Christ Has Come (and remains) In The Flesh...I John pt 7

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us…(I John 1:1-2)

The Final of the three simple, theological propositions set forth by the apostle John, in his restorative ministry to those whose faith had been distorted due to the gnostics is this;

Who is the only true God and eternal Life ? God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all…God is Love…and Jesus Christ , the only unique Son of the Father, is himself God incarnate.Jesus Christ has come and remains in the flesh.

First a word about why I insert (and remains) into the confession that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. The word Come,in I John 4:2 is in the perfect tense, elelythota. As John Stott in his commentary, THE LETTERS OF JOHN states,

“…elelythota seems to emphasize that the flesh assumed by the Son of God in His incarnation has become his permanent possession…Christ actually came in the flesh and has never laid it aside.”(Tyndale New Testament Commentary Series, The Letters of John, John Stott, pg 158)

The gospel accounts of the crucifixion and resurrection have a markedly physical emphasis. We are told that the cross is wooden, the dying Jesus is thirsty, when pronounced dead by the guards, his side is pierced with a spear, and blood and water flow out. The disciples have to pry Jesus’ dead body off the cross , spices are used to embalm Jesus’ body, and a stone is rolled over the mouth of the tomb.

On that first Easter morning, the disciples race to the tomb, and have to stoop to enter it. We are told that when they saw the embalming clothes, they believed. Jesus appeared to them and told them to handle him. When he ate fish with them, you couldn’t see the fish go down his esophagus because Jesus isn’t merely a spiritual entity, he is in the flesh!

When Jesus is seen after many days by the disciples, while they were fishing, He is cooking a breakfast for them on a charcoal fire. The fish they caught were counted and there was a specific number, 153.

Gnosticism, a religious trend that predated christianity, but sought to incorporate it, was heavily influenced by a hybrid of greek philosophy and eastern religion , believed in a dualism between the material world and the spiritual. In their worldview, the material world is evil, it is bondage, something to escape (through gnosis,ie revelation knowledge). But to them everything Spiritual was the good.

These went so far as to say that the God who created the physical world was evil. Supposedly Jesus came to liberate us, through secret knowledge, back into the spiritual state.

Therefore the Christian teaching that God became a man, lived and died as a man, and rose from the dead on the third day, was considered by these intellectuals to be insulting and offensive. I John is an attempt to refute this false teaching and it’s implications. Jesus Christ has come and remains in the flesh!

All belief has consequences. When Christ is reduced to a spiritualized, ethereal entity, so also righteousness and love are reduced to that which is merely ethereal, intellectual and abstract. Truth also becomes subjective, and fluent. Faith itself becomes a constantly evolving allegory, an ever-changing, subjective narrative with no fixed structure to cling to.

The Christianized gnostics want to spiritualize Jesus, because they want to spiritualize everything else, Righteousness, Love, Prayer, Truth, doctrine, fellowship, judgment, etc. We are warned that the AntiChrist spirit would spiritualize Jesus, that it might confuse the whole world on this most important identification.

Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (I John 4:2-3)

Jesus is real. The Christ of God has come unto us, (from heaven, for He is the eternal God). “The child is born”(Humanly speaking), but “the Son is given“, from everlasting. “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world”.

He came into the real world, for there were dates on the calendar, there was a governor (He was crucified under Pontius Pilate), He suffered, hungered, thirsted, wept, rejoiced, in short, he fully entered into the full gamut of human experience. At the prime of his life, He offered himself to be a sacrifice to God for our sins. He was pronounced to be dead by witnesses.

Three calendar days later, He (bodily) rose from the dead. Forty days later, he ascended to heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Majesty on High.He pleads there for us as a high priest, bearing the physical scars of his suffering. And He (God) has appointed a calendar day for the judgment by Him of the living and the dead.

We will look next at the two distortions of the “Doctrine of Christ ” that the gnostics taught, and their implications.

The trinity *is* the king of gnostic doctrines. Anybody interested in knowing when the dark ages began only need look up when this doctrine became a tenet of the faith.

After almost 1700 years of doctrinal preservation at whatever cost, the apologetics fortress has become a virtually impenetrable castle of stone. And so it is, because that's what flipped over stories and stones are all about. The fall of DC and the media is a political parable for the impending fall of the religious Establishments. "Everybody knew" that the criminal Clinton collective was inevitable.

Let there be light. The son is flesh, God is spirit:

1 John 4

1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

It doesn't say "God is come in the flesh" but rather, "Jesus Christ is come in the flesh". He didn't say he was God; he said he was the "son of God". And what did the misguided experts of the day think? That he was claiming to be God and therefore blaspheming. Different day, same "experts". This generation is that generation. The Gospel accounts are filled with Jesus' attempts to correct the twisted reasoning of the religious "beautiful people". As a result he made them angry. Their beauty was skin deep, and maybe not even that, but rather overly-reliant on that spackle stuff Hillary was using at the debates.

The "son of God" is a spiritual description, because God is a spirit. To contort that to say that a man in the flesh is God because he said he was the son of God and "therefore" the son is God incarnate, is precisely the mystical mischief that should be avoided like the plague.

People know that a "son of Obama" is a term for a bad [Obama-like] character from Obama's own trip-wire lawless, violent culture of gibsmedat, not a reference to literal genealogy. Lawful, peaceful people "of color" are not called sons of Obama, because they are not. They are of a different spirit. "Son of Obama" or "son of Satan" or "son of God" are descriptions of a man's spiritual state. That is not "spiritualizing"; it is a means to explain a spiritual reality through a known physical genealogical process (like father like son).

Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

Considering that approved Christian doctrine demands that the Messiah is God *in the flesh* - making the above spirit test into gibberish, because God is a spirit, and man is flesh - the warning reveals just how many spirits out there are not of God.

Maybe some lone reader out there will take note. God bless and reward your studies, whoever you are. At least you don't have to worry about crowds.

Ezekiel if you want a thread to deny the doctrine of the Trinity, why not start your own rather than hijack my thread?

I was responding to the teachings in your post. That is not a hijack at all. If you need to block out critique, there is always the caucus designation. I know that fortress apologetics has its firm defenses. The Gospels write all about a gracious, humble man who dared to refute settled doctrines. He disturbed the religious order and understanding.

It's a crazy world out there. If the Messiah grew up believing in the trinity, he wouldn't recognize himself. If his neighbors, family, and friends believed likewise, they wouldn't recognize him either.

You write a lot of good things though, like the Messiah being the Law, the Law being love. He's going to show everybody how it is done. The Messianic light just doesn't fall in on any of the usual wavelengths, but there it is - like a burning bush that is never consumed.

Apology accepted.

and know man knows the Son but the Father and whoever he reveals him to...(rough paraphrase of Matt 11.

There you go! It is what you have been saying, that the Messiah is the Law [of love]. He fulfills the Law because like what Trump is doing in the political (physical) realm, he overrides (supersedes, trumps) all of the debilitating nonsense. Not by changing reality (natural order, truth), but by living and doing it.

Paradigm shift.. Messianic light.. "Oh, so *that's* how it is done! How simple, how obvious!"

Purim x 1000. All turned to the contrary. Amazing days ahead. Without Trump front and center showing the way - the process as it were - people wouldn't believe it.

Prophetic insight has been given to the entire world. That is, the workings of the spiritual realm has been put on full display, being revealed through the lens of a political parable.

The fog of doctrines as media obfuscation: difficult if not impossible to cut through, but this trump fellow... he just flies above it all and does what he does.

What's in a name? A simple lowly pun that is a soaring tower of insight. This stuff is way more literal than people know.

What are the odds?

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