A Documented Exposé of a Massive Deception
Part Twelve – Peter’s Revelation from the Father
“13Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” 14They said, “Some say John the Baptizer, some, Elijah, and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15He said to them, “But who do you say that I am? ” 16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.” (Matthew 16:13-19).
This is “the” true revelation that comes from God the Father. Unlike others, it did not come from man, meaning, it did not come from philosophizing or human reasoning. Peter’s confession here was completely different than the concept of a preexistent deity incarnating as a man.
As we have seen in previous parts, every word of the Trinity confession came from paganism one way or another. In this part we are going to expose that every word of Peter’s confession in verse 16 is negated by Incarnation doctrines like the Trinity.
Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Here are the three main concepts that Incarnation doctrines like the Trinity negate:
1. Peter said, “you are”. He did not say, “your human nature is.”
2. Peter said, “you are the Christ.” This explicitly means someone who is anointed by God, thus never, ever pertains to God Himself who does the anointing.
3. Peter said, “You are the son of God.” The term “son of God” comes directly from God’s sworn oath that Messiah would be the offspring of David.
Let’s look at each of these individually.
1.Peter said, “you are”.
The Trinity view literally negates the very first two words “you are” in Peter’s confession. That’s because “you are” does not mean, “your human nature is.”
I imagine a lot of people don’t realize that in the official Trinity view, Jesus does not have a “human personality” , he only has a deific one, and his humanity is something he possesses rather than who he is.
For example…
“The logos is the rational mind of Christ… Therefore there is only one person in Christ. There is not a human person. There is no man Jesus of Nazareth who is a human person…” Dr. William Lane Craig, https://www.youtube.com/live/3o9b_r0ReCk?feature=share
Recall what we learned about “logos”? If one thinks in Old Testament terms, they would translate “logos” as simply word. But, if one thinks in pagan philosophical terms, it means the “universal principle” at work in everything. This exposes that Dr. Craig has been spoiled by philosophy.
Compare his statement to Acts 2:22…
“Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as you yourselves know” (Acts 2:22).
Think about that. Does “a man approved of God” mean “an inanimate human nature approved of God”? No, not at all. James wrote…
“For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:26).
Therefore, the flesh, which is the “human nature” is, biblically speaking, an inanimate object on its own. Thus, by stripping Jesus of human personality, Trinitarianism preaches a different Christ than the apostles proclaimed him to be. What they are positing is “God in sheep’s clothing” rather than a wolf. But either way it is still deceptive to pass oneself off as someone other than who they are.
Dr. Craig’s position is not his personal, one-off opinion. He is expressing official Trinity dogma. Following is another Trinitarian explaining how they negate the human personality of Jesus Christ for the sake of the Trinity…
“Jesus did not pretend to be human—He possessed real human nature. The word enhypostasis is used to denote this fact. En- means the same as the English word in—Jesus was really “in” human nature and was a real human person. So, by using the word enhypostasis, theologians are saying that Jesus did possess real human personhood, but that it could not stand alone (as His divine nature could and did). Jesus added to His divine nature and person, and what was added was a real human nature, not a human person. In the end, Jesus has two natures, but -He is only one person—He is the same person that He has been from all eternity, but He has –added a human nature to His pre-existing divine nature.”
https://www.gotquestions.org/enhypostasis-anhypostasis.html (Gotquestions.org, What are enhypostasis and anhypostasis?)
See also Philip Schaff, https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc3.iii.xii.xxvi.html
Did you notice the statement, “could not stand alone”? That’s the admission that the human nature they assign to Jesus is a lifeless body that is animate only by his deific person. It isn’t a human soul through which Jesus thinks and moves, it is by the person of his deity that he does so, according to the Trinity dogma.
Ask yourself: From where do we get our personality? Is it from our inanimate flesh or from our soul and spirit? Which animates our flesh? As we read above from James, biblically it is our soul that animates our body.
Scripture clearly says that Jesus was obligated to be made like us in all things which means he had to have a human personality just like us…
“Therefore, he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17).
A dead body has ceased from sin. Therefore, it isn’t our inanimate flesh that is ultimately responsible for causing us to sin, it is the soul that animates us that is.
“Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16).
“Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness” (Romans 6:16).
“Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine. The soul who sins, he shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4).
An inanimate body simply cannot either transgress or obey the law.
Thus, in the Trinity deception, Jesus merely possessing a “human nature,” and not being a human person, is devastating to the biblical explanations of Jesus. For one, his temptations and overcoming of them is rendered a complete and utter sham. To the contrary, the Bible says that Jesus Christ was tempted in all points just like we are tempted…
“For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)
This says Jesus was tempted like we are (not like some who tried to tempt God). All Christians know very well what it is like for us to be tempted. But God cannot be tempted…
“13Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14But each one is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. 15Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and the sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death” (James 1:13–15).
Notice that it says each one is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed. When Trinitarians say that Jesus’ personality comes from God, they are denying that Jesus, in his person, could be tempted the way we are tempted in our person. And that negates the very reason he was tempted, so he could have compassion on us in our temptations…
“17Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. 18For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted” (Hebrews 2:14–18).
The Greek “péponthen autós” [“he himself”] here explicitly states that he personally experienced temptation. This is speaking of his very person, not merely his “human nature.” (Keep in mind that no Scripture describes Jesus as distinct between a mythological “deific” nature in contrast to a “human” nature. Such an idea is as artificial and man-made as the Trinity is). This Scripture totally refutes the false notion that Jesus was personally God but was only tempted as to his human nature.
The truth of the matter is that by denying Jesus his human self, people cheapen what Jesus did as a man by conceiving of him instead as “God incarnate.” At the same time, it minimizes what God did in foreknowing that this particular man would be “the one” and thereby also minimizes the act of God elevating and exalting what Jesus did as a man.
If Jesus were a God-man, who derived his “personhood” from his deity, there is simply no possible way he could have even been tempted, let alone either sin or fail. Furthermore, if only God incarnate as a man could keep God’s commandments, then God that would make God unrighteous for condemning anyone for not living up to what was impossible. And that is the goal of the devil, to make God look bad and evil, and thus no better than anyone else. He accomplishes that goal in the minds of those who make Jesus an incarnation of God. But not in truth. It’s just a deception. A massive deception.
We said all that just to show how devastating it is to remove the words “you are” out of Peter’s confession, “you are the Christ, the son of God.”
Next let’s look at the word “Christ.”
Peter said, “you are the Christ…” That is to say, “You are the anointed one.” Which is to say, you are a man whom God has chosen, enabled, and authorized.
The Hebrew word for Messiah (mashiyach) and the Greek word for Christ (christos) are completely synonymous words. In both cases, Hebrew and Greek, the root words literally mean “to anoint with oil.” The verb for “Messiah” in the OT means “to be anointed” (mishchah, Strong’s H#4888). It comes from the root word anoint (mashach, Strong’s H#4886). Strong’s Bible Dictionary says it is an “unction (the act); by implication, a consecratory gift.” This latter notion of a gift very clearly and specifically means that something has been granted or given to the one being anointed.
So then, in the original languages, the words for “Christ” and “Messiah” clearly described the one who is “given” authority. This definition completely harmonizes with Jesus’s statement that…
“…All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18).
Which stands in stark contrast to God who gave him that authority. Since the word “Christ” means that authority was given to him, to claim that Jesus is God incarnate is to literally negate the meaning of the word Christ from Peter’s confession.
The same is true for the title “son of God.” God defined who his son would be to David through the prophet Samuel…
“12When your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. 13He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14I will be his father, and he shall be my son” (2 Samuel 7:8–14).
This promise from and definition by God is what Peter was referring to when he said, “You are… the son of God.” That is to say, from a Jewish perspective, “you are the promised son of David, king of the Jews.” This is the same context in calling Jesus “the Anointed One” (Christ) just like all kings were anointed, and all kings in the lineage of David were sons of God representing the nation of Israel.
“20I have found David, my servant. I have anointed him with my holy oil… 26He will call to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation!’ 27I will also appoint him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth” (Psalm 97:20, 26-27).
Jesus proclaimed exactly that!
“Jesus said to her, ‘Don’t touch me, for I haven’t yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brothers, and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17).
According to Jesus, God the Father is Jesus’ God and Father in the exact same way, and in the exact same context, in which the Father is our God and Father. This couldn’t be any clearer. In fact, this was according to a sworn oath from God.
“Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ” (Acts 2:30–31). See also Psalm 89:3-4, 35-36, 132:11.
Why do people want to believe that man-made definitions and doctrines trump God’s sworn oath? God’s sworn oath was originally captured in the passage in 2 Samuel quoted earlier…
“12When your days are fulfilled… I will set up your offspring after you, who will proceed out of your body… 14I will be his father, and he will be my son…” (2 Samuel 7:8, 14).
It is this son of God that Trinitarian negate out of Peter’s confession. Trinitarians should be shocked that the Trinity doctrine changes this to be some deity that was supposedly an “eternally begotten son.” God’s promise to David completely refutes that imagination.
The “future tense” grammar in this promise has to do with a future in “time.” This isn’t deep. It isn’t mysterious. It isn’t shrouded in unfathomable mystery. It is a simply stated truth in the Bible. And it is emphasized by the fact that it is one of the few places in the Bible where God (who cannot lie in any way) swore with an oath that it would come to pass. And yet, even still, some people have a hard time believing God’s sworn oath without adding to it or diminishing from it.
So, by deceptively changing the meanings of the words, the Trinitarian “confession” literally negates every word of the confession of Peter that Jesus said was a revelation he received from God the Father! What a brazen example of teaching God’s people to “eat things sacrificed to idols” by adopting pagan categories of thought in place of biblical ones!
In the next part, we shall focus on the son of God who was a man born in the process, or “fulness”, of time.
