being made so much better than the angels,
as He hath by inheritance obtained a more
excellent name than hey. For unto which
of the angels said He at any time,
thou art my Son, this day have I
begotten thee? And again, I will
be to Him a Father, and He shall
be to Me a Son? And again, when He
bringeth in the firstbeotten into the
world, He saith, And let all the angels
of God worship Him.
Hebrews 1:4-6
The writer of Hebrews is in the beginning of his letter teaching this fact that Jesus, not some other person claiming godship, but Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God and those who were teaching that Jesus was nothing more than and angel as do the Jehovah Witnesses are wrong in their Christology. In the early Christian Church various ideas and philosophies were fronted to explain Jesus Christ and from that time forward many others have attempted to do the same all are heretical as they do not follow Scripture and they attempt to infuse into theology their presupposition as to who is this Jesus.
An early heretical view was and is in some Churches today in some form, Gnosticism, that which has its roots just after the beginning the the Christian Church. Gnosticism may have actually predates the Christian Church and Gnosticism was something that the Bible writers attacked in their efforts to keep the Church holy (1John 4). Gnosis means knowledge and there were many faction of Gnosticism and I will not attempt to write on them. Gnostic theology taught that God was unknowable and to pure and perfect and could not have anything to do with the material universe which they considered evil. To settle this problem God generated lesser divinities, Wisdom desired to know the unknowable God and out of this desire the demiurge, or an evil god was formed and it was this evil god that created the universe. Jesus Christ was generated to be the divine redeemer to reveal the knowledge necessary for redemption. This is dualistic theology, a good and an evil spirit, in fact in some teaching of gnositicsm Jesus and the devil are brothers. Gnosticism is dangerous for it denies the incarnation of God as the Son. To do this then the efficacy of the atonement is denied, for if Jesus is not God, He could not atone for all of mankind and we would still be in our sins.
Adoptionism and error that appeared in the second century denied the preexistence of Jesus Christ and by this denied His deity. Adoptionists taught that Jesus was tested by God, and after passing the test and upon His baptism He was granted supernatural powers by God and adopted as God's Son. Due to the faithfulness of Jesus He was granted by God to be raised from the dead and adopted into the Godhead. This error was an attempt to understand the two natures of Jesus Christ.
Th writer of Hebrews was addressing these false understanding of Jesus and His two natures. The writer asks as to who, what angel, is equal to Jesus Christ for God said that Jesus was His Son, Jesus was the creator, not the devil, and that furthermore, Jesus is to be worshipped by us, and by the angels: "And again, when He bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, He saith, and let all the angels of God worship Him. And of the angels He saith, Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire. But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever an ever, a sceptre of righeousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom" (Hebrews 1:6-8). There can be no doubt as to the divinity of Jesus Christ for the Greek is clear, Ο θεός (the God) and the definite article "Ο" for the, makes the noun "θεός" definite, not "θεός" by itself whereby it could be translated "a god." There are not two thrones, one for the Father and one for the Son, no, there is one throne and Jesus is said to sit on the throne holding a special place and that place is called "the right hand of God." God is not just one God and Jesus another god, no, the Godhead consist of three Persons all are one and all are of the same substance and by this Godhead all things were created and held in place by God, the Godhead. Why is it said that Jesus sits on the "right hand of God?" It is because God came in the person of a man to justify and satisfy His justice and Jesus accomplished this in His manhood and His accomplishment is eternal and never to be repeated and being on the right hand of God is a Jewish idiom that means that it is right, for the left hand was considered unclean.
True, Authentic Christian Faith is a faith that believes what is written and does not attempt to improve or speculate upon Scripture. When speculation becomes determined to be factual then heresies rise up and confuse the people of God if one does not take the time to prove and test all things (1Thessaonians 5:21). Do this, pray about this, and you will be led to the truth.
For thou shalt worship no other
god: for the LORD, whose name
is jealous,is a jealous God.
Exodus 34:14
Do not tacitly approve heresy
Richard L. Crumb
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