As background, I was raised as a Trinitarian by loving godly parents and went on to get a Trinitarian college education and then into Trinitarian Pastoral ministry. I believed Trinity, taught Trinity, and declared anything non-Trinity as anathema just like the majority of Trinitarians do. Then I heard the basics of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and received salvation and was scripturally baptized.
After being grounded in the truth of the Word, I've spent the intervening 13 years in deep prayer and study of the Word while fasting many months at a time. My one prevailing prayer has been for the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him (Ephesians 1:17). I've exhaustively studied Church history, and have read every Ante-Nicene writing extant. I've researched the lives and beliefs of every early church father and every permutation of Christian doctrine, as well as the philosophical and gnostic beliefs of all the influential men of renown.
I say all this simply as an introduction and an overview of the means of my leading of the Spirit. This is not eisegesis of my own view or a personal opinion; it is a thorough and prayerful long-term exegesis that I have very nearly given my physical life for in fasting nigh unto death. That process may or may not mean anything to readers, but I want to clarify that this isn't just some academic intellectual opinion from my own mind.
I affirm the following:
There is One Deity.
The Father is Deity.
The Holy Spirit is Deity.
The Word (Son) is Deity.
These Three are One Deity.
The Father is Eternally Pre-Existent.
The Holy Spirit is Eternally Pre-Existent.
The Word is Eternally Pre-Existent.
The Father is Uncreated and Unbegotten.
The Holy Spirit is Uncreated and Unbegotten.
The Son is Uncreated and the Only Begotten.
The Father is not the Holy Spirit nor the Son (Word).
The Holy Spirit is not the Father nor the Son (Word).
The Word (Son) is not the Father nor the Holy Spirit.
The Son proceeded forth and came from God, Sent by the Father.
The Holy Spirit proceedeth from the Father, Sent by the Father and the Son.
(The Holy Spirit proceedeth NOT from both the Father and Son, though Sent by Both.)
Jesus is the Son of God and is Fully Divine, Begotten of the Father by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is the son of man and is fully human with a rational soul, born of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit.
The Virgin Birth of Jesus was a Supernatural Procreative Act of God, not a Creative Act.
God hath made Jesus both Lord and Christ. He is the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm not any forumulation of Trinitarian, Binitarian, Unitarian, Arian, Sabellian, Tritheist, or Ditheist. I'm not Gnostic, JW, SDA, LDS, or any World Religion of any kind. If I had to describe the truth in theoligcal terms, I'd refer to it as Merismos Monotheism. It is the pure understanding of God as One Divinity, untainted by the doctrines and traditions of men.
There are many understandings involved in knowing the whole truth:
The Rhema-Logos Word
The rhema-logos word
The Constitution of God
The Constitution of Man
The Creation of Adam
The Creation of Eve
The Life in the Blood
The Inward Progression of Sin
The Outward Progression of Sanctification
The Composition of the Tabernacle
The Composition of the Temple
The Temple Not Made with Hands
The Propagation of Human Souls-Spirits
The Virgin Birth
The Transcendence of Jesus
The Transcendence of Man
Uncreated Life vs. Created Life
The Earnest of Our Inheritance
The Redemption of the Purchased Possession
In My Father's House Are Many Mansions
...ad infinitum...
I'll begin with the basics and build a framework for understanding the truth. There is substantial exegesis of Scripture beyond what I initially present, but I'm trying to keep it scaled down for simplicity and general understanding.
"In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. ...And the Logos was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." -John 1:1-3,14
Logos and Rhema are inseparable, though distinct. They both comprise the spoken word, but are two parts of that spoken word. There can be no Logos without Rhema.
Rhema is the substance content that is the subject matter that is thought and spoken about. Logos is the reason, wisdom, and intelligent thought and expression of that subject matter. Rhema is the Divine Content of the Divine Expression; Logos is the Divine Expression of the Divine Content. Both the Rhema and Logos precede the utterance. To be spoken, the Rhema-Logos is borne forth from the internal depths of one's essence, containing the very substance of that essence in the external speaking forth from the internal. It is borne by the breath (pneuma: spirit).
Rhema-Logos is the total substance of the complete essence of God's Self, externalized from silence to expression by the breath of His Spirit. The internal Word became the external Son, eternally pre-existent to proceed*forth and come from God.
Logos is the intelligent thought and speaking forth of all that is contained in its counterpart, Rhema. Logos is the rational reason, wisdom, intelligence, and thought of God spoken forth in the word or discourse of His plan and arrangement to reveal Himself in and to His creation. It is his thorough contemplation of pondering, knowing, and expressing outwardly and externally from Himself. It is the Divine Expression.
That which is being reasoned, contemplated, pondered, and thought to be outwardly expressed is the Rhema. Rhema is the substance content of Himself... God OWN Self. Everything that God IS is within the Rhema portion of the spoken word. It is the subject matter of Divine Content. The Logos reasons and thinks to speak forth the entire substance of content that is God's OWN Self.
The Rhema-Logos precedes the act of the utterance. God silently planned and arranged within Himself everything that He was afterwards about to utter through His Word; while He was thus planning and arranging with His own wisdom and reason, He was actually causing the very substance of His own essence to become Word, borne forth by His breath after it was initiated by His will (thelema).
He thought and willed to speak forth the entirety of Hismelf upon His breath, which was the Word. His mind and will and emotion thought and chose and felt to utter the Word, uttering the internal Rhema by the Logos to become the external Son.
God's OWN Rhema-Logos spoke forth Himself as flesh. His OWN Self as flesh. Not AS a separate "person". Not THROUGH a separate "person". His OWN Self, that ultimately become the person (prosopon) of Jesus Christ.
The Infinite Uncreated God as Spirit uttered Himself forth to become flesh. Nothing had ever been external to God before He spoke. His speaking begat that which was internal to become external. As He spoke, all creation came into existence as the realm in which He would visibly and tangibly reveal His invisible intangible Self to mankind who were made in His image and likeness.
Jesus is literally God embodied in flesh. Jesus is NOT another "person", but the person (prosopon) of God.
(More coming. Next post imminent.)
