Note also the use of incorrect pejorative labels, such as Arian, seeking to obviate or deny the legitimate unitarian structure of the Bible. There is no possibility that the One True God in John 17:3 or 1John 5:20 refers to Jesus Christ at all, with or without the article. The fact that the Douay-Rheims version is a translation of the Latin Vulgate and, thus, the article is deduced from the Latin is not mentioned. The term with the article does not refer to Christ but rather to the One True God whose son is Christ. The meaning is known and understood. 1John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, to know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. (RSV) He who is true is the One True God. We know Him and are in Him who is true and in His son Jesus Christ. We worship Him who is true, not His son, Jesus Christ. The errors that emerged in the Apostolic Church developed from attacks on the law through the propitiation of the angelic Host, which was of itself relatively easy to expose and demolish, to the elevation of Christ to an equality with God. Each of the errors was aimed at separating the Church from the authority and the commandments of God. Once the Godhead is compromised and the truth forsaken, the professed followers of Christ are given over to a strong delusion that they might believe a lie (2Thes. 2:11). This text is from Isaiah 66:1-4 where God chooses the delusions or vexations of the falsely religious, from ta’a’uwl (SHD 8586) meaning a caprice (as a fit coming on) hence a vexation, and concretely a tyrant, hence babe, or delusion. Hence, Paul was quoting Scripture both here and also in Romans 1. Thus, the tyranny of the false religions involves persecution and the suppression of the truth. That is the reason why Unitarianism has been so harshly persecuted over the centuries. Once the Godhead is compromised and Trinitarianism is established, the delusion is established and the law falls. The attack on the Godhead has gone beyond the simple attempts at asserting co-equality and co-eternality. Aside from making the dead objects of worship, for example Mariolatry and the worship of saints and relics, arguments have been advanced which strike at the very existence of God as a transcendent force. The arguments, themselves, stem from Babylonian Animism and its offshoots in the near and far east. These arguments were common to Gnosticism and now appear in Process Theology, which is the modern inheritor of the Gnostic mantle.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 12:59:24 +0000
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