The First Principle: There is One True God Rushdoony sees that the first principle of the Shema is that Israel cannot admit another god or elohim. There is thus one God, one Law (ibid., p. 18). It is the declaration of an absolute moral order to which man must conform. If Israel cannot admit another god and another law-order, it cannot recognize any other religion or law-order as valid either for itself or for anyone else. Because God is one, truth is one. Other people will perish in their way, lest they turn and be converted (Ps. 2:12). The basic coercion is reserved to God (Rushdoony, p. 18). Here God is one and truth is one. Truth is one because, like the nature of goodness, it proceeds from the omnipotence and omniscience of God. Omniscience is understood as the knowledge of all true propositions, hence truth is a centrality of the power of God. Thus, there is one truth. Despite this understanding, the incongruity of their position on the Godhead is not addressed by such trinitarian or binitarian thinkers. Trinitarians such as Rushdoony see that the first commandment is central to the Covenant and attempt to reconcile the contradiction in the elevation of Christ to a level and co-eternality with God by merging the entities, despite the clear evidence of the biblical texts. Co-eternality is overruled because 1Timothy 6:16 shows that only God is immortal. God confers eternal life on Christ (Jn. 5:26). John 5:26 26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; (KJV) Christ is thus dependent upon God for eternal life. Thus Christ cannot be co-eternal with God prior to the beginning of creation. Only God stood alone, eternally, before the beginning of time. Hence, Christ is not a true God in the same sense that God is the one true God. He was the glory as of an only born son (uios) and god (theos or elohim) (Jn. 17:3; 1Jn. 5:20; Jn. 1:14,18; see Marshall’s Greek-English Interlinear). Trinitarians attempt to evade this intellectual dilemma by merging the beings and then avoiding the ontological problems by appeal to mystery. Essentially, this is the sin of Satan. Trinitarians and Binitarians seek to accuse Christ and Christians of the same sin of which Satan was guilty. Binitarians are, in fact, in greater dilemma than Trinitarians. The sin of Satan is a clear breach of the first commandment. A Binitarian asserts that Christ has eternally existed (Constitution of the United Church of God, an International Association, Revision of 21 November 1995). This Satanic heresy strikes at the capacity of the elect to be co-heirs with Christ. Logically, the position implies that there are two true Gods, namely God and Christ, and that they have eternally existed. The assertion is implicit that Christ had existence independently of the power of God. This assertion is a damnable heresy because it breaches the logical requirements of the omnipotence of God and is directly contrary to Scripture. As Binitarians assert a complete logical and actual independence of the two separate beings they are logical dualists. Dualism attacks the very nature of the monotheist structure and the power of God. The doctrine leads to the blasphemous assertion that God and Christ could have had a discussion as to who would go down to be sacrificed. This assertion has actually been stated by an American evangelist at rallies, (e.g. in Canberra, Australia, during Tabernacles 1990), as a theological probability. This blasphemy strikes at the very heart of the first commandment. Also see the comment at page 6 of the March-April 1989 edition of The Good News magazine. The admission of a second true God eternally extant before the beginning of God’s activity, and hence creation, establishes another elohim as an object of worship beside Eloah. This is expressly forbidden. Such a teaching produces another God and is idolatry. Such teaching forfeits the adherents right to the first resurrection (Rev. 20:1-6) and is idolatry.
Posted on: Fri, 31 May 2013 12:15:19 +0000
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