FRIDAY MORNING MANNA
April 3, 2015
Nathaniel Fajardo
Biblical Numerology: NUMBER THREE – Part ll
THE THREE PERSONS OF THE GODHEAD
It is sad and alarming that so late now into earth’s probation time and so close to the final harvest of souls that so many Christian faith groups still reject the three-Person Godhead taught in the Bible, and with it, almost without exception the denial of Christ’s divinity and the Holy Spirit as the third Person of the Godhead as Christ’s Vicegerent on earth whom He promised before His death and sent to earth after His ascension.
Mary Fairchild, Christianity expert, in her article “Faith Groups That Reject the Trinity Doctrine, says:
“The doctrine of the Trinity is central to most Christian denominations and faith groups, although not all. The term ‘Trinity’ is not found in the Bible and is a concept of Christianity that is not easy to grasp or explain. Yet most conservative, evangelical Bible scholars agree that the Trinity doctrine is clearly expressed within Scriptures.
“The following faith groups and religions are among those that reject the doctrine of the Trinity. The list is not exhaustive but encompasses several of the major groups and religious movements. Included is a brief explanation of each group’s beliefs about the nature of God, revealing a deviation from the doctrine of the Trinity. For comparison purposes, the Biblical Trinity doctrine is defined as follows: ‘There is only one God, made up of three distinct Persons, who exist in co-equal, co-eternal communion as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.’:
“MORMONISM – Latter Day Saints (LDS). Founded by Joseph Smith Jr., 1830.
Mormons believe that God has a physical, flesh and bones, eternal, perfect body. Men have the potential to become gods as well. Jesus is God’s literal Son, a separate being from God the Father and ‘the elder brother of men.’ The Holy Spirit is also a separate being from God the Father and God the Son. The Holy Spirit is regarded as an impersonal power or spirit being. These three separate beings are ‘one’ only in their purpose, and they make up the Godhead.
“JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES (JW). Founded by Charles Taze Russell, 1879. Succeeded by Joseph Rutherford, 1917. JW believe that God is one person, Jehovah. Jesus was Jehovah’s first creation. Jesus is not God, nor part of the Godhead. He is higher than the angels, but inferior to God. Jehovah used Jesus to create the rest of the universe. Before Jesus came to earth he was known as the archangel Michael. The Holy Spirit is an impersonal force from Jehovah, but not God.
“CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. Founded by Mary Baker Eddy, 1879. Christian scientists believe trinity is life, truth, and love. As an impersonal principle, God is the only thing that truly exists. Everyone else (matter) is an illusion. Jesus, though not God, is the Son of God. He was the promised Messiah but was not a deity. The Holy Spirit is divine science in the teachings of Christian Science. (More
“ARMSTRONGISM. (Philadelphia Church of God, Global Church of God, United Church of God), founded by Herbert W. Armstrong, 1934. Traditional Armstrongism denies a Trinity, defining God as “a family of individuals.” Original teachings say Jesus did not have a physical resurrection and the Holy Spirit is an impersonal force.
“CHRISTADELPHIANS. Founded by Dr. John Thomas, 1864. Christadelphians believe that God is one indivisible unity, not three distinct persons existing in one God. They deny the divinity of Jesus, believing he is fully human, and separate from God. They dp not believe that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the trinity, but simply a force—“the unseen power of God.”
“ONENESS PENTECOSTALS. Founded by Frank Ewart, 1913. Oneness Pentecostals that there is one God and God is one. Throughout time God manifested Himself n three ways or “forms” (not persons), as Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, Oneness Pentecostals take issue with the Trinity doctrine chiefly for the use of the term “person.” They believe that God cannot be three distinct persons, but only one being who has revealed in three different modes.”
“UNIFICATION CHURCH. Founded by Sun Myung Moon, 1954 Unification adherents believe that God is positive and negative, male and female. The universe is God’s body, made by him. Jesus was not God, but a man. In fact, His mission earth failed and will be fulfilled in through Sun Myung Moon, who is greater than Jesus. The Holy Spirit is feminine in nature. She collaborates with Jesus in the spirit realm to draw people to Sun Myung Moon.
“UNITY SCHOOL OF CHRISTIANITY. Founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, 1889. Similar to Christian Science, Unity adherents believe that God is an unseen, impersonal principle, not a person. God is a force within everyone and everything. [pantheism]. Jesus was only a man, not the Christ. He simply realized his spiritual identity as the Christ by practicing his potential for perfection. This is something all men can achieve. Jesus did not resurrect from the dead, but rather he reincarnated. The Holy Spirit is the active expression of God’s law. Only the spirit part of us is real, matter isn’t real.”
“SCIENTOLOGY-DIANETICS. Founded by L. Ron Hubbard, 1954. Scientology defines God as Dynamic Infinity. Jesus is not God, Savior, or Creator, nor does he have control of supernatural powers. He is usually overlooked in Dianetics. The Holy Spirit is absent from this belief system as well. Men are “thetan”—immortal, spiritual beings with limitless capabilities and powers, though often they are unaware of this potential. Scientology teaches men how to “achieve higher states of awareness and ability” through practicing Dianetics.” For more details about the above denominations and movements, seeChristianity.about.dot.com/of/christiandoctrines/tp/denytrinity.htm
JUDAISM, another monotheistic religion. Wikipedia says: “Judaism generally views Jesus as one of a number of Jewish Messiah claimants who have appeared throughout history. Jesus is viewed as having the most influential, and consequently most damaging of all false messiahs. However, since the mainstream Jewish belief is that the Messiah has not yet come, and that the Messianic Age is not yet present, the total rejection of Jesus, as either Messiah or deity has never been a central issue in Judaism.
Judaism has never accepted any of the claimed fulfillments of prophecy that Christianity attributes to Jesus. Judaism also forbids the worship of a person as form of idolatry, since the central belief of Judaism is the absolute unity and singularity of God. Jewish eschatology holds that the coming of the Messiah will be associated with a specific series of events that have not yet occurred, including the return of the Jews to their homeland and a rebuilding of the Temple, a Messianic age of peace and understanding during which the ‘knowledge of God’ fills the earth, and since the Jews believe that none of the events occurred during the lifetime of Jesus (nor have they occurred afterwards), he is not a candidate for messiah. Traditional views have been mostly negative, although in the Middle Ages Judah Halevi and Maimonides viewed Jesus (like Muhammad) as an important preparatory figure for a future universal ethical monotheism of the Messianic Age. . .
ISLAM, a monotheistic religion. According to Wikipedia, the Islamic View of the Trinity, is: “Within Islam, however, such a concept of plurality within God is a denial of monotheism, and foreign to the revelation found in Muslim scripture. The act of ascribing partners to God [‘Allah’] whether they be sons, daughters, or other partners is considered to be blasphemous in Islam. The Qur’an repeatedly and firmly asserts God’s absolute oneness, thus ruling out the possibility of another being sharing his sovereignty or nature. However, this has not prevented later Christian scholars from questioning whether the Qur’an does reject the concept of the Trinity. Yet there has been very little doubt of this rejection by Muslims from a very early date.”
IGLESIA NI KRISTO. (English Church of Christ, abbreviated as INC). Wikipedia says, is “an international Christian denomination religion that originated in the Philippines. It was registered and preached in 1914 by Felix Manalo, who became the first executive minister. The INC proclaims itself to the one true church and says that it is the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ and that all other Christian churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, are apostates.
INC doctrine cites that the official registration of the Church under the Philippine government on July b27, 1914 by Felix Manalo—upheld by its members to be the last messenger of God—was an act of divine providence and the fulfillment of biblical prophecy concerning the reestablishment of the Church of Christ in the Far East concurrent with the coming of the Seventh Seal marking the end of days . . . In 2010, the Philippine census by the National Statistics Office found that 2. 45% of the population of the Philippines are affiliated with the INC, making it the third largest denomination in the Philippines after the Roman Catholic Church (80%) and Islam (5.6%), respectively.
Some of INC’s beliefs and teachings are (not in this order): [1] God is the one who made the heavens and earth, and he is the only God. [2] There is no Holy Trinity; God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are not one. [3]. Jesus is the Son of God. [4] The Holy Spirit is the power given to Jesus to teach and for us to understand problems.”
(Continued next week)