If it is not about Jesus, it’s not about anything (Motto
of the Fountain of Life)
Dear Reader, you might find it helpful to review the first two installments, of Rev.George Relic's
Article on the Apostle's Creed, they are found in our Blog Archives
SPS: Revisit
primary orthodox beliefs for refreshment and the strengthening of Faith.
Challenge: Examine
the beliefs and explore differing opinions in the spirit of intramural debate
among brothers, not in a sectarian diatribe among enemies.
Guideline: “For
what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of
all the philosophers, if we live without grace and the love of God?” Thomas a’ Kempis Motto: All for the
glory of Christ, Jesus.
6. GOD ALMIGHTY
God is many things.
God in His one undivided nature is love, mercy, grace, truth, intellect,
wisdom, rationality, etc. But here in
the creed only one attribute is used to describe Him. God is Almighty. He is mighty in everything that is possible
in space and time. But He is also
almighty in His love, mercy, grace, justice, truth etc. And He is able to do what He wills in
anything He wills. And He does it almightily.
He is free. Our point is that God
is Almighty
But Barth cautions that “the Almighty” is not God. The common perception of Almighty is that of
raw, naked, unopposed power; absolute freedom of action. This is power in itself. Today, we also have the tendency to measure
it as unrestrained ability. Barth
recalls when Hitler spoke of God he used the term Almighty.
A cursory look back to the History of World
War II indicates that Hitler had the concept of almighty as unopposed power,
power in itself; a power used to bring forced order; to create a Germany and
Europe in the image and likeness of Hitler.
It is incorrect to assume that raw almighty power alone is the stuff
that makes God God; and by extension it is incorrect to admire and desire His
Power rather than His Person. That
almighty power of God is infused with love, mercy, justice etc., and is opposed
to ‘power in itself.’” Why? Because:
we are weak! Barth indicates that
“self-based, free, sovereign ability” is intoxicating and not God’s power.
“This intoxicating thought of power is chaos…When ‘power in itself’ comes to
the fore…then order is not created.”
Chaos is the “toho wabohu” of a pre Genesis world. God distanced himself from that in the
Creation when He created order. [I think
this is where Barth co-joins law viewed as order to power. Free sovereign power in the hands of man
yields Moses’ Pharaoh, Caligula, Nero, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc.] Standing alone, the almighty is bad. Almighty alone is Chaos, Evil, the Devil. God is one undivided nature and God is
love. That means that everything that
flows from God is bathed in love.
Barth says that Scripture never mentions God’s power
apart from the concept of law. “God’s
power is from the start the power of law…that is, legitimate power based upon
law.” Barth is not a legalist
understanding law in a Pharisaical way.
God is not a law being, bound by the rule of His own law. Law is not viewed as regulations for our
detriment and limiting freedom, but as order removing chaos for our benefit and
freedom. Remember brethren that
confusion and chaos is what we find in Genesis 1:2. God is not the author of confusion (1 Cor.
14:33). God brought order out of
chaos. From that order comes freedom. Barth views the power of God, and by
extension the power of His law, as the omnipotence of God the Father. This power, this omnipotence operates with,
in, and through His love. A view of
power based on law does not limit God or man.
It establishes and is, “the essence of all that is possible and real…it
is the essence of all that is called ability, freedom and possibility.”
A Square Circle
Viewing God’s Almighty power as that which in conjunction
with law brings order out of chaos and is the essence of all that is possible
and real, he strongly criticizes those who question God’s ability and ask can
God make two times two equal five. Those
questions challenge God’s omnipotence and thereby question His existence. Those questions are pointless. He gives reasons why those questions are
pointless. Brethren, allow me the
liberty of presenting St. Thomas Aquinas’s answers, which are somewhat clearer
to me.
Aquinas asked
“Can God make a square circle?” The
skeptic’s trick is to phrase questions which demand a contradiction as an
answer. Firstly, in God there is no
self-contradiction. Secondly, Aquinas
indicated that God’s power is in harmony with intellect and wisdom. We are made in God’s image and likeness. Intellect and wisdom are attributes of a
rational being. Rationality is very
important. Aquinas proceeds to apply
reason and logic.
A square circle is a circle that is not a circle; it
cancels itself into nothing; it is a logical impossibility. It is self-contradictory. (All married men are bachelors. By definition that is false. Married men are joined to wives. Bachelors are single.) A square circle is an irrational concept. Therefore to say that God cannot make a
self-contradictory thing is not to limit of contradict His ability, but to
affirm and to declare His rationality.
Aquinas answered irrationality with rationality.
Commonly, we all tend to measure power in terms of ability and neglect God’s
undivided nature in reference to His Power.
The reality of
His undivided nature also answers these skeptical questions. Today our children go to college and are
challenged with questions designed to trap Christians into contradictions, such
as, “Can God do everything?” We always
answer, “Yes.” Then they cleverly ask,
the question, “Can God make a rock so big that He can’t lift it?” What skeptics do not realize and what
Christians sometime forget is that God is omnipotent but He is not
omni-volitional. God has all power to do
anything consistent with His nature.
There are things which are not consistent with His nature. These are some things that He cannot do. He cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18); He cannot be
tempted (James 1:13); He cannot cease to exist (Psalm 102:25-27); He cannot be
created; He cannot be deceived, He cannot be unwise, He cannot steal; He cannot
be irrational. Etc.
He cannot do
anything against His undivided nature.
Jesus, God the Son, is the Logos. In the 6th Century B.C. Heraclitus was
the first to introduce Logos as the rational organizing principle of the
universe. Rationality is consistent with
God’s nature.
Since God is
omnipotent and rational, the concept of making a rock so big that He can’t lift
it is not logical by definition, therefore it is an irrational question and as
such incapable of a rational answer. Psalms 14:1: The fool (Irrational – insane) says in his
heart there is no God
Barth says, “’The Almighty’ means…the Devil.” The distinction is that the other Almighty
power is power as an end in itself, self aggrandizing, wishing to impose its
laws and its order for its benefit.
Barth calls this the revolution of nihilism. Perhaps this is another illusion to
Nietzche. It leads to revolt and
chaos. I offer a paraphrase of Dr.
Herman Hoeh’s observation on power.
“When a bureaucracy for the people becomes self- serving
the people serves the bureaucracy.”
Rational Power
Recently I had a chance to apply the concept of God’s
rational power in a study of Revelation.
This is offered as an interpretation of Barth, not as religious
dogma. It relates to the literal
interpretation that New Jerusalem would be a 1500-mile cubical city. The commentator concluded that God has the
power to do this.
I believe that Barth
would say that the commentator is incorrectly viewing God Almighty in terms of
raw power alone. God used His power
through the laws he created, i.e. gravity, physics, etc. to create order to
support man. A city the size of the moon
is contrary to physics; it is a physical contradiction, and would be an out of
character display of Godly power because it is not used for physical survival
or strengthening faith. In this
understanding of what power is I believe that Barth is supported by Alfred
Edersheim. In discussing the miracles of
Jesus verses magic he elaborated in “Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah” pages
210 and 591 that power without moral purpose is magic (raw power). Jesus’ miracles had purpose and led to
creating or strengthening faith. Magic
led to physical gratification.
7. GOD THE CREATOR
Man is to be a witness to the Gory of God’s acts. This includes, of course, active witness of
evangelism or letting our lights shine in the world to express the Glory of
God. But a secondary meaning here is
that man, passively just by existing, is witness to the glory of God’s acts in
Creation. In this chapter Barth draws a
clear line in the sand. Barth shows that
the creation, i.e. earth, heaven, us is not God and God is not the
creation. The created world is not the
Son; it is not by nature God’s child; it is not an emanation from God which
wells out of Him like a stream from a fountain; it is not a manifestation of
God. The world as a living movement
outward from God is not creation.
Creation is a reality distinct from God.
Barth’s teaching here is a strong refutation of pantheism.
I Believe
The creed does not say “I believe in the created world”
or “I believe in the word of creation.”
The creed declares that “I believe in God the Creator.” Everything that is known about the creation
is founded on this tenant. His work of
making the heaven and earth occurred beyond human observation and in many ways,
beyond human thought.
Barth comments that the natural sciences deal with
concept of development in nature. It
tells the “tale of the millions or years in which the cosmic process has gone
on.” He proceeds: “Continuation is quite a different thing from
this sheer beginning, with which the concept of creation and the Creation has to
do.”
The mere existence of the world
sheds no light upon God the Creator. Barth
observes that when knowledge of the world yields praise of God in creation that
is because God was sought in Jesus Christ.”
“But always, when man has tried to read the truth from sun, moon and
stars of from himself, the result has been an idol.”
I think Barth deftly dismisses evolution when he talks of
natural science, cosmic processes, development, etc. He also writes that, “It is assuredly a basic
error to speak of creation myths.” Here
I sense hints of G.K. Chesterton’s “Everlasting Man” refuting H.G. Wells,
“Outline of History.” These men were
well known contemporaries of Barth.
Chesterton held that philosophically religion preceded man. Wells proposed that man in the Neanderthal
“cult of the old man” created religion.
I think that Barth would dismiss them both because Wells looked only to
creation and saw religion as myth.
Chesterton leaned heavily upon philosophy to elevate religion from
myth. Barth taught that no view
excepting one grounded upon the Word of God and obedience to Christ would yield
anything meaningful about religion.
Barth does not ignore philosophical questions. In the recognition that there is a reality
distinct from Himself (the creation – us), Barth queries how do we know it is
all real? Is our existence the dream of
a dream? He teaches that we do not
presuppose the reality of the world then ask is there a God. The correct a priori is the reality of God
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Secondly, God the Creator in Jesus Christ became an entity existing in
our time and in our space.
Therefore,
the reality of God in Christ is our lens.
Fixing our gaze upon Christ we see the creation standing before us in
its reality and it becomes recognizable.
Therefore, as part of that creation, we are real.
The Book
The Koran(the Islamic book) calls the Hebrews, “The People of the Book." meaning the Holy Bible
That seems an accurate assessment of Hebrew epistemology.
The Children of Israel began with the supposition learned
from “The Book” that God was real and was the creator; that God is the first
reality. This is in contradiction with
the Greeks who began with man and reasoned outward toward God. Barth seems to view Christianity as a
“Religion of the Book.” This is not to
view Scripture itself as the reality and to worship the Bible as a set of rules
or propositions. The Scriptures contains
the Word of God; the Logos. They are
lively oracles. Since The Logos is in
them, since they are alive with His presence, when we start with the reality of
“Book,” We in actual fact start with the reality of God.
A comment on this view is in order: To converted people, the truth of this
position is unassailable. To the
non-converted, atheists, skeptics, seekers, etc. this view does not move them. Therefore the use of rational philosophy
appears to have a place; if not in evangelizing then perhaps in apologetics.
Is Reality Real?
Barth asks is reality real? Yes he says.
It is a reality that is distinct from God. It is creation. In the 1960’s Carlos Castaneda wrote “A
Separate Reality.” Don Juan, who was a
Yaqui witch doctor, led Castaneda into an odyssey of discovery. It was not a philosophical journey, nor
theological or theoretical. It was
experiential, participatory. It was religious,
drug induced, demonic.
And to Castaneda it was very real. Was his odyssey a perception of reality or
was it truly a separate reality.
It gave me, an atheist at the time, a nightmare.
Today, our youth are faced with these alternate positions
and often are not satisfied with answers from Scripture.
Let us here again ask, is reality somebody’s dream? Am I somebody’s dream? How can we be certain? Let us dwell with this question. Can we trust our senses? St.
Augustine noticed that when a straight oar is placed into
water, the oar appears bent. We are
created in the image and likeness of God.
The ability to reason is included in that image and likeness. Here, reason will come to our aid. Aristotle discovered the laws of logic. He did not invent them. The laws of logic do not tell us what to
think, they tell us how to think or how to reason accurately. They are:
1. The law of
non-contradiction.
2. The law of
causality or cause and effect.
3. The basic
reliability of the senses.
4. The analogical
use of language.
Rene Descartes (1569 – 1650) was the philosopher who
said, “I think; therefore. I am.”
(Cogito ergo sum.) Descartes
tested the certainty of knowledge. He
did that with unrelenting skepticism. He
poured seeds of doubt upon everything and continually asked and
challenged: “Do we really know that this
is true?” Years before, Augustine
noticed that an ore placed in water appeared bent although it was really
straight. Descartes wondered if Satan,
the great deceiver gives a false view of reality. (Think of Don Juan) Descartes wanted to know; how can we be
certain that reality is what we perceive it to be?
The Solution of Doubt
His solution was to doubt. He speculated this way:
Whatever I am doubting, there is one thing and one thing
only that is certain. That is that I am
doubting. In order for me to doubt,
there must be cognition. Cognition
requires thinking. Therefore to doubt
means to think.
Even if I think that I am not thinking I would still have
to be thinking to think that. That which
does not exist does not think. If I am
thinking I must be. If I am, I
exist. Therefore if I think I am I am.
So we can see that if I am your dream I am of dream
stuff, not reality. I am not
corporeal. If I am not corporeal, I do
not exist. If I do not exist, I cannot
even think that I am your dream. The
contradiction is to say that I am a dream and that I am real. I cannot be both at the same time. (The law of non-contradiction) I think
therefore I am. To say I am a dream is
therefore irrational.
 |
| Theologian Baxter Kruger |
Barth’s correct argument here is that the a priori here
is my existence yielding my reality, rather than God’s existence. Nonetheless, if Baxter Kruger is correct and
that God places something of Himself into the mind of the unconverted, and if
it is in the guise of Rationalist Philosophy that is the point where the
Evangel may be recognized and perhaps accepted.
Freedom
Barth comments briefly upon human freedom. As God gives freedom, it is not a freedom to
decide between good and evil. “Freedom
to decide means freedom to decide toward the Only One for whom God’s creatures
can decide…for the accomplishment of His (God’s) will; that is, for
obedience.” Barth explores those who
fall into disobedience. He writes sin,
in this time and space, must cause destruction.
Destruction is the reverse of salvation.
After sin, “There must now take place the fall into nihil…What is not
good God did not make; it has no creaturely existence. Barth proposes that the realm of evil, which
we term death, sin, the Devil and hell, is not God’s creation, but that which
is excluded from His creation; that to which God has said, “No!” He continues that what God made was very
good, “What is not good God did not make; it has no creaturely existence.” If the “not good” has any being at all, Barth
says, “it is only the power of the being which arises out of the weight of
the divine ‘No’.
I think the sense of this is to maintain God’s complete sovereignty while allowing
human’s the freedom to choose.
God’s time and space and freedom are beyond human
understanding. Human freedom under the
sovereignty of God is also beyond human understanding. However, God’s use of time, space and matter
prove, as Barth says, that “God does not wish to exist for Himself...He does
not grudge the world, distinct from Himself, its own reality, nature and
freedom.”
He ends the section with these thoughts: The ground of creation is God’s grace. The goal of creation is God being glorified.
Closing doxology:
Hear oh nations, hear oh peoples; The LORD Jesus, our Christ is one, yesterday,
today and forever. AMEN
Barth warns
Christians to be on guard against on any attempt to comprehend reality through
the measure of any science or system or to establish any world view based upon
them. This warning includes using
religion as the measure. Our measure,
our center is solely Christ Jesus.
The appellation, Jesus Christ, encompasses the name Jesus
and the title Christ. This designation
expresses the Person, election, calling and the work of the Man in whom the
prophetic, priestly and kingly mission of the nation Israel is revealed and
actualized.
Is Israel’s mission thereby superseded? No.
Barth points out that Israel is elect and God’s election holds for
eternity. Jesus Christ is the
fulfillment of Israel.
________________________________________________________________________
The Apostle's Creed Part 4
Dear Reader, you might find it helpful to review the first two installments, of Rev.George Relic's
Article on the Apostle's Creed, they are found in our Blog Archives
SPS: Revisit
primary orthodox beliefs for refreshment and the strengthening of Faith.
Challenge: Examine
the beliefs and explore differing opinions in the spirit of intramural debate
among brothers, not in a sectarian diatribe among enemies.
Guideline: “For
what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of
all the philosophers, if we live without grace and the love of God?” Thomas a’ Kempis
Motto: All for the
glory of Christ, Jesus.
8. HEAVEN AND
EARTH
It is a mistake to create a world view stemming from
these two concepts. Barth says, “The
Christian faith is bound neither to an old nor to a modern world picture. The
Christian Confession has in course of the centuries passed through more than
one world-picture. And its
representatives were always ill-advised when they believed that this or that
world-picture was an adequate expression for what the Church, apart from
creation, has to think.”
Barth warns
Christians to be on guard against on any attempt to comprehend reality through
the measure of any science or system or to establish any world view based upon
them. This warning includes using
religion as the measure. Our measure,
our center is solely Christ Jesus.
(This seems to be a powerful observation in that it frees
Christians who are tethered to, for example, evolution. Those who hold
that if evolution is true then the Bible is false or that if evolution is false
then the Bible is true both make the same fatal error in setting evolution as
the reality or the measure that validates the Bible.)
Heaven and earth are not the reality themselves; they
describe the theater prepared for man, and as such they and we derive from and
belong to God. Barth writes that Heaven
is that part of creation which is inconceivable to man. Earth is that part which is conceivable. The Nicene Creed labels them the visible and
the invisible. Barth said that decisive
word about this creation is that the “meaning and the glory, and the ground and
the goal of heaven and earth,” is the covenant between God and man.
For by the
covenant we mean Jesus Christ.
9. JESUS CHRIST
What is the heart of the object of Christian faith? It is the Word describing the act of God in
which God from all eternity willed to become man in Jesus Christ for our
good. In accordance to His will He did
become man in time for our good. And
through the Resurrection He will be and will remain man in eternity, again for
our good. This work of the Son of God
includes in itself the work of the Father as its presupposition and the work of
the Holy Spirit as its consequence.”
Barth points out the first three articles of the Apostles
Creed are the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
He criticizes Friedrich Schleiermacher, as representative of Christian
theologians of the 17th and 18th centuries as going astray with a one sided
theology, in this case a third article theology, which believed that it might
venture with the Holy Spirit alone.” By
implication, theologians who focused on the first article also went
astray. Baxter Kruger discussed that
first article theology in explaining that Augustine focused on the supremacy of
God the Father, which led to focus on law and not relationship. The heart of Barth is here at the 2nd
article.
Barth decries Platonism and history. “Nor does this name Jesus Christ indicate a
result of human history. It was
invariable a human discovery, when the effort was made to show that the whole
of human history was bound to have its culmination point in Jesus Christ. Not for one moment was it possible to say
that of the history of Israel, not to mention world history. Everything that deserves to be called
knowledge in the Christian sense lives from the knowledge of Jesus Christ.”
Barth emphasizes the “high mystery of the Incarnation.”
Christ is not just
a being from whom certain benefits flow to man.
“Jesus Christ is man’s salvation in all circumstances…Who then is aware
of man’s real wretchedness, save he who is award of God’s mercy?”
10. THE SAVIOUR
& SERVANT OF GOD
The appellation, Jesus Christ, encompasses the name Jesus
and the title Christ. This designation
expresses the Person, election, calling and the work of the Man in whom the
prophetic, priestly and kingly mission of the nation Israel is revealed and
actualized.
Barth extracts from “Jesus Christ” both Jewish and
Gentile application. He proposes that
the Jewish name Jesus is rife with Jewish meaning. (Barth is aware that Jesus is a Greek
word. The sense here is that Jesus is
the name of a decidedly Jewish man, a decidedly non-gentile man).
“Jesus, this man
of Israel, is the man who reveals and sets forth, in a definite function, the
nature and mission of Israel.” Then, in
reference to the appellation Christ; it is a Greek word “Chrestos.” He was not
named Jesus Messiah, but Jesus Christ.
The Gentile use of the title opens the door into the world. Barth points out, “But there remains the
Jewish name Jesus. His way into the spaciousness of the world leads out from
the narrowness of Israel.”
Barth states that Israel “in olden times was to find its
fulfillment in Jerusalem.” He develops
this thought saying, “And at the same time this fulfillment signifies the
fulfillment of what was given to Israel, and the fulfillment and revelation of
what this people was appointed to be for the history of the world.”
Barth makes strong cases to support Israel: “If as Christians we thought that Church and
Synagogue no longer affected one another, everything would be lost…In the
person of the Jew there stands a witness before our eyes (regarding the
covenants with the Fathers).”
Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the covenant with
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jesus Christ
is the reality of this covenant – not the idea of any covenant. Barth again places Jesus as the foundation of
reality, not systems or created things.
The reality of the covenant fulfillment is the basis, the meaning and
goal of creation, that is, of everything that is real in distinction from God”
Barth points to Nazism to illustrate a point that a basic
denial of Israel is a denial of Jesus Christ, “For the mission, the prophetic,
priestly and kingly mission of the nation Israel is identical with God’s will
and work, as surely as it has been set forth and revealed in Jesus Christ.”
“Israel as representing God’s sovereignty on earth –
becomes visible as a type. But finally –
and this concerns us – this mission of Israel is fulfilled in the appearance
and coming forward of the man Jesus of Nazareth out of this people, in His
unquestionable belonging to this people.”
The Mission Continues
Is Israel’s mission thereby superseded? No.
Barth points out that Israel is elect and God’s election holds for
eternity. Jesus Christ is the
fulfillment of Israel.
This designation
of Israel, in the form of its election and calling holds good and
unalterable. Barth indicates that this
designation “is to this day visible in the Church, which is in fact essentially
a Church composed of Jews and heathens.”
(This hearkens to Barth’s comments in Faith as Confession that “The
Church exists for the sake of the world…”)
What does Barth mean that Israel is elect and God’s
election holds for eternity? If the
mission of Israel is fulfilled in the coming and work of Jesus Christ, then
Jonathan Edwards may help in understanding this. Edwards pointed out that that Christ is
unchangeable in His office as Mediator and Savior of His Church and
people. The office of Mediator never
ceases nor is it ever replaced.
Jesus is the only
Mediator between God and man. 1 Timothy
2:5 shows, “There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man
Christ Jesus.” He is an everlasting
Mediator and Savior. The Old Testament
priests died and were replaced. But
Christ, who lives forever, is a priest forever (Hebrews 7:23-24).
Edwards continues that Jesus’ kingly office is also
everlasting. David and Solomon were
powerful kings, but they died and were replaced. But for Jesus, as Hebrews
1:8 indicates, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.”
Daniel 7:13-14
show that though all other kingdoms will be demolished, the Kingdom of Jesus
will stand forever.
Jesus Christ – Christ Jesus
The mission of Israel was to provide the world with the
Messiah, a Mediator, a Savior, and a King.
That mission was accomplished at the Golgotha event by the racial son of
Israel, Jesus. If Jesus were only human
like David or Solomon, the mission would have ended at the Cross. But the Golgotha event is not a static point
in history. It is living, efficacious
and eternally continuing through the prophetic Messiah of Israel, Christ
Jesus. Israel is intimately conjoined to
Jesus Christ through race and prophecy.
Edwards points out that Jesus’ mission is eternal. Therefore through Jesus and only through
Jesus, Israel’s mission, election, and calling are eternal.
The Covenants Fulfilled
Are Israel’s covenants fulfilled as Barth claims? Yes.
This means that
they were all fulfilled and continue to be fulfilled in and through Jesus, and
not through the past, present or future physical state of Israel.
Continuing
fulfillment through Christ is how their election continues. In fact, the Old Testament already supports
the physical fulfillment of God’s promises to the race Israel: (Joshua 23:14: Joshua declares: “You know with all you heart and soul that
not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled, not one has
failed.”
1 Kings8:56: Solomon states: “Praise be to the lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses.”) Their election also continues in the racial Israelites who are in the Church today and tomorrow. In other words, the election of Israel continues through Jesus Christ a racial son of Israel and through Christ Jesus the antitype of spiritual Israel.
1 Kings8:56: Solomon states: “Praise be to the lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses.”) Their election also continues in the racial Israelites who are in the Church today and tomorrow. In other words, the election of Israel continues through Jesus Christ a racial son of Israel and through Christ Jesus the antitype of spiritual Israel.
11. GOD’S ONLY SON
Barth shows that the man Jesus is true deity. He talks of the revelations and miracles of
the earth and of the heaven, of which the philosophers and the poets are aware.
But these
revelations lack the authority that binds a man conclusively. The Christian Church does not consider these
earthly or heavenly revelations which present some divine Above or a divine
Below, but rather of the revelation of God Himself. And that revelation is Jesus Christ. In Him we have a reality that is not
different from God.
Closing doxology:
Hear oh nations, hear oh peoples; The Lord Jesus, the LORD our Christ is
one, yesterday, today and forever. AMEN
____________________________________________________________________
Rev. George Relic, Assistant Pastor
Fountain of Life Church, Washington, PA
A congregation of Grace Communion International
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