podcast 361 – A Lutheran pastor explains Socinianism and biblical unitarianism

Hello Isaac,

If you don’t mind, I would like to offer some ideas for you to consider, in response to your three points. I will leave it to you to look up the scripture references that I included. I think they will be helpful helpful in answer your questions, but to write them all out here would make my reply far too long for this context.

1) Stephen supplicated (Philippians 4:6), ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!’ As a faith-filled child (Luke 18:17), Stephen is trustingly asking Jesus to receive him, just as Stephen has received Jesus (Matthew 10:40-41), and had served Jesus as a mature Christian (Acts 6:8), growing in grace and, on that basis, had a sure foundation for the hope of a rich welcome into Jesus’ eternal kingdom (2 Peter 1:5-11). This was the basis for Stephen’s words.

For Jesus to be faithful with respect to these things, there is no need for Jesus to be personally, ontologically God, since Jesus only speaks the words he hears his Father speak (John 12:48-50), and therefore, Jesus’ Father fully empowers the words spoken by His Son.

In John 12:48-50, Jesus specifically links reception of his words (that are also the words of his Father) to the promise of eternal life in the coming kingdom. I believe that Stephen was deliberately expressing his faith in this very promise that is grounded in the power of Father to fulfill, through His Son.

Let us learn from Stephen’s example; in advance of trials, let us meditate on the promises of God, and, to the extent that we are faithful, we can rejoice in the reality of the promises, knowing that God works all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28); in this way, we can have the hope of being like Stephen: amid tribulation, we too can have the peace of God that is beyond carnal understanding (Phil 4:7), and having the strength of God that flows from our joy in Him (Nehemiah 8:10).

2) We are told that, within certain parameters (e.g.: 1 John 5:14; Proverbs 28:9; 1 Pet 3:7; James 4:3) our prayers, entreaties, supplications etc. are heard by our Lord. The Holy Spirit of the Father, I believe through the work of heavenly beings appointed to serve the churches (Rev 2:1a, x7), is able to mediate all communication between men and God, on behalf of the Savior.

Perhaps Jesus receives all personal communications in the sense that his heavenly court handles some on his authority and according to his will (consider Hebrews 1:14), but he himself personally reviews the most difficult cases; consider the example of Moses, in Exodus 18:13-26… and Moses is explicitly typological of the one like unto himself, the promised Messiah about whom Moses prophesied (Deuteronomy 18).

Something else to consider: Keep in mind that in Ephesians 5:20, Paul teaches that thanksgiving is always due to the the Father for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; note that the letter (the prayer) is addressed to the Father, and not to Jesus directly; however, for the letter to be delivered, sufficient postage must be applied in the form of the name (authority, imprimatur, power) of our Lord Jesus Christ; with prayer directed to the Father, there is no ontological limit to His ability to hear, consider and answer and and every prayer. Nevertheless, at this point, I do tend to lean toward the mediatory model over the direct communication model.

Jesus is the Good shepherd (John 10). We are his sheep, and as, through the scriptures (1 Peter 1:3-4) we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Shepherd, we learn to recognize and hear his voice. Again, there is the distinct possibility that the ‘voice’ is the consistent response of Jesus’ faithful representative agents within his heavenly court. The scriptures are replete with examples of this or that agent speaking -often in the first person singular- on behalf of the one who sent him.

Jesus himself regularly prayed to his Father; Jesus was heard, and he himself heard his Father, whether or not others heard as well (John 12:30). Whether the voice heard by all here was directly that of the Father or the Father represented by a heavenly messenger, remains to be determined. Because of the account of Genesis 2 and 3:8, it would seem that, during his earthly ministry, the Son, having remained faithful, could have enjoyed direct interpersonal communication with his Father, but even the Genesis account could have involved agency (the mediation of heavenly beings); consider Luke 2:13-15; Matthew 4:11 and 26:53.

I don’t see how the scriptures would require us to think that Jesus is personally receiving and handling every prayer and supplication; through the agency of the Father’s heavenly court, these matters can all be faithfully handled on Jesus’ behalf.

3) Consider the possibility that the writer to the Hebrew believers is alluding to the New Creation that is in the the second Adam, God’s Son (Hebrews 1:2a, and then throughout this chapter), the promised Messiah who recreates us (John 3:3-8) and all spiritual things (2 Corinthians 5:16-17) whom we who are spiritual now know after the spirit, and not after the flesh (v16). For those who are hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-3) are dead to the world, and are risen with Christ (v1).

The believer’s citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20; 1 John 2:15; 2 Peter 11) where there is a better and a more enduring substance (Hebrews 10:34) laid up for believers (Colossians 1:5), and is yet to come (Matthew 6:10a; 2 Peter 3:12-13). Much more scriptural development can be done on this point. But again, nothing about the New Creation requires the second Adam (the basis for the New Creation) to be God, since, for example, God made the original Creation for the first Adam… and that first Adam was not personally, ontologically God.

John confirms this in John 3:2, when he records the words of Nicodemus: ‘We know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.’ Note that Jesus’ power is seen to be due to God being ‘with’ Jesus, and not due to Jesus personally being some sort of deity. John puts the stamp of approval on the words of Nicodemus, in v34b-35: ‘God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.’ (All this, prior to the cross!) This vast power is from the Father, and the Son shares it with his disciples, in the form of the keys of the kingdom (see Matthew 16 and 18); and if we have received and use the keys, are we then Gods, in the way the Father is God? Of course not. Obviously, then, we are dealing with authorized and empowered agency, and not apotheosis or ontological implications.

God (the Father of these two Adams) is the Creator on behalf of his Sons, as it is written, ‘And all things are of God’ (2 Corinthians 5:18a). Also, please consider that in the scripture you mention, Hebrews 1:3, the Son is called the express image (G5481) of God, making him something other than God, for an essential quality of an a representation is that it is not the thing it represents.

God faithfully empowers His Son, because His Son remains the faithful image and representation of the Father. Contrast this to the Genesis account of the first Adam, who did not faithfully remain the express image of his Father, and therefore forfeited his rule and reign over the first Creation.

I suppose that, post immersion in the Jordan (having lived a life of faithful representation of his Father; tempted, yet without sin) Jesus could echo Paul, by saying ‘I learned (Hebrews 5:8-9) to be content in all circumstances… and now, I can do all things through my Father, who strengthens me.’

The Father strengthens his faithful Son Jesus to this day, and forever and without limit. Now, we have a taste of the powers of the world to come (Hebrews 6:5); we have received an earnest, or downpayment (Ephesians 4:30). But for us to participate fully in the ‘all things’ New Creation of Hebrews 1:3, we will have to wait until the first resurrection, while Jesus faithfully site at the right hand of the Father, awaiting the Day (Hebrews 10:25b) when it is time for the establishment of the Kingdom (Psalm 110:1).

Does any of this help?