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Keys Which Unlock the Bible

A fundamental, systemic error pervades most of It is a considerable irony that leading proponents
the standard literature available to Bible students. of "orthodoxy" today betray the very same ten-
This has to do with the crucial question of the dency which Paul strove to correct when they in-
identity of God and the Messiah Jesus. Just what form the Bible-searching public that "God is one
is the relationship of the Son of God to God? What in two or three Who's." Such a definition
of God is not from Scripture at all, but from the
We make no apology for our continued attention world of Middle Platonism. It is Greek philoso-
to this point of doctrine. This is a major, major phy which promotes God as a "What," and it is
issue which currently helps to keep the entire contemporary fundamentalism which (often
Muslim and Jewish world away from the Jesus of heavy-handedly) requires church members to ac-
the Bible. Those of us who claim to follow Jesus knowledge the "one What" presented as what
and love him and his teachings cannot remain they call the "Biune or Triune God." That God
unequipped to deal with this cardinal question of was not known to Jesus or Paul.
the identity of the God of the Bible and the Mes-
siah Jesus. Jesus himself was doggedly insistent Doctrine in some quarters is held to be a bad
that worship be conducted within the biblically thing! It is supposed to divide believers and dis-
prescribed framework, and not according to tra- tract from what is held to be vastly more impor-
dition, however widespread, respectable or tant: the cultivation of Christian character.
hallowed. Carried to its logical conclusion, this (very false)
argument leads to the notion that all that matters
The book of Hebrews chides those who under- in the Christian faith is the exercise of "love." Is-
stand Truth for not being well enough instructed sues of "theology" would then fall into the cate-
to become teachers of others. A Christian has a gory of "intellectual" non-essentials. They should
duty to others in excess of, or at least equal to, be relegated (so goes this misleading line of
his duty to feed himself. Hebrews 5:12: "By this thinking) to the province of academic discussion
time you ought to be teachers." Truth is meant to only.
be shared -- everywhere (Luke 9:60).
In no other field of human endeavor would any-
Paul labored in Athens to move his Greek audi- one argue that theory is unimportant -- that prac-
ence away from belief in God as a "What" to be- tice is all that counts! Jesus was a rabbi and
lief in the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob teacher and insisted at all times on right under-
who is a "Who" -- a Person! Note the subtle ap- standing. He also pointed to the fatal dangers of
proach of Paul: "What you worship but do not "tradition" mounted against the truth of Scripture
know, I am now proclaiming to you: The God (see Mark 7:6-13). Jesus was the ultimate
who made the world and everything in it" (Acts system-bucker and whistle-blower. He suffered
17:23, 24). the fate of all those who expose the errors of
large monopolies, which regard themselves as
custodians of unimpeachable truth. Jesus'

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