 We're discussing the doctrine of the Trinity as it relates to our lecture series. The title of this lecture series is called Judaism and Christianity at the Crossroads. And if there's one area of contention between Judaism and Christianity that sticks out, it must be the issue of worshiping Jesus as God and the doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation that have been adopted by Christianity to justify such worship. And so this would be the most important difference. You'll see on your source sheets, I've quoted from John Jay Collins, who is a Roman Catholic, he's a respected scholar, and he wrote in his book The Scepter and the Star, he writes, the most significant Christian departure from Jewish notions of the Messiah was the affirmation of the divinity of Christ. So we can see that if we wanted to point to one thing, which was the most radical departure from anything that Jews believed and held to about the Messiah back 2000 years ago, this would have been the most radical thing, adopting a Christological view, a view of seeing Jesus as divine and as a Messiah that would be divine. Now, the way I want to approach this lecture tonight is I want to first start off by defining what idolatry is and the basis of the extreme caution and the extreme aversion that Jews have to anything associated with the idea of idolatry. I then also want to look at the development of the doctrine of the Trinity because, as will become clear tonight, the first followers of Jesus did not start out with the doctrine of the Trinity. They didn't recite the Nicene creeds, but rather this was something that progressed over time and was only adopted in the 4th century of the Common Era. So finally, after that I want to take a very brief look at the Jewish understanding of the nature of the Messiah. So let's start by defining what constitutes idolatry and so what you'll find in your second source is a definition that I heard from Professor David Berger in a lecture that he gave at Yeshiva University and I find that his definition is a very simple but yet very clear definition of what idolatry is and what's good about his definition is that I believe most people including Trinitarians would agree with that definition. So the definition is, as follows, the worship or recognition of an entity which is in fact not God. So again, worshiping or recognizing as God something that is not God. That would be the definition of idolatry. Now I've also included over here the definition or the description of idolatry from the dictionary because instead of it remaining as something abstract when we say worshiping, what does that mean, recognition, what does that mean, I wanted to bring it down into more practical terms and so therefore I've quoted over here the definition from the dictionary and so the definition we have over here is idolatry, extreme admiration, love or reverence for something or someone. Does that make sense? That's a very straightforward understanding of what does it mean. When we say, for example, I idolize this or that or the other, this is really what we mean. There are many relationships that a person has in their life and in those relationships, whether it's with people or with things, there will be things that you love, there will be things that you admire, there will be people who you revere. However, it would be appropriate to the context of that relationship. So for example, if I admire my teacher or I revere a great scholar, that would be appropriate. If I love my children or I love my friends or my spouse, that would be appropriate. What is inappropriate is when there is a special unique admiration, love or reverence that is unique, meaning it's set aside specifically for the creator, for my creator, for the one to whom I owe everything and I direct that kind of admiration, that kind of love towards an entity that was created, something that is not God, that would constitute idolatry. To help drive this point home, consider marriage and the uniqueness of that relationship. Of course, you may enjoy closeness and friendship in your relationships at work or in other social settings. However, if you were to engage in the kind of intimacy and closeness that is reserved for your spouse, then what would happen is you would be moving over from what would be considered appropriate to being inappropriate. And the same thing is with our relationship with God. And in fact, the Bible itself, the Jewish Scriptures itself, point to marriage as an analogy, an adultery, as something that is compared to idolatry. So idolatry would be spiritual adultery. Now, what I want to do is I want to take a look at how central and critical the issue of idolatry is to God according to the Scriptures. I think it would be fair to say that the more time something is repeated in the Scriptures and the harsher the punishments are for not obeying that directive or command, the more important we can assume that issue is. If something is repeated twice or three times, well, it would be significant. But if it's repeated over and over and over within the harshest and most severe terms, we would understand that this is something critical. And so in your soul sheets, you'll find a selection of passages which highlight just how significant an issue it is. But the first thing I want to note before I start reading these is as you go through these passages, as we go through these passages together, I want you to note how God makes such a great effort, so to speak, to make it plainly clear and obvious whom it is we are to worship. Okay. So we start with the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 20, verse two. It's the fourth reference you have on your soul sheet. I am the Lord your God. Now, before we go on, what happened over here? God took an entire nation out of another nation with wonders and signs and miracles. He split the sea for them. He drowned all their oppressors and he brought them to Mount Sinai. Now, we had all kinds of people among the nation, as you can just imagine. If you look at the Jewish people today, you have a wide spectrum of people from the holiest of the holy to the lowest of the low. You can just imagine that after being so long in a place like Egypt, you had that same spectrum. And nevertheless, God raises every single member of the house of Israel, of the children of Jacob, that were there at Sinai to the level of a prophet, meaning to say, what was special about a prophet? A prophet was raised to a level where God communes directly with them in a way that they can apprehend. That's what a prophet is. God spoke to the entire nation, to every single member of that nation, irrespective of where they were on the spectrum. That is something phenomenal and never to be repeated ever again in history. That happened once and once only at Sinai. And this is what I mean when I say take careful note of the lengths that God goes to to make sure that every member of Israel is able to witness, to understand, to apprehend whom it is we are to worship. Let's continue. Verse, let's start again from verse 2. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water underneath the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. Now this is repeated in Deuteronomy chapter 5 when we have the Ten Commandments repeated again when Moses recounts the experience at Sinai. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 9. This is Moses talking to the Jewish people and reminding them about the covenant that they made at Sinai. And he is really giving them a pep talk, preparing them now for their entry into the land of Israel. Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, unless they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Now God tells them over here, and teach them to your children and your grandchildren, especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, that Sinai. When the Lord said to me, gather the people to me, and I will let them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children. Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, here Moses is recounting what happened, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. Verse 12. And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form. You only heard a voice. So he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess. Take careful heed. This is verse 15, to yourselves, for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make for yourself a carved image in the form of any figure the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on earth, or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven. And when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the hosts of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has given to all peoples under the whole heavens as a heritage. But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace out of Egypt to be as people and inheritance as you are this day. And we're going to the next quote, Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 35, Moses tells them in the same chapter, to you it was shown that you might know that the Lord himself is God, there is none other beside him. So what do we get from this passage and the passage that came before? It's very clear that God wanted to make sure that it is so abundantly clear to the people of Israel whom it is they are to worship. They are to worship the God who took them out of Egypt and appeared to them at Mount Sinai, the God who has no form and we only heard a voice. That's the God whom we are to worship. And not just that, God commands the Jewish people to ensure that this memory never fades. This memory is imparted from parents to their children in every generation. And what we find in the history of the Jewish people in terms of the passing down of these traditions, this was not taught to us just in the form of reading a book. It's not as if anyone's parents just handed them a Bible and told them, here you go, read this Bible, you'll find out everything you need to know. No, there was much more than that. We were able to witness whom our parents worship and how they worshiped him. And through all the practices that we practice, for example, going out into a sukkah and that's those booths that we sit in on the festival of tabernacles or it being part of a Passover Seder on the Passover, in which we recount all the miracles that God did for us, these are the ways in which these traditions were passed down and it becomes not just something that we read from a book, but something that we learn through an experience, through witnessing the way our parents worship God. How about the way God speaks about the punishment for somebody who violates these commandments? How about the way God speaks about what will happen to the one who does violate this direct command, worshipping something other than God? So we read in Deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 2, If there is found among you within any of your gates, which the Lord your God gives you, a man or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of the Lord your God in transgressing his covenant, who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or the moon or any of the hosts of heaven, which I have not commanded, and it is told to you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently and if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination has been committed in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates the man or woman who has committed that wicked thing and shall stone to death that man or woman with stones. What does that mean? That means over here, God says like this, I have explicitly commanded you whom it is you are to worship. If you go off and worship any representation that I have not commanded you to worship, then the punishment if this is witnessed and a person knows full well what they are doing and nevertheless maliciously and willingly violates God's command, that person is to be brought out to the gates and is to be stoned to death. That tells us how much this means to God. This is something that God takes very seriously. What you'll find throughout the scriptures is that God consistently warns against breaking our covenant with him by serving other gods and he uses the phrases that I have not commanded or worshiping gods that you have not known or gods that your fathers did not know or gods that your fathers did not fear. These are the common expressions that are used throughout the scriptures to help us understand what is wrong with the kind of worship that people are engaging in. Unfortunately in our history, especially in the time of the Jewish scriptures and times of the prophets, Jewish people struggled with the issue of idolatry and consistently God tells what you did wrong is you went to worship a God that you did not know, you went to worship a God that your fathers did not know, that you were never taught and that you were never commanded to worship. These are the things that God tells us of how to identify what is idolatry. What is particularly notable about these passages and dozens of passages like it throughout the Jewish scriptures is that these passages are clear, they are comprehensive and they are unambiguous. In fact, it occurred to no one to dispute the obvious fact that these passages speak of idolatry. What do I mean? What I mean is there are no Christians who would come here today and say that the passages that we have just quoted are not speaking about idolatry. They would say these are indeed speaking about idolatry and they would agree with every single word of them. So it's unambiguous, it's clear, and it's clear that the context in which they appear are speaking about God's directive about idolatry. God's anger towards idolatries express countless times in the scriptures in the strongest terms and in the most central of settings. So for example, you have over here in Exodus chapter 34 verse 12, take heed to yourself lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest there be a snare in your midst, but you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, for you shall worship no other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. Again, this is where Moses is once again going over the covenant with the Jewish people and he's telling them that you need to make sure not to follow after the practices of the people in the land which you are going to possess. They're all idolaters, but God is a jealous God, so make no mistake and do not follow after their practices. Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 14, you shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you, for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth. God's very serious over here, you know, sometimes you tell your children something and they think you're kidding, but then when you tell them about the consequences and they hear in the tone and they hear how many times you tell them, they realize, oh wow, they're serious, my parents are serious, God's serious over here, I'm going to destroy you from the face of the earth, that's serious. Deuteronomy 8, 19, then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day, that you shall surely perish as the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God. It's very serious, God's telling you that if you're going to follow after the practices of the people of that land, then your destiny will be the same as theirs, just like they have been destroyed you'll also be destroyed. Deuteronomy 11 verse 26, behold I set before you today a blessing and a curse, the blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God but turn aside from the way I have commanded you today to go after other gods which you have not known, again the phrase which you have not known, God warns you that it's going to be a curse to you and finally from the five books of Moses I've quoted over here from Deuteronomy chapter 31 verse 16 and the Lord said to Moses behold you will rest with your fathers and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land where they go to be among them and they will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them God over here is telling Moses what's going to happen after his death that once they go over into the land of Israel this is what's going to happen with the Jewish people then my anger shall be aroused against them in that day and I will forsake them and I will hide my face from them and they shall be devoured and many evils and troubles shall be for them so that they will say in that day have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us and I will surely hide my face in that day because of the evil all the evil that they have done in that they have turned to other gods what we see abundantly clear is how severe this is a violation to our covenant to our relationship with God there are references that I've quoted over here but I haven't quoted them in full I've just given you the references you can look them up at home but I've given them there for you to be able to look up these are references to the consequences of the Jewish people going off into idolatry you can read it in the book of judges the book of kings and Isaiah and so on and so forth you see the references here where you read about the utter destruction that came about to the Jewish people as a result of them following the idols and worshiping them so to summarize we worship the God who revealed himself to our ancestors as our ancestors have preserved that revelation as they were commanded to by God and at this point there's an important question that needs to be asked how do the scriptures expect us to identify an idol it's easy to say don't bow down to a stone but there are going to be sophisticated people who are going to come along and give sophisticated arguments as to why this or that particular God is different and why we should actually worship them however after reading through all these passages it should be obvious that Moses reminded the Jewish people that they saw no form at the Sinai revelation and it's on the basis of that that we are not to worship anything else but God that we were taught to worship at Sinai Isaiah 43 verse 10 you'll see this in your reference it says you are my witnesses says the Lord the Jewish people are the witnesses of God and my servant whom I have chosen that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he before me there was no God formed nor shall there be after me I even I am the Lord and beside me there is no Savior this is something which is at the heart of what Jewish people believe we do not trust in anyone else we do not put our hope in anyone else and we certainly do not worship anyone else and we recognize that it is our God given mission to serve as witnesses to this truth but at this point I want to point out that most Christians will agree with everything I've said up until this point but it's at this point that Christians will claim that notwithstanding all of the above the worship of Jesus is still not idolatry now how's that possible so what they'll do is they will quote they will point they will point to or they will quote passages from the Jewish scriptures which seem to point to an incarnation of God in other words God seems to appear as an angel or as a man for example the story in Genesis 18 when Abraham is talking to God and the three angels there and it seems that two angels leave and and Abraham's still standing there talking to God and they basically say well look there you go you have God speaking and appearing to Abraham as a man again this is in the in the context of a narrative they will point to verses which speak of God in a plural manner for example Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 where God says let us make man in our image and they will say that this implies a plurality within God they'll also point to verses which speak about God in anthropomorphic terms describing God's actions in human terminology God is a man of war and other such such descriptions and finally they'll point to passages which attribute divine names to the Messiah so for example the Jeremiah 23 Messiah is called the Lord is our righteousness and so on and they will say that look these passages seem to indicate the Messiah is more than just human he's actually divine now although I don't have time tonight to go through all those passages and to to basically deconstruct them and show how that's not what they mean and although somebody reading them in isolation could walk away with that interpretation if you want to read it in context and not just in the immediate context but in the context of the entire scriptures one will understand that there are other ways which are more plausible and more in sync with the rest of the Bible and those are the ways that these passages are to be understood but nevertheless I think it's important to note that none of the passages that will ever be quoted by Christians will begin with an introduction telling us that they are about to describe whom it is we are to worship when we speak about for example Exodus chapter 20 or Exodus or Deuteronomy chapter 4 these are passages which are central settings in which there's no argument that God is coming here to teach us about whom it is we are to worship and whom not the passages the passage for example in Genesis 126 or the passage for example in Genesis 18 these are not passages which are coming to tell us whom it is we are to worship or telling us about the nature of God or the nature of the Messiah these are passages which are stories which there are many wonderful lessons to learn from them none of them being whom it is we are to worship in any event Christians will claim that all of the above does not apply to the worship of Jesus why because Jesus is divine Jesus is God now we'll come back to this but for now it's important to understand that Christians see Jesus as the exception now very often Jewish people are very puzzled at this point because Jewish people say no Christians don't believe that Jesus is God they believe he's the Son of God um no that's not correct they believe that he is God the Son in other words they believe that Jesus is part of the triune Godhead which consists of God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and Jesus is a co-equal of the same substance and co-eternal um part of the Godhead he is God and so he's not just the Son of God you see in Jewish in Jewish um terminology when we speak about the Son of God the Jewish people when they're in right standing with God they're considered the sons of the Son of God King David was called the Son of God King Solomon was considered the Son of God anybody that is considered to be close to God and um following God in in righteousness is considered to be the Son of God and that's that's fine as one rabbi said when a missionary came to him and told him that Jesus is the Son of God he says yes 100 but Jesus had a big family right in other words we're all children of God um but when Christians refer to Jesus as God they refer to him as God the Son okay that's important and then important distinction a couple years ago I posted a a question on my Facebook page to Trinitarian Christians and I asked them I said do you believe that if you are wrong about Jesus then you are guilty of idolatry in other words if if Jesus is not who you think he was would you be guilty based on the way you venerate him the way you worship him the way you relate to him would you be guilty of idolatry or another way of asking if someone pointed to anyone else other than Jesus and believed about that person the things that you believe about Jesus would that constitute idolatry the long short of it is I had top missionaries who responded out to to that post and they all agreed yes if we are wrong about who Jesus is and if we are wrong and if this was directed our worship of Jesus was directed to anyone else that's not Jesus that they would consider to be idolatry what this highlights is that they are not in disagreement with us about the severity of idolatry they believe that it is idolatry to worship a man it is wrong to direct your love your admiration and your reverence that is set apart for God towards anything or anyone apart from God however they believe that Jesus is the exception and I want to turn our focus to the evolution of the doctrine of the trinity now I need to keep it brief so let's do a very quick summary of the stories in the of Jesus in the in the New Testament according to the gospel Jesus was a man that's very clear everybody identifies him as a man he was born of a woman Galatians chapter four verse four Paul says he's born of a woman he lived in the land of Israel was a follower of John the baptizer and proclaimed the message that the kingdom of heaven is at hand and that we need to repent that was his basic message the kingdom of heaven in other words the messianic era is upon us and we need to repent that was his message Jesus attracted a small following which grew and these followers believed that he was the chosen one by God to be the king from the line of David that would transform the world and establish God's kingdom on earth in other words they recognized him to be the Jewish messiah who would usher in the messianic era so far there's absolutely nothing wrong with that belief apart from it might be wrong but there's nothing un-Jewish about it now what happens is Jesus found guilty of sedition against Rome and he's crucified by Pontius Pilate his followers are shocked by this they're very distraught by it and they see his death as being senseless and really they're on the verge of despair okay Peter denies Jesus three times that was predicted by Jesus and generally all the apostles didn't know what to do next but this all turned around what changes everything is the alleged resurrection and the ascension to the followers of Jesus being that they believed that he had been risen from the dead he is now being vindicated and by virtue of that he's been exalted to a higher level and so then while they believe that he's been resurrected they believe that he's very soon to return and finish what he started however we know from history that he didn't return he didn't come back and because he didn't come back they had to start asking themselves well then what was the point of him coming in the first place and ultimately they ended up changing their view of his mission and they believed that not he didn't come here to usher in the messianic era 2000 years ago but rather 2000 years ago he came to die for the sins of the world and after some time they began to believe that his death his death was even more significant because it wasn't just a human being that died on the cross it was actually God who died on the cross for the sins of the world now after the alleged resurrection the language that's used to speak about Jesus has changed to one who's highly exalted and revered and exalted to the right hand of God and so it's clear it's clear that the turning point for Christianity was the alleged resurrection of Jesus because while he was living here on earth no one viewed him as God incarnate nobody worshiped him as such and he didn't speak of himself as such eventually they deified him and worshiped him as God but it's important to note like I said that during his life ministry both Jesus and his followers always worshiped the God of Israel right that means even Jesus worshiped the God of Israel and they were always they always made a clear distinction between Jesus and God Jesus is always in submission to God he worships God he prays to God in the garden of Gethsemane he prays to God he attributes his power to God he acknowledges his limitations for example when he says of that hour no one knows not the angels not the son only the father so he acknowledges that he has limit limitations especially when contrasted with God's omnipotence and God's omniscience it's clear that during his life ministry Jesus is never viewed as God in the flesh and he's never worshiped as such to illustrate this I've brought down over here a couple of references so you have for example Mark chapter 10 verse 17 and when he was gone forth into the way there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him good master what shall I do that I may that I may inherit internal eternal life and God said to him why call you me good there is none good but one and that is God so here you have somebody who is giving what Jesus consists to be an honorific title to Jesus calling him good master and Jesus rebukes him it says why do you call me good there's no one good but God so here it's clear that God that Jesus is saying about himself I'm not God if you want to show honor to anybody show that honor to God he goes on to tell him over there that he should keep the commandments but anyway in Mark chapter 13 verse 31 heaven and earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass away but of that day an hour knows no man no not the angels which are in heaven neither the son but the father again here he's making a clear distinction between his limitations and God's omniscience God knows everything John chapter 14 verse 28 you have heard how I said unto you I go away and come again unto you if you loved me you would rejoice because I said I go unto unto the father for the father is greater than I here again Jesus is recognizing that God is greater than he is John chapter 20 verse 17 Jesus said unto her touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my father but go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my father and your father and to my God and your God here again this is Jesus distinct from God saying that he's going up to God okay so it's clear that Jesus did not see himself as God first Corinthians chapter 11 verse 3 but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of every woman is the man and the head of Christ is God so again what we see from Paul's writings is that there's a distinction between Christ between Jesus and God God is the head of Christ he's on top of Jesus first Timothy chapter 2 verse 5 where there is one God and one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus so what we see from these references is that at least at the beginning people did not view Jesus as divine they did not worship him as God what happened is that at the the alleged resurrection and ascension they started to have exalted views of Jesus and this is something that is reflected in some of the passages of the New Testament as well it is clear that the Jerusalem church remained monotheists and continued to believe that Jesus is the Messiah but in more exalted terms than during his lifetime this was also true for the sect of the ebionites who continued to believe in the Messiah's Messiahship of Jesus but denied his divinity but all this while what you have is the yeah Paul going out to the pagans and converting the pagans now pagans were the people who were not part of the Jewish religion and they believed in many gods and he went out to try and preach to these pagans to give up their belief in multiple gods and come to believe in the one true god of Israel he needs to he needs to keep reminding them how he brought them out of worshiping other gods to worship one true god why well i would suggest because they had a hard time they had a hard time walking away from their prior beliefs okay and they possibly ended up looking at Jesus as just another divine being of which there were many in the Roman world not long after the death of Paul and the destruction of the temple in 17 common era c e the Pauline church is being run by Gentiles who are certainly influenced by their previous beliefs these are the ones who when reading some of the exalted terminology of Paul and even of the gospel of John assume that Jesus is divine which was not a big deal for them it's not a big deal for a pagan back then to believe that the head or the central figure of a religion is divine they had no problem with that there would have been no resistance on their part to believe that however there was a there was a challenge for these people why since the church decided to adopt the Old Testament and considered themselves to be part apart from pagans since they worshiped one god not multiple gods they had to work out the relationship between Jesus and God this issue you should know was debated for centuries trying to figure out the relationship between Jesus and God it wasn't something that was resolved easily or quickly it was it was only it wasn't until the council of nicaea in 325 of the common era in which the doctor the doctrine of the trinity won out as being the orthodox view to simplify things the doctrine of the of the trinity holds that God is one god but three co-eternal co-substantial persons god the father god the son which is Jesus and god the holy spirit as one god and three divine persons now if that doesn't make sense that's okay it's not supposed to make sense okay these three persons are distinct are distinct yet they are one substance essence or nature and in this context a nature is what one is whereas a person is who one is if that is gibberish that's fine it's it doesn't make sense but you need to understand how it got to this you see the doctrine of the trinity was born out of the following issues the new testament indicates that Jesus was fully human you read such passages we've read such passages and it's clear that he's distinct from god other passages seemed implied that he was fully divine so for example if you read the beginning of the gospel of john god became flesh right so now it's a paradox how can you be fully human and fully divine if you think about it for a minute how can you be human when being human means to be limited and at the same time be divine and how can you be divine which by definition means that you don't have the limitations of a human being and at the same time be human it's a paradox and that's why they call it the mystery they call it the hypostatic union which means that the personal means the personal union of Jesus is two natures the nature of being divine and the nature of being human but this leads to a theological dilemma what's the theological dilemma we believe that there's only one god and yet jesus is god one plus one equals two what do you do with that so a hundred years after the new testament was written one of the ways they tried to deal with this was with something that's called modalism which means that god exists in three modes right and this was a very popular belief at the end of the second century according to historians and basically what this means is just like i am a father i am also a son and i'm also a brother so i exist in three modes simultaneously so so too god exists in in in three modes but they had a problem with that because it doesn't highlight the distinctness of the father and the son and the holy spirit meaning to say the son is not the father and the holy spirit is not the son they're all distinct and yet they are one so they had to get rid of the modalism and modalism was branded as heresy it was tertulium who was from from the latin church he was from north africa he first coined the trinity although tertulium himself didn't agree with what is currently believed he actually believed that the son god the son was subordinate to the father and so we have the trinity but before the trinity you had or i guess better put is competing with the belief in the trinity was there was the notion that jesus was a subordinate divinity to god the father this was the view of arias who lived in alexandria egypt around the year 300 but his bishop alexander didn't agree with him and ultimately there was this conflict going on in the church world how do we understand this relationship between jesus and god and that's why constantine who wanted to have his empire united and not have all these divisions about theological issues that really are significant he called together the council of nicy and the year 325 to resolve this issue and ultimately the trinity was the solution that was considered to be orthodox and arias basically lost out what's also important to point out is that by the fourth century paganism was outlawed in the empire in the roman empire why is that significant because you need to understand any person that is somewhat spiritual or wants to be part of a religious community will ultimately settle for any religious community so long as there's something there are many jews that contact me from far flung places and they tell me that they sometimes go to churches even though they're jews because they're looking at least to be part of some kind of spiritual community that's what they want right and so this the masses of pagans joined christianity with no option and there's no doubt in my mind and this shouldn't be in anybody else's mind that their influences heavily influenced the church why do you think we celebrate December 25th do you think that's something that came out of Jerusalem i guarantee you it didn't so what is clear is that the veneration of jesus and the belief in his divinity is what came first right after his resurrection people started to venerate this leader he was above everybody else and that started a progressive um evolution of raising his divinity until they make him co-equal um with god the doctrine of the trinity is something that was developed later to justify worshiping something or someone that is distinct from god and not violate the belief in the worship of one god that's something that they had to come up with that's something that they had to concoct in order to be able to remain monotheistic and it doesn't make any sense because it's nonsensical and uh the only reason why people believe in it is because they want to hold the two opposing views simultaneously and that is that i can worship god and worship a created being simultaneously and the only way to do that is to adopt a view in the tree a belief in the trinity now something about the nature of the messiah and Judaism it is clear that the messiah will be a human being a descendant of king david as is described in the Jewish scriptures he's described as being a righteous king that will be granted special abilities to carry out his mission however this king will be an example of humility and his submission before god is something that we will follow and ultimately we're told in isael 11 that he has the fear of the lord the fear of god and so i want to really end over here with a quote from uh john jane collins who we mentioned before and he's actually uh quoting uh clausner he says the Jewish messiah no matter how noble and how spiritual is nevertheless a human being a king of flesh and blood of the house of david and is only an instrument for the great work of the god of israel the god of the universe and so what we see over here is that if there's one point one issue where Judaism and Christianity completely partways it's with regard to the issue of whom we worship and who we do not worship we never worship a human being we never worship any entity that was not commanded to us by god to worship and we do not worship someone who was not known by our fathers our forefathers everybody knows that prior to jesus's um birth no one had heard of jesus thought of jesus or worshipped him the people were in full possession of a knowledge of whom it is we are to worship and that is the same god who we worship today thank you