One God Report

We conclude a three-part interview with Dr. Andrew Perry on the Prologue of the Gospel of John. In this episode Dr. Perry: 1. Explains how he understands when and how “the word became flesh” (John 1:14). Dr. Perry understands the phrase “the word became flesh” to be about empowerment to speak and make things happen or come to be, and not about divine incarnation. Dr. Perry sees the baptism of Jesus as the event at which the word became flesh. 2. Explains what “the world came to be through him” means in John 1:10. 3. Encourages readers to be sensitive to Old Testament types (patterns and parallels) which Jesus and the authors of the New Testament employ. A failure to recognize the Old Testament types has led to a misunderstanding of the Prologue and other passages in the Gospel of John. Resources: Dr. Perry’s books and articles: https://www.lulu.com/search?adult_audience_rating=00&page=1&pageSize=10&q=andrew+perry+john+1 https://durham.academia.edu/AndrewPerry https://www.academia.edu/42755430/John_1_1_18_A_Socinian_Approach Previous One God Report Podcast on John 1:14: https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2021/03/is-god-flesh-better-way-to-understand.html

This episode is part 2 of our discussion with Dr. Andrew Perry about themes in the Prologue of the Gospel of John. In this episode Dr. Perry explains why the human Christ Jesus is called the Word in John 1:1, and gives reasons how we can know that the man Christ Jesus is referred to in the Gospel’s opening statement, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” 1. In parallel to Genesis creation, things “happen” or “come to be” through the spoken word of the man Christ Jesus. Jesus can heal the sick, heal the lame, calm a storm and raise the dead simply by speaking. Renewed creation, indeed new life, "comes to be" through God's Word.  2. The phrases “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” have no precedence in either biblical or non-biblical literature in reference to either a second divine figure or to an abstract idea like “wisdom”. Rather, the phrases find a parallel in the biblical literature to human figures, especially to Moses. 3. The repetition of the phrase “This one was with God in the beginning” is an intentional contrast with John 1:7, a comparison between the man Christ Jesus and the man John the Baptizer, “this one came as a witness”. The persistent references and comparisons to John the Baptizer in the Prologue of John’s Gospel, and in the early chapters of the gospel indicate that the Baptizer is being compared to the man Christ Jesus (not to a pre-incarnate divine figure or to an "personified" abstract idea). We also discuss what the phrase in John 1:14 means: “So the Word became/was flesh…” Resource links: Dr. Perry’s books and articles: https://www.lulu.com/search?adult_audience_rating=00&page=1&pageSize=10&q=andrew+perry+john+1 https://durham.academia.edu/AndrewPerry Previous One God Report Podcast on John 1:14: https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2021/03/is-god-flesh-better-way-to-understand.html

This episode is “New Creation in the Gospel of John 1, with Dr. Andrew Perry. A subtitle for the episode is “The Beginning of John 1:1 is a New Beginning, not the Genesis Creation”. This episode is the first of a series in which Dr. Perry will explain reasons why the prologue of the Gospel of John is best understood to be introducing the new creation in the man Jesus, who is referred to as “the Word” in John 1:1. Dr. Perry’s occupational background is in information technology, but he is now an independent researcher and author. His PhD in New Testament is from Durham University in England. His numerous articles and books are available on his academia.edu and Lulu bookstore (links below). In this episode Dr. Perry begins to give evidence for why he understands that “In the beginning” of John 1:1 is best understood as referring to the new beginning that God brings about through the ministry of the man Jesus Christ. Dr. Perry explains that the author of the Gospel of John is re-using Genesis language to intentionally draw a comparison between the beginning in Genesis and the new beginning in Jesus. The man Christ Jesus is referred to as the Word in John 1:1, because in a parallel way to Genesis, things “come to be” through God’s word. But in Jesus’s case, we are not talking about a material creation, but a spiritual creation. Life came to be through Jesus. John 1:3-4 explains, “that which came to be in him was life, and the life was the light of men”. https://www.lulu.com/search?adult_audience_rating=00&page=1&pageSize=10&q=andrew+perry+john+1 https://durham.academia.edu/AndrewPerry

In this episode we show why the Trinitarian and “deity of Christ” understanding of Jesus’s words in John 8:58 are wrong. In neither Hebrew nor in Greek is the phase “I am” in the Bible a title for deity. In Hebrew, God says in Exodus 3:14 “I will be who I will be”. In Greek, it is the “Living One” who speaks to Moses. “I am”, in Greek, ego eimi, is not a divine title. We show that the “deity of Christ” interpretation of Jesus’s statement, “before Abraham was I am” contradicts the Apostle Peter’s belief (Acts 3:15), the disciples Steven’s belief (Acts 7), the author of the Gospel of John (John 20 30:31) and Jesus in the Gospel of John (John 17:3). We give two possible meanings for Jesus “I am” statement in John 8:58. We favor the second interpretation. 1. Jesus’s statement relates to his superiority to Abraham in the plan and purpose of God. The Messiah Jesus was known by God before Abraham was called in God’s purpose. 2. Jesus is pre-eminent to Abraham in resurrection. Jesus was repeating what he said earlier in John chapter 8, “I am the light of the world”. All of the “I am” statements of Jesus in John 8 relate to his claim to be “the light of the world”. We examine the Greek verb genesthai and see that especially in the Gospel of John it means to “come into being at some point in the future”. John 8:58 is best translated as “before Abraham comes to be”, that is, at some future point in time. For additional evidence that the Trinitarian, “deity of Christ” interpretation of John 8:58 is wrong, see here. https://www.angelfire.com/space/thegospeltruth/TTD/verses/john8_58.html

In this podcast I translate a few verses in the Book of Genesis (1:1, 26-27) in a way that many Trinitarians read or understand the text. I address the question if the word for “God” in Hebrew Elohim, which is a grammatical plural, is a hint or means that God is more than one. 1. No, this grammatically plural form does not mean more than one numerically. 2. Hebrew grammarians call this the “plural of majesty”. It is used in an honorific way with titles like “God”, “master”, even “Baal” to refer to one individual. 3. No Hebrew scholar makes the claim that the grammatical plural Elohim hints or suggests that the God of Israel is more than one individual. The claim is a popular “man/pastor” on the street claim that ignores what Hebrew grammarians say. 4. If the word means a plural, it would be translated as “gods”, more than one god. It does not mean more than one person in a god. 5. Other Hebrew words that are grammatically plural but singular in meaning are mentioned. 6. Trinitarians are inconsistent since sometimes they claim Elohim means more than one person, but other times it means only one person. Sometimes the contradiction is in one verse right next to another. 7. Many times the God of Israel is referred to in the singular form El. The God of Israel is also referred to tens of thousands of times with singular masculine verbs, pronouns and adjectives. We ask which member of the Triune god is being referred to in the hundreds, thousands, of place, like here in Psalm 86:10:  כִּי-גָדוֹל אַתָּה וְעֹשֵׂה נִפְלָאוֹת אַתָּה אֱלֹהִים לְבַדֶּךָ 8. We challenge those who make the claim that Elohim means a multi-personal god to explain why the Hebrew word for “master/sir/lord” also occurs in grammatical plural forms to refer to one individual person. Additional resources: “An Introduction to the Plural of Majesty in the Hebrew Bible” Podcast by Dustin Smith https://biblicalunitarianpodcast.podbean.com/e/139-an-introduction-to-the-plural-of-majesty-within-the-hebrew-bible/

A Trinitarian Baptist pastor says the Father veiled himself in flesh, bled and died. Really? Why such confusion? Does the New Testament really tell believers in Jesus to take a little wafer and cup of juiced or wine to remember Jesus’s birth? What did Jesus mean when he said, “Do THIS in remembrance of me”? Resources for this episode: Video: The Promised Land is not a Desert and is a Paradigm of the Age to Come https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJxghQtxBEQ Podcast Interview with Mark Cain, “A Good Land” https://podcast.unitarianchristianalliance.org/41-a-good-land-bill-schlegel Long Hollow Baptist Church Christmas Eve Sermon (pastor’s prayer starts around 17:35 minute) https://longhollow.com/christmas-eve-sermon Meaning of “Mass” https://aleteia.org/2017/08/24/why-do-catholics-call-their-main-church-services-mass/

This episode is part 3 of the three part series, “Finding the Deity of Christ in the Old Testament is not a New Testament Exercise”. In Part 1 we saw that on the day of his resurrection, as recorded in Luke 24, Jesus appealed to the Old Testament Scriptures not to proclaim his deity, but to proclaim that the Messiah would suffer and die before being resurrected and exalted. In Part 2 we saw that when Peter and Paul in the Book of Acts appealed to the Old Testament to declare who Messiah/Christ is, they never claim anything about the deity of Christ. Rather, like Jesus, they proclaim that the Christ had to suffer and die and then be raised by God to glory. In this episode we examine two famous Old Testament texts that traditional Christianity has claimed to be evidence of the deity of Christ. We see that the New Testament never makes this claim. Rather, appeals to the Old Testament to proclaim the deity of Christ only come from church fathers of later centuries after Christ. The claims are tradition, not biblical. For the full written text, see here. https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2021/12/finding-evidence-for-deity-of-christ-in.html

In the previous episode, "Finding the Deity of Christ in the Old Testament, Part 1", we saw that Jesus believed that the Old Testament spoke of the death and resurrection of the Messiah, not deity.   In this episode we examine the sermons of Peter and Paul as recorded in the Book of Acts to see if they ever appealed to Old Testament Scriptures to find evidence for the deity of Christ.  We discover that the apostles, like Jesus, never appealed to the Old Testament in an effort to find evidence for the deity of Jesus Christ. Rather, like Jesus, the apostles appealed to Old Testament Scriptures to declare the death and resurrection of Christ. Finding evidence for the deity of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is an activity which began in the centuries after the New Testament was written. Such efforts are foreign to the New Testament. - One God believers can and should challenge those who appeal to the Old Testament for evidence of the deity of Christ: Jesus never appealed to the Old Testament in an effort to prove the deity of Christ. Why are you? Jesus never appealed to the Old Testament in an effort to prove that God is triune. Why are you? Do you know better than Jesus and the New Testament authors?  What is your source, since it is not the Bible?

Jesus believed that the prophets spoke of the death and resurrection of the Messiah, not deity. Neither Jesus nor any author of the New Testament appealed to the Old Testament in an effort to find evidence for the deity of Jesus Christ. Finding evidence for the deity of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is an activity which began in the centuries after the New Testament was written. Such efforts are foreign to the New Testament. Based on Jesus’s own post-resurrection appeals to the Old Testament as described in Luke 24:25-27, and 24:44-47, in this episode we see if Jesus appealed to the Torah of Moses, the Prophets or the Writings (the Old Testament) to declare his "deity".  - One God believers can and should challenge those who appeal to the Old Testament for evidence of the deity of Christ: Jesus never appealed to the Old Testament in an effort to prove the deity of Christ. Why are you? Jesus never appealed to the Old Testament in an effort to prove that God is triune. Why are you? Do you know better than Jesus and the New Testament authors? What is your source, since it is not the Bible?

We continue our discussion with Troy Salinger concerning the "Pre-incarnate Appearances of the Son of God in the Old Testament". In this episode we examine Genesis 18-19, where Yahweh appeared to Abraham via three messengers.   No one in the Bible claims that these visitors were a literal pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus, but ever since the mid-second century AD, beginning with Justin Martyr, most of traditional Christianity has held that Abraham was literally visited by the pre-incarnate Christ.  Salinger leads the discussion examining the pre-incarnate claim and like other Old Testament passages, explains that likewise this appearance of Yahweh is most simply understood as agency. That is, Yahweh God is represented by his agent messengers. When the messengers speaks or act it is Yahweh speaking or acting. And those to whom Yahweh appears via messengers can speak to Yahweh through His messengers. Schlegel gives biblical evidence that the messengers in Genesis 18-19 were actually human beings, specifically, that one of the messengers was Melchizedek. Resources: Troy Salinger "Let the Truth Come Out" blog: https://letthetruthcomeoutblog.wordpress.com/author/troysal/ Articles on supposed pre-incarnate appearances of the Son of God in the OT: https://letthetruthcomeoutblog.wordpress.com/?s=pre-incarnate