False Ideas About Jesus of Nazareth - Part 3
References:
(1) To demonstrate how far the Church in America has FALLEN, a national 2017 Gallup Survey has found that ONLY 24% of Americans now believe that the Holy Scripture is “the ACTUAL word of God.”
(2) Even MORE CONCERNING, according to the same poll, many Christians believe the Bible “SHOULDN’T be taken LITERALLY.” If these people say the Word of God can’t be taken literally, then they are implying that God Himself can’t be TRUSTED.
(3) The traditional church in America has been INVADED by a liberal, postmodern FACSIMILE that MASQUERADES as the REAL THING. It calls itself by various names including “the Christian Left,” “Progressive or Emergent Church,” or “Woke Christianity.”
(4) All kinds of postmodern, progressive or emergent sects have BLOSSOMED with the effect that the traditional church brings against the American secular culture has WANED.
(5) According to Lucas Miles, the author of the book Woke Jesus, this new DILUTED faith “ABANDONS traditional biblical interpretations regarding marriage, gender, racial equality, justice, original sin, heaven and hell and salvation, and REPLACES them with a NEW FABRICATED MORALITY, built around political correctness, cancel culture, hedonistic values, obsession with public health, allegiance to the (political) Leftist state, universalism, and virtue signaling. Within its ranks are powerful FOOT SOLDIERS, many of whom were ONCE RELIABLE PILLARS of the faith, but who have DESERTED evangelicalism or have ‘DE-CONVERTED’ from the faith in one form or another” [p. xii].
(6) “Multiple factors have contributed to this EXODUS from biblical Christianity, including a rise of PROGRESSIVISM, . . . . , as well as the LIBERAL TAKEOVER of Christian HIGHER EDUCATION. But more inherent in the SYSTEMIC SHIFT of the church toward Wokeness is the gradual EVOLUTION OF THOUGHT among Christians, . . . . to ELEVATE Jesus’ HUMANITY over His DIVINITY, laying the GROUNDWORK for a widely accepted SOCIAL Gospel.” The new sects’ goal is “to REIMAGE what it means to follow Jesus,” and goes so far as to use female pronouns ”she”or “her” to refer to God the Father.
(7) There is nothing new about this RELIGION which is dressed up like a woman of the night. It may be new, but it is still PROSTITUTION.
(8) One of the most important items of debate among early Christians was the subject of Christ’s DEITY. Was Jesus really DIVINE in human flesh, or was Jesus merely a HUMAN BEING?
(9) Most answers fell within one of 2 MAJOR CAMPS: the ALEXANDRIAN school of thought, which emphasized the DIVINE, and at times, the MYSTICAL NATURE of Christ, and the ANTIOCHENE school, which asserted that Christ had 2 NATURES within Him — one human and one divine. Extremism existed in both camps, resulting in BLATANT HERESIES, such as 4 inadequate views of the person of Christ: Arianism, Apollinarianism, Nestorianism, and Monophysitism.
(10) The book “Bible Doctrine” by Wayne Grudem informs us that the primary advocate of this view that Christ had only one nature was Eutyches (ca. 378-454 AD). He was the leader of the monastery at Constantinople. Eutyches taught the OPPOSITE ERROR from Nestorianism. He DENIED that Jesus was truly human and held that the human nature of Christ was ABSORBED or “swallowed up” into the divine nature, so that both natures were changed into a THIRD KIND OF NATURE.
(11) Wayne Grudem informs us that a large council was convened in the city of Chalcedon in Asia Minor near Constantinople (modern Istanbul) in 451 AD. The resulting statement, called the Chalcedon Definition, was an important step in clarifying the nature of Christ and the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity.
(12) This definition has been taken as the standard, orthodox definition of the biblical teaching on the nature of Christ since that day by Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox branches of Christianity.
This is Episode 215.