The true confession

I greet all of you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ with the Word from Matthew 16:16, the true confession of the Apostle Peter, which, by revelation, shall also be given to each one of us,

“And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”
(Mt. 16:16-17).

At first the question was presented in general, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” Various answers were given. Then the Master asked His disciples, “But whom say ye that I am?” By inspiration the answer came promptly, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter’s confession was not the result of a synod or of what people were saying, but it was a direct revelation which he had received from God. Thereupon lies the blessing. Please, observe, it does not just state, “Thou art the Son of God.” but “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Only as the Anointed One, as the Christ is He the Son of God.

In the Christian churches the Nicean-Calcedonian creed is being upheld as the “apostolic” confession even until today, which, however, has no connection to the apostles. In fact, it could not possibly be connected to the apostles, because it was conjured up a few centuries later (between ad 325 and 381). Since that time the trinity doctrine and the baptism in the triune formula have been the main pillars of the church, which came into existence since Constantine in the Roman Empire. Yet precisely these two pillars are not built upon the Rock, but on sand. Therefore it cannot be said that they are, “… built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets …”, for they were not known to the apostles. Solely this revelation of Jesus Christ, as the Lord then told Peter/Petros, is the Rock/Petra upon which He has built His Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Only the person who receives the same revelation from God has the true, complete confession of faith which God Himself made known to Peter, the apostles, and to the New Testament Church from the very beginning. The Church of Jesus Christ is only obligated to the Bible and can only believe what and as the Scripture says, namely that the one true and eternal God revealed Himself for our salvation as Father in heaven, in His only begotten Son on earth, and by the Holy Spirit in the Church. At this time we shall not delve any further into this subject, we do, however, wish to briefly touch upon the true confession of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Since the days of the Reformation the question about who the anti-christ is has become an important issue within the Christian world. People are generally of the opinion that the antichrist has to be searched for and found outside of Christendom. They claim that, “whosoever confesses Jesus as the Son of God is of God.” This explanation does not reach the core of the true confession, it is not complete. We have to carefully read what is actually written in the Holy Scriptures and thereby separate what “confession” the church fathers derived from it and interpreted as creed. The false confession can be as close to the real thing as a counterfeit bill, which someone can pass on without knowing that it is a forgery.

In 1. John 4 we find the statement which is typically being referred to, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” That is preceded by 1. John 2:22, “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.” It is about the all-inclusive confession of Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, the Christ, the Son of God. 

Whoever reads attentively will realize that this is not about simply paying lip service to something, but about the fundamental revelation of who Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, really is, for the Church is built upon this revelation. In this context it is helpful to know that the Hebrew Name of the Redeemer is Yahshua. The angel said to Mary, “And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his Name JESUS/Yahshua.”, which is synonymous with “Yahweh-Saviour”, just like Immanuel means “God with us”. Yahweh is the revealed covenant Name of God in the Old Testament. Thus saith the Lord, “I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the Name of God Almighty, but by my Name YAHWEH/Elohim was I not known to them.” (Ex. 6:3). In the New Testament it states, “God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit …” (1. Tim 3:16). Yahweh/the Lord Himself came to us as Yahshua. Yahweh of the Old Testament is Yahshua of the New Testament. This is the New Testament Name of the Lord, in Whom alone is full salvation. As Christ/the Anointed One He appeared in the flesh and became our Redeemer. The Scripture testifies thereof, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11). In Genesis 18 the Lord visited His servant Abraham in human form and ate and drank with him. In John 8:58 Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”

The Word of God further testifies, “… and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” (1. Cor. 12:3). He, Whom we know as the Son of God, is the Word Himself, which was with God at the beginning – the Logos, the One who spoke all things into existence: Through Him and unto Him all things were created. Even though He was manifested as the Son in the flesh, He remains the Lord, the I am – the same yesterday, today, and for ever. The Lord became servant, He became one of us. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. In the Son of God all sons and daughters of God received their redemption and the adoption of sons (Gal. 4:5; Heb. 2:10-11; John 20:17; a. o.).

A superficial confession of Jesus as Son of God is something that the antichrist, all false prophets, and even the demons have. In regards to Jesus this is said of them, “And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?” (Matt. 8:29).

Mark, the evangelist, also reported of someone who was possessed, “But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.” The possessed individual even said the Name of Jesus.

The evangelist Luke wrote about the same incident, so that we have three witnesses, “When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high?”

Which one of the theologians or preachers would say that the possessed or, more precisely, the demons were of God, simply because they confessed Jesus as Son of God? In Christianity they are all confessing Jesus as “Son of God”, but in an entirely different manner:

Some believe, for instance, that God as Father has begotten and born the Son in eternity. However, such a Son of God does not exist in the Holy Scriptures.

Others believe that the Son is the firstborn in the work of creation. A testimony about such a Son of God also cannot be found in the Scriptures.

Certain people believe that in the Old Testament the Son was the archangel Michael, who took on a bodily form in the New Testament. There is no such Son of God.

The following is an excerpt from a catechism, “…  God’s Son, born of the Father before all time: God from God, light from light, true God from the true God, begotten, not created, of one nature with the Father …” This church creed is as far away from the Holy Scriptures as heaven is from earth.

There are several more variations of these “son-confessions”, which are altogether unbiblical. Only the testimonies we find in the Bible are indeed biblical. Throughout the entire time span of the Old Testament, beginning with Gen. 3:15 up to Mal. 3:1, the Son of God is announced as the Redeemer, as the Christ, the Messiah. In the New Testament we have the report about Him from His birth until His ascension, “And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his Name JESUS … Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Not once does the Holy Scripture say that the Father had born a Son in heaven who then became the Son on earth. That is an invention of the church fathers, who neither knew God nor recognised the manifestation of the Father in the Son. They did not convert to Christ, but instead, as confirmed by church history, they turned to and accepted Christianity.

The Holy Scripture testifies in the predictive prophecy of the Old Testament about the Son of God, “I will declare the decree: the Lord (YAHWEH) hath said unto me, Thou [art] my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” (Psalms 2:7). Also see Acts 13:33 and Heb. 5:5. Eternity does not know a today or a tomorrow, it has no beginning. Eternity has always been and will be for ever. David said in Psalms 90, “… from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” Only those who have received eternal life can and will live for ever. “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1. John 5:11-12).

The Father-Son relationship was already predicted in the Old Testament as well, “I will be his father, and he shall be my son.” (2. Sam. 7:14; 1. Chr. 17:13). In Psalms 89:26-27 we read, “He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.”

The prophet Isaiah announced the birth of the Son as follows, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his Name Immanuel.” Through the prophet Micah was predicted where the Son was to be born, namely in Bethlehem in Judea (chapter 5).

Every Bible reader knows the reports of the evangelists Matthew and Luke about the birth of the Son of God. The Son was begotten by the Father and born by Mary, the mother. In Psalms 22:10-11 it says, “But thou art he that took me out of the womb … thou art my God from my mother’s belly.”

This is the testimony of the Son, “… If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God …” (John 8:42).

“… For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world ...”

“Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.” (John 16:26-33).

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

“I have manifested thy Name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world …”

“… For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee …” (John 17).

Only if we believe the biblical confession as Peter received it by divine revelation and only if we leave the Scriptures pertaining to this subject the way they are written, only then can the Spirit of God reveal unto us this incomprehensible mystery, “… God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself …” (2. Cor. 5). Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gives the rightful testimony of Himself only in the Bible.

Therefore there is not a single statement therein about the “eternal Son”, only the “everlasting Father”!

Not once does it say anything in the Bible about “God the Son”, but only “Son of God”.

Not a single time do we find the words “God the Holy Spirit”, but only the “Spirit of God”.

Not even once is the term “triune God” found in the Bible, but it always speaks of “only one God”.

Nobody was commanded in the Bible to pray, “Our Son who art in heaven …” Instead we are to direct our thanksgiving to God the Father through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  

To make it perfectly clear: None of the things that are written about this subject in church textbooks are found in the Bible and nothing of what is written in the Bible about it can be found in church textbooks. These are harsh words. Who will hear them?

Whosoever does not respect the Word of God with all his heart will never receive this revelation, and this is how it is, “… and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” (Mt. 11:27).

Herewith we wish to wrap up this subject for today. Our Lord and Redeemer is shown to us in the corresponding contexts as “Son of Abraham”, “Son of David”, “Son of God”, and “Son of Man”; also as Lamb of God, as Mediator, as Advocate, King, Priest, and Prophet. It is important that we leave everything where it is written and in the context in which it was left to us. All things must remain in the divine order. May the faithful God lead all of us by His Spirit into all the Truth and, as with Peter and the early Church, let us know by divine revelation who Jesus Christ, the Son of God, truly is.