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The Most Important Blogposts in This Blog

This blogpost lists what I (subjectively) believe to be the most important blogposts in this blog. There are three sections. The first section is on the Deity of Christ. The second section is on the Trinity or the Plurality of God. The third section is on the Deity of the Holy Spirit. Each section has links to blogposts where the most important links (as I perceive it) are above, and with the lesser links below. For example, in the section on The Deity of Christ my blog "Identifying Jesus with Yahweh/Jehovah" (which is nearer the top) is much more important than my blogpost "The Spirit of Jesus" (which is near the bottom of the section).

Here's my main Resources in Defense of Trinitarianism

Here's a link to my blogpost where I've collected links to outside blogs where I've commented and interacted with others on the topic of the Trinity: Blog Comments on the Trinity

The Deity of Christ

Of the Distinct Personality, and Deity of the Son by John Gill

Markan Christology

The Jewish Trinity: How the Old Testament Reveals the Christian Godhead by Dr. Michael Heiser

Identifying Jesus with Yahweh/Jehovah

Jesus as Yahweh/Jehovah Resources

 The Angel of the LORD by E.W. Hengstenberg

The Angel of the Lord; or Manifestations of Christ in the Old Testament by W. Pakenham Walsh

"Why Do You Call Me Good?" — Did Jesus Deny Being God in Mark 10:17-18

Jesus' Claim to be the Temple of God Proves His Full Deity

Jesus as God by Murray J. Harris

The Names of Jesus by Elmer L. Towns

 Pre-Existence of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels

The Requirement to Love Jesus Is Evidence of Jesus' Divinity

The Tempting/Testing of Christ Is Evidence of Christ's Full Deity

The "Cup and Table of the Lord" As Evidence for Christ's Full Deity

Concerning 1 John 5:20 ( from The Trinity: Evidences and Issues)

Romans 9:5 and Christ's Full Deity

Regarding Mark 14:62 and Daniel 7:13; Jesus Coming With the Clouds

Doxologies to Christ

The Wings of Christ Are God's Wings

Jesus the True and Proper SON of God

The Meaning of the Term "Son of Man"

Jesus' "Breaking" the Sabbath as Evidence of His Equality with the Father

Jesus Lord of the Sabbath

John 20:28 And Its Proximity To John 20:30-31 

God in the Midst

Lord [Jesus Christ] Willing? God's Will and Christ's Will

The Reverence for Jesus is the Fear of Jehovah

 Trust in Jesus Is Apparently Trust in Jehovah 

The Spirit of Jesus

The Trinity and the Deity of the Messiah From a Messianic Perspective

Matthew 1:23 and "ho theos"

Concerning the Magnificent and August Names and Titles of the Messiah in the Old Testament by John Gill

Revelation 22:12-13 and the Deity of Christ

Worshipping a Merely Human Jesus Is Wrong No Matter How Exalted

God, gods and Jesus in John 10:30-39

Is the "Oneness" of John 10:30 a "Oneness" of Purpose or Being?

Jesus' Omniscience

Why Don't the Synoptics Have Jesus Claiming to be the "I Am"? 

Brief Selective Survey of Christ's Full Deity in the Synoptics

Interactions with Well Known Unitarian and Philosopher Dale Tuggy 

 

The Trinity or Plurality of God

The Doctrine Of The Trinity Stated And Vindicated by John Gill 

Links to John Gill's Chapters on the Trinity in His Work "A Body of Doctrinal Divinity"

The Jewish Trinity: How the Old Testament Reveals the Christian Godhead by Dr. Michael Heiser

Old Testament Passages Implying Plurality in God

Proving That There Is A Plurality In The Godhead

Quotes from "Of A Plurality In The Godhead" by John Gill

Edward Henry Bickersteth's Books In Defense of the Trinity

All Three Persons of the Trinity Mentioned In Scripture (Directly or Indirectly)

Omniscience of the Persons of the Trinity

The Aaronic Blessing Is Highly Suggestive of the Doctrine of the Trinity

Regarding Jewish Professor Dr. Sommer's Comments About the Trinity

Quotations from the Jewish New Testament Commentary by David H. Stern

The Great Mystery; or, How Can Three Be One? [The Trinity in Early Judaism]

Comments and Blog Posts on the Trinity

Do Rocks Dream of Ceramic Sheep? OR Jade Runner

F[L]air-minded Reinvention of the Wheel

The Most Plausible Anti-Trinitarian Complaint

Speculative Arguments In Defense of the Trinity

Miscellaneous Speculative and/or Suggestive Arguments In Defense of the Trinity

Problematic Passages Used In Defense of the Trinity

The Trinity and the Deity of the Messiah From a Messianic Perspective

A Formulation and Defense of the Doctrine of the Trinity by William Lane Craig

The Trinity At the Beginning of Creation

Interactions with Mike Gantt

Part One:  F[L]air-minded Reinvention of the Wheel

Part Two:  Do Rocks Dream of Ceramic Sheep? OR Jade Runner

 

The Deity of the Holy Spirit

The Full Deity of the Holy Spirit

Of the Distinct Personality, and Deity of the Holy Spirit by John Gill

Praying to and Worshipping the Holy Spirit

The Witness of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit Contradicts the Accidence of Personality

The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament 

The Names of the Holy Spirit by Elmer L. Towns

Do the Father and Son Love the Holy Spirit?

 

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 Some eye opening articles from the Jews for Jesus website:

Jewishness and the Trinity

The Trinity: Questions and Answers

A Look at the Trinity From a Messianic Jewish Perspective

Kabbalah's Best Kept Secret?

 

 

The Case for Monogenēs Meaning "Only Begotten" is Mounting

I don't take a dogmatic stance on the meaning of monogenes . I'm open to either interpretation. However, it is interesting that the tide of scholarly consensus is slowly turning back to the traditional interpretation.


Let’s Go Back to ‘Only Begotten’ by Charles Lee Irons


Lee Irons has posted a summary of his unpublished paper on MONOGENES by Denny Burk


Μονογενής = ‘only begotten’? by Daniel B. Wallace


The Johannine Use of Monogenēs Reconsidered by J. V. Dahms

Steve Hays' Excellent Critique of Dale Tuggy's Performance In His Debate with Michael Brown

Here's Steve Hays' excellent review of Dale Tuggy's part in his debate with Michael Brown

Tuggy v. Brown
https://triablogue.blogspot.com/2019/01/tuggy-v-brown.html

Note my comments in the combox. Which includes my blogpost where I've linked to materials where I've personally interacted with Dale Tuggy:

Interactions with Well Known Unitarian and Philosopher Dale Tuggy

Here's the debate itself:

https://youtu.be/Oi300_FvFz0

More relevant blogposts:

An Observation About the Tuggy-Brown Debate by James N. Anderson

Tuggy v. Brown by Steve Hays [same link at the top]

Who's the only true God? by Steve Hays

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever by Steve Hays

Jewish Scholar Benjamin Sommer's Comments on the Doctrine of the Trinity

In another blogpost I quoted Professor Dr. Sommer's Comments About the Trinity. Dr. Sommer is a professor in Bible and ancient Near Eastern languages at the Jewish Theological Seminary. The following video records audio from Sommer's lectures series on his book The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel where he concedes that the Christian understanding of the Trinity is technically consistent with Judaism.

https://youtu.be/FRxvTxcupBg

Here's a link to my previous blogpost where I quoted Dr. Sommer.

http://quotesandreferences.blogspot.com/2014/09/regarding-jewish-professor-dr-sommers.html

The above blogpost also provides links to Dr. Sommers full lectures that are relevant to the topic of the Trinity.

Brief Selective Survey of Christ's Full Deity in the Synoptics

The following are my comments in Steve Hays' blogpost God Incognito. Typos corrected. Make sure to read the blogs my links refer to.

Speaking of the Synoptics...

Jesus is worshipped both before and after His resurrection Matt. 2:11; Matt. 14:33; Matt. 28:17; Luke 24:52 [cf. John 5:23; John 20:28; John 9:38]. Some instances before the resurrection might plausibly be translated "do/did obeisance" as Unitarians do, but the post-resurrection one's seem to better be interpreted as true religious worship. Something which would be uncharacteristic for Second Temple Jews to do if Jesus weren't fully Divine.

Matthew's use of "ho theos" for Jesus in Matt. 1:23 might plausibly be teaching Christ's full deity given the rest of what Matthew says of Christ.

Matthew has Jesus being greater than the temple (Matt. 12:6). How could Jesus claim to be greater than the temple when it's the place were YHVH resides unless God resides in the body of Christ as well [cf. John 1:14]?

Matthew's statement that Jesus is present whenever/wherever two or three gather in His name is an allusion to a famous passage in the Mishnah about the Shekinah glory and presence of YHVH (Mishnah, Pirke Aboth 3:2).

Both Matthew and Luke imply that Jesus' "Wings" are YHVH's "Wings".

The Synoptics uniformly teach Jesus' (apparently favorite) self-indentification of being "the Son of Man". As Steve said, that has clear divine implications as many have argued [and which I've argued in brief in one of my blogposts].

Matthew's concluding command to baptize in the Name [singular] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit suggests the Trinity. As Steve wrote in a recent blog, to which I added my own comments in the combox. See Dale's excellent interview with Robert Bowman. One of the things I can complement Dale on is his great interviews. Unlike other interviewers, Dale allows the guest to give his full comments with little interruption. Then Dale's latter interactions often get to the heart of the issues.

All three Synoptics quote Isa. 40:3 and/or Mal. 3:1 which was originally in reference to YHVH [Mark 1:2,3; Matt. 3:3; Luke 3:4; Matt. 11:10].
Apologist Tony Costa has said that Mark 1:1ff (esp. v. 2) alludes to Exodus 23:20 which refers to "the angel". Specifically, Costa says Mark 1:1ff is likely a cluster of three (3) quotations/allusion, not merely two (2). That's because Mark 1:2 in the Greek most closely resembles Exodus 23:20 (in the Septuagint) which refers to an angel/Angel whom God promised He would send. If 1. Mark really is alluding to this passage in Exodus, and 2. if that angel is The Angel of YHVH, then Mark is likely connecting Jesus with the Angel of YHVH. If so, then that kills at least two birds with one stone. It undermines versions of Unitarianism that 1. deny Christ's Preexistence and 2. versions of Unitarianism which affirm Jesus is only/merely a human savior.

The "I have come" sayings of Jesus in the Synoptics is consistent with Christ's preexistence. Though, Dale gave a link to Dunn's critique of Gathercole which made some good points that weakened Gathercole's case [I'd link to Dunn's book review, but I can't find the url].

All three Synoptics refer to the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit in contrast to sins against the Father and Son [Matthew 12; Mark 3; Luke 12]. This implies the personality of the Holy Spirit and that the blasphemy is a sin against Him. I've addressed this issue and how it's consistent with and hints at the Trinity in my blogs [e.g. here, or here].

The Synoptics teach Jesus is the bridegroom of the future church in a way that parallel's YHVH's marriage to Israel. Since the Church is the fulfillment of spiritual Israel, Jesus would seem to be the eschatological fulfillment of YHVH's receiving back His divorced and/or estranged wife.

All three Synoptics teach Jesus is the "Lord of the Sabbath" even though one would think that only YHVH, who instituted the sabbath, could be its Lord [Matt. 12; Mark 2Luke 6].

All three Synoptics have Jesus applying Ps. 110:1 to Himself [Matt. 22; Mark 12; Luke 20]. The Masoretic vowel pointing of "adoni" was standardized after the beginning of the Christian era and so may not be the correct pointing and reading [as non-Messianic Jews would have a vested interest in pointing it "adoni" rather than "adonai"]. But if some Christian apologists are correct that verse 5—which does have "Adonai"—interprets verse 1, then that would imply Jesus is Adonai. See McLatchie's blogposts on Ps. 110:1 HERE and HERE. The second link has my comments in the combox which slightly weakens McLatchie's line of argument. But I make them for the sake of full disclosure.

I've also got an ENTIRE BLOGPOST focused on the VERY HIGH Christology of the Gospel of Mark. I meticulously comb through the entire gospel looking for every possible passage that I can find where Jesus is plausibly being taught to be YHVH. Ignore the text highlighted in yellow which I have to seamlessly trim away in the future. Many of observations I made in Mark can be seen in Matthew and Luke as well (sometimes amplified). Nevertheless, the assumption of Markan Priority enhances their authenticity and earliness in a way that GMatt and GLuke don't. Most scholars think Mark has the lowest Christology of the four Gospels. But I think Mark's is definitely higher than Luke, and either equal with or higher than Matthew's. I haven't combed through Matthew like have with Mark and Luke.

Both Matthew and Luke teach Christ to be the future eschatological Judge [e.g. Matt. 19:28; Matt. 25; Luke 22:30; cf. John 5:22]. When one would think that only the omniscient [and therefore all fair/just] and all-authoritative YHVH would or could render such Judgment(s).

All three Synoptics teach Jesus can forgive sins [Mark 2, Matt. 9; Luke 5]. Some/all of them refer to Jesus as the Son of Man on earth [presumably in contrast to in heaven as in Dan. 7]. Some/all say that the Jews thought only God could forgive sin, AND that Jesus was blaspheming for presuming to do so.

All three Synoptics have Jesus being explicitly [Mark & Matthew] or implicitly [Luke] charged with blasphemy during His trial before the Jewish council and condemned as being worthy of death. The charge most plausibly was the [alleged] blasphemy for claiming to be on par with YHVH and to be the 2nd divine figure in Dan. 7 who was the Son of Man [divinely] "riding the clouds".

More could be said about the high Christology of the Synoptics, but that should do as examples.

Steve wrote: In addition, this has a counterpart in the OT. A "man" might turn out to be an angel, while an angel might turn out to be Yahweh!

There are many passages like that in the OT. For example, the interactions with the Angel of YHVH or the Word of YHVH by Hagar, Manoah, Gideon, Zechariah's vision of Joshua and the Angel, Samuel etc. In some of those passages the entity is called the Angel of YHVH, then also called or predicated to be YHVH a few moments later without the qualifier of "the Angel/Messenger OF". Or it says YHVH looked or turned or had a form as if the Angel were YHVH Himself. 

The Case for Jesus by Brant Pitre

I'm an Evangelical and former Roman Catholic. So, I clearly have disagreements about Catholicism. However, one point of general agreement among Evangelicals and Catholics is the doctrine of the Trinity. I've been reading Catholic scholar Brant Pitre's book The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ and he makes a very good introductory case for a conservative view of Jesus. Including Jesus' divinity. Here's a lecture by Pitre that he give based on his book. The case he makes for Jesus' divinity is worth watching if you're not inclined to read the book.

https://youtu.be/NzQqYtJciOE

See especially his discussion of Jesus walking on water which is recorded in Mark 6, Luke 14 and John 6 [at 42 minutes for about 10 minutes].