The Voice of Jesus

The world bombards us with so much information and distraction that sometimes it’s hard to hear the voice of Jesus. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could actually hear His voice and separate it from the torrent of media noise coming our way? The sound of Jesus’ voice often seems faint compared to all the news we hear about wars and pandemics, inflation and economic collapse, crimes, natural disasters and political crises. All these things are coming at us through an almost endless variety of technologies and it seems like we are awash in an ocean of news, entertainment and information. It would do most of us a lot of good if we learned how to hear the voice of Jesus instead of all the noise and distraction the world sends our way.

Theological Noise

There’s another kind of noise that also makes it hard to hear the sound of Jesus’ voice. It’s helpful to think of the ancient dogmas coming our way from the church fathers as a kind of “theological noise” that can also drown out Jesus’ voice. I like to watch nature shows on TV and am amazed by the way a mother seal or penguin finds her own offspring in a noisy colony full of hungry shrieking babies. Somehow or another she hears the sound of her own baby and that baby hears and recognizes her voice! It’s just a miracle… and it’s a miracle too that we can even hear the voice of Jesus over the all the theological noise that surrounds us.

Scripture is the Sound of Jesus’ Voice

Jesus meant it when He said, “My sheep hear my voice…” (John 10:27) Above the noise of the world and church traditions there remains the sound of Jesus’ voice and it’s still possible to hear it if you dare. His voice continues to echo through the centuries and hallways of history and His sheep still hear it today. Scripture is the sound of Jesus’ voice and His sheep delight to hear Him. His words cut through the proud religious traditions of men now just like they did when He walked in Israel. His words also cut through all the philosophical nonsense that forms the heart of trinitarian dogma.

The Voice of Tradition is Not the Voice of Jesus

Our most sacred tradition (the trinity) declares that God is three co-equal persons who share the same divine substance. This is the united voice of the church fathers and councils and it still shouts loudly in Christendom today. Modern theologians and scholars simply echo the ancient thoughts and words of the church fathers and for the most part their voices are the only voices allowed in our churches. It is fair to say that their voice is the voice of tradition, but the voice of tradition is not the voice of Jesus.

The Voice of Jesus Never Said God is Three Persons

The voice of Jesus never said God is three persons or anything remotely like it. His words are simple, straightforward and clear. He taught that the most important thing, the first and greatest commandment of all is this: “Hear O Israel! The LORD our God is One LORD.” (Mark 12:29) This is the main thing! Don’t ever forget it…. no matter what you hear from creeds, councils, church fathers, traditions or the denominations that want you to listen to their voice. “The LORD our God is One LORD.” “For us (Christians) there is one God, the Father and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (I Timothy 2:5)

Whose Voice Should We Listen To?

“There are, it may be, so many voices in the world and none of them is without significance.” (I Corinthians 14:10) All we have to do is figure out which voice we should listen to. Should we listen to the voice of the church fathers in the triune creeds they imposed on the Body of Christ? Or should we listen to the voice of Jesus Christ as recorded in scripture? Whose voice we should listen to? To us it just makes sense to listen to Jesus and ignore all the noise of human traditions.

PS: It took this old retired pastor almost 50 years of study and searching to find a clear and Biblical alternative to the trinity. I confess to being a little slow. Ultimately I arrived at the immensely satisfying and solidly Biblical understanding of God and Christ we speak of on this website and that some call Biblical Unitarianism. I hope it doesn’t take you that long! If this teaching brings you peace and blessing please spread the word and share a link to www.wonderfultheology.com with someone else soon! (they might not have 50 years left). God Bless.

Click for the Home Page

Consider the Lilies

God’s Creations Are Beautiful and Perfect

Consider what God creates and you’ll see that, “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). When the world was created “God saw everything He had made and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). “Consider the lilies of the field… even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matthew 6:29). We are surrounded by an incredible amount of beauty that was bestowed upon us by the marvelous hand of God. We are blessed with sunrises and sunsets, blue skies and rainbows, birdsong and butterfly. The scents and colors of flowers, still waters in the moonlight and a night sky ablaze with stars… these things all belong to us! We look around us at God’s creation and see perfection. Incredibly beautiful and amazing perfection… because that’s how God does things.

Man’s Creations Are Flawed

When you consider what man creates it’s a different story altogether. We build concrete cities and highways lined with billboards. Instead of “dressing and keeping” this garden earth we have polluted and scarred it. Most of man’s creations are flawed, deeply flawed. We make weapons of war and have created a world marked by violence and crime, pollution, corruption, wars and greed. God knows we cause a lot of trouble! Our fallen natures are the cause of untold misery and suffering. Look around at what mankind has created and you’ll see far more ugliness than beauty. Sadly though, that’s just how humanity does things.

Scripture is Beautiful

When it comes to spiritual things we see the same pattern. God conveys beautiful truths in the revelation we call the Bible. Scripture speaks of God poetically and in strikingly powerful language. We know God as the Ancient of Days and the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity. Our Father is the Alpha and Omega, The Creator, A Man of War and our Shepherd, Redeemer and Judge. He is Yahweh, the God of Israel and His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ is our Messiah and Savior. The revelation of God and His Son in scripture is a work of divine artistry… beautiful, eternal and perfect! Scripture is beautiful because that’s how God does things.

Creeds Are Ugly

If you consider the “official” creeds of the church it’s easy to see just how ugly these man-breathed writings are in comparison to the lofty beauty of scripture. The heavens (and scripture) declare the glory of God and fill us with hope. Creeds are as dry and lifeless as a software manual and are filled to the brim with human pride and threat. (The Athanasian Creed is a great example of this.) Part of the ugliness of creeds is all the violence and division they have caused within the Body of Christ.

Filthy Rags of Human Pride

Please remember this, “All our righteousness is as filthy rags.” The things men create (creeds) that pretend to be as authoritative as God’s Word are just filthy rags too and they will not save you. Reciting the creeds faithfully every Sunday won’t do you any good. People who heard Jesus speak said “No man ever spake like this man!” His words are Spirit and they are Life and only His words can give us beauty for ashes. All you will get from the trinitarian dogma of the creeds is ashes in exchange for the filthy rags of human pride and philosophy.

Let Beauty Be Your Inheritance

Let beauty be your inheritance and choose scripture instead of creeds. We know and believe that “God has made everything beautiful in its time” and someday He will “beautify the meek with salvation.” (Psalms 149:4) There is coming a time when everything will be made new and beautiful and when that happens we don’t think there will be a creed in sight.

Click for the Home Page

Sola Scriptura…. Really?

The phrase “sola scriptura” is tossed around a lot these days. I hear it in conversations with believers who are defending their beliefs and see it frequently on church home pages. It’s a well known Latin phrase that simply means “scripture alone” and it does have a nice ring to it. Many Christians like to boast that “the Bible is my only authority!” We wish that were true, but sometimes we wonder. How about you? Do you believe in sola scriptura…. really?

Is the Trinity Sola Scriptura?

Let’s take a look at what is arguably the single most important doctrine in modern Christendom and see if it passes the “sola scriptura” test or not. It’s a teaching from our creeds about the nature of God and it’s widely used as a litmus test for orthodoxy. If you question or object to its dogma you’ll likely be written off as a heretic, a wing nut, or at the very least, someone way out on the fringe. Yes, you guessed it! I’m talking about the trinity, our beloved and venerable Holy Trinity. In this article we ask if the trinity is really consistent with the principle of sola scriptura… or is it simply a Christian sacred cow with no real basis in scripture?

Find These Words in Scripture!

If the trinity is scriptural you should be able to find it in the Bible pretty easily by finding the words “three persons”, “triune” or “trinity” in the scriptures. The trinity is built on words and ideas like co-equal, co-eternal, persons, substance, essence, hypostasis, and homoousious. A good concordance could help you find these words in scripture without much effort and prove the trinity is consistent with sola scriptura. All you have to do is find these words in scripture! If the words and ideas that men have used to build the trinity are really consistent with sola scriptura they must be in God’s Word somewhere! But they are not. None of them. None at all. Not even one. Why not? Could it be because the trinity has a lot do to with our creeds but has little or nothing to do with scripture?

Choose Sola Scriptura or Choose the Trinity

The lack of scriptural references to support the trinity creates a problem doesn’t it? Some try to minimize the problem and say, “So what! What’s the big deal?” Well, it is a big deal and here’s the issue. Do you believe in the creeds or do you believe in scripture alone? The dilemma you face is that you can’t have it both ways. You can’t have your doctrinal cake and eat it too. Choose sola scriptura or choose the trinity of the creeds but you can’t honestly have both. Either throw out the archaic creeds that gave us the trinity or throw out the whole idea of sola scriptura.

Choose You This Day Whom You Will Serve

I’m reminded of the time when Joshua confronted Israel with these words: “Choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15) The man chosen to lead Israel didn’t leave them much room for waffling around. The edges of the decision were sharp and the choice before them was stark. Choose your old and familiar religion or serve YHWH in sincerity. Perhaps God has brought all of us to the kingdom for such a time as this and now insists that we too make a choice. Choose scripture or choose an old and familiar man-breathed creed. As for me and a growing number of believers, I think we’ll go with sola scriptura. Why not join us? You’ll be glad you did.

Click for the Home Page

Jesus Christ… the God-Man?

The Dual Nature of Jesus Christ

The dual nature of Jesus Christ is a central teaching of both Trinitarian and Oneness (Monarchian) theology. In both beliefs it is commonly said that Jesus is both fully God and fully man. Trinitarians believe Jesus is one of the divine “persons” in God who visited our world during His incarnation while Oneness proponents believe Jesus is the Father Himself incarnate. Both views advocate for the “God in a human body” position and both have developed some pretty fancy theological footwork to explain and defend their doctrine. Trinitarians use the concept of a hypostatic union while Oneness believers endorse the same teaching without labeling it a hypostatic union. Both views teach belief in Jesus Christ… the God-Man.

A Schizophrenic Vision of God?

Some very clever church fathers once came up with the notion of an “impersonal human nature” for Jesus Christ to support their belief in the trinity. They obliterated the essential humanity of Christ by declaring that He is “man” but not “a man”. This approach completely does away with the idea that Jesus was actually an individual human being like the rest of us. Oneness belief states that Jesus sometimes spoke as man and other times spoke as God and it’s up to us to decide which is which. No matter how they explain it both of these positions leave us with a schizophrenic vision of God and Christ that is unbiblical and ultimately incomprehensible.

“God in a Body” Belief Systems

Ceasar's were also seen as incarnate gods Egyptian pharoh's were incarnate gods These dual nature “God in a body” belief systems have some very ancient roots. The earliest records we have of “God-man” thinking can be traced all the way back to Egypt. The Egyptians believed that pharoah was God on earth in a human body! It isn’t at all surprising that later Alexandrian philosophers, refined and “Christianized” what was originally a pagan idea. The Romans likewise ascribed divinity to their Caesars just like the Egyptians. The theologians of Rome inserted this old “God-man” idea into their Christianity. We are left with the conclusion that Trinitarian and Oneness beliefs drink deeply from a river of pagan thought that flowed first through Egypt and later through Rome.

A Man Who Has Told You the Truth

Jesus Christ was not an abstract repository of humanity and divinity. He plainly declared Himself to be “a man who has told you the truth”. Christ was born, and lived, and died as one of us. He was not an abstract man with an “impersonal human nature.” Jesus was “a man” and more than that… He was a perfect man. He was crucified for our sake and then rose from the dead as the firstborn of God’s great redemptive plan. Now He invites us to join Him. What marvelous grace that God would invite us to share in the immortality of His only begotten Son!

PS: The simple message of God and Christ almost looks foolish compared to the intellectual sophistication of the “Church Fathers”. No matter, “The foolishness of God is wiser than men…” (I Cor 1:25) Trinitarian scholars are clever indeed but perhaps “Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” ( II Timothy 3:7)

Click for the Home Page

A Fable for Thirsty Souls

In Another Time and Another Place

In another time and another place there was a young man who found himself born on the shores of a lake more beautiful and refreshing than he could describe in words (though he would often try). How he had come to be there was something of a mystery only truly understood by the Master of the Waves who owned the water of life. Somehow the young man understood that his life near the waters had to do with memories of a terrible and killing thirst. Mostly though, he had simply learned to love the One who filled the waves and sent the gentle breezes to him, and who gave him the sweet stillness of the morning and the evening.

The God of the Waters

In the course of time he came to know that the waters were truly his, and would always be his. The Master had even given him a fountain, one that he could take with him into the dryness where men still went mad and died from the killing thirst that he himself had known. It seemed that the feel of the water and its fragrance, even its sounds as it splashed about him had become the very stuff of his life. When the God of the Waters had fully satisfied the young one He sent him back into the dry places with the assurance that his small fountain would be enough to cure even the worst of the killing thirsts. Even the nearly dead and delirious could make their way to the shores of his beloved lake if they would only take a sip.

The Property Owners Association

No one told him about the Property Owners Association. These were people who claimed to own the lake and the right to determine who got to swim, and when and where and for how long. They even claimed to speak for the Master of the Waves and insisted that the young swimmer pay more attention to cleaning up their portion of the lake than to the water itself. Worse than that they insisted that the cure for the killing thirsts was just tidying things up a bit and going to work on the property owners’ pet projects. And do you know what? The young man was so naive and gullible, and they were so insistent and their leader so forceful that he believed them!

After Many Long Years

After many long years of intense labor the young man had such an odd thing happen to him… one day he somehow managed to get the scent of his beloved waters once again. It was so unexpected, and so welcome. Actually, it made him realize that his little fountain had nearly dried up and that he had begun to feel the effects of the killing thirsts all over again. He realized then that he didn’t really belong to the Property Owners Association and didn’t want to belong and had done enough of their projects to last him a lifetime. More than that though, it was the water that drew him. Just the smell of it and the feel of it and the refreshing it brought him.

The Master of the Waves

The Master of the Waves, how good it was to see HIM again and to know His stillness and His gentle breezes. And the young man decided he had learned a valuable lesson. The Lake belonged to the Master after all, and the Property Owners Association really didn’t have much to do with the water, or with the Master either.

PS: This was written in hopes that it might be a blessing to all who have been bound by the chains of legalism. The author experienced these chains himself and is grateful to God for being set free. May God grant you peace and an abundant supply of living water for your journey.