“The word Trinity isn’t even in the Bible.” Sometimes it amazes me a little that after 1700 years, people still debate the deity of Christ and the Trinity. It should be settled doctrine by now. Yet the arguments go on.
I want to look at the passage that I think most clearly teaches the Trinity. Not the deity of Christ. Not the personhood of the Spirit. The Trinity. The whole shebang.
We talked about the need for Christians to be the best they can be at what they do. That’s always true, but doubly so when living in Babylon. The truth is, though, it’s not going to help us avoid persecution. Our Lord deserves and requires that we serve him by doing our best in everything. Anything less than our best will dishonor the gospel and draw criticism from people who disapprove of us. But being our best may also draw attacks.
As we continue our Lessons from Babylon, we’ll look at how being the best drew targets on Daniel and the other faithful Jews.
CS Lewis reminded us to read the old books along with the new ones. The generations who went before us have a lot to teach us, and it’s not uncommon to come across something that seems like it could have been written today. Such as this:
When I was younger my favorite comics were the X-Men comics. Their mission was to “defend a world that fears and hates them.” Because they were an unpopular minority — “mutants” — the X-Men had to hold themselves to higher standards. They wouldn’t be given the same slack as other heroes. Any mistakes they made would not only affect them but how the public viewed all mutants.
Christians in Babylon will find themselves in a similar situation. Our mission is to save a world that fears and hates us. And any mistakes will not only be given no grace, they will color how everyone who knows you views Christians. For our next Lesson from Babylon, let’s look at how Daniel responded to that situation.
There are many passages that are supposed to be prophecies about Jesus that, when read in their context in the Old Testament, sure don’t seem to be about Jesus. Even the ones that kind of sound like Jesus, how do we know that’s what the prophecy was really about? It’s not just skeptics who ask these questions; believers do, too. It’s the latter I want to address. Skeptics will not be convinced by anything we can say, but to doubting believers we can offer one simple explanation.
What made the apostles think these passages applied to Jesus? Jesus.
