Johnnie Ellington II August 18, 2015 at 2:29pm · THE TRINITY: FACT OR FICTION?

Johnnie Ellington II

August 18, 2015 at 2:29pm · 

THE TRINITY: FACT OR FICTION?

Johnnie Ellington II

August 18, 2015 at 2:26pm · 

THE MYTH OF GOD INCARNATE: THEOLOGICAL EXAMINATION

Let us diverge now from the historical aspects of this discussion and examine some of the

theological aspects. The whole doctrine of Jesus’ divinity has been thoroughly examined

in THE MYTH OF GOD INCARNATE (Ed. J. Hick, Westminister Press, 1977). This

important books is not readily available now. Therefore, I have quoted extensively from...

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Johnnie Ellington II

August 18, 2015 at 2:24pm · 

[Galatians 2:6-14]

We see here that initially it was James, Cephas and John who recognized Paul’s

authority. What about the other Jerusalem apostles? Were they the important and

prominent ones who wanted Paul to add to his teachings? If not, why were they not

mentioned? And what was he supposed to add? It is logical that these opponents were...

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Johnnie Ellington II

August 18, 2015 at 2:23pm · 

[Galatians 5:3-4]

One of the strongest pieces of evidence that Paul’s opponents were the original apostles

comes in Galatians 2:6-14:

Those who were regarded as important, however (and it makes

no difference to me how prominent they were-God plays no...

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Johnnie Ellington II

August 18, 2015 at 2:22pm · 

[Galatians 3:10]

In fact, the above verse shows that Paul actively fought against those who observed

Mosaic law. This is reinforced by the following verses:

“I point out once more to all who receive circumcision that they

are bound to the law in its entirety. Any of you who seek your...

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1 Ron Vance

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Johnnie Ellington II

August 18, 2015 at 2:21pm · 

Obviously, whoever Paul’s opponents were, they had authority that Paul felt he needed to

counteract. This is shown by the fact that he goes on by defending his own authority, and

then attacking those who apparently were preaching a return to Mosaic law:

“All who depend on observance of the law, on the other hand,

are under a curse.”

1 Ron Vance

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Johnnie Ellington II

August 18, 2015 at 2:21pm · 

As Paul continues, it is clear that those whom he refers to above as the ‘super-apostles’

are Hebrews whose authority he does not question, but he tries to match their

qualifications with his own: “Since many are bragging about their human distinctions, I

too will boast” (2 Cor. 11:18).

Brandon argues that Paul’s ‘super-apostles’ are indeed the original Apostles of Jesus

(Ibid., pp. 152-153):

Paul, curiously, despite his exceeding agitation over their activity, never names them.

Whoever they were, they were obviously Christians of great authority or representative of

leaders of great authority; for they were able to go among Paul’s own converts and

successfully present a rival interpretation of the faith. Moreover, although he is so

profoundly disturbed by their action, Paul never questions their authority as they did his.

These facts, taken together with Paul’s very evident embarrassment about his relations

with the leading Apostles at Jerusalem, point irresistibly to one conclusion only: that the

‘other gospel’, which opposes Paul’s own, was the interpretation of the nature and

mission of Jesus propounded by the Jerusalem Church, which comprised the original

Apostles of Jesus and eyewitnesses of his life.

Not all Biblical scholars agree that the ‘super apostles’ were the original apostles, and

that the ‘other gospel’ was that of the Jerusalem Church, but there is a very good case for

their being so. In fact, the very name ‘super apostles’ is evidence. Who else would fit

such a name?

The passage we quoted earlier from Acts 21:20-26 demonstrates that the original apostles

had differing views from Paul, and they had the authority to enforce those views, at least

by writing to the Gentile converts to “avoid meat sacrificed to idols, blood, the flesh of

strangled animals, and illicit sexual union.”

This is important because since Paul never met Jesus, he had no first hand knowledge of

Christ’s teachings. Yet most of what we know about the very early years of Christianity

comes from Paul’s letters. And the Gospel of Christ which has survived has come

through the Pauline tradition. All of this means that we do not know for certain what the

original followers of Jesus taught. And more importantly, we do not know how much of

Christ’s own teaching has reached us unflavored by Paul’s understanding.

One thing we do know is that the differences among the early members of the church

were deep and divisive. Paul’s letter to the Galatians makes that clear. Scathingly, Paul

exhorts his readers to stick to the gospel he had delivered to them:

“I am amazed that you are so soon deserting him who called you

in accord with his gracious design in Christ, and are going over

to another gospel.... For if even we, or an angel from heaven,

should preach to you a gospel not in accord with the one we

delivered to you, let a curse be upon him!”

[Galatians 1:6-8]

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Johnnie Ellington II

August 18, 2015 at 2:20pm · 

PAUL vs THE SUPER-APOSTLES

There are many indications in Paul’s letters that there were powerful and authoritative

opponents to his teachings. Paul wrote that these opponents were teaching a “gospel other

than the gospel you accepted” and preaching about “another Jesus:”

My fear is that, just as the serpent seduced Eve by his cunning,

your thoughts may be corrupted and you may fall away from

your sincere and complete devotion to Christ. I say this because

when someone comes preaching another Jesus than the one we

preached, or when you receive a different spirit than the one you

have received, or a gospel other than the gospel you accepted,

you seem to endure it quite well. I consider myself inferior to the

“super-apostles” in nothing.

[2 Corinthians 11:3-5]

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Johnnie Ellington II

August 18, 2015 at 2:19pm · 

The Alexandrians

pray to Jesus, whereas in Edessa all prayers are addressed solely to God the Father.... Both are

shocked at the practices and beliefs of the others.

Given this great diversity among early Christians, at what point did the doctrine of Jesus’

divinity actually develop? And what were the factors contributing to the spread and

eventual formalization of this doctrine?

Searching for the answers to these questions is especially difficult because there are no

known surviving documents from the ‘Mother Church’, the original Christian community

in Jerusalem. For an extensive discussion of this point, see S.G.F. Brandon’s book JESUS

AND THE ZEALOTS (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1967, pp. 148-159). We will review his

arguments in a few pages.

But first, we need to look more closely at the differences that Paul had with other

followers of Christ. Remember that Paul never met Jesus, nor did he study with the

original apostles. His knowledge of Jesus and his teachings came mostly through

personal inspiration. Hyam Maccoby states (THE MYTHMAKER. Harper and Row, 1987,

pp. 3-4):

Paul claimed that his interpretations were not just his own invention, but had come to him by

personal inspiration; he claimed that he had personal acquaintance with the resurrected Jesus,

even though he had never met him during his lifetime. Such acquaintance, he claimed, gained

through visions and transports, was actually superior to acquaintance with Jesus during his

lifetime, when Jesus was much more reticent about his purposes. Clearly Paul, however good his motivations, could not pass on to us the exact words or

actions of Jesus during the years he taught on earth. He had no way of knowing exactly

what they were.

It is inevitable that he would be in some conflict with those who were actually with Jesus

during those years. Their experiences and their memories of a flesh and blood man would

necessarily be different from the Jesus he knew from his visions

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Johnnie Ellington II

August 18, 2015 at 2:17pm · 

[Acts 21:20-26]

This passage shows that the early Jewish Christians continued to follow Jewish law,

circumcising their sons and keeping the traditions of their fathers. Some of them even

continued to take the Nazarite vow, as the four men whose heads were being shaved. This

Mosaic practice was one of dedicating oneself to God and following strict rules of purity

and sacrifice for a specified length of time. (See Numbers 6:1-21.)

Gentile converts, on the other hand, often did not follow the same set of rules. It is

apparent from the above verses that in the Jerusalem church they had only to abstain from

forbidden meats and adultery.

Besides differing practices, there were also many different understandings within the

early church concerning the true identity of Jesus. In fact, these differences were very

marked, and are eloquently expressed by Robert L. Wilken in THE MYTH OF

CHRISTIAN BEGINNINGS (Doubleday, 1971, pp. 165-166):

There were no set beliefs agreed on by all; nor were there any ground rules on how to

determine what to say or think or do; nor was there any acknowledged authority for deciding

such question (sic). Let us suppose that in the year A.D. 35 two men, Michael and Ephraim,

became Christians in Jerusalem; Michael went to the town of Edessa in Syria to live, and

Ephraim went to Alexandria in Egypt. On arrival in their respective cities, each told others

about the remarkable man Jesus. After telling their friends about Jesus, let us say Michael and

Ephraim organized Christian congregations. Almost immediately, problems would arise.

What should we do about the Jewish law? What should we do when we gather for worship?...

The questions were endless, and the Christians in Edessa and the Christians in Alexandria

would not answer all in the same way—the traditions Michael and Ephraim brought with

them were too embryonic, too undefined, to answer every new question or settle every

dispute. They had to make up their own minds as they understood their own situation and the

memories they brought with them.

Now let us change the scene to A.D. 75. Forty years have passed. In the meantime the Jews

have been defeated by the Romans, and Jerusalem has been destroyed. Also, the Christian

movement has spread widely and solidified its traditions. Let us now suppose that someone

from Edessa travels to Alexandria and learns that there is a Christian community there.... To

his surprise, he learns that they have little in common except a common loyalty to Jesus, and

the fragments of his words that have been handed on orally. And even the fragments of his

sayings are not in quite the form they are in Edessa. The visitor from Edessa discovers that the

Christians in Alexandria do not keep the Jewish law, whereas his congregation keeps it

exactly, admitting no one to the Christian community without circumcision. T

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Johnnie Ellington II

August 18, 2015 at 2:16pm · 

EARLY DIVERSITY

Even in the newborn church, immediately after Jesus’ death, there were major differences

among the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians. These are indicated in the New

Testament book of Acts. During his journeys, Paul went to Jerusalem, where he met with

James and the elders of the early church. In the next verses they are addressing him:

“You see brother, how many thousands of Jews have come to

believe, all of them staunch defenders of the law. Yet they have

been informed that you teach the Jews who live among the

Gentiles to abandon Moses, to give up the circumcision of their

children, and to renounce their customs. What are we to do

about your coming, of which they are sure to hear? Please do as

we tell you. There are four men among us who made a vow. Take

them along with you and join with them in their rite of

purification; pay the fee for the shaving of their heads. In that

way, everyone will know that there is nothing in what they have

been told about you, and that you follow the law yourself with due observance. As for the Gentile converts, we sent them a

letter with our decision that they were merely to avoid meat

sacrificed to idols, blood, the flesh of strangled animals, and

illicit sexual union.” Accordingly, Paul gathered the men

together and went through the rite of purification with them the

next day. Then he entered the temple precincts to give notice of

the day when the period of purification would be over, at which

time the offering was to be made for each of them.

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Johnnie Ellington II

August 18, 2015 at 2:15pm · 

WHERE DID THE CONCEPT COME FROM?

...The source of your unity and election is genuine suffering which you undergo by the will of

the Father and of Jesus Christ, our God. Hence you deserve to be considered happy....you are

imitators of God; and it was God’s blood that stirred you up once more to do the sort of thing

you do naturally and have now done to perfection.

—Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch

Within a hundred years, the concept of Jesus as God was already well established. Bishop

Ignatius was the second bishop of Antioch. He was killed around 100 A.D. The above

excerpt is from his letter to the Ephesians (EARLY CHRISTIAN FATHERS, C. C.

Richardson, ed., Macmillan, 1970, pp. 87-88).

It is important to examine how and why the concept of Jesus as God developed and

became accepted. That understanding helps us to assess our own beliefs. For that reason,

this chapter will give you some historical and theological perspective on the development

of this idea of Jesus as God incarnate. The concept developed very early, but it was not

universally accepted among the vanguard of Christianity. There was great diversity

among early Christians.

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Johnnie Ellington II

August 18, 2015 at 2:11pm · 

The facts that (1) Mr. Schroeder's soul departed on the 19th day after the operation, and (2) his body survived for 19 months, are uncanny reminders that God wanted the world to know the parallel between Schroeder's situation, and the proven account of Jesus' departure prior to the arrest, torture, and crucifixion of his soulless body.

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Johnnie Ellington II

August 18, 2015 at 2:10pm · 

The Savior said to me, "He whom you saw on the tree, glad and laughing, this is the living Jesus. But this one into whose hands and feet they drive the nails is the fleshly part. [Apocalypse of Peter, VII, 3, 81] from THE NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY (Harper & Row, 1977, James M. Robinson, ed, Page 339)

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Johnnie Ellington II

August 18, 2015 at 2:09pm · 

Herod was extremely pleased to see Jesus. From the reports about him he had wanted for a long time to see him, and he was hoping to see him work some miracles. He questioned Jesus at considerable length, but Jesus made no response. The chief priests and scribes were at hand to accuse him vehemently. Herod and his guards then treated him with contempt and insult. [ Luke 23:8-11 ]