The "Psychic Prison" is a metaphor used to describe how people become trapped by familiar thought pattens, and this phenomenon is evident in the recent exchange between Pastor Rick Farwell (of the Pauline Church of Christ), and Don Bast (of Grand Rapids Bible Fellowship.)
Pastor Rick Farwell wrote:
...are you saying that for the cause of peace and "not rocking the boat" we should be quiet and submit to Concordant Orthodoxy? My concern is that we are more concerned with lack of harmony than with lack of study, and that we become just like all other organizations, reverring our former teachers but not following their example of persuing the truth.
Mr. Bast rightly opposses the teaching that Jesus and His Father are one and the same person, and quoted many scriptures to prove that a personal relationship exists between them.
Mr. Farwell rightly believes that Jesus is God, and quoted many scriptures that clearly prove that.
They both seem unable (or unwilling) to believe that God is more than one "person."
That would be getting too close to the doctrine of the Trinity, which they've both already rejected.
Mr. Bast is an Arian (who believes that Christ was created), and Mr. Farwell is a Modelist (who believes that Father and Son are just interchangable hats that God wears.)
Each of them can see that the other's Christeology is contradicted by scripture, but neither can see the true solution.
The teaching of scripture is that there is one *God (Deut. 6:4), who's name implies self existence (Ex. 3:14), and who will not share His name with another (Isa. 42:8.)
Jesus clearly used this name in a way that would be unlawful for any creature to use it (John 8:58.)
After His resurrection, His followers called Him God, and He accepted their worship (John 20:28.)
Mr. Farwell has pointed all this out, and it's stirred a hornet's nest in the Concordant Community--but what he fails to see (and what others have rightly pointed out) is that scripture clearly shows a personal relationship existing between the Father and the Son:
And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. (John 17:5.)
but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.... (John 14:31.)
The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. (John 3:35.)
Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. (Acts 2:33.)
These scriptures show this relationship to have existed "before the world began," to have existed while Christ was on earth, and to exist now.
Though scripture shows that the Son owes his existence to the Father (John 6:57), it also says that "without him nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:3.)
This is why the Church Fathers of the third and fourth centuries rightly concluded that He was not a creature, but the eternally generated Son of God the Father.
Mr. Bast points out that Jesus had a God, and Mr. Farwell points out that He is God.
Both quote scripture, and this is why the ancient Church rightly confessed Him to be "fully God and fully man."
Scripture nowhere calls him a creature, nor does it say that He was created at a point in time, or that He and His Father are the same "person" (and Revelation 3:14 should be translated "the chief of God's creation," as it is in Young's Literal Translation of the Bible.)
The real problem with heretical movements is one of pride.
They not only want to be separate from the larger Christian community, they want to think of themselves as better (and this spiritual pride prevents them from accepting any truth that has not been taught by one of their own.)
* Note: The word "Elohim" (Hebrew for "God," and used in Deut. 6:4) is plural.
It is usually used with singular verbs and adjectives, but with these notable exceptions:
Then God (Elohim) said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." (Gen. 1:26.)
And the LORD God (HaShem Elohim) said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." (Gen. 3:22.)
The word translated "one" in Deut. 6:4 is “echad.”
Echad is a Hebrew word that views individuals as a unit--a bunch of grapes are echad, but each grape by itself is not echad.
With the words "Elohim" and "echad," scripture shows God to be a transpersonal unity.
Return Home
The Timelessness of God and the Deity of Christ
On The Personality of The Holy Spirit
The Origin and fate of Satan
And
The Problem with the Concordant Method