- The
Divine
Fellowship of Being -
Father, Son and Spirit, the three-in-oneness of the
Godhead - commonly
called the Trinity
God, His Spirit and His Word each active participants in Creation
Gen.1.1-3.
Divine Council in Creation of man, in the banishment and in the
destruction of Babel. Gen.1.26, 3.22 ,11.7.
Compound Unity of Divine Essence Gen.11.1, Deut.6.4.
Distinction between the Messenger of Yahveh, identified as Yahveh,
and Yahveh the Sender. Gen.18.1,13,17,22,33 Gen. 19.24 and
many
other texts.
The Unseeable Yahveh is seen, worshipped, talked to, eaten with,
felt
and wrestled with in the Person of His messenger. Exod 33.20
Gen.17,18,
32.30 etc..
Who is this but His Word? - which is precisely what Messiah
confirms
John .8.56.
- Eternal
Origin of the Son of God
The Eternal wisdom of God 'begotten' (
khololti)
before and joyful
participation in Creation Prov.8.24,22-23.
The Son's omnipotent engagement in works of God, ascent and
descent.
Prov. 30.4.
The goings forth of the Ruler to come from Bethlehem from
everlasting
(perpetual days) Micah 5.8.
'Thou
art My Son',
though
His second begetting (from death) is ascribed to a day.Ps.2.7.
Job sees that His kinsman-Redeemer/Avenger (Goel) lives!
Job.19.25.
- Divine
Personality
of the Holy Spirit
The
Holy
Spirit sore vexed. Isa.63.10
The Spirit of God the cause of Israel's rest Isa.63.14
The immediate source of courage, counsel, wisdom, repentance,
prayer
and victory. 1 Sam.11.6,16.13, 1 Ki. 22.24, Zech.12.10, Zech.4.6.
- Original
sin
Flattery will not do! Faithful prophets didn't plaster over
these
matters!
A hideous stain from conception, inherent in all Adam's
seed,
without exception, till the Virgin born. Ps.51.5, 53.2-3, 58.3,
Job
15.14, Isa 48.8, Pr 22.15.
God looked
down
from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any
that did
understand, that did seek God.
Every one of
them
is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none
that
doeth good, no, not one.
- The
impotent
depravity of the will
Puppets of Satan and the flesh by nature: Isa.59.2-15
But your iniquities have separated between you and your
God, and
your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
For your hands are defiled with
blood,
and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies,
your tongue
hath muttered perverseness.
None calleth for justice, nor
any
pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they
conceive
mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
They hatch cockatrice’ eggs,
and weave
the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that
which is
crushed breaketh out into a viper.
Their webs shall not become
garments,
neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their
works are
works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
Their feet run to evil, and
they make
haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of
iniquity;
wasting and destruction are in their paths.
The way of peace they know not;
and
there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them
crooked
paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
Therefore is judgment far from
us,
neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but
behold
obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
We grope for the wall like the
blind,
and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in
the
night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
We roar all like bears, and
mourn sore
like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for
salvation, but
it is far off from us.
For our transgressions are
multiplied
before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our
transgressions
are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
In transgressing and lying
against the
LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and
revolt,
conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
And judgment is turned away
backward,
and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the
street, and
equity cannot enter.
Yea, truth faileth; and he that
departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw
it, and it
displeased him that there was no judgment.
- The
incarnation
of God's Word
God's Covenant messenger - Yahveh in the flesh. Mal.3.1,
Gen.17,18,
The same is worshipped and adored as God -Gen.18.2 (3 messengers,
only
one bowed to and addressed as Lord (majestic plural of Lord
(Adonai),
singular suffix to 'thy eyes' and the rest of the clause)),
Josh.5.14 - in a way that is utterly immoral and wrong for
any created being (Ex 34.14,
Isa.14.14).
- The
virgin
birth of the eternal Son, who is described as the
Mighty God
- a title otherwise reserved for YHWH
Isa. 7.14 A most distinctive
'sign', both from Heaven and on Earth - its manifestation denied
to
Ahaz for his unbelief.
The word Almah may certainly
be
used of a virgin (Ge 24.43), and the
usually more distinctive word for virgin Betulah is once used
of a
married woman (Joel 1.8),
presumably because of the recent loss of her virginity.
This mysterious child Emmanuel is the One to Whom the land
itself
belongs Isa.8.8 and 10.
This same Son, spoken of as being wonderfully given at the
time of
Israel's future deliverance, Isa. 9.6-7 (5-6 in Hebrew text,
the words
are identical)
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.
There are two aspects to this same doctrine:
First the Fall of all men
in
the Fall of Adam, since a covenant was
broken by him, who was a federal head - Hosea 6.7 ('like Adam'),
Isa
48.8, Ps.58.2.
Second the headship of
the
true David, 'the Beloved', (Ps.89.1-3, Isa 55.1-4), in a
redemptive
covenant, both like (in constitution) and unlike (in moral effect)
the
first,
by which spiritual circumcision is administered (Ezek.37.24-26,
Jer
4.4, Ezek.44.9), sin no longer imputed (Ps.32.1, Isa 54.6-10),
and on the basis of His vicarious atonement in blood (Ex 24.8,
Zech.9.11 - the suffix is feminine indicating that the covenant is
made
with Zion's daughter).
- The
absolute
necessity of a blood atonement for sin
This is often strongly contested by Orthodox Jews today on the
basis of
texts like Ps.40.6 and Hosea 6.6, in the light of the Divinely
ordained
loss of the Temple,
Toviah Singer for example claims repentance and good works are a
sufficient substitute.
Each of these texts speak of the insufficiency of a blood
sacrifices by
itself without true repentance. Psalm 51.16 speaks of a sin so
egregious that Levitical atonement could not remove it.
The fact remains that as Michael Brown has well argued in some
detail
on the subject, the shedding of blood is essential for true
atonement,
see Numbers 25.13, 2 Samuel 24.25,
For ' it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.'
Leviticus
17.11
Even some Orthodox Jews recognise this and offer up an
unscriptural and
diminutive
chicken sacrifice (
kapporot)
near Yom Kippur, in the face of the devastating loss of the
Levitical
covenant in blood.
These words are
reportedly
said, '
This is my
exchange, this
is my substitute, this is my atonement.
This rooster/hen will go to its
death
(or this money will go to charity), while I will enter and
proceed to a
good long life and to peace.'
The Muslim feast of Eid al Adha, the holiest day in Islam's
calender is
a pale reflection of Yom Kippur and also unconsciously provides a
shadowy witness to this reality,
even though Muslims often deny the necessity of a blood atonement
for
sin - it also takes place on the 10th day of a lunar month.
- Substitutionary
atonement
When an offerer confesses his sin, lays his hands on the head of
the
animal to be offered then slits his throat and pours his blood
before
the altar,
who will deny that the animal has figuratively borne the
punishment and
curse of the offerer?
If the penalty of sin is, 'in the day you eat of it dying you
shall
die' how else can the sinner escape death but by the death of
another
to whom he is bound by covenant?
Was not this precisely what Moses and David requested, that they
might
be blotted out or die in place of the people they
represented?
Note how the Lord presses Moses to intercede (Ex 32:10) and Moses
block
the way to their judgement with his own life Ex. 32.32,
2 Sam 24.17 (David's last recorded act in Samuel) 2 Sa 18:33 (on
behalf
of his vile son).
Why did God punish David's son for his trangression, (2
Sam.12.13-14)
when he forbids earthly judges from the same (Deut 24.16)?
Note again how one man's death was taken as an atonement for many
others. Num. 25.13-14.
- The
absolute
exaltation and eternal sovereignty of the Messiah, in
and to His
Father's pleasure
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
(
rwbg la), The
everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace.
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. 9.6-7 (5-6 in Hebrew))
A Psalm of David.
The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I
make
thine enemies thy footstool.
The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou
in
the midst of thine enemies. (Ps.110.1-2)
I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my
Son;
this day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance, and
the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in
pieces like a potter’s vessel.
Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the
earth. (Ps.2.7-10)
- The
necessity
of
an immediate surrender to and worship of the Messiah
for deliverance from sin
Serve the LORD
with
fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the
Son, lest
he be angry, and ye perish from the way,
when his
wrath is
kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their
trust in him.
(Ps.2.10-11)
Hebrew translations differ, but the Aramaic word for 'Son' is also
used
in Solomon's Proverbs.
What is the circumcision
of the heart needed by all?