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NCW 43 Editorial
January 1997
EXAMINING THE TRINITY DOCTRINE
This month the New Covenant Witness brings a number of very important theological and practical issues to our readership as well as bringing you some of the more important news items of the Church.
Firstly, the Church now has a rapidly expanding webpage on the Internet which we would like to invite our readers to take a look at sometime. Most of the articles have been taken from this magazine and Church pamphlets though there are one or two that that have been especially written for the WWW. We will eventually systematise it topically but with pressing project time constraints this program will have to await the help of others.
Suggestions for improving this site would be very welcome.
Secondly, it gives us great pleasure to introduce the first of the debates on various topics announced in the last issue. The first we shall be taking up are the Godhead Question and the Polygamy Debate.
The Godhead Question
In the Godhead Question we have invited two Trinitarians -- Dave Hunt and Rachmiel Frydland -- to present their views, and one anti-Trinitarian, Mark R. Lerner, to present his. Rachmiel and Mark are both Messianic Jews (Jewish Christians) which I think makes their views all the more interesting. We have given the Trinitarians two articles as Mark’s is quite a long one. We shall not be presenting New Covenant ideas on the Godhead Question in this issue in order to allow our readers to mull over the evidence for a month, though where there are blatant mistakes we have added endnotes to alert our readers. There were other contributors we had considered, some of which went into considerable technical depth. We have selected those we felt were the most comprehensible to the majority of our readership (which has now nearly doubled in the last six months).
Before I exit this introduction to the Trinity Debate it is important to state just what Trinitarianism is -- therefore a definition, followed by some scripture references for your analysis follows, courtesy of Matthew J. Slick, B.A., M.Div. of Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry.
“God is a trinity of persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the same person as the Son; the Son is not the same person as the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is not the same person as Father. They are separate persons; yet, they are all the one God. They are in absolute perfect harmony consisting of one substance. They are coeternal, coequal, and copowerful. If any one of the three were removed, there would be no God.
“There is, though, an apparent separation of some functions among the members of the Godhead. For example, the Father chooses who will be saved (Eph. 1:4); the Son redeems them (Eph.1: 7); and the Holy Spirit seals them (Eph. 1:13).
“A further point of clarification is that God is not one person, the Father, with Jesus as a creation and the Holy Spirit as a force (Jehovah's Witnesses). Neither is He one person who took three consecutive forms, i.e., the Father who became the Son who then became the Holy Spirit (United Pentecostal). Nor is the Trinity an office held by three separate Gods (Mormonism).
“The chart below should help you to see how the doctrine of the Trinity is derived from Scripture. The list is not exhaustive, only illustrative.”
"I am the LORD (Yahweh), and there is no other; besides Me there is no God (Elohim)" (Isaiah 45:5).
| THE FATHER (Yahweh-Elohim) | THE SON (Yah'shua the Messiah / Jesus Christ) | THE HOLY SPIRIT (Ruach haQoedesh) |
Called God | Phil.1:2 | John 1:1,14; Col. 2:9 | Acts 5:3-4 |
Creator | Is. 64:8;44:24 | Jn. 1:3; Col. 1:15-17 | Job 33:4,26:13 |
Resurrects | 1 Thess. 1:10 | John 2:19, 10:17 | Rom. 8:11 |
Indwells | 2 Cor. 6:16 | Col. 1:27 | John 14:17 |
Everywhere | 1 Kings 8:27 | Matt. 28:20 | Ps. 139:7-10 |
All knowing | 1 John 3:20 | John 16:30 | 1 Cor. 2:10-11 |
Sanctifies | 1 Thess. 5:23 | Heb. 2:11 | 1 Pet.1:2 |
Life giver | Gen. 2:7 | John 1:3; 5:21 | 2 Cor. 3:6,8 |
Fellowship | 1 John 1:3 | 1 Cor. 1:9 | 2 Cor. 13:14 |
Eternal | Ps. 90:2 | Micah 5:1-2 | Rom. 8:11 |
A Will | Luke 22:42 | Luke 22:42 | 1 Cor. 12:11 |
Speaks | Matt. 3:17 | Luke 5:20; 7:48 | Ac. 8:29; 11:12; 13:2 |
Love | John 3:16 | Eph. 5: 25 | Rom. 15:30 |
Searches the heart | Jer. 17:10 | Rev. 2:23 | 1 Cor. 2:10 |
We belong to | John 17:9 | John 17:6 | |
Savior | 1 Tim. 1:1; 2:3; 4:10 | 2 Tim. 1:10; Titus 1:4; 3:6 | |
We serve | Matt. 4:10 | Col. 3:24 | |
Believe in | John 14: | 1 John 14:1 | |
Gives joy | | John 15:11 | Rom. 14:7 |
Judges | John 8:50 | John 5:21,30 | |
The Polygamy Debate
We have also included two articles on the Polygamy Debate which we feel has become increasingly important not only because this is a common practice in Asia and Africa but also because it has become more common in America and Europe too, with at least 32,000 practicing polygamists in the USA and 800,000 in Paris, France alone. The Christian Church needs to therefore urgently address this marriage style from a biblical perspective. Accordingly I have invited pro-polygamist and Irishman Sam Chapman (like myself, a graduate of University College, Oxford, England) of Poly Positive and anti-polygamist and American Mark Van Bebber of Eden Communications, to present their views in one article each. The Church will make its summary in the March edition of the Witness but with the occasional endnote here where there are serious interpretational errors.
Sexaholics Anonymous
Finally, we present an interesting article by Sexaholics Anonymous which the Church is to implement in its “sexual rehabilitation program” for new (and not so new) members who come to Christ and His Gospel with major sexual problems such as inordinate lust and licentiousness. With so many lives destroyed by sexual perversion in the modern world (both homosexual and heterosexual) it is vital that a redemptive ministry in this area is available early on in a Christian’s new life in Christ. As a Church we have been all too weak in this area in the past and have failed to realise that without an immediate program of help the seeds of a terrible destruction can be sown in the local colony. Without always knowing it we can be the instruments of letting snakes (sexual perversion) into Eden (a local congregation or colony) and thereby unnecessarily endanger the flock. The revelations have warned us to be on the alert and to deal with such problems head-on and quickly -- this we shall now endeavour to do.
Finally, please remember our 100+ orphans in India and Zion in your prayers-- great miracles are still needed, and very soon.
May the Lord bless you as you read this edition of the New Covenant Witness and inspire you into action, is my prayer in Jeus’ Name. Amen.
This page was created on 11 April 1998
Last updated on 11 April 1998
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