Mutzrein,
Scripture does say the following:
1 John 4:2-3 (NASB)
2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
3and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
My spirit confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and that he came from God. But NOT that he WAS or IS God.
As a matter of fact my spirit exalts in Christ my saviour. Because of His obedience to the will of His Father – even to the cross, I have become an heir of God and a co-heir with Christ. I am God’s son, born of His Spirit. And it is the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, that dwells in me. And so I shout Hallelujah! to the lamb of God who has taken away my sin.
Cross reference that verse above with:
John 1:1,14 (NASB):
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
14And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
I have already described what this means in another thread. Do you want me to repeat it here?
John 8:24 (NASB)
24"Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."
And who is ‘He’? The word of God. The son of God. The lamb of God.
Now cross reference that verse with:
Exodus 3:14(NASB)
14God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
Jesus is clearly making a reference to Exodus 3:14 when He says “I am.â€Â
Yes – Jesus is the word of God and as the word proceeded out of God’s mouth, He, Jesus, THE WORD states plainly who he is. That is why he said, “before Abraham was I AMâ€Â
So if you look at the verses I have given you it should become clear Jesus Christ was fully man and fully God, and 1 John 4:2-3 coupled with John 8:24 clearly states that if you deny Jesus Christ is God in the flesh then you are not forgiven and will die in your sins.
It says nothing of the sort. You can intellectualise scripture, trying to marry a verse here and a verse there to give you the desired doctrine but in reality, the trinity as you express it, is a doctrine invented by man because his puny intellect cannot grasp the concept of Jesus being one with the Father, yet remain a unique and distinctly separate entity.
I don’t know about your walk and I am not speaking about your walk. What I’m talking about is whether someone confirms or denies that Jesus was God in the flesh. If one accepts that then they are a Christian, and by the Bibles own admission if one rejects that then they are not Christian. The simple fact is there is one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit according to the Bible.
This is your ‘interpretation’ of scripture, not ‘what’ scripture says. Rather than rely on a concocted doctrine of man that seeks to usurp the righteousness of God that comes though faith in Christ, I would much rather rely on the words of Jesus where He states in absolute terms, “unless a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.â€Â
I am not judging you or anyone else I am merely stating the truth according to the Bible. Due to that reality I will revise my pervious statement and say the following:
According to the Bible those who reject that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh is not forgive for there sins and therefore is not a Christian.
Of course you are judging. But you don’t want to call it that. Under the guise of ‘correction’ or ‘stating the truth’ you say something like, “I believe this and I am going to heaven. If you want to go to heaven you have to believe this also – otherwise you are going to hell.â€Â
In effect you are saying that righteousness (right relationship with God) comes through something we say, rather than by faith.
But Romans 10 says: But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down)"or 'Who will descend into the deep?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
As this scripture points out, the fact that you are even prepared to say in your heart who will go to heaven or who will go to hell, shows that this is not of the righteousness that is by faith.
