TSIYON NEWS - Dynamic Duo
Tsiyon Messianic Radio Newsletter - Vol 19.42 - 08/21/6024 TAM - 10/24/2024 AD
From Eliyahu
Is the Son Divine, or a created being? In my Tsiyon News of 10/10/2024 I went into the history of that controversy. Here I'm going to share something about the Divine that requires that there must be more than a single Divine Person in Elohim. This truth, to my knowledge, has never been explained before. The First Council of Nicaea of 325 AD never considered this truth, nor is it listed in the First Nicene Creed, nor in any other Church Counsel or Creed throughout all the centuries since then.
This has to do with Divine Authority. Now, if you are familiar with the Church Councils and creeds you know that since 325 AD these have discussed the authority of God in a Christological context. However, there is a vital factor regarding authority that they all have failed to see or take account of, and this factor is crucial to fully grasping what can be known of the Divine Nature. If you miss this you will have missed a perfection of Divinity that is vital to each of us.
The earliest creed claimed equality of the Father and Son. Later the Holy Spirit was added to make a Trinity. The Athanasian Creed, which came into use around the 5th and 6th century, for example, emphasizes the equality of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in a way that implies equal authority. This is a statement of the trinity doctrine that is still widely used today. Here is a relevant excerpt: "And in this Trinity none is afore or after another; none is greater or less than another; but the whole three persons are co-eternal together and co-equal."
All of these statements of Two (Father and Son) or Three (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) Persons in One God underscore their sameness. However, if they are each individual Persons, what makes each an individual? To be a person one must be unique from other persons. Would this not also be true of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in these formulas, as individual Persons? How are each unique?
These Christian creeds fall far short of defining God, because, for one thing, they fail to recognize what is unique in each of the Divine Persons Who combine to reveal the One God. Only in acknowledging the relationships within the Divine can we start to get anything like an accurate picture of the Divine Dynamics revealed in Scripture. To illustrate what I'm talking about I'm going to focus on the Father and the Son in one important example.
I am no Arian. Since I believe the Scriptures I believe in the Divinity of Messiah. The Scripture clearly attributes Divinity to the Son, in verses such as these:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made." John 1:1-3
""I and the Father are One."" John 10:30
"[Messiah] who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him." Colossians 1:15-16
"But of the Son he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your Kingdom." Hebrews 1:8-9
What confuses people here are the many verses which seem not to agree with the above verses. That is, verses showing Messiah to be in submission to the Father, in their minds meaning Messiah must be something less than Divine. Here are a few examples:
"Yeshua said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work." John 4:34
"I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous; because I don't seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me." John 5:30
"[Messiah prayed] saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done." Luke 22:42
The Romans saw authority as a Divine attribute, while, in their eyes, submission was simply a characteristic of the weak. That's probably why the Roman Church and all of her daughters never saw submission as a Divine Characteristic.
When viewed from the Roman perspective of submission as weakness, these verses seem to diminish the status of the Son as something less than Divine. However, when we realize that the earlier passages above affirm the Divine Nature of Messiah, then we must view the submission of the Son to the Father as a Divine perfection of Character in the Son. While the world chafes at the thought of submission, Yeshua manifested both love and joy in His submission to His Father.
These two Divine Characteristics in God require two Divine Persons to make them manifest. This is the relationship of the Father and the Son. In this instance we have the Father manifesting Divine Authority and the Son manifesting Divine Submission. In this example we have one Divine Nature being made manifest through two Divine Persons, the Father and the Son.
What we are actually seeing here is a Divine Dynamic manifesting the Divine Character. "Divine Dynamic" is a term I've coined for Divine perfections of Character that can only be manifest between two Persons - one Person alone can't manifest this. In other words, they are characteristics that can only be seen in functioning relationships between Persons. Any consideration of the Divine Characteristic of Authority must include a consideration of the Divine Characteristic of Submission, because these are inherently linked to one another. Consider these words of the apostle John:
"That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we saw, and our hands touched, concerning the Word of Life (and the Life was revealed, and we have seen, and testify, and declare to you the Life, the eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was revealed to us); that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. Yes, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Yeshua the Messiah. And we write these things to you, that our joy may be fulfilled." 1 John 1:1-4
It took the entire Bible to adequately reveal God to us because He can only be adequately seen through the lens of fellowship in which Divine Dynamics exist. This Authority/Submission Divine Dynamic seen in the fellowship of the Father and the Son reveals both the perfection of authority and the perfection of submission to be eternal attributes that originate in the eternal nature of God. Seeing only authority as Divine gives us only half the picture, which comes off a bit scary and harsh. When we see the loving submission of the Son to the Father, we get the rest of the picture - perfection of submission that fills out and completes this Authority/Submission Dynamic, paving the way for the children of God to enter into the Divine fellowship.
This Divine Dynamic is also the model of social order that issues from God, as in these verses:
"But I would have you know that the head of every man is Messiah, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Messiah is God." 1 Corinthians 11:3
"Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, and Messiah also is the head of the assembly, being himself the savior of the body. But as the assembly is subject to Messiah, so let the wives also be to their own husbands in everything." Ephesians 5:22-24
It is sobering to realize that modern norms paint wives who display the God-like quality of submission as oppressed and perhaps a bit stupid, when in fact, they are too good for this world, being living examples of the servant heart of Messiah.
Tonight Abigail will be live-streaming her next episode of Messiah's Praiseworthy Women, entitled: Serving Like Messiah. This live stream will begin at Tsiyon.Net at 8 PM, Central. While this topic involves a discussion among women, men will also be encouraged by what these godly women are thinking on this topic.
Eliyahu
Tsiyon.Org
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"In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good courage!
I have overcome the world." John 16:33