Superheroes Can’t Save You: An Epic Example of the Historic Heresy of Unitarianism
Feb 24, 2020 20:18:41 #
I apologize in advance for the length of this but this is a detailed study refuting the false teaching of Unitarianism. Parky60
PART 1
Superheroes Can’t Save You: An Epic Example of the Historic Heresy of Unitarianism
Todd Miles
Much of life is devoted to pursuing rings. Not necessarily because of what they actually are, but because of what they represent. Rings are symbols of the fulfillment of our greatest dreams and commitments. Whether they be class rings, championship rings, wedding rings, or just gaudy, sparkly rings that show off wealth and misplaced priorities, there are very few people who have not been motivated by the prospect of receiving and wearing a ring of some kind. Rings have always been powerful symbols, and this is largely regardless of culture or time.
So, it is only natural that rings would become powerful talismans in stories and legends. Of course, the greatest use of rings was by J. R. R. Tolkien in his epic trilogy and my all-time favorite book, The Lord of the Rings. In it, rings of power figure prominently, and the entire story is dedicated to the destruction of “the One Ring,” a device of power so great and evil that the only hope for Middle Earth is to destroy it.
For my own part, I have desired only three kinds of rings: I happily wear a wedding ring that symbolizes my marriage and commitment to my wife; it has been at least a couple of years since I outgrew my need for a secret decoder ring; and I am still waiting on a ring that grants me superpowers.
Superheroes are no strangers to rings of power. They provide an opportunity for otherwise ordinary human beings to be granted incredible power and abilities. The most famous example of such a superhero is DC’s Green Lantern.
Hal Jordan, Green Lantern’s alter ego, was a good guy by anyone’s standards: brave, honest, and compassionate. As a child, he idolized his father, Martin Jordan, a test pilot for Ferris Aircraft. But when young Hal witnessed his father’s death in a plane crash, he was traumatized. His lifelong plan to follow in his father’s footsteps was severely tested. In an act of extraordinary courage, Hal swallowed his fear and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force immediately after his eighteenth birthday, eventually becoming a test pilot himself for his father’s old company.
Meanwhile, the universe is continuously protected by an intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps. Each member of this select group of beings from different planets across the cosmos is empowered by a ring, an amulet of incomprehensible power that is controlled by the will of the bearer. The one wearing the ring can do pretty much anything, creating whatever the bearer wishes out of pure “Oan” energy—energy from the planet Oa, where the rings originated. The only limitations are the imagination, skill, and, most important, will of those who wield the rings.
So, it follows that Oan energy is really just a tangible form of willpower. The ring does have to be “recharged” periodically by a green lantern (hence the name of the Superhero), which links the ring to the original power source on Oa. The recharging is not instantaneous, so the Green Lanterns typically pass the time by reciting the Green Lantern oath. The oath is not a magical formula, but is really a sort of creed that serves to steel the ring bearer’s will for future missions.
Unbeknownst to Jordan, one member of the Green Lantern Corps, named Abin Sur, was mortally wounded while on mission, forcing an emergency landing on the nearest planet, Earth. The dying Sur knew that he had to find a replacement, so he used the ring to find an earthling who had the courage and character necessary to be a member of the Corps. Out of all the people on Earth, the ring found Jordan, who took the ring, joined the Green Lantern Corps, and eventually became a founding member of the Justice League of America, DC Comics’ superhero team.
There are two very important points to remember about Green Lantern: First, the secret to Green Lantern’s power is the ring. Jordan has courage and strength and other human attributes we commonly associate with heroism, but what makes him a superhero is the ring. Apart from it, Hal Jordan is just a man.
But with the ring, what a hero he is. The Green Lantern rings are commonly understood to be the most powerful weapons in the entire DC universe. They appear to be omnipotent since a limit to what they can do has never been found. They are able to construct anything that the bearer imagines from that distinctive strange green energy. Green Lantern uses the ring to fly and to do all of his fighting. The ring can channel energy and bend light waves, rendering the superhero invisible. By his merely thinking of something, the ring creates it, whether it be a giant fist or an energy gun with seemingly unlimited range. The objects created only last as long as the superhero wills them to do so.
Second, it is important to remember that the ring found and chose Hal Jordan due to his character, courage, and the strength of his will. Not just anybody can be a superhero. It takes a unique person, with very specific qualities, and not every planet can boast of qualified applicants. When Jordan was selected, it was determined that there were only one or two others on the entire planet eligible to bear the ring. In the case of Jordan, the act of swallowing his fear and hopping into the cockpit of a plane, despite his family tragedy, set him apart from everybody else. He had demonstrated a will of steel and was thus worthy to wear the talisman.
So, Hal Jordan, a human being, was given a source of remarkable and seemingly limitless power due to his character, courage, and strength of will. And by this time, you will not be surprised to hear that many people have the same idea about Jesus. To them, Jesus was a regular human being possessed of extraordinary piety and devotion to God. Because of that piety, God chose Jesus, adopted him as his son, and gave him a “talisman of power,” the Holy Spirit. Armed and directed by the Spirit of God, Jesus did amazing things for God throughout his life, until his mission was ended by his death on the cross.
I call such thinking the Green Lantern heresy, and it has been around for a very long time. In fact, it is probably the earliest of the bad ideas about Jesus.
The Heresy
Modern-day Adoptionists (or Green Lantern heretics) are the Unitarians. Unitarian beliefs can be traced back to the late 1500s, when an Italian man named Lelio Sozzini, and his nephew Fausto Sozzini, dismissed the Trinity, teaching that there is only one God—God the Father. To them, talk of an incarnation and Jesus being fully man and fully divine was impossible to reconcile with modern science and philosophy (or whatever the 1500s versions of science and philosophy were). They denied the preexistence of the Son of God. To them, Jesus was a mere man who was adopted by God and then endowed with divine powers. The Sozzinis did teach that Jesus eventually died on the cross, but not to atone for human sin. Instead, his death was exemplary, merely an example of what living for God is worth. Christ’s death did bring about forgiveness on the part of God, but not because Jesus’s death paid an actual penalty for sin. (How could it, if Jesus Christ is not God?) Rather, Christ’s death was put forward by God to show what he thought of sin, and trust in Christ became the condition of God’s forgiveness. Why? No other reason was given other than because God said so.
The Sozzinis did not fare much better than other false teachers, though they created a big enough stink that they did have a heresy named after them—Socinianism. The Socinians did not have the benefit of a burly entourage, as Paul of Samosata did. Instead, they had to flee. They found refuge in Transylvania (of Dracula fame—no, I am not making this up) and later in Raków, Poland. Their followers grew into a sect, and their teaching was eventually written up in the Racovian Catechism. (If the Socinians had written the catechism from Transylvania instead of Raków, we would have the Transylvanian Catechism. And that would be a title creepy enough to match the danger of their ideas.)
Who Commits the Green Lantern Heresy Today?
The Socinian beliefs spread across western Europe and eventually made their way across the Atlantic to North America, taking the moniker Unitarian. The Unitarian name indicates the denial of the Trinity and the commitment to the oneness or “unity” of God. The Unitarian church in America got started in the 1700s and included such luminaries as presidents John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams, as well as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The Unitarian church still exists today. They prefer to call themselves “Unitarian” rather than “Socinian,” because putting the name of an old heresy on your church building is bad for business, a violation of seeker-sensitive strategies. Though they call themselves Unitarian, I prefer to call them Green Lantern heretics. Though I could probably be talked into calling them “Transylvanians.”
Unitarianism shares a lot in common with the Batman heresy (Christian liberalism), which we discussed in chapter 2. There are variations of Unitarianism, but all share an overemphasis on there being one God (monotheism) that leads to a denial that there are three persons in the Godhead (the Trinity). To Unitarians, Jesus Christ was a good man, an incredible teacher, and a wonderful life model who was uniquely empowered by God to do remarkable things (perhaps even some miracles, though most will say that they cannot be sure). Many modern Unitarians who have drifted from the teachings of the Socinians are also Universalists, believing that everybody will be saved regardless of religion, morality, life choices, or whether they have repented and believed in Christ.
But you do not have to be a member of a Unitarian church to fall prey to the Green Lantern heresy.
If you like Jesus and think he did miraculous things, but do not think that he was really God, you have landed in Green Lantern heresy territory.
If you acknowledge that Jesus Christ died for sins (but do not really know how), but wonder whether Jesus has what it takes to do much else with the evil in the world, you are probably dabbling in the Green Lantern heresy.
If you read the biblical passages that speak of Jesus being guided by the Holy Spirit or doing his miracles by the Holy Spirit and conclude that these are proof that Jesus was not divine, then you are squarely within the realm of the Green Lantern heresy.
And here is why . . .
end of PART 1
PART 1
Superheroes Can’t Save You: An Epic Example of the Historic Heresy of Unitarianism
Todd Miles
Much of life is devoted to pursuing rings. Not necessarily because of what they actually are, but because of what they represent. Rings are symbols of the fulfillment of our greatest dreams and commitments. Whether they be class rings, championship rings, wedding rings, or just gaudy, sparkly rings that show off wealth and misplaced priorities, there are very few people who have not been motivated by the prospect of receiving and wearing a ring of some kind. Rings have always been powerful symbols, and this is largely regardless of culture or time.
So, it is only natural that rings would become powerful talismans in stories and legends. Of course, the greatest use of rings was by J. R. R. Tolkien in his epic trilogy and my all-time favorite book, The Lord of the Rings. In it, rings of power figure prominently, and the entire story is dedicated to the destruction of “the One Ring,” a device of power so great and evil that the only hope for Middle Earth is to destroy it.
For my own part, I have desired only three kinds of rings: I happily wear a wedding ring that symbolizes my marriage and commitment to my wife; it has been at least a couple of years since I outgrew my need for a secret decoder ring; and I am still waiting on a ring that grants me superpowers.
Superheroes are no strangers to rings of power. They provide an opportunity for otherwise ordinary human beings to be granted incredible power and abilities. The most famous example of such a superhero is DC’s Green Lantern.
Hal Jordan, Green Lantern’s alter ego, was a good guy by anyone’s standards: brave, honest, and compassionate. As a child, he idolized his father, Martin Jordan, a test pilot for Ferris Aircraft. But when young Hal witnessed his father’s death in a plane crash, he was traumatized. His lifelong plan to follow in his father’s footsteps was severely tested. In an act of extraordinary courage, Hal swallowed his fear and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force immediately after his eighteenth birthday, eventually becoming a test pilot himself for his father’s old company.
Meanwhile, the universe is continuously protected by an intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps. Each member of this select group of beings from different planets across the cosmos is empowered by a ring, an amulet of incomprehensible power that is controlled by the will of the bearer. The one wearing the ring can do pretty much anything, creating whatever the bearer wishes out of pure “Oan” energy—energy from the planet Oa, where the rings originated. The only limitations are the imagination, skill, and, most important, will of those who wield the rings.
So, it follows that Oan energy is really just a tangible form of willpower. The ring does have to be “recharged” periodically by a green lantern (hence the name of the Superhero), which links the ring to the original power source on Oa. The recharging is not instantaneous, so the Green Lanterns typically pass the time by reciting the Green Lantern oath. The oath is not a magical formula, but is really a sort of creed that serves to steel the ring bearer’s will for future missions.
Unbeknownst to Jordan, one member of the Green Lantern Corps, named Abin Sur, was mortally wounded while on mission, forcing an emergency landing on the nearest planet, Earth. The dying Sur knew that he had to find a replacement, so he used the ring to find an earthling who had the courage and character necessary to be a member of the Corps. Out of all the people on Earth, the ring found Jordan, who took the ring, joined the Green Lantern Corps, and eventually became a founding member of the Justice League of America, DC Comics’ superhero team.
There are two very important points to remember about Green Lantern: First, the secret to Green Lantern’s power is the ring. Jordan has courage and strength and other human attributes we commonly associate with heroism, but what makes him a superhero is the ring. Apart from it, Hal Jordan is just a man.
But with the ring, what a hero he is. The Green Lantern rings are commonly understood to be the most powerful weapons in the entire DC universe. They appear to be omnipotent since a limit to what they can do has never been found. They are able to construct anything that the bearer imagines from that distinctive strange green energy. Green Lantern uses the ring to fly and to do all of his fighting. The ring can channel energy and bend light waves, rendering the superhero invisible. By his merely thinking of something, the ring creates it, whether it be a giant fist or an energy gun with seemingly unlimited range. The objects created only last as long as the superhero wills them to do so.
Second, it is important to remember that the ring found and chose Hal Jordan due to his character, courage, and the strength of his will. Not just anybody can be a superhero. It takes a unique person, with very specific qualities, and not every planet can boast of qualified applicants. When Jordan was selected, it was determined that there were only one or two others on the entire planet eligible to bear the ring. In the case of Jordan, the act of swallowing his fear and hopping into the cockpit of a plane, despite his family tragedy, set him apart from everybody else. He had demonstrated a will of steel and was thus worthy to wear the talisman.
So, Hal Jordan, a human being, was given a source of remarkable and seemingly limitless power due to his character, courage, and strength of will. And by this time, you will not be surprised to hear that many people have the same idea about Jesus. To them, Jesus was a regular human being possessed of extraordinary piety and devotion to God. Because of that piety, God chose Jesus, adopted him as his son, and gave him a “talisman of power,” the Holy Spirit. Armed and directed by the Spirit of God, Jesus did amazing things for God throughout his life, until his mission was ended by his death on the cross.
I call such thinking the Green Lantern heresy, and it has been around for a very long time. In fact, it is probably the earliest of the bad ideas about Jesus.
The Heresy
Modern-day Adoptionists (or Green Lantern heretics) are the Unitarians. Unitarian beliefs can be traced back to the late 1500s, when an Italian man named Lelio Sozzini, and his nephew Fausto Sozzini, dismissed the Trinity, teaching that there is only one God—God the Father. To them, talk of an incarnation and Jesus being fully man and fully divine was impossible to reconcile with modern science and philosophy (or whatever the 1500s versions of science and philosophy were). They denied the preexistence of the Son of God. To them, Jesus was a mere man who was adopted by God and then endowed with divine powers. The Sozzinis did teach that Jesus eventually died on the cross, but not to atone for human sin. Instead, his death was exemplary, merely an example of what living for God is worth. Christ’s death did bring about forgiveness on the part of God, but not because Jesus’s death paid an actual penalty for sin. (How could it, if Jesus Christ is not God?) Rather, Christ’s death was put forward by God to show what he thought of sin, and trust in Christ became the condition of God’s forgiveness. Why? No other reason was given other than because God said so.
The Sozzinis did not fare much better than other false teachers, though they created a big enough stink that they did have a heresy named after them—Socinianism. The Socinians did not have the benefit of a burly entourage, as Paul of Samosata did. Instead, they had to flee. They found refuge in Transylvania (of Dracula fame—no, I am not making this up) and later in Raków, Poland. Their followers grew into a sect, and their teaching was eventually written up in the Racovian Catechism. (If the Socinians had written the catechism from Transylvania instead of Raków, we would have the Transylvanian Catechism. And that would be a title creepy enough to match the danger of their ideas.)
Who Commits the Green Lantern Heresy Today?
The Socinian beliefs spread across western Europe and eventually made their way across the Atlantic to North America, taking the moniker Unitarian. The Unitarian name indicates the denial of the Trinity and the commitment to the oneness or “unity” of God. The Unitarian church in America got started in the 1700s and included such luminaries as presidents John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams, as well as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The Unitarian church still exists today. They prefer to call themselves “Unitarian” rather than “Socinian,” because putting the name of an old heresy on your church building is bad for business, a violation of seeker-sensitive strategies. Though they call themselves Unitarian, I prefer to call them Green Lantern heretics. Though I could probably be talked into calling them “Transylvanians.”
Unitarianism shares a lot in common with the Batman heresy (Christian liberalism), which we discussed in chapter 2. There are variations of Unitarianism, but all share an overemphasis on there being one God (monotheism) that leads to a denial that there are three persons in the Godhead (the Trinity). To Unitarians, Jesus Christ was a good man, an incredible teacher, and a wonderful life model who was uniquely empowered by God to do remarkable things (perhaps even some miracles, though most will say that they cannot be sure). Many modern Unitarians who have drifted from the teachings of the Socinians are also Universalists, believing that everybody will be saved regardless of religion, morality, life choices, or whether they have repented and believed in Christ.
But you do not have to be a member of a Unitarian church to fall prey to the Green Lantern heresy.
If you like Jesus and think he did miraculous things, but do not think that he was really God, you have landed in Green Lantern heresy territory.
If you acknowledge that Jesus Christ died for sins (but do not really know how), but wonder whether Jesus has what it takes to do much else with the evil in the world, you are probably dabbling in the Green Lantern heresy.
If you read the biblical passages that speak of Jesus being guided by the Holy Spirit or doing his miracles by the Holy Spirit and conclude that these are proof that Jesus was not divine, then you are squarely within the realm of the Green Lantern heresy.
And here is why . . .
end of PART 1
Feb 24, 2020 20:30:08 #
PART 2
Superheroes Can’t Save You: An Epic Example of the Historic Heresy of Unitarianism
What Does the Bible Say?
The Scriptures paint a very different picture from that portrayed by the various advocates of the Green Lantern heresy. We have already covered in great detail the biblical teaching on the deity of the Son (see chapters 2-4). In those chapters, we learned that the Son of God is eternally the divine Son, coequal and coeternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. (We say “coequal” to demonstrate that the Son is completely equal in essence and divinity to the Father and the Spirit. We say “coeternal” to demonstrate that there has never been a time when the Son was not coequal with the Father and the Spirit.)
But the biblical teaching on the deity of the Son is not limited to what we have covered to this point. Far from it. Another crucial teaching is that Jesus was (and is) fully divine and yet was still dependent upon the Spirit of God.
Jesus Was Fully Divine: Paul addressed the issues that would be raised by the Green Lantern heresy full on when he wrote a letter to the church in Philippi. Apparently, the church in that first-century Macedonian city was struggling with disunity and pride. To counter this, Paul instructed:
Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross. Phil 2:5-8
Let’s break the passage down phrase by phrase:
Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus . . . Paul did not initially sit down to explain the ins and outs of the deity of Christ. But in response to a messy relational problem, Paul appealed to the person of Jesus. This is instructive because it tells us that theology matters. What we know about Jesus is not just important for winning a trivia game; what we know about Jesus affects the way we act. Paul’s instructions are clear: Be like Jesus. In particular, be humble like Jesus. And to explain just how humble Jesus Christ actually was, Paul dove straight into the deep end of the theological pool.
Who, existing in the form of God . . . Before Jesus Christ was born as a fully human baby in Bethlehem, the Son of God existed as God. The word “form” is best understood as essence. As I explained earlier, everything that it took to be God, the Son possessed. He was (and is) completely and fully God.
. . . did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead, he emptied himself . . . The Son enjoyed equality with God; that is, he had all the trappings and privileges of deity, the existence of divinity, being himself fully God. Imagine all the glory, honor, and majesty that rightly belong to the one who is God. Recall from chapter 2 the throne room of heaven, with fantastic beings created to praise and worship God. All this belonged to the Son. It was part of his everyday experience. But Paul taught that the Son did not leverage the fact that he was God for his own benefit, to avoid a tough assignment. Instead, we are told that the Son “emptied” himself. In the Greek language, the word translated “emptied” usually meant “poured out,” like what we would do with a pitcher of water.
Here is where it gets sticky. How did the Son of God “empty” himself? Does it mean that he stopped being divine? Does it mean that he divested himself of divine attributes? There have been some throughout history who have believed that this is exactly what Paul meant. During the 1800s, a group of men explicitly taught that the Son stopped being God when he became man, and they based it on this verse. There are two problems with this interpretation. First, as we will soon see, it is not what Paul actually taught; and second, if the Son had stopped being God when he became a man, then we are basically right back at the Batman heresy (and we already debunked that bad idea about Jesus in chapter 2).
No, rather than thinking that the Son divested himself of divine attributes, thereby ceasing to be God, we should keep reading in Philippians, because Paul tells us exactly how the Son of God “emptied” himself.
. . . by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man . . . Paul used three phrases to describe how Jesus emptied himself. Notice that in each case he “emptied” himself by adding to himself.
First, he took on the form of a servant. The word form is repeated, and we should again think of essence. Jesus took on the very nature, essence, and existence of a servant. That is, he became a true servant in every sense of the word.
Second, Jesus took on, was born in, the likeness of humanity. Like every human being after Adam and Eve, Jesus was born. As we discussed in chapter 1, Jesus’s virgin conception was extraordinary, but he was formed in the womb for nine months or so, like every other baby, and he was born (albeit with accompanying angelic choir) just like every other baby.
Third, Jesus came as a man. Literally, the text says, “being discovered in appearance as a man.” Jesus’s humanity was not a secret. It was there for all to see. The verdict on Jesus by all who saw and knew him was that he was what he appeared to be—a man.
Notice what Paul did not write: He did not write that Jesus emptied himself by giving up his divine nature and replacing it with a human nature. Rather, Jesus “emptied” himself by adding a human nature to himself. It was, if you will, subtraction by addition.
My professor and mentor Dr. Bruce Ware illustrates the concept of subtraction by addition in this way: Consider a brand-new Ferrari sitting in an auto showroom. The car is in mint condition, and the paint shines with a luster that magnifies all the power and glory of an expensive sports car. Now imagine somebody taking it for a test drive on a rainy day. But he does not stay on paved roads. He decides to check what is under the hood by taking the vehicle off-road. Not taking the time to run the car through a car wash, the driver returns the car caked in mud. The shine, glory, and luster of the car are now hidden by a thick layer of dirt. The car is still as powerful as before. Nothing has been taken away. But the glory is diminished (or veiled) by the addition of earthly sediment. Subtraction by addition.
He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross. Because Jesus took the very essence, nature, and existence of a servant, we should expect that Jesus would do the deeds consistent with a servant. In obedience to the decree of God the Father, the Son of God became a human and then kept on obeying the Father his entire life to the very end. And the end of his life was costly. Jesus obeyed the Father all the way to the cross.
Socinians, Unitarians, Adoptionists, and other advocates of the Green Lantern heresy would have you believe that Jesus was incredibly pious but just a mere human before his adoption as the Son. But Paul corrected that assertion by teaching that Jesus Christ existed as the Son both before and during the incarnation.
This is not to deny that the Holy Spirit was active in the life of Jesus Christ. Far from it, Jesus depended on the Holy Spirit to enable and empower his ministry. In fact, his very name and title, Jesus Christ, points to the priority of the Spirit in the life and ministry of Jesus.
Jesus Christ, Though Fully Divine, Depended on the Spirit of God. If you were to ask the people in your church, “What is it that makes Jesus the Christ?” what would they say? That he was the Son of God? He was the Son of David? He was the rightful King? All those answers are important facts, but none of them makes Jesus the Christ.
The names Christ and Messiah are based on transliterations of the Greek and Hebrew words, respectively, that mean “Anointed One.” So, Jesus is the Christ or Messiah because he was the Anointed One. But anointed with what?
In the Old Testament, when the Lord wanted to publicly designate someone for a missional office, he would have him anointed. Kings (most notably Saul in 1 Samuel 10 and David in 1 Samuel 16); priests (most notably Aaron and the priests in Exodus 30); and prophets (most notably Elisha in 1 Kings 19) were installed or consecrated through anointing with oil. In Israel’s economy, to be publicly anointed for ministry was a huge deal because it gave your calling gravitas and durability. Keep in mind that David refused to lift his hand against King Saul because he was “the LORD’s anointed,” literally, “the Lord’s Messiah” (e.g., 1 Sam 24:6; 26:9; 2 Sam 1:14; etc.).
So, it should come as no surprise that the Old Testament prophets pinned their hopes on a future anointed one, a champion, a king, a messiah, who would initiate the day of the Lord and save Israel. But it is with what, or should we say with whom, the Coming One is anointed that is eye-opening. The future savior of Israel would be anointed, not with oil, but with the Spirit of God. And the result would be marvelous.
Isaiah, some 700 years before the birth of Jesus, prophesied:
Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. His delight will be in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, he will not execute justice by what he hears with his ears, but he will judge the poor righteously and execute justice for the oppressed of the land. He will strike the land with a scepter from his mouth, and he will kill the wicked with a command from his lips. Righteousness will be a belt around his hips; faithfulness will be a belt around his waist. Isa 11:1-5
Note the enormous role that the Spirit is supposed to play in this future son of Jesse, a new and better David. The Spirit would bring wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, and fear of the Lord. These are all attributes that would be necessary to do all that the Lord required. Isaiah says much the same thing in 42:1-9, but it is what he predicted in chapter 61 that is the most gripping.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance. Isa 61:1-2
When Jesus began his public ministry, he went to the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth (see Luke 4:16-37). By this time, there was a buzz about Jesus that was circulating throughout Galilee. People were talking about Jesus’s teaching. So, when he showed up at the synagogue, it was only right that he be asked to teach. Receiving the scroll of Isaiah, Jesus turned to Isaiah 61 and began to read. Everybody who was in attendance had probably heard this passage so many times they knew it by heart. It contained promises that were the fulfillment of Israel’s greatest dreams. Think of it as the primary text of a Jewish Hope 101 class. One day the Lord would raise up one who, empowered by the Spirit, would bring peace, relief, and consolation to Israel by bringing about the day of God’s vengeance on his enemies. The Jewish people had suffered at the hands of foreign authoritarian rule for too long, but that would all end when the Lord sent his champion.
Strangely, Jesus stopped quoting Isaiah 61 in the middle of verse 2, finishing in the middle of a sentence, leaving out the part about proclaiming “the day of our God’s vengeance” and an additional clause, “to comfort all who mourn.” Then he methodically “rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him” (Luke 4:20). You could have cut the tension and anticipation in the air with a knife. What would he say? Jesus did not disappoint.
“Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled” (4:21).
What Jesus said was nothing less than “Israel, your wildest hopes and dreams have come true. Your prayers have been answered. The deepest desires of your hearts have been fulfilled. The Spirit-anointed one, the Messiah, has arrived. And I am he!”
The response was what you might expect. Happiness and joy. And then they remembered (or at least thought they did) who Jesus was. He had grown up in their midst, they knew his father Joseph, and he did not appear to bring the right messianic credentials to the table. After a few choice words from Jesus, the Nazarenes got so upset that they wanted to throw him off a mountain. Jesus was able to get away from the mob and (wisely) decided to set up headquarters someplace else.
Jesus saw himself as the fulfillment of God’s promise to anoint his Servant with the Holy Spirit. Remember our earlier question: What is it that makes Jesus the Christ? The answer is the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, because of his anointing by and with the Holy Spirit.
I challenge you to read through the Gospels, looking for the power of the Spirit in Jesus’s life, and I guarantee you will be amazed. You will wonder why you have never seen the priority role of the Spirit before. Jesus appears to do everything, at least everything of consequence, by and through the Spirit.
Here is a brief summary of all the Bible says that the Spirit did in the life of Christ: Jesus was conceived by the Spirit (Luke 1:34-35); Jesus was predicted and anticipated by the Spirit (Luke 2:25-27); the Spirit was primary at Jesus’s baptism (Matt 3:16); Jesus was recognized and identified by the Spirit (John 1:32-33); he was led by the Spirit (Luke 4:1-2); he taught by the Spirit (Luke 4:14-15); he directed through the Spirit (Acts 1:2); he was empowered by the Spirit to do miracles (Matt 12:22-32); he rejoiced in the Spirit (Luke 10:21); he went to the cross by the Spirit (Heb 9:14); and Jesus was raised by the Spirit (Rom 8:11). It might have been easier to list all the things that Jesus didn’t do by the Spirit!
end of PART 2
Superheroes Can’t Save You: An Epic Example of the Historic Heresy of Unitarianism
What Does the Bible Say?
The Scriptures paint a very different picture from that portrayed by the various advocates of the Green Lantern heresy. We have already covered in great detail the biblical teaching on the deity of the Son (see chapters 2-4). In those chapters, we learned that the Son of God is eternally the divine Son, coequal and coeternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. (We say “coequal” to demonstrate that the Son is completely equal in essence and divinity to the Father and the Spirit. We say “coeternal” to demonstrate that there has never been a time when the Son was not coequal with the Father and the Spirit.)
But the biblical teaching on the deity of the Son is not limited to what we have covered to this point. Far from it. Another crucial teaching is that Jesus was (and is) fully divine and yet was still dependent upon the Spirit of God.
Jesus Was Fully Divine: Paul addressed the issues that would be raised by the Green Lantern heresy full on when he wrote a letter to the church in Philippi. Apparently, the church in that first-century Macedonian city was struggling with disunity and pride. To counter this, Paul instructed:
Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross. Phil 2:5-8
Let’s break the passage down phrase by phrase:
Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus . . . Paul did not initially sit down to explain the ins and outs of the deity of Christ. But in response to a messy relational problem, Paul appealed to the person of Jesus. This is instructive because it tells us that theology matters. What we know about Jesus is not just important for winning a trivia game; what we know about Jesus affects the way we act. Paul’s instructions are clear: Be like Jesus. In particular, be humble like Jesus. And to explain just how humble Jesus Christ actually was, Paul dove straight into the deep end of the theological pool.
Who, existing in the form of God . . . Before Jesus Christ was born as a fully human baby in Bethlehem, the Son of God existed as God. The word “form” is best understood as essence. As I explained earlier, everything that it took to be God, the Son possessed. He was (and is) completely and fully God.
. . . did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead, he emptied himself . . . The Son enjoyed equality with God; that is, he had all the trappings and privileges of deity, the existence of divinity, being himself fully God. Imagine all the glory, honor, and majesty that rightly belong to the one who is God. Recall from chapter 2 the throne room of heaven, with fantastic beings created to praise and worship God. All this belonged to the Son. It was part of his everyday experience. But Paul taught that the Son did not leverage the fact that he was God for his own benefit, to avoid a tough assignment. Instead, we are told that the Son “emptied” himself. In the Greek language, the word translated “emptied” usually meant “poured out,” like what we would do with a pitcher of water.
Here is where it gets sticky. How did the Son of God “empty” himself? Does it mean that he stopped being divine? Does it mean that he divested himself of divine attributes? There have been some throughout history who have believed that this is exactly what Paul meant. During the 1800s, a group of men explicitly taught that the Son stopped being God when he became man, and they based it on this verse. There are two problems with this interpretation. First, as we will soon see, it is not what Paul actually taught; and second, if the Son had stopped being God when he became a man, then we are basically right back at the Batman heresy (and we already debunked that bad idea about Jesus in chapter 2).
No, rather than thinking that the Son divested himself of divine attributes, thereby ceasing to be God, we should keep reading in Philippians, because Paul tells us exactly how the Son of God “emptied” himself.
. . . by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man . . . Paul used three phrases to describe how Jesus emptied himself. Notice that in each case he “emptied” himself by adding to himself.
First, he took on the form of a servant. The word form is repeated, and we should again think of essence. Jesus took on the very nature, essence, and existence of a servant. That is, he became a true servant in every sense of the word.
Second, Jesus took on, was born in, the likeness of humanity. Like every human being after Adam and Eve, Jesus was born. As we discussed in chapter 1, Jesus’s virgin conception was extraordinary, but he was formed in the womb for nine months or so, like every other baby, and he was born (albeit with accompanying angelic choir) just like every other baby.
Third, Jesus came as a man. Literally, the text says, “being discovered in appearance as a man.” Jesus’s humanity was not a secret. It was there for all to see. The verdict on Jesus by all who saw and knew him was that he was what he appeared to be—a man.
Notice what Paul did not write: He did not write that Jesus emptied himself by giving up his divine nature and replacing it with a human nature. Rather, Jesus “emptied” himself by adding a human nature to himself. It was, if you will, subtraction by addition.
My professor and mentor Dr. Bruce Ware illustrates the concept of subtraction by addition in this way: Consider a brand-new Ferrari sitting in an auto showroom. The car is in mint condition, and the paint shines with a luster that magnifies all the power and glory of an expensive sports car. Now imagine somebody taking it for a test drive on a rainy day. But he does not stay on paved roads. He decides to check what is under the hood by taking the vehicle off-road. Not taking the time to run the car through a car wash, the driver returns the car caked in mud. The shine, glory, and luster of the car are now hidden by a thick layer of dirt. The car is still as powerful as before. Nothing has been taken away. But the glory is diminished (or veiled) by the addition of earthly sediment. Subtraction by addition.
He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross. Because Jesus took the very essence, nature, and existence of a servant, we should expect that Jesus would do the deeds consistent with a servant. In obedience to the decree of God the Father, the Son of God became a human and then kept on obeying the Father his entire life to the very end. And the end of his life was costly. Jesus obeyed the Father all the way to the cross.
Socinians, Unitarians, Adoptionists, and other advocates of the Green Lantern heresy would have you believe that Jesus was incredibly pious but just a mere human before his adoption as the Son. But Paul corrected that assertion by teaching that Jesus Christ existed as the Son both before and during the incarnation.
This is not to deny that the Holy Spirit was active in the life of Jesus Christ. Far from it, Jesus depended on the Holy Spirit to enable and empower his ministry. In fact, his very name and title, Jesus Christ, points to the priority of the Spirit in the life and ministry of Jesus.
Jesus Christ, Though Fully Divine, Depended on the Spirit of God. If you were to ask the people in your church, “What is it that makes Jesus the Christ?” what would they say? That he was the Son of God? He was the Son of David? He was the rightful King? All those answers are important facts, but none of them makes Jesus the Christ.
The names Christ and Messiah are based on transliterations of the Greek and Hebrew words, respectively, that mean “Anointed One.” So, Jesus is the Christ or Messiah because he was the Anointed One. But anointed with what?
In the Old Testament, when the Lord wanted to publicly designate someone for a missional office, he would have him anointed. Kings (most notably Saul in 1 Samuel 10 and David in 1 Samuel 16); priests (most notably Aaron and the priests in Exodus 30); and prophets (most notably Elisha in 1 Kings 19) were installed or consecrated through anointing with oil. In Israel’s economy, to be publicly anointed for ministry was a huge deal because it gave your calling gravitas and durability. Keep in mind that David refused to lift his hand against King Saul because he was “the LORD’s anointed,” literally, “the Lord’s Messiah” (e.g., 1 Sam 24:6; 26:9; 2 Sam 1:14; etc.).
So, it should come as no surprise that the Old Testament prophets pinned their hopes on a future anointed one, a champion, a king, a messiah, who would initiate the day of the Lord and save Israel. But it is with what, or should we say with whom, the Coming One is anointed that is eye-opening. The future savior of Israel would be anointed, not with oil, but with the Spirit of God. And the result would be marvelous.
Isaiah, some 700 years before the birth of Jesus, prophesied:
Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. His delight will be in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, he will not execute justice by what he hears with his ears, but he will judge the poor righteously and execute justice for the oppressed of the land. He will strike the land with a scepter from his mouth, and he will kill the wicked with a command from his lips. Righteousness will be a belt around his hips; faithfulness will be a belt around his waist. Isa 11:1-5
Note the enormous role that the Spirit is supposed to play in this future son of Jesse, a new and better David. The Spirit would bring wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, and fear of the Lord. These are all attributes that would be necessary to do all that the Lord required. Isaiah says much the same thing in 42:1-9, but it is what he predicted in chapter 61 that is the most gripping.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance. Isa 61:1-2
When Jesus began his public ministry, he went to the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth (see Luke 4:16-37). By this time, there was a buzz about Jesus that was circulating throughout Galilee. People were talking about Jesus’s teaching. So, when he showed up at the synagogue, it was only right that he be asked to teach. Receiving the scroll of Isaiah, Jesus turned to Isaiah 61 and began to read. Everybody who was in attendance had probably heard this passage so many times they knew it by heart. It contained promises that were the fulfillment of Israel’s greatest dreams. Think of it as the primary text of a Jewish Hope 101 class. One day the Lord would raise up one who, empowered by the Spirit, would bring peace, relief, and consolation to Israel by bringing about the day of God’s vengeance on his enemies. The Jewish people had suffered at the hands of foreign authoritarian rule for too long, but that would all end when the Lord sent his champion.
Strangely, Jesus stopped quoting Isaiah 61 in the middle of verse 2, finishing in the middle of a sentence, leaving out the part about proclaiming “the day of our God’s vengeance” and an additional clause, “to comfort all who mourn.” Then he methodically “rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him” (Luke 4:20). You could have cut the tension and anticipation in the air with a knife. What would he say? Jesus did not disappoint.
“Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled” (4:21).
What Jesus said was nothing less than “Israel, your wildest hopes and dreams have come true. Your prayers have been answered. The deepest desires of your hearts have been fulfilled. The Spirit-anointed one, the Messiah, has arrived. And I am he!”
The response was what you might expect. Happiness and joy. And then they remembered (or at least thought they did) who Jesus was. He had grown up in their midst, they knew his father Joseph, and he did not appear to bring the right messianic credentials to the table. After a few choice words from Jesus, the Nazarenes got so upset that they wanted to throw him off a mountain. Jesus was able to get away from the mob and (wisely) decided to set up headquarters someplace else.
Jesus saw himself as the fulfillment of God’s promise to anoint his Servant with the Holy Spirit. Remember our earlier question: What is it that makes Jesus the Christ? The answer is the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, because of his anointing by and with the Holy Spirit.
I challenge you to read through the Gospels, looking for the power of the Spirit in Jesus’s life, and I guarantee you will be amazed. You will wonder why you have never seen the priority role of the Spirit before. Jesus appears to do everything, at least everything of consequence, by and through the Spirit.
Here is a brief summary of all the Bible says that the Spirit did in the life of Christ: Jesus was conceived by the Spirit (Luke 1:34-35); Jesus was predicted and anticipated by the Spirit (Luke 2:25-27); the Spirit was primary at Jesus’s baptism (Matt 3:16); Jesus was recognized and identified by the Spirit (John 1:32-33); he was led by the Spirit (Luke 4:1-2); he taught by the Spirit (Luke 4:14-15); he directed through the Spirit (Acts 1:2); he was empowered by the Spirit to do miracles (Matt 12:22-32); he rejoiced in the Spirit (Luke 10:21); he went to the cross by the Spirit (Heb 9:14); and Jesus was raised by the Spirit (Rom 8:11). It might have been easier to list all the things that Jesus didn’t do by the Spirit!
end of PART 2
Feb 24, 2020 20:31:54 #
PART 3
Superheroes Can’t Save You: An Epic Example of the Historic Heresy of Unitarianism
All this brings up another very significant question: Why the Spirit? If Jesus is already fully divine (which we have taken pains to establish), what need would he have of the Holy Spirit? Why add more God to someone who is already completely God?
The answer, of course, is that the Son of God, as God, has no need of the Spirit’s power or enablement. But if the Son of God is going to become a man and live his life as a real, honest-to-goodness human, even if he does not give up his divinity, then there is great need.
Go back to Phil 2:5-8. If Paul is correct that Christ Jesus “emptied” himself by adding a human nature, living a real human life as a servant, then the exercise of many divine attributes would be inconsistent with authentic human living. Human nature does not include being omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), or omnipresent (being everywhere at all times). Humans are not omni-anything, at least not anything good.
What happened when Jesus took on a human nature and human existence? He “emptied” himself by refusing to exercise those divine attributes that are inconsistent with authentic human existence and his redemptive mission; instead, he continued to submit to God the Father and relied upon the Spirit. The Son of God did not give up the attributes of deity. How could he? He is God Almighty, and he cannot de-God himself (thankfully), even in becoming man. Instead, Jesus chose not to use those attributes that would have rendered his life and experience something more or less than human.
So, are advocates of the Green Lantern heresy correct? Was Jesus just a pious, but mere, man whom the Spirit was given to enable him to do all God required? The Adoptionists were correct that Jesus relied upon the Holy Spirit. But they were dead wrong in why he did so. Jesus did not need the Holy Spirit because he was not divine. He relied on the Holy Spirit because he chose to live as an authentic human. And as we will see, in the remainder of this chapter and the next, that makes all the difference in the world.
Why Is This Important?
We have already demonstrated that unless Jesus Christ was fully human and fully divine, he could not have saved us. It takes a fully human Jesus to substitute for human sin, and it takes a fully divine Jesus to atone for all sin, once and for all. But there are other aspects of the salvation that Jesus brings that he would not be able to if he were more like Green Lantern than the Jesus of the Bible.
The Spirit-Anointed Man Became the Spirit Giver. There are many things that Jesus came to do. He came to live a sinless life. He came to reveal God the Father. He came to die. He came to conquer death. Something that is often overlooked but was a huge priority for Jesus is this: Jesus came to send the Holy Spirit.
There is a progression of anticipation throughout the Old Testament that, one day, the Lord would pour out his Spirit on all of his people. In Numbers 11, Moses, in almost wishful fashion, lamented, “If only all the LORD’s people were prophets and the LORD would place his Spirit on them!” (v. 29). Later, Moses promised the Israelites that one day, after much failure and misery, “the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live” (Deut 30:6). Eight hundred years later, after the Israelites had gone into exile, the prophet Ezekiel foretold of a time when the Lord would bring forgiveness and a new heart. He would do this by placing his Spirit within them, who would cause them to obey (Ezek 36:25-27). Finally, the Lord promised through the prophet Joel that one day he would pour out his Spirit on all of his people in an unprecedented way (Joel 2:28-29).
So it should come as no surprise that Jesus placed high priority on the work of the Spirit. Remember his conversation with Nicodemus in John 3? Jesus told the Pharisee, “Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (v. 5). When Nicodemus responded that he did not understand, Jesus was incredulous. “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” (v. 10). Jesus essentially said, “Nicodemus, this is basic stuff. How can you not understand?” The hopes and dreams of Israel should have been pinned on the future coming of the Spirit of God. I say “should have” because it is apparent from the Gospels that many of the Israelites did not recognize the importance of the promised coming of the Spirit. Jesus did.
But you and I, at times, are like Nicodemus and the Hebrews, aren’t we? We have all, at some point, undervalued the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Just before Jesus was arrested, he gathered with his disciples for the Last Supper and some final instruction. It would be difficult to overstate the stress that the disciples were feeling at this point. Jerusalem was not a safe place for them, and to make matters worse, Jesus had been telling them that he probably would not survive this last trip to the Holy City. Looking in their eyes, he knew that they were having a difficult time processing all that he was saying (see John 16:12) and that he had freaked them out by telling them yet again that he was going away (16:5-6). But he pressed forward and tried to convince them that they were actually better off if he left. “It is for your benefit that I go away” (16:7).
What?
Put yourself in the place of the disciples. They had left everything to follow Jesus. They were convinced he was the Christ, the long-awaited Savior. They were risking their lives, even at that moment, to be with Jesus. And he had the audacity to tell them they would be better off if he left?
Jesus meant it. And he explained why. “Because if I don’t go away the Counselor [the Holy Spirit] will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you” (16:7).
There are two important things to take away from this. First, Jesus tied his going away, that is, his crucifixion (and subsequent resurrection and ascension), with his sending the Spirit. The logic is this: The sending of the Spirit is one of the great promises of the new covenant, but the new covenant can only be initiated with blood—atoning blood. And it cannot be the blood of bulls, goats, or sheep. It has to be blood that will completely and finally atone for human sin. If Jesus does not go to the cross, he cannot send the Spirit. All those Old Testament promises of the coming of the Spirit cannot be fulfilled unless the Spirit-anointed one goes to the cross.
Second, Jesus is the one who sends the Spirit. In other passages, it is the Father (see John 14:16-17, for example), but in this passage, Jesus plays a vital role in the sending of the Spirit. The Spirit-anointed one would become the Spirit-Sender.
I don’t know if the disciples believed Jesus. But he was telling them that they would be better off with the Spirit, but not in his presence, than they were being with him, but without the Spirit.
Do you believe this? Do you understand that the same applies to you? Do you realize that, in God’s economy, you as a Spirit-indwelt follower of Jesus are in a better place than the disciples were when they were in the same room with him?
Maybe you sometimes think, I would be a better follower of Jesus if I could have been there with him. No doubt, it would have been great to see Jesus heal, hear him teach, or watch him command the wind and the waves. But don’t kid yourself. Your best bet for faithfully following Jesus is the presence of the Spirit whom he sent. For Jesus, it is more than a best bet. It seals the deal. His sending of the Spirit guarantees that all of his followers will receive all of the blessings of salvation. The apostle Paul said as much to the church in Corinth: “He has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment” (2 Cor 1:22; see also Gal 4:4-7; Eph 1:13; 4:30).
No Green-Lantern-like Jesus, a mere man, possessed with the ability of God to do miracles, could have done what Jesus Christ has done for you. There is nothing in the mission of the Green Lantern that involves distributing power to all who are loyal to him. But Jesus does not just give you power. He gives you divine presence. It takes the second person of the Trinity, the true Son of God, to send the third person, the Holy Spirit, to you. An adopted Jesus, who was a mere man given power, would not have the authority or intrinsic ability to give you the Spirit. And the Spirit the Son sends to you is the same Spirit who enabled and empowered his entire ministry.
Don’t ever forget what I like to call the “grace of place in redemptive history.” It is a wonderful thing to be born on this side of the cross, knowing the full-orbed gospel. It is an even better thing to be sealed and empowered by the Spirit of God at Jesus’s behest. The coming of the Spirit was a crazy dream for Moses; it was a distant hope for Ezekiel; but it is true for you.
Jesus Could Not Have Defeated Satan, Evil, and Death If He Were Just a Man. When Jesus went to the cross, he was not merely a victim who was taking on himself a punishment that others deserved. He was also dealing a deathblow to Satan, defanging the prince of darkness, and initiating the demise of the Devil’s horrible rule.
One of Jesus’s closest friends said exactly this: “The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works” (1 John 3:8). The author of Hebrews explains further: “Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil” (2:14). These passages emphasize both the humanity and the deity of Jesus. The defeat of Satan and the destruction of all his evil works could not have been accomplished by a mere human, however empowered by the Spirit. It took more than a Green-Lantern-style hero to save you. It took the incarnate Son of God, in all that he is, to accomplish the defeat, for all time, of our greatest enemy.
I mentioned earlier that when Jesus read the Isaiah 61 prophecy in the synagogue in Nazareth, he stopped in the middle of a sentence, leaving out the part about proclaiming, “the day of our God’s vengeance” (v. 2).
But do not think that Jesus decided to leave that part of the prophecy undone. Far from it. Every prophetic word will come true. There will be a day of God’s vengeance. One day Jesus will return to take care of all his unfinished business. That day will not be pleasant for the Lord’s enemies. Satan is clearly in the crosshairs of God’s white-hot wrath, but all those who have persisted in rebellion against God will share the horrific fate of the Devil. And Jesus Christ will be leading the rout.
The death and resurrection of the Anointed One signals the certain end of the Devil’s reign. Jesus Christ, empowered by the Spirit, will return in power and majesty. By virtue of his deity, Jesus has all the right stuff to defeat the Devil and his followers. By virtue of his humanity, Jesus has the right to sit on the eternal throne promised to a Son of David millennia ago (2 Sam 7). He will defeat all evil. He will address every wrong. He will balance the scales of justice finally. He will reign forever.
The apostle Paul understood this. He knew that Jesus had to be everything the Bible says in order to do all the Bible says that our Savior must do. That is why, after explaining to the Philippians how Jesus had “emptied” himself by adding humanity and the posture of a servant, culminating in his obedient death on the cross, he burst into praise in his letter:
For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil 2:9-11)
Green Lantern cannot save you. Nor can a Green-Lantern-type Jesus. But the Jesus of the Bible, the divine Son, who is also the Spirit-anointed and Spirit-empowered Christ, certainly can.
end of PART 3
Superheroes Can’t Save You: An Epic Example of the Historic Heresy of Unitarianism
All this brings up another very significant question: Why the Spirit? If Jesus is already fully divine (which we have taken pains to establish), what need would he have of the Holy Spirit? Why add more God to someone who is already completely God?
The answer, of course, is that the Son of God, as God, has no need of the Spirit’s power or enablement. But if the Son of God is going to become a man and live his life as a real, honest-to-goodness human, even if he does not give up his divinity, then there is great need.
Go back to Phil 2:5-8. If Paul is correct that Christ Jesus “emptied” himself by adding a human nature, living a real human life as a servant, then the exercise of many divine attributes would be inconsistent with authentic human living. Human nature does not include being omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), or omnipresent (being everywhere at all times). Humans are not omni-anything, at least not anything good.
What happened when Jesus took on a human nature and human existence? He “emptied” himself by refusing to exercise those divine attributes that are inconsistent with authentic human existence and his redemptive mission; instead, he continued to submit to God the Father and relied upon the Spirit. The Son of God did not give up the attributes of deity. How could he? He is God Almighty, and he cannot de-God himself (thankfully), even in becoming man. Instead, Jesus chose not to use those attributes that would have rendered his life and experience something more or less than human.
So, are advocates of the Green Lantern heresy correct? Was Jesus just a pious, but mere, man whom the Spirit was given to enable him to do all God required? The Adoptionists were correct that Jesus relied upon the Holy Spirit. But they were dead wrong in why he did so. Jesus did not need the Holy Spirit because he was not divine. He relied on the Holy Spirit because he chose to live as an authentic human. And as we will see, in the remainder of this chapter and the next, that makes all the difference in the world.
Why Is This Important?
We have already demonstrated that unless Jesus Christ was fully human and fully divine, he could not have saved us. It takes a fully human Jesus to substitute for human sin, and it takes a fully divine Jesus to atone for all sin, once and for all. But there are other aspects of the salvation that Jesus brings that he would not be able to if he were more like Green Lantern than the Jesus of the Bible.
The Spirit-Anointed Man Became the Spirit Giver. There are many things that Jesus came to do. He came to live a sinless life. He came to reveal God the Father. He came to die. He came to conquer death. Something that is often overlooked but was a huge priority for Jesus is this: Jesus came to send the Holy Spirit.
There is a progression of anticipation throughout the Old Testament that, one day, the Lord would pour out his Spirit on all of his people. In Numbers 11, Moses, in almost wishful fashion, lamented, “If only all the LORD’s people were prophets and the LORD would place his Spirit on them!” (v. 29). Later, Moses promised the Israelites that one day, after much failure and misery, “the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live” (Deut 30:6). Eight hundred years later, after the Israelites had gone into exile, the prophet Ezekiel foretold of a time when the Lord would bring forgiveness and a new heart. He would do this by placing his Spirit within them, who would cause them to obey (Ezek 36:25-27). Finally, the Lord promised through the prophet Joel that one day he would pour out his Spirit on all of his people in an unprecedented way (Joel 2:28-29).
So it should come as no surprise that Jesus placed high priority on the work of the Spirit. Remember his conversation with Nicodemus in John 3? Jesus told the Pharisee, “Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (v. 5). When Nicodemus responded that he did not understand, Jesus was incredulous. “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” (v. 10). Jesus essentially said, “Nicodemus, this is basic stuff. How can you not understand?” The hopes and dreams of Israel should have been pinned on the future coming of the Spirit of God. I say “should have” because it is apparent from the Gospels that many of the Israelites did not recognize the importance of the promised coming of the Spirit. Jesus did.
But you and I, at times, are like Nicodemus and the Hebrews, aren’t we? We have all, at some point, undervalued the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Just before Jesus was arrested, he gathered with his disciples for the Last Supper and some final instruction. It would be difficult to overstate the stress that the disciples were feeling at this point. Jerusalem was not a safe place for them, and to make matters worse, Jesus had been telling them that he probably would not survive this last trip to the Holy City. Looking in their eyes, he knew that they were having a difficult time processing all that he was saying (see John 16:12) and that he had freaked them out by telling them yet again that he was going away (16:5-6). But he pressed forward and tried to convince them that they were actually better off if he left. “It is for your benefit that I go away” (16:7).
What?
Put yourself in the place of the disciples. They had left everything to follow Jesus. They were convinced he was the Christ, the long-awaited Savior. They were risking their lives, even at that moment, to be with Jesus. And he had the audacity to tell them they would be better off if he left?
Jesus meant it. And he explained why. “Because if I don’t go away the Counselor [the Holy Spirit] will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you” (16:7).
There are two important things to take away from this. First, Jesus tied his going away, that is, his crucifixion (and subsequent resurrection and ascension), with his sending the Spirit. The logic is this: The sending of the Spirit is one of the great promises of the new covenant, but the new covenant can only be initiated with blood—atoning blood. And it cannot be the blood of bulls, goats, or sheep. It has to be blood that will completely and finally atone for human sin. If Jesus does not go to the cross, he cannot send the Spirit. All those Old Testament promises of the coming of the Spirit cannot be fulfilled unless the Spirit-anointed one goes to the cross.
Second, Jesus is the one who sends the Spirit. In other passages, it is the Father (see John 14:16-17, for example), but in this passage, Jesus plays a vital role in the sending of the Spirit. The Spirit-anointed one would become the Spirit-Sender.
I don’t know if the disciples believed Jesus. But he was telling them that they would be better off with the Spirit, but not in his presence, than they were being with him, but without the Spirit.
Do you believe this? Do you understand that the same applies to you? Do you realize that, in God’s economy, you as a Spirit-indwelt follower of Jesus are in a better place than the disciples were when they were in the same room with him?
Maybe you sometimes think, I would be a better follower of Jesus if I could have been there with him. No doubt, it would have been great to see Jesus heal, hear him teach, or watch him command the wind and the waves. But don’t kid yourself. Your best bet for faithfully following Jesus is the presence of the Spirit whom he sent. For Jesus, it is more than a best bet. It seals the deal. His sending of the Spirit guarantees that all of his followers will receive all of the blessings of salvation. The apostle Paul said as much to the church in Corinth: “He has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment” (2 Cor 1:22; see also Gal 4:4-7; Eph 1:13; 4:30).
No Green-Lantern-like Jesus, a mere man, possessed with the ability of God to do miracles, could have done what Jesus Christ has done for you. There is nothing in the mission of the Green Lantern that involves distributing power to all who are loyal to him. But Jesus does not just give you power. He gives you divine presence. It takes the second person of the Trinity, the true Son of God, to send the third person, the Holy Spirit, to you. An adopted Jesus, who was a mere man given power, would not have the authority or intrinsic ability to give you the Spirit. And the Spirit the Son sends to you is the same Spirit who enabled and empowered his entire ministry.
Don’t ever forget what I like to call the “grace of place in redemptive history.” It is a wonderful thing to be born on this side of the cross, knowing the full-orbed gospel. It is an even better thing to be sealed and empowered by the Spirit of God at Jesus’s behest. The coming of the Spirit was a crazy dream for Moses; it was a distant hope for Ezekiel; but it is true for you.
Jesus Could Not Have Defeated Satan, Evil, and Death If He Were Just a Man. When Jesus went to the cross, he was not merely a victim who was taking on himself a punishment that others deserved. He was also dealing a deathblow to Satan, defanging the prince of darkness, and initiating the demise of the Devil’s horrible rule.
One of Jesus’s closest friends said exactly this: “The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works” (1 John 3:8). The author of Hebrews explains further: “Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil” (2:14). These passages emphasize both the humanity and the deity of Jesus. The defeat of Satan and the destruction of all his evil works could not have been accomplished by a mere human, however empowered by the Spirit. It took more than a Green-Lantern-style hero to save you. It took the incarnate Son of God, in all that he is, to accomplish the defeat, for all time, of our greatest enemy.
I mentioned earlier that when Jesus read the Isaiah 61 prophecy in the synagogue in Nazareth, he stopped in the middle of a sentence, leaving out the part about proclaiming, “the day of our God’s vengeance” (v. 2).
But do not think that Jesus decided to leave that part of the prophecy undone. Far from it. Every prophetic word will come true. There will be a day of God’s vengeance. One day Jesus will return to take care of all his unfinished business. That day will not be pleasant for the Lord’s enemies. Satan is clearly in the crosshairs of God’s white-hot wrath, but all those who have persisted in rebellion against God will share the horrific fate of the Devil. And Jesus Christ will be leading the rout.
The death and resurrection of the Anointed One signals the certain end of the Devil’s reign. Jesus Christ, empowered by the Spirit, will return in power and majesty. By virtue of his deity, Jesus has all the right stuff to defeat the Devil and his followers. By virtue of his humanity, Jesus has the right to sit on the eternal throne promised to a Son of David millennia ago (2 Sam 7). He will defeat all evil. He will address every wrong. He will balance the scales of justice finally. He will reign forever.
The apostle Paul understood this. He knew that Jesus had to be everything the Bible says in order to do all the Bible says that our Savior must do. That is why, after explaining to the Philippians how Jesus had “emptied” himself by adding humanity and the posture of a servant, culminating in his obedient death on the cross, he burst into praise in his letter:
For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil 2:9-11)
Green Lantern cannot save you. Nor can a Green-Lantern-type Jesus. But the Jesus of the Bible, the divine Son, who is also the Spirit-anointed and Spirit-empowered Christ, certainly can.
end of PART 3
Feb 24, 2020 20:50:39 #
Parky60 wrote:
b PART 3 br Superheroes Can’t Save You: An Epic E... (show quote)
I was hoping for a part 4...I didn't find it too long... It was most excellent... I love super hero analogies... Although I'm not a huge fan of the Green Lantern... And as epic as the LOTR was,I hold it second to Donaldson's "Covenant" series....
Does it bother you in the least that the entire argument is a straw man?
Feb 24, 2020 21:32:19 #
Canuckus Deploracus wrote:
I was hoping for a part 4...I didn't find it too long... It was most excellent... I love super hero analogies... Although I'm not a huge fan of the Green Lantern... And as epic as the LOTR was,I hold it second to Donaldson's "Covenant" series....
Does it bother you in the least that the entire argument is a straw man?
Does it bother you in the least that the entire argument is a straw man?
Straw man: a weak or imaginary opposition (such as an argument or adversary) set up only to be easily confuted.
Confute: to overwhelm in argument; refute conclusively
Then let's see YOU, and not Tommy, easily refute it conclusively. You're the one who usually makes weak statements with nothing to back them up (so I HIGHLY doubt you were ever on a debate team).
Feb 24, 2020 21:40:51 #
Parky60 wrote:
Straw man: a weak or imaginary opposition (such as an argument or adversary) set up only to be easily confuted.
Confute: to overwhelm in argument; refute conclusively
Then let's see YOU, and not Tommy, easily refute it conclusively. You're the one who usually makes weak statements with nothing to back them up (so I HIGHLY doubt you were ever on a debate team).
Confute: to overwhelm in argument; refute conclusively
Then let's see YOU, and not Tommy, easily refute it conclusively. You're the one who usually makes weak statements with nothing to back them up (so I HIGHLY doubt you were ever on a debate team).
I have never made the claim to have been on a debate team... Where did you get that idea?
Easily refuted...
''So, Hal Jordan, a human being, was given a source of remarkable and seemingly limitless power due to his character, courage, and strength of will. And by this time, you will not be surprised to hear that many people have the same idea about Jesus. To them, Jesus was a regular human being possessed of extraordinary piety and devotion to God. Because of that piety, God chose Jesus, adopted him as his son, and gave him a “talisman of power,” the Holy Spirit. Armed and directed by the Spirit of God, Jesus did amazing things for God throughout his life, until his mission was ended by his death on the cross.
I call such thinking the Green Lantern heresy, and it has been around for a very long time. In fact, it is probably the earliest of the bad ideas about Jesus.''
This statement, especially the part in bold, is a straw man.... Unitarians believe no such thing...
This is like when certain Christians claim that Evolutionists believe man evolced from monkeys and then go on to disprove that theory.... And Evolutionists sit there thinking "who in their right mind would propose that absurdity?"
Edit: To my knowledge no group of Unitarians has made such a claim... I admit that I'm not familiar with every sect of Christianity... It's possible such individuals exist... But to use the concept as a blanket statement on all Unitarians is a straw man....
Feb 25, 2020 06:59:40 #
Parky60 wrote:
b PART 3 br Superheroes Can’t Save You: An Epic E... (show quote)
Never heard it put that way. Good article.
Feb 25, 2020 08:14:08 #
Canuckus Deploracus wrote:
I have never made the claim to have been on a deba... (show quote)
I fail to see how my post was overwhelmed by your argument or refuted conclusively. All you did was highlight what was said and stated it was wrong. Helluva a refute Canuckus..
So tell me Canuckus. You've heard our beliefs of many and yet to the best of my knowledge you've never shared yours. Why not fill us in on what your "Statement of Faith" is?
Feb 25, 2020 08:58:17 #
Parky60 wrote:
I fail to see how my post was overwhelmed by your argument or refuted conclusively. All you did was highlight what was said and stated it was wrong. Helluva a refute Canuckus..
So tell me Canuckus. You've heard our beliefs of many and yet to the best of my knowledge you've never shared yours. Why not fill us in on what your "Statement of Faith" is?
So tell me Canuckus. You've heard our beliefs of many and yet to the best of my knowledge you've never shared yours. Why not fill us in on what your "Statement of Faith" is?
I demonstrated why your argument was a straw man...
Why would I bother debunking a straw man argument?
Or are you actually claiming that that is what Unitarians actually believe?
Statement of faith...
I am a follower of Christ and a worshipper of the God of Abraham... Good enough for you?
Feb 25, 2020 12:37:20 #
Canuckus Deploracus wrote:
I demonstrated why your argument was a straw man...
Why would I bother debunking a straw man argument?
Or are you actually claiming that that is what Unitarians actually believe?
Statement of faith...
I am a follower of Christ and a worshipper of the God of Abraham... Good enough for you?
Why would I bother debunking a straw man argument?
Or are you actually claiming that that is what Unitarians actually believe?
Statement of faith...
I am a follower of Christ and a worshipper of the God of Abraham... Good enough for you?
I don't mean to step on your toes -- actually I'm trying to step on your heart -- and your free will allows you to believe anything you want but if that's your entire statement of faith you are truly lost.
Why do you even bother reading the Bible? If Jesus being God is untrue, then the ENTIRE Bible is suspect.
Feb 25, 2020 18:17:17 #
Parky60 wrote:
I don't mean to step on your toes -- actually I'm trying to step on your heart -- and your free will allows you to believe anything you want but if that's your entire statement of faith you are truly lost.
Why do you even bother reading the Bible? If Jesus being God is untrue, then the ENTIRE Bible is suspect.
Why do you even bother reading the Bible? If Jesus being God is untrue, then the ENTIRE Bible is suspect.
It was a simple enough statement... I'm happy with it...
You're question makes no sense...
How does Christ's lack of divinity make the Bible suspect?
Feb 25, 2020 21:32:08 #
Canuckus Deploracus wrote:
It was a simple enough statement... I'm happy with it...
You're question makes no sense...
How does Christ's lack of divinity make the Bible suspect?
You're question makes no sense...
How does Christ's lack of divinity make the Bible suspect?
There's no use trying to explain it to you because you're a natural man who is too blind to see.
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 1 Corinthians 2:14
Maybe it's time to quit throwing my pearls before you and shake the dust off my feet as a testimony against you.
Feb 25, 2020 22:07:12 #
Parky60 wrote:
There's no use trying to explain it to you because you're a natural man who is too blind to see.
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 1 Corinthians 2:14
Maybe it's time to quit throwing my pearls before you and shake the dust off my feet as a testimony against you.
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 1 Corinthians 2:14
Maybe it's time to quit throwing my pearls before you and shake the dust off my feet as a testimony against you.
I understand...
Articulating one's beliefs can be difficult...
But I appreciate the thread... It was very interesting... Thanks...
Feb 26, 2020 13:46:16 #
Canuckus Deploracus wrote:
I understand...
Articulating one's beliefs can be difficult...
But I appreciate the thread... It was very interesting... Thanks...
Articulating one's beliefs can be difficult...
But I appreciate the thread... It was very interesting... Thanks...
I have a question for you that I base on observations about you.
Do you believe that people are inherently good?
Feb 26, 2020 18:14:10 #
Parky60 wrote:
I have a question for you that I base on observations about you.
Do you believe that people are inherently good?
Do you believe that people are inherently good?
No... Morality is a product of society... Higher morality is a product of God...
I do believe that each individual has the inherent ability to do good...
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.