In the preceding chapters we have already covered four points concerning the Divine Trinity: the revelation in the Bible-the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; theological expressions used through the centuries with regard to the Divine Trinity; four crucial points concerning the Divine Trinity; and the creeds. In this chapter we will see the fifth point concerning the Divine Trinity, that is, the all-inclusiveness of Christ, including eight items in His divinity and ten items in His humanity. I hope that you can spend more time to get into these eighteen points.
Beginning with the second century, there were many disputes among Christians concerning the Divine Trinity and the Person of Christ. For this reason, a number of councils were convened to settle the controversies, and as a result, the so-called creeds were brought forth. In the previous chapter we covered several of the creeds which were translated into Chinese through the joint efforts of some Western missionaries and Chinese Christians over fifty years ago. As a whole, the concepts incorporated in most of the creeds, whether in their original texts or in their translations into various languages, may be considered accurate. However, a great heresy concerning Mary being “the Mother of God” was added to the Chalcedonian Confession of Faith.
The Chalcedonian Confession of Faith also says that the Son is “consubstantial” with the Father. The Greek word for consubstantial is homoousios: homo means “same,” “identical,” and ousios means “essence of the substance” or “element.” This means that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three persons, but instead of having three identical essences, They have the same one essence. This was a great point of dispute, because at that time there was another group of teachers who believed that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit have three identical elements; this means that although Their elements are identical, the three are three different persons. These teachers inserted the letter i in the middle of the Greek word for consubstantial to make it homoiousios, meaning “identical essences.” Since the three of the Godhead have three identical essences, They are three separate existences. This developed into tritheism. Concerning this matter, what is advocated in the Chalcedonian Confession of Faith is in agreement with the Bible, and it is also what we have acknowledged; that is, the Divine Trinity has not merely identical essences but the same one essence. In other words, the essence that is in the first is also in the second and in the third; the three do not just have similar elements; They share the same element.
Therefore, as a whole the creeds are correct, but the heresy concerning “the Mother of God” is a great deviation. The practice of the Roman Catholic Church is to add a little leaven to the truth so that eventually the whole lump is leavened (cf. Matt. 13:33). If you read their teachings, in the end you will be poisoned.
We have spent much time commenting about these matters to show you that in the entire Christianity today, including both the Catholic Church and the Protestant churches, people trust in the creeds more than the Bible. A brother said that when he was studying in an elementary school founded by the Episcopalian Church in Hong Kong, all the students were required to recite the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed during the weekly assemblies. He did not understand what was meant by “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God.” The Chinese translation then was not accurate, but even if it were properly translated, it is still hard to understand what this sentence means. Christianity honors the creeds to such an extent that concerning the persons of the Divine Trinity, instead of saying that this is what the Bible says, they would say that this is what the creeds say. The Catholics even would say that this is what the Catholic Church says. Their so-called church is their Pope. The Catholics in the whole world have to speak according to every decree or regulation given by the Pope. Thus, although they have the Bible, they put it aside. Hence, they not only have heresies but also have many defects.
I hope that you will earnestly make an effort in the training to learn all these matters. However, we are not ascetics in the Catholic Church. Many monasteries were established after the formation of the Catholic Church to teach people how to learn the truth by self-mortification. I do not want this training to be like a monastery, just teaching you how to suffer and to meditate. Otherwise, without the Triune God wrought into you, even if you have learned all the tasks and can do them well, you will still gain nothing. You must learn to put yourself aside that you may be filled with the Triune God.
I hope that all of you will know the Triune God and be constituted with and saturated by Him. Thus, when you go to visit people by door-knocking, it is the Triune God who goes with love, light, life, the Spirit, power, holiness, and righteousness, as well as with the gospel of grace, the gospel of the forgiveness of sins, the gospel of the kingdom, and the all-inclusive gospel. The gospel in the Bible is the processed Triune God. Today when we go forth to preach the gospel and to feed people, we are just like mothers nursing their children, but instead of carrying bottles of milk powder that are not part of us, we bring the milk that is in our intrinsic being. This is my burden. I hope you are clear that I have no intention or interest for you to go and debate with people. Rather, what I am doing here is to give you a disinfecting injection and an inoculation.
Today, you young brothers and sisters have risen up to love the Lord, and you have a desire to forsake all things for the Lord’s recovery in the last days and to offer up everything you have. This is why I have to make this matter clear to you. This is the basic problem of Christianity. They are short of a total of eighteen items concerning the divinity and humanity of Christ; these items are not mentioned in their creeds. How can the Triune God be explained clearly by just a few, simple words of the creeds? We have published in books the results of our sixty years of studying the Bible and respectfully present them before you. I hope that the believers who have a seeking heart will give an objective and fair judgment by putting aside their past concepts and prejudices; then they will know that we are speaking biblical truths.
Home | First | Prev | Next