Jesus said to her,
“Woman, believe Me,
The hour is coming
when you will
Neither on this
mountain nor in Jerusalem,
Worship the Father.
You worship what you
do not know;
We know what we
worship for salvation
is of the Jews. But
the hour is coming, and
now is, when the true
worshipers will
worship the Father in
spirit and truth;
for the Father is
seeking such to worship Him.
God is Spirit, and
those who worship Him
must worship in
spirit and truth.”
John 4:21–24
John 4:21–24
The
Samaritan woman to whom Jesus was speaking held to the idea, or theology, that
on Mt Gerizim was were true worshippers would worship Jehovah. Yet, the Jews
held to the theology that it was Jerusalem whereby truth worship was to be
offered to God. Both the Samaritan and the Jews worshipped Jehovah although
their theologies were different in many aspects. Jesus makes clear that the
Samaritans worshiped, “what you do not know,” for they lacked the truth
and had developed a theology that was not revealed to man as He did through the
Jews. This is so true today whereby many so–called “Christian” religions are
“Christian” in name only for they lack the truth, they worship that which they
do not know and have developed a theology that is contradictory to Scripture.
In our study as to how ancient philosophies have influenced society and the
Church we find that much of those ancient philosophies have been enlarged upon
and enhanced so as to make them palatable to the ignorant (I say ignorant not
as to be pejorative in this case, rather that they do not know), the have
acquiesced to a teaching that seems so right without taking time to determine
by study if that which they have come to believe is true. One good study to
undertake is called; word study. Take a word and study its uses, and then be
able to determine its meaning(s) and not rely on a single definition or one
that is totally out of context. For instance, I just recently posted on
Facebook a paragraph from Paul Bunyan’s book, A Treatise of the Fear of God,
and there was some objection to the use of the word fear in relation to the
worship of God. This is understandable if a person has not taken time to come
to a knowledge of the use(s) of the word fear, not only in Scripture but as to
how we use the word today. It is often this misunderstanding of a word that
leads to a theology that is not to be found in Scripture. This is the problem
with the introduction for some to develop a theology on the philosophies of men
such as Plato, Aristotle (which I will come to in later blogs), Neoplatonism,
etc. Plato was a dualist in as much as he taught and believed in a superior
God, he held that there were other gods, even though they were determined to be
created by God. This is theology is held by the Mormons whereby they believe
that the soul of man existed in eternity and come to be placed in man on earth
and will return upon death to a eternal world set aside for them by God; the
place from which they have said to come and there they will reside forever.
Plato taught that God created out of chaos, but it is never stated that God
created the chaos; therefore God resides outside of this chaos and then must
have a corporeal body, separate from other existing things. Neoplatonism takes
this further and while not disposing completely Platoism, determined that it was
this dunamis, or power of God that He has caused all things to exist,
but they do not leave out that fact that the existence of the soul is only a
power from God and resided in God making man to be a god for he is the
expression of the reality which is God. This is also to be found in Mormonism.
Further, then, Mormonism has given a body, a corporeal body to God who has
dimensions and while being the superior God has made other gods who have some
expression of Him but are only an expression of Him for He is the Reality. This
is taught in Platoism as Plato believed in the Forms, and later Aristotle would
give “accidents” to be what the soul is and what is of man. Jehovah Witnesses
take this creation of other gods to be that which God did when He created Jesus,
or the Son of God. Jesus then is only another expression of God and while being
divine he is not God, he is a god. This they do by developing their theology by
rewording and misusing Greek grammar or by using such translations that are
corrupted; i.e., Westcott & Hort’s translation that many use today as the
NIV or the ESV, and others. Yet, to make God to be corporeal is to ignore the
words of Jesus: “God is Sprit,” and this is not to mean as do the
Neoplatonists teach that the word
spirit means “knowledge,” and it is this “knowledge” that man has when the
“soul” is placed in him, rather Jesus is clear and this word “Spirit” used in
the opening passage is in the context of the words of Jesus. How can God who is
the beginning of all things; “Your are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and
honor and power;, for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and
were created” (Revelation 4:11). If there be other things that exist they
then, under the neoplatonic thought, have existed outside of God. They then
would have to exist by itself, or to have a beginning outside of the creation
done by God. There would then be more than one body in heaven and God would
only be one of those bodies; therefore God would have to be corporeal and not
incorporeal for if all things that were said to exist by Him and were
corporeal, then God as the Realty must be corporeal and only His power could be
considered incorporeal and that by which other things live or exist. Yet some
would say that the soul is a body, is corporeal and not incorporeal, that they are “gods” and have divinity. This
philosophy or theology runs into difficulty inasmuch as there must be an answer
as to how this is so and not be contradictory to Scripture. If we say that the
words assigned to God such as; arms, ears, or eyes are the opinion, as the
Mormons hold that God has a body, that these words contribute to their theology
and use these theory of corporeality and assign this to the soul, then
Scripture is not used to come to any understanding of the use of these terms,
for they are used to denote the attributes and uses of God and how He
Providentially controls His creation. It is doing a word study as I have
suggested to be done so that there is clarity as to the use of words and their
applications. It is when Platoism, Neoplatonism, and as will be shown Aristotle
has invaded and infected the truth of God that we find that they have also
influenced many today who call themselves, “Christian.” This will be developed in
the forthcoming blogs.
The way of a fool is right
In his own
eyes.
But he who heeds counsel
Is wise.
Proverbs 12:15
Worship God In truth and in spirit
Richard L. Crumb
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