The Challenge of the Christian Theology and more …
/ Ewald Frank
nyelv : angol
Más nyelvek
27. A challenge to all
- Preface
- Introduction
- Does all happen by chance?
- The time is near
- The only valid measuring rod
- The old dispute
- Self-evidence?
- The testimony of historians
- History confirms it
- God’s confession
- God manifests Himself
- In heaven and on earth
- The Lord visits His prophet
- The »I am«
- Was the Son born in heaven?
- Spirit and Truth
- Very peculiar
- Respect for the Great Mystery
- Everyone defends his or her own doctrine
- The rock
- The Great Commission
- Thou shalt have no other gods …
- Maryology
- Believe as the Scripture says
- An unbelievable tragedy
- The end-time
- A challenge to all
- No one can bypass Jesus Christ
- New creation
- The Son and the sons and daughters of God
- The two beginnings
- The course of church history
- No man’s influence
- Conclusion
The Prophet Elijah gathered God’s people on Mount Carmel. Also 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the idols came to witness the decision. The Prophet declared, »The God Who answereth by fire is the true God!« And behold God answered. We also need a divine decision. If the Lord is God we should serve Him. If His Word is true, then let everything else be false. The time is nearing; it is at hand, when God is going to complete His work. In that decisive moment we must be on the right side. Through His Word He now addresses and challenges all.
Now a worldwide call to all people in all faiths and religions must be heralded. So many different faiths cannot be right and lead to God. Only whatever comes from Him leads back to Him. We can meet Him only where He met with us. There is only one way from God to us, and that is our way to God. Only One could say, »I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.« (Jn. 14: 6).
Do the terms treasured on earth »Trinity« »tri-une God« etc. exist with God in heaven, as He never uttered them, never mentioned them? They are in reality strange formations, deriving from gnostic philosophy and have crept in as theories. One must ask, What is the truth about the Trinity? The truth about the Trinity is that it did not exist in eternity, not in the course of time and will not be throughout eternity!
In the Old Testament the term »Lord God« is found together. In the New Testament up to the Epistle of Jude it is not found together a single time, unless it is a quote of the Old Testament. Here we meet this great revelatory mystery of God in the New Testament, which cannot be explained or searched out by anyone. We read for instance in 1 Cor. 6: 14, »God hath … raised up the Lord.« The divine remaining and the human expressed revelation runs alongside one another, together, wrapped up into one another, until in the completion the redeemed who are pleasing God are deified and will be in the likeness of the Redeemer (1 Jn. 3: 1-3).
In the New Testament »God« and »Lord« appear separately, as does also Father and Son right until the last prophetic book of the Bible, the Revelation. There we find again the term »Lord God«.
The religious leaders of that day accused Jesus of blasphemy (Jn. 5 and 10), because He, as their argument went, made Himself equal with God. They didn’t understand that the Redeemer had to be born as a man, so He could suffer and die and still remain Lord to overcome death and hell. They justified themselves , »For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.« His answer was, »Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? … That ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.« (Jn. 10: 33-38).
The Apostle Paul speaks of the »mystery of Christ and the Church« and the realisation thereof, as God, the Creator of all things, has purposed from all eternity and bringing it about through Jesus Christ, our Lord (Eph. 2 and 3 a. o.). In eternity, when there was no time, God ordained all things in advance. Long before man was formed and fell, before the foundation of the world the Omniscient laid out His Plan of Salvation and decided to redeem humanity through the Lamb of God, »… Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world …« (1 Pt. 1: 20-21). Also before the foundation of the world the names of the redeemed were written in the Lamb’s book of life. Before the foundation of the world all sons of God were predestinated in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1: 4-5). Before the foundation of the world the Father already loved the Son and all His sons and daughters in Him and through Him. The same eternal glory, by which the Son of God was transfigured, was there for Him and His Own before the foundation of the world: »And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one« (Jn. 17: 22-24). God is eternal; therefore His plan of salvation must have eternal character. Therein many thinking with their natural mind have a great problem. For God all things in eternity were already done and finished, even if they are realised only in the course of time.
The Saviour was not only the Messiah, which means the »Anointed One«, He also had to destroy the one who had the power of death, that is the devil, and set us free. Therefore He had to be in every way equal with His brethren (Heb. 2: 14-18). The Prophet in the Old Testament foretold , »I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues; O Sheol, I will be thy destruction« (Hos. 13: 14).
Paul is already giving the shout of victory, as it will be proclaimed fulfilled with the Return of Jesus Christ. »… Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? …« (1 Cor. 15: 50-58). Through the death of Christ, death itself was conquered. The triumphant resurrection is the proof thereof. Soon it will be swallowed up in victory and the redeemed will not hear about death throughout all eternity. »He will swallow up death in victory ; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; … And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.« (Isa. 25: 8-9).
»Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death …« (Rev. 21: 3-4).