WHO IS GREATEST AMONG THE PERSONS OF THE TRINITY? (Four)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God” (John 1:1)

(…continues from part three…)

4)            Does it come as a surprise that the Bible says, “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18)? As the word ‘power’ is exousia (ex-oo-see’-ah): ‘power of choice, liberty of doing as one pleases, delegated authority or influence;’ it, therefore, follows that every act of authorization must have the sufferance of Jesus, the King of glory. It must not come as a surprise because He Himself says on the Island of Patmos, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8). This title of ‘Almighty’ is the Greek pantokratōr (pan-tok-rat’-ore) which comes from two words: pas (pas): ‘each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, everything;’ and kratos (krat’-os): ‘force, strength, might; dominion; vigor [“great”], (literally or figuratively) and when put together pantokratōr is: ‘He who holds sway over all things; the all ruling, that is, God (as absolute and universal sovereign).’ Almighty is the Hebraic Shaddai, that is the Lord of the host of heaven; this Hebrew word also means the many breasted One owing to the ‘breast’ etymological understanding of it. Jesus is the Divine Provider of all things economically, spiritually and socially. Power!

                “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” which has the creative involvement of the power of God the Father, being One of Hebraic Elohim. “And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power” (Ephesians 1:19), which reveals four types of physical forces. The first ‘power’ is dunamis (doo’-nam-is): ‘strength power, ability; inherent power (in its latency).’ ‘Working’ is energeia (en-erg’-i-ah): ‘efficiency (energy).’ Then we have ‘mighty’, that is ischus (is-khoos’): ‘ability, force, strength, might.’ The second ‘power’ is kratos (krat’-os): ‘vigor [“great”], (literally or figuratively);’ and each one of the forces is displayed in ‘exceeding greatness’. ‘Exceeding’ is huperballō (hoop-er-bal’-lo): ‘to surpass in throwing,’ and ‘greatness’ is megethos (meg’-eth-os): ‘magnitude’. This is power unparalleled in all conceivable ways. This is the kind of power shared in common among the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit: by the reason of heis – essence.

                Wisdom of the Holy Spirit has Scriptural documentation: John 14:26 “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”  The first thing of important note from this scriptural couch is the fact that the Holy Spirit, as taught by Charles Taze Russell to his Jehovah’s Witness Society adherents, is not a person but just a thing, is truly an intelligent Being. How can an inanimate breath of wind assume the divine role of ‘teaching intelligent Adamic creatures all things’? That the Holy Spirit teaches all things does not only give Him the essentiality of an intelligent Personage, the knowledge of all things tells any right thinking person that the Holy Ghost is, indeed, Omniscient. Just in case someone will want to argue that “all things” from this Scripture does not punctuate Omniscience of God, simply from the “whatsoever I have said unto you” point of Scripture, tending to limit the Holy Spirit’s scope of knowledge; what such a person is evidently in failure to realize is that to be the teacher of the Apostolic office and, by extension, the Church, the intelligence of that being must equal the One “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” of Colossians 2:3. The Holy Spirit is more than a teacher, He must be at par with the “only wise God” of Jude verse 25, to wield the capability of teaching all things.

The Bible: God’s protocol.

                1Corinthians 2:10-11 10) “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11) For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” The word ‘searcheth’ is ereunaō (er-yoo-nah’-o): (which is apparently from ereō (er-eh’-o): ‘to utter, speak, say – through the idea of enquiry) means: ‘to search, examine into.’ We understand that God is of eternality, which speaks of limitlessness. No creature has the capacity and capability to search the unfathomable mind of the Creator, therefore, the ability of the Holy Spirit to search the mind of God with nonpareil accuracy, makes Him Omniscient God, the Creator! He, the Holy Spirit, having perfect wisdom, can, of course, teach the Church like no other.

                It is said concerning Jesus in the first chapter of Colossians where verses 12 and 13 read: “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13) Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:” verses 17 and 18 “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18) And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” From the last verse is ‘preeminence,’ prōteuō (prote-yoo’-o): ‘to be first (in rank or influence),’ which is in reference to Jesus, who wields absolute Lordship over all things. Does Jesus know everything? The Bible says, “…to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; 3) In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” in Colossians 2:2-3.

                Getting born again is strictly a conscious effort on the part of an individual. It is of a personal conviction that, as the word of God says, Jesus is truly the only Saviour of the world. A soteriological dependence on the finished work of Jesus is the sole belief requirement of Scripture. Get born again by saying this simple prayer.

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”

(…to be continued…)

Read part Three here

Get part Five. Click

WHO IS GREATEST AMONG THE PERSONS OF THE TRINITY? (Three)

Surely the LORD is in this place, Jacob acknowledged the presence of JEHOVAH

(…continues from part two…)

3)            Arianism is a belief of the fourth century Arius who taught that Jesus was created by God the Father. Jesus Christ cannot be an object of creationism and be in possession of the arm of eternality that stretched to take the scroll, broke the seal and read it. What happened when Jesus took the scroll? “And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints” (Revelation 5:8). Only Jehovah is worshipped in heaven; He cannot be a created being and receive the celestial latria. Subordinationism teaches that Christ and the Holy Spirit are subordinate to the Father in both relationship and substance. Compare John 10:30 “I and my Father are one.” The word ‘one’, heis (hice) in Greek means: ‘essence’. The Persons of the Godhead are essentially the same. Docetism is the heresy that Jesus gave the illusion of a human form but was a fully divine, phantom-like being. Docetism invalidates Christ’s death and resurrection. Without a physical body, He could not have saved the world from sin and given His amazing grace. The contradiction of this heresy in Scripture prompted John to write, in castigation of Cerinthus, leader of docetic movement against the Church, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us” (1John 2:19).

                Adoptionism says that God the Father “adopted” Jesus to be His Son when He saw that the human Jesus led a sinless life and made Christ a deity. Adoptionism claims that Jesus achieved Godhood after passing the devil’s temptations in the wilderness. Can Jesus be both the Alpha and the Omega if He is a product adoptionism? Adoptionism runs contrary to “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2) The same was in the beginning with God. 3) All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1-3).

                Ultimate power is expressed in omnipotence. No other power surpasses that of Almighty. Let the Bible reveal the most powerful among the Members of the Trinitarianism of the Godhead.

Power of the Holy Spirit: Luke 24:49 “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” Enduō (en-doo’-o) is the Greek for ‘endued’ meaning: ‘from the idea of go in (in the sense of sinking into a garment); to invest with clothing (literally or figuratively).’ There is no other strength surpassing the latency of dunamis (doo’-nam-is), which is rendered ‘power’ defined as: ‘force (literally or figuratively); specifically miraculous power (usually by implication a miracle itself).’

Pentecost: Holy Spirit induced day of the glossolalia

                If this latent power comes from above to be invested on Christianity, then the Holy Spirit of our clothing is indeed the Almighty. He is the One who personally came down on the day of Pentecost to equip Christianity with power to preach the gospel, speak God’s language (in the glossolalia) and to perform miracles, which happens to be solely God’s métier. Matthew 12:28 “But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.” By the power of the same Holy Ghost did Jesus perfect miraculous phenomenality. Acts 2:4 “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Each and everyone of the one hundred and twenty first recorded souls of Christianity spoke in a language they never knew, each one according as the same Holy Spirit gave him the utterance. And the resultant force brought three thousand people, from different places of the globe to Jesus, ready to be born again to die no more. Hallelujah!

                Romans 15:19 “Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.” Preaching the good news of salvation: God’s business; and only the Omnipotence of God can supply the needed power in aid of His business. Ephesians 3:16 “That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;” where the word for ‘might’ is dunamis.

“…that one and the selfsame Spirit” (1Corinthians 12:11)

                1Corinthians 12:8-11 8) “For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9) To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10) To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: 11) But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.” Is it not the indefatigability of the Almighty strength of God that the Holy Spirit is seen displaying in these verses above? Hundreds of thousands of Christians all over the world get each one of them accompanied by the Holy Spirit wherever they are: this is truly an exertion of omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence!

                How powerful is Jesus? John 10:18 “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” It is clear that His substitutionary death is purely volitional. But when the same Person says, “I have power to take it again,” it is of the puissance of Divinity. The power to lay down one’s life, and to make retrieval of the same life in a miraculous act of self-resurrection is definitely a mind-blowing exercise of the Omnipotence.

                Getting born again is strictly a conscious effort on the part of an individual. It is of a personal conviction that, as the word of God says, Jesus is truly the only Saviour of the world. A soteriological dependence on the finished work of Jesus is the sole belief requirement of Scripture. Get born again by saying this simple prayer.

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”

(…to be continued…)

Read part Two here

Get part Four. Click

WHO IS GREATEST AMONG THE PERSONS OF THE TRINITY? (Two)

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit share equality of Divinity

(…continues from part one…)

2)            Each Entity of the Godhead had a participatory functional touch in the eventual consummation of the creationism. That which qualifies God to receive the latria is the indubitability of the facticity of being the Creator. None of the Members of the Godhead receives lesser latria than the Others. On the empyreal throne room is seated eternally, God the Father; the seven ubiquitous fires remain the Third Member of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit; and always seated on the right side of the Majesty is the Second Member of the Godhead Jesus Christ, such that any worship given to the One eternally seated is duly appropriate to the Son and the Holy Spirit. But Lucifer has constantly recruited so-called theologians to the vitiation of the Trinitarian concept. Dr. Abel Damina is making too much unscriptural noise, unnecessarily. He should be ignored but so many church goers unfortunately believe him. This is what he taught, quoting Deuteronomy 6:4, concerning the Trinity, “What about Trinity? One! What about Father, Son and the Holy Spirit? One! If He is the Almighty, He can be anything He wants to be so, when He becomes the Son, He’s still the Father; when He becomes the Holy Spirit, He’s still the Person. It’s just that in His sufficiency, He can be whatever He wants to be and for how long and for whatever purpose He desires. It is out of Him the Father came, it is out of Him the Son came, it is out of Him the Holy Spirit came and He can decide to make them nonexistent if He chooses to. He became all of that for the purpose of redemption.”

The three Eternal Persons receive worship on the celestial throne

                Of truth is that, one of the reasons for the Trinity is for redemption purpose. But your first error is from the theological point, Damina. God must exist in plural forms if the creation of intelligent beings will not be that which gives Him an experience of plurality in vitiation of the Scripture which says, “…that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:18). ‘Preeminence’ is the Greek prōteuō (prote-yoo’-o): ‘to be first, hold the first place; to be first (in rank or influence).’ Your second mistake is the use of ‘become’ in the existence of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. A ‘becoming’ is a production of a process.

                Any process must go through time, making the element of time an attendant witness to the act and art of the ‘becoming’. Time limitations of God’s Fatherhood, Sonship or of the Holy Spirit is an invalidation of the Creatorship of the Trinity. If Jehovah did become the Father, then the Father is devoid of eternality and the same goes for the Son and the Holy Spirit. What you, Damina, says about the possibility of Jehovah discarding the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, if He desires, tells a good Bible student that Dr. Abel Damina has sat, and had wasted his time graduating under the tutelage Arius. In fact, Muhammad, the prophet of Allah, said the same thing  – that God can decide to kill Christ.

“no man hath ascended to heaven,…the Son of man which is in heaven” (John 3:13)

                This is your third faux pas, Damina; you made an unguarded statement quite alien to Scripture, when you voiced, “He can be whatever He wants to be and for how long and for whatever purpose He desires.” Sound Theology does not place time on God’s attributes. He had, from eternity past, been whatever attributes or Personages of His eternal existence; and so will He exist throughout our time and stretching into the timelessness of eternity to come. Damina, you are not the first to be used to propagate eisegetical indoctrinations. Your ‘oneness’ teaching of Jehovah stinks of the incommodiousness of Sabellianism.

                The heresy of modalism has been around since 217-220 AD., a propounding of Sabellius of Rome. Modalism asserts that God exists as one Person who shifts between three faces: one for the Father, one for the Son, and one for the Holy Spirit. But what does He say of Himself? Malachi 3:6 “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” The word ‘change’ is shânâh (shaw-naw’): ‘to fold, i.e. duplicate (literally or figuratively); by implication, to transmute; change garment.’ Apostle Paul wrote in Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Immutability of the Second Member of the Godhead spanning the three realms of time: eternity past, Adamic period and eternity to come. And from the Lord of creation is the plain asseveration, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8). How can God discard “without Him was not any thing made that was made”?

Dr. Abel Damina

                Does Dr. Abel Damina know what he is teaching at all? Modalists differ in how they view God’s personality. Christians believe God is three separate, eternal Persons with unique roles. Modalists believe God is one entity who changes modes as He sees fit. Hence, He was God the Father in the Old Testament, shifted into God the Son (Jesus Christ) in the New Testament, and now operates as the Holy Spirit. It does not only sound Hegelian; it, logically, from the stable of Sabellius, the author of modalistic monarchianism, follows that no divine mode can be eternal or distinct. Damina, like his Modalist self, denies God has permanent distinctions or persons. The United Pentecostals believe in a modern modalistic view called Oneness. The Pentecostal Oneness (or “Jesus Only”) movement started in the early 1900s when some Assemblies of God members believed that water baptism should only be in the name of Jesus. Modalism, for lack of Scriptural backing, failed just like the other ones, Arianism, Subordinationism, Docetism and Adoptionism, failed.

                Getting born again is strictly a conscious effort on the part of an individual. It is of a personal conviction that, as the word of God says, Jesus is truly the only Saviour of the world. A soteriological dependence on the finished work of Jesus is the sole belief requirement of Scripture. Get born again by saying this simple prayer.

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”

(…to be continued…)

Read part One here

Get part Three. Click

WHO IS GREATEST AMONG THE PERSONS OF THE TRINITY? (One)

WHO IS GREATEST AMONG THE PERSONS OF THE TRINITY?

1)            “Who is more powerful between God the Father and God the Son?” I asked a young lady. “The Father,” she answered. “Who has more knowledge, the Father or the Son?” Her answer, not changing, was “The Father.” Wanting to know what determines her answer, it was an obvious, “Because He is the Father;” thankfully, she did not conclude the second answer with a deriding exclamatory “dummy;” just to drive the glaring axiomaticity of her statement home. How so benighted we dwell in theological aberrancy. We read the Bible with the treatment given to school literature textbooks. We employ the binoculars of academic intellectualism in understanding subjects of theologically established truths.

                The Fatherhood of the First Member of the Godhead is the title of His Divinity. His Fatherhood does not rest on a definitional stance of biological paternity. He is the Father because the Godhead decided that, the ever seated distinct Person on the throne of Majesty will have the distinction of the First Member of the Godhead: God the Father. The Father does not vacate the celestial throne at any given period. Because the empyrean throne can never be vacant due to the fact that God has no deputy, He must be there to receive the empyreal latria due to the LORD God of heaven and the universe. The counsel of the Godhead finds its verbalism from the vocality of the Father’s mouth.

The Trinity existed before the beginning of creationism

                In the opening verse of the entire Bible, He is the first to speak on behalf of the Godhead saying, “Let there be light:” (Genesis 1:3) in the commencement of the creationism. Who is this Light? He is the Personage of John 1:1-14. Verses 1 to 4 read: 1) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2) The same was in the beginning with God. 3) All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4) In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” These four verses underscore the unequivocal divine essence of Jesus Christ. Does it say, “In the beginning”? Is it the beginning of the Word, God or creation? This verse has a parallelism with Genesis 1:1, ergo, it is of the creationism. The word ‘beginning’ is archē (ar-khay’): ‘origin; the extremity of a thing; (properly abstract) a commencement, or (concrete) chief (in various applications of order, time, place or rank)’. The chief of time is the eternity past; from eternity God brought forth time; and before all these the Word was ‘with’ (pros in Greek, meaning ‘face to face’) God the Father. This is an indubitable pointer to the eternality of Jesus Christ and also His consubstantiality with the Father.

                One of my favourite verses, “and without him was not anything made that was made” of the third verse leaves us most satisfied when it comes to the unambiguity of Christ being the divine Author of creationism. An underlying factor of His Almightiness. How can Jesus possess the Almightiness of Divinity and not equally be the Omniscience, Omnipotence and the Omnipresence? It takes power to create ex nihilo (out of nothing). Being the Creator by Whom all things were ‘made’, the Greek for which is ginomai (ghin’-om-ahee) meaning: ‘to cause to be (“gen”-erate), that is, (reflexively) to become (come into being), used with great latitude (literally, figuratively, intensively, etc.);’ Christ did call things that be not into existence.

                Verse nine says, “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” Jesus being the True illumination makes Him the extraordinary, the essential, the original and the eternal Light without Whom nothing comes into existence. Lightening the lives of billions spread all over the universe means that He is the Omnipresent God.

”…the Spirit of God moved upon the face of waters”

                Genesis 1:1 reads, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” The Eternal ‘God’ is the Hebrew ‘ĕlôhı̂ym (el-o-heem’): Plural of [‘ĕlôahh (el-o’-ah)]; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates.’ The Persons in the Godhead are not more than three. You may ask, “Where’s the Third Member?” Genesis 1:2 says “…And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Creationism involved the participation of the Trinity. The word ‘moved’, râchaph (raw-khaf’) means: ‘to hover; to brood; by implication to be relaxed.’ The Holy Spirit, likened to the mother hen, was creatively incubating Divine intentions into existence. He was providing the energy for the fructification of Adamic emergence, elevation and ensuring the eventual Incarnation of the Second Member of the Godhead, Jesus Christ the Saviour.

                Some of the activities of creationism are the Hebraic words bârâ’ (baw-raw’), ‛âśâh (aw-saw’), yâtsar (yaw-tsar’) and bânâh (baw-naw’). The first word of creationism, ‘created’ is bârâ’ (baw-raw’): ‘Caused existence where previously to this moment there was no being; created out of nothing’. It is found in Genesis 1:1 – when He had to call nonexistent materials, for further creation, into existence; Genesis 1:21 – when He called whales and aquatic lives into being and Genesis 1:27, the sixth day when He called the soul and the spirit into the formed clay of Adamic elevation.

                The word ‘made’, of Genesis 1:7, 16 and 25 when He called into existence the firmament, two great lights – sun and moon – and the beasts of the earth respectively is, ‛âśâh (aw-saw’): ‘to do, fashion, accomplish (from existing materials).’ ‘Formed’ of Genesis 2:7, 8 & 19, yâtsar, has the definition of ‘to mould into a form (through the squeezing into shape) especially as a potter; figuratively, to determine (i.e. form a resolution);’ this was done in bringing beasts and Adam into existence. The fourth bânâh, is a different active ‘made’ found in Genesis 2:22 which means: ‘build’.

                Getting born again is strictly a conscious effort on the part of an individual. It is of a personal conviction that, as the word of God says, Jesus is truly the only Saviour of the world. A soteriological dependence on the finished work of Jesus is the sole belief requirement of Scripture. Get born again by saying this simple prayer.

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”

(…to be continued…)

Read part Two here

Dr. Abel Damina Taught That Enoch And Elijah Did Truly Die (4)

Every promise points to the coming Jesus

(…continues from part 3…)

4)            Let it suffice that all these faith encounters point to soteriological quiddity of which Christ is the divine personification. Dr. Abel Damina is quite conversant with these theological facts but he disappointingly chooses to teach unscriptural stuffs. God knows what he intends to gain giving himself to the teaching the people of God the wrongness of eisegesis. Hebrews 11:39 “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:” meaning that they did not witness the Incarnation of the Saviour of the world. The grand design of faith in Christ Jesus is to open the door of salvation. Romans 15:8 “Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:” in that He became the minister for the salvation of the physical Israel whose circumcision is mere ritualism. Jesus brought, as Jehovah’s Servant, the true and the living way. His ministry is Messianic. Romans 9:8-9 8) “That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. 9) For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.” Remember that God would not accommodate the son of Hagar, even though Ishmael was the first born. Soteriological establishment only has the Divine recognition of Isaac.

Cast out this bondwoman and her son:…bondwoman shall not be heir with my son (Genesis 21:10)

                Genesis 21:10 “Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.” Sarah’s ire was never theologically unfounded: for Paul, under the strict supervision of the Holy Spirit, wrote, “For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 23) But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise” (Galatians 4:22-23). How did Ishmael end up? With a twelve-tribe nations, each headed by his own biological sons; without biblical record of calling on the LORD God of Israel, totally deficient of Christological soteriology. Doomed: no wonder God chose Isaac over Ishmael who should have been accorded the double portion of the traditional firstborn. Ishmael did not even get a tenth of one portion.

                Salvation of the soul of man must come through Jesus. Galatians 3:16-19 16) “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. 17) And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. 18) For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. 19) Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.” Jesus is the germinal Entity from Whose Person springs the well of salvation. The promise was made looking into the future, to the Incarnation of Emmanuel, by Whose blood true mediation comes to its consummation.

                Galatians 3:29 “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 4:23 “But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.” While Ishmael represented the legality of religious ritualism that leads not to the soul’s salvation, Isaac is the prefiguration of the Messiah. Adamic existence depends solely on the Messiah for redemption. The Promise is absolutely free from any legality. God Himself takes the responsibility of its continuation and enternality of its security. What emanated from the bondwoman, incongruous to Divine purpose, lacks Godliness; however, the product of the freewoman conforms to the eternal counsel of the Divinity: for this reason the LORD God chose not Ishmael. Salvation must be a perfect mirroring of Scripture. Dr. Abel Damina is quite conversant with these theological facts but he disappointingly chooses to teach unscriptural stuffs. So far, I find it difficult to see a worse teacher of eisegesis than Dr. Abel Damina. I, honestly, cannot help telling myself, “When it comes to the exegesis of the Bible, Dr. Damina is simply a weirdo.” Exegesis is reading out of God’s word, i.e. teaching God’s protocol strictly according to the Bible.

                Hebrews 7:6 “But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises.” The Abrahamic tithe placed the execution of the soteriology solely in the Almighty hands of the Most High Jehovah. Divine orchestration is always indubitability of awesomeness! Amen.

                Getting born again is a conscious effort on the part of an individual. Get born again. Say this sinner’s prayer.

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!” 

(Concluded)

Read part 3 here

Dr. Abel Damina Taught That Enoch And Elijah Did Truly Die (3)

Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29)

(…continues from part 2…)

3)            Note that each one of these faith exhibitors did truly, exegetically, adumbrate the One Whose Being strings from Genesis to Revelation. The lamb of Abel’s choice vaticinates “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Enoch’s ‘transportation’ foreshadows the rapture, the effectuation of which is at the instance of the appearance of Him, with Whom we all have to do, in heaven which will cause all eyes to look towards Him at the blast of the angelic trumpet. 1Corinthians 15:51-52, “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” The word ‘ark’ of Noah’s construction is the Hebraic tebah (tay-ɓaw’): ‘a box i.e. a treasure chest’. God wanted to have a new beginning with the Adamic race; a beginning (8 being its numerical emblem), the eight souls of Noah’s family constitute the unique future treasure (Christians) of the LORD God. Amen. And that of Abraham?

                In Abraham God commenced the separation between His own, ready to follow and walk the obedient walk with Him, and unregenerate souls, the willful opposers of His divine will. God mapped a land and made a promise even by an oath. Hebrews 6:13 “For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,” for Abraham, among the others, alone received this promise, personally. This Abrahamic promise in God’s mind is seen in Genesis 12:7 “And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.”

“…to give thee this land to inherit it” (Genesis 15:7).

                God meant what He promised in Genesis 12:7, ergo,a repetition in Genesis 13:15 “For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.” Did Abraham walk together with his progenies into the Promised Land? He did not, physically speaking, but the Bible tells us 9) “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10) For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:9-10). The Promise was given to Abraham and his progenies, biologically or by faith, faith, especially, in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Amen.

                An establishment of the Promise is found in Genesis 13:17, “Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.” In Genesis 15:7-21 a perspicuous rapport concerning the promise is evident. Verse 7 reads, “And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.” Awesomeness of extravaganza is the phenomenality of the account of “And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces” (Genesis 15:17).

“…behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp passed between those pieces” (Genesis 15:17).

                Should he behold this phenomenon, Isaiah would ask, “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save” (Isaiah 63:1). Of course Abraham prepared the sacrifice of various elements but he could not bring perfection to the oblation. The One that Adam and his wife heard and saw; the same One that appeared to Moses, Who did present Himself on Mount Sinai before the congregation of Israel; and the very One that stood before Joshua to receive the latria is the same One who walk through the covenantal elements of Abraham’s sacrifice. Why? He alone can judge oppressors of His people while walking His own people into victorious encounters. This promise He made personally with father Abraham – not with Abel, Enoch or Noah.

                The remaining verses confirm the Abrahamic promise, 18) “In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: 19) The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, 20) And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, 21) And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites” (Genesis 15:18-21). These lands Joshua led Israel in conquests and made allotments to the twelve tribes of God’s people. Davidic Psalms 105:9 and 11 read, “Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; 11) Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance:” Romans 4:20-21 20) “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 21) And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.”

                Getting born again is a conscious effort on the part of an individual. Get born again. Say this sinner’s prayer.

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!” 

(…to be concluded…)

Read part 2 here

Get the concluding part 4. Click

Dr. Abel Damina Taught That Enoch And Elijah Did Truly Die (2)

For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.

(…continues from part 1…)

2)            Now when it came to Abraham, Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” Abrahamic walk with the LORD is the commencement of the Dispensation of the Promise. God promised to raise a people, His own peculiar people, through which salvation will come to the world. God showed Abraham the land of His promise to him in Genesis 13:14-15 “And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: 15) For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.” God’s promise was, “to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever,” but Abraham had long been dead by the historical time of Joshua 11:23 “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war.” This is what Paul is explaining in Hebrews 11:13, which Dr. Abel Damina fails or refuses to see.

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the Patriarchs of Promise

                Abraham did not wane in the faith of what had been promised him and his descendants. Sarah, his wife, and the patriarchs – their son, Isaac, and grandson, Jacob – who came after them wavered not in faith till they all died. These are the ones (who received God’s Promised Land) Paul referred to in Hebrews 11:13. Let us look at how Elijah left this world. 2Kings 2:9-12 “And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. 10) And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so. 11) And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 12) And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.”

                Only the beguiling will of an eisegete reads literary couch of metaphorical innuendos into the verses of the two prophets’ discussion. There is not a smidgeon of doubt that Damina will definitely find any level of incongruity to fix his eisegetical ways of teaching the Scripture. Dr. Damina will not fail to disappoint me by saying something like, “You see, Jeremiah (or whoever he decides to be the author) used figures of speech to tell his story;” (as if the Holy Spirit has no hand in its scripting). Just because we find it very difficult to understand what we would not, out of laziness, and consequently allow the Spirit of God to direct us into an understanding, does not mean that they are couches of figurative language.

                Then one should not find it scripturally difficult to believe that the entire Bible is the writings of imaginations of literary works. The meanings of the Hebrew and Greek words, coupled with the contextual stances of the revealed Scriptures allow serious students of the Bible to come to the understanding of God’s protocolary documentation. This unreasonable assumptions goad many so-called theologians to say, “God created this present world in seven years,” awfully using 2Peter 3:8 as scriptural reference! Some will teach, without any scriptural care, “Lucifer slept with Adam’s wife to give birth to Cain,” while others believe that it was Cain who slept with his mother to produce the female of his own marriage! Take one millimetre away from the express understanding of the Bible, and you are a feeder of heresies!

                “Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee.” These are the words of Prophet Elijah to his apprentice, Elisha. Is “before I be taken away from thee” not expressive of: 1) the time of his translation away from the earth; 2) the period of which is not known, even to the fatherly Elijah? Are we, the Christians, not going to experience the Rapture one day? Does anyone have knowledge of the year, month, week or hour of its expectation? Elijah was taken away from the surface of our terra firma, out of Elisha’s reach. Where were they taken? This is given to conjectures, I want to admit. Why? The Bible is silent on where in actual terms. Maybe Abraham’s Bosom, maybe heaven, though, I will want to believe that it is the former place.

Man holding and reading the Holy Bible or a hard cover book concept for religion or study

                My scriptural reason is based on the fact that Jesus had not yet died and risen from the dead to do the theological act of Ephesians 4:8; before then, I believe that none physically went to heaven. Can God not transport some i.e. Enoch and Elijah – for two is the number of witness and of testimony: that rapture will come – to heaven before the event of Ephesians 4:8? He can, if it happens to be what He had purposely spoken. Amen. I am, indeed, careful what I teach from the Bible, and so should everyone who professes to be God’s child. 

                Getting born again is a conscious effort on the part of an individual. Get born again. Say this sinner’s prayer.

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!” 

(…to be continued…)

Read part 1 here

Dr. Abel Damina Taught That Enoch And Elijah Did Truly Die (1)

 Elijah and the chariots of fire

1)            When anyone decides that it is not really necessary to study the Bible contextually, it is either from laziness, lackadaisically prone mind or out of eisegetically bent heart of Satanism. Eisegesis is the act of reading into the Bible, i.e. adding to God’s Word, when teaching it. I have heard Dr. Abel Damina, teaching on Christ’s substitutionary death. He talks flawlessly sometimes when it comes to the soteriological wrought of the Golgotha cross. Who knows, maybe he does not even believe that Jesus’ “It is finished,” last words were spoken at the historical Golgotha. It would not surprise me at all, considering so many biblical faux pas that have poured out of his pastoral didacticism, if Damina denies Golgotha to be the location of the Lord’s death. To the understanding of biblically abecedarian individuals the words of his defence, “These all died in faith,” found in Hebrews 11:13, will most certainly clinch his asseverative point that Enoch and Elijah did truly die. Is this man correct? Does the Bible support this teaching of Dr. Abel Damina? Let us study God’s protocolary documentation: the Bible.

Dr. Abel Damina

                All Damina does is to pull out, “These all died in faith,” from Hebrews 11:13 “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” The members of his churches, learning from a pastor fraught with biblical false teaching cannot see the simple defect in this man’s teaching. Let us navigate through the Bible to unearth Dr. Damina’s flaw or otherwise a perfection of his excogitation. Reading from Hebrews chapter 11 from verses 3 through to the 8^th verse becomes scriptural eye opening that Damina is wrong.

                 “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Heb. 11:3). The LORD God, from this verse, is the Grand Author of attitudinal faith. What can one obtain from God without the germinal faith? “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). The roll call of biblical faith merchants put their feet of their phenomenal tread where God lifted His own feet: to please Him, the Most High. “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh” (Heb. 11:4). Abel, the second child of Adamic birth, expended his Godly faith as pertaining to the sacrifice, which he performed according to Divine specification as his own father taught them. In contextual documentation of God’s protocol, the exhibition of Abel’s faith was found on his choice of oblationary element.

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death

                Hebrews 11:5 reads, “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” On what Enoch’s faith was based is found here by the words, “that he pleased God.” In what way did this antediluvian saint please God? It is evidently found in Genesis 5:24 “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” The word ‘walked,’ halak (haw-lak’), figuratively means ‘lifestyle’. In a world where only eight, out of about two point five million antediluvian people were found righteous before the scrutiny of the Divinity, Enoch’s lifestyle definitely made God proud to have someone like patriarch Enoch doing His will, and in the exercise of His sovereignty, He decided to do an adumbration of 1Corinthians 15:51.

                How can a lettered individual as Dr. Abel Damina be so impervious of the facticity of this translation when the first words of Hebrews 11:5 reads, “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death? The Greek for ’translated,’ metatithemi (me-ta-tiy’-thee-miy) means: ‘1. to transfer. 2. (literally) to transport. 3. (by implication) to exchange. 4. (reflexively) to change sides;’ while ‘death’ is

thanatos (tha’-na-tos): ‘death {literally or figuratively; properly, an adjective used as a noun}.’ Enoch’s faith has to do with his righteous walk with the LORD his Elohiym.

Enoch pleased God (Hebrews 11:5)

                Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” It will not surprise me if Abel Damina does not believe and teach that an epical ark was actually built by Noah, according to God’s instruction – Damina’s eisegetical yen is so gross. Noah’s act of faith rested on the preparation of the ark; his faith was not in respect of any sacrificial act of atonement, ergo, different from the day by day lifestyle existence of Enoch and also different from Abel’s faith choice of the element of sacrifice. “Make thee an ark of gopher wood;” God told Noah; and Noah did not try either to rationalize or question God’s instruction, he believed and he was set to do as he was told.

                Getting born again is a conscious effort on the part of an individual. Get born again. Say this sinner’s prayer.

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!” 

(…to be continued…)

Read part 2 here