Thursday, May 20, 2021

A Question to Ask Unitarians Regarding Jesus' Self Identification as"first and last"

 

The following is a question I asked a Unitarian on Facebook, and which I think every Trinitarian should ask Unitarians about:

[Mr. Unitarian], I'm curious, do you believe that Rev. 22:12-13 is Jesus or the Father? The person there is referred to with three titles, "the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

I believe it's the Son, as I argued here:

https://trinitynotes.blogspot.com/2014/03/revelation-2212-13-and-deity-of-christ.html


If it is the Son, then it seems to me that the book of Revelation is clearly teaching the full Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I don't even have to appeal to Rev. 22:12-13. Since Rev. 1:17 and 2:8 have Jesus referring to Himself as "first and the last". That's a title for Almighty God found in the book of Isaiah. Moreover, it's a title that should uniquely apply to the one true God since it's a claim to be the source and author of all created things. It's equivalent to "Alpha and Omega" as well as "Beginning and End". Because just as an author creates and controls all the letters in his literary work from the beginning to end of the work, including every use of every letter in that book or literary corpus [from Alpha to Omega (in Greek); Aleph to Tav (in Hebrew); A to Z (in English)], SO IN THE SAME WAY Almighty God is the source and sovereign over His creation. Jesus referring to Himself as the "first and last" [if not also "alpha and omega" & "beginning and end" in Rev. 22:12-13] is a clear claim to being Yahweh/Yehovah given the FAMOUS passages in Isaiah.


Isa. 41:4 Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.

Isa. 44:6 Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: "I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.

Isa. 48:12 "Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last.


The author of Revelation expects his readers to be well acquainted with the Old Testament. 

As E.W. Bullinger wrote in his Commentary on Revelation:


//////////The Hebrew character of the book [of Revelation] is shown in its use of idioms, expressions, words and phrases, which cannot be called Greek; and indeed is called by many "bad Greek."

Professor Godet in his Studies on the New Testament, says, p. 331: "The only serious objection that can be urged against the authenticity of the Apocalypse, lies in the difference which is observable between its style, and that of the fourth Gospel. The latter is free from Aramaic expressions, the former is saturated with them." And again (p. 351), "the Apocalypse bears, from one end of it to the other, the character of a Hebrew prophecy."................Though the language is Greek, the thoughts and idioms are Hebrew; and this links it on, not to the Pauline epistles, but to the Old Testament,...............It is not only Hebrew in character as to its linguistic peculiarities, but especially in its use of the Old Testament. Only those who have most intimate acquaintance with the Old Testament can properly understand the Apocalypse. But all who know anything of old Testament history cannot fail to detect the almost constant reference to it.................But it is when we come to look at the literary connection between the Old Testament and the Apocalypse that we find evidences of the most striking kind.

If we count up the number of Old Testament passages quoted or alluded to in the New Testament,* we find that the gospel of Matthew has a very large number, amounting in all to 92. The Epistle to the Hebrews comes higher still with 102. Now both these books are connected in a special manner with Israel. Matthew, it is universally admitted, stands out among the four Gospels as being specially Jewish in its character. And the Epistle to the Hebrews was specially written to Hebrews, and they are addressed as such.................Now, when we turn to the Apocalypse, what do we find? The result which to our mind is overwhelming. No less than 285 references to the Old Testament. More than three times as many as Matthew, and nearly three times as many as the Epistle to the Hebrews.//////////

https://levendwater.org/books/revelation/intro_2.htm





 

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