Subject: Is the Bible filled with TRUTH? |
Bible Note: I am sorry that your pastor has chosen to deny the Lord Jesus by denying His words. Here is what the Greek scholars say about the passage where Jesus promised the thief on the croos that he would be with Him that day in Paradise: (as you can see, the King James does translate that verse acurately.) A. T. Robertson wrote : Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise (Semeron met' emou esei en toi paradeisoi). However crude may have been the robber’s Messianic ideas Jesus clears the path for him. He promises him immediate and conscious fellowship after death with Christ in Paradise which is a Persian word and is used here not for any supposed intermediate state; but the very bliss of heaven itself. ------------------- your paster's other statment about 'My Father and I are one' meaning that they are like one just shows that he does not know his Greek. He is just rejecting the truth of God's word to fit his own unbelief. Again the Greek scholars verify that the KJV translated THAT verse accuratly: One (hen). Neuter, not masculine (heis). Not one person (cf. heis in Gal 3:28), but one essence or nature. ... The Pharisees had accused Jesus of making himself equal with God as his own special Father (Joh 5:18). Jesus then admitted and proved this claim (Joh 5:19-30). Now he states it tersely in this great saying repeated later (Joh 17:11, Joh 17:21). Note hen used in 1Co 3:3 of the oneness in work of the planter and the waterer and in Joh 17:11, Joh 17:23 of the hoped for unity of Christ’s disciples. This crisp statement is the climax of Christ’s claims concerning the relation between the Father and himself (the Son). They stir the Pharisees to uncontrollable anger. ---- I like what John Gill had to say : I and my Father are one. Not in person, for the Father must be a distinct person from the Son, and the Son a distinct person from the Father; and which is further manifest, from the use of the verb plural, "I and my Father", åóìåí, "we are one"; that is, in nature and essence, and perfections, particularly in power; since Christ is speaking of the impossibility of plucking any of the sheep, out of his own and his Father's hands; giving this as a reason for it, their unity of nature, and equality of power; so that it must be as impracticable to pluck them out of his hands, as out of his Father's, because he is equal with God the Father, and the one God with him. |