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restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations
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The Deity of Christ Under Attack
Belief in Jesus’ full equality with God the Father is a central truth of Christianity. It was communicated by the Apostles to the Church Fathers to whom they handed the task of leading the church. Even though these early leaders often struggled with how to describe the notion of the Trinity with theological accuracy, they knew that their faith was in a Person who was both Man and God.
But belief in the deity of Jesus Christ, who is of the same essence as God the Father, did not begin with the early church. It began with Jesus Himself. Christ’s deity is the foundation upon which the entire Christian faith rests.
Today several groups deny the deity of Christ. Four of the most common are the Jehovah’s Witnesses, The Way International, the Christadelphians, and the Unitarians. Joining this group is none other than Episcopal Bishop Charles E. Bennison. Writing in the Pennsylvania Episcopalian, the revisionist bishop said that while Jesus forgives sins, “He acknowledges his own sin. His call is to preach repentance and forgiveness.” This comes from the same bishop who has denied a number of basic doctrines of Christianity. According to David Virtue, bishop Bennison has written a Visigoth rite of marriage for both heterosexuals and homosexuals, has failed to affirm the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, has denied the authority of Scripture, and much more. Forget that his teachings go against 2,000 years of church history and historic Christian teaching. Little wonder that Canon Michael Green told delegates to the U.S. Anglican Conference that Bennison is so apostate that his See should be declared vacant.
The spirit of compromise that plagues the church today is nothing new. They had it in Pergamum and Thyatira, with the result that Balaam and Jezebel took advantage of a false tolerance. The life of the church was thereby irretrievably corrupted. How often do we mistake compromise for charity and put up with what we should put out!
God expects His people to keep unspotted from the world, with garments undefiled even as the faithful few in Sardis. The Devil sows tares resembling wheat so closely that few know the difference anymore. Let us hope the Anglican Church will expose a lie for what it is.
“Let no man deceive you,” says the Scripture. The day of apostasy is far from over. It has only assumed more religious forms.
April 7, 2003
David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.