Just two days ago I posted a blog on Newton's involvement in Arianism and how that signalled one of the great threats to our faith. I made the point that it is not the glaringly obvious errors that we must worry about, especially in this age of compromise, it is more the insiduous, subtle shifts in doctrine that are sadly quite widespread in modern Christendom. The more we try to contemporise the church, the more we expose ourselves to the risk of drifting off course and becoming assimilated into the world culture.
Well, today I found that on this day in 1553, John Servetus was arrested as a heretic and subsequently burnt at the stake. As a scientist and philosopher his public stature was significant, but we must add to that the fact that he actively participated in the reformation. He was no obvious heretic and even his Arianist views were ever so subtly removed from the central dogmas of the Christian faith. He accepted that the Logos, as described in Genesis 1 and John 1, was the eternal word of God and the force of creation. However, that Word only became Jesus when the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. Accordingly, He regarded Jesus as a created being, less than God. In no other respect did He discredit Jesus.
Unfortunately, His position is key to our entire understanding of scripture. It intrigues me that Satan and the system over which he rules, would gladly have us go so far in our faith as to believe in Jesus, accepting Him as a mighty man or a prophet or even as the saviour, but they baulk at His claim to divinity. Someone once made the point that we would never forge monopoly money, but some would forge the real dollar note because of its intrinsic value. Well, the argument went on to say that attempts to forge a false model of Christ, reflect His ultimate value and the fact that He is the keystone of our faith. No wonder that the bible calls Him the stumbling stone of Zion, for it is not our faith that causes such controversy, but our Saviour.
If Jesus were anything less than God, His vicarious act of sacrifice would be worthless. If it were ever possible for a mortal man to intervene before God and secure our salvation, then sin was never sin and the entire gospel is a sham. More than that, as we see in the separation of the prophets, priests and kings of old and the principle that only in the mouth of two or three witnesses can truth be confirmed, the relegation of Jesus to a less than divine position, robs the Godhead of a complete and valid witness.
The only credentials Jesus ever invoked were His submission to the Father, by which He refuted any argument about His being a self-proclaimed saviour. More than that, it was vital for the independent justice of God to witness and validate the cross, without which we would not have had any guarantee of salvation. The only way all that was possible was for God to mediate between His righteousness and our humanity, by casting the eternal spirit of Christ into a human frame. We respect the weight of an oath, which is sworn by a higher reference, but God who could swear by no greater, swore by Himself, when God on earth, who mediated as the Son of man, cut a new covenant on behalf of all men with the great God above.
Christendom may have splitered into many emphases and positions, but there is no doubt in my heart that the final rampart of the war against the church relates to the pinnacle and essence of our faith, Jesus. Thus the only remaining option for Satan in His quest to destroy the work of God and advance His own dark cause, is to produce the ultimate forgery: a false Christ who will seduce many and drag the world away from the rock of all ages. Once that happens, the house as we know it will fall, but what will remain will be that which is rooted and grounded in Christ, the true church of the Living God.
Therefore don't tell me you go to church or believe, only tell me what you have done with the Son of God, for that is the crux on which all of life and eternity hinges. To that same point, salvation is not about how good you have been or what works you have done, nor is it a conciousness of Christ as a prophet, a mighty man or a sacrficial offering, it is about Him being the foundation of our lives and the only gateway to heaven. The struggle of the coming years will hinge entirely on such truths.
(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net
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