Lesson 18 / The Holy Trinity:
Rather than type up the long list of Bible passages with corresponding letters, I decided to write what I feel to be the end result of this "survey". In reading the passages, (and I always read the passages in their context to avoid misunderstandings), I discovered that the majority could be tagged with "definite" or both. I repeat that these results are basically what I felt to be true. Any New Testament writers following the Gospel of John were
1) thoroughly devout Christians
2) Writing primarily for an interested audience from their own community of believers thus the many less than definite sounding exhortations would have been for the purpose of bolstering their existing faith.
3) With the help of the Holy Spirit, these divinely inspired authors were more than aware that the Christ did not need to explain His divinity in any way, shape or form. All went according to God's plan. As a result, there are a lot of "definites" there which at first glance may not seem to be so. In Acts alone, I found ¾ of the responses to be "D" with a few "B"s. I will provide my passage by passage answers if need be but I really believe that this lesson was meant more or less as an illustration of how events, spiritual or otherwise, can impact language.
Another point made in our lesson that I found interesting was the examination of the Son's relationship to the Father in the Holy Trinity.
Jesus, the Son of the Most High, never claimed to be more powerful than God the Father. The passage from our lesson today which tells of Jesus quoting Isaiah describing the attributes of the Messiah proves this. Christ could not tell the exact time of the Judgment – it wasn't His job. Only the Father knew and He hadn't let Jesus in on that information. Maybe the Father thought it a good idea that the end of the world be viewed as coming like the proverbial thief in the night. We should be prepared because we do not know and then again, either did our Savior.
Rev. Judith Lichtenberger
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