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John
20:24-29
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Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe."
Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
(ESV)
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Heresy Old and Tired
Tuesday of Easter 3
12 April 2016
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Occasionally, some crackpot looking for ratings or book sales makes the stupendous claim that Jesus was not God, as though this were a new and unheard-of claim. The average American, who is caught in the abyss of the modern media, watches the ensuing PBS special highlighting these "new" claims. The church has been refuting them for centuries and will continue until He who is God of God, comes again to judge the living and the dead. The resurrected One when He appeared to Thomas could only be acclaimed as our Lord and our God.
Hilary of Poitiers (d. 368), in his book On the Trinity, writes against what he calls, "the wild extravagance of modern heresy!" So heresy is not as modern as heretics would have you believe! In fact, heresy is old and tired. Hilary speaks of the divinity of Christ based on the confession of St. Thomas (Jn 20:24-29). Here is the truth.
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Hilary of Poitiers
"What was it that Thomas believed? Beyond a doubt, that which is expressed in his words, 'My Lord and my God' (Jn 20:28)! No nature but that of God could have risen by its own might from death to life; and it is this fact, that Christ is God, which was confessed by Thomas with the confidence of an assured faith. Shall we, then, dream that His name of God is not a substantial reality, when that name has been proclaimed by a faith based upon certain evidence? Surely a Son devoted to His Father, One who did not His own will but the will of Him that sent Him, who sought not His own glory but the glory of Him from whom He came, would have rejected the adoration involved in such a name as destructive of that unity of God which had been the burden of His teaching. Yet, in fact, He confirms this assertion of the mysterious truth made by the believing Apostle. He accepts as His own the name which belongs to the nature of the Father. And He teaches that they are blessed who, though they have not seen Him rise from the dead, yet have believed, on the assurance of the resurrection, that He is God."
Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity
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Prayer
O Christ you are the truth in flesh. Your flesh was handled by Thomas, and he confessed You Lord and God. Grant that though we have not seen and handled You, we may confess You as our Lord and God. Amen.
For Christian unity, that all Christians would faithfully confess the scriptural truth and be united under one teaching and faith
For the Pastoral Conference of the South Wisconsin District of the LCMS, that the pastors of God's flock would be built up in their study of the Word of God
For those who are being persecuted by the US government for confessing their faith in their daily lives and who are thus exercising their right to a free exercise of religion, that the Lord Jesus would grant them the strength to obey God rather than men
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Art: RUBENS, Peter Paul The Resurrection of Christ (1611-12)
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|  © Scott R. Murray, 2016
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