One God Report

This episode is a discussion with Kermit Zarley, retired professional golfer, and now author of a number of books, including The Restitution of Jesus Christ (see links below). Formerly a Trinitarian Christian, Zarley briefly describes how he came to understand that the God of the Bible is one, and that Jesus is God’s human Messiah. Then, we discuss the following topics: · Did Jesus pre-exist as a person before he was a human being? · What did Jesus mean when Jesus said that he “came down from heaven” and was “sent from God”? · The use of figures of speech or metaphorical language in the Gospel of John, and the literary theme that many of Jesus’s listeners did not understand the metaphors. · The Christological motif in the Gospel of John is not “Incarnational Christology”, i.e., that God became man or took on human flesh) but “Agency Christology”, i.e., that Jesus is God’s human representative agent, who speaks and acts empowered by God and representing God). · At the end of the discussion, Zarley gives the most important tip for budding, amateur golfers. Links: Kermit Zarley Webpage: http://kermitzarley.com/ Zarley’s Books on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Kermit-Zarley/e/B001JOUID0?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1608329122&sr=8-1 Book: The Restitution of Jesus Christ http://kermitzarley.com/product/the-restitution-of-jesus-christ/ Reviewof The Restitution of Jesus Christ by Bill Schlegel https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-restitution-of-jesus-christ-signs.html “My Lord and My God: Trinitarians Get it Wrong” Commentary on John 20:28 https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-lord-and-my-god-trinitarians-get-it.html

"But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, being little among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days." וְאַתָּה בֵּית-לֶחֶם אֶפְרָתָה צָעִיר לִהְיוֹת בְּאַלְפֵי יְהוּדָה מִמְּךָ לִי יֵצֵא לִהְיוֹת מוֹשֵׁל בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל וּמוֹצָאֹתָיו מִקֶּדֶם מִימֵי עוֹלָם׃ A passage often remembered around Christmas time, Micah 5:2 is quoted in Matthew 2:5-6 to describe that Israel’s ruler would be born in Bethlehem. Some Christian expositors and laypersons see the “eternal pre-existence” of the Messiah and therefore Messiah’s deity in the words of Micah 5:2 (in Hebrew, Micah 5:1): “whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.” However, even just a comparison of English translations reveals that “eternality” in this passage is not so cut-and-dry. Some English translations of the use a word like “everlasting”, while others translate the same phrase as “from ancient days”. A word study and the context of the passages shows that neither Micah nor Matthew were declaring the “eternal pre-existence” of Messiah. Rather, the passages refer to the promise of God given to David centuries before. The “eternal pre-existence” and “deity of Christ” claims from Micah 5 are based on presuppositions that force a wrong understanding of Hebrew words. The words miqedem "from before" and mimei olam "from ancient days" do not mean “eternal pre-existence” but refer to events in Israel’s past. Specifically, Micah 5:2 refers to the promise God made to David long ago, centuries before Micah’s day. The “eternality” interpretation also ignores both the literary and historical context of the passage which speaks of a descendant of David who was to rule for Yahweh by the strength of Yahweh his God when the Assyrians came into the land. The “eternality” interpretation also misses the meaning of the passage. Micah is trusting completely on God’s promise of peace and salvation through a king who would descend from David. There was an amazing, observable sample of that promised victorious peace in David’s descendant Hezekiah (see Isaiah 37:15-38), a sample which gives us concrete evidence and confidence that Yawheh our God fulfills His promises. The ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise to David is in Jesus. In an even greater fashion than in the days of David or Hezekiah, Jesus the descendant of David will shepherd and rule God’s people for God  in the strength of Yahweh his God, and in the majesty of the name of Yahweh his God. The Gospel of Matthew mentions nothing about the pre-existence of Jesus in quoting Micah’s passage. Neither Jesus nor any New Testament author ever appealed to the Old Testament to reveal the eternal pre-existence or deity of Messiah. Jesus and the New Testament authors did appeal to the Old Testament to show the suffering, death and subsequent glory of Messiah. For a full written text of the podcast see here: https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2019/02/micah-52-matthew-26-eternal-deity-of.html

Jon and Heather Kidwell come from a traditional, conservative Christian background. Heather grew up on the mission field. In this podcast the Kidwells tell their story about how they came to understand that God is one, and that Jesus is God’s human Messiah, who died and was raised from the dead by God. While homeschooling her kids (Camden, Cate and Cara - we hear from them toward the end of the podcast), Heather was bothered by an emphasis even in Christian homeschooling curriculum on the study of Greek philosophy and culture. Why are we so fascinated with Greek history and philosophy? She began to wonder if she was looking at life, and interpreting the Scriptures, through a Greek philosophical lens rather than through a Hebraic, biblical mindset. Was she teaching her children biblical truth? Or had some traditional Christian dogmas been formed by interpreting the Scriptures from Greek ways of thinking which she knew would twist the truth? The questions set the family on a quest to find the truth. They began to discover that church teachings like the immortality of the human soul, going to heaven in a dis-embodied state, and eternal conscious torment in hell were all non-biblical ideas. Rather, the Scriptures teach that man is mortal, our hope is in the resurrection from death to new immortal life on earth, and that the wages of sin is death, perishing. They were first introduced to the biblical idea that Jesus the Messiah is a real human person who was put to death and raised from the dead by God, in a book by Kegan Chandler called The God of Jesus in Light of Christian Dogma. https://www.amazon.com/God-Jesus-Light-Christian-Dogma/dp/0967324939 The Kidwells are an example of more and more sincere Christians who are realizing the ideas of a three-persons-in-one god, and a dual natured god-man are not the best way to understand who the God of the Bible and His Messiah are. Bill and Stephanie Schlegel Testimony https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LA9Uq-8xMc&ab_channel=21stCenturyReformation

John 1:10 does not say that Jesus created planet earth.  This episode is part 2 of our commentary on John 1:9-13. For a full written text of this episode, click here. https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2020/11/jesus-did-not-create-planet-earth.html - The word translated "world" in John 1:9-10, the Greek word kosmos, does not mean planet earth. - We can understand better what the author meant by kosmos, world, in John 1:10 by seeing the parallels in the next verse. Kosmos of verse 10 is parallel to “his own” in John 1:11, meaning the Jewish people and perhaps even specifically Jews who lived in the geographical region of Judea. The “kosmos that knew him not” in verse 10 is parallel to “his own people who received him not” in verse 11. - The word “create” is nowhere in John’s Prologue. The kosmos was not created by Jesus, but rather it came to be through the man Jesus. The kosmos that came to be through Jesus is the new people of God, specifically those who are born of God and are the children of God as described in verses 12-13. - The deity of Christ interpretation of John 1, and specifically of John 1:3 and 1:10, which claims that Jesus was the creator of all things and of the earth, is a direct contradiction to many other Scriptures that state clearly that the Creator of all things is the one God, Yahweh the God of Israel. See Gen. 1:1, Isaiah 37:16, 40:28, 42:5, 45:12, 45:18; Jer. 10:12, 27:5, Mal. 2:10; Psa. 8:3, 100:3, 102:25; Neh. 9:6; Matt. 19:4; Mark 10:6; Acts 17:24; Rev. 4:11, 10:6. - The interpretation offered in this podcast episode is in complete agreement with other biblical revelation, that the One God, Yahweh, the God of Israel, the Father, is the Creator, and that as He, He alone, created the heavens and the earth and brought about human civilization through one individual human being (Adam, Noah, Abraham). Likewise, He, Yahweh, brings about the community known as the “children of God” which comes to be in the next age through the one man Jesus the Messiah. 1 Cor. 8:6: “yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all and through whom we exist. - We can refer to the body of the Gospel of John to understand what the author means in the Prologue. The Prologue uses much metaphorical language, and the exact same metaphors, themes and language the author introduces in the Prologue he reiterates again in the Gospel, associating the language and themes of the Prologue to the man Jesus and his ministry. These parallels are evidence that John’s Prologue is not a commentary on the Genesis creation, but rather is an introduction to the new beginning in the man Jesus of Nazareth. It does the author of John’s Gospel great injustice to claim that his Prologue is not an introduction to the man Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah. - For a full written text of this episode, click here. https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2020/11/jesus-did-not-create-planet-earth.html

This episode is part 1 of a two part commentary on the Gospel of John 1:9-13. - This episode focuses on John 1:9, where we take a close look at what 'the world" (the Greek word "kosmos") means in the Bible in general and in the Gospel of John specifically. We also investigate what the Gospel of John means by the phrase "coming into the world". - We must understand the figures of speech, idioms and metaphors in the Gospel of John if we are to understand the Gospel correctly. It was those in opposition to Jesus that especially misunderstood his figures of speech. John 10:6, “This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.” - The Greek word kosmos, although translated as “world” in John 1:9-10, does not mean planet earth. Rather kosmos means human society, or a segment of human society, specifically Jewish society. - To go or “come into the kosmos, into the world” does not mean a person came from some heavenly or planetary realm into planet earth. To “come into the world” means to be a part of human society, to exist and be alive at a certain time and place. Everyone “comes into the world.” As fulfillment of God’s promise the Prophet of Deut. 18:15 “comes into the world” and the Messiah “comes into the world” (John 7:31, 11:27). - The man Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah is the light who “came into the world.” This is made clear by the author both in the Prologue (the Baptizer was not the light) and in the body of the Gospel. Jesus said, “I have come as light into the world” (John 12:46, 3:19). - For a full written text of this episode, click here. https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2020/11/jesus-did-not-create-planet-earth.html

This episode is a commentary on the Gospel of John 1:4-8. John the Baptist was a prophet sent by God to testify about the man Jesus Christ, not about a pre-incarnate 2nd person of the Trinity, nor about an abstract pre-Genesis plan of God. The life and light in the darkness introduced in John 1:4-5 refer to the man Jesus Christ and his ministry in the darkness which mankind finds himself in, not to the Genesis creation. The man and ministry of Jesus the Messiah is life in which is lightthat still shines. The darkness tried to overcome the light, by putting Jesus Christ to death on a cross. But the darkness was not able to overcome the light, as Jesus’s death led to resurrection into eternal life. “the darkness did not overcome the light” is a reference already in John 1:5 to the death and resurrection of the man Jesus Christ from Nazareth, not to some pre-Genesis event. The reiteration in the body of the Gospel of terms used in the Prologue, like word, life, light, and darkness, is evidence that the Prologue is introducing the man and ministry of Jesus the Messiah from Nazareth. The man Jesus Christ from Nazareth is the light of the world. Whoever follows him will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Interpreting John 1 as describing the Genesis creation doesn’t work, or ends up being confusion and contradiction since somewhere between verse 3 and verse 4 the author supposedly switched from the describing the Genesis creation to introducing the life of light in the person he is about to describe, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Also, the deity of Christ interpretation is confusing as it must postulate that that the ministries of Jesus and John the Baptizer being described in verses 3-13 are described before the supposed incarnation described in John 1:14. A much better way to understand all of the Prologue of the Gospel of John is to interpret it as an introduction to the man Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who is the main topic of the book. The testimony ministry of John the Baptizer has no business being introduced in 1:6-8, 1:15 and 1:19-34 if “the beginning” of John 1:1 refers directly to the Genesis creation as the Greek philosophers understood it, referring to some pre-human “Logos”, some pre-human “Word”. Rather, the ministry of John the Baptizer, his testimony to the light, and the contrast statement that John was not the light, is evidence that the prologue is about the man Jesus and his ministry, and that “the beginning” of John 1:1 is the new beginning of God in the life of the Messiah Jesus. For the full written text of this podcast, see here. https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2020/10/jesus-and-john-baptist-john-chapter-1.html

In this episode we continue our interview with Mr. William Gilmore. William and his wife Cathy and their seven children live in Colorado. In part 1 of our interview William explained how for a number of years he believed that the Bible declared that the one true God was the Father, but that Jesus had pre-existed as a created being prior to taking on a human nature. This belief is called “Arianism” after the 4th century church leader Arius who had a similar view. By the way, the term “Arian” in a theological context has nothing to do with the term used by the Nazis in a racial context, Aryan. The two words sound the same, but are spelled differently and have totally different meanings. William explains how the Apostles’ Creed, also called the Old Roman Symbol, and certain Scriptures, first from Peter (1 Peter 1:20 ) and then from Paul (1 Timothy 2:5), and then also communication with One God believer Anthony Buzzard, helped him understand that the so-called pre-existence of the Messiah Jesus was not literal. In contrast to a literal pre-human existence, the human person Jesus Christ was pre-known by God in the plan and purpose of God. That is, Jesus Christ is a human being, a human person, not a pre-existent divine person who took on flesh.

This is the first of two episodes where we hear the testimony of William Gilmore. Mr. Gilmore’s parents were medical missionaries, but already as a youth he became disillusioned with Christianity.  Gilmore describes the circumstances and biblical passages that eventually led him to faith in the one God of the Scriptures, the Father, and in the one God’s Messiah, the man Jesus Christ. William lives with his wife Cathy and their seven children in Colorado.

This episode is commentary on the Gospel of John 1:2-3. Many traditional Christians claim that John 1:3, "all things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be" declares that Jesus created all things in the universe.  - We look at key words in the original Greek of this verse and discover that the author of the Gospel of John is not declaring that Jesus created all the material universe. Theologically biased translations have given the wrong understanding of this verse. We suggest a much better way of understanding John 1:3. - John 1:3 is not saying that Jesus was involved in the creation of all the material universe. “All things” never means the entire universe in the Gospel of John. Neither are the words “create” or “make” in this verse or anywhere else in John’s prologue. Rather, John 1:3 is introducing all the things that came about, everything that happened through the life and ministry of Jesus. And the main “everything” is the resurrection life of the Messiah Jesus of Nazareth, and the promise of life in the next age his resurrection holds for all. - We also take a look at John 1:2 and see that already in John 1:2, “This one was in the beginning with God” begins the contrast between Jesus, the Word, and John the Baptist. The author of the Gospel of John early and often contrasts or compares John the Baptizer with Jesus and the titles used for Jesus (Word, light). This is evidence that Baptizer is being contrasted with the human person Jesus, not a pre-incarnate god-figure or abstract Logos. “This one”, Jesus, the Word was the light. But “this one” John the Baptizer was not the light. “This one”, said the Baptizer, “is whom I spoke about. He is greater than I”. “This one baptizes with the holy spirit”.  “This one is the Son of God”. - For full written text of this podcast, see here: https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2020/09/no-john-13-does-not-say-jesus-created.html

The biblical autumn festivals are coming up, including the of Festival of Tabernacles. John 7 describes how Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Tabernacles festival, only six months before he was crucified, buried and raised from the dead. - In reading over John chapter 7, I’m struck by how the question on the people’s minds in Jerusalem at the Festival was not“Is this man God?”. Rather, the question people were asking themselves was “Is this man the Messiah?” For centuries, deity of Christ and Trinitarian theology have claimed that the Gospel of John is the book that presents Jesus as God. But to make that claim a person has to bring his own presuppositions to a few verses in John’s Gospel, while at the same time ignore the many times that John is really presenting Jesus as the Messiah. - To proclaim “Jesus is God” and that the Gospel of John says so, is to proclaim a different Jesus, a different Messiah than the one the Gospel of John is proclaiming. “Jesus is God” is an anti-messiah claim, a claim that exchanges the real human Christ of the Gospel of John for another. It is a claim that is against the real human Messiah Jesus of the Gospel of John. As presented in John’s Gospel, and indeed all of the New Testament, those that believe in Jesus do not believe that Jesus is God. Rather, those that believe in Jesus believe that Jesus is the Messiah. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born of God” (1 John 5:1). It is a misrepresentation and perversion of Scripture to insist that “everyone who believes that Jesus is God has been born of God”. - For full texts of this podcast see here: https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2019/10/in-gospel-of-john-jesus-is-messiah-not.html