CORRESPONDENCE WITH PASTOR G. REGARDING THE DEITY OF CHRIST (ODell) 5/5

FIFTH LETTER TO PASTOR G. 

Editor’s note: This is the completion of my answer regarding Pastor G’s two questions as requested on 4.10.2024. These are: 

First, “Who was present and in what form at the baptism of Jesus Christ?” 

Second, “Was there a point when the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were present simultaneously?” Dear Bro. G. We move now to work our way into Matt. 3:15-17 as promised. To get there we are going to go through I John 5:5-11 again. The reason should appear in the process. The Apostle is setting forth several evidences, by which the people of God are distinguished from the world at large, such as faith, love, and obedience. 

In verse five he asks: “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” In verse 6, John continues: “This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is truth.” Here are three, the “water,” the “blood,” and “the Spirit” that “bear witness” Christ has in fact come. Shall we automatically call them persons? Is each person separate and distinct from the other? 

If this is so, there are three persons in every human being for all men have water, spirit, and blood. Verse seven reads: “There are three that bear record in heaven; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” In verse eleven we discover what this “record” is: “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” Going back now to verse eight, John continues: “And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.” Verse 10 speaks of this “witness” again: “He that BELIEVETH on the Son hath THE WITNESS IN HIMSELF…” Please notice, that the “earth” that the water, spirit, and blood “bear witness” in, is the BELIEVER; because “he that believeth hath the witness in himself.” 

Also, as we discovered in my first letter to you, the “heaven” in which the “Father, Word, and Holy Ghost bear record” is the Gospel Church of Jesus Christ; for, “This is the record, that God hath given to US eternal life, and this life is in his Son,” verse eleven. Hence, the “eternal life” given to the US in the Son of God “is the record borne in heaven” (Vs.7); that is, in the Gospel Church called the “kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 16:19) and the scriptures contain the “record”. It is in the scripture we “think we have eternal life, and they are they, which testify” of Jesus Christ the Son of God, and the eternal life God has given unto US in Him. See John 5:36-39 noticing the number of times Christ uses the word “witness.” The word “record”, and the word “witness” are synonymous terms. Paul used the word in Rom. 10:2, “For I bear them record,” i.e., I bear them witness. “The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost bear record in heaven (the Gospel Church, or ‘kingdom of heaven’) and the scriptures contain the “record,” which testify that God has given US, who are the subjects of this heavenly kingdom, “eternal life and this life is in his Son.” 

Now, “these three are one,” i.e., one God, or one testifier. “God was manifest in the flesh,” and this very God was in Christ who “came by water and blood, and the spirit beareth witness because the Spirit is truth,” I John 5:6,8. Pause now to consider II Cor. 3:17, “The Lord is the Spirit.” And John 14:6, “I am the truth.” This same Christ is “the Word made flesh,” according to John 1:14. The FATHER was in Him. So saith my Redeemer, “The Father is in me, and I in him,” John 10:38. The SPIRIT was upon him. Hear Him again, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,” Luke 4:18. John writes: “These three are one.” Christ says, “I and my Father are one,” John 10:30. From positive scripture language we discover, that when “the Word was made flesh” the Father was in Him, and the Spirit of the Lord God was upon Him. 

We also discover the “three that bear record in heaven,” are in this ONE JESUS CHRIST who “came by water and blood” to which the “Spirit beareth witness,” I John 5:6,8. This then leads us to Matt. 3:15-17 as requested (4.15.2024). It was by “water” the Messiah was to be “manifest” to Israel. John the Baptist spoke of this particularly important matter in John 1:31. It reads, “And I knew him not: but that he should be made MANIFEST to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.” When Jesus was baptized by God’s appointed administrator, “John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode on him,” John 1:32. Then, John confessed for the second time (vs 33), “And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, THE SAME said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.” 

This is how John the Baptist was confirmed in his own mind that he had indeed administered Gospel baptism to the real Messiah. He was blessed with this confirmation by both the Spirit in the form of a dove and the voice of testimony (or witness) of the Father, saying, “This is my beloved Son,” as recorded in Matt. 3:17. In this most sublime unfolding of the public manifestation of the invisible Jehovah in the visible God-Man, the Father was in him, and the Spirit was upon him to “bear record” (as in I John 5:7) to the senses of John, that this was in fact the Messiah, King of the saints, as prophesied. In consequence of this spiritual confirmation to John, he could testify before the world at large and for us to read, “I saw, and bare record THAT THIS IS THE SON OF GOD,” John 1:34. Here are the “three that bear record in heaven,” in the one person of JESUS CHRIST, who was manifested to John and Israel at Christ’s own Gospel baptism. By His “blood,” He redeemed His Church, and the Spirit “beareth witness” in the Church. That is, in the visible earthen vessels in the body of it, for “He that BELIEVETH on the Son of God hath THE WITNESS IN HIMSELF,” I John 5:10. Hence, the “water, the Spirit, and the blood, bear witness in the earth,” I John 5:8. Paul spoke to this same spiritual witnessing in Heb. 10:22. It reads, “Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” 

It is by the power of this inward confirmation the saints are blessed to “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” BEAUTIFUL! Again, in I Cor. 6:11 he expresses, “But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” Peter sounds off in a similar fashion speaking to the “elect strangers…according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,” I Pet. 1:1-2 in part. So then, we discover the “blood” witnesses to the believing child of God his pardon and justification. And the “Spirit” witnesses in quickening the soul and applying to it both the cleansing “water” and the atoning “blood.” Therefore, “these three agree in one” GOD IN CHRIST whose divine Spirit quickens them, washes them with water by the Word, and justifies them by His blood. In both passages of Scripture (I John 5:5-11 and Matt. 3:13-17) we find the OPERATIONAL REVELATION of the “fullness of the Godhead” dwelling “BODILY” in Jesus Christ. See Col. 2:9. I find nothing at all to support a Tri-personal Godhead. Whereas I do find the Invisible and Incomprehensible God to be “manifest in the flesh” of the “one God, and one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus,” I Tim. 2:5. I will now attempt to answer your two questions in order: 

First: “Who was present and in what form at the baptism of Jesus Christ?” Answer: The one true and living God was present as GOD IN CHRIST. Certainly not as described by such God-honoring expressions as God in the first person, or God in the second person, or worst yet, God in the third person. Such expressions based on inference and implication are calculated to present the existence of God to a view wherein God exists in different relations and/or gradations necessitated by an overheated zeal to support a particular Romish Puritanized system of Soteriology requiring a contract of agreement. As God said to Job, so it may be said to such zealots: “Who is this that darkeneth counsel with words without knowledge?” See Job 38:2. Further, it is the Man-Christ who commands His disciples to baptize “in the NAME, (not names) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” See Matt. 28:19. 

Second: “Was there a point when the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were present simultaneously?” Answer: Yes, as GOD IN CHRIST. Please see the above answer and all precedent letters to date. In closing, it has been my joy to serve you in this way. I am grateful for the opportunity to attempt to express what has become to me a most sacred ground to stand upon. That is, the true Divinity of Jesus Christ as set forth by Himself and the apostles. I will leave you with two verses to consider while meditating upon this most holy of doctrines. Phil. 2:5-6 in part: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” Col. 2:8-10: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, AFTER THE TRADITION OF MEN, after the rudiments of the world, and not after CHRIST. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the GODHEAD BODILY. And ye are complete in him, which is the HEAD OF ALL PRINCIPALITY AND POWER.” Be assured of my best wishes for the highest good in your soul. 

Feel free to address me if so led by our sweet Redeemer King. 

I shall remain, 

Dan O’Dell, A debtor to mercy if my heart does not deceive me. 

Weslaco, TX 4.25.2024 

END TO DATE 4.27.2024 

Editor’s note: It is now 5.01.2-24. I have not had a reply from Pastor G..

New Vernon, N. Y., June 1, 1840, 

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