Before we move on back to the text of 1 Samuel, I wanna share some closing thoughts on the Sheep Pen method of analyzing Scripture we’ve been discussing.
First, let me make it clear this method is not about embracing tolerance as it’s defined by a lot of the liberal churches out there.
You know the one’s I’m talking about, right?
I’m talking about those congregations who promote gay marriage and side with Palestine over Israel on the land ownership issue.
A liberal church’s theology is basically “love supersedes all” even if it means blatantly ignoring the Lord’s commands and those passages of Scripture that show God will judge sin.
Second, keep in mind that while a sheep pen affords one a lot more freedom of movement compared to Systematic Theology’s doctrinal walls, there is still an inside and an outside.
It’s not like anything and everything goes.
You still gotta respect the boundaries as established by God’s Word.
Ya feel me?
If you have a set of verses that says Yeshua was supernaturally born of a virgin and given divine authority like no other person before him was…
But then you’ve got another set of verses that says Yeshua is a flesh-and-blood man just like us…
You’ve gotta take ALL of those verses into account without falling into the trap of asserting a logical contradiction.
I’d say that’s the problem with the trinitarians.
They focus only on those verses that show Yeshua was given divine authority (receiving worship, forgiving sins and healing and raising the dead) and then conclude Yeshua is God.
And honestly speaking, if that’s the only set of verses that exist about Yeshua’s life, character and attributes, I’d say their conclusions would make sense.
The only problem is we’ve got a ton of other verses that clearly paint Yeshua as subordinate to the Father and as a SEPARATE being from the Father.
So you’ve gotta take all those verses into account as well homies.
When you do, I think the only logical conclusion you can come to is that Yeshua is a divinely ordained man who was given full authority to act on God’s behalf.
He was subordinate to the Father because he got his authority from the Father.
Yet he was also equal to the Father because he got his authority from the Father.
Can you see how both of those statements are equally true?
In other words, he was the Son of God.
Hmm…“Son of God”?
Where did I hear that expression before?
Oh that’s right!
It’s in the New Testament.
Anyways, sarcasm aside, when you perceive Scripture via the Sheep Pen method, you can say goodbye forever to the inflexibility of the orthodoxy/heresy school of thought and embrace ALL the beauty of Scripture without fear or favor.
But again, stay inside the sheep pen!
No adding or subtracting from God’s Word…
And no holding up one set of verses on a given topic as superior to another set of verses.
Okay, I hope you’ve enjoyed this little discussion about systematic theology we’ve had over the past week.
See ya all next time.
Stay frosty!
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“I and the Father are one.”
-John 10:30
“You heard me say,
‘I am going away and I am
coming back to you.’
If you loved me,
you would be glad that
I am going to the Father,
for the Father is greater than I.”
-John 14:28
“Yeshua answered:
“Don’t you know me, Philip,
even after I have been among
you such a long time?
Anyone who has seen
me has seen the Father.
How can you say,
‘Show us the Father’?”
-John 14:9
“Don’t you believe that
I am in the Father,
and that the Father is in me?
The words I say to you
I do not speak on my
own authority.
Rather, it is the Father,
living in me,
who is doing his work.”
-John 14:10
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