Being the Church - One Faith:We beleive in the one true God!

We believe in the one true God!

We believe in...

“The one true God who lives eternally in three persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” - Evangelical Alliance Basis of Faith.

INTRODUCTION & LINKING THE LEARNING

Being the Church is underpinned and sustained by what we believe. Paul speaking of the Church says:

“you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:19-22).

In other words, our life together is supported and structured and upheld by all that the Apostles, Prophets and Jesus Christ Himself, said and did!

We stand in a stream of historical teaching and practice and faithfully express our ancient faith in the present.

We are like relay runners who receive the baton and them pass it on to future generations -

“You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”(2 Timothy 2:2).

We are not free to change or reject any of it, we are custodians and called to be faithful in the transmission of it and to guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit

2 Timothy 1:13-14: “What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. “

“According to Paul, doctrine is among the things that matter most for the well-being of the Christian and the church. Sound, or “healthy,” doctrine provides a pattern that, when followed, promotes healthy faith and love. Sound doctrine is a valuable heritage that is to be treasured in this generation and faithfully transmitted to the next.” (What Is Sound Doctrine? Scott Swain. Ligonier Ministries)

And this is so important for us to grasp and stand firm on today.

Our faith is revelatory, God-inspired and clearly expressed.

Our faith can be categorized:

“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”(Eph 4:3-6)

And again in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 Paul says: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

Any diversion from sound doctrine is heretical and to be avoided. The Bible is full of warnings about this: “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. “(2 Peter 2:1-3)

This is why Paul exhorts Timothy:

“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”(2 Tim 4:1-4).

And we are called upon to be aware and discerning: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. “(1 John 4:1-4).

So all of the teaching that makes up the core strands of our faith are regarded as minimalist, incorporating those indisputable aspects of Christian teaching that have been held by Christians of all nations; across the life of the Apostolic church, regardless of their distinctive beliefs on secondary matters.

And all of these are rooted in Scripture as the final authority of faith and practice, and we hold on tightly to Scripture because as Paul said to Timothy:

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”(2 Timothy 3:14-17).

Question 1 - Why is it important to stand up for the idea that the Bible is the Word of God in modern society?

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We believe in...

“The one true God who lives eternally in three persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” - Evangelical Alliance Basis of Faith.

We believe in the one true God

This is a fundamental belief. The bible regards this as “axiomatic” (self-evident) and not needing to be proved! It is an article of our faith:

“without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. “ (Heb 11:6).

In the context of Hebrews 11 this means understanding that faith is based on “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”(v1) and SEEING “Him who is invisible”(v27).

It is the Bible’s position that the existence of God is rational, logical and self-evident - “what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”(Rom 1:18,19).

It is so obvious that the Psalmist declares: “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

Question 2 - Why is faith, not reason the most important thing when it comes to the Christian faith?

a). The Assumption of God:

So the Bible begins with the assumption of God:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” - Gen 1:1.

everything else in creation is dependent upon and contingent on the eternal, self-existence of Almighty God our Creator.

This is why God can describe himself as “I AM” in Exodus 3:14. “I AM WHO I AM” cannot be “I was who I was” or “I will be who I will be” because the former could suggest regress and the latter progress!

God is eternally, the self-existent and self-sufficient one. “The Father has life in himself”(John 5:26)

And this idea of self-sufficiency is so important -

“The world is not necessary for God’s being or happiness”(Michael Horton).

We are not pantheists, like the Hindu’s or Buddhist’s who see God as the great or underlying spirit that is inseparable from the created order.

So Paul can say to the Athenians in Acts 17:24-30: “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.”

b. The Assumption of only ONE TRUE GOD.

Likewise we Christian believe that the God in whom we believe is “the one true God”:

Again this is a stated truth of the Bible and was extraordinarily challenging, radical and even offensive to those who heard the Prophets and the Preachers declare this

“This is what the LORD says— Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. “(Isa 44:6).

The Bible rejects the idea of polytheism as both irrational and illogical.

The name God by definition stands for the One Supreme Being. You cannot have more than one or there would be no supreme being at all.

There cannot be two sovereign God’s because neither one would be in control of the other and guarantee the behaviour of one another.

Likewise every effect has a cause and because we almost all universally agree that the universe must have a first cause, then the first cause cannot have a cause (reductio ad absurdum).

the prophetic books, are full of attacks against the false gods of other religions. These gods are seen not as competing deities but as useless idols that the prophets often make fun of, shaped in images, created by a human mind in and dependent on their existence to humans and yet humans foolishly make themselves worshipers of these thing.

Likewise the worship of inanimate objects appear irrational because these things cannot be inhabited by an intelligent being.

Paul likewise in the NT affirms: “we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” (1Cor 8:1-6).

We are therefore MONOTHEISTS - “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).

So we Christians don’t argue for the existence of God or seek to prove it, though there are very good and reasonable arguments for proposing it, we declare the existence of God and worship!

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.”(Rom 11:33-36)

Question 3 - What would you say to the idea that all regions are true, just different ways to God?

We believe in...

2. “...the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Now its very important to hold this statement together - “The one true God who lives eternally in three persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Question 4 - How do you relate to the idea of God as trinity?

The reason why this should be held together is that the two statements at first glance seem contradictory.

How can there be “one true God” who exists in “three persons - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Some people think that the doctrine of the Trinity means that Christians believe in three gods.

This is the idea of tritheism, which the church has categorically rejected throughout its history.

When we confess our faith in the Trinity, we affirm that God is one in essence and three in person. If we said He is one in person and three in person, that would be a contradiction.

UNITY of God:

Before we can talk about the Trinity, we have to talk about unity, because the word Trinity means “tri-unity.”

So, we have already noted the Shema: ancient Israel’s confession of its belief in one God: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deut. 6:4).

So, it is precisely because of this clear teaching of monotheism that the doctrine of the Trinity is so problematic and the Church had to tread carefully in defining this doctrine

When we come to the New Testament, we find the church affirming the notion of monotheism, but also declaring that God the Father is divine, God the Son is divine, and God the Holy Spirit is divine.

We have to understand that the distinctions in the Godhead do not refer to His essence; they do not refer to a fragmentation or compartmentalization of the very being of God.

Trinity in the Old Testament:

There are significant hints about the Trinity in the Old Testament.

In the creation account we first encounter the Spirit of God (Gen. 1:2).

Likewise in Psalm 110, however, God is having a conversation with David’s Lord: “The LORD [Yahweh] says to my Lord [Adonai]: Sit at my right hand.…”

Trinity in the New Testament:

(i). Jesus claim for Himself :

In John 8:58 “before Abraham was born, I am!” (Note: ego eimi - not I was but I am as in Exod 3:14).

Likewise in John’s gospel, Jesus makes a number of “I am” statements: “I am the bread of life” (6:48), “I am the door” (10:7), “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (14:6), and others are each claims of deity. Indeed the Jews understood it this way of a claim to eternality and deity. They were filled with fury against Jesus because He, a mere man in their eyes, made Himself equal with God.

Likewise Thomas in touching the wounds of Jesus said: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20: 28) and Jesus accepted this act of worship, a very different reaction to that of Paul and Barnabus who equally were worshipped but at once rebuked the people (Acts 14:11–15). Jesus accepted Thomas’ worship without rebuke. He recognized Thomas’ confession as valid which would have been blasphemous were it not true!

(ii). The Gospels claim for Jesus:

The clearest reference to Jesus’ deity in the New Testament comes at the opening of John’s gospel.

It reads, “In the beginning was the Word [that is, the Logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1). - Pros ton Theon - literally “face-to-face” with God.

So, John makes a distinction between the Logos and God. God and the Logos are together, but they are not the same.

Logos not only was with God, He was God. So in one sense, the Word must be distinguished from God, and in another sense, the Word must be identified with God.

And in v2, John states that the Logos was not only was with God, He was God. So in one sense, the Word must be distinguished from God, and in another sense, the Word must be identified with God.

(iii). Paul’s claim for Himself:

If you go back to 1 Cor 8 reference that we referred to in regard to idolatry, there Paul says: “yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” (1Cor 8: 1–6).

Paul ascribes deity to Christ, distinguishing between the Father and the Son, and noting that all things are “from” the Father and “through” Christ, and that we exist “for” the Father and “through” the Son. Clearly, Paul is equating the Father and the Son in terms of their divinity.

(iv). The New Testament’s claim for the Spirit:

The Holy Spirit is divine.

We see this, for instance, in Jesus’ triune formula for baptism. By the command of Christ, people are to be baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).

Likewise, Paul’s closing benediction in his second letter to the Corinthians reads, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (13:13).

The apostles also speak of the Father, Son, and Spirit cooperating to redeem a people for themselves (2 Thess. 2:13–14; 1 Peter 1:2).

Watch out for heresy - John Calvin’s “slippery snakes”!

Question 5 - Why should we be concerned about the “slippery snakes” of heresy?

John Calvin made the observation in his Institutes of the Christian Religion that words such as Trinity have come about because of what he described as the “slippery snakes” who try to distort the teaching of Scripture by heresy.

Heresy#1 Monarchianism

Heresy#2 Monphysitism

Heresy#3 Nestorianism

Much of what we believe about the trinity was hammered out in the first 5 centuries of the Christian church. It needed to be because of mistaken notions about either the deity of Jesus or the personality of the Holy Spirit which the Church addressed in its Creeds.

Here are some of the errors :

(i). Monarchianism

(lit mon = one and arche = beginning). A monarch was a single ruler, and a monarchy was a system of rule by one. Monarchianism, was the attempt to preserve the unity of God, or monotheism.

(a). “modalistic monarchianism”

Modalism is the idea b that all three persons of the Trinity are the same person, but that they behave in unique “modes” at different times.

Modalists held that God was initially the Creator, then became the Redeemer, then became the Spirit at Pentecost.

The divine person who came to earth as the incarnate Jesus was the same person who had created all things.

When He returned to heaven, He took up His role as the Father again,

but then returned to earth as the Holy Spirit.

there is only one God, but that He acts in different modes, or different expressions, from time to time.

Sabellius illustrated modalism by comparing God to the sun. He noted that the sun has three modes: its form in the sky, its light, and its warmth. By way of analogy, he said, God has various modes: the form corresponds to the Father, the light is the Son, and the warmth is the Spirit.

(ii). Dynamic monarchianism or “adoptionism.”

Its adherents wanted to give honor and central importance to the person of Christ.

Those who propagated this view held that at the time of creation, the first thing God made was the Logos, after which the Logos created everything else.

So the Logos is higher than human beings and even angels.

He is the Creator, and He predates all things except God. But He is not eternal, because He Himself was created by God, so He is not equal with God.

So In time, according to adoptionism, the Logos became incarnate in the person of Jesus.

In His human nature, the Logos was one with the Father in terms of carrying out the same mission and working toward the same goals.

He was obedient to the Father, and because of His obedience, the Father “adopted” Him.

Thus, it is proper to call the Logos the Son of God. However, He became the Son of God dynamically.

There was a change. He was not always the Son of God, but His Sonship was something He earned. the Logos is like God, but He is not God.

The Council of Nicea (AD 325).

This council produced the Nicene Creed: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father [the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God], Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made [both in heaven and on earth]; Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; He suffered, and the third day He rose again, ascended into heaven; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost. [But those who say: “There was a time when he was not”; and “He was not before he was made”; and “He was made out of nothing,” or “He is of another substance” or “essence,” or “The Son of God is created,” or “changeable,” or “alterable”—they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.]”

So this affirms that Christ is “the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds,” and that He was “begotten, not made.” It further declares that He is “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God … being of one substance with the Father.”

With these affirmations, the church said that scriptural terms such as firstborn and begotten have to do with Christ’s place of honor, not with His biological origin.

The church declared that Christ is of the same substance, being, and essence as the Father. Thus, the idea was put forth that God, though three in person, is one in essence.

(iii). MONOPHYSITISM

The term monophysite consists of the now-familiar prefix mono, meaning “one,” and physite, which comes from the Greek phusis, meaning “nature.” So the word monophysite literally means “one nature.”

Orthodox teaching insists that Christ, has one person with two natures—human and one divine. But Eutyches denied this truth. He taught that Jesus had only one nature. Jesus had one “theanthropic” nature. Eutyches was saying that in Christ there is only one nature—a divinely human nature, or, to express it the other way around, a humanly divine nature. The monophysite heresy sees Christ as neither God nor man, but as something more than man and less than God. He represents a kind of deified humanity or a humanized deity.

(iv). Nestorianism:

Nestorius basically said that one person cannot have two natures; if there are two natures, there must be two persons. Therefore, since Christ had both a divine nature and a human nature, He was a divine person and a human person co-existing.

In the Nestorian heresy, the two natures of Christ were not merely distinguished, they were totally separated.

One of the most important distinctions you will ever learn to make is the one between a distinction and a separation. a human being is a duality—he has a physical dimension and a non-physical dimension, which the Bible describes in terms of body and soul. If I distinguish a person’s body from his soul, I do no harm to him, but if I separate his body from his soul, I not only harm him, I kill him.

By not grasping the difference between distinguishing and separating, Nestorius essentially destroyed the biblical Christ.

Jesus has two natures, a divine nature and a human nature, and at times He reveals His human side, while at other times He reveals His divine side. We can distinguish the two without separating them. But when the human nature perspires, it is still united to a divine nature that does not perspire.

This truth of the separation of Christ’s natures was very important at the cross. The human nature died, but the divine nature did not die. Of course, at death, the divine nature was united to a human corpse.

The unity was still there, but the change that had taken place was within the human nature, not the divine nature. That’s very important to understand.

The Council of Chalcedon in AD451

produced the following statement, known as the Chalcedonian Creed:

“Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has handed down to us.”

First, it affirms that Christ is “truly God and truly man” (Vera Deus, vera homo). This affirmation means that Jesus Christ, in the unity of His two natures, is both God and man. He has both a true divine nature and a true human nature.

Second there are 4 negatives: “without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.” we cannot mix up the two natures of Christ; that was the heresy of the monophysites.

Neither can we separate them; that was the error of the Nestorians.

No, Jesus’ two natures are perfectly united. We can distinguish them, but we cannot mix or divide them. We cannot conceive of the human and divine natures in Him as being confused or changed, so that we end up with a deified human nature or a humanized divine nature.

Also in the incarnation, God does not give up any of His attributes and humanity does not give up any of its attributes. When Jesus came to earth, He did not lay aside His divine nature. Neither did He assume a human nature that was anything less than fully human.

Speaking of God as a Person can cause problems to.

By person we tend to think of an entity in space and time, so a material person

but when speaking of God we are speaking of an essence, a Spirit who is a person - while God is one in essence, there are three subsistence's, three persons, that stand under the essence.

They are part of the essence. All three have the essence of deity.

We can make a distinction between the three persons of the Trinity, because each member of the Godhead has unique attributes.

We say the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but we don’t say that the Father is the Son, the Son is the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit is the Father.

There are distinctions between them, but the distinctions are not essential, not of the essence. They are real, but they do not disturb the essence of deity.

Now this is not easy but something is a mystery to us if we lack understanding of it; this is quite different from a contradiction.

It is true that contradictions cannot be understood because they are inherently unintelligible, but not everything that seems to be a contradiction is a contradiction. Some apparent contradictions are mysteries.

The fact that Christ has two natures is certainly a mystery to us.

We cannot grasp how a person can have both a divine nature and a human nature.

We have no reference point for that in our human experience. Every person we have ever met has had only one nature.

When we affirm the dual natures of Christ, we are affirming something that is unique to Him, something that differs from the normal experience of humanity.

It’s difficult to even describe. When Chalcedon declared that the divine and human natures in Christ are “without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.” But those affirmations are merely saying how the two natures in Christ do not relate. We cannot really say how His two natures function together.

Likewise, when we come to the doctrine of the Trinity, we say, based on the revelation of Scripture, that there is a sense in which God is one and another sense in which He is three.

We must be careful to point out that those two senses are not the same. If they were the same, we would be espousing a contradiction unworthy of our faith.

the doctrine of the Trinity is not a contradiction but a mystery, for we cannot fully understand how one God can exist in three persons. All that the word Trinity does is capture linguistically the scriptural teaching on the unity of God and the tri-personality of God.

Trinity is a perfectly good word that accurately states that which the church has believed and confessed historically. We should not hesitate to use it and other such words to set the standard of truth as accurately as possible.