May 1, 2009
Dear Friend of our Great God,
I want to personally invite you to attend the upcoming One God Seminar in Dallas, Texas, June 13 and 14 (Saturday and Sunday). This is our 8th annual seminar on the Nature of God and the first held in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It will be held at the Hilton Hotel DFW Lakes Conference center just minutes from the big DFW airport. We have arranged special rates for those wishing to stay at the hotel. See our website for full details and registration information: www.Godward.org.
I can guarantee that this will be the most educational seminar you have ever attended. Not because of any hype, theatrics, or entertainment qualities, but simply due to the subject matter itself (see below). Sure, we have a great slate of learned, able presenters filled with their subjects, but it is the subject about which they speak that enthralls. I say enthralls because the knowledge imparted in each of our previous seven seminars has inspired me and captivated my mind. It has caused me to begin thinking truly “big thoughts” and asking questions I didn’t previously even know to ask. And answers? Yes, I’m getting answers.
My experience is by no means unique. For many it has rejuvenated their Christian walk and put excitement back into studying Scripture. It has inspired and motivated people to draw near to God and enjoy a closeness to Him and his Son they never dreamed possible.
You’ll experience that the quality of fellowship matches that of the presentations. The spirit is warm, collegial and accepting. Presenters and attendees represent a variety of religious backgrounds and there is no attempt to arm-twist toward any church. The presentations are well-prepared and accompanied by papers, but it’s left to the listener to weight and decide what to accept and what to reject. We in fact encourage challenging questions and every year invite an opposing speaker or two who will formally challenge some of the One God Seminar propositions. It’s fun, and like I say, probably the most educational two days you could spend anywhere.
This year I’ve invited Dr. Michael Keas, a professor at two universities, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, and a nationally respected authority on the new science of Intelligent Design. He will be making a presentation and taking questions. This is the field of scientific study that has evolutionists worried silly and on the run. We will also hear from Sir Anthony Buzzard, leading proponent of biblical monotheism and author of several books exposing the non-biblical basis for the doctrine of the Trinity.
One the following three pages I discuss The Most Important Thing to Know and what I have concluded are the Three Big Things about the Most Important Thing. I would be interested in your ideas and response.
What Is the Most Important Thing to Know
What would you say is the most important knowledge a person can possess? I’m searching for big subjects here. Knowledge that is superior to all other categories of knowledge be they philosophy, psychology, politics, or the sciences—from medicine to biology.
If you say knowledge about God, you are absolutely right! What else compares? Before one can have a relationship with God one must have knowledge of God. Who is he? What is he like? What does he expect of me?
The quest for knowledge about God in two technical terms is: 1) Theology which come from the Greek words theos (deity) and logos (discourse). Narrowly considered, theology has to do only with the existence and nature of the divine. Broadly considered, it covers the entire range of issues concerning man’s relationship to God; 2) Theodicy which is derived from the two Greek words meaning “deity” and “justice” and refers to the attempt to justify the goodness of God in the face of the manifold evil present in the world.
According to surveys, only 1 percent of Americans declare themselves to be atheists or agnostics. Most people say they believe in a God. But here is where beliefs scatter all over the map. For most of human history people believed there must be many gods. Then, beginning with Abraham, the doctrine of one supreme God took hold and manifested in Israel’s beliefs and the Hebrew Bible. But even among the monotheistic faiths ideas of what that God is like are once again all over the map.
Plainly, God is not real for most who even admit to believing in a God. They know little about him and what he expects, and even less about his Grand Plan. Here the Evil One has done his “best work” to deceive humans about what their heavenly Father and Creator is really like. It started in Eden and persists to this day. Like Abraham, we must make it our commission to roll back the darkness and proclaim the One True God and all the glorious and beautiful truths that describe Him, his Son, and his Plan.
This is a consistent theme throughout ACD outreach media. The message sounds straightforward and simple: Preach the Kingdom of God, make plain the Plan of God, and Way of God as expressed by the two great commandments. Call upon people to repent and believe the Gospel and internalize the very nature of God with the help of God.
But that straightforward commission is easier said that carried out. The Evil One has done an effective job in perverting the Gospel and presenting contorted images of both Yahweh God and Jesus Christ and their spectacular Plan of Salvation. Far too many doctrines commonly taught in Christian churches have more in common with paganism and Plato than with Moses and Jesus. The job of true biblical education is one of restoration.
Restoring the truth means, at times, stripping away the barnacled traditions of two thousand years of religious error and corruption, and appealing to people to leave aside their theological preconceptions and approach the Scriptures with hard-fought-for objectivity. Amazingly, many are doing just that. Many are discovering the wisdom of Torah (God’s instructions), and the pure doctrines of the primitive church—the early church before the great falling away into pagan syncretism.
We have our work cut out for us.
Three Big Things
Which brings me to the “Three Big Things.” After having heard thousands of sermons and Bible studies, given well over three thousand myself, and pawed through my theological library of two thousand volumes, I’ve come to realize two things: 1) How much more there is to know; 2) What it is that is most important to know. What has become clear to me, and what I intend to devote my remaining days to researching and proclaiming is the truth about the One True God. Yes, this truth includes the Gospel, or good news of the Kingdom of God. The “of God” part is the center of it all. What about Him? What do we know of Him? What must we know of Him?
This is the trunk issue. Like branches, all doctrine, prophecy, Christian living, and devotional teachings hang from the trunk…God. They grow out from the very nature of God. We can’t fully understand them
until we understand their source. Unfortunately, many religious teachers approach the Bible backwards. They get lost in the branches and never comprehend the wholeness of the tree. I know. I spend years lost in the branches.
I have concluded that many commentators, preachers, and theologians are guilty of hermeneutical malpractice. Hermeneutics, as you know, is the study of context, presuppositions, and the rules and principles of interpretation. Hermeneutics is the task of “hearing” what the ancient text has to say. The knowledge of God has been utterly confused by the pre-understanding of “church fathers” and traditional theologians who brought their body of assumptions and attitudes to interpret the doctrine of God. They were more influenced by Plato’s pagan God-defining forms then they were by Moses, Isaiah, David, or Jesus. It is this theological, hermeneutical malpractice that needs to be challenged. We must let the biblical text speak and we must hear what it has to say about God. Hence, my three big things.
God’s Oneness: God is not a Greek metaphysical construction of three or two “persons” forming part of a mystical “Godhead.” He is not a Trinity or a Binity, but is one being, one person, the uncreated Creator, the Lord, the possessor of eternal life, and he has revealed himself as a Father to the human race created in his image. His revealed his name is Yahweh, the one who exists and causes to exist. Jesus prayed to his Father saying, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Understanding God’s oneness is critical to knowing God, obeying God, and relating to him (Deut 6:4). To know God is to want to become like him—the purpose of our existence.
God’s Openness: This is perhaps where the person of God has been most misunderstood—especially through the corrupt doctrine of predestination that blasphemes God himself. The future is partly open and partly set. The overall purposes of God are set, but the means, people, timing, and circumstances are open. Prophecy is not set in stone but can be influenced by man. God’s activity does not unfold according to some heavenly blueprint whereby all minute details must happen according to an exhaustedly predestined plan. God in his sovereign freedom has chosen to have a give-and-take relationship with human beings. What we do can affect the future and affect God. We count and God takes us into account.
The divine-human relationship is to be one of reciprocal love. God has chosen to work cooperatively with humans and in some respects has made himself dependent on humans for the achievement of his desires. The Bible describes God as changing (“repenting”) his plans in response to human interaction. God expresses emotion, is dynamically involved with his creation and is not the remote deity pictured by Protestant and Catholic doctrine. God’s heart and character are supremely manifested in the life of his Son, Jesus. The man Jesus was glorified by God, given everlasting life, and is now in the loving fellowship with this heavenly Father. Jesus is our Lord and has perfectly pointed to the future God has planned for us.
God’s Intelligent Design: God’s intelligent design is manifest in both the (a) physical creation and (b) the spiritual creation. Modern science is enthralled with its discoveries of the irreducible complexity of every aspect of both the living and inanimate creation. From the subatomic construction of the building blocks of matter to the huge order of the far-flung cosmos, there is evidence of superhuman, super-intelligent design. The new field of ID is providing the most dramatic micro and macro proof of an intelligent Designer.
Even more brilliant, in my judgment, is God’s intelligent design of his spiritual creation. God has taken a huge risk in granting mankind freedom to resist him, to oppose him, and to align with the Evil One. It too is irreducibly complex as God patiently exerts his love and goodness to overcome all resistance and evil to bring man into a relationship of reciprocal love. God’s goal is to fellowship with and share all he has with those he made in him image. How he is doing that is unbelievably amazing—exciting beyond words. The Bible is full of examples of this Divine Project.
These three big ideas define God: who he is, what he is like, and the plan that motivates all his activity. God’s goal and our goal must merge and that is The Divine Project. The biblical evidence to demonstrate these three ideas is powerful and abundant. Needless to say, this brief introduction has not supplied much of that evidence but stay tuned as ACD’s literature and media will flesh out these concepts into a lucid picture of God. I, and several of my associates, are thoroughly engaged in this research. We welcome your challenges and questions. Please request the booklet The Human-Divine Dynamic, which focuses on concept number two—Open Theism or the Openness of God.
Engage yourself in a study of these three big things and you will see God and the Bible in an entirely new light. It will draw you closer to our loving God and to his dear Son. This study is the most enthralling of my life and has forever changed my life. After fifty years as a Christian I am still a student; still moving Godward engaged in the on-going process to more fully know God. I believe knowing God is the key to all the mysteries of life.
The apostle Paul echoes the Psalms in this magnificent passage in Romans 11:33:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
Paul pleaded with believers in Colosse (Colossians 1:10):
That you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way:
bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.
I invite you to join me in growing in the knowledge of God.
Please be praying for the success of our seminar program which is committed to rolling back the veil of ignorance and deception that surrounds the knowledge of God. We can do no greater thing than to present the true picture of our great and glorious God. To truly know God is to love him; to love him is to want to become like him. The Bible is full of examples of people who have done just that—Jesus, God’s firstborn son, is chief among them.
Should not Christianity major in the majors, instead of majoring in minor doctrines and religious squabbles? Should job one be to begin with what is most important to mankind and the cosmos? And that is God, the Creator and Redeemer. We, as a small and humble ministry, want to direct our energies toward what Jesus said was with the first and greatest commandment—to love God will all our mind, emotion, and strength (Mt 22:36-38; Deut 6:4-5). That commandment presumes there is something about the Nature of our majestic God that is intrinsically and immediately loveable and would, if known, draw us to him. It is that God, in all his goodness and glory, we proclaim.
If possible, please attend our seminar in Dallas-Fort Worth. If not, please support our efforts in opening minds to the true greatness of God and his Plan. Your offerings and prayers will make a difference and produce godly fruit. Please return the Reply Form—whether attending or not—as it will mean a lot to me to hear from you.
Your friend,
Ken Westby