13No one
has ascended to heaven
but He who came down
from heaven,
that is the Son of
Man who is in heaven.
14And as
Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness,
even so must the
Son of Man be lifted
up, 15that
whoever believes in
Him
should not perish but
have eternal life.
John 3:13–15
In our
discussion using ancient philosophers and their philosophies, ideologies, and
theologies that have made a tremendous impact on society and even to invade the
Church with contradictions with Scripture the above verses will demonstrate how
such subversion has had and does have an impact on this present age of the
Church. In verse 13 the last words: “who is in heaven” are not found in
the NIV, ESV, so popular today that are translated from various sources especially
those from Alexandria, Egypt, or as known, the Critical Text. Yet, when studied
there will be found many manuscripts, the Coptic, the Syriac, the Latin, and
the Majority texts all which are not single text but families of manuscripts that have these words.
This is not what is important to this discussion. Note that Jesus makes mention
that no one has ever ascended to heaven except He who had come down from heaven
and, here is the crux; Who is in heaven. Jesus makes clear that while He
was on earth, visibly present to man, He was in heaven, and this would be true
as He was God, incarnate, but God, the Son of God, the very Wisdom of God, the
same essence of God. He was in heaven as He spoke these words. The Critical
Text does not have these words and by not doing so has lowered Jesus Christ by
reducing Him to be other than God. So why does these Alexandrian text omit
these words? This discussion will aid in our understanding as to why. By
leaving those words out the Jehovah Witnesses use this verse to give
credibility to their Arian view that Jesus was a god and not God. Further,
there is misunderstanding of the next verse (vs. 15) where the English word is believes.
There is a grammatical misunderstanding for the use of this world with the
final (s) means to be in the present, or in the present tense. The Greek goes
further, this word is in the present tense, a participle ( in English the
participle is noted by adding: …ed; or ….ing) and is indicative, therefore the
Greek hearer would here: “whoever is believing, in the present time”
should not perish but have everlasting life, and it is this same word for
believes in verse 16, a most popular verse. How is then that the Alexandrian
texts; i.e., Sinaiticus, the "Codex
Vaticanus, and a smattering of other manuscripts that have differences between
the Textus Receptus (KJV, or NKJV). The Critical Text have Gnostic speculative
theology, intended or not Neo–Platonism was taught in the Alexandrian Schools
and in the least, but most important Jesus Christ was denigrated by the
corruptions within the writings and translations that are from this area. The
above Scripture is just such one. Again I will show why this is possible by
examining the influence of Platoism, and Neo–Platoism on Alexandrian
philosophers and some theologians.
What is
Neoplatonism? Neoplatonism whereby mystical philosophy developed in the 3rd
century that find its basis in the teaching so Plato and others who followed
the teachings of Plato, such as, Plotinus, and his teacher Ammonius Saccas a
philosopher in Alexandria, Egypt. Neoplatonism attempted to blend the spiritual
with the cosmological (the investigation into the origin and structure of the
universe). Furthermore Neoplatonism attempted to synthesize Egyptian and Jewish
theology. This led some Christian theologians to adopt the tenets of
Neoplatonism and its mysticism or “hidden” meanings and interpreted Scripture
by means of the allegorical method. Even Jesus Christ was given “hidden”
meaning as to His life, death. The Eucharist had “hidden” meaning and later this
thought would lead some theologians to make the claim that the bread and wine
used in the Eucharist (The Lord’s Supper, or communion) changes into the actual
physical body of Jesus Christ. This theology with the blending of Neoplatonism
added more to the mystical aspects they claimed and a ‘mystical theology”
developed whereby a Christian can directly experience God; i.e.,
Pentecostalism, Charismatics, Churches such as Redding’s Bethel Church, the
Assemblies of God, etc., practice such direct experience with God. Neoplatonism
and the “mysticism” associated with such philosophy developed may practices,
many discourses and texts, traditions, and experiences that were aimed at human
transformation that it is hard to define Neoplatonism in a single term. I will
address those “Christians” that have succumbed to this “mystical theology” of
Neoplatonism in other blogs; for now it is just enough to get the foundational
truths of philosophies that have influenced society and the Church. Later
movements of Neoplatonism embraced magical practices or Theurgy, a
“divine–working” which can be found in the Neoplatonists work, the Chaldean
Oracles.[1]
Western theurgy finds its source from Neoplatonism and teaches that the
universe is a series of emanations from the “One.” Out of this “One” emanates
the Divine Mind which emanated the World Soul. Neoplatonism is polytheistic
will claiming of the “One” who is absolutely transcendent which aided their
theology of monism. Paul addressed this issue in Athens when speaking to several
of Greek philosophers and pointed out that they had a statue for the “Unknown
God,” “for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your
worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you”
(Acts 17:23).
In the next
blogs I will show how Neoplatonism has influenced such as Islam, Hinduism,
Buddhism, and western thought, even to the infecting of Christianity. It must
be noted that not all Christian theologians fell prey to Neoplatonism, men as
was Tertullian, and others who held firm to Scripture. Unfortunately, these men
are seldom spoken of in the Christian Church. It seems as though Neoplatonism has
invaded many Christian leaders thinking and we find today a Church that is more
interested in experiences than in Biblical Doctrines. We must return to
Authentic Biblical Faith, and this will require a change from the Inside/out.
Have you not even read this Scripture:
‘The stone
which the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone. This was
the LORD’s
doing, and it is marvelous
in our eyes?’
Mark 12:10
Pray for the Holy Spirit to Guide You
Richard L. Crumb
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