Build on the Solid Rock
- It is wise to build your life on solid rock, not sand.
- This requires digging down to the true teachings of the Light of the World sent by God.
- It means returning to the original faith and the original gospel of Jesus Christ.
1. The Spirit of Antichrist: Resisting Scriptural Plurality
- A spirit of antichrist appears wherever people resist the scriptural witness that more than one heavenly power exists.
- Many ancient and modern Christian traditions:
- reshape God into a single undifferentiated being,
- compress the Father, the risen Son, and the Holy Spirit into one being.
- This leads to:
- a faith grounded in philosophical systems rather than Scripture,
- loss of the clarity once delivered to the apostles,
- confusion for seekers who desire truth.
2. How the Trinity Developed
- Early Christians attempted to hold together:
- (a) a post–first-century Jewish teaching insisting God is strictly one; insisting that no other gods really exist, insisting on this kind of monotheism
- (b) the conviction that Jesus and the Holy Spirit participate in divine life.
- Classical Trinitarianism asserts:
- one divine being, one God,
- eternally existing as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons
- Problems with this framework:
- heavy reliance on Greek philosophical ‘categories’ (philosophical concepts such as essence, hypostasis, substance),
- not a straightforward reading of Scripture or Jewish law,
- a shared essence does not make multiple beings numerically one.
- Example:
- One and two are both numbers (same essence) but remain two separate realities. In reality one is not equal to two (even if both are equally numbers). They are not a single number.
3. The Scriptural Alternative: Two Real Divine Powers
- Many believers hold that:
- the Father is a real, distinct being,
- the risen Son is also real and alive forever.
- Scripture teaches:
- the Father holds supreme authority,
- the Son submits eternally and willingly,
- their unity is one of purpose and truth—not identity.
- Evidence appears clearly in:
- the Book of Revelation,
- other New Testament writings.
4. Revelation From the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
- God reveals this truth to faithful followers of Jesus.
- Jesus Himself can reveal it.
- The Holy Spirit confirms and teaches it.
- Philosophical mergers of Father, Son, and Spirit:
- obscure Scripture,
- confuse seekers,
- replace joyful faith with abstract complexity.
5. Jesus’ Teachings Challenge Strict Numerical Monotheism
- Jesus used Jewish legal requirements of two witnesses:
- identifying Himself and His Father as two witnesses.
- This requires two distinct beings, each with their own freedom to act and testify independently, as individual beings (‘with agency’, as theology would put it); otherwise the law is not satisfied.
- When charged with blasphemy:
- He quoted, “I said, you are gods.”
- Note that Scripture itself acknowledges divine plurality.
- Jesus showed:
- plurality does not diminish the Most High,
- acknowledging multiple divine powers is fully compatible with Scripture.
- His divinity is the kind in which there can be many gods.
6. Re-reading Scripture Through This Lens
- Instead of one essence / three persons, we see:
- one supreme God (the Father),
- granting authority to another divine power (His Son).
- This fits:
- Jesus’ two-witness argument,
- Psalm 82’s plural “gods,”
- Daniel 7’s vision of the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man.
- This view:
- allows Jesus to be called a god,
- preserves real distinction between Father and Son,
- explains their perfect relational, moral, and volitional unity.
7. The Stolen “Key of Knowledge”
- Those who collapse Father and Son into one being:
- “steal the key of knowledge,”
- refuse to accept more than one heavenly power,
- prevent others from entering this truth.
- In contrast:
- Faith in Jesus as the second power in heaven—the true Son of God—is the door into the righteous way.
- That way leads to:
- learning His teachings,
- obeying His commands,
- finding truth,
- and thus receiving freedom from wrongdoing.
- This is salvation from doom.
8. The Gospel of the Second Power in Heaven
- Jesus Christ:
- the second power in heaven,
- the true Son of God,
- alive forever,
- yet also human,
- died on a cross for you.
- His death:
- satisfied the righteous requirement of God,
- turned aside God’s anger toward your sin,
- purifies those who believe.
- God accepted the sacrifice and:
- raised Him from the dead,
- anointed Him with the oil of joy beyond all others.
9. The Work of the Holy Spirit in Believers
- When you believe this message:
- God may work miracles in your life,
- God may give the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth,
- the Holy Spirit imparts real purification.
- The Holy Spirit is:
- a seal on believers,
- marking them as members of the body of Christ, God’s Son.
- Those who belong to Jesus:
- He saves,
- and He leads His disciples into eternal life.
10. Freedom Through Grace and Truth
- The grace and truth given to all who believe and learn from Jesus
is the power that sets a person free from the slavery of wrongdoing.
CHRIST DIED FOR YOU.
