And every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices, which can never
take away sins: but this man, after
He had offered one sacrifice for sins
forever, sat down on the right hand
of God; from henceforth expecting
till His enemies be made His footstool.
For by one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified.
Hebrews 10:11-14
I must need to explain my position as to the Orthodox theological position in regards to God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, that they are all of the same essence and are separate Persons of the Trinity. First: allow me to dispel the notion that "it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere." There is a right answer so it does matter. Second: what you believe does in fact affect the life, your life, as an ordinary Christian on a daily basis. Third: I have attempted, as far as possible in these blogs to demonstrate that heresy albeit existed in ancient times, in the early life of the Church and that it was a problem and the writers of the Bible addressed those heresies and gave aid to those desiring to follow correctly Jesus Christ. Also those old heresies are also a modern problem that must be discussed and addressed to aid us in our Authentic Christian walk.
So there is not confusion as to what I believe allow me to state: I am not a Nestorian who believed that Jesus Christ had two separate natures, one was a gently Jesus, a friend of the sinner, and had a human nature. The other nature of Christ was that He was the stern God of the Old Testament. Notice the two natures: Jesus, and Christ. To hold to this belief means that you would have to live in a dichotomy world, attempting to please the Christ who as God could not fully understand your human deficiencies and to give praise to Jesus for to do this, to live in this dichotomy God is still being dealt with at arms length and your prayer life will be affected.
I am not a believer in Arianism that teaches that Jesus Christ is lesser than God, that Jesus is not an eternal being, rather the highest of created beings (as Jehovah Witnesses and the Mormons teach). Further Arianism teaches that Jesus had a human soul, but it was replaced by the Logos when Christ entered into him. If this is true then how can you or I, or anyone else connect with God? How can this created being forgive if He is not God, for if He is not the one morally offended when we sin? The truth is that Jesus is, was, and will always be eternal, will always be God. This is the simple, even though it be complex to us, in Scripture.
You may have had or have questions about the humanity of Jesus Christ: was He really human like us? I am not a follower of Eutycianism that teaches that the humanity of Jesus Christ was somehow different from our humanity. Therefore Jesus did not really suffer the way we do, that what occurred on the cross was only an example. Well, if this is true then how could we ever think that we are saved, or to be expected to follow His example if He was not truly human as we are and suffered as any human would suffer on the cross?
I do not follow Apollinarianism and in this variant teach that Jesus Christ did have a human body like ours, and emotions as we do, but His mind was purely divine. Sounds almost Orthodox, but is it? No! What this heresy teaches is that Jesus was not really tempted like we are for how could anyone, or anything tempt God? Therefore any temptation was only a play-acting for our benefit. This is a problem: if Jesus was only play-acting how could He then be an example for to be able to withstand temptation? A consequence of this belief is that if we cannot withstand temptation then when we fall into temptation we do not really sin for our response is human and there is no real example that is sufficient to give us aid to not sin. If Jesus could not be as us, then we cannot be as Jesus.
I do not believe in Docetism a Gnostic heresy that there must be special revelation (as taught by Bethel Church in Redding, CA. and in their School of the Supernatural) and this special revelation comes to only a few chosen ones. Furthermore, Docetism teaches that Jesus Christ only appeared to have a human body, it was only an illusion. If only an illusion how then would we have a sense to imitate this illusion? Further, illusions do not die therefore Jesus did not really die and this then means that there is no atonement, and if no atonement then there is no salvation. If Jesus did not really die then He did not really rise from the grave bodily so how can we have real hope that we would be resurrected from the dead? There are Churches that teach Docetism or Modalism, and are misleading people away from Authentic Christianity.
If Jesus is not truly God, the Second Person of the Trinity, then how can we be assured of salvation and a resurrection from the dead. The Hebrew writer is explaining to us this One Jesus Christ that He is God and is the Savior in every way so we can have assured hope: Whereof the Holy Spirit also is a witness to us; for after that He had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin" (Hebrews 10:15-18).
I give to you, I hope, enough information about heresy, about our Savior Jesus Christ so that your faith will increase and your salvation made sure. I will write in further blogs about how these heresies and others have affected the Church and maybe may have affected you. We are to add virtue to our knowledge (2Peter 1:3-8).
FINAL WORD: I BELIEVE IN THE TRINITY AND THAT GOD THE FATHER, JESUS CHRIST, THE HOLY SPIRIT, ALL ARE OF THE SAME ESSENCE, AND ARE THE GODHEAD. THIS IS THE FOUNDATIONAL DOCTRINE AS TAUGHT IN SCRIPTURE FOR AUTHENTIC CHRISTIAN FAITH.
Turn thou us unto Thee,
O LORD, and we shall
turned; renew our days
as of old.
Lamentations 5:21
Live as Authentic Christians
Richard L. Crumb
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