How can Jesus be a mere man?

Some have characterized the Biblical Unitarian view as making Christ into
a “mere man.”
Though we do consider him a pure and genuine human being, he is not “merely” anything.

• Jesus is unique; he is God’s supernaturally-conceived and only begotten son (John 3:16), he is the uniquely empowered agent of heaven, the anointed King of God’s kingdom and our Lord (1 Corinthians 8:6b).
• He is the ultimate Prophet foretold by God to Israel (Deuteronomy 18:18).
• He is the savior of the world, the only one to have lived a sinless life, and one whom God made the source of eternal salvation (Hebrews 5:8-9).
• He is furthermore the only human being to have been raised from the dead into immortal glory (Colossians 1:18, Revelation 1:5) and is now sitting at the right hand of God with full honor and majesty (Psalm 110:1). Surely this is a person who is not “merely” anything.

Despite these great honors, it is true that Christ is a man, and a man-made “like his brothers in every way” (Hebrews 2:17). We are told that “he is not ashamed to call them brothers” (Hebrews 2:10-11); indeed, he consistently referred to his followers as “these brothers and sisters of mine” (Matthew 25:40, Matthew 12:50, Matthew 28:10), and indicated that they would ultimately reign with him in his Kingdom (Luke 22:30, Revelation 3:21, 2 Timothy 2:12). It is because Christ has “taken the lead among” humanity that he is considered “the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29). If one holds that Jesus just is God however, then one must ultimately consider oneself a brother or sister to God, which seems to overstep the message of the New Testament.

The writer of Hebrews adamantly taught that Jesus had to be a real human being in order to atone for our sins: “Therefore, he had to be made like his brethren in all things, so that he might become a merciful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). Jesus perfectly fit the requirements of high priesthood precisely because he was a man: “Every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God” (Hebrews 5:1).

The Apostle Paul tells the Corinthian church, “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man” (1 Corinthians 15:21) and again to the Romans, “through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous”
(Romans 5:15,19).

He also referred to Christ as “the last Adam,” indicating a parallel to the first Adam; both were made in the image of God, both were created as sinless human beings. Of course, the first Adam made a mess of things, and the last Adam is fixing them even now–this is the underlying message from Paul.

Paul also explained that Christ, whom he calls “the man,” is the appointed mediator between the one God and the rest of mankind (1 Timothy 2:5). He furthermore informs us that God “has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed” (Acts 17:31). These are only a fraction of the teachings we find in the New Testament declaring Christ’s humanity.

Lastly, the Apostle John gave us a stark warning that “many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist” (1 John 4:2-3, 2 John 1:7). In other words, Jesus is a real flesh-and-blood human being. If he was more than a human being, say an angel, or God, we would expect the Apostles to clearly teach these things, especially if such warnings were given about the dangers of getting it wrong. However, John does not speak of any inherent deity or dual-natures, but simply that Jesus was human. Given that there are no clear explanations of his being anything but human, we believe we have rightly taken the most biblical stance possible, that the Lord Jesus, the son of God, is and always has been a human being.

-TheGodofJesus-

Blessings everyone

What is Biblical Unitarianism?

In the name “Biblical Unitarianism”, “Biblical” denotes faith in the Bible; serving to distinguish from Unitarian Universalists, a liberal non-Christian group. “Unitarian” simply refers to the belief that the one God of the Bible is only one person, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A “Biblical Unitarian” then is a Bible-believing Christian who believes that the God of the Bible is one person, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, rather than a Trinity of three persons. Biblical Unitarians believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, but do not believe that they are all one God; rather, the one God is the Father alone.

Biblical Unitarians note that in the Bible, God is never spoken of as being a Trinity, or as being multiple persons. Rather, they note that all throughout the Bible, God is always spoken of as a single person, indicated by the use of hundreds of singular personal pronouns, and that the one God is expressly equated with the person of the Father alone several times:

Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.
1 Corinthians 8:4-6 NKJV

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, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 17:1-3 NKJV

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Jude 1:24-25 NASB

There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:4-6 NASB

These passages of scripture all expressly equate the one God of the Bible with only one person, the person Jesus calls His God and Father.

Biblical Unitarians note that Jesus never claimed to be the one God, but rather taught things which clearly distinguish Him as another person or being besides God:

“Believe in God, believe also in me.”
-Jesus, John 14:1 NKJV
“Jesus answered, “If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God.”
-Jesus, John 8:54 NKJV
“I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.” -Jesus, John 20:17 NKJV
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
-John, John 3:16 NASB

Biblical Unitarians thus conclude that Jesus is not the one God of Israel, but another person and being besides the one God – His only-begotten Son, His appointed Christ, the one mediator between God and man, as the following texts say:

“The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him.”
-Peter, Acts 3:13 NASB

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”
-Peter, Acts 2:36 NASB

“For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”
-Paul, 1 Timothy 2:5 NASB

Biblical Unitarians note that the apostles call Jesus a man, repeatedly, and without qualification; for this reason, Biblical Unitarians confess that Jesus Christ is a true man, fathered uniquely by God in the womb of Mary, by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Not only did Jesus’s apostles call him a man, but he also called himself a man -and so do the Old Testament scriptures:

“But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.”
-John 8:40 NASB
“Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—”
-Peter, Acts 2:22 NASB
“Because [God] has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” -Paul, Acts 17:31 NASB
“He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” -Isaiah 53:3 NASB

Thus the simple confession that the one God is one person, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that Jesus is the human Son and Christ of God, forms the heart of Biblical Unitarian faith in God and Christ.

But what about the traditional doctrine of the Trinity? That there exists one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

Biblical Unitarians note that besides the fact that this doctrine is absent from the Bible, it also conflicts with several things the Bible teaches. If we have to choose between tradition and scripture, “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29 NASB). We must “Test all things, and hold fast that which is good.” (1 Thess 5:21) rather than simply believing something because it is traditional. Biblical Unitarians note that the doctrine of a triune God is incompatible with some of the Bible’s clear teachings about God and Jesus. Where the doctrine of a triune God teaches that the Father and Son are equal and identical, the Bible repeatedly marks God and Jesus as distinct and different from one another:

1. God is the Almighty (Greek “Pantokrator”, meaning, ‘Ruler over all’); He is supreme in authority over all (Rev 4:8, 2 Cor 6:18).
   Jesus is subject and obedient to the Father as His God, and so is not supreme over all in authority (1 Cor 11:3, 1 Cor 15:28).
2. God is uncaused, the Maker of all things.
   Jesus is caused by the Father, as the very name ‘Son’ implies; He also expressly declares that He lives because of the Father (Jn 6:57).
3. God is immutable, meaning He is eternally unchanging. He is also not a man, for the Bible says “God is not a man” in Numbers 23:19, and “For I am the LORD, I do not change” in Malachi 3:6.
   Thus it is impossible that God would have gone from not being a man to being a man, as this would obviously be a change in God. This contradicts the Trinitarian teaching that the one God became a man.
4. God is invisible, having never been seen by man, and is declared to be incapable of being seen (1 Tim 6:16). “No one has seen God at any time.” -1 John 4:12 NKJV.
   Yet Jesus Christ was seen.
5. God is omniscient; He knows all things absolutely (1 Jn 3:20). Jesus declares plainly that He did not know something, which only the Father knew: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” -Mark 13:32 NKJV.
   If only the Father and no other person knows this, then the Father alone knows all things; and so, the one God, Who knows all things, must be only one person, the Father, and no other.
6. God is immortal; He is not subject to death (1 Tim 1:17). Whatever death is, an immortal being, by definition, cannot experience it.
   Yet Jesus Christ died (and rose from the dead); and this is a central part of the gospel. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” -Romans 5:8 NKJV
7. “God cannot be tempted by evil”;
   yet Jesus “was tempted in all things” (James 1:13, Heb 4:15).
8. Jesus is the Christ of God; that is, the anointed king, prophet, and priest of God, sent and empowered by God. Is the one sent by God the same as He Who sent? Is the one who is anointed the same as He Who anoints?
9. Jesus is the Son of God; and no son is the same individual being as their father.
10. Jesus is the one mediator between God and man, and by definition, no mediator is a party to their own mediation.
    “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men,
    the man Christ Jesus.” -1 Timothy 2:5 NKJV.
    Notice, Jesus is simply described as a “man”, not a “God-man”, as trinitarianism says.
11. Jesus is the Lord appointed by God over the universe, subject to God. “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
    -Acts 2:36 NKJV. A person who is the one God has no need to be made Lord by God, for God has always been Lord.
12. Jesus is the High Priest of God; a high priest worships His God, and is necessarily distinguished from the God whose priest he is.
    “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” -Hebrews 4:14 NKJV.

Biblical Unitarians note that these truths about God and Christ make it impossible to reasonably believe that they are together one being or one God. Rather, the one true God, the God of the Bible, is only one person, the one Jesus Christ calls His God and Father.

The difference between Biblical unitarians, trinitarians and oneness

I’ve had this thought on my mind recently and decided to finally put it into words.  I try my best to work with what is in common when talking with other professing believers whether they be trinitarians or the occasional oneness(modalist).  I have a video on this subject already in some form regarding looking at the larger picture of the term “o theos”(God) in the New Testament–but I want to highlight the main difference in understanding that flows from a true larger picture of this word “God.”

The main difference between these three positions is consistency ultimately.  Consistency in definitions and simple grammar.  I would presume most all Scripture believers would agree that we should use clear verses to interpret difficult verses.  Otherwise it would seem rather ludicrous to take the more difficult, obscure statements/phrases in the Scripture and overthrow the clearer verses wherein there’s not much to debate about.  It’s even worse when that larger set of verses are so clear and abundant yet overthrown or skewed by the more difficult ones.  
Sadly while many profess this, many do not actually follow it and that’s what I wish to show in the difference between these 3 views on God.

The main agreement between all of us is that there are around 1356 some odd times[KJV search] that the term “o theos”(God) appears
in the New Testament alone.  That does depends on which manuscripts are used and such, but it’s a round figure.  That’s still a lot of instances to use the word “God” just for the small set of writings which make up the New Testament.  The facts between us all no matter which position you hold is that over 1317+ of these usages of “God” in the New Testament are that they refer to the Father alone.  I want to repeat that and make it clear—over 1317 are agreeably defined as the Father alone no matter which camp you’re in.  You’re welcome to go through your own Bible’s New Testament one by one and write them all down if you’d like to test this out in more detail.  I did it a long time ago–but I don’t recall it all as well.  Go through and each time you come to the word “God” write down to WHOM this word “God” is referring to.  You should come up with a pretty large clear picture which agrees with this claim.  In my video I only came up with about 9 openly debated verses wherein the term “God” appears to refer to Jesus.  If there’s more you wish to try to come up with, that’s fine—but they will be few and far between.  These are the facts that we have to deal with no matter which camp.

Trinitarians, being the largest professing group of Christians believe in a triune “God.”  So if they take the above facts and work their views—they must by definition begin to redefine the word “God.”  There is no instance in existence that I’ve ever seen which can exegetically be shown to define “God” as all three persons at once, triune, or any other such meaning in general agreement with those two terms.  Such when they come to the term “God” where they seem to apply to Jesus, they accept those at face value (and the few claims regarding the holy spirit) and will necessarily overthrow the larger facts[1317+ usages] that appear in the New Testament in how “God” is defined as the Father alone.  That is not my opinion, that is their position.  “God” as an ousia/essence is also not an exegetical definition that appears in the New Testament–but this is also redefined and added into the mix.  They admit this in all their books, but will not admit redefinition.  This position overthrows the larger foundation of clear verses where “God” refers to the Father alone.  If you think you have exegetical definitions of these two meanings of “God,” then please by all means show them.

Oneness modalists on the other hand are rather simple.  They accept the fact that “o theos” refers to the Father alone over 1317+ times without debate and then apply the times it appears to refer to Jesus as him being the Father.  They recognize no true distinction between the Father and Jesus, and ultimately make them the one God.  They don’t overthrow the larger foundation, but they overthrow other simple grammar rules and verses which clearly draw a personal distinction between the Father and the son.

Biblical unitarians take this larger picture and work with it to create a more consistent picture with the entirety of the New Testament.  No matter which position you take within biblical unitarianism (because there are minor differences)—we recognize that “God” refers to the Father alone overwhelmingly and then start with that foundation.  

So when it comes to places where “God” seemingly refers to Jesus in the 9 or so verses we take the position that “o theos” means either “god” as in ruler/king, or look for manners in which it actually refers to the Father literally or within Jesus.    
We try to keep within basic hermeneutic of using clearer verses to interpret difficult verses and not redefine the terms beyond what the Scripture does.

These are simply the basic facts of agreement of how “God” is defined in the New Testament and the admitted position differences.  I’m a proponent of gathering as much evidence available to give the best possible option to interpret the texts consistently.  Part of the reason I personally left trinitarianism was because of this overwhelming factual position detailed above.  I admit I began to start with presupposition that “God” referred to the Father so clearly that I had to start seeing if there were other consistent manners to deal with the difficult verses that kept within that framework. Ultimately I believe answers were found for all difficult verses to be interpreted clearly within that framework whether you agree with me or not.  I’m just telling you my experience.  What is your experience?  Do you admit the facts? are the facts incorrect? or do you think your position should be represented differently?  Let me know.

Thanks,

Sean

Source: The difference between Biblical unitarians, trinitarians and oneness

As Biblical Unitarians

I came across the following article on a discussion board :-

As Biblical Unitarians …

• We believe that Jesus Christ is a completely unique (one of a kind) human being.
• He is the only man who was ever born of a virgin (Matt. 1:18; Luke 1:35). …
  Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God (John 3:16) and the Son of Man (John 5:27).
• He is the only man who is called “the Last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45). As the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus was the genetic equivalent to the first “Son of God,” Adam (Luke 3:38). … Romans 5:12-21 is the classic comparison of these two Adams and the respective impact each had on mankind.
• He is the only man who had perfect faith in God, and who, by his free will choices to trust God, lived a sinless life, always doing the will of his Father (John 8:29). Jesus was not a robot, programmed to obey God. If so, he could not have been genuinely tempted to sin, just like all men he came to save (Heb. 4:15). …
• He is the only man who died as the perfect sacrifice for our sins (Heb. 10:12-14; 1 John 4:10). … By his lifelong obedience to God, all the way to his dying breath on the Cross, he became the “behaviorally” perfect sacrifice for the sins of mankind (Heb. 2:17). Thus, he was the complete propitiation for fallen men to be redeemed.
• He is the only man God ever raised from the dead in order to confirm that he was who he had said he was – the Son of God (Acts 17:31; Rom. 1:4). The resurrection of Jesus Christ was God keeping His promise to His Son, and also His affirmation to all men that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
• He is the only man whom God highly exalted as “Lord” and “Head of the Church,” and to whom God has given all authority in heaven and on earth (Dan. 7:13-14; Phil. 2:9; Acts 2:36; Eph. 1:22; Matt. 28:18).
  As Pharaoh exalted Joseph to his right hand and gave him all authority in Egypt (Gen. 41:37-46), so God has given Jesus functional equality with Himself.
  Jesus Christ is now God’s “right hand man” (Eph. 1:20), carrying out the work that will eventually restore this fallen world.
• He is the only man who is now the Mediator between God and mankind (1 Tim. 2:5). It is Jesus Christ to whom God has given the power to “save to the uttermost” all who call upon his name, because he ever lives to make intercession for us (Heb. 7:25).
• He is the only man who will gather together all Christians to meet him “in the air” (1 Thess. 4:17) and give each one a new body like his own (Phil. 3:21). As the promised “seed” of the woman (Gen. 3:15), Jesus Christ will produce fruit after his kind, a race of people living forever.
• He is the only man who will one day return to the earth, destroy all evil … (and eventually destroy Satan and his evil spirit cohorts), and rule the earth as King for 1000 years (Rev. 19:11-20:7). …
• He is the only man who will raise from the dead every human being who has ever lived (John 5:21, 25). As God has given Jesus “life in himself,” so he will raise up all people.
• He is the only man who will judge all men and women of all time (John 5:22, 27). Jesus will righteously judge all people, granting everlasting life to those who deserve it, and annihilating all the wicked
  (Acts 17:31; John 5:28, 29).
• He is the only man who will restore on a new earth the Paradise that the First Adam lost (1 Cor. 15:24-28). As “the Last Adam,” Jesus was God’s Contingency Plan to salvage His original plan that Adam’s disobedience thwarted, that is, a perfect race of people living forever on a perfect earth. Amen.
• He is the only man who is our Savior, our Redeemer, our Mediator, our Lord, our constant Companion, our Best Friend, our Big Brother, the Light of our lives, our Peace, our Joy, and our Mentor in the art of faith.
• He is the Lover of our souls, and that is why we love him and confess him as Lord (Rom. 10:9).