Truth Or Tradition?

Read Acts 2:14-26

The first sermon preached by the christian church was delivered by Peter on the Day of Pentecost. When the gift of holy spirit was poured out on the faithful 120 in the upper room, it was one of the great turning points in the history of the world! And being the very first sermon it should be of enormous significance to anyone who is seriously interested in knowing truth. The fact is, we cannot possibly hope to understand the church and its message unless we understand what these early christian brothers believed and taught.

When I was in Bible College back in the 80’s, I served as an intern for a church that hosted a sizeable group of refugees from Laos. Every Sunday for about 6 months I taught a class on Sunday mornings to these wonderful people who had escaped the tyranny of the Laotian regime, many of them losing loved ones on their journey to freedom. I’ll always cherish the memory of those brave souls who endured so much hardship and heartbreak to find freedom in our country. Some of them were genuinely converted, but many others were just blending in and attended the Sunday classes just to be part of the community.

I share this with you because in the relationships I established with them I often had the opportunity to inquire about their customs and beliefs. Invariably, I found that whether it was a practice involving a wedding ceremony, or a ritual performed as part of their animistic religious beliefs (which some still practiced even though they claimed to be christian), they were unable to explain WHY they did what they did, or why they believed what they said they believed! It all came down to “tradition” which was handed down from one generation to the next. Hmmm. Not so different from many good church going people today I think.

A while back I read an amusing story ( I cannot recall the exact source) about a young woman who had a certain way of preparing a roast for christmas dinner. Everyone loved her roast, and she was meticulous about preparing it in a particular manner. Her recipe required cutting the roast in two pieces and placing the halves in separate roasting pans. When asked why she did this she replied, “I don’t know, it’s how momma always did it.” Some years later she discovered the truth about why her momma alway cut the roast in two pieces. It seems that momma just didn’t have a big enough pot in which to put the whole roast!

These anecdotes illustrate how powerful and deceptive tradition can be!

IS GOD A TRINITY?

Now, let’s look at Peter’s sermon in the book of Acts and compare it to the prevailing teachings of today’s church. Notice first that after pointing to Scripture and indicating the source behind the strange behavior of those gathered, Peter begins to speak about Jesus and his relationship to God (v22). Did Peter stand up and declare Jesus to be God, the 2nd person of the trinity, or God the Son? No! Peter, inspired by holy spirit, apparently had no concept of the trinity! If so, certainly this would have been an excellent place for it to be made known. Instead, he refers to Jesus as “a man attested to you by God”, and through whom God did many signs and wonders, and a man who was crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men, and finally, who God raised up from the dead (vv22-24)!

Nothing Peter says here supports the tradition of a Triune God. In fact, none of it makes a bit of sense if Jesus were in fact God, or even if Peter supposed him to be God. But, if Jesus was, as Peter asserts, a man attested (affirmed, proved) by God”, then it makes perfect sense. And further, I see that it brings all of the Scriptures concerning Jesus and God into perfect clarity. The plain language used here makes it impossible to misunderstand Peter’s sense of who God and Jesus are in relation to each other. Plainly read, Peter understands that God is not a man, but He works through men (v22). Also, God could never be crucified or killed, however, He alone has the power to reverse death by resurrection (vv23-24)! Then notice in v36 that it is “God” who “made him (Jesus) both Lord and Christ.” Who is this God who “raised” Jesus from the dead, and “made” him both Lord and Christ”? Clearly, it is not Jesus who is God!

This is clarified even further when Peter quotes from Psalm 110:1, “The LORD said to my lord. ‘Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies your footstool’.” (vv34-35)! In the Hebrew Scriptures, the first LORD is adonai and the second is adoni clearly showing the difference between God and a human lord! This cannot be seen in our English translations, but in Hebrew, adonai is always used of God, where adoni is never used of God! The LORD (YaHWeH - God Almighty) said to my Lord (David’s lord, the Messiah - Jesus)! This is not God talking to God, but God speaking to the human Messiah!

But there’s something else… something not written here, but relevant to the portion of Scripture Peter quotes in verses 17-21. Peter’s explanation of what was happening was “this is what was uttered by the prophet Joel” (v16), then he quotes from Joel 2:28-32. What is not quoted is v27 which says “You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else.” Did you catch that? I am the LORD your God and there is no other. The word “LORD” is Yahweh, the name of God the Father, while God is elohim (o theos in the Greek). It is literally “I am Yahweh your God and there is no other”!

So then, there is only one who is God, and he is Yahweh! It is this God, Yahweh, who declares, “I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh”(v17). The reference to “My Spirit”, everyone agrees, is a reference to the Holy Spirit. But is this Holy Spirit a person, or is it the gift of God’s own presence and power? The language of “pour out of My Spirit” seems to be an awkward and inappropriate way of speaking about another person. Perhaps it’s because neither Joel nor Peter understood the Spirit as being a 3rd person of a trinity! Perhaps it’s because the Spirit is the gift of God’s personal presence and power to the church - an impartation of God’s own character and nature to those who believe!.

DO WE CHRISTIANS GO TO HEAVEN WHEN WE DIE?

One last important observation in Peter’s sermon is how he speaks of David in relation to Jesus. After quoting from the prophet Joel he quotes from Psalm 16:8-11 (vv25-28). In this Psalm, Peter asserts that David is speaking  prophetically about Messiah Jesus where God promises that he (Jesus) will not rot in the grave, but be resurrected back to life. Peter makes it clear, and is in fact “confident”, that David is not speaking about himself, and points to the fact that he both died and was buried and his tomb is “with us to this day” (v29). Peter declares that David did not rise from the dead, nor did he ascend into heaven. Understand this! David did not ascend into heaven! But wait, I thought all saints went to heaven when they die. Haven’t we been taught this from childhood? I know that some will claim that Old Testament saints went to paradise and Jesus emptied paradise during the three days his body was in the tomb. But this cannot be so because the supposed emptying of paradise would then have taken place prior to the Day of Pentecost. Therefore, David and all Old Testament saints would have already left paradise and been taken to heaven before the time Peter delivered his sermon. But Peter says, NO, David was NOT in heaven!

If not in heaven, then where? Just as Peter says, the dead are in their graves, or tombs. The bible uses the metaphor of “sleep” to describe believers who have died. This is a fitting description because just as those who experience undisturbed sleep have no awareness of time or anything else, so those who are dead - they are awaiting resurrection from the dead! So, David did not go to heaven but remained in the grave awaiting resurrection, which he will experience along with every believer, at the 2nd coming of Christ!

CONCLUSION

If Peter and the early church did not believe God to be “three in one” or that the believing dead go to heaven when they die, how did these doctrines come to have such a powerful hold over the church? The answer is tradition! Both the doctrines of the Trinity and of the dead going to heaven when they die, took root in the early centuries after the death of the apostles. Over time, they have been passed down from generation to generation with the result that very few question their veracity, or even suspect that they may be unbiblical. Yes, some can quote Scriptures that seem to support the traditional views, but in fact, these so called supporting texts are often taken out of context or misquoted entirely.

So, here in the very first sermon preached by the apostle Peter, after the holy spirit was poured out, we find a rather conspicuous contradiction between the early and modern church teaching! Here, Peter sets forth the unequivocal doctrine that there is one God and He is a single person; that there is one lord, Messiah, and he is the man Jesus; that the resting place for all at death is the grave, and that they will rise at the return of Messiah Jesus!  I ask you dear reader, to examine this for yourself. I don’t claim to have special knowledge about the bible… far from it. I only point to what the bible clearly says without redefining words or pulling Scriptures from their context. Compare this to what is taught today and ask yourself why? Then, if you are sincere about knowing truth, regardless of the consequences, ask God our Father to help you read the Scriptures with “new eyes”. I know, for me, the bible makes much more sense than it did when I tried to make certain passages “fit” traditional teaching.

I believe the bible says what it means, and means what it says… do you?

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