Terry Clemens of Ontario, Canada, sits with me again at MZTV Studios, having come to the realization that the bottom line behind the Tory position (Tory = Trinity Over-Reactors) of the non-preexistence of Christ is a lack of reverence for Christ.
I noticed this in the writings of Aaron Welch. When writing of Christ, Aaron Welch does not capitalize the pronouns of Christ, that is, the “he's“ and the “him's.“ He puts them all in small case letters. This always troubled me; it seemed to me like a demotion of Christ. I thought maybe I was making too much of it, but now Terry has verified a lack of reverence as the source of the Tory problem.
Mr. Clemens then claims that, even if the Tories had at one time believed that all came into existence through Christ, it was an easy transition for them to discard it, and they would have done so without any mourning whatsoever for the evaporation of Christ’s glories.
Mr. Clemens also makes the shocking claim—which I happen to believe—that if some ancient manuscript were discovered that eliminated Philippians 2:6–8, the Tories would celebrate. We, on the other hand, would be devastated. But would not their happiness reflect an underlying acknowledgment that this passage does exactly what Paul (and those of us who believe Paul) say it does? Why is Philippians 2:6–8 a problem for the Tory position?
It is because it upends their small view of Christ. They'd rather it wouldn't. They'd rather it didn't exist, such distress does it cause them. But since it undeniably exists in God's Word, they must spend thousands of words and hundreds of broadcast minutes positing their strange, alternate theories, in hopes of changing the plain reading—as well as changing any weak minds attending to their shenanigans.
One of the more alarming segments of THIS broadcast is when Terry Clemens pits the words of Peter Meye against the words of Paul in Philippians 2:6–8. Paul says that Jesus Christ emptied Himself of the form of God, taking the form of a slave. We call this “the pivot point.“ Peter Meye puts this pivot point at a fictional, made-up place, having developed a story/theory in his own imagination, claiming that the emptying occurred when
Jesus Christ—on earth at probably a very young age—came to the realization that he was heir to the greatest spiritual Being in the world. But rather than surrender his slavehood to become great in his own mind, he continued acting as a slave. (I am using small-case "he" and "his" here because this is not the true Christ.) This was his so-called “emptying.“ (Not once does Meye mention Christ "being inherently in the form of God", Philippians 2:6. Terry wonders if Meye—or any of the Tories—believe
Christ was EVER in the form of God).
None of the other Tories put Christ's emptying in at this point. They all put it—after much awkward shuffling among themselves—at Gethsemane.
Peter Meye made this fantastic
claim in a video with other Tories. Why didn't any of the other Tories correct him?
The Tories are at dissonance even with themselves.
At least Peter Meye called his fantastic tale “my story.“ Rightly so.
That’s all it is: a story—a despicable story, really, as it stomps on Paul’s words as an army boot might stomp upon dirt.
This is nothing less than the wisdom of God versus the wisdom of man.
As for Terry and
myself, we will take the wisdom of God over the wisdom of man any day. And we pray the same for all those who view this presentation.