📖 Madhehebu Potofu & Dini za Ulimwengu — Sehemu ya 2: Utatu na Uungu wa Kristo📖 Cults & World Religions — Unit 2: The Trinity and the Deity of Christ

Msingi: Yohana 1:1; 8:58; 20:28; Wakolosai 2:9; Mathayo 28:19 (SUV)Anchor: John 1:1; 8:58; 20:28; Colossians 2:9; Matthew 28:19 (NKJV)

Neno Kabla HatujaanzaA Word Before We Begin

Sehemu hii iko katikati ya kozi nzima, kwa kuwa fundisho tunalolishughulikia hapa ndilo mstari mkuu unaotenganisha imani ya kweli na karibu kila dhehebu potofu. Huenda fundisho moja linaloeleweka vibaya kuliko yote kuhusu asili ya Mungu ni fundisho la Utatu, na si bahati mbaya kwamba hapa ndipo hasa madhehebu potofu yanapojitenga. Mashahidi wa Yehova na Wamormoni (Kanisa la Yesu Kristo la Watakatifu wa Siku za Mwisho) wanakana Utatu na Uungu kamili wa Kristo; Uislamu na Imani ya Kibahai zinamheshimu Yesu kama nabii lakini zinakana kwamba Yeye ni Mungu Mwana. Tukishika kile Maandiko yanachofundisha kuhusu Mungu mmoja aliye Baba, Mwana, na Roho Mtakatifu — na zaidi ya yote kuhusu Uungu wa Kristo — tutakuwa na ufunguo unaovipima vyote. Hatulishughulikii fundisho hili ili kushinda mabishano, bali kwa sababu Mungu wa kweli amejifunua kwa namna hii, na kwa sababu Kristo wa kweli peke yake ndiye anayeweza kuokoa.This unit stands at the center of the whole course, for the doctrine we take up here is the great dividing line between the true faith and nearly every cult. Perhaps the single most misunderstood doctrine regarding the nature of God is the doctrine of the Trinity, and it is no accident that this is exactly where the cults break away. The Jehovah's Witnesses and the Latter-day Saints deny the Trinity and the full deity of Christ; Islam and the Bahá'í Faith honor Jesus as a prophet but deny that He is God the Son. If we grasp what Scripture teaches about the one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and above all about the deity of Christ — we will hold the key that tests them all. We do not take up this doctrine to win debates, but because the true God has revealed Himself in this way, and because only the true Christ can save.

Mungu Mmoja: MsingiOne God: The Foundation

Tunaanza pale Maandiko yanapoanzia: kuna Mungu mmoja tu. Wayahudi walipewa, na kanisa limeshika daima, kweli kuu ya imani ya Mungu mmoja — kwamba kuna Mungu mmoja na si wengi. Wavulana wa Kiebrania walikua wakikariri Shema: "Sikiza, Ee Israeli; BWANA, Mungu wetu, BWANA ndiye mmoja" (Kumbukumbu la Torati 6:4). Mataifa yaliyowazunguka — Wamisri, Wababeli, Wayunani, Warumi — waliabudu miungu mingi; utukufu wa Israeli ulikuwa kwamba walimjua Mungu mmoja wa kweli. "Usiwe na miungu mingine ila mimi" (Kutoka 20:3). Lo lote tunalosema kuhusu Baba, Mwana, na Roho Mtakatifu, kamwe hatuwezi kusema kwamba kuna miungu watatu. Kuna Mungu mmoja, aliyeko milele. Shika jambo hili kwa uthabiti, kwa kuwa madhehebu potofu yanajikwaa hapa kwa njia mbili zilizo kinyume: mengine yanafanya miungu watatu, na mengine yanawabana wale watatu kuwa nafsi moja tupu.We begin where Scripture begins: there is only one God. The Jews were given, and the church has always held, the great truth of monotheism — that there is one God and not many. The Hebrew boys grew up reciting the Shema: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!" (Deuteronomy 6:4). The nations around them — the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans — worshiped many gods; the glory of Israel was that they knew the one true God. "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:3). Whatever we say about Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we may never say that there are three gods. There is one God, eternally existing. Hold this fast, for the cults stumble here in two opposite directions: some make three gods, and some collapse the three into a single bare person.

Watatu Wanaoitwa MunguThree Who Are Called God

Lakini ndani ya kurasa za Biblia ileile jambo la ajabu linajitokeza: Mungu mmoja anafunuliwa kuwa Baba, Mwana, na Roho Mtakatifu, na kila mmoja anaitwa Mungu. Biblia inamtaja Baba kuwa Mungu (Wafilipi 1:2; 2 Wakorintho 1:3). Inamtaja Mwana kuwa Mungu — "Neno alikuwa Mungu" (Yohana 1:1), "Mungu mkuu na Mwokozi wetu Yesu Kristo" (Tito 2:13). Na inamtaja Roho Mtakatifu kuwa Mungu: Anania alipomwambia Roho Mtakatifu uongo, Petro alisema, "Wewe hukuwadanganya wanadamu bali Mungu" (Matendo 5:3-4). Je, hawa ni majukumu matatu tu ambayo Mungu mmoja anayatekeleza, au majina matatu ya nafsi ileile moja? Maandiko hayaruhusu hivyo, kama tutakavyoona. Wakristo walio wengi mno katika vizazi vyote wamekiri jambo hili kwa urahisi: kuna Nafsi tatu na Mungu mmoja. Mtu mwenye mashaka alipomdhihaki Daniel Webster, akisema, "Basi umekwenda kanisani, mahali wanapofundisha kwamba tatu mara moja ni moja," Webster alijibu, "Rafiki yangu, wewe na mimi hatuielewi hesabu ya Mbinguni."Yet within the pages of that same Bible a wonderful thing appears: the one God is revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each is called God. The Bible speaks of the Father as God (Philippians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:3). It speaks of the Son as God — "the Word was God" (John 1:1), "our great God and Savior Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13). And it speaks of the Holy Spirit as God: when Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit, Peter said, "You have not lied to men but to God" (Acts 5:3-4). Are these merely three roles that one God plays, or three names for the same person? Scripture will not allow that, as we shall see. The vast majority of Christians through the ages have confessed it simply: there are three Persons and one God. When a skeptic mocked Daniel Webster, saying, "So you have been to church, where they teach that three times one is one," Webster answered, "My friend, you and I do not understand the arithmetic of Heaven."

Uungu wa KristoThe Deity of Christ

Sasa tunafika kwenye kiini cha jambo hili, na kwenye jambo lenyewe ambalo madhehebu potofu hushindwa mara nyingi zaidi: Uungu wa Kristo. Maandiko hayamwonyeshi Yesu kama kiumbe aliyeumbwa, malaika mkuu, au nabii tu, bali kama Mungu Mwenyewe. "Hapo mwanzo kulikuwako Neno, naye Neno alikuwako kwa Mungu, naye Neno alikuwa Mungu" (Yohana 1:1). Yesu alijitwalia jina lenyewe la Mungu: "Kabla Ibrahimu hajakuwako, mimi niko" (Yohana 8:58). Alisema, "Mimi na Baba tu umoja" (Yohana 10:30), na, "Aliyeniona mimi amemwona Baba" (Yohana 14:9). Mathayo anamwita Imanueli, "Mungu pamoja nasi" (Mathayo 1:23). Yeye ndiye Muumba wa vitu vyote: "Kwa kuwa katika yeye vitu vyote viliumbwa... vitu vyote viliumbwa kwa njia yake, na kwa ajili yake... na vitu vyote hushikamana katika yeye" (Wakolosai 1:16-17). "Kwa maana katika yeye unakaa utimilifu wote wa Mungu, kwa jinsi ya kimwili" (Wakolosai 2:9). Na Tomaso, aliyekuwa na mashaka, alipomwona Bwana aliyefufuka, alianguka akasema, "Bwana wangu na Mungu wangu!" (Yohana 20:28) — na Yesu akaipokea ibada hiyo. Mwana ni Mungu wa milele, na hakuna njia ya kumfikia Baba isipokuwa kwa Yeye (Yohana 14:6).Now we come to the heart of the matter, and to the very point on which the cults most often fail: the deity of Christ. Scripture does not present Jesus as a created being, a great angel, or a mere prophet, but as God Himself. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Jesus took to Himself the very name of God: "Before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:58). He said, "I and My Father are one" (John 10:30), and, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Matthew calls Him Emmanuel, "God with us" (Matthew 1:23). He is the Creator of all things: "For by Him all things were created... All things were created through Him and for Him... and in Him all things consist" (Colossians 1:16-17). "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). And when doubting Thomas saw the risen Lord, he fell down and said, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28) — and Jesus received the worship. The Son is the eternal God, and there is no way to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).

Uungu na Unafsi wa RohoThe Deity and Personhood of the Spirit

Maandiko yaleyale yanayofunua Uungu wa Mwana yanafunua pia kwamba Roho Mtakatifu ni Mungu — na kwamba ni Nafsi, si nguvu tu. Kumwambia Roho Mtakatifu uongo ni kumwambia Mungu uongo (Matendo 5:3-4). Roho anafanya yale ambayo Mungu peke yake hufanya: alikuwapo wakati wa uumbaji (Mwanzo 1:2), na anawafufua wafu (Warumi 8:11). Na Yeye ni Nafsi, si nguvu isiyo na nafsi: anasema (Matendo 13:2), ana mapenzi na hugawa karama (1 Wakorintho 12:11), anafundisha na kushuhudia (Yohana 15:26), na anaweza kuhuzunishwa (Waefeso 4:30). Jambo hili lina uzito mkubwa, kwa kuwa mojawapo ya madhehebu potofu tutakayoyasoma, Mashahidi wa Yehova, linampunguza Roho kuwa "nguvu ya utendaji ya Mungu," nishati isiyo na nafsi. Lakini Roho ni Nafsi ya tatu ya Uungu, Mungu kamili, ambaye Yesu alimtaja pamoja na Baba na Yeye Mwenyewe.The same Scriptures that reveal the deity of the Son also reveal the Holy Spirit to be God — and to be a Person, not a mere force. To lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God (Acts 5:3-4). The Spirit does what only God does: He was present at creation (Genesis 1:2), and He raises the dead (Romans 8:11). And He is a Person, not an impersonal power: He speaks (Acts 13:2), He wills and distributes gifts (1 Corinthians 12:11), He teaches and testifies (John 15:26), and He can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30). This matters greatly, for one of the cults we will study, the Jehovah's Witnesses, reduces the Spirit to "God's active force," an impersonal energy. But the Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead, fully God, whom Jesus named together with the Father and Himself.

Mungu Mmoja katika Nafsi TatuOne God in Three Persons

Basi tutaziunganishaje kweli hizi? Si kwa kufanya miungu watatu, na si kwa kuwabana wale watatu kuwa mmoja. Ukiri wa kihistoria na wa Kibiblia ni huu: ndani ya Dhati moja iliyo Mungu kuna Nafsi tatu zilizo sawa, tangu milele — Baba, Mwana, na Roho Mtakatifu. Kuna "nini" kimoja (Dhati moja ya Mungu) na "nani" watatu (Nafsi tatu). Kuzigeuza Nafsi tatu kuwa miungu watatu ni kosa la imani ya miungu watatu (tritheism), ambalo Mashahidi wa Yehova na Wamormoni wanaangukia. Kumgeuza Mungu mmoja kuwa nafsi moja tu inayojitokeza mara kama Baba, mara kama Mwana, mara kama Roho — kana kwamba amevaa vinyago vitatu — ni uzushi wa kale wa umodali (modalism), au "Oneness" (Umoja), ulioibuka katika karne ya tatu. Yote mawili ni lazima yakataliwe. Na Maandiko yenyewe yanatuonyesha Nafsi zote tatu pamoja, tofauti na bado Mungu mmoja. Katika ubatizo wa Yesu, Mwana alipanda kutoka majini, Roho Mtakatifu akashuka kama hua, na sauti ya Baba ikasikika kutoka mbinguni: "Huyu ni Mwanangu, mpendwa wangu, ninayependezwa naye" (Mathayo 3:16-17). Na katika agizo lake la mwisho, Yesu aliwaunganisha wale watatu katika jina moja: "mkiwabatiza kwa jina la Baba, na Mwana, na Roho Mtakatifu" (Mathayo 28:19) — jina moja, Nafsi tatu.How then shall we put these truths together? Not by making three gods, and not by collapsing the three into one. The historic and biblical confession is this: within the one Being that is God there exist eternally three coequal Persons — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There is one what (the one Being of God) and three whos (the three Persons). To turn the three Persons into three gods is the error of tritheism, into which the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Latter-day Saints fall. To turn the one God into a single person who merely appears now as Father, now as Son, now as Spirit — as if wearing three masks — is the ancient heresy of modalism, or Oneness, which arose in the third century. Both must be refused. And Scripture itself shows us all three Persons together, distinct and yet one God. At the baptism of Jesus, the Son came up from the water, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, and the voice of the Father was heard from heaven: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:16-17). And in His last command, Jesus joined the three in a single name: "baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19) — one name, three Persons.

Unyenyekevu wa MwanaThe Humility of the Son

Lakini mtu atauliza: ikiwa Yesu ni Mungu kweli, kwa nini aliona njaa na kuchoka, kwa nini hakujua siku ya kurudi kwake, kwa nini alimwomba Baba, na kwa nini alikufa? Madhehebu potofu yanasisitiza maswali haya kwa nguvu. Jibu linapatikana katika kile Paulo anachokiita kujiondolea kwa Kristo. Ingawa alikuwa "na namna ya Mungu," "hakuona kuwa sawa na Mungu kuwa ni kitu cha kushikamana nacho; bali alijifanya kuwa hana utukufu" — alijiondolea — "akatwaa namna ya mtumwa... tena, alipoonekana ana umbo kama mwanadamu, alijinyenyekeza, akawa mtii hata mauti, naam, mauti ya msalaba" (Wafilipi 2:6-8). Katika kuwa mwanadamu kweli, Mwana kwa hiari aliweka kando matumizi huru ya nguvu zake za kiungu, akiishi na kufanya kazi kama mwanadamu akimtegemea Baba na Roho. Ndiyo sababu angeweza kusema kuhusu kurudi kwake, "habari ya siku ile, wala saa ile, hakuna aijuaye... wala Mwana, ila Baba" (Marko 13:32); ndiyo sababu alichoka na kuona njaa; ndiyo sababu aliomba. Hakuacha kuwa Mungu; alikuwa Mungu kamili, naye akawa mwanadamu kamili, ili kutimiza ukombozi wetu. Yeye aliyekuwa tajiri alikuwa maskini, ili sisi kwa umaskini wake tupate kuwa matajiri.But someone will ask: if Jesus is truly God, why was He hungry and weary, why did He not know the day of His return, why did He pray to the Father, and why did He die? The cults press these questions hard. The answer is found in what Paul calls the self-emptying of Christ. Though He existed "in the form of God," He "did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation" — He emptied Himself — "taking the form of a bondservant... and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:6-8). In becoming truly man, the Son voluntarily laid aside the independent exercise of His divine powers, living and working as a man in dependence on the Father and the Spirit. This is why He could say of His return, "of that day and hour no one knows, not even the Son, but only the Father" (Mark 13:32); why He grew tired and hungry; why He prayed. He did not cease to be God; He was fully God, and He became fully man, to accomplish our redemption. The One who was rich became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich.

Kwa Nini Huu Ndio Mstari wa KutenganishaWhy This Is the Dividing Line

Basi tunarudi pale tulipoanzia. Utatu na Uungu wa Kristo ndio mstari mkuu wa kutenganisha, kipimo cha kwanza tutakachokitumia kwa kila kikundi katika kozi hii. Kana Uungu wa Mwana, nawe una Kristo tofauti; na Kristo tofauti ndiye mzizi wa injili tofauti. Ndiyo sababu Mashahidi wa Yehova, Wamormoni, Uislamu, na Imani ya Kibahai, licha ya tofauti zao zote kati yao, wanashindwa katika jambo lilelile. Je, tunalielewa kikamilifu? Hapana. Hatuelewi hata jinsi mawazo yote na mapendo na nguvu za nafsi moja ya mwanadamu zilivyo kitu kimoja; sembuse dhati ya Mungu asiye na mipaka. Daima kutabaki kitu cha siri takatifu hapa. Augustino alisema zamani kwamba ni upendo unaozifunga Nafsi tatu katika umoja, na hilo liko karibu sana na kweli. Tunasujudu mbele ya kile tusichoweza kukipima kikamilifu, na tunakiri pamoja na kanisa zima: Mungu mmoja, aliyeko milele katika Nafsi tatu — Baba, Mwana, na Roho Mtakatifu.So we return to where we began. The Trinity and the deity of Christ are the great dividing line, the first test we will apply to every group in this course. Deny the deity of the Son, and you have a different Christ; and a different Christ is the root of a different gospel. This is why the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Latter-day Saints, Islam, and the Bahá'í Faith, for all their differences from one another, fail at the same point. Do we understand it fully? No. We do not even understand how all the thoughts and loves and powers of a single human soul are one; how much less the being of the infinite God. There will always remain something of holy mystery here. Augustine said long ago that it is love that binds the three Persons in one, and that is very near the truth. We bow before what we cannot fully measure, and we confess with the whole church: one God, eternally existing in three Persons — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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