A Personal Sadness
Yesterday a long time reader and supporter withdrew from the group. His reason was the debate over the Trinity. He said that he just could no longer continue the discussion because I had not been clear about the divinity of Yeshua, His uncreated being and His equivalence with the Father.
I was so sad to see this happen. It means that I haven’t done my job, not to provide “definitive”answers, but to encourage all of us to be able to explore these complex and important issues without feeling as if we have to agree in order to know our Lord. I was sad because somehow my explorations and questions left him feeling as though I was no longer in the fold, and apparently, being in the fold is the most important thing.
Let me be as frank as possible. I just don’t know what to think yet. I have lots of questions, questions that are not answered by the typical Christian responses. That’s just where I am. I believe that Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah and that he is divine in that sense, but I just don’t see grounds for the Trinity from the biblical standpoint.
He also said that over the last few years I have become more and more critical of Christianity. That is true. I admit it. That does NOT mean that I think Christian believers are awful pagans. I just think they don’t know their own history, a history which I am convinced does not arise from the Scriptures but rather from the Gentile philosophical ideas brought into the “church” by the early, anti-Semitic fathers. As far as I can see, this is historical fact. The Bible is Jewish, perhaps not the Judaism of today, but certainly the Jewish way of life of the first century. I know there were lots of sects of Judaism in those days, but there were no Christian sects. Those arrived after Bar Kochba and a few other socio/political events. As far as its historical basis, Christianity’s claim on Jewish Scriptures is a lie.
Anyway, it just makes me feel terrible to think that someone who loved what we are trying to do would find it necessary to withdraw himself and his support of these efforts over a doctrinal issue. I am so sorry I wasn’t adequate to the task. I guess God has a lot to teach me still.
Hi Skip,
I realize it has been a long time since this was written but, since I have been and will be in the same position you are (offending the very people I hope to reach), thought I might add a couple of thoughts.
Within the human brain is a place where our beliefs are stored (called the left temporoparietal junction); when we encounter a situation, another part of our brain that is more instinctual scans those beliefs and determines how to react (REACT). Because changing a belief means processing, changing, and probably reordering the list in our brain, our instinctual mind SEVERELY resists any change to its core beliefs. Presenting something to someone that seriously questions one of these core beliefs is like knocking the bottom block out of a person’s personal tower of Babel. This is why the Bible exhorts us to speak the truth IN LOVE (which you do).
No matter how hard we try to lovingly change a person or get them at least to consider a new truth, it will be a very difficult experience for them. The best we can do is prayerfully plant seeds and back off, allowing God to deal with the nasty results and allow Him to shepherd the person toward change.
A good verse is the one I read this morning: And by supplication I will lead them (jer 31:9). The worst we can do is try to prove we are “right.” So we continue to plant seeds carefully and show love.
Regarding the Bible being a Jewish not Christian book, I would rephrase that and say the Bible is a Hebrew, not Christian book.
One more thought: if the Tree of Knowledge is in fact our instinctual nature and if it consists of the intense desire for survival manifested in our need for control, approval, and security, then each of us has within us, planted and tended, a personal tree of k that has powerful branches and deep roots…any attempt to uproot that tree and plant what God knows to be truth will be instinctively resisted to the max. Frankly, for most of my life God has had to use the 2×4 method to get me to consider something different. Only now at 66 am I finally able to relax and “consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding.”
The “godhead” subject (godhead is very unfortunate choice of translation) is important because a wrong understanding makes it nearly impossible to really understand the proper relationship between the Father and His special son, and therefore to understand OUR relationship between Him as our Father and our own sonship/daughtership.
Thank you for the love and humility you show.
Stan