A Story of a Man and His Son
17/01/05 00:00 Filed in: Steven Says
Jan 17, 2005
Mostly I have been playing with my new Mac, so I guess nothing much is new in my life. I came across some new pictures. The Disney Land pictures and a picture I took of Mom and I when she came down are up. Did I mention that webpage developement has been completely moved over to the iMac?
I had a wonderful time with my family in Texas. I want to share with you a story my grandfather told me as a younger child, a story that would ultimately change my whole outlook on God, as it has to do with Who and What God is.
Apparently as a child I spoke of Jesus Christ and His Father too "seperately". Kay (my then step-mother) told me I should not seperate them, as they were one being. Of course this was confusing to me, as I remembered Christ praying to the Father, and it seemed all scripture pointed to Christ being the son of the Father, rather than Christ being a different incarnation of the Father. She explained it to me like this... God is God is God, but he has three forms, just as water is water is water, but it can be seen as water and ice and steam, but it has three forms. But they were all the exact same being. This is the idea of the Trinity (a word not found in the Bible I would note).
Which brings me to the story my grandfather told me. My grandfather and I were talking of spiritual things as we often did, and I related my confusion concerning this story to him. He told me it was completely wrong. He told me a story to explain the nature of God, and this is the story he told.
There was a man and his son who ran a store. They needed some help running the store, and so they hired a hand to help them with the store. Now the hand worked well enough, when the man was there to watch him, but he had to be watched or he would slack off. One day the man had to go to town to run some errands, and so he left his son in charge of the store. His son was a little young, 16 or 17, and the hand was somewhat offended that the store would be left in charge of the son rather than him. The hand would not work nearly as well for the son as he did when the father kept a watchful eye on him. The son was patient with the hand, but in time decided he had to let the hand go and so he fired the hand. Upon the return of the store owner, the hand complained that he had been fired by the son. The man replied only "Well, if you're fired, you're fired." This man and son were my grandfather and his son, Edward.
This is the relationship between the Father and the Son as my grandfather taught it to me. They are one in purpose, one in authority, or rather, the Son of God wields God's authority with perfection, and the Father allows him to, as he knows that the Son (Christ) is perfect, and will only use it in a way that the Father would agree that it should be used.
This is in direct opposition with the creeds of the protestant church. "The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being." The key words in this statement are triune (another word not to be found in scripture) and being. You may click these links. The first link is a direct quote from the Southern Baptist Convention's webpage explaining their belief about God. The next two take you to Dictionary.com and give you meanings of the words.
Every Protestant faith believes this, and there is no room for question. I could not in good faith stay united with a church that was so very mistaken as to the nature of the Being they worshiped. I needed to know the nature of my God. It seemed clear to me from scripture. It seemed clear to my grandfather from his Bible study. My grandmother was appalled when I told her the traditional Baptist/Protestant idea of the "Trinity". She had never heard such a thing, and told me people did not believe it.
I joined a church that believes that our Father in heaven is our God, and Jesus Christ is His son. It makes so much more sense. =)
Mostly I have been playing with my new Mac, so I guess nothing much is new in my life. I came across some new pictures. The Disney Land pictures and a picture I took of Mom and I when she came down are up. Did I mention that webpage developement has been completely moved over to the iMac?
I had a wonderful time with my family in Texas. I want to share with you a story my grandfather told me as a younger child, a story that would ultimately change my whole outlook on God, as it has to do with Who and What God is.
Apparently as a child I spoke of Jesus Christ and His Father too "seperately". Kay (my then step-mother) told me I should not seperate them, as they were one being. Of course this was confusing to me, as I remembered Christ praying to the Father, and it seemed all scripture pointed to Christ being the son of the Father, rather than Christ being a different incarnation of the Father. She explained it to me like this... God is God is God, but he has three forms, just as water is water is water, but it can be seen as water and ice and steam, but it has three forms. But they were all the exact same being. This is the idea of the Trinity (a word not found in the Bible I would note).
Which brings me to the story my grandfather told me. My grandfather and I were talking of spiritual things as we often did, and I related my confusion concerning this story to him. He told me it was completely wrong. He told me a story to explain the nature of God, and this is the story he told.
There was a man and his son who ran a store. They needed some help running the store, and so they hired a hand to help them with the store. Now the hand worked well enough, when the man was there to watch him, but he had to be watched or he would slack off. One day the man had to go to town to run some errands, and so he left his son in charge of the store. His son was a little young, 16 or 17, and the hand was somewhat offended that the store would be left in charge of the son rather than him. The hand would not work nearly as well for the son as he did when the father kept a watchful eye on him. The son was patient with the hand, but in time decided he had to let the hand go and so he fired the hand. Upon the return of the store owner, the hand complained that he had been fired by the son. The man replied only "Well, if you're fired, you're fired." This man and son were my grandfather and his son, Edward.
This is the relationship between the Father and the Son as my grandfather taught it to me. They are one in purpose, one in authority, or rather, the Son of God wields God's authority with perfection, and the Father allows him to, as he knows that the Son (Christ) is perfect, and will only use it in a way that the Father would agree that it should be used.
This is in direct opposition with the creeds of the protestant church. "The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being." The key words in this statement are triune (another word not to be found in scripture) and being. You may click these links. The first link is a direct quote from the Southern Baptist Convention's webpage explaining their belief about God. The next two take you to Dictionary.com and give you meanings of the words.
Every Protestant faith believes this, and there is no room for question. I could not in good faith stay united with a church that was so very mistaken as to the nature of the Being they worshiped. I needed to know the nature of my God. It seemed clear to me from scripture. It seemed clear to my grandfather from his Bible study. My grandmother was appalled when I told her the traditional Baptist/Protestant idea of the "Trinity". She had never heard such a thing, and told me people did not believe it.
I joined a church that believes that our Father in heaven is our God, and Jesus Christ is His son. It makes so much more sense. =)
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