Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.
If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.
Let’s get started:
The following article was taken from chapter 12 of the book, One God & One Lord.
To truly understand God’s Word and put it into practice in our lives, it is imperative that we know all we can of what God reveals in His Word about who Jesus Christ is and what he accomplished for us by his life, death, resurrection and ascension. It is vital to understand what Jesus Christ will do in the age to come, but it is perhaps even more vital to understand what he is doing now in his exalted Lordship. To maximize our limitless spiritual potential, we as Christians must understand Jesus Christ in both his relationship to God and his relationship to us. Because Jesus perfectly represented God by always obeying His Word, he could, and did, say, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” If we take Jesus at his word, it seems necessary to know him in order to really know God.
In the previous chapter we discussed the relationship between God and Christ. In this chapter, we will continue this theme by focusing on the truth that God’s blood-covenant relationship with man was fulfilled in His Son Jesus, the Christ. “Jesus” (Hebrew Yeshua) is his God-given name, and means “Yahweh our Savior” or “Yahweh saves.” Jesus Christ represents a kind of synopsis of all God has done for His people throughout the ages. We will look at how, in both his earthly ministry and in his exalted ministry as Lord, Jesus embodies all the chief attributes of Yahweh given in the Old Testament.
“Idolatry” means man looking to an image, an object of worship or anything else other than the true God as a source of supernatural wisdom, power or blessing. It is not “idolatry” to look to Jesus Christ as the exalted Lord, the position to which God has elevated him. [1] It is God who chose to exalt Jesus Christ, and when we worship, honor, praise and glorify “Jesus as Lord” (Rom. 10:9; 1 Pet. 3:15), God gets the ultimate glory (John 5:23; Phil. 2:11).
In regard to the relationship between God and His Son, consider the following verse:
Romans 15:8
For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs.Here is one of many verses in Scripture that make plain the unity of purpose of God and His Son. It was God who made the promises to the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, that is, Israel). It is Jesus Christ who will make the promises to the patriarchs come true. The reason Jesus is in a position to do so is that God has “made him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36) and “given him all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18).
When the angel Gabriel spoke to Joseph and Mary, he told them the name that God had picked out for His Son (Matt. 1:21). In the Old Testament, Joshua had the same name, and was a clear type of Christ. It was by way of Joshua’s leadership that he and the nation of Israel were finally able to claim their inheritance in Canaan, which typified Israel’s future Millennial inheritance. However, the “rest” that Joshua gave them was only temporary (Heb. 4:8). Likewise, Jesus is the Agent of salvation for both Jews and Gentiles who believe on him, and for those believers God’s rest will be everlasting.
Those who adhere to the doctrine of the Trinity have long recognized that there are verses in the Old Testament that ascribe certain attributes to Yahweh, and corresponding verses in the New Testament that ascribe like attributes to Jesus Christ. This has led them to the erroneous conclusion that Jesus is in fact the Yahweh of Israel. A good example of this is found in the NIV Study Bible concerning Hebrews 1:6, which reads, “And again, when God brings His firstborn into the world, He says, ‘Let all God’s angels worship Him.’” The NIV note on this verse reads as follows: “This statement, which in the Old Testament refers to the Lord God (Yahweh), is here applied to Christ, giving clear indication of His full deity.” [2]
By “full deity,” the NIV translators mean that Jesus is “God the Son.” We do not see it that way, and we believe that understanding what we have thus far set forth clears up this error. God exalted His Son as “Lord” and delegated to him the authority and power to function in all the ways that God Himself had been functioning for His people (remember Joseph and the Pharaoh? Gen. 41:44). As he carries out his responsibility as “Lord,” Jesus Christ is now functionally equal to his Father. It was Jesus who said that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father, and that whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father (John 5:23). Is it really honoring Jesus to ascribe to him attributes he never claimed? Is it honoring God the Father to make Jesus “God the Son”? We think not. However, in the next section we will see that God Himself highly honored His Son Jesus (Yeshua) with “the name above every name.” We will now examine what this means.
You can read the rest of the article here.
If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page.
Write From Karen 