I have watched 'Tomorrow's World' from The Living Church of God, twice recently. There are some good concepts, but I am somewhat familiar with the source.
The Living Church of God
Cited
'The Living Church of God (LCG) is one of hundreds of groups that formed after the death of the late Herbert W. Armstrong, when major doctrinal changes (causing turmoil and divisions) were occurring in the former Worldwide Church of God (WCG) especially during the 1990s. The LCG was formed in December 1998 and is an offshoot organization of the Global Church of God (GCG), which formed in December 1992.
The Living Church of God is one of multifarious Sabbatarian Churches of God church groups that have sprung up from the former WCG, known today as Grace Communion International (GCI). And even from the LCG organization itself, several other split-off groups have resulted, each one of which is headed by a former LCG minister.'
Cited
'After Armstrong died, WCG began to change many of its core doctrines, a process that brought the organization into the mainstream of Evangelical Christianity. However, many members objected, and hundreds of splinter groups arose as a result.[1]'
Doctrines include:
Cited
'Christians should observe the biblical seventh-day Sabbath.' Sabbatarianism. 'Certain laws should be adhered to by Christians today, including the "dietary laws", mentioned in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14:3–21, delineating which animals may be eaten.'
This in my view is a failure to understand that the new covenant carries over the moral and ethical views of the Hebrew Bible, but is not an identical covenant to the old covenant with the same practices. Non-exhaustive references:
Luke 22:20 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.
Hebrews notes the Old Covenant is obsolete
Hebrews 8:13 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
13 [a]When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is [b]ready to disappear.
'British Israelism: The belief that the Anglo-American people are descended from the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel and are the possessors of the birthright promises and accompanying blessings of Abraham’s descendants, through his grandson Jacob.'
This view would require greater scientific documentation in support.
And the main doctrine that interested me in the context of this website entry:
Cited
'Binitarianism: The belief that there is a two-person Godhead, consisting of God the Father and God the Son (also called The Word). The Holy Spirit is "not a Being", and is considered "the very essence, the mind, life, and power of God".'
Binitarianism
'Binitarianism is a Christian theology of two persons, personas, or two aspects in one substance/Divinity (or God). Classically, binitarianism is understood as a form of monotheism — that is, that God is absolutely one being; and yet with binitarianism there is a "twoness" in God, which means one God family. 'While binitarianism is sometimes used self-descriptively,[1] it is also used to denote Christian error or heresy[2]...'
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I do not see significant biblical reasons for holding to Binitarianism. As in 'The Holy Spirit is "not a Being"...'
In Acts 5 it states:
New American Standard Bible:
5 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s [a]full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not [b]under your control? Why is it that you have [c]conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”
Lying to the Holy Spirit is equated to lying to God.
⊃ = means the same as
G (God) ⊃ H (Holy Spirit)
G ⊃ H
Matthew 28: 19-20 states that disciples are to make more disciples in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
France writes:
'It has been argued that these words were not part of the original text of Matthew, since Eusebius regularly in his pre-Nicene works quotes Matthew 28: 19 in the shorter form 'Go and make disciples of all nations in my name', but the fact that no extant manuscript of Matthew has this reading suggests that this was Eusebius' own abbreviation than a text he found in existing manuscripts' (415).
Ellison contrasts this by stating it should be interpreted: 'More literally 'into the name', i.e. as the possession of.' (1154). If this interpretation, which would need manuscript evidence (In agreement with France), was correct, it would not negate the Holy Spirit as God. There is no good New Testament reason, in my opinion, to reject trinitarian doctrine.
On what basis is the 'Helper' (NASB) from the Gospel of John, the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, anything other than God? Biblically, there appears no other spiritual (can apprehend God) ontological entities other than God, angelic beings, Satan, demonic beings and human beings. If the Holy Spirit is simply the Spirit of the Father and/or Son, why is this not made clear in the New Testament? Why is it (he) is differentiated as God, yet distinct from God the Father and God the Son?
ELLISON, H. L (1986) 'Matthew' in The New International Bible Commentary, Marshall Pickering/Zondervan, Grand Rapids.
FRANCE, R.T. (1985)(2001) Matthew, IVP/Eerdmans, Grand Rapids.
