God in the Hands of Angry Sinners

1. The second aim is to give a succinct overview of the development of the doctrine of God in Church history, thereby presenting a window into the Christian Church’s own struggle to develop a doctrine of God.

This aim will be achieved by focusing mainly on the contribution of French Reformer John Calvin in his apologetic of the doctrine of the Trinity in contrast to the anti-Christian views presented in this work.

God in the Hands of Angry Sinners seek to fulfil this aim will by focusing mainly upon the contribution of French Reformer John Calvin in his apologetic of the doctrine of the Trinity in contrast to the anti-Christian views presented in this work.

The term cult is employed herein to define a group of people with:   

1. A common system of religious worship.
2. A devoted attachment to a person or principle, etc.
3. A sect.

The term anti-Christian cult will be used in this work to refer to individuals, groups, or movements who are either opponent’s of the Biblical Christ or to those who have created a substitute for the Biblical Christ. The name Antichrist (Gk. anti-christos) was coined by the apostle John and is found only in his letters (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7). The term is rooted in ancient Biblical prophecies concerning an evil person who will appear at history’s end to rally humanity against God. John also speaks of “many antichrists” and of a spirit of antichrist, which is to be active even before the end times (1 John 2:18; 4:3). These false teachers can be recognized by their denial of Jesus as God in the flesh. John says that such people are “deceivers” who may even masquerade as Christians but whose true character is revealed by their refusal to affirm the full deity of Jesus Christ. They are essentially teachers who wish to replace the true Jesus with a false one.

In much the same way the Jehovah’s Witnesses want to persuade us that Jesus is not God, and the Mormons would tell us that Jesus is one of many gods. The New Age movement redefines the term “Christ” to mean the divine spark in us all. So the idea of an anti-Christ as put forward by John carries the dual notions of an opponent of Christ and/or of a false Christ. The Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and various New Age groups charge the Christian church with having either an incorrect understanding of the hypostasis of Jesus (Greek noun in Christology employed to distinguish the divine and human physic, “natures”), or a deficient knowledge regarding His pre-incarnate state and the scope of his salvific work on earth. The charge, in fact, goes further to accuse the Christian church of being without God altogether.

The early Christians were charged by the Romans with being atheists (without God) because they refused to register their religion. To do so would have meant placing Jesus Christ alongside the pantheon of gods that represented the officially registered (religio illicta) religions in the Roman Empire. However, the Christians accused the Romans of being atheists for not worshipping Jesus Christ as God.

The word atheist occurs only once in the Bible in Ephesians 2 where Paul says, “You were Gentiles, you were pagans, you were without God and without hope in the world” (Ephesians 2:1ff). The word translated “without God” is atheos (Gk. a-not + theos-god). This evidence supports the idea that in New Testament times, an atheist was defined as someone who was without the living God, not someone who did not believe in God, the meaning given to this word in modern English.

The Christian church still faces the same accusation of being “without god.” However, long before books existed in English, “God” was the English name for the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. According to James I. Packer, there is “a mainstream Christian view of God, which is Biblically based, which has been held since New Testament times and from which the other views have arisen by modification or reaction."

Jesus Christ and His apostles taught a belief in God (theism) and in only one God (monotheism) who is the Triune Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This view stands in contrast to:

1. Pantheism, which identifies God with everything—good, bad, and indifferent (e.g. as represented by some New Age groups).
2. Polytheism, which sees any god as one among many (e.g. as seen in Mormonism).
3. Unitarianism, which stresses the oneness of God and denies the divinity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit (e.g. as represented by the Jehovah’s Witnesses).

This work, God in the Hands of Angry Sinners, will present an overview of the Christian church’s endeavours to articulate a doctrine of God consistent with Scripture and to explore the deviations and alternatives to the doctrine of the Trinity offered by Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the New Age movement.