[Steven Avery]

Hi Folks,

Originally Posted by Debau

I would like Steve to post his beliefs on the Trinity, and learn from a scriptural dialogue that defends our triune God ... How 'bout it? Steve...?

Hi Debau, it's possible, I would probably join in and contribute and discuss a bit.

However, please understand, I'm a bit ambivalent about a dialogue where some of the posters and readers may be looking for a 'cause of offense' rather than a sincere discussion. (On my home-base Messianic forum there have been some good discussions, however even there I tend to just moderate the last couple of years.) For the most part I have kept Messiahology (Christology) and Bible versions discusssions separate, with one major exception.

And that principle exception is the simple fact that the pure Bible strongly supports the 'Deity of Messiah' most especially in 1 Timothy 3:16.

1 Timothy 3:16
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit,
seen of angels,
preached unto the Gentiles,
believed on in the world,
received up into glory.

This verse is very strongly resisted by the low Christology groups, including ebionites and biblical-unitarians/socinians and arians, who almost always will insist on the modern version corruption.

There are other verses where the difference between versions is important, including Philippians 2:6 and the Johannine Comma. So there are a number of verses where Messiahology and Bible version issues do overlap. Another is Matthew 28:19, where some folks make the truly absurd argument that the verse is not scripture (the Constantinean conspiracy theory) which I ripped strongly on one of the forums linked to above, especially showing the large number of ante-Nicene early church writer references.

The critical issue for any discussion about the Lord Jesus Christ .. the Bible is the source of doctrine. The big pitfall in so many circles (not here) is that folks choose their versions and verses and translations to match their pre-existing doctrine. In a very real sense my spiritual kinship is first and foremost with those who recognize, receive and embrace God's pure word.

Shalom,
Steven