Granted it did take me a couple of days to work through this response but I begin this treatise by asking the reader’s indulgence beforehand concerning the rather technical discussion that must follow. Please remember here that in addition to being pastor-teacher of a local church which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention I am also president of its internet arm Apprising Ministries. AM is a fully integrated work that for the record deals in apologetics, counter-cult evangelism and Comparative Religion.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. (James 3:1, ESV)

The Background For This Theological Discussion

In order to adequately perform the kind of work in the Body of Christ which I outline above required that I have done much extensive research into the origin of the Bible itself, of Biblical manuscripts, detailed study of Church history, systematic theology, various World Religions and of course non-Christian cults for the better part of nineteen years. When the Lord provided AM’s website, which was never asked for having been purchased and paid for by others, it opened a huge door for me to literally teach around the world. Certainly one may make of these facts whatever they will.

Later God moved upon Ingrid Schlueter to contact me to appear on her Crosstalk radio program and this would eventually lead to my being pastoral advisor/contributor to her well-read blog Slice of Laodicea. In addition God caused Brannon Howse to approach me to become a columnist for Christian Worldview Network and not long ago Kevin and Jill Rische were kind enough to offer me the privilege of also being a columnist for Walter Martin’s Religious InfoNet. Only God would know how much I appreciate all these opportunities and what a special thrill it is for me to see my little name associated with Dr. Walter Martin, who also happened to be SBC.

The Lord knows I am not lying when I inform the reader not one of the above chances to do ministry has ever been asked for but has simply been freely given to me by my Master. However, what I have told you is necessary background information for you to have in order to understand why Dr. Frank Page and I would then be able to have a rather intense theological discussion regarding the nature of God. Dealing with an issue as complex as the nature of an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent other dimensional Being such as the one true and living God of the Bible requires through analysis and understanding of the relevant Biblical texts.

And so as I point out in But Southern Baptsist Say Ok to “Bishop” T.D. Jakes, Dr. Ed Young and his son Ed Young, Jr. –both Southern Baptists–have shown they consider Oneness Pentecostal heretic T.D. Jakes a brother in Christ by inviting him to share the platform with them at Creative Church Conference 2007 (C3 2007) in February. Note: I never said the SBC itself condones this and I have even been challenged at CWN where the article also appears that Ed Young Jr.’s Fellowship Church is not SBC. Well, I happen to have a letter in my personal possession from his church that says O yes they are.

Well, surely I thought Dr. Frank Page would be concerned about this issue and want to know the stone cold undeniable facts concerning two very high profile representatives of the SBC who have violated 2 Corinthians 6:14 by publicly yoking themselves with T.D. Jakes who does not believe in God. I thought that obviously Dr. Page would know that Christ will hold him accountable as overseer of the SBC in this serious situation which reflects badly upon all of us who are in this denomination along with the Youngs. “O, people are saying, “but Jakes says he believes God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Yes, I know. One need only click on his name above and you would see this yourself. But I’m not responsible for people being lazy and who would choose not to follow the multitudinous links within my many many articles.

Cutting Through All The Technical Jargon

Here I brng the reader back to my counter-cult training. I have studied Mormonism for years and they also believe that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so are they now Christians too? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is WAY bigger in scope than little ol’ T.D. Jakes. Are we to invite them into the Lord’s Church now as well? After all, they even have words Jesus Christ right in the name of their church itself! Perhaps this will help you to understand that saying you believe in a trinity in and of itself means absolutely nothing. You see the question then becomes: What does one actually mean when they say that they believe God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

And what would you know; this whole issue was already resolved in 220 AD when a man named Sabellius tried to teach the exact same thing that Oneness Penetcostals revived just a few years after the Azusa Street Revival at the turn of the twentieth century. He taught that God was a solitary person who “manifested” (i.e. revealed; showed) himself in three different ways (i.e. modes); Father in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ the Son in the New Testament and he is currently acting as the Holy Spirit. The interested reader is now referred my piece Keeping You Apprised of: The Holy Trinity for further discussion.

Against this backdrop let me now turn to Dr. Page’s response to the letter I sent him regarding this issue of the Youngs and Jakes which you can read here in Dr. Frank Page Responds Concerning “Ed Young to Share the Podium with T.D. Jakes”. Again I apologize beforehand for the possibly difficult language and wherever I can I will attempt to simplify any of Dr. Page’s hermeneutical exegesis regarding relevant passages that deal with the pneumatology necessary for this important area of theology–the Triune nature of Yahweh Elohim Shaddai–the LORD God Almighty Who is our infinite Creator.

Before I begin to carefully break down Dr. Page’s cogent and highly insightful comment for you it will prove helpful to the reader that I quote it once again in its entirety. Unfortunately there is just nothing I can do concerning its length so I do ask you to please bear with me here. The president of the entire Southern Baptist Convention, who I readily admit has far more formal training than I, says in response to my letter of concern:

Pastor Silva, Thanks for your sharing of concerns with me. I pray for God’s discernment for my life as well as for others too. May we all be able to speak the truth in love.

In Christ,

Frank Page

O I know, you’re probably thinking right now: “Whew, where in the world does one possibly begin to deconstruct a letter of this profundity?” And yet, I will attempt to give it my best. Dr. Page begins with, “Thanks for sharing your concerns with me.” Well, with my own years of study–taking into account I am but self-taught–my best guess here as to making this accessible to the reader would be that Dr. Page has just said: “I have a fly in my office and I really want it to go away. It’s really annoying me as it buzzes around in here.” Again, I make no claim to be a theologian but this is what I am seeing before me.

Next we come to the central issue Dr. Page brings up in this most judicious reply. He says, “I pray for God’s discernment for my life as well as for others too.” Now, to the best of my ability here I sense what Dr. Page is attempting to teach me is: “I have a piece of chewing gum stuck to the bottom of my shoe which irritates me as I walk, and so I pray it will somehow just get scraped off.” And finally this brings us to the climatic point concerning our theological discussion concerning the nature of the God we both are serving together in the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest allegedly “Protestant” Denomination in the entire country.

Dr. Page then presses his argument home with: “May we all be able to speak the truth in love.” I must admit, this did take me a little off guard in our odium theologicum. But after much soul-searching and prayer I do believe the Lord has helped me to see that Dr. Page has essentially patted me on my proverbial head and said: “Thanks for writing me little boy, now you just run along and play. I really can’t be bothered with all of this nonsense about Who God is. I have very important work to do developing Christ followers for His Kingdom.” But no Dr. Page wouldn’t simply try and patronize me like that; would he?

O well, I guess that’s for another day but for now I might put the following before the reader: Do we seriously think that Christ Jesus will simply stand idly by while His Church won’t even defend the nature of Who He is? If you happen to believe that I can tell you this: You had best invest in some spiritual underwear made of the heaviest asbestos because it is going to get mighty hot within the Southern Baptist Convention. And Dr. Page, you need to know this. That letter I sent to you was only God’s battering ram with which to open up this issue and voices much louder than mine are soon to speak the Truth in love to you.

May the Lord have mercy on us all…