Against Modalism 12: The Father and the Son both Dwell in the Believer

John 14:23
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

Here we see both the Father and the Son making there home in the believer. Clearly this is not the humanity of the Son, for man's spirit is finite, so it must be His divinity, and yet both the divinity of the Son and the Father make their home in the believer. (We also know elsewhere that the Holy Spirit dwells in believers.)

This shows that the Son and the Father are distinct, divine persons.

Trichet Proposes an Alternative

Jean-Claude Trichet disagrees with Soros that central banks should explictily control house prices, but he and others propose a plausible alternative. See here.

If only either plan had been implemented instead of trusting the greed of the few over the needs of the many! Talk about closing the barn door after the horse has bolted!

The biggest thing that Gordon could do to reduce is to cut the cost of fuel by reducing tax. 85% of our petrol costs is tax!

George Soros on the Economy

At last someone speaks sense. George Soros, the famous billionaire investor, makes the sort of comments to the BBC that I've wanted to say for ages: "He said that the central banks should explicitly target asset bubbles such as housing booms and try to stop them getting out of control, which is something they have resisted doing so far."

If only he had been Chancellor instead of Gordon Brown! Disturbingly, the insightful Soros also "warned the 'financial bubble' of the last 25 years could be drawing to an end and the post World War II 'super-boom' era could also be over."

Against Modalism 11: Is the Father (or Jesus) Talking to Himself? (Or is Jesus His own Father?)

John 17
Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.

“I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

“But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

Please take the time to read this extended prayer from Christ the Son to the Father. Is this really the Father talking to Himself? Or (for other Modalists) is this Jesus talking to Himself? There is a clear, personal distinction between the Son and the Father.

Some Modalists may argue that this is the humanity of Christ talking to God the Father. However, the Son who speaks here was with the Father in eternity (v. 5). This is the one who was loved by the Father in eternity (v. 24).

Modalists complain about us dividing the one person of God into three persons (which we do not, but we believe in three distinct persons in the one being of God), but those who argue that here we have the humanity of Christ praying to the Divinity of the Father heretically divide the person of Christ.

Just to touch upon personal pronouns: here we have I and you, me and you, yours and mine, etc. The first and second persons distinguish between one person (I) and another person (you). This is another reason why Christians are forced by the clear facts of Scripture to believe in the Trinity, even though it may seem a hard thing to understand. We do not twist the facts, because to do so would be to deny the Lord to our own destruction (2 Pet. 2:1; 3:15,16; 1 John 2:22,23).

Read the passage and think about it…

Continued...

Against Modalism 10: A Present Intercessor with the Father

Mark 16:19
So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.

Romans 8:34
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

Hebrews 7:25
Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

Hebrews 8:1
Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens…

1 John 2:1
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Jesus the Christ has risen to the right hand of God in heaven. What is He doing there? Amongst other things, He is interceding on our behalf as our High Priest and will do so until the end of the World.

However, He is interceding with the Father. He is distinct from the Father. Is the Father interceding with Himself? No, Christ is. This is a problem for the Modalists, because they must divide the person of Christ: the humanity must intercede with the same Deity that indwells Him, that is the Father. For the Trinitarians, the totality of the Son, human and divine, one united person, intercedes with the Father.

Continued...

Ecumenism on Tour!

Pictured at Belfast International Airport are (l-r) Dr John Finlay, Presbyterian Moderator, Rev Roy Cooper, President of the Methodist Church, Cardinal Seán Brady, Roman Catholic Primate, and Archbishop Alan Harper, Church of Ireland Primate. They are currently visiting 'Christians' in Israel and Palestine to show solidarity and promote peace.

What a sad sight to see a professedly evangelical PCI Moderator in such flagrant fellowship (solidarity?) with an avowed heretic like Brady! May God grant a reformation of the PCI. It just gets worse and worse! Once upon a time it was easier to distinguish Evangelicals and Liberals in the mixed multitude that is the PCI, but now, what is an evangelical?

See also here. If only Finlay had the same aversion to crucifixes!