THE GREATEST MATH PROBLEM EVER TOLD
by Richard Burkard
Quick – name the greatest athlete of the 20th century. Who comes to your mind first?
Baseball fans might have thought of Babe Ruth. Soccer fans might say Pele. Basketball fans might call for Michael Jordan. But what about swimmer Mark Spitz? Olympic track champion Jesse Owens? Hockey's Wayne Gretzky?
The same debate can rage in many walks of life. Historians compile lists every year or two of who they think was the greatest U.S. President. Award shows honor the top performers of the year in music and movies. There's even the annual “Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities” - and even familiar Christian names have won it a couple of times.
Disciples of Jesus Christ even can get caught up in discussions about their own “greatness” or importance. One of those discussions happened at perhaps the worst possible moment. “Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest,” Luke 22:24 says – an argument which developed at the “last supper” before Jesus was put to death (verses 17-20)!
So it's natural for God's creation to set up a “pecking order” - determining who are the strongest and weakest members of a community, even if it's an animal community (the phrase in quotes comes from barnyards). But what if we let the Bible sort out some of that for us? Can the Scripture offer clues and insight about who really is the greatest – and who or what rank above or below you?
This issue arose in my mind because of the way many Sabbath-keeping Church of God groups examine and explain the relationship between “God the Father” and “Jesus the Son.” Some ministers put it in ways which frankly contradict the Bible.
“Two gods,” one well-known United Church of God minister has said often in messages. Uhhh – no, I'm sorry. That's not what the Bible says.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one,” declares Deuteronomy 6:4. Not two – one. Jesus repeated that familiar Jewish phrase in Mark 12:29. The apostle Paul wrote in agreement: “...There is no God but one” (I Corinthians 8:4).
And yet: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1 reveals there are two of something when it comes to God. But the two are together as one.
“Not two Gods – but ONE God consisting of more than one Person,” Herbert Armstrong wrote in a 1979 Plain Truth magazine article. We found that quote on the Restored Church of God website, as it accuses rival COG's of “falling away” from “true doctrines.” Yet the sect Mr. Armstrong founded, now called Grace Communion International, claims he taught “there are two Gods.” And admittedly, more than one minister in other groups has implied Jesus the Son is a “lesser God” (to borrow from an award-winning movie), below the Father.
I decided to sort this out in an unusual way – a mathematical one. Math students are familiar with a basic “transitive property” of algebra: A > B > C. Translated: if A is greater than B and B is greater than C, then A automatically is greater than C. It's only logical. And our God is a logical God – right?!?
From the Top
So Who or What is at the top of the ladder? Jesus said, “My Father.... is greater than all...” in John 10:29. That's God the Father, of course. The Bible reveals He's greater than man (Job 33:12), as well as all other “gods” which are really no gods at all (Exodus 18:11).
Jesus went on in John to say, “...The Father is greater than I.... I love the Father and.... do exactly what my Father has commanded me” (John 14:28, 31). These words are a doctrinal distinctive for some COG's. The Father is greater than Jesus, since Jesus said so. Therefore, hasn't it been that way forever – and settle the matter forever?
Wellllll.... be careful with the “forever” part. Consider some words of praise from the Old Testament: “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.... you are the ruler of all things” (I Chronicles 29:11-12).
Who is the “Lord” here? The King James and New International Versions capitalize the entire word “LORD” several times. Long-time COG members know this is the Hebrew Yehovah, and Bible scholars have used a series of verses to conclude this refers to the pre-incarnate “Jesus” part of the Godhead. But applied to this passage, they also mean Jesus/the Word was “head over all” and “ruler of all things” before coming to Earth – NOT in second place!
More evidence of this comes from the New Testament book of Hebrews. “When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself....” (Hebrews 6:13)
Now hold on here. Didn't Abraham communicate with a “LORD” Yehovah as well? Genesis 18:13-14 indicates he did. If we assume the pre-incarnate Jesus was a “lesser God,” then there was someone “greater.... to swear by” - none other than the Father! But the writer of Hebrews says no, there was none!
It seems safe to conclude from this that God and “the Word” were on the same level in eternity past. When “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14), Jesus looked on the Father as greater because Jesus accepted human limitations. Yet consider how the apostle Paul analyzed this – and reversing his wording might make it clearer.
Jesus “made himself nothing” (Philippians 2:7). Yet He was “in very nature God....” and “thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (verse 6, NIV and KJV). So in math language, “equal to” willingly became “less than” (presuming nothing is the same as zero).
Some of the Lord's critics apparently didn't hear the “Father is greater” part when Jesus said, “'My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.' For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him.... he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:17-18).
The Current Chain of Command
The Old Testament is filled with references to God as a “Father,” but making it personal was too over-the-top for those critics. Yet Jesus was “equal with” in the past. So what about today – and every day, since Jesus's resurrection and return to heaven?
Let the apostle Paul continue his thoughts, to respond to that: “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place, and gave him the name that is above every name....” (Philippians 2:9) Strong's Exhaustive Concordance explains it as “raise to the highest position” - which certainly sounds like the greatest.
But where is that place? Mark 16:19 says, “He was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.” The way some COG ministers have described this relationship over the years, it's easy to picture God the Father on the top step of a throne with Jesus one step lower. But you cannot find that description in Scripture.
Revelation 4-5 offers a hint of what's really happening, through a vision granted the apostle John. First, four living creatures “give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever.... [24 elders] say: 'You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power....'” (Revelation 4:9-11) Then a Lamb is seen “standing in the center of the throne....” and every creature everywhere sings, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power for ever and ever!” (5:6, 13)
So God and “the Lamb” (understood as Jesus from Revelation 5:12) are together at the throne. The 24 elders around the throne fall before both of them (4:10 and 5:8). They're on the same level, side-by-side!
(So where is the Holy Spirit in all of this? We have separate articles on that topic.)
Back Down to Earth
With the “top of the ladder” sorted out, let's return to our math puzzle. Jesus declared He was greater than the physical temple, prophet Jonah and King Solomon (Matthew 12:6, 41-42). As the Son of God, that makes perfect sense. But then things can get confusing.
“I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist....” (Matthew 11:11) Coming from the mouth of Jesus, this is quite a compliment. But wait a second. Wasn't Jesus “born of women”? Yes He was; Galatians 4:4 tells us that. And didn't Jesus go on in Matthew 11 to say, “he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater” than John the Baptizer?
If we apply that transitive property mentioned above, it sounds like the least person in God's Kingdom will be greater than King Jesus! But we must also remember other words of the Lord.
“For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table?” (Luke 22:27) This was said at the Passover, when at least one disciple was leaning back on the Lord (John 13:23-25). “But I am among you as one who serves.” And Jesus added in a different gospel, “No servant is greater than his master....” (John 13:16)
The One who didn't think it was robbery to be “equal with God” also “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant” (Philippians 2:7). Jesus did this in human form to show how “whoever humbles himself.... is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4).
It didn't come up in our math-oriented word study, but some COG's make a big deal about ministerial ranks and titles. They cite I Corinthians 12:28 for this. “And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers....” then five other titles (see also 14:5). Based on Ephesians 2:20 and 4:11, we can see that the apostle Paul considered the first two positions to be atop the church “chain of command.”
Yet Paul also wrote, “I am less than the least of all God's people” (Ephesians 3:8). He rated himself “the least of the apostles.... because I persecuted the church of God” (I Corinthians 15:9). That attitude eventually can place him as “greatest,” based on what Jesus said in Matthew 18.
There's one other current rank to consider. “The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world “ (I John 4:4). Who is this “one”? The context indicates, as does Jesus, that it's the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of truth.... he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:17). We'd ask: do you really believe John's statement, and have faith in what the Holy Spirit can do?
Future Math
God's coming Kingdom will have a clear leader: Jesus, the “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (Revelation 19:16). Eventually, “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth....” (Philippians 2:10)
Herbert Armstrong tried to break down the power structure below that. He properly noted King David would rule over “all 12 nations of Israel,” based on Ezekiel 34:23-24 and 37:24-25. Beyond that, what he wrote is largely speculation – which by his own admission was “a general pattern,” not necessarily precise (Mystery of the Ages, 1985, pp. 334-344).
We know from Jesus's words that those who come up in the first resurrection can no longer die, “for they are equal to the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36, KJV). And angels are considered “greater in power and might” than unjust “natural brute beasts” who “walk after the flesh” (II Peter 2:9-12, KJV). That probably refers to remaining humans after the Kingdom begins, as well as those who come up in the second resurrection.
Yet there will be a point, apparently after the judgment, when Jesus the Son “hands over the Kingdom to God the Father.... the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all” (I Corinthians 15:24, 28).
Whatever our rank and role may be, the opportunity to have eternal life in God's Kingdom will be worth it – to have “no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
Even being least in the Kingdom of heaven will be the greatest joy any human could ever have. And when it's all said and done, everything we've faced and humanity has endured finally will “add up” to glory and victory.
To reply to this article, e-mail the author directly
© 2017, Richard Burkard, All Rights Reserved.