Vi behöver inte tycka lika för att tycka om varandra. Det är ett enkelt påstående som verkar vara väldigt svårt för en del svenskar. I Svenska kyrkan är det just nu något som verkar vara väldigt svårt att förstå. Kritik mot oklar teologi kring ärkebiskopsvalet anklagas för att handla om rasism och islamofobi. Att den önskan om tydlighet om Jesus som givits uttryck för på nätet skulle stå i motsats till en god dialog med just muslimer. Det är naturligtvis humbug. Tanken att vi ska kunna tycka olika och ändå kunna existera tillsammans är själva essensen av vad tolerans handlar om. Det är inte svårare än att skilja på sak och person. Låt oss inte präglas av rädsla utan av glädjen över vår uppståndne Frälsare och låt oss älska våra medmänniskor oavsett deras åsikter!
Vad gäller teologi och att vi alla tror på samma Gud, så vill jag här förmedla ett längre citat om invändningar mot enheten i Treenigheten från Fancis Piepers första bok i serien Christian Dogmatics, sidangivelse kan jag inte, citatet finns 67% in i boken i Kindle-appen.
Objections to the Unity of the Godhead
The First Objection: In His sacerdotal prayer, Christ addresses the Father as “the only
true God” (John 17:3) and
thereby disclaims essential equality with the Father (ho moousia). Answer: The fact is
that Christ very emphatically claims nothing less than this essential equality. In John 10:30
3) He
declares in unmistakable words
that there is absolute unity of essence between Him and the
Father. Any other interpretation of these words is out of the
question, because Christ makes
this statement to prove that it is as impossible to pluck the sheep out of His hand as out of the
Father's. But if Christ claims unity of essence with the Father, why does He demand in John 17:3 that men must know not only the Father, but that in
distinction from, and in addition
to, the Father they must also
know the Son? The answer is
found in the immediate context. First (in v. 2), Christ claims unity of essence with the Father
by ascribing to Himself the
divine work of giving eternal life.
Second, the real scope of John 17
is to answer the practical
question how men can come to
the saving knowledge of the one
true God. And Christ answers
this question when He says: “I
have glorified Thee on earth” (v.
4); “I have manifested Thy name unto men” (v. 6); “I have given
them Thy Word” (v. 14). In other words, the “only true God” is revealed only in the incarnate
Son of God, whom the Father
has sent (v. 4). Christ is the only way by which men can come to
the Father (John 14:6-11). Accordingly, it is not sufficient
for salvation to know the Father,
but men must also know the Son
if they would be saved. Luthardt
is essentially correct when he says: “Men can find life only in
God, who has revealed Himself as the God of our salvation only
in Christ. Hence He is not the only true God to the exclusion of
Jesus Christ, as Arians,
Socinians, and Rationalists
teach"21 In a masterful way
Luther shows that the Arians
pervert Christ's words (John 17:3) "as though Christ excluded
Himself and ascribed the deity only to the Father.” The Arians
press the word “only,” superficially look at the text, and ignore the context entirely. They refuse
to see that Christ “makes our salvation dependent on knowing
both the Father and the Son and makes of the two one knowledge.” Luther continues: “These words [John 17:3] are most
powerfully directed against the
Arians and all heretics, Jews, and unchristians, who claim to
believe, and pride themselves on
believing, in only one God, who made heaven and earth, and on account of that article condemn us Christians as people setting up another God. For He [Christ] means to indicate that they do not know the right, true God,
though they think so and boast of it; for they do not discover Him as the one He is, nor do
they know how they must learn
to know Him, namely, that He is
this one true God who has sent
Jesus Christ. Which amounts to saying: Whoever wants to
discover the one true God, he must seek Him alone in the Lord
Christ, for there is in truth no other God but the One who sent
Christ. Now, whoever has not
Christ, must also miss the right,
true God, even though he knows and believes that there is but one true God. For he does not
believe in Him who has sent
Christ and through Him gives eternal life. Therefore the
important word is Thee' ("that
they might know Thee, the only true God”). Which Thee'? Thee who hast sent Jesus Christ. As
though He said: The Jews and others also have only one God, as they think; but Thee, who alone art the true God, they do not know, because they do not
know Christ sent by Thee, and in
the meantime imagine a god according to their own thoughts, who is in truth no god, but pure nothing. Hence you see that
Christ does not use the little word 'only' to separate Himself
from God according to the divine essence (since this is amply
prevented through the other words), but rather to show the
intimate union between the
Father and Himself against those who seek God outside of
Christ.“ (St. L. VIII:759ff.) In the eleventh sermon on the Gospel of John (St. L. VII: 1702 ff.)
Luther calls the knowledge of
God which does not know Christ "a knowledge of the wrong side of God,” a knowledge in which
God does not show His real face
to man, but “turns His back to man.” The knowledge of God outside Christ leads man no
farther than to the knowledge of
the Law of Moses, which shows us that God will give eternal life
to those who keep the Law, while He will condemn those who transgress it. But that is not
the true and complete picture of
God, for God has not sent His Son into the world to condemn
the world, but to save it (John
3:17; l Tim. 1:15). “Therefore;” says Luther, “face about, and see what the true countenance of
God is.” The true face of God is
He whom God has sent into the world, Jesus Christ. He is the “Angel of His presence” (Is. i6o(1)no
Cor. 4:6). On the face of Jesus is emblazoned the gracious truth
that God does not desire to condemn one sinner, but to save all sinners for Christ's sake. The
inscription on Christ's face reads: “God so loved the world
that He gave His only-begotten
Son,” etc. (John 3:16), and the
Father directs all mankind to look upon this face of Jesus
Christ (Matt. 17:5). Whoever has a different God cannot have the “one true God.” He has painted a
god according to his own fancy;
his god is a caricature, a nonentity, an idol. Hence St. John's earnest warning: “Little children,
keep yourselves from idols” (l
John 5:21), for, as he said in the
preceding verse, the Christian
knowledge of God consists in
this, that “we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even
in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is
the true God and eternal Life.”
These words state as expressly as do the words in John 17:3,
that there is no knowledge of the
true God outside the incarnate
Son of God. The only difference
between the two statements is
that the implied homoousia of
John 17:3 is here stated expressi's verbis. “This [the Son, Jesus
Christ] is the true God.” 22