dr. Barclay's book The City of the Great King make this clear, along with speeches and articles by various leaders like Isaac Errett. Barclay wrote in a journal The Christian Age:
"The ACMS...resolved...
to make the first offer of salvation to Israel. . .
for the salvation of the Jews...
for upon the conversion and resumption of Israel
is unquestionably suspended the destruction of Antichrist
and the salvation of the world."
The rise of this heresy which insists that Jesus utterly failed in His First Advent but with a little help from His friends (unity meetings, Tulsa, Jubilee etal) they PLANNED to be ecumenical and following the Pope's call for Jubilee 2000 to MAKE IT POSSIBLE for Jesus to have His SECOND ADVENT without failing AGAIN.
Joel's Army was part of this and people enlisted to hand out rewards and destroy the non-converts. The Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to one priest and said that she would return and KILL all of the Masons and Pagans.
Campbell denied that there could be a millenium fitted in between Miller's prophecy (and the Disciples belief), the conversion of the Jews and the DATE SET by Miller.
But, bless their heart they tried to do Jesus' work for Him. Guess it was worth SECTING OFF the real Campbell.
The Stone Campbell Movement promoted by the NACC denied
Because the Society and Organ were introduced in violation of the "union" agreement among a few, there was never any UNITY with any ORGAN and SOCIETY CHURCH at any time or place. Boles explains where there could be no fellowship meaning attend, defend and endow instrumental churches.
Rejecting Unitarianism does not default to accepting Trinitarianism.
Hicks:He would side with the Trinitarians against having a BAR as part of observing the communion but this would not edge him any closer to being a Trinitarian.
Major Premise: The “Unitarianism” that Campbell “repudiate[d] denie[d] both the divine nature of [the] Redeemer, and the necessity of his death as a sin-offering in order to remission.” [A.C. did not think so}
Minor Premise: Trinitarians affirm this and thus,
Conclusions: on this substance, he sides with the Trinitarians over against the Unitarians.
That does not logically follow as we have proven above: The Campbells and the Church of Christ can accept the Deity and Atonement of Christ and still be ANTI-Trinitarian because Father, Son and Spirit never included a hint of being separate Beings with different names.
it is Biblical that Christ put off His majesty and glory and tabernacled in "a body prepared for me." That body was not part of a trinity. He is called the SON of God in relationship to his sacrificial work. However, Jesus said that the "Father" was within the "Son" and that when they saw Jesus the Christ they had been WITH the Spirit. To accept the atoning work of a "body prepared for me" does not even hint of the only option being trinitarianism.
Isa. 59:16 And he saw that there was no man,Paul said that we have that Sprit power through the Word of God: Both Campbells agreed:
and wondered that there was no intercessor:
his ARM brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
Is. 59:17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head;
and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.
Eph. 6:14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,The ARM of God came as the intercessor who would be as FULLY GOD as humanity is able to grasp. He was the OFF FLASH or the IMAGE of God and carried all of the authority of God to a people who can neither see nor hear God.
and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Eph. 6:15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Eph. 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
1Th. 5:8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
Is. 59:18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.
Is. 59:19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun.
When the enemy shall come in like a flood,
the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
Is. 59:20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion,
and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.
Is. 59:21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD;
My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth,
shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed,
nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD,
from henceforth and for ever.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isa 9:6
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Isa 9:7
King Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. Isaiah 44:6
Wonderful Counselor Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? Isaiah 40:13
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 1 Timothy 2:5
1John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
Heb. 12:24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.The Son is Mighty God I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Revelation 1:8
- Everlasting Father
Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting. Isaiah 63:16
- ---Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. Revelation 1:12
Prince of Peace Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. Acts 5:31
CENI accepted by all historic scholars.John Mark Hicks: Surely, then, those professors that annihilate the sufferings of Christ as an atoning sacrifice, and reduce him to a mere man, or a mere angel, or some other kind of creature than THE WORD that was God and became incarnate, are propagating views more fatal to God’s corner stone, than the opinion that circumcision and the law of carnal ordinances ought to be superadded to the gospel to the Gentiles as a proper introduction to the Christian church.
John identifies aa ANTICHRIST anyone who denies the One Father and the One Son, or One God the Father and One Lord who was born in a time in history (says Alexander Cambell) and was MADE TO BE both Lord and Christ.
God enabled Job as a man to do battle with evil and survive. Jesus was exposed to Satan as a man or there would be no value to his sacrifice.
Is. 11:1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,
and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
And the spirit (7307) [1] of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of [2] wisdom and [3] understanding, the spirit of [4] counsel and [5] might, the spirit of [6] knowledge and of the [7] fear of the Lord; Isaiah 11:
Spiritus
a breathing or gentle blowing of air, a breath, breeze
1. The air: imber et ignis, spiritus et gravis terra
2. The breath of a god, inspiration:
2. Spiritus, personified, a spiritActs 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly,Jesus said "my Father and I are one," and "the Father is within me," or "see me and you see the Father," and Thomas said "my Lord and my God." Lord identifies the invisible God working in a visible, audible form. It is not necessary to believe that there were three PEOPLE to reject the Pagan Trinitarianism.
that God [the holy ONE]
hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified,
both Lord and Christ.
1Timothy 2:5 For there is one God,
and one mediator between God and men,
the MAN Christ Jesus;
The MAN Jesus of Nazareth came as the IMAGE or FORM of God:
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Philippians 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
ALL historic trinitarians and also the Campbells understood that God is never THREE PEOPLE:
The Father God conceives in his wisdom or Sophia (daughter)
Morph-ē A.form, shape, twice in Hom. (not in Hes.), soi d' epi men morphē epeōn thou hast comeliness of words, Od.11.367 alla theos morphēn epesi stephei God adds a crown of shapeliness to his words, Od.8.170: freq. later, “morphas duo onomazein LXX To.1.13,
The Father God breathes (spirit never speaks of a people)
The SON articulates the Words of God without modification.
outward form, opp. “eidos, hekaterō tō eideos pollai m.” Philol.5; “allattonta to hautou eidos eis pollas morphas” Pl.R.380d; “m. theōn” X.Mem.4.3.13, cf. Ep.Phil.2.6
3. kind, sort, E. Ion 382, 1068 (lyr.),
3. A model after which any thing is made, a pattern, stamp,
Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory,
Prīmōgĕnĭtus As subst.: prīmōgĕnĭta , ōrum, n., the right of the first-born, birthright, Vulg. Gen. 25, 33;
and the express image of his person,
and upholding all things by the word of his power,
when he had by himself purged our sins,
sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Hebrews 1:4 Being made so much better than the angels,
as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
Hebrews 1:5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time,
Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?
And again, I will be to him a Father,
and he shall be to me a Son?
Hebrews 1:6 And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world,
he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.
John Mark Hicks: The emergence of Campbell’s strong Trinitarian language is directly correlate with the union with the Stone Movement in the 1830s and the movement of the Christian Connexion toward explicit Unitarianism in the 1840s. Apparently Campbell saw some confusion within his own Reformation Movement.
There was no classical "trinitarianism" which would support the "emerging theology" of a community of Gods which must be reflected in a "community" to replace the old Campbell "school of Christ." The Spirit was never considered a person who was operative outside of the Words of Christ which He said "are Spirit and Life."Declaration and Address "since those gifts have ceased, the Holy Spirit now operates upon the minds of men only by the word;" and at the close of said note, you further assert, that "we are positive of one point," namely, "that the scriptures teach us not the doctrine of physical operations of the Divine Spirit in order to faith."
We have proven that the Spirit is the Spirit OF God or OF Christ: the NAME of the "comforting Spirit" is Jesus Christ the Righteous says John. The Spirit Lord Who appeared to Paul was "Jesus of Nazareth." Therefore there never was a separate PEOPLE as part of the Family of Gods: the only operator is still Jesus Christ transfigured or metamorphosed into pure Spirit form. His role still bearing His human identity is to mediate between the INVISIBLE and inaudible Deity and the human Jesus. There is no way to honor the Spirit OF Christ as a separate person without denying that Christ came FULLY in the flesh and the same John marks those as ANTI-christ. Why not when you give the glory to ANOTHER?
John Mark Hicks: Unfortunately, in Campbell’s eyes, Stone’s theology was fundamentally Unitarian--he denied that Jesus was a sin-offering and denied the full deity of the Son. It was in this atmosphere that Campbell invited Stone to discuss the atonement in the Millennial Harbinger. This discussion began in the summer of 1840 ended in the Fall of 1841.
The Declaration and Address, The Christian System and many journals had rejected the Trinity of persons long before.In his debate with Campbell in 1844, the Presbyterian Rice pointed out that Barton W. Stone neither believed in the eternal character of the person who became incarnate nor in the efficacious nature of his death regarding sin.
I am not sure that Rice is a good reference.The idea of Incarnation means that God fully dwelled in the human Jesus of Nazareth: the person Jesus of Nazareth, agrees Campbell and most scholars, did not exist as a PERSON before He was conceived by Mary as "a body prepared for Me."
We deny that and none of the unatributed "quotes" do anything but REPUDIATE the Trinity notion which DENIES that Jesus Christ housed full Deity. Hicks cherry picks and does not bother to read the resources. We quoted above:
Therefore that Unitarianism which I repudiate denies both the divine nature of my Redeemer, and the necessity of his death as a sin-offering in order to remission.
It is long since we proposed to abandon all this style, and to call Bible things by Bible names. Our brethren have generally agreed to do so; but in their definition of certain Bible names,
Campbell didn't just say that the language was unapostolic and irrational: he said that the DOCTRINE of the trinity was unapostolic. No one in history denies that, recognizes that "trinity" was adopted from paganism to define the INTERNAL nature of God and the dogma has been invented to defend what is not understood.I have sometimes seen a sense imposed upon them wholly modern, and which would ultimate in a doctrine as certainly unapostolic as either Arianism or Trinitarianism.
It is pretty easy to see the difference betwee Jesus of Nazareth who was born in a time and place and the CHRIST of God who empowered Jesus of Nazareth so that He is called Jesus Christ. The CHRIST of God was God Who laid aside His full majesty and glory and took on the body of a human on the level of a slave and considered as a criminal. This assuredly gives credance to Jesus saying that the "doctors of the Law took away the key to knowledge.
John Mark Hicks: Campbell responded that he did not agree with Stone but that he believed the Reformation’s forbearance with Stone and like-minded individuals was a “redeeming policy.” Campbell was also concerned about some disciples who, though they might have been called Unitarians or even called themselves Unitarians, “believe in the death of Christ as a sin-offering” but reject Trinitarianism with its “barbarous phraseology” (e.g., “eternal son,” “second person,” “consubstantial,” “co-equal,” “very God of very God,” “Supreme Deity,” etc.) yet nevetheless believe the one who became flesh is no mere human being.
Again, Campbell did not say that he rejected trinitarianism because of the language: He said that this was not the ONLY reason he rejected trinitarianism as he assuredly did.
The divisive issue was over the NATURE of Jesus of Nazareth and neither was forced by that fact to "side" with Trinitarians. Campbell did not think that HE could fully explain the nature of Jesus but insisted that he died for the sins of the world. Forbearing did not mean "unity" with Stone any more than Campbell intended long-term unity with the Baptists whom he was converting UNLESS they began to teach the truth.Campbell did walk in peace even among those whom he would never UNITE. When he declared that there might be baptized believers among the sects, but if so, they should come out of Babylon. So it was and is possible to honore the role of Jesus The Christ of God who involved God Himself in the sacrifice:Richardson Memoirs II p.484.
For my part, I can and do make great allowance for early and longestablished habits of thinking and speaking on all religious questions, and therefore regard Brother Stone as confiding in the sacrifice and death of Christ as indispensable to salvation, and though by no means acquiescing in some of his interpretations of the meaning and designs of the Messiah's death, I can bear with a difference of opinion on a subject so vital, which many would regard as an insuperable obstacle to Christian communion."Men may and do hold the Head, Christ, and his death and mediation indispensable to salvation, who, nevertheless, have very inadequate conceptions of some of the aspects of these transcendent subjects. And as we are not saved by the strength and comprehension of our views, but from obeying from the heart the apostolic mould of doctrine, more stress ought to be laid upon moral excellence than upon abstract orthodoxy, especially when all the facts and documents of Christianity are cordially believed and cherished. Our bond of union is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one body, one spirit, one hope, one God and Father of all. And as many as walk by this rule, peace be on them and mercy, and upon the whole Israel of God !"
Trinitarians use Acts 20:28 as proof text. Because Jesus bought the church with his own blood they conclude that Jesus is God. There are several problems based on failure to see the difference between GOD and LORD and failing to see that the KJV is unique in saying that God shed His blood. A Spirit simply does not have any body parts like those He Created.
Acts 20:28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock,
over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers,
to feed the church of God, [theou]
which he hath purchased with his own blood.
"It is a well known fact that important early manuscripts do not read "Church of God" but instead have "Church of the Lord. Codex Alexandrinus, Ephraemi Rescriptus, and Bezae Cantabrigensis, Sahidic Coptic, read "church of the Lord" and not "church of God."
Acts 20:28NET Watch out for109 yourselves and for all the flock of which110 the Holy Spirit has made you overseers,111 to shepherd the church of God112 that he obtained113 with the blood of his own Son.John Mark Hicks: It is in this context that Campbell published his Christian System in 1839. Most of the material published in his book had also been printed in his 1836 Christianity Restored in 1836. The major difference between the two books is the substitution of the essay “Christian System” for the essay entitled “Principles of Interpretation.” Why did Campbell make this substitution, especially since he regarded biblical hermeneutics as the critical tool for his restoration agenda? The persistent presence of Unitarian Christology among the united community of Christians and Reformers provided the occasion for his essay whose focus is not simply to summarize the Christian faith but to overturn Unitarian Christology.
Acts 20:28WEB Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.
Acts 20:28ASV Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock,
in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops,
to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood.
Acts 20:28Darby which he has purchased with the blood of his own
Acts 20:28 RSV the church of God which he obtained with the blood of his own Son
Ephesians 4:4 There is one body, and one Spirit,
even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling;
Ephesians 4:5 one Lord, [kurios] one faith, one baptism,
Ephesians 4:6 one God [theos] and Father of ALL,
who is over all, and through all, and in all.
The words of the Bible contain all the ideas in it;--these words, then, rightly understood, and the ideas are clearly perceived. The words and sentences of the Bible are to be translated, interpreted,and understood according to the same code of laws and principles of interpretation by which other ancient writings are translated and understood; for when God spoke to man in his own language, he spoke as one person converses with another, in fair, stipulated, and well established meaning of the terms. This is essential to its character as a revelation from God; otherwise it would be no revelation, but would always require a class of inspired men to unfold and reveal its true sense to mankind.John Mark Hicks: Several particulars demonstrate this. First, the discussion of sin-offering consumes fifteen of the essay’s ninety-five pages. Second, the triune flavor of the essay seeks to demonstrate that the “operation of THREE DIVINE PARTICIPANTS, of one self-existent, independent, incommunicable nature” is “necessary” and “fundamental” to “all rational and sanctifying views of religion.”
Christian System XXIII Summary: I God alone is self-existent and eternal. Before earth and time were bornJesus said that doctors of the Law "take away the key to knowledge." Because of the merchant class, Jesus said that God hid all truth in PARABLES from the foundation of the World. He HID Himself from the WISE or Sophists who are self-speakers, singers and instrument players for pay. No historic scholar failed to understand that the Spirit or BREATH of God is how HE all alone sends out His power which when articulated as HIS Words become His son.
HE operated by his Word and his Spirit.
God, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God,
participants of one and the same nature, are the foundations of Nature, Providence, and Redemption.
In Nature and Providence, it is God, the Word, and the Spirit. In Grace, it is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All creations, providences, and remedial arrangements display to us the co-operation of three divine participants, of one self-existent, independent, incommunicable nature. These are fundamental conceptions of all the revelations and developments of the Divinity, and necessary to all rational and sanctifying views of religion.
The Statement God made all things BY Jesus Christ. However, the proper reading is:
Colossians 1:16 For by [en, eis ASV] him were all things created,
that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:
all things were created by him, and for him:
There is a difference between being created BY Jesus of Nazareth and being made IN Christ. Christ is any instrumental means used by God.
God is timeless and therefore when Father THOUGHT and the Son (Word) SPOKE it was done and finished in the mind of God. Everything in our created sphere was made FOR Christ and the church which seeks out and finds lost spirits which we believe also existed before: we are pilgrims and strangers on the earth and God is not concerned with the KOSMOS.
2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new.
2Corinthians 5:18 And all things are of God,
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
2Corinthians 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;
and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
2Corinthians 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ,
as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
2Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; t\
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him
Christian System V AS there is man and the spirit of man, so there is God and the spirit of God. They are capable of a separate and distinct existence. "What man knoweth the things of a man," says Paul, "but the spirit of man that is in him; even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God." There is in this case an image of God in man - not, indeed, an exact image, but an image; for as Paul says of the law, so say we of man; "For the law had a shadow, (a resemblance) of good things to come, and not the very (or exact) image of the things." So man was made an image of God, though not the exact image - the active power of man is in his spirit: so John the Baptist came in the power of Elijah, because he came in his spirit. The spirit of God is therefore often used for his power; though it is not an impersonal powerThe Spirit OF MANWe again correct the "quotation"that God existed AS the Word and Spirit: The ONE and only God of the Shema operated BY His Word and Spirit.
1Corinthians 2:11 For what man knoweth the things of a man,
save the spirit of man which is in him?
Has the same relationship for God:
even so the things of God knoweth no man,
but the Spirit of God.
Of the WE: the Apostles only
1Corinthians 2:12 Now WE have received,
not the spirit OF the world, [not a person]
but the spirit which is OF God; [not a person]
that WE might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Corinthians 2:13 Which things also WE speak,
not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, [Sophists: composers, speakers, singers, players]
but which the Holy Spirit teacheth; [The Spirit OF God knows about God]
comparing spiritual things with spiritual. [Revealed ONLY by the Spirit OF God or OF Christ]
1Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:
for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. [you need A holy spirit or A good conscience]
1Corinthians 2:15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things,
yet he himself is judged of no man.
The Spirit OF Christ is the MIND of Christ: IT does not have a NAME
1Corinthians 2:16 For [What I mean is] who hath known the MIND of the Lord,
that he may instruct him?
But WE have the mind of Christ
Christian System XXIII I. God alone is self-existent and eternal. Before earth and time were born he operated by his Word - and his Spirit. God, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, participants of one and the same nature, are the foundations of Nature, Providence, and Redemption. In Nature and Providence, it is GOD, the WORD, and the SPIRIT. In Grace, it is the FATHER, the SON, and the HOLY SPIRIT. All creation, providences, and remedial arrangements display to us the cooperations of Three Divine Participants, of one self-existent, independent, incommunicable nature. These are fundamental conceptions of all the revelations and developments of the Divinity, and necessary to all rational and sanctifying views of religion.When God BREATHES and SPEAKS the result is His WORD. His Word is not a separate god.
Theophilus, who first spoke of a triad wrote.
Gen. 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen. 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Gen. 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen. 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good:
and God divided the light from the darkness.John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.
John 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
John 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness;
and the darkness comprehended it not.
The darkness did not prevent the separation
I operate by my word and spirit but my word and spirit are NOT blood brothers. My words and spirit can never by any known language be defined as a person. When John speaks of the Word he is speaking of the SPOKEN Word of the One God who "breathed out" these "words" by His spirit.By Him you speak, O man; His breath you breathe yet Him you know not. And this is your condition, because of the blindness of your soul, and the hardness of your heart. But, if you will, you may be healed. Entrust yourself to the Physician, and He will couch the eyes of your soul and of your heart.
Who is the Physician? God, who heals and makes alive through His word and wisdom.
God by His own word and wisdom made all things; for"by His word were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." [Ps xxxiii. 6.] [Same word as holy Spirit]
Most excellent is His wisdom.
By His wisdom God founded the earth;
and by knowledge He prepared the heavens;
and by understanding were the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the clouds poured out their dews.If thou perceivest these things, O man, living chastely, and holily, and righteously,
thou canst see God.
These "participants" included the ONE GOD who OPERATED by His Word and Spirit. Spirit never defines a "person" other than through personification. In the Christian System Chapter V, Alexander Campbell removes the confusion.
I. As there is man and the spirit of man, so there is God and the spirit of God. They are capable of a separate and distinct existence. "What man knoweth the things of a man," says Paul, "but the spirit of man that is in him; even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God... The spirit of God is therefore often used for his power; though it is not an impersonal power, but a living, energizing, active, personal existence.We might not know exactly how that operates but being rational we do not think that we are a multiple personality or have little demons called "word" and "spirit" inside of us.
The fact that we are made in the image of God does not meant that "we" are triplets: rather, by seing the complex INNER nature of the Creature we understand the Creator to be a ONE GOD.
Rom. 7:23 But I see another law in my members,John Mark Hicks: Indeed, Campbell’s summary of the Christian System’s facts is ordered in triune fashion--one paragraph each on the Father, Son and Spirit. Third, the publication of the Christian System apparently precipitated the Stone-Campbell discussion on atonement as some questioned his “style as too Trinitarian.”
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin
which is in my members.
Rom. 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom. 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God;
but with the flesh the law of sin.
H. Leo Boles teaches that the family was RANKED, 1, 2 and 3. If the Son preceded from the Father as Eve proceded from Adam then the Son did not exist as a person. In fact, God's son is as old as God because it is the Word of God. God's Word is subservient to God as Jesus Christ was subservient to the father. As God's Word did not originate thought, breath or words, The Son spoke only what He heard from the Father.
It is not lurching toward Trinitarianism for Campbell to devote a separate paragraph to the Father, Son and Spirit. By reading the text it is clear that Alexander Campbell never speaks of separate "persons" of a TRIAD: God is ONE but god manifests Himself in the same way humans manifests themselves where Paul's spirit made warfare with Paul's flesh. Because the BIBLE speaks of Father, Son and Spirit is is required to define Father, Son and Spirit: no one does that as a hidden agenda to preach the trinity.
Lectures on the Pentateuch p.84-88 Campbell defined "trinity" and "person" while repudiating the trinitarian creeds. The SINGULAR Adam was made in the "trinitarian" nature of God:
God made man to stand up in full animal being, and then breathed into him, the breath of lives.
He breathed into man, the animal and intellectual, the moral and spiritual life—all were imparted to him,
and man stood forth a truthful likeness of the great Jehovah,
possessing a plurality of attributes and personalities.
Adam... was the embodiment of the entire universe, in the two great elements of mind and matter. He was an epitome, of the spiritual and animal creation, or, if you please, of the animal, intellectual, moral and spiritual nature; so that he was a perfect animal and a perfect spirit. A person like this, is a glorious creation —transcendently sublime, being so regarded, in the wisdom of the wisest judges, in the highest senate in the universe ; nor need we wonder, that the preamble to his creation, was the most sublime ever published on earth or in heaven.
But the likeness of man to God does not convey the idea, when thoroughly investigated and understood,
of a material image. That could not be ;
for God has no materiality about him.
Nor does the identity of the divine likeness belong to the personal portion—the corporiety of man.GOD: Chapter III
But why should we imagine that there cannot be a plurality of personal manifestations in the divine nature any more than in the angelic or human, especially as man was created in the image of God?VI. The relations in human plurality are indeed limited to three. For while all the human nature was at one time originally and wholly in the person of Adam, it was afterwards found equally in the person of Eve--
Adam embodied the "plurality of attributes and personalities" all by himself. When Eve was created out of Adam SHE also embodied the "personalities" within the One God.
and again in the person of their first born. Now as to its derivation and mode of existence, it was diverse in the three. In Adam it was underived as respected human nature, in Eve it was derived from Adam, and in Cain it was again derived from Adam and Eve.
Here the matter ends; for while Eve proceeded from Adam in one mode, and Cain proceeded from Adam and Eve in another, all the residue of human nature is participated without any new relation or mode of impartation.
While, then, our nature is plural as to its participation, it is limited to three relations or modes of existence. Now as man was made in the image of God, we must conceive of him as having plurality, relation, and society IN himself--though far be it from us to suppose that the divine nature either is, or can be fairly or fully exhibited by any resemblance or illustration drawn from angel or from man, or from any created thing.
Still, there is a resemblance between God and the sun that shines upon us--between God and an angel--between God and man; and even in the mode of his existence, and in the varieties of relation and personal manifestation, there is so much resemblance as to peremptorily forbid all dogmatism as to what is, or is not, compatible with the unity, spirituality, and immutability of God. But of this more fully and [21] intelligibly when we shall have examined the record concerning the WORD and the SPIRIT of God.
THE WORD OF GOD: the Word of God WAS God as he SPOKE real wordS. Father thinks, Spirit breaths out and the Son articulates wordS. This has always bee so.
Gen. 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD [Dabar] came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
Gen. 15:4 And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,
Psa. 33:4 For the word of the LORD is RIGHT;
This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
AND ALL HIS WORKS ARE DONE in truth.
Psa. 33:5 He loveth righteousness and judgment:
the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
Psa. 33:6 By the [1] word of the [2] LORD were the heavens made;
and all the host of them by the [3] breath of his mouth.
Psa. 33:7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap:
he layeth up the depth in storehouses.
Psa. 33:8 Let all the earth fear the LORD:
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
Psa. 33:9 For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.Contrary to Rubel Shelly's claim that John got the Logos from the Greeks
THE SON OF GOD: Father speaks of the invisible Deity: Jesus said that the Father was within Him. When the ONE GOD operates in our world He is called LORD or ruler. If Casper materializes he is not two ghosts:"The author was not using the Greek word logos in the same way as Philo: he appears to have been more in tune with Palestinian than Hellenized Judaism. In the Aramaic translations of the Hebrew scriptures known as the targums, which were being composed at this time, the term Membra (word) is used to describe God's activity in the world. It performs the same function as other technical terms like "glory," "Holy Spirit" and "Shekinah" which
emphasized the distinction between God's presence in the world,
and the incomprehensible reality of God itself.Like the divine Wisdom (Sophia), the "Word" symbolized God's original plan for creation. When Paul and John spoke about Jesus as though he had some kind of preexistent life, they were not suggesting that he was a second divine "person" in the later Trinitarian sense. They were indicating that Jesus had transcended temporal and individual modes of existence. Because the "power" and "Wisdom" that he represented were activities that derived from God, he had in some way expressed "what there was from the beginning." (Karen Armstrong, A History of God, p. 89).
"In his letter To Alabius: That there are not Three Gods, Gregory of Nyssa outlined his important doctrine of the inseparability or coinherence of the three divine persons or hypostases.
- One should not think of God splitting himself up into three parts;
- that was a grotesque and indeed blasphemous idea.
"God expressed himself wholly and totally in each one of these three manifestations when he wished to reveal himself to the world... the Divine Nature is equally present in each phase of the operation... The three persons do not exist side by side in the divine world." (Armstrong, Karen, History of God, 116-117)
Christian System: the Son of God
III. While, then, the phrase "Son of God" denotes a temporal relation, the phrase "the word of God" denotes an eternal, unoriginated relation.
There was a word of God from eternity,
but the Son of God began to be in the days of Augustus Cesar. "
Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." He was by his resurrection from the dead declared to be the Son of God with a power and evidence extraordinary and divine. The WORD incarnate or dwelling in human flesh, is the person called our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ--and while,
in the system of grace, the Father is the one God, in all the supremacy of his glory--
Jesus is the one Lord in all the divine fulness of sovereign, supreme, and universal authority.
The Lord of Shem, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is the God and the Lord of Christians: for "the child" that has been born to us--and "the son" that has been given, according to another prophet, came from eternity. "His goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." Such is the evangelical history of the author of the Christian system as to his antecedent nature and relation in the Deity or Godhead.
Rather than trying to make church into a community defined as "commune" one wonders why the PATTERNISM of the Lord's absolute EVANGELICAL model.
IV. He became a true and proper SON OF MAN." "A body hast thou prepared me." But the "me" was before "the body." It dwelt forever "in the bosom [garments] of the Father." "I [23] came forth from God," said "the Incarnate Word." Great beyond expression and "without controversy, great is the mystery--the secret of godliness." "God was manifest in the flesh." "He that has seen me has seen the Father also." The Son of Man was and is the Son of God--"Emmanuel, God with us." Adored be his name!
The one God in the person of the Father, has commanded all men to worship and honor the one Lord, as they would honor him that sent him: for now in glorifying the Son, we glorify the Father that sent him and that dwells in him. "Know yet not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me." Thus spake our Lord Jesus Christ.
THE HOLY SPIRIT:
I. As there is man and the spirit of man, so there is God and the spirit of God. They are capable of a separate and distinct existence. "What man knoweth the things of a man," says Paul, "but the spirit of man that is in him; even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God." There is in this case an image of God in man--not, indeed, an exact image, but an image.
II. The Spirit is said to do, and to have done all that God does and all that God has done. It has ascribed to it all divine perfections and works; and in the New Testament it is designated as the immediate author and agent of the new creation, and of the holiness of Christians. It is therefore called the Holy Spirit. In the sublime and ineffable relation of the Deity, or godhead, it stands next to the Incarnate Word.
Anciently, or before time, it was GOD, the WORD of God, and the SPIRIT of God.He nor anyone said that there is ONE GOD made up of three persons. The Comforting Spirit is Jesus Christ in a post resurrection body:
But now, in the development of the Christian scheme, it is "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit"--
one God, one Lord, one Spirit.To us Christians there is, then,
but one God, even the Father;
and one Lord Jesus Christ, even the Saviour;
and one Spirit, even the Advocate, the Sanctifier, and the Comforter of Christ's body, the church.
Jesus is the head, and the Spirit is the life and animating principle of that body.
1John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.
And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2John 3 Grace be with you, mercy, and peace,
from God the Father,
and from the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
Walter Scott wrote:
"Again--Some will say, What does the expression Holy Spirit mean?
Well, in scripture it standsfirst for God the Holy Spirit,
and secondly for the holy mind or spirit of a believer--for illustration, take Peter's words to Ananias, "Why has Satan tempted you to lie to the Holy Spirit; you have not lied to men, but to God," (the Holy Spirit.)
And the Saviour says, How much more will your heavenly Father give A holy spirit (as it should be translated) to those that ask him. Again--Praying in A holy spirit. Again--Paul says he approved himself God's servant "by knowledge, by long sufferings, by kindness, by A holy spirit'" by a mind innocent of the love of gain, or commerce, or sensuality.
"Now then the expression stands for both God the Holy Spirit, and for a believer's spirit made holy by him.
What? know ye not that For ye are bought with a price: your body therefore glorify God in your body, is the temple of the Holy Spirit and in your spirit, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 1 Corinthians 6:19 which are Gods. 1 Corinthians 6:20
John Mark Hicks: Economic Structure of the Christian System
Campbell’s theological system operates with the distinction between the immanent and economic Trinity, though--of course--he does not use that language ;-) . But his distinction does not exactly correspond with traditional uses of those terms.
For Campbell, immanent means the relations within God before the incarnation while economic means the relationship within God after the incarnation.
The immanent Trinity, the relations within God before the incarnation, “was God, the word of God, and the Spirit of God.
The spirit OF a person cannot be another person. The Word OF a person cannot be another person. That is why classical trinitarians say that God always had His Word and Wisdom with Him. If God's mind or spiri or breath is another person; and if God's Word is another person then God is pretty helpless.
We also are a trinity says Paul and Campbell: I think, I breath out, I articulate words: I AM father, spirit and son of my primary way operating in the physical world.
Immanent and economic are very old terms and not invented by Campbell.
They, too, had problems with the Bible which says that it does not take THREE BEINGS to make us, redeem us and sanctify us:Athenasius on the Nicene understanding.
He then investigates the meaning of the divine Sonship (6-14), and how its true meaning is brought out by the other titles of the Son 15-17). Coming to the non-scriptural expressions he shews how they were forced upon the council by the evasions of the Arians (18-20),
"The essence of the Son is not one procured from without, nor accruing out of nothing 178
178 Vid. above §15. fin. `God was alone,' says Tertullian,but it sprang from the Father's essence, as the radiance of light, as the vapour of water;`because there was nothing external to Him, extrinsecus;
yet not even then alone, or He had with Him, what He had in Himself, His Reason.' in Prax. 5. Non per adoptionem spiritus filius fit extrinsecus, sed naturâ filius est. Origen. Periarch. i. 2. n. 4.Tertullian Against Praxeas again proving that the WORD does not speak of a person but of the WORDS which God spoke out of His wisdom"
For before all things God was alone -- being in Himself and for Himself universe,
and space, and all things.
Moreover, He was alone, because there was nothing external to Him but Himself.
Yet even not then was He alone;
for He had with Him that which He possessed in Himself,
that is to say, His own Reason.
For God is rational, and Reason was first in Him; and so all things were from Himself.
This Reason is His own Thought (or Consciousness) which the Greeks call logos,
by which term we also designate Word or Discourse
and therefore it is now usual with our people, owing to the mere simple interpretation of the term,
to say that the Word was in the beginning with God;
although it would be more suitable to regard Reason as the more ancient;
because God had not Word from the beginning,
but He had Reason even before the beginning;
because also Word itself consists of Reason,
which it thus proves to have been the prior existence as being its own substance.
for neither the radiance, nor the vapour, is the water itself or the sun itself, nor is it alien;
but it is an effluence of the Father's essence, which, however, suffers no partition.
For as the sun remains the same, and is not impaired by the rays poured forth by it,
so neither does the Father's essence suffer change, though it has the Son as an Image of Itself 180 ."
Note 180. If it be said that the language used concerning the sun and its radiance is but popular not philosophical, so again the Catholic language concerning the Holy Trinity may, nay must be, economical, not adequate, conveying the truth. not in the tongues of angels, but under human modes of thought and speech.
Schaff on the Trinity agrees that God didn't reveal it but it was derived by combining Jewish monotheis with the TRUTH which lay at the bottom of even heathen polytheism.
Again, it was primarily the Economic or transitive trinity, which the church had in mind; that is, the trinity of the revelation of God [singular] in the threefold work of creation, redemption, and sanctification; the trinity presented in the apostolic writings as a living fact.
But from this, in agreement with both reason and Scripture,Hicks has a threefold being based on the threefold works: but God can walk and chew gum at the same time. Contrary to Boles and Isaiah 45 Father and Son did not create an unholy mess which was not completed until the Spirit Person cleaned it up.
the immanent or ontologic trinity was inferred
that is, an eternal distinction in the essence of God its
which reflects itself in his revelation,
and can be understood only so far as it manifests itself in his works and words.Schaff continued: The divine nature thus came to be conceived, not as an abstract, blank unity, but as an infinite fulness of life; and the Christian idea of God (as John of Damascus has remarked) in this respect
combined Jewish monotheism
with the truth which lay at the bottom of even the heathen polytheism,
though distorted and defaced there beyond recognition.Only because
the church dogma of the Trinity arose; and it directly or indirectly ruled even the ante-Nicene theology though it did not attain its fixed definition till in the Nicene age.
- God is our
- Maker,
- Redeemer, and
- Sanctifier,
Babylon and Indian Trinity: So utterly idolatrous was the Babylonian recognition of the Divine unity, that Jehovah, the Living God, severely condemned His own people for giving any countenance to it: "They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens, after the rites of the ONLY ONE, * eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together" (Isa 66:17).* The words in our translation are, "behind one tree," but there is no word in the original for "tree"; and it is admitted by Lowth, and the best orientalists, that the rendering should be, "after the rites of Achad," i.e. "The Only One." I am aware that some object to making "Achad" signify, "The Only One," on the ground that it wants the article.
But how little weight is in this, may be seen from the fact that it is this very term "Achad," and that without the article, that is used in Deuteronomy, when the Unity of the Godhead is asserted in the most emphatic manner, "Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah," i.e., "only Jehovah." When it is intended to assert the Unity of the Godhead in the strongest possible manner, the Babylonians used the term "Adad." Macrobii Saturnalia.
In the unity of that one Only God of the Babylonians, there were three persons, and to symbolise that doctrine of the Trinity, they employed, as the discoveries of Layard prove, the equilateral triangle, just as it is well known the Romish Church does at this day.* LAYARD's Babylon and Nineveh. The Egyptians also used the triangle as a symbol of their "triform divinity."
In both cases such a comparison is most degrading to the King Eternal, and is fitted utterly to pervert the minds of those who contemplate it, as if there was or could be any similitude between such a figure and Him who hath said,
"To whom will ye liken God, and what likeness will ye compare unto Him?"
Psa. 95:6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.Again, we protest: Campbell clearly does NOT speak of an immanent Trinity in the sense of "three Beings all of whom will be slighted if we deny the literal trinity": there is ONE GOD who makes USE of His Word and Spririt identified in Classical Trinitarianism as Words articulated and Breath.
Is. 47:4 As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
Is. 63:16 Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou,
O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting
Heb. 9:13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean,
sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
Heb. 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Most excellent is His wisdom.
By His wisdom God founded the earth;
and by knowledge He prepared the heavens;
and by understanding were the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the clouds poured out their dews.
Campbell said nothing of an immanent trinity of God, the Word and the Spirit of God: there is ONE God who OPERATES through His WORD and His SPIRIT. These never get closer to being separate beings than my body and my spirit are twins: Paul's flesh fought against Paul's spirit but Paul did not have a little person inside of him
Christian System Chapter 23, p. 54: I. God alone is self-existent and eternal. Before earth and time were born he operated by his WORD and his SPIRIT. [73] GOD, THE WORD OF GOD, and THE SPIRIT OF GOD, participants of one and the same nature, are the foundations of Nature, Providence, and Redemption.Hicks Again: The immanent Trinity, the relations within God before the incarnation, “was God, the word of God, and the Spirit of God.
Do you see the difference?
That is not what Campbell wrote.I am one person: I USE my mind or wisdom or spirit and my words. I am the one person: I use my hand as God sent HIS Arm or Hand but I am Me and I use my hands but they are NOT separated persons.
In Nature and Providence, it is GOD, the [His] WORD, and the [His] SPIRIT.
In Grace, it is the FATHER, the SON, and the HOLY SPIRIT.
All creations, providences, and remedial arrangements display to us the co-operation of THREE DIVINE PARTICIPANTS, of one self-existent, independent, incommunicable nature. These are fundamental conceptions of all the revelations and developments of the Divinity, and necessary to all rational and sanctifying views of religion.
John Mark Hicks: But now, in the development of the Christian scheme, it is “the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” I will develop the significance of this distinction between Word and Son in the next section, but it is important to recognize that it is the “Christian” scheme that involves the relation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit since the Word did not become Son until the incarnation in Campbell’s thought.
However, trinitarians said that the WORD which the one God SPOKE constitute HIS SON. How one can read what Jesus said and miss this is not a disciple of Christ:
John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him:Neither SON nor SPIRIT have any further words to speak to you "beyond the sacred page." The Father thinks, the Spirit breaths and the Son ARTICULATES ONLY.
the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.[CENI]
John 12:49 For I have not spoken of myself;
but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment,
what I should say, and what I should speak.
John 12:50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting:
whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
John 13:31 Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said,
Now is the Son of man glorified,
and God is glorified in him.
John 13:32 If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him.
Theophilus to Autolycus who first used the word "trias"
John Mark Hicks: Whether immanent or economic, however, Campbell’s fundamental principle in thinking about God is that the “modus of Divine existence, as well as the modus of Divine operations in creation, providence, and redemption” are “inscruptable and incomprehensible” to “our finite minds.” Consequently, we must root our theological reasoning in the reality of divine work and never “stretch our inquiries beyond the terra firma of revelation.”It seems to have been a man named Theophilus of Antioch who first applied the term trinity to this Biblical concept as early as 181 A.D. But it was the Anathasian Creed, completed some time in the fifth century, which stated it most clearly: "We worship one God in trinity, and trinity in unity, neither confounding the persons, nor separating the substance."
Who is the Physician? God, who heals and makes alive through His word and wisdom. God by His own word and wisdom made all things; for
"by His word were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." [Ps xxxiii. 6.] [Same word as holy Spirit]
Most excellent is His wisdom.
And first, they taught us with one consent that God made all things out of nothing; for nothing was coeval withBy His wisdom God founded the earth;
and by knowledge He prepared the heavens;
and by understanding were the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the clouds poured out their dews.
God: but He being His own place, and wanting nothing,
and existing before the ages, willed to make man by whom He might be known;
for him, therefore, He prepared the world.
For he that is created is also needy; but he that is uncreated stands in need of nothing.God, then, having His own Word internal within His own bowels,
begat Him, emitting Him
along with His own wisdom before all things.He had this Word as a helper in the things that were created by Him, and by Him He made all things.
He is called "governing principle", because He rules, and is Lord of all things fashioned by Him.
He, then, being Spirit of God, and governing principle, and wisdom, and power of the highest, came down upon the prophets, and through them spoke of the creation of the world and of all other things. (This was the Spirit of Christ, 1 Peter 1:11; Revelation 19:10)For the prophets were not when the world came into existence,
but the wisdom [Spirit in this instance is Sophia] of God which was in Him, and
His holy Word which was always present with Him
That is true but Campbell made something very clear to all scholars: "[He] operated by [His] WORD and [His] SPIRIT."
Furthermore, theological reasoning is specificially outlawed by grasping that "He is God and we are not" and by Peter's outlawing of private interpretation.
2 Pet 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
Epilusis (g1955)ep-il'-oo-sis; from 1956; explanation, i.e. application: - interpretation.
Epiluo (g1956) ep-ee-loo'-o; from 1909 and 3089; to solve further, i.e. (fig.) to explain, decide: - determine, expound.
Epi-lusis A. release from, e. phobôn didou A.Th.134 (lyr.): abs., exemption from banishment,2. solution, sophismatôn S.E.P.2.246 ; explanation, 2 Ep.Pet.1.20
Soph-isma, A. acquired skill, method, II. clever device, ingenious contrivance, stage-trick, claptrap, rhêtorikês Longin.17.2 ; opp. a true logical argument
For the ekklesia, synagogue or school of the Bible Paul in romans 14 outlawed doubtful disputations. This means that "we will not discuss your private diversities which arise out of your own imagination" so that we can "speak ONE TO ANOTHER using that which is written."
John Mark Hicks: Given this use of immanent and economic, Campbell both structures and limits his theology to the explicit facts and language of revelation. Campbell’s structure is “
creation,
providence, and
redemption.”
He sometimes calls them
nature (creation),
government (providence), and
redemption
which corresponds with God’s role as “
Creator,
Lawgiver and
Redeemer.”
But, we have shown that the Creator, Lawgiver and Redeemer is the ONE GOD: Do you need a separate God person to create, another to give lawa and another to redeem. THAT is why it is often said that you insist on there being three Gods OR you agree that neither one is God and therefore you have no God.
1. The Universe1 One God, one system of nature, one universe. That universe is composed of innumerable systems, which, in perfect concert move forward in subordination to one supreme end. That one end of all things is the sovereign and infinite pleasure of Him who inhabits eternity and animates the universe with his presence. So worship and adore the heavenly hierarchies, saying:--"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."As we have noted this is the REASON the Trinitarians took the Jewish Monotheism and used their "theology" to add the trinity which was part of ALL pagan religions. The pagans knew the truth and God didn't have a clue that because He fills three or more roles that MUST MEAN that He SHOULD HAVE told us about Trinitarianism. Bit, in fact He REPUDIATED the notion:
The Son of God:
"By him and for him" all things were created and made; and "he is before all things, and by him all things consist." But "he became flesh."
Who? He that existed before the universe, whose mysterious, sublime, and glorious designation was the word of God. Before the Christian system, before the relation of "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" began to be, his rank in the divine nature was that of the word of god. Wonderful name! Intimate and dear relation! The relation between a word and the idea which it represents is the nearest of all relations in the universe:
for the idea is in the word--and the word is in the idea. The idea is invisible, inaudible, unintelligible, but in and by the word.
An idea cannot be without an image or a word to represent it--and therefore God was never without his word, nor was his word without him. "The word was with God, and the Word was God"--for a word is the idea expressed--and thus "the word that was made flesh," became "the brightness of his glory" and "the express image of his person," insomuch that "he who has seen the Son has seen the Father also."
While, then, the phrase "Son of God" denotes a temporal relation, the phrase "the word of God" denotes an eternal, unoriginated relation. There was a word of God from eternity, but the Son of God began to be in the days of Augustus Cesar. "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." He was by his resurrection from the dead declared to be the Son of God with a power and evidence extraordinary and divine. The word incarnate or dwelling in human flesh, is the person called our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ--and while, in the system of grace, the Father is the one God, in all the supremacy of his glory--Jesus is the one Lord in all the divine fulness of sovereign, supreme, and universal authority.
John Mark Hicks:The “Father, Son and Spirit” each “has its own peculiar work and glory in the three great works of Creation, Government, and Redemption.” His summary of the facts of the Christian System in chapter twenty-seven describe the “peculiar work and glory” of each of the three.
But, hast thou not know? Chapter 27 seems to be on Expediency.
Psa. 33:4 For the [1]word of the [2] LORD is right; and all his [3] works are done in truth.Jehovah God IS competent : He IS not lonely so that YOU must provide a social structure fhro Him.
Psa. 33:5 He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
Psa. 33:6 By the [1] word of the [2] LORD were the heavens made;
and all the host of them by the [3] breath of his mouth.
Psa. 33:7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.
Psa. 33:8 Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
Psa. 33:9 For he spake, and it was done;
he commanded, and it stood fast.
Psa. 33:10 The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought:
he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.
Is. 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard,
that the everlasting [1] God, the [2] LORD, the [3] Creator of the ends of the earth,
fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
Is. 48:17 Thus saith the [1] LORD, thy [2] Redeemer, the Holy [3] One of Israel;
I am the LORD [Jehovah] thy God [Elohim] which teacheth thee to profit,
which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
Is. 49:26 And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh;
and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine:
and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer,
the mighty One of Jacob.
Is. 54:5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and
thy Redeemer
the Holy One of Israel;
The God of the whole earth shall he be called .
In the Christian System Chapter V, Alexander Campbell removes the confusion.John Mark Hicks: It is in the “economy of redemption” where the Son and the Spirit are subordinate and where Jehovah is “revealed in the names of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” These “names” represent relations only within the economy of redemption and do not refer to the relations of the three divine participants in creation and providence or “before time.” They reveal the relation of the Father, Son and Spirit to each other in terms of their mode of existence and operation within the economy of redemption. In other words, the names Father, Son and Holy Spirit are redemptive--Christian--terms. The work of creation and providence belongs to the immanent Trinity--God, Word of God, and Spirit of God.
I. As there is man and the spirit of man, so there is God and the spirit of God. They are capable of a separate and distinct existence. "What man knoweth the things of a man," says Paul, "but the spirit of man that is in him; even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God... The spirit of God is therefore often used for his power; though it is not an impersonal power, but a living, energizing, active, personal existence... "The hand of the Lord has made me, and the spirit of the Almighty has given me life.," in coming into the kingdom of grace; and while in that kingdom the supreme benediction is--"The Grace of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, and the love of GOD, and the communion of the HOLY SPIRIT be with you!
Campbell says there is ONE NAME and ONE GOD and that HE USES His Word and His Spirit to accomplish His Work.
Heb. 1:7 And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.In Memoirs II Campbell is quoted to say that the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit are three divine names and they are equal in the term God. p. 488. The terms FATHER and SON are necessary to describe the redemptive process. However, Jesus said that the Father was IN Him and He was IN the Father and therefore the Son had the power.
John 10:18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.The Father offers the Son but Jesus said that However, Alexander Campbell grasps the text and never speaks of NAMES.
Prop X How comes it to pass, that though once and only once, it is commanded that the nations who believe should be immersed into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;The NAME of Father, Son and Spirit is Jesus or Jesus as the Christ of God prophesied by Zecharian as Jehovah--Saves. When you give glory to the ROLES of Jesus then you REJECT the name Jesus Christ.
and though we read of no person being immersed into this name in this way;
John Mark Hicks: Given his structuring, it is apparent that the relations of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are essential for the understanding and practice of the Christian religion, according to Campbell. The conclusion of chapter five on “The Spirit of God”--which comes after chapter three on “God” and chapter four on “The Son of God”--summarizes the significance of these three chapters as the foundation of the whole of the Christian System.
The divine doctrine of these holy and incomprehensible relations in the Divinity, is so inwrought and incorporated with all the parts of the sacred books--so identified with all the dispensations of religion, and so essential to the mediatorship of Christ, that it is impossible to make any real and divine proficiency in the true knowledge of God--of man--of reconciliation--or remission of sins--of eternal life--or in the piety and divine life of Christ’s religion--without a clear and distinct perception of it, as well as a firm and unshaken faith and confidence in it, as we trust still to make more evident in the sequel.
Trinitarian TheologyChristian Sytem V. I. As there is man
and the spirit of man,
so there is God
and the spirit of God.
Paul often personified HIS flesh and HIS spirit as often in conflict. However, Paul did not spea of the Spirit OF God or the Spirit OF Christ or the spirit OF adoption as separate "persons."
They are capable of a separate and distinct existence. "What man knoweth the things of a man," says Paul, "but the spirit of man that is in him; even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God." There is in this case an image of God in man--not, indeed, an exact image, but an image; for as Paul says of the law, so say we of man; "For the law had a shadow, (a resemblance) of good things to come, and not the very (or exact) image of the things."
So man was made an image of God, though not the exact image--the active power of man is in his spirit:
so John the Baptist came
in the power of Elijah,
because he came in his spirit.
The spirit of God is therefore often used for his power; though it is not an impersonal power, but a living, energizing, active, personal existence.
II. The Spirit is said to do, and to have done all that God does and all that God has done. It has ascribed to it all divine perfections and works;
John Mark Hicks: Despite his railings against the metaphysical abstractions of Trinitarian systems, he nevertheless maintains that it is necessary to “abstract nature and person” when we are thinking about “divinity or godhead” in order to “understand the remedial system.” The nature of the godhead is “essentially and necessarily singular,” but the “personal manifestations” are “certainly plural.”
Campbell neither “believe[s] in one supreme god, or more.” Instead he thinks the term “Jehovah is itself indicative of the supreme.” It identifies the divine nature itself--a name for the divine nature. There are no “degrees of comparison” within the human or divine nature. “If any being be human, he is human; if he be divine, he is divine.”
John Mark Hicks: Thus, the “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” are “equally divine” but “personally distinct from each other.” The “one God, one Lord, one Holy Spirit,” though three, nevertheless are “equally possessed of one and of the same divine nature.” God, then, is the eternal ontological ground of unity-in-diversity--“there is, and was, and evermore will be, society in God himself, a plurality as well as unity in the Divine nature.” God is “unity in plurality” and “plurality in unity.”Christian System III God. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and sin, and that by no means aquits the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation"--"and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." "O Lord God of Israel, who dwellest between the cherubims,
thou art the God, even thou alone, thou hast made heaven and earth.
Hear, O Israel--Jehovah our Aleim is one Jehovah -the Lord our God is one Lord." "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which wast, and art, and art to come." "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou king of saints." "Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name, for thou only art holy," "He is the Rock, his work is perfect; [19] for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." "Glorious in holiness, fearful in praise, doing wonders."
Deut. 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
1Cor. 10:4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
To Brother GrewJohn Mark Hicks: The “conception of divine unity and plurality of person” forms “the whole Bible” and “without” it “a remedial scheme could not possibly have been introduced.” The impossibility lies in the reality that a “human…but created” Savior “has no salvation for” humanity. Without a divine Savior where “divine nature” is connected with “distinct personality,” there is “no possibility of a remedial dispensation.” The “divine nature” of the Son is the critical question upon which the remedial system depends. Campbell argues that there are three natures within the cosmos: divine, angelic and human. Jesus is the name assumed in the “incarnation but it is not the name of that which became incarnate.”
Again, be aware that when Campbell says that B is better than A he does not approve of A.
Were any one to ask me, Can there be three distinct persons, or even beings, in one God? I
would say, Reason informs me not, and revelation does not assert it.
But if asked, Can there be one, and [99] one three in the same sense?
I reply, Both reason and revelation say No.
But then no Trinitarian or Calvinist affirms that the three are one, and the one three, in the same sense.Human logic cannot imagine the ONE God not having society within Himself.
Language fails and thought can not reach the relation in which the Father and Son have existed, now exist, and shall forever exist. But that there is, and was, and evermore will be, society in God himself, a plurality as well as unity in the Divine nature,
are inferences which do obtrude themselves on my mind in reflecting upon the divine communications to our race.
I will add, that common sense, reason, and revelation, give one and the same testimony, in my ear, upon this subject.
Which, above, logic, reason and revelation do NOT teach what OBTRUDES on his mind.
But I am not more confounded than delighted with the idea of the One, Self-existent, and Eternal God. To me, its incomprehensibility is a source of joy. With exultation I ask, "Who by searching can find out God, or know the Almighty to perfection?" My child says, Who made God? and, methinks, I am no wiser in the estimation of my superiors.
Lectures on the Pentateuch p.84-88 Campbell defined "trinity" and "person" while repudiating the trinitarian creeds. The SINGULAR Adam was made in the "trinitarian" nature of God:
God made man to stand up in full animal being, and then breathed into him, the breath of lives.
He breathed into man, the animal and intellectual, the moral and spiritual life—all were imparted to him,
and man stood forth a truthful likeness of the great Jehovah,
possessing a plurality of attributes and personalities.
Christian Systen III III. But the Scriptures speak of his divinity or godhead, as well as of the unity, spirituality, and eternity of his being.
we must abstract nature from person before we can understand the remedial system. For the divine [20] nature may be communicated or imparted in some sense;
and indeed while it is essentially and necessarily singular, it is certainly plural in its personal manifestations.But why should we imagine that there cannot be a plurality of personal manifestations in the divine nature any more than in the angelic or human, especially as man was created in the image of God?
Hence we have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit equally divine, though personally distinct from each other. We have in fact,
but one God,
one Lord,
one Holy Spirit;
yet these are equally possessed of one and of the same divine nature.
Having body, soul and spirit does not make or God into three "persons." Having thought, breath and artilated word all different does not constitute three persons in man o God.
Man has various spiritual or mental and physical manifestations. As man is not "three beings" Campbell's comparison does not allow for three eternal god pesons.
Christian Systen V. I. As there is man and the spirit of man, so there is God and the spirit of God. They are capable of a separate and distinct existence. "What man knoweth the things of a man," says Paul, "but the spirit of man that is in him; even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God."
In the second edition, p 11 chapter V has some additions.
I. As there is man and the spirit of man, so there is God and the spirit of God.
They are capable of a separate and distinct existence. "What man knoweth the things of a man," says Paul, "but the spirit of man that is in him; even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God."
Paul then called the Holy Spirit the MIND of Christ.
There is in this case an image of God in man--not, indeed, an exact image, but an image; for as Paul says of the law, so say we of man; "For the law had a shadow, (a resemblance) of good things to come, and not the very (or exact) image of the things."
So man was made an image of God, though not the exact image--
the active power of man is in his spirit:
so John the Baptist came in the power of Elijah,
because he came in his spirit.The spirit of God is therefore often used for his power;
though it is not an impersonal power,
but a living, energizing, active, personal existence.Hence, in all the works of God, the spirit of God is the active, operating agent. Thus in the old creation, while ancient chaos yet remained--when "the earth was without form, and void, and darkness brooded on the bosom of the vast abyss," "the spirit of God moved"--(incubated and energized)--"upon the face of the waters." "The hand of the Lord has made me, and the spirit of the Almighty has given me life." "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the [24] power of the Highest shall overshadow thee;" and thus was chaos subdued, man vitalized, "the heavens garnished," and the body of Jesus made by the spirit of God.
It was “the person called THE WORD” that was made flesh. Prior to taking on human nature, this person existed in another nature. It was not the angelic nature since the angels worship the one who became Son through the incarnation.
That means that the WORD (wordS) of God had a separate existence. The WORD is not the name of a person but Logos means the "rational argument of God." This is the statement that God creates by SPEAKING things into existence.
We have "scholarly" examples to explain why GOD took on the FORM of human flesh: He came fully in the flesh and to deny that says John makes one the Anti-Christ:
2 Chr 35:22 But Josiah refused to turn back. Instead he led his army into the battle at the valley of Megiddo. (He laid aside his royal robes so that the enemy wouldn't recognize him.) Josiah refused to believe that Neco's message was from God.
Jona.3:6 For when the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying,
.......... he stepped down from his throne,
.......... laid aside his royal robes,
.......... put on sackcloth, and sat in ashesOf Messiah the Branch:
Zech. 6:12 And speak unto him, saying,
Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying,
Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH;
and he shall grow up out of his place,
and he shall build the temple of the LORD:
Zech. 6:13 Even he shall build the temple of the LORD;
and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne;
and he shall be a priest upon his throne:
and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
Of God Who took off the clothing of majesty and glory:
John Mark Hicks: Consequently, the one who became flesh was one who possessed a divine nature--“God manifest in the flesh.” When the Word became incarnate he was named Jesus and appointed the Messiah.Phil 2:5 Your attitude [mind] should be the kind that was shown us by Jesus Christ,
Phil 2:6 who, though he was God, did not demand and cling to his rights as God,
Phil 2:7 but laid aside his mighty power and glory, taking the disguise of a slave and becoming like men.Acts 7:56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and
.......... the Son of man standing
.......... on the right hand of God.Acts 7:59 And they stoned Stephen,
.......... calling upon God, and
.......... saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
"God" is not in this passage." The glorified Jesus of Nazareth now in Spirit form. Therefore,
1Timothy 2:5 For there is one God,
and one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus;
Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38) is the NAME (singular) of Father, Son and Spirit)
Jesus of Nazareth was of the seed of Abraham: Alexander Campbell denies that He existed before He was born. The WORD is the son of God in all trinitarian formulations. The Word is that which the one God SPEAKS when He "begins" to speak. The Spirit which propels the information is the Breath of God: parables to fool the foolish says Jesus.
All scholars in history says that the Word was not one of several God persons: the Word of God is the AUDIBLE voice of God which is carried forth by God's BREATH or SPIRIT and did all of the creative workk OF God and BY God. God always had His Word and Wisdom and Spirit with Him: Spiriti never speaks of another "people."
Ex. 35:21 And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the LORD’S offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all his service, and for the holy garments.
Deut. 2:30 But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day.
Josh. 5:1 And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel
A.C. "Rest assured that I should never have come to Athens, had such a crime been on my conscience. I am here, as it is, because I have faith in justice, the most precious ally of the man who has no deed of sin upon his conscience and who has committed no transgression against the gods.
"Often at such an hour as this,
when the body has given up the struggle,
its salvation is the spirit,
which is ready to fight on
in the conscience that it is innocent."On the other hand, he whose conscience is guilty has
- no worse enemy than that conscience;
- for his spirit fails him which his body is still unwearie
- because it feels that what is approaching him
- is the punishment of his iniquities.
- But it is with no such guilty conscience that I come before you.
- (Antiphon On the murder or Herodes 5.93)
IV. Paul and Peter indeed speak of the divine nature in the abstract, or of the divinity or godhead. These are the most abstract terms found in the Bible. Eternity and divinity are, however, [8] equally abstract and almost equally rare in holy writ. Still, they are necessarily found in the divine volume; because we must abstract nature from person before we can understand the remedial system.
Hicks: The “conception of divine unity and plurality of person”
John Mark Hicks: What is impressive about Campbell’s Trinitarian thought is the emphasis on the social dimension of the divine life. The divine nature exists in three “relations” (or “modes of existences”). Rather than thinking in mathematical terms as if God were a “mathematical unit,” Campbell draws on the analogy of “relations in human plurality.”For the divine nature may be communicated or imparted in some sense; and indeed while it is essentially and necessarily singular, it is certainly plural in its personal manifestations.
"Plurality of person" is not the same thing as "plural in its personal manifestations." The scholarly word is PERSONAE which does not mean "persons" as in separated people who are made of the same God stuff.
John 6:46 Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.The only manifestation was in Jesus Christ: He said that I and the Father are one. See me and see the Father: the Father is MANIFESTED in a personal sense only in Jesus Christ.
1John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
1John 1:2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)1John 3:5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
Hicks misses the way in which Campbell drew an analogy between the nature of the ONE God and a SINGULAR human:
A.C. Chapter III.V. Some conceive of God as mathematical unit; and as a thing cannot be both mathematically singular and plural, one and three, at the same time and in the same sense,
they deny the true and proper divinity of the Son of God and of the Spirit of God.
But it would seem to us, that they reason not in harmony with the sacred style of inspiration.But why should we imagine that there cannot be a plurality of personal manifestations in the divine nature any more than in the angelic or human, especially as man was created in the image of God?VI. The relations in human plurality are indeed limited to three.
John Mark Hicks: Though all humans share the same nature, they do not share the same relations. Human relations are defined by three relations of “derivation and modes of existence”--
Adam as the original creation,
Eve as derived from Adam,
and children as born of the two.
“While Eve proceeded from Adam in one mode, and Cain proceeded from Adam and Eve in another, all the residue of human nature is participated without any new relation or mode of impartation.”
The next statement does not equate God to the tribe of human nature consisting of a family othewise we understand how the pagans had hundreds of "gods" and all of these were "families" of new and improved generations.
A.C. For while all the human nature was at one time originally and wholly in the person of Adam, it was afterwards found equally in the person of Eve--and again in the person of their first born. Now as to its derivation and mode of existence, it was diverse in the three.
If you claim that "Jesus" preexisted in this triune nature then you are forced to say that the second person was created by the first person. This is not a problem if the Son is the Word of God which He begats when He "begins" to think. Trinitarians say though that God has His Wisdom before He had His Word.
In Adam it was underived as respected human nature, in Eve it was derived from Adam, and in Cain it was again derived from Adam and Eve. Here the matter ends; for while Eve proceeded from Adam in one mode, and Cain proceeded from Adam and Eve in another, all the residue of human nature is participated without any new relation or mode of impartation.
Still there is a resemblance between God and the sun that shines upon us - between God and an angel - between God and man; and even in the mode of his existence, and in the varieties of relation and personal manifestation, there is so much resemblance as to peremptorily forbid all dogmatism as to what is, or is not, compatible with the unity, spirituality, and immutability of God. But of this more fully and intelligibly when we shall have examined the record concerning the WORD and the SPIRIT of God.
He returns to the beginning to show that the "internal" nature of God is similar to a SINGLE human.
Otherwise, he would have missed how Paul explained it. If God and the Spirit are separated Beings then poor God holds all of the deep mysteries but CANNOT even KNOW them. Must He call in the Spirit Being to dig into His mind so that God can know what is in His MIND?While, then, our nature is plural as to its participation, it is limited to three relations or modes of existence.
1Cor. 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto usWhen Adam, Eve existed they were "one flesh" which speaks of a sexual relationship: that was their job to create other people. However, Adam and Eve were NOT part of the ONE PERSON but of the RACE of humans. We have quoted Boles who makes it sound like they were a FAMILY. Because he tries to equate Adam and Eve and their Child ot God, then the mystery language of creation points us directly to Babylonianism where there were alread FAMILIES of Gods. That is why the NEO-trinity is OLD Babylonianism along with the end time musical sorcerers. And so we have Hicks:
by HIS Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
899. bathos, bath´-os; from the same as 901; profundity, i.e. (by implication) extent; (figuratively) mystery: deep(-ness, things), depth.1Cor. 2:11 For what man knoweth the things of a man,
save the spirit of man which is in him?
even so the things of God knoweth no man,
but the Spirit of God.
1Cor. 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?
But we have the mind of Christ.
John Mark Hicks: We can find something analogous to Trinitarianism in human nature; for human nature exists in three personal relations, and in but three essential personal relations. There was Adam possessing all human nature in one form in himself.
There was Eve, emanating from him, and possessing all his nature, without abstracting any thing from him, leaving Adam in full possession of both a person and a nature. He had still a nature common with Eve, and a person peculiar to himself.
Before there WERE any gods which is in total agreement with Babylonianism we know that:
1Tim. 2:13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.We have noted Hicks idea that the WORD of God was a PERSON or a member of the triad of persons but the Word of John Mark Hicks is NOT another person. Even this "person" he sees as eminating for God. That is consistent with the ancient and modern LU view that the persons are ranked one, two and three and they each have different skills and aptitudes although made of the same God STUFF.
As female in the Catholic and all pagan triads, Eve would would be the Mother of the Gods or Spirit: Eve is Zoe in Greek and is called "the Beast and female instructing principle." She let Satan wholly seduce "her" so that the member of Hickls trinity is CAIN.
2 Cor 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.Eve is Zoe which is Lucifer in ancient and modern Gnosticism. The serpent is defined in the Hebrew and ancient religions as a "musical enchanter" or enchantress being bisexual. As the personification of Lucifer, the king/queen of Tyre is called the "singing and harp playing prostitute." As the king/queen of Babylon he/she goes into HELL just outside of Jerusalem:
2Cor. 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Is. 14:11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols:
the worm is spread under thee, and the maggots cover thee.
Amos 5:23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs;
for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
Maybe scholars do not know that Paul knew "all about Eve" and to compare Adam, Eve and Cain to the "trinity" is really over the edge.
But Adam was MALE and EVE was female NOT possessing all of his nature as nay humanoid can verify. Again, the analogy brings us back to Babylonianism where the trinity was a MALE and a FEMALE and a CHILD. Or God, Mary and Jesus of the Catholics.
So, we have God similar to Adam who who was a creature just as in Babylonianism where the gods had some advantage to enslave mankind. Next, we have Eve eminating out form "god" which is the Gnostic "em
John Mark Hicks: Again, there was a child emanating from both these, but from neither of them alone, possessing all the nature of Adam and all the nature of Eve; possessing, indeed, all human nature, and yet a person distinct from both Adam and Eve. Here, then, are three persons possessing one nature--three personal relations in one common nature.
I don't believe that Campbell's illustration said that Word and Spirit emanated from God as "persons" but all of history says that the Word which God SPOKE emanated from Him by His breath or spirit. In Shelly's Pagan Logos
Referring to Mary, under the title of "The Paradise of Delight, " the author thus speaks:Actually, Cain didn't emanate from Eve although SHE (all by herself) got a man child"In this Paradise that celestial Bee, that is, the incarnate Wisdom, did feed. Here it found that dropping honeycomb, with which the whole bitterness of the corrupted world has been turned into sweetness."
This blasphemously represents the Lord Jesus as having derived everything necessary to bless the world from His mother!
Although the Valentinian creation myth is similar to the Sethian creation myth (like that of HypArch), its differences shape the nuances of the Valentinian notion of redemption found in GPhilip. In Against Heresies, Irenaeus describes the Valentinian creation myth according to Ptolemy (a student of Valentinus).Now, we have the SON who emanated like a creature rather than God's Word out of God's mouth, who is the personification of Evil: a son of the Devil in all ancient memory:
Ptolemy’s version of the creation myth names a multitude of aeons within the divine realm, all emanating from an overarching Divine being called “a preexistent, perfect eternity,” and “the prior source, ancestor, and the deep.
And it existed uncontained, invisible, everlasting, and unengendered” (1.1.1). 87 The aeons that emanate from the pre-existent Divine emanate in pairs, maintaining an androgynous equality. Sophia is the last aeon to be emanated and her mistake is that she attempts “to comprehend [the parent’s] magnitude” without her consort, “the wished-for” (1.1.3). 88 In her struggle she gives “birth to essence without form,” which is named Achamoth. Resource
1John 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin;Jesus identified the Scribes (doctors of the Law) and Pharisees (preachers) as hypocrites by pointing to Isaiah 29 and Ezekiel 33: there the hypocrites are popular rhetoricians, singers and instrument players. They worked for PAY and they had to preach POPULAR material to keep from working.
for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
1John 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil:
whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
1John 3:11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning,
that we should love one another
1John 3:12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother.
And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil,
and his brother’s righteous.
Cain is derived from a MUSICAL NOTE: he is MARKED if you will by both sight and sound.
Don't feel proud: all of those who went out to hear these hypocrites WERE hypocrites and they saw the popular preachers and musicians in a SEXUAL SENSE. So, if they applaud you instead of stone you then you are MARKED.
Lucky for us the Bible never tries to define DEITY or the Creator by the CREATURE. Adam and Eve were one flesh but each of them were "free standing" consistent with Boles. They were not equal but ranked one, two and three. They did not think alike and each had their OWN spirit so that Eve played theologian and ADDED to the Word of God.
In what is recorded as history this Lucifer-Zoe is the "superior" sister/mother of the Logos. Zoe/Eve/Lucifer gives birth to the little ignorant jehovah also and sends him down a notch or two of the heavens. Being not too stupid, little jehovah sang songs and played instruments so that Zoe promoted him up where he could form "musical worship teams" and to worship whom? Why, to worship Zoe or Lucifer of Course.
See the Hypostasis of the Archons or the Gnosticism of the neo-trinitarians.
See On the Origin of the World to discover the emerging of ancient Gnosticism
John Mark Hicks: Given that humanity is created in the image of God, the analogy--
though the transcendent God cannot be contained by any such analogies drawn from created reality--
means we should conceive God “as having plurality, relation, and society in himself.”
In the context of historical theology, we might see Campbell affirming some kind of social trinitarianism. There is a “plurality of personal manifestations in the divine nature.”We have quoted Campbell who said that this "formula" was NEVER ONCE used in the Bible. Why? Why, it is because the NAME of Father, Son and Spirit is Jesus Christ or as prophesied in Zecharian Jehovah-Saves. Father, Son and Spirit are never NAMES. Was all of the Bible ANTI-trinitarian when they baptized in the NAME of Jesus Christ?
This is not a matter of “inference only” since the economic revelation of God in “the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit” is the “revealed relation of three persons.”
John Mark Hicks: It is on this “principle”--“I send thee,” “I and thou send him,” and “Jehovah and his Spirit has sent me”--that the “Christian economy is arranged and developed.”True: God always had His Word and Wisdom with Him so that He was not schizophrenic.
Just as it “was not good for man to be alone,” so also “God never was alone.”
But, “Jehovah and his Spirit has sent me,” has CONTEXT which does not conceive to deceive.John Mark Hicks: The Unitarian Henry Grew located the image of God in the fact that humanity was made “rational, intelligent, and holy.” He excluded the social or relational dimension from the nature of the image.
Isaiah 48 defines why truth was hidden in parables from the foundation of the world: specificially to preven mercinaries from twisting it.Isa 48:11 For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it:
for how should my name be polluted?
and I will not give my glory unto another.
Isa 48:12 Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called;
I am he;
I am the first,
I also am the last.
Rev. 1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand hath spanned the heavens:
when I call unto them, they stand up together. Isaiah 48:13
All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things?
The Lord hath loved him:
he will do his pleasure on Babylon,
and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans. Isa 48:14
I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him,
and he shall make his way prosperous. Isa 48:15
Isa. 48:16 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this;
I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
from the time that it was, there am I:
and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.
Is. 48:17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel;
I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit,
which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
Is. 48:18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:The Lord God and His Spirit sent the Lord God. In a similar way, because we are made in God's image, my self and my spirit tell my body to get up and go. However, God makes it clear that the God and His Spirit which sent the Lord God is the Lord God and not separated into people:
But Campbell thought it is fundamental to the image to think in terms of society and plurality.
The image of God is at least in part reflected in the divine society creating a human society.
Grew taught that their was one God and he had or created a SON who was not part of the ONE GOD. That makes society class focused as most societies do. But, Grew wrote more:
Here is where casual scholars twist Campbell to say that "HE had no objection to the trinity based on reason or Scripture" but that is prooftextiing and putting a lie into his lips:Grew: We are equally opposed with you to "Trinitarian, Arian, and Unitarian speculations on the divine essence." From the systems of fallible and erring man, we trust the Son has made us free. Our desire is, simply to understand what the Spirit of truth teaches on this and every other subject.
Most cordially do we, unite with you in acknowledging the Messiah as "a divine person, the only begotten of God."
From an earlier exchange with Grew Campbell made it absolutely certain that the Son of God was not a junior member.
Alexander Campbell: My principal objection to the popular doctrine of "the Trinity"
is not that it is either irrational, [even IF it is irrational]
or unscriptural, [even IF it is irrational]
to infer that there are three Divine persons in one Divine nature.
That these three equally have one thought, purpose, will, and operation, and so one God;--
or, to use the words of the Westminster Confession,
"In the Unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity;"I say I object not to this doctrine
because it is contrary to reason, [even IF it is irrational]
or revelation, [even IF it is irrational]
The most IMPORTANT reason for rejecting it:but because of the metaphysical technicalities,For example, in the same section from which I have quoted the above words is found the following jargon: "The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son."
the unintelligible jargon,
the unmeaning language of the orthodox creeds on this subject,
and the interminable war of words without ideas
to which the word Trinity has given birth.
Were any one to ask me, Can there be three distinct persons, or even being, in one God? I would say,
Reason informs me not,
and revelation does not assert it.
But if asked, Can there be one, and [99] one three in the same sense?
I reply, Both reason and revelation say No.But then no Trinitarian or Calvinist affirms that the three are one, and the one three, in the same sense.
But that there is, and was, and evermore will be, society IN God himself, a plurality as well as unity in the Divine nature, are inferences which do obtrude themselves on my mind...
There is something which might obtrude upon the mind which is both irrational and nonscriptural. The plurality is WITHIN the ONE God but never three persons separated. It is theological to think of Adam, Eve and Cain but to make this doctrine would have the third person wholly seduced sexually and the second person OF that wicked one. Campbel would have learned better from John Calvin who wrote:
Truly there are many things in this corrupted nature which may induce contempt; but if you rightly weigh all circumstances, man is, among other creatures a certain preeminent specimen of Divine wisdom, justice, and goodness, so that he is deservedly called by the ancients "mikrokosmos", "a world in miniature."
But since the Lord needs no other counsellor, there can be no doubt that he consulted with himself. [For our notes on the Holy Spirit as Counsellor Click Here.]
Chapter III. Now as man was made in the image of God, we must conceive of him as having plurality, relation, and society in himself--though far be it from us to suppose that the divine nature either is, or can be fairly or fully exhibited by any resemblance or illustration drawn from angel or from man, or from any created thing.John Mark Hicks: Humanity was created not in the image of “ONE STRICT PERSONAL UNITY, but in the image and in the likeness of ONE NATURE IN THREE PERSONS.” Quoting Genesis 1:26--“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let THEM (man) have dominion”--Campbell stressed that social plurality is the nature of humanity and that “such society was there in Jehovah” when he created us in his image. Elohim includes “God, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God” just as “man means Adam, Eve, and their offspring.”
THAT SHOULD END THE POLYTHEISM ARGUMEN: We includes God, His Word and His Breath.
Using what obtrude into Campbell's thinkingChrist in Jeremiah 10 and elsewhere DENY that the WE were elohim or other god persons.
But that there is, and was, and evermore will be, society in God himself, a plurality as well as unity in the Divine nature,
are inferences which do obtrude themselves on my mind in reflecting upon the divine communications to our race.
I will add, that common sense, reason, and revelation, give one and the same testimony, in my ear, upon this subject.
Rather than being amazed with what obtrude' into Campbell's thinking, what DELIGHTS him: But I am not MORE confounded than delighted with the idea of the One, Self-existent, and Eternal God.... All the names of God are, with the exception of this one, the names of relations.
Gen. 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earthBut, God did create ONLY Adam who was in His image because Adam by himself had a rational spirit within him by which God could communicate. Then in one account God created all of the ANIMALS of the world and they reproduced after their kind. THEN, seemingly the lowest of creatures Eve was not created but "cloned" out of spare parts. If the USE is plural then you literally have: "In the beginning the GODS created the heavens and the earth." The 'us' to classical trinitarians was God, His Word and His Breath and Wisdom: being God and alone was NOT something which made Him LACKING something.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was GodGod's Word is always personified:
Jer. 1:2 To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah,
In the thirteenth year of his reign.
Jer. 1:4 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer. 10:1 Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
Jer. 10:2 Thus saith the Lord, [Jehovah]
Jer 10:10 But the Lord (Jehovah) is the
Learn not the way of the heathen,
and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven;
for the heathen are dismayed at them.
[1] true (Elohim) God, he is the
[2] living God (Elohim) , and an
[3] everlasting king (ascends the throne):
at his wrath the earth shall tremble,
and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
Declare what is to be, present it--let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past?
Was it not I, the LORD? (Jehovah)
And there is no God (Elohim) apart from me,
a righteous (1) God (Elohim)
and a (2) Savior;
there is none but me. Isaiah 45:21Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Isaiah 46:9 (There could be no co-equal gods with Him)
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: Isaiah 46:10
Jeremiah 10:11Thus shall ye say unto them,
The gods (not true, Elah h426))
that have not made the heavens and the earth,
even they shall perish from the earth,
and from under these heavens.
THEN WHO IS THE WE?
Jeremiah 10:12 He hath made the earth by his
[1] power, he hath established the world by his
[2] wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his
[3] discretion. [intelligence, argument, reason, mentality]
Jer 10:13 When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens,
and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth;
he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the WIND (h7307 Spirit) out of his treasures.
Like all of the Trinitarian, this was hatched because Arianism forced them to speak where the Bible was silent.
John Calvin Genesis: "God." Moses has it Elohim, a noun of the plural number. Whence the inference is drawn, that the three Persons of the Godhead are here noted; but since, as a proof of so great a matter, it appears to me to have little solidity, will not insist upon the word; but rather caution readers to beware of violent glosses of this, kind. They think that they have testimony against the Asians, to prove the Deity of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
"but in the meantime they involve themselves in the error of Sabellius, because Moses afterwards subjoins that the Elohim had spoken, and that the holy Spirit of the Elohim rested upon the waters.
If we suppose three persons to be here denoted, there will be no distinction between them. For it will follow,
both that the Son is begotten by himself,
and that the Spirit is not of the Father, but of himself.For me it is sufficient that the plural number expresses those powers which God exercised in creating the world.
Moreover I acknowledge that the Scripture, although it recites many powers of the Godhead, yet always recalls us to the Father, and his Word, and spirit, as we shall shortly see.
Father Spirit God or Deity Son Word
Spirit Breath 
As a matter of fact only Adam was created: Eve was defined as a clon
Campbell Continues in Chapter III :I. "I AM THAT I AM." (Ex 3:14] "I lift up my hand to heaven and say, I live for ever." (De 32:40] "The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding." (Isa 40:28]Why would God get lonely? Religionists cannot grasp that the grandest fellowship and community is when left totally alone for long periods of time. People do not LUST to speand their money on what is not bread and hire a "family life minister" to make sure that they have something to do at the end of Friday!
"His understanding is infinite." (Ps 147:5) "Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?" (Jer 23:24) "For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."...John Mark Hicks: According to Campbell, “the phrase ‘Son of God’ denotes a temporal relation, the phrase ‘the word of God’ denotes an eternal, unoriginate relation.” The Logos became flesh and thereby became Son. Thus, Campbell denies the eternal generation of the Son. Campbell was not unique in this. The London Puritan theologian Thomas Ridgeley (1667-1734) objected to it and identified the sonship of Jesus with his incarnation. Nathaniel Emmons (1745-1840), a student of Samuel Hopkins in New England, believed that the eternal generation of the Son degraded the full deity of the Son. Moses Stuart (1780-1852), the contemporary whom Campbell admired greatly, also held this viewpoint. And, most interestingly, Charles Hodge (1797-1878), the famous Princeton theologian a few years younger than Campbell, denied eternal generation. The contemporary Stone-Campbell theologian Jack Cottrell continues Campbell’s emphasis on this point. Consequently, Campbell does not appears as much out of the mainstream as might first appear on this point.
"O Lord God of Israel, who dwellest [77 between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, thou hast made heaven and earth. (2Ki 19:15] Hear, O Israel--Jehovah our Aleim is one Jehovah (So reads the Hebrew. Deut. vi. 4.) -- the Lord our God is one Lord." "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which wast, and art, and art to come." (Re 4:8] "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou king of saints." (Re 15:3] "Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name, for for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." (De 32:4) "Glorious in holiness, fearful in praise, doing wonders." (Ex 15:11)
Many elohim but only ONE Jehovah. Deut. 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD [Jehovah} our God [Elohim] is one LORD:
Not to difficult to unerstand that classical trinitarians define the Son of God as the Word of God. Word as an God alone Spake and it was done. Eternal generation never includes Jesus of Nazareth.
There is not ONE classical trinitarian who does not work from John 12 where nothing can be understood of Jesus other than saying that:
The Father (within me) tells me what to say (Mind)
The Spirit without METER breaths out an invisible, inaudibe breath
The Son articulates that which passes between Father and Son.
The Son of God is the Word of God meaning wordS.
Psa 118:16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted:
the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.
Psa 118:17 I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.
Is. 48:12 Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called;
I am he;
I am the first,
I also am the last
Notice that the WORD is always something God SPEAKS:
Is. 48:13 Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand hath spanned the heavens:
when I CALL unto them, they stand up together.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word,
And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
God's Word articulated is God working in the physical world
John 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.
John 1:3 All things were made by him;
and without [outside] him was not any thing made that was made.
John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Messiah would be the Hand or Arm of the ONE GOD:
Is. 59:16 And he saw that there was no man,
and wondered that there was no intercessor:
therefore his arm brought salvation unto him;
and his righteousness, it sustained him.
The Christ of God including all of the powers bestowed came as the son of man in a "body prepared for me." As fully God, He called Christ laid aside the majesty and glory of God.
Phil 2:5LIV Your attitude [mind] should be the kind that was shown us by Jesus Christ,Paul said the same thing to the Colossians:
Phil 2:6 who, though he was God, did not demand and cling to his rights as God,
Phil 2:7 but laid aside his mighty power and glory,
taking the disguise of a slave and becoming like men.
Phil 2:8 And he humbled himself even further,
going so far as actually to die a criminal's death on a cross.John Mark Hicks: Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to think that Campbell thereby denies the eternal and distinct personal manifestation of the Logos antecedent to creation and incarnation. Prior to “the relation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” he “existed before the universe” and “his rank in the divine nature was the WORD OF GOD.” Consequently, “God was never without his word, nor was his word without him.”Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit,
after the tradition of men,
after the rudiments of the world,
and not after Christ.Col 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Col 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:Col 2:11 In whom also ye are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands,
in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh
by the circumcision of Christ:Col 2:12 Buried with him in baptism,
wherein also ye are risen with him
through the faith of the operation of God,
who hath raised him from the dead.
But, this does not speak of separate Divine persons existing "as their own center of consiousness." Many have made the statement in derision by saying "God was never without His Word and His Wisdom." If we are suddenly without our mind or spirit they put us into institutions, therefore, no one should ever accuse God of not having HIS OWN Spirit or Mind internal to His ONENESS.
No one including Campbell thought of the Word of God as separate god person. For instane.
Theophilus who first used the word TRIAS says what Campbell could read in Scripture:
Christ in spirit works through the righteous thread including the prophets. Because Genesis is in Hebrew the personified DABAR does exactly what the LOGOS does.This is my God, the Lord of all, who alone stretched out the heaven, and established the breadth of the earth under it; who stirs the deep recesses of the sea, and makes its waves roar; who rules its power, and stills the tumult of its waves; who founded the earth upon the waters,
and gave A spirit to nourish it; whose breath giveth light to the whole,
who, if He withdraw His breath, the whole will utterly fail.
Spirit literally means and in a figurative sense the BREATH of God: His Breath is not another god.
By Him you speak, O man; His breath you breathe yet Him you know not. And this is your condition, because of the blindness of your soul, and the hardness of your heart. But, if you will, you may be healed. Entrust yourself to the Physician, and He will couch the eyes of your soul and of your heart.
Who is the Physician? God, who heals and makes alive through His word and wisdom.
God by His own word and wisdom made all things; for"by His word were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." [Ps xxxiii. 6.]
Most excellent is His wisdom.
By His wisdom God founded the earth;
and by knowledge He prepared the heavens;
and by understanding were the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the clouds poured out their dews.If thou perceivest these things, O man, living chastely, and holily, and righteously, thou canst see God.
But before all let faith and the fear of God have rule in thy heart, and then shalt thou understand these things. When thou shalt have put off the mortal, and put on incorruption, then shall thou see God worthily.
This would become clear with a little research into te ancient literature.
Logos includes IV. inward debate of the soul 1. thinking, reasoning, explanation, opposite perception,
Jesus said that the Father was within him. Jesus of Nazareth was "a body prepared for me" meaning that God the One Father made him to be both Lord and Christ. That didn't exist until it existed.Plato, Theaetetus 189e
Socrates Excellent. And do you define thought as I do?Thaetetus
How do you define it?
Socrates As the talk [logon] which the soul has with itself about any subjects which it considers. You must not suppose that I know this that I am declaring to you. But the soul, as the image presents itself to me, when it thinks, is merely conversing with itself, asking itself questions and answering,
Psukhe A. life, spirit, III. the immaterial and immortal soul IV. the conscious self or personality as centre of emotions, desires, and affections pneuma”[190a] affirming and denying. When it has arrived at a decision, whether slowly or with a sudden bound, and is at last agreed, and is not in doubt, we call that its opinion; and so I define forming opinion as talking and opinion as talk which has been held, not with someone else, nor yet aloud, but in silence with oneself. How do you define it?Theaetetus
In the same way.Socrates
Plato, Sophist 263e Stranger
Then whenever a man has an opinion that one thing is another,
he says to himself, WE believe, that the one thing is the other.
Well, then, thought and speech are the same; only the former, which is a silent inner conversation of the soul with itself, has been given the special name of thought. Is not that true?
Theaetetus. Certainly.
Stranger. But the stream
that flows from the soul
in vocal utterance through the mouth
has the name of speech? [Logos]
[264a] Stranger
Now when this arises in the soul silently by way of thought, can you give it any other name than opinion?Theaetetus
Certainly not.Stranger
And when such a condition is brought about in anyone, not independently, but through sensation, can it properly be called anything but seeming, or fancy?Theaetetus
No.Stranger
Then since speech, as we found, is true and false, and we saw that thought is conversation of the soul with itself, and opinion is the final result of thought,
John Mark Hicks: But what exactly does this mean for Campbell? It is a matter of different relations and not a matter of different nature except that the Son has added another nature to himself--he became flesh (human).John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words,
hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken,
the same shall judge him in the last day.
John 12:49 For I have not spoken of myself;
but the Father which sent me,
he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
John 12:50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting:
whatsoever I speak therefore,
even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
When the ONE GOD spake the world into existence, the result from His own BREATH (spirit) was WORDS meaning that which you speak and not another person. Our words are our sons: we beget tem in our spirit and then we articulate them. When God was not "speaking" He emitted no sons. If He wanted to speak He (like us) always had His Spirit and Mind and Wisdom with Him.
The ONE Jehovah used angels and men and pillars and Rocks to perform His Will: He did not add anything to His nature because Jesus of Nazareth was "a body prepared for ME" and Jesus denies any authority of His fleshly nature: "The flesh counts for nothing: my Words are Spirit and Life" John 6;63.
Phil 2:5 Your attitude [mind] should be the kind that was shown us by Jesus Christ,
Phil 2:6 who, though he was God, did not demand and cling to his rights as God,
Phil 2:7 but laid aside his mighty power and glory,
aking the disguise of a slave and becoming like men.
Phil 2:8 And he humbled himself even further, going so far as actually to die a criminal's death on a cross.The MIND that was in Christ who WAS God is the word:
MInd is: G5426 phroneo fron-eh'-o From G5424 ; to exercise the mind, that is, entertain or have a sentiment or opinion; by implication to be (mentally) disposed (more or less earnestly in a certain direction); intensively to interest oneself in (with concern or obedience):set the affection on, (be) care (-ful), (be like-, + be of
An interesting tid bit perhaps part of the SIGN OF JONAH?
2 Chr 35:22 But Josiah refused to turn back. Instead he led his army into the battle at the valley of Megiddo. (He laid aside his royal robes so that the enemy wouldn't recognize him.) Josiah refused to believe that Neco's message was from God.
Jona.3:6 For when the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying,
.......... he stepped down from his throne,
.......... laid aside his royal robes,
.......... put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes.For US Paul equated the MIND of Christ to the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 2).
Psa. 104:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great;
thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
Psa. 104:2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment:
who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:
Psa. 104:3 Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters:
who maketh the clouds his chariot:
who walketh upon the wings of the wind [Spirit]
Psa. 104:4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:
Psa. 104:5 Who laid the foundations of the earth,
that it should not be removed for ever.
But, everyone agrees that the Son exists only in relationship to the word Father.
John 12:44 Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me,John Mark Hicks: The relation of the Son to the Father was a subordinate one as a son is to a father. But the relation of the Logos to God was “perfectly intimate, equal and glorious.”
believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.
John 12:45 And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me.
John 12:50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting:
whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
John 14:10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
My mind is subordinated to my thought unless I am insane: Paul demanded of the Corinthians that their MIND and lips be subordinate to their SPIRIT but Paul was not speaking of different persons.That is because the Word of God was what the One God Spoke in wordS. Jesus of Nazareth was a body prepared tof God as His personified Word.
1Kings 12:22 But the word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying,John Mark Hicks: To give this eternal relation the title of “Eternal Son” is to denigrate the glorious and equal nature of the Logos with God in eternity. His glory from eternity surpasses the glory of a Son and therefore Campbell believed that he gives more honor and glory to the Logos than traditional Trinitarians do. “They are as far below his real glory,” Campbell judged, “as the Arians are in their judgment.” Campbell believed his understanding of Logos means that he looks down “upon the Calvinistic ideas of ‘eternal filiation,’ ‘eternal Generation,’ ‘eternal Son,’ as midway betwixt us and Arians.” And further down would be the Socinians (adoptionists) who treat Jesus as a “mere man.” Campbell believed that he balances the so-called Arian texts with the so-called Trinitarian texts. Generally, Arian texts speak of the temporal generation of the Son while Trinitarian texts speak of oneness of the divine nature. Campbell can do both with a denial of the eternal generation of the Son.
1Chr. 17:3 And it came to pass the same night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying
John Calvin Trinity ExplainedJohn Mark Hicks: So, what is the relation between the Logos and God from eternity? It is an “unoriginated relation” that is “co-etaneous, or of the same age or antiquity” (thus eternal) but “nevertheless distinct from each other.” They are as intimately related as a word (Logos) and its idea (God). They are distinct but inseparable. Logos and God are “co-eternal. Just as “from eternity God was manifest in and by ‘The Word,’ so now God is manifest in the flesh” as Son. Just as there is “one self-existent, independent, unoriginated, eternal God” or “one infinite, eternal, unoriginated, all-comprehending, and incomprehensible Jehovah,” the relation between God and his Word is “unoriginated,” that is, it had no beginning and it is eternal. The relation has always existed--eternal but distinct.
2. The three "Persons" in GodBut there is another special mark by which he designates himself, for the purpose of giving a more intimate knowledge of his nature. While he proclaims his unity, he distinctly sets it before us as existing in three persons. These we must hold, unless the bare and empty name of Deity merely is to flutter in our brain without any genuine knowledge.
Moreover, lest any one should dream of a threefold God,
or think that the simple essence is divided by the three Persons,
we must here seek a brief and easy definition which may effectually guard us from error.For the essence of God being simple and undivided, and contained in himself entire, in full perfection, without partition or diminution, it is improper, nay, ridiculous, to call it his express image, (charaktes.)
But because the Father, though distinguished by his own peculiar properties, has expressed himself wholly in the Son,
he is said with perfect reason to have rendered his person (hypostasis) manifest in him. And this aptly accords with what is immediately added, viz., that he is "the brightness of his glory."
The fair inference from the Apostle's words is, that there is a proper subsistence (hypostasis) of the Father, which shines refulgent in the Son. From this, again it is easy to infer that there is a subsistence (hypostasis) of the Son which distinguishes him from the Father.
Then why did they use these non-Biblical words:
4. The church has regarded expressions like "Trinity", "Person," etc., as necessary to unmask false teachers
That denies the trinity of persons or a community required to keep God from getting lonly.
Christian Baptistt 1827: The Trinitarian System
1st. A word is a sign or representative of a thought or an idea, and is the idea in an audible or visible form. It is the exact image of that invisible thought which is a perfect secret to all the world until it is expressed.John Mark Hicks: For Campbell, the one “God is Jehovah.” This is the name of God which bears no relation to any other creature or being. “I am know no relation to any creature, or being”--he is self-contained, “self-existent.” This is an affirmation of the aseity of God. Nevertheless, within this oneness--within the one Jehovah himself--there is a social plurality. There is “society in Jehovah.” Given that humanity was created in his image, it is unimaginable that Jehovah would be a “solitary, eternal unit, without society and plurality within himself!” The one God, Jehovah, who is “immutable and eternal,” “was, and is, and evermore shall be society and plurality--a literal I, and thou, and he--a we, and our, and us, in one divine nature.” The divine nature itself is “I, and thou, and he.”2d. All men think or form ideas by means of words or images; so that no man can think without words or symbols of some sort.
3d. Hence it follows that the word and the idea which it represents, are co-etaneous, or of the same age or antiquity. It is true the word may not be uttered or born for years or ages after the idea exists, but still the word is just as old as the idea.
4th. The idea and the word are nevertheless distinct from each other, though the relation between them is the nearest known on earth. An idea cannot exist without a word, nor a word without an idea.
5th. He that is acquainted with the word, is acquainted with the idea, for the idea is wholly in the word.
Trinitarian Theology as “Necessary” FactIf God prepared a body for His own use to speak His own WORDS then a totally new "economy" is established in the personae of Father, Son and Spirit all of which was performed throuth Jesus of Nazareth. However fulfilling these functions made Him Jesus the Christ of God. This was the same Spirit of Christ delivering spiritual truth through the prophets. He is the same ROCK in the wilderness but no Jew ever thought of God's DABAR or LOGOS as being another person but the WORDS of the one Jehovah God:
Campbell had more problem with the Arian, Unitarian, and Socinian Christology than he did the Trinitarian since (1) the Trinitarians do not deny the eternal and thus fully divine relation of the God and his Word and (2) the efficacy of the death of a Jesus who is less than divine can do nothing more than any other human.
His only truck with the "trinitarians" is that they did not deny the deity of the Son. That does not mean that he agreed with them. I had rather be a drunk than be insane BUT I don't volunteer to be EITHER. At the same time he understood enough to know that no Calvinist (nor any trinitarian) thought of a SON as a person different from a FATHER.
Campbell could be neither Arian nor Socinian [NOR TRINIARAIAN] because the death of Jesus becomes the death of one whose person is less than divine. Since a creature “owes life” and everything else to the Creator, “if my Redeemer,” Campbell argued, “was never more than a creature, he never could do more than pay his own debts.” If he is not divine, then if he does not share in the society of the divine nature, and therefore no one owes “but a few cents more to Jesus Christ than to any of the ancient martyrs.”
Unitarianism, Arianism and Socinianism “undeify the second Adam” and thus deny the gospel. It cannot, therefore, be a “gospel of the grace of God.” “Divinity, absolute Divinity,” Campbell writes, “in all its grandeur, dwelt in him, and shall forever dwell in him.” This is a necessary fact for the Christian System if it is to be redemptive.
In his debate with Rice, Campbell insisted that there were “but two grand principles in Christianity--two laws revealed and developed” that are the “divine constitution of remedial mercy.” These “two ideas” envelope “the person of the Messiah and his office.” To confess that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God encompasses these two ideas and constitutes the “full confession of the christian faith.”
JESUS CHRIST IS THE ROCK UPON WHICH THE CHURCH IS BUILT
Eph. 2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
Eph. 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostleS and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; ["top of the heap"]
Jesus of the church is STILL ALIVE AND WELL and still rules in His kingdom through His Word. There cannot be two TOPS OF THE HEAP STONE.
Eph. 2:21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
Eph. 2:22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
You cannot SEE the rule or ruler of the Kingdom of Christ: you must not PRETEND that He utterly failed and need political usurpers to rule and persecute HIS KINGDOM: it is HIS. When Peter made his confession this wass reciprocal: we confess Jesus as the Christ the Son of God and He confesses us:
Notice the difference betwee THOU and THIS!
And I say also unto thee, That THOU art Peter,
and upon THIS rock I will build my church;
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18
PETER IS NOT THE ROCK BUT PETER:
Petros (g4074) pet'-ros; appar. a prim. word; a (piece of) rock (larger than 3037); as a name, Petrus, an apostle: - Peter, rock. Comp. 2786.
A piece of rock (flint) used to strike a fire. Used for throwing. Pindar: Phrastor hit the mark with the javelin. Niceus sent the stone flying from his circling arm beyond all the others, and his fellow soldiers raised a sudden burst of loud cheering
Augustine who lived among the "trinity" discussion declared that Jesus Christ is the ROCK upon which THE CHURCH OF CHRIST is built: because it is also the Church of God "Who purchased us with His own blood" you simply cannot SEVER God into a COMMUNITY of Family of Gods.
"From the end of the earth I cried unto Thee, while my heart was in weariness: Thou didst exalt me on a rock
Psa. 61:1 Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.
Psa. 61:2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed:
lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
Psa. 61:3 For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.
But the rock was Christ, in whom the apostle says that we are now raised up, and set together in heavenly places, though not yet actually, but only in hope
Eph. 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Eph. 2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
THE SON IS ALSO THE HAND OF GOD BUT NOT ANOTHER PERSON
THE PROPHECY:
Psa 118:23 This is the Lords doing;
it is marvellous in our eyes.
Psa 118:24 This is the day which the Lord hath made;
we will rejoice and be glad in it.
You have no other defining of the LORD'S DAY and this was prophetic of Messiah.
BACKING UP TO READ SOME BIBLE.
Psa 118:16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.
Psa 118:17 I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.
Is. 48:12 Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called;
I am he;
I am the first,
I also am the last
Is. 48:13 Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand hath spanned the heavens:
when I CALL unto them, they stand up together.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word,
And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.
John 1:3 All things were made by him;
and without [outside] him was not any thing made that was made.
John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Messiah would be the Hand or Arm of the ONE GOD:
Is. 59:16 And he saw that there was no man,
and wondered that there was no intercessor:
therefore his arm brought salvation unto him;
and his righteousness, it sustained him.
John Mark Hicks: Indeed, “a clear perception, and a cordial belief of these two facts will make any man a christian.” It is the “central truth of the Christian system.” It is the “fundamental fact” of the Christianity. At the heart of this confession is the deity of the person whose death is a sacrifical sin-offering. The divine character of the person is the root fact that grounds the efficacy of the sin-offering.
The importance of this for Campbell is seen in his dialogue with the Western Christian Connexion who were in discussions with the American Unitarian Association of Boston in 1845-1846. Campbell insisted that “agreement in the doctrine concerning Christ, or a declaration of our faith in the person, mission, and character of Jesus Christ” was “essential to Christian union.” Unity must be founded “who” and “what” Jesus is.John Mark Hicks:What is essential for Campbell is that one affirm the “true and proper divinity or godhead of my Lord Messiah, and the real sin-expiating value and efficacy of his death, and of his death alone, based upon his peerless worth and divine majesty” which are, for Campbell, “the rock of my salvation--the basis of all my hopes of immortality--the very anchor of my soul.”
When Campbell engages Unitarianism his primary problem with Unitarian theology is that they do not esteem the person of Jesus highly enough and consequently do not esteem his work highly either. He extensively quoted the views of Unitarians on the person and work of the Son. “Any theory,” Campbell wrote, “that degrades my Redeemer to the rank of any mere creature, and his death to that of a distinguished martyr, expresses opinions more subversive of the Christian faith than those which Paul notices as making Christ of none effect.”Alexander Campbell on the Unitarians.
Many persons have been called Unitarians, and some have so called themselves,
who believe in the death of Christ as a sin-offering,
who reject trinitarianism because
of its unscriptural, unintelligible, and barbarous phraseology;
regarding it as a system of polytheism; who, nevertheless,
know not what to say or think of the pre-existent or ante-human state of the author of Christianity;some repudiating the phrases "eternal son," "second person," "consubstantial" "co-equal," "very God of very God," "Supreme Deity," &c.; &c.;
They reject these terms because to them barbarous and incomprehensible; but have no distinct idea or name for the antecedent state, relation, or character of Him that was made flesh.
DEFINING ANTICHRIST: making Father and Son different persons.The function of Campbell’s Trinitarian theology is to secure the theological meaning of the empirical fact of Jesus’ death.Alexander Campbell’s
As a death for sin, motivated by the love of the Father, it secures the expiation of sin only on the ground that the death of Jesus was the death of the divine Son of God. Thomas Campbell raised this very point with Barton W. Stone in 1833: “is there not a greater difference between the intrinsic worth, the personal dignity of the Son of, God, and sinful creatures, than between any created objects we can imagine?”
rejection of Unitarianism
was a function of his Trinitarian theology.
Campbell opposed opposed unitarians solely on the basis of their treatment of Jesus Christ: he might like trinitarians better than unitarians but he REPUDIATED BOTH: he had NO trinitarian leanings other than the universal classical view of ONE GOD Who begets a SON when He first articulated WORDS (His) in the creation or recreation of OUR earth.
Campbell had no trinitarian theology in the sense of the neo-paganism sect of the church of Christ. He objected to Unitarians on the basis of the atonement.
His response to Unitarianism in 1846Campbel decried the trinity as IRRATIONAL. If something is deadly heresy then some mitigating belief would make them better than. However, Campbell did not depend on the Unitarians to denounce the Trinity even as Calvin had done long ago.
is similar to that of Trinitarians whom he
finds “incomparably more rational and intelligible” than the Unitarians.
But, Campbell says in chapter III
Were any one to ask me, Can there be three distinct persons, or even being, in one God? I would say,
Reason informs me not,
and revelation does not assert it.But if asked, Can there be one, and [99] one three in the same sense?
I reply, Both reason and revelation say No.
John Mark Hicks: The Unitarians “have one personal God--no personal word of God--no personal Spirit of God. They have, therefore, no society, no plurality in the divine nature. Nay, they have no divine nature at all, for with them God is one person! They have a conception of human nature and a plurality of persons….but they have no divine nature, and consequently no participants of it. Thus, then, God is, with them, a mere person--one being.”
Hicks accepts only two options: you are a Unitarian or you are a Trinitarian. Campbell could reject the following definition without getting close to polytheism;
Unitarianism as a theology is the belief in the single personality of God, in contrast to the doctrine of the Trinity (three persons in one God).[1] It is the philosophy upon which the modern Unitarian movement was based, and, according to its proponents, is the original form of Christianity. Unitarian Christians believe in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, as found in the New Testament and other early Christian writings, and hold him up as an exemplar. Adhering to strict monotheism, they maintain that Jesus was a great man and a prophet of God, perhaps even a supernatural being, but not God himself. Unitarians believe in the moral authority, but not necessarily the divinity, of JesusMost people do not distinguish Jesus of Nazareth who was born of a virgin as "a body prepared" for Christ to be clothed with. In that incarnate state He is called Jesus THE CHRIST of God. Jesus was "transfigured" or metamorphosed but as Spirit still held the name of Jesus or Jehovah--Saves:
John 6:62 What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?Because of that no neo-trinitarianism can get Campbell or anyone else to say that the Spirit "speaks beyond the sacred pages" and Calvin was adamant about that.
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth;
the flesh profiteth nothing:
the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
"The nearest approach to a formal announcement of the doctrine of the Trinity which is recorded from Our Lord's lips, or, perhaps we may say, which is to be found in the whole compass of the NT, has been preserved for us, not by John, but by one of the synoptists. It too, however, is only incidentally introduced, and has for its main object something very different from formulating the doctrine of the Trinity. It is embodied in the great commission which the resurrected Lord gave His disciples to be their 'marching orders even unto the end of the world.' (Int Std Bible Ency., p. 3017)
"It does not say, 'In the names [plural] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost"; nor yet 'In the name of the Father, and in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Ghost,'
as if we had to deal with three separate Beings. (Int Std Bible Ency., p. 3017)
And thus we remind the reader that the trinity was attaching "Jewis Monotheism to pagan trinities which had been distorted."
Because Alexander Campbell had to defend himself against being a Unitarian it is not remotely likely that anyone thought that he was any kind of 'modal Trinitarian.' Here is another option for Bible Believers.
Some Christians hold a unitarian theology in that they see God as a single person, and are thus antitrinitarian, but because they perceive Jesus to be God himself do not fall into the general theology discussed here, which sees Jesus as subordinate to God and a finite being.But, Campbell DENIED that anyone was baptized into THREE NAMES!
Nontrinitarianism was later renewed in the Gnosticism of the Cathars in the 11th through 13th centuries, in the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, and in Restorationism during the 19th century.
Repeating Hicks:
The Unitarians “have one personal God--no personal word of God--no personal Spirit of God. They have, therefore, no society, no plurality in the divine nature.
This, according to Campbell, denies the very essence of Christian baptism as we are baptized into the “three names of three persons” so that there is “as much personal name, glory, and honor in any one of these three as in another.” This is what we confess in baptism. We confess one God in three relations--“three distinct persons entitled to the honor and reverence of every Christian convert.”
Philip missed that one ALSO:
Acts 8:37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.I don't know where Hicks gets his quotations: it is very "unscholarly" to make assertions and not not the reference. Maybe Alexander Campbell was insane because he understood what all of the Bible and history knew before triune sprinkling. He did not say NAMES of Father, Son and Spirit but NAME. The Name of God is Jesus or Jehovah--Saves and so EVERYONE baptized in the NAME of Jesus Christ thus denying that the "forumua" teaches the Trinity or that Campbell taught that it means that WE should baptized into the nameS of a triad of gods.
Prop X How comes it to pass, that though once and only once, it is commanded that the nations who believe should be immersed into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;
and though we read of no person being immersed into this name in this way;I say, how comes it to pass, that all sects use these words without a scruple, and baptize or sprinkle in this name;
when more than once persons are commanded to be immersed for the remission of sins, [Acts 2:38 3:19 22:16]
Propositions 1-7 NOTE: To prevent mistakes, I shall here transcribe a part of a note found in the Appendix to the second edition of the new version of the Christian Scriptures, p. 452.
"I am not desirous of diminishing the difference of meaning between immersing a person in the name of the Father, and into the name of the Father. They are quite different ideas. But it will be asked, Is this a correct translation? To which I answer most undoubtedly it is. For the preposition eis is that used in this place, and not en. By what inadvertency the king's translators gave it in instead of into in this passage, and elsewhere gave it into when speaking of the same ordinance, I presume not to say. But they have been followed by most modern translators, and with them they translate it into in other places where it occurs, in relation to this institution: For example: 1Co 12:13 For by one spirit we are all immersed into one body; Ro 6:3 Don't you know that so many of you as were immersed into Christ, were immersed into his death? Ga 3:27 As many of you as have been immersed into Christ, have put on Christ. Now, for the same reason they ought to have rendered the following passages the same way.
Ac 8:16 Only they were immersed into the name of the Lord Jesus. Ac 19:3 Into what name were you then immersed? When they heard this, they were immersed into the name of the Lord Jesus. 1Co 1:13 Were you immersed into the name of Paul? Lest any should say I had immersed into my own name. 1Co 10:1 Our fathers were all immersed into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
Prop X. It is impossible to receive the remission of sins without faith. In this world of means, [183] (however it may be in a world where there are no means)
it is as impossible to receive any blessing through faith without the appointed means.
Both are indispensable. Hence, the name of the Lord Jesus is interposed between faith and forgiveness, justification and sanctification, even where immersion into that name is not detailed.This denies one of the basic ideas for the Family of Gods: All authority of Fathers, Son and Spirit was vested in Jesus Christ. As prophesied in Zecharian, Jesus or Joshua is Jehovah -- Saves and no one dared assert that Jehovah was triplets.
It would have been unprecedented in the annals of the world, for the historian always to have recorded all the circumstances of the same institution, on every allusion to it; and it would have been equally so far the Apostles to have mentioned it always in the same words. Thus, in the passage before us, the name of the Lord is only mentioned. So in the first letter to the Corinthians, the disciples are represented as saved, as washed, as justified, sanctified by the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. [1 Corinthians 6:11]
The frequent interposition of the name of the Lord between faith and forgiveness, justification, sanctification, &c.;, is explained in a remark in James' speech in Jerusalem [Acts 15:17] It is the application of an ancient prophecy, concerning the conversion of the Gentiles.
The Gentiles are spoken of as turning to, or seeking the Lord. But who them are thus converted? "Even all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called." It is, then, to those upon whom the name of the Lord is called, that the name of the Lord communicates remission, justification, &c.; [Amos 9]
The critical question of the Christian faith, then, is, “What think you of the Messiah?” Whatever one thinks of the Messiah will affect not only our views of “sin, righteousness, holiness, and redemption,” but also “our views of God and our ourselves.” It will shape our conception of the “whole remedial dispensation, indeed, of the gospel of God.”
His plea for the unity of Christians begins “here” with “the person, and office, and character of the Lord Messiah.” He is the “only foundation on which God’s temple stands” and “any error here is radical in the superlative degree.”
Christian fellowship and unity is based on whether a person will “ascribe to Jesus all Bible attributes, names, works, and worship.” If anyone does not “ascribe to him every thing that the first Christians ascribed, and worship and adore him as the first Christians didd, we will reject him, not because of his private opinions, but because he refuses to honor Jesus as the first converts did, and withholds from him the titles and honors which God and his apostles have bestowed upon him.”
That means that Hicks defending a "trinitarian formula" of nameS has Alexander Campbell denying that he is a Christian. He does NOT “ascribe to Jesus all Bible attributes, names, works, and worship."
John Mark Hicks: Conclusion
Campbell’s Christian System has a Trinitarian structure. His understanding of the Trinity is eminently orthodox except for his denial of eternal sonship. Even in this, however, he denies it because he believes that it implies an ontological subordination of the Son to the Father within the immanent Trinity.
Campbell denies the TRINITY both as irrational and unscriptural. Furthermore, NO historic scholar ever separed the Godhead into THREE separate Beings. They ALWAYS spake having read John 12 of the INTERNAL nature of God as ONE and He works through His Word and His Spirit just as He operates with His Hand or Arm. None of these have a neo-trinitarian flavor.
Again, we have to appeal to Campbell to suggest that this is just fabricated.
Christian System Chapter 23, p. 54: I. God alone is self-existent and eternal. Before earth and time were born he operated by his WORD and his SPIRIT. [73] GOD, THE WORD OF GOD, and THE SPIRIT OF GOD, participants of one and the same nature, are the foundations of Nature, Providence, and Redemption.The ONE God uses His Word and Spirit as WE use our word and Spirit. There was no SON before the time of Jesus of Nazareth also USED by the ONE GOD whom He called His ARM or HAND. Even with Jesus of Nazareth He was "a body prepared for me." The SON according to clear statements by Campbel was born about 2,000 years ago. Classical Trinitarians call the spoke WORD of God His SON as Sophia His "daughter" was His Wisdom.
Campbell wants to ascribe to the Logos (and Spirit) a deity equal to God (economically the Father) as the three share the same divine nature and thus are equally divine. The danger in this construct is tritheism but Campbell seeks to avoid that by the close relationship between God (idea) and his Word.The same WORD was God's VOICE as He SPOKE in the Old Testament: the word id DABAR in Hebrew. This "relationship" can never be exegeted to mean separated Beings.
John Mark Hicks: Though Campbell is fundamentally Trinitarian, he does not permit that theology to thoroughly shape every aspect of his theology. It is significant that the Trinitarian “Summary” (chapter 23) in the Christian System precedes his discussion of ecclesiology and ministry, which are: “Body of Christ” (chapter 24), “Christian Ministry (chapter 25), “Christian Discipline” (chapter 26), “Expediency” (chapter 27), and “Heresy” (chapter 28). Ecclesiology is essentially tacked onto the “remedial system” as a structure built on the remedial foundation but constructed without Trinitarian principles.
Ecclesiology, then, operates on its own theological and hermeneutical principles essentially unaffected by Trinitarian theology. This tends to generate an emphasis on form rather than relation as the theological ontology is focused on legal boundaries and prescriptions rather than relationality and communion. Stan Grenz offered a similar observation in noting
that our ecclesiology is too “Christocentric” and needs a more robust Trinitarian flavor.We might appeal to John Calvin to define the only rational view of the "trias" held by his Presbyterian culture and training.
Alexander Campbell on the GodheadJohn Mark Hicks: In his rejection of Unitarianism in 1846, however, Campbell shows hints of applying a Trinitarian theology to the kind of relation God would have with humanity.
2. The three "Persons" in GodBut there is another special mark by which he designates himself, for the purpose of giving a more intimate knowledge of his nature. While he proclaims his unity, he distinctly sets it before us as existing in three persons. These we must hold, unless the bare and empty name of Deity merely is to flutter in our brain without any genuine knowledge.
Moreover, lest any one should dream of a threefold God,
or think that the simple essence is divided by the three Persons,
we must here seek a brief and easy definition which may effectually guard us from error.When the Apostle calls the Son of God "the express image of his person," (Heb. 1: 3,) he undoubtedly does assign to the Father some subsistence in which he differs from the Son. For to hold with some interpreters that the term is equivalent to essence, (as if Christ represented the substance of the Father like the impression of a seal upon wax) were not only harsh but absurd.
For the essence of God being simple and undivided, and contained in himself entire, in full perfection, without partition or diminution, it is improper, nay, ridiculous, to call it his express image, (charaktes.)
But because the Father, though distinguished by his own peculiar properties, has expressed himself wholly in the Son,
he is said with perfect reason to have rendered his person (hypostasis) manifest in him. And this aptly accords with what is immediately added, viz., that he is "the brightness of his glory."
The fair inference from the Apostle's words is, that there is a proper subsistence (hypostasis) of the Father, which shines refulgent in the Son. From this, again it is easy to infer that there is a subsistence (hypostasis) of the Son which distinguishes him from the Father.
Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou Blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? John 10:36
If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. John 10:37
But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe,that the Father is in me,
and I in him. John 10:38
Full invisible Deity Manifestations (personae)
Father in me Works Son of God
I in HIm Speaks
Campbell said nothing but to repudiate any notion that Father and Son and Spirit are "persons" capable of having community in a society. No classical trinitarian so defines the Father Son relationship: the Nicean Creed as an afterthought said, "And we believe in the Holy Spirit" but did not include the Holy Spirit in the Godhead. Perhaps they understood that the Spirit OF God is the Spirit OF Christ and Paul made it clear that the Holy Spirit is the MIND of Christ.
John Mark Hicks:Humanity was created to have “communion and society with God.” God and humanity “first dwelt together in a terrestrial heaven,” but humanity rebelled and was excluded from Paradise. While in creation God dwelt with humanity, in redemption God “dwells in” humanity so that the redeemed may be “brought back to live in God.” This sounds teasingly close to the kind of mystical mutual indwelling of the Eastern church, but in Campbell’s mind it more probably fits with the factuality of God’s relationship with us as drawn from the Gospel of John. Eschatologically, Campbell believed God will dwell “in and with” humanity in a “celestial Paradise.” The tease however is that humanity participates and communes with the society of God. In some manner, Campbell believed humanity dwells in God and God dwells in them in such a way that they share the same society.
There are many "gods" (Elohim) but only ONE Lord (Jehovah). In the Garden of Eden it is Jehovah which has no "trinitarian" flavor. The only "communion" was in a judgmental sense:
Gen. 3:8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.Quoted by Campbell to explain communion with God:
Gen. 3:9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
Here is the way it is now as Jesus clearly explained away any hysteria about a FAMILY:Isa 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy;
I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.Isa 57:16 For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth:
Zech. 3:7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts;
for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.
If thou wilt walk in my ways,
and if thou wilt keep my charge,
then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts,
and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
The Spirit is always the Spirit OF something:
John 14:10 Believest thou not that I am IN the Father, and the Father IN me?
the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself:
but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
John 14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me:
or else believe me for the very works’ sake.Then, Jesus says that I will come to you.
John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.Community exists and is conditioned by how we keep the Word of Christ which IS Spirit and Truth.
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father,
and he shall give you another Comforter,
that he may abide with you for ever;
John 14:17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive,What is the NAME of this "fuller" Comforter?
1Jn.2:1 MY little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate [comforter] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him:
but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
Who is the Comforter?
John 14:18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him,
If a man love me, he will keep my words:
and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him,
and make our abode with him.
That community is available only on a one-on-one basis: forget about imagining a WORSHIP service to give glory to all three gods: Jesu said that we MUST worship in the place of our own spirit as we devote ourselves to the Truth. Paul's only worship word means to give heed to the word. The ekklesia, synagogue or church is what the Campbells called A SCHOOL OF CHRIST and where worship consists of READING AND MUSING the Word of God: Just what the Spirit of God commanded in Numbers.
John Mark Hicks: This is not an ontological union, but a communion between divine and human persons. It is this kind of Trinitarian thinking that is needed to shape the whole of our theology rather than simply our Christology.
We have shown that Eve was PRODUCED out of Adam: now only Mormons equate Adam to God. Eve was not a holy lady but usurped authority and twisted Scripture and was wholly seduced in a sexual sense so that Cain was OF that wicked one. Do you want to say that the Logos or Mary was conceived by SATAN? Cain was the patternism for modern charismatic worship where he "handled" musical instruments "without authority" in order to use witchery to steal the sheep of others and sell them back as a favor. This all sounds like an effort to equate the Godhead to the evil "gods" of Babylonian who USED mankind for their own mercinary purpose.
The MARK: Jesus identified the Scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites: from Isaiah 29 and Ezekiel 33 Jesus marks rhetoricians, singers and instrument players--especially for money.Of the third member of Hick's trinity patternism we have Jesus speking of Cain as well as radically condemning theology and theologians: First, we have the third member as OF that wicked one killing RIGHTEOUS Abel:
Luke 11:48 Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers:
for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres.
Luke 11:49 Therefore also said the wisdom of God, [not a person]
I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
Luke 11:50 That the blood of all the prophets,
which was shed from the foundation of the world,
may be required of this generation;
Luke 11:51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias,
which perished between the altar and the temple:
verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.
Fausset 2. Son of Barachias (Matthew 23:35). The same as the sire of Jehoiada; Joash ungratefully forgetting that he owed his throne to Jehoiada slew Zacharias for his faithful reproof: "Why transgress ye the commandments of Jehovah, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken Jehovah, He hath also forsaken you." By Joash's command they stoned Zacharias "in the court of the house of Jehovah!" And to it the tradition may be due which assigns the tomb in the valley of Jehoshaphat to Zacharias. Contrast Jehoiada's reverent care not to slay Athaliah in the temple precincts (2 Chronicles 23:14; 2 Chronicles 24:20-22; 2 Chronicles 24:25). Joash slew other "sons" of Jehoiada besides Zacharias.
Luke 11:52 Woe unto you, lawyers!
for ye have taken away the key of knowledge:
ye entered not in yourselves,
and them that were entering in ye hindered.
Luke 11:53 And as he said these things unto them,
the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently,
and to provoke him to speak of many things:Chapter III.VI. The relations in human plurality are indeed limited to three. For while all the human nature was at one time originally and wholly in the person of Adam, it was afterwards found equally in the person of Eve--and again in the person of their first born.IF YOU TAKE THIS AS TEACHING THE TRINITY OF A COMMUNITY THEN:
Here is undoubtedly where Hicks, Shelly and Boles decides that the ONE God is really three persons:
Only Father existed in the beginning;
the Wife (spirit) was created separately
and the SON was conceived [even if eternally generated]
Just like Cain by "that wicked one' as the Wife was wholly seduced by Lucifer "the singing and harp-playing prostitute." Campbell does not say what Hicks HEARS as as a doctor of the Law, as a Scribe and as a preacher not preaching that which has been taught and takes money is a Pharisee.
Now as to its derivation and mode of existence, it was diverse in the three. In Adam it was underived as respected human nature, in Eve it was derived from Adam, and in Cain it was again derived from Adam and Eve. Here the matter ends; for while Eve proceeded from Adam in one mode, and Cain proceeded from Adam and Eve in another, all the residue of human nature is participated without any new relation or mode of impartation.Hicks: But it is Christology that is Campbell’s concern and legitimately so in his context. His battle with Unitarianism
While, then, our nature is plural as to its participation, it is limited to three relations or modes of existence.
However, man was not created in the image of Adam, Eve and Cain:
Now as man was made in the image of God, we must conceive of him as having plurality, relation, and society in himself-And moving beyond Adam and Eve further:
though far be it from us to suppose that the divine nature either is,
or can be fairly or fully exhibited by any resemblance or illustration drawn from angel or from man,
or from any created thing.
Still, there is a resemblance between God and the sun that shines upon us--between God and an angel--between God and man; and even in the mode of his existence, and in the varieties of relation and personal manifestation,
there is so much resemblance as to peremptorily forbid all dogmatism as to what is, or is not, compatible with the unity, spirituality, and immutability of God. But of this more fully and [21] intelligibly when we shall have examined the record concerning the WORD and the SPIRIT of God.
demanded some clear and explicit Trinitarian theology that focused on the divine Savior who offered himself for our sin.This is faulty reasoning: we have noted that trinitarians believe din the redemptive work of Jesus as the Christ of God without believing in the Trinity of three beings. That is based on the fact That God or Christ has come FULLY in the flesh and to deny that SOLE "body prepared for me" identifies one as ANTI-Christ. Campbell accepted Stone only because he believed in the redemptive work of Christ: he just had a different view of the nature of Christ. Stone assuredly did not believe in the trinity being promoted of three separate persons with their own center of consiousness and with different skills
Consequently, Campbell who refused to talk like a Trinitarian sure walked like one.
In the Christian System and elsewhere Campbell had discussed the nature of God long before the unitarians became a problem. And before Barton Stone's confusion over the atonement: in no case was Stone ever confused over the Trinity which was repudiated in the form now EMERGING in the EMERGENT church where spinners spin one to another and rarely touch the laity.
John Mark Hicks: A religion without a Saviour whose pre-existence is beyond doubt, without a high priest, an altar, a victim, a sacrifice, an expiation, an atonement, is no religion for fallen, ruined, guilty man.
The CHRIST of God is His Grace, Spirit, Word, Righteousness or all of thsoe qualities in "a body prepared for Me":
2Cor. 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:
old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2Cor. 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
2Cor. 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.Col. 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:There can be a Saviour without a Trinity. As the Son of God Jesus of Nazareth was born in time and place. As a human being without the Majesty and Glory it was necessary that he do battle with Satan on his own terms and be victorious.
Col. 2:7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Col. 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit,
after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Col. 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Col. 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
Col. 2:11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands,
in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
Col. 2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God,
who hath raised him from the dead. [Jesus of Nazareth]
Heb. 1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers mannersHere is absolute proof that the WORD of God was what the ONE God SPOKE. If you are too busy seeking and outing the latest theology you will assuredly miss the whole Bible.
spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Heb. 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds; [His Word or WORDS]
Heb. 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory,
and the express image of his person,
and upholding all things by the WORD of his power,
when he had by himself purged our sins,
sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Heb. 1:4 Being made so much better than the angels,
as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
Psa 33:6 By the [1] word of the [1] Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the [3] breath of his mouth.The Atonement inherent in the meaning of baptism is to remove the bitter hostility mankind held toward God which was so intense that God abandoned the Monarchy to rank paganism so that they could slurp meat sacrifices while pretending to make the sacrifice to God. The "gospel" is come to me all ye that labor and I will give you REST (Sabbath): the word PAUO outlaws music during rest when we go out to learn of Him
Psa 33:7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.
Psa 33:8 Let all the earth fear the Lord: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
Psa 33:9 For he SPAKE, and it was done; he COMMANDED, and it stood fast.
Psa 33:10 The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought:
1011 bouleuo advice, or human volition, will
he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.
Psa 33:11 The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever,
the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Psa 33:12 Blessed
is the nation whose God is the Lord;
and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
2. This Psalm is entitled, a Psalm to be sung on the Sabbath day. Lo, this day is the Sabbath, which the Jews at this period observe by a kind of bodily rest, languid and luxurious.
However, in a "worship sense"
"Playing on musical instruments is prohibited on Sabbaths and holy days, and even to engage a non-Jew to play for Jews on Sabbath is considered a 'shebut' or disturbance of the Sabbath rest.
John Mark Hicks. A religion without a Holy Spirit, different from his gifts and graces; without an advocate, a counselor, and a comforter, is not suited to the genius of human nature, nor to the conditions of our present existence.
Lucky for us, Jesus said that He was the Holy Spirit meaing that HE was the MIND of God which He articulated from the Father who was WITHIN Him.
See Tertullian Against the Vanentinians for similar "necessities" of a separate "spiritual" advocate.
The NAME singular of Father, Son and Spirit is "Jesus Christ." We CAN have redemption AND and advocate without a Trinity of people. When Jesus promised a fuller Comforter He identified HIMSELF as that one and only intercessor:John Mark Hicks: But a religion which demonstrates alike the justice, the mercy,And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; John 14:16
What is the NAME of this "fuller" Comforter?
1Jn.2:1 MY little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate [comforter] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
Even the Spirit OF truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. John 14:17
I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. John 14:18
Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. John 14:19
At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. John 14:20
and the grace of God
in gift of his only begotten and well beloved Son,
and of his Holy Spirit, which reveals to us a glorious immortality, founded upon the resurrection of the Messiah, and his death as a sin offering, gives glory to God in the highest, establishes peace on earth, and prompts good will to every human being. May the Lord guide us into all truth!
The word of God does not lend itself to private interpretation (further expounding) or of corruption (selling learning at retail) and therefore the doubtful disputations outlawed any private opinions or diversities and prescribed "that as written" as the only resource for the synagogue. The Campbells likewise saw worship as reading and musing the Word. There can be no disputing the Word of God without rejecting the SON of God which is God's WORDS made visible and audible.
Here is what Thomas Campbelll in the Declaration and Address had to say of the Holy Spirit:Many persons have been called Unitarians, and some have so called themselves,
who believe in the death of Christ as a sin-offering,
who reject trinitarianism because of its unscriptural, unintelligible, and barbarous phraseology;
regarding it as a system of polytheism; who, nevertheless, know not what to say or think of the pre-existent or ante-human state of the author of Christianity;some repudiating the phrases "eternal son," "second person," "consubstantial" "co-equal," "very God of very God," "Supreme Deity," &c.; &c.;
They reject these terms because to them barbarous and incomprehensible; but have no distinct idea or name for the antecedent state, relation, or character of Him that was made flesh.
How could this be doubted when Jesus said "My words are Spirit and Life" (John 6:63). The Word came from Father (within) and the Spirit of Divine Knowledge (Isaiah 11:104)Our desire, therefore, for ourselves and our brethren would be, that,
rejecting human opinions and the [3] inventions of men as of any authority, or as having any place in the Church of God, we might forever cease from further contentions about such things; returning to and holding fast by the original standard;
- taking the Divine word alone for our rule;
- the Holy Spirit for our teacher and guide, to lead us into all truth;
- and Christ alone, as exhibited in the word, for our salvation;
that, by so doing, we may be at peace among ourselves, follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.
[Thomas Campbell noted elsewhere that: "I am not to be understood as objecting to the detection and exposure of a false and unscriptural experience, which, from your words, appears to be the thing intended; for, in your foot note, page 141, you assert, that we are taught, that
"since those gifts have ceased, the Holy Spirit now operates upon the minds of men only by the word;" and at the close of said note, you further assert, that "we are positive of one point,"
namely, "that the scriptures teach us not the doctrine of physical operations of the Divine Spirit in order to faith."
"further expounding" so don't look for Lucado-like visions or Rubel Shelly audible voices or John Mark Hick's gleanings from the other "doctors of the Law."
Heb. 1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
By the Spirit of Christ.Heb. 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Heb. 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,
and upholding all things by the word of his power,
when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Heb. 1:4 Being made so much better than the angels,
as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
1John 2:22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? John 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? Which is the same as: Which is the same as: He is antichrist, that denieth the
Father
and
the Son.he that hath seen me hath seen the Father;
and HOW sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?1 John 2:23 Whosoever denieth the Son
he that acknowledgeth the Sonthe same hath not the Father:
hath the Father alsoJohn 14:10 Believest thou not that I am IN the Father, and the Father IN me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth IN me, he doeth the works.
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Holy Spirit Index: no support in history for a three person Godhead.
Musical Worship Index
Alexander Campbell Defines Unitarian and Trinity
Alexander Campbell: The Trinity Rejected
How Thomas Campbell Explains the Trinity
Alexander Campbell letter to Grew
Barton W. Stone, Alexander Campbell and Walter Scott and Others on the trinity.
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