As it was codified in the the Council at Constantinople in the year 381 AD, no.
(2) The deity of Jesus Christ?
Of course. He was God in the flesh.
(3) That you can become a god?
Not a god, but part of the Godhead. According to scripture our ultimate fate as sons of God is to be like God and see him as he is. We are to be joint heirs with Christ. We will one day manifest in glory as spiritual creations, members of God's family with Christ as our older brother and God as our father. We will one day participate in the divine nature.
A simple yes or no is OK. These should be straightforward questions to answer.
Did the best I could guy. Would you return the favor? 1. Do you believe in that there is a person called the holy spirit in heaven? 2. Do you believe that we should emulate Christ? 3. Do you believe we can become partakers of the divine nature?
By the way if you would like to read about my beliefs more deeply you can go to:
Fundemental Beliefs and read more than you'd ever want to know.
"Doug, Could you give me a yes or no on some things?
Do you believe in:
(1) The Trinity?
(2) The deity of Jesus Christ?
(3) That you can become a god?
Thanks."
Ethan: These were good questions, and you did receive responses. Not "yes or no" as you requested, but responses.
I'd like to take the opportunity to explain the meanings behind the responses in the context of Armstrongism. It seems you already may be familiar with the heresies of Armstrongism based on the specific questions you asked, but I'd like to elaborate on them for the sake of those reading that are not familiar with the religion put together by Herbert Armstrong.
The first question and the response:
(See 48 posted on 12/03/2002 6:29 PM PST by DouglasKC)
"(1) The Trinity?
As it was codified in the the Council at Constantinople in the year 381 AD, no."
Ethan: The United Church of God considers the Christian doctrine of the Trinity as false. Not simply as it was "codified" in any particular council, but in and of itself, false.
"God is not merely one Person, nor even limited to a 'Trinity,' but God is FAMILY. The doctrine of the Trinity is false" (Herbert W. Armstrong, The Missing Dimension In Sex. Ambassador Press), p. 37.
This is the exact belief of the UCG; the word "God" is redefined apart from its historic, Biblical context, and given the meaning that it is a "family name," with the family comprised of multiple, separate beings--this is polytheism.
The Trinity is a theological term that expresses the New Testament teaching that there is one God, and only one God, and within the undivided being of the one God there exists three Persons, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. It is a Biblical doctrine, and it is a foundational, central teaching of the faith. To deny the Triune God is to deny the God of the New Testament.
Much of the semantic confusion offered by the cults is the confusion of the terms being and person. The historic, Biblical, Christian doctrine is that there is one being of God--there are not multiple God "beings" (that is polytheism), or three (or two) god beings that are "one" in the sense of "being in harmony" with each other. Again, that is polytheism, or at the least, "tritheism" (or an open "bitheism" in the case of Armstrongism). These are heresies from a Biblical basis, and the Christian faith, the faith once for delivered to the saints (Jude 3), has always rejected such teachings as false and heretical.
This denial of the Triunity of God by Armstrongism (and therefore, the UCG) opened the door for their aberrant theology and defective Christology. The UCG does not believe in one God--monotheism--in the normal, Biblical context that Christians have always believed in since the days of the apostles to the present; rather, the UCG believes in one God family--a pantheon of different beings with God the Father being in charge, and Jesus--a separate being--being "one" in the sense of "family harmony."
"Christ, one of the beings in the Godhead, had now been changed into flesh" (Herbert W. Armstrong, The Plain Truth. Nov. 1963), p. 1.
This is a pantheon, and it is polytheistic. It is heretical from a biblical perspective and blasphemous; it is not a minor error. In this alone, Armstrongism departs from Biblical theology.
fishtank asked and was answered:
"(2) The deity of Jesus Christ?
Of course. He was God in the flesh."
Ethan: Again, since the theology proper of Armstrongism is false, their Christology is defective. When you ask, "do you believe in the deity of Jesus Christ" the answer will not be in the context of the terms as they are normally used in their historic, Biblical context. It needs to be fleshed out.
Their position is that Jesus was "God", but a separate being, from the Father. Again, they redefine the word "God" to mean a "family name" that the pantheon of God-beings all share. They do not believe that Jesus Christ is God Himself incarnate in the fullest, unique sense. Moreover, while He retained His "self-understanding" of who He 'was' prior to the Incarnation, they do not believe that He was--in His essence of being--actually God Himself as God Incarnate as a Man. In other words, Jesus, while retaining the self-consciousness of His identity, did in fact cease to be Deity in an ontological sense according to Armstrongism.
He not only was just a man in the Incarnation, according to Armstrongism He was a man with a sinful nature, a man that needed "extra help" to not sin, not a sinless nature as the Second Adam, the perfect Man.
"Yes, Jesus had sinful flesh--human nature" (Herbert W. Armstrong, The Plain Truth. Nov. 1963, pp. 11-12. emphasis in the original).
The only difference between Jesus and any other human is that He was conceived of the Holy Spirit" (Herbert W. Armstrong, The Plain Truth. Nov. 1963, p. 11. emphasis in the original).
fishtank asked and was answered:
"(3) That you can become a god?
"Not a god, but part of the Godhead."
Ethan: "You are my witnesses," declares the LORD , "and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me" (Isaiah 43:10).
The teachings of Armstrongism--and the UCG--is not simply that those that submit to the teachings of Armstrongism, pay their tithes, etc., will become "a god" but that they will become God.
"Why should it seem strange that you will someday be the spirit-composed child of your heavenly Father? You will be what He is - God" (Good News Nov./Dec. 1988, p. 5).
This is the very same teaching of the UCG.
DouglasKC further responded to fishtank:
"According to scripture our ultimate fate as sons of God is to be like God and see him as he is.
Ethan: Or put more directly, "God's PURPOSE in having created humanity - in having caused YOU to be born - is to reproduce Himself" (Herbert W. Armstrong, Just what do you mean Conversion?, p. 18. emphasis in the original).
Actually, the Bible teaches we are to be "like Christ," not in His Deity, for God is utterly unique and there is only one God (Isa. 43:10-11; 44:6-8), and no other God or Gods have been or ever will be formed (Isa. 43:10; 46:9), but to see Him, Jesus Christ, in His glorified, Resurrected state, and be like Him in His perfect, gloried humanity.
DouglasKC responded to fishtank: "We are to be joint heirs with Christ."
Ethan: Of course. Jesus Christ, in His humanity, the Son of Man, receives all the promises of glory; this does not mean that finite creatures are to "become" God. We, Christians, will be joint heirs with Christ as resurrected, glorified men, with the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. The cults get confused in that their Christology is not Biblical--Jesus Christ is fully God and fully Man, the two natures in the one Person. The Resurrected saints will be like Jesus, glorified and perfected by God; we will be like the glorified Son of Man--we are not to "become God." That is unbiblical and it is blasphemous.
The attributes of the God of the Bible in His nature of being, by definition, are not communicable. God is eternal. By definition creatures are not. God is infinite. By definition, creatures are finite. God is perfect and therefore does not change (any change from perfection would be to imperfection by definition). Creatures change.
There is only one God; the Biblical faith is monotheistic (Isaiah 45:5).
DouglasKC responded to fishtank: "We will one day manifest in glory as spiritual creations,"
Ethan: The hope of the Christian is the resurrection of the body to a gloried, immortal state. Reincarnation into "spirit-composed" God-beings is not a Biblical doctrine.
DouglasKC responded to fishtank: "members of God's family with Christ as our older brother and God as our father. We will one day participate in the divine nature."
Ethan: Those that are Christ's will be resurrected and glorified, raised with immortal bodies, bodies that are patterned after the Resurrection body of Jesus Christ--a body of flesh and bone (Luke 24:37-39). The saved are God's sons by adoption (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:5); Jesus Christ is the Son of God by nature and is the unique monogenes of God (John 1:14), the unique Son of the Father (John 20:17; cf. John 1:18; 3:16-18; 1 John 4:9).
Moreover, while the Resurrection of the body is of course future, persons that have faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and God do not have to wait to "become" sons of God, for you are now already sons of God by the adoption through faith.
Regarding being children of God, it was well expressed by Robert Bowman in the Christian Research Journal:
"But we do know what it means [being adopted as God's children], as well as what it does not mean. It does mean eternal life with Christ-like holiness and love, in which the full potential of human beings as the image of God is realized. But it does not mean that we shall cease to be creatures, or that "human potential" is infinite, or that men shall be gods" (Robert Bowman, "Ye Are Gods? Orthodox and Heretical Views on the Deification of Man," Christian Research Journal Winter/Spring 1987, pp. 18-22).