The Nugget:
My Comment:
In my continuing question and answer discussion in the “Islam and Christianity Debate Group,” I responded to the following interesting question:
If Jesus was indeed omniscient as you claim, how could he not know about the hour? That clearly demonstrates that he isn’t as omniscient as God the Father, for if he was he should have known that. This also contradicts the claim that all persons of the Trinity are equal because the fact that Jesus didn’t know about the hour makes it crystal clear that they are not.
This is a most interesting question centered upon a fascinating statement found in Mark 13:32. I have encountered questions about this verse when having discussions with Jehovah Witnesses, who came to my apartment years ago to teach me more about the Bible. I had responded to their offer of Bible instruction with the comment, “If you can prove any doctrine is taught by the Bible, I will surely believe it, for I do believe what the Bible teaches.” They came for four years, every Monday evening, from 7:00 pm until we finished the lesson or discussion. I must say, that experience motivated my further study of the Bible, and I learned much about Bible doctrine. Clearly, though, the Jehovah Witnesses did not convert me to their view, though they tried valiantly to do so! I found that by following the Rules of Interpretation (of which I have listed about 24 in the October 2010 Archives accessible easily immediately to the right on this page), by comparing Scripture with Scripture using cross references, and by always taking note of the immediate context–what comes before or what comes after–any verse the Jehovah Witnesses appealed to in support of their mistaken doctrines, I was always able to come up with the correct answer from the Bible itself.
My Response:
The answer to your question resides in the voluntary relations sustained by the equal members of the Trinity. In these relationships as displayed in Scripture, Jesus Christ the Son of God is subordinate to the Father, as many of the very good Biblical references you yourself have cited show.
But one key to understanding these relations is to grasp that subordination does not imply inequality.
I am aware that such an idea runs directly counter to Islamic belief. But the issue is not Islamic belief, but what does the Bible itself state? What does the New Testament reveal about God, about Jesus the Messiah, and about the Holy Spirit?
There are a good many facts about God revealed in Scripture. If we read Scripture itself with discerning eyes and an open heart to what God reveals in His written word found only in the Bible, we will discover by the Rule of Necessary Inference that God does indeed exist in Three Persons Who alone share the incommunicable attributes of God.
How else can we account for good Jewish individuals like Peter and James and John, strict monotheists, who scrupulously kept the Law of Moses, who personally walked for over three years daily with Jesus Christ, yet came to recognize Jesus as Messiah, the Son of God, who, like Thomas, came to perceive that Jesus was in some sense not merely a man, but directly called Jesus God, as in John 20:28?
John the Baptist was clearly on a human level born about six months before Jesus was born. Yet John the Baptist exclaimed of Jesus, “This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me” (John 1:15), and again, “This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me” (John 1:30).
Such statements by John the Baptist point to the fact of the pre-existence of Jesus Christ, a fact directly prophesied of the Messiah in Micah 5:2, and witnessed throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, as is evident when one observes very closely and carefully what is said about the Angel of Jehovah. And speaking of Jehovah, the New Testament very frequently attributes to Jesus Christ statements in the Hebrew Scriptures which are spoken of Jehovah.
John the Baptist is spoken of in Mark 1:3 as “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” This is a quotation from Isaiah 40:3 where this is said of Jehovah. Mark’s citation thus attributes to Jesus Christ what in the Old Testament is spoken of Jehovah. This is so frequent in the New Testament that it is evident that Jesus Christ is in some sense spoken of as Jehovah. Some have asked me, “Does this mean you believe Jesus is the Father?” I reply, “No, this means there are actually two Jehovah’s to be seen in the Hebrew Scriptures: that there are two is clear when the two are on the same scene at the same time, as in Genesis 19:24.”
But looking a moment more at Isaiah 40:3, in the Old Testament this passage reads, “make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” The New Testament record repeatedly applies this to Jesus Christ, thus John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus Christ in fulfillment of Isaiah 40:3, but the prophecy specifies further, this preparation of the highway was for the coming of “our God.” Thus, by necessary inference, Jesus Christ the Messiah is called God.
There are many such texts in Scripture which alert the discerning reader that though Jesus Christ is surely a man, yet He is in His Divine Nature more than just a man.
Take another interesting text from John 3:13, “And no man hath ascended to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” Here, Jesus asserts that He came down from heaven yet at that very moment of speaking He asserted He was then in heaven at the same time.
This passage teaches that Christ came down from heaven when He became incarnate: and having become incarnate, is said to have ‘ascended up to Heaven,’ and ‘to be in Heaven,’ because ‘the Son of Man,’ who was not in heaven before, by virtue of the hypostatical union was thenceforward evermore ‘in heaven.’
“Hypostatical union” is a term representing Christ as possessing two natures in one person, human and divine. The Son of God has assumed the human nature into so strict a personal union, that what is proper to either nature is ascribed to the person under whatsoever name; for, saith he, “the Son of man which is in heaven,” which is not to be understood, as if either his human nature came from heaven (for he is speaking of what still is there) or that his human nature were in every place, but that the same person who is the Son of man according to our nature is in heaven according to his divine nature, and yet but one person still.
Therefore, it is evident, that God the Son possesses the incommunicable divine attribute of immensity.
All this to conclude that when Mark reports that Jesus said He did not know the day and hour of His Second Coming, and that the angels in heaven did not know, but only the Father knows (Mark 13:32), we have displayed the relations of the Persons of the One Godhead, where the Father did not grant that Jesus Christ as the Son of man should at that time He was speaking know this particular thing. In His human nature Jesus Christ was subject at times to limitations, but this does not diminish the fact that Jesus frequently displayed the attribute of omniscience as I set forth from Scripture in some detail here before.
To dig still deeper into Mark 13:32 study the cross references shared below:
- of that day. ver. Mk 13:26, 27. Jb 14:13. Zc 14:7. +*Mt 24:36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42. *Mt 25:6, 13, 19. *Jn 14:11. *Ac 1:7. *1 Th 5:2. *2 P 3:10. *Re 3:3. and that hour. Jb 14:13. Am 4:12. knoweth. Note: “To preclude the curiosity of men,” says Dr. Hammond, “and to engage their vigilance, Christ is pleased to tell them, that no dispensation of God, either by man (as Daniel), or by angels, or, which is the highest, by the Son of man, had ordered us thus to know the seasons; this being no part of the prophetic office, or within the commission of Christ himself.” +*Dt 29:29. Mt 25:13. %Jn 13:7. 16:12. %*Ro 13:11. 1 C 13:12. %Ep 3:5. *1 Th 5:1, 2, 4. in heaven. Da 4:12. neither the Son. Note.—On these words see a Note of Granville Penn, shewing by a comparison of MSS. that it is highly probable that we should read for o uios here, oios; according to which the Lord’s declaration is,—”not even the angels which are in heaven, neither can (know), but my Father only; (not however to the exclusion of the Son, see Jn 5:19, 10:30, 14:9-11, 16:15); and the prophecies of that day by Christ in this very chapter, and the Apocalypse, shewing his knowledge of the minutest particulars connected with it (William De Burgh, New Marginal Readings and References to the Gospels, p. 152). T#70. ver. **Mk 13:26. Is 42:6. Mt 11:27. +Mt 14:23 (T#64), Mt 14:33. #Mt 24:36. +*Mt 28:19. Lk 10:22. *Jn 3:35. **Jn 5:19-23, 25, 26, 30. %Jn 6:30, +Jn 6:38 (T#72), Jn 6:57. 8:28, 29. %+*Jn 10:30. 14:10. 20:17. +Ac 1:4. +**1 Cor 15:28. 2 Cor 13:4. Phil 2:6, 7. *Re 1:1. 19:12. but the Father. %+**Ho 8:4. Zc 14:7. %+*Mt 10:32. %*Jn 5:20. +*Jn 14:28. *Ac 1:7.
This entry was posted in Apologetics Issues–Other Faiths, Daily Bible Nuggets, Doctrinal Discussions and tagged Daily Bible Nugget #392 Mark 13:32, Does Mark 13:32 contradict the claim that all members of the Trinity are equal?, Does Mark 13:32 disprove the Trinity?, Does Mark 13:32 show Jesus was not omniscient?, Hypostatic Union explained, Isaiah 40:3, John 3:13, Mark 13:32, Mark 13:32 with fuller cross references, Mark 1:3, Pre-existence of Christ proven from Scripture, Subordination does not imply inequality in the Trinity. Bookmark the permalink. Edit