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The Missing Red Letters
There is nothing you will face in this life that is not covered by the Holy Scriptures. In these powerful Words of Christ (the red letters), every issue of life is addressed in one way or another. You will see that Jesus covered family, wages, violations, the law, supply, friends, your neighbor, and yes, even your enemies... and much more.
64 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
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January 31, 2015
It is an irrefutable fact that Mark T. Barclay is a heretic and builds his hermeneutical and exegetical fallacy in his book The Missing Red Letters on a major Trinitarian heresy,which heresy is historically rooted and grounded in the heresy of Gnosticism and has been condemned by the Christian church since the Apostles.
As we will see in this review, the Apostles and the early leadership of the Christian church opposed Mark T. Barclay’s Gnostic teachings on the Trinity, which heresy in short not only gave rise to other major Trinitarian heresies like Modalism and Arianism, but also influenced Islam after Arianism was rejected by the Eastern church. And like Islam, Mark T. Barclay rejects the Biblical and orthodox teaching that there is one God in three co-equal and eternal persons. [1][2]
What we will find out further in this review is that Mark T. Barclay like other heretics doesn’t know Scripture, even the simple words of Jesus Christ as most Sunday school children do and he stumbles over basic Christian doctrine. This not only makes him a false teacher, but his Trinitarian heresies place his church and ministry in a dangerous cult.
A Cult Defined
“A cult, then, is a group of people polarized around someone’s interpretation of the Bible and is characterized by major deviations from orthodox Christianity relative to the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith, particularly the fact that God became man in Jesus Christ.” –Walter Martin, The Rise of the Cults
If you don’t know already, Mark T. Barclay has taught at least three of the most destructive Trinitarian and Christological heresies in the history of the Christian church. In the opening chapter of this book, Barclay continues this sickening perversion and teaches that God is a three-part being and in other teachings he has evilly taught that God has changed and that the Godhead is not actual persons and heretically mixes up the roles of the divine persons. This places the message of this book in the deepest biblical error and is an insult to the Holy Spirit.
“Our God is a three-part being (Father, Son and Holy Spirit)”. Mark T. Barclay-The Missing Red Letters
The Importance of the Doctrine of the Trinity
Why is the Trinity important? Well, first of all, the doctrine of the Trinity regulates Christian worship and further it holds the keys to all other doctrines. This means that all other teachings in Scripture are inseparable from the doctrine of the Trinity and this is how basic and foundational the Trinity is to all teaching in Scripture. Or I will say it differently, the centrality of Christian teaching and worship is found in the Trinity and the orthodox teaching of the person of Jesus Christ that he is truly God and truly man. The confession of the Trinity is the throbbing heartbeat of the Christian church, “every error results from, or upon deeper reflection maybe traced to a wrong view of this doctrine”. [3]
“The Church is truly Church in so far as it dwells in the Holy Trinity and embodies the truth of the Gospel in its empirical life and worship.” [4]
Barclay’s False Teachings in a Nutshell
In a nutshell, here’s what Mark T. Barclay has heretically taught.
Mark T. Barclay has taught that God is made up of parts and is a three-part being.
He has taught that the Trinity is not individual persons (hypostasis) for he heretically states: “We teach them sorta, kinda almost as three different people for the sake of teaching.”
Like the Jehovah Witnesses, has taught that in heaven God was Creator and not the Father. Thus, teaching an Arian concept of the person of the Father.
He has wickedly taught that God changed for human understanding.
Barclay’s heretical teachings on the Godhead, damages the orthodox and cardinal teaching of Christ’s hypostatic union, being fully and truly God and fully and truly man in one single divine person.
If Jesus is only a part and isn’t truly a person as with the other members of the Godhead, then he can’t be biblically God. This is how radically destructive Mark T. Barclay’s false teachings are to the orthodox understanding to the nature of the Trinity and to the Gospel, because Barclay like other heretics and cults destroys the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
Simply put, salvation depends on a right formulation of Christ’s nature. This is why we can say that the Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses for example have a different god and their Jesus can’t save. [5]
Christ’s Hypostatic Union.
Furthermore, the correct understanding of Jesus Christ is that he is God in the flesh and is one person with two natures, being truly man and truly God. Thus, we can unequivocally conclude through the objective truth of Scripture that Mark T. Barclay’s god like the Jehovah Witnesses is radically different than the God of Christianity and like other cults can’t save. [6]
The Orthodox and Biblical Understanding of the Trinity: “Tres personae, Una Substantia”
“The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. These definitions express three crucial truths: (1) The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, (2) each Person is fully God, (3) there is only one God.” [7]
Barclay’s Error is Historically Rooted in Gnosticism.
What we find out its that Mark T. Barclay’s heresy on the Trinity and his destructive teaching on the Biblical understanding of Jesus Christ were refuted and condemned in the early church, because Barclay’s false teachings are historically pinpointed in time and space as Gnostic.
I have quoted this quote from Irenaeus before in connection with Barclay’s condemnation as a heretic, but this time I will unpack it and since this is a book review I think it’s appropriate.
Attacking the Gnostics, Irenaeus writes:
“But if they had known the Scriptures, and been taught by the truth, they would have known, beyond doubt, that God is not as men are; and that His thoughts are not like the thoughts of men. Far removed is the Father of all from those things, which operate among men, the affections and passions. He is simple, not composed of parts, without structure, altogether like and equal to himself alone. He is all mind, all spirit, all thought, all intelligence, all reason . . . all light, all fountain of every good..” Irenaeus, Against Heresies 2:13:3 (A.D. 189).
Further attacking the Gnostics and defending the one and undivided nature of God, Irenaeus writes:
“For if He produced intelligence, then He who did thus produce intelligence must be understood, in accordance with their views, as a compound and corporeal Being; so that God, who sent forth [the intelligence referred to], is separate from it, and the intelligence which was sent forth separate [from Him]. But if they affirm that intelligence was sent forth from intelligence, they then cut asunder the intelligence of God, and divide it into parts.” Irenaeus, Against Heresies 2:13:5
Church father Irenaeus goes on further and places Gnostic thought and heresy in the ancient doctrines of heathenism, which were taught by the philosophers.
He writes:
“These men (the heretics), adopting this fable as their own, have ranged their opinions round it, as if by a sort of natural process, changing only the names of the things referred to, and setting forth the very same beginning of the generation of all things, and their production.” Irenaeus, Against Heresies 2:14:1
He further writes:
“This thought, too, these men have transferred to “the seed” of their Mother, which they maintain to be themselves; thus acknowledging at once, in the judgment of such as are possessed of sense, that they themselves are the offspring of the irreligious Anaxagoras”. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 2:14:2
Who was the philosopher Anaxagoras? Well, a Greek philosopher. He believed that all matter was infinitely divisible and motionless until animated by mind.
Thus, we can conclude a few things here about Mark Barclay’s Heresies:
It’s an irrefutable fact that Mark T. Barclay is teaching on the Trinity is Gnostic, being rooted and grounded in that heresy.
Even with biblical names as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Barclay’s god being Gnostic is radically different than the biblical God who is triune in three persons.
Barclay’s Gnostic heresy is time dated to just under a hundred years after the death of the Apostle John.
Our information as we will see comes from the number one expert on Gnosticism, Irenaeus.
Who was Saint Irenaeus?
It’s important to note here that what we historically know about Gnosticism in the early Church comes from Church father Irenaeus himself. This is how important his apologetic work is to the Christian church.
“He studied twenty of the most influential Gnostic writers and defined and criticized their beliefs. Other early church fathers, such as Tertullian and Origen also provide information regarding Gnostic beliefs.” [8]
So who was Irenaeus? Well, he was taught by another Church father by the name of Polycarp who was the disciple of the Apostle of John. It is for certain that Irenaeus knew the teachings of the Apostles on the Trinity and knew the errors of the Gnostics. He spent his whole life attacking their false teachings.
Gnosticism Defined
What is Gnosticism? “Gnosticism is a heresy which is made up of a diverse set of beliefs. It is the teaching based on the idea of gnosis (a Koine Greek word meaning “secret knowledge”), or knowledge of transcendence arrived at by way of internal, intuitive means.” [9]
Further, what we do know by history is that the Gnostics repudiated major Christian doctrines like the Trinity and the person of Jesus Christ.
So again, we can see that Mark T. Barclay’s Jesus being a Gnostic and a false Jesus is radically different than the biblical Christ who is one person with two natures, being truly God and truly man.
Moreover, to refute these facts is to refute not only the Scriptural teaching of the Trinity and the person of Jesus Christ, but it’s also a rejection of historical reality itself, which is a dangerous thing that all members of cults do to their own eternal destruction.
Thus, a god who is of three-parts can’t save anyone and is a false god, being an idol and breaks the Second Commandment of the Law.
Further, for arguments sake, someone wouldn’t say that America was founded on Communism. I’m sure, if someone came to you and told you that that you would tell them that they were lying and refute them with evidence, because everyone knows that the early settlers were Christians, and America was founded on Democracy and not Communism.
So in the same sense we know that Mark T. Barclay’s heresies on the Trinity and the person of Jesus Christ are Gnostic, which factual truths are historical and this is irrefutable.
Read the rest of the review at the Theology of Mark T. Barclay blog
As we will see in this review, the Apostles and the early leadership of the Christian church opposed Mark T. Barclay’s Gnostic teachings on the Trinity, which heresy in short not only gave rise to other major Trinitarian heresies like Modalism and Arianism, but also influenced Islam after Arianism was rejected by the Eastern church. And like Islam, Mark T. Barclay rejects the Biblical and orthodox teaching that there is one God in three co-equal and eternal persons. [1][2]
What we will find out further in this review is that Mark T. Barclay like other heretics doesn’t know Scripture, even the simple words of Jesus Christ as most Sunday school children do and he stumbles over basic Christian doctrine. This not only makes him a false teacher, but his Trinitarian heresies place his church and ministry in a dangerous cult.
A Cult Defined
“A cult, then, is a group of people polarized around someone’s interpretation of the Bible and is characterized by major deviations from orthodox Christianity relative to the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith, particularly the fact that God became man in Jesus Christ.” –Walter Martin, The Rise of the Cults
If you don’t know already, Mark T. Barclay has taught at least three of the most destructive Trinitarian and Christological heresies in the history of the Christian church. In the opening chapter of this book, Barclay continues this sickening perversion and teaches that God is a three-part being and in other teachings he has evilly taught that God has changed and that the Godhead is not actual persons and heretically mixes up the roles of the divine persons. This places the message of this book in the deepest biblical error and is an insult to the Holy Spirit.
“Our God is a three-part being (Father, Son and Holy Spirit)”. Mark T. Barclay-The Missing Red Letters
The Importance of the Doctrine of the Trinity
Why is the Trinity important? Well, first of all, the doctrine of the Trinity regulates Christian worship and further it holds the keys to all other doctrines. This means that all other teachings in Scripture are inseparable from the doctrine of the Trinity and this is how basic and foundational the Trinity is to all teaching in Scripture. Or I will say it differently, the centrality of Christian teaching and worship is found in the Trinity and the orthodox teaching of the person of Jesus Christ that he is truly God and truly man. The confession of the Trinity is the throbbing heartbeat of the Christian church, “every error results from, or upon deeper reflection maybe traced to a wrong view of this doctrine”. [3]
“The Church is truly Church in so far as it dwells in the Holy Trinity and embodies the truth of the Gospel in its empirical life and worship.” [4]
Barclay’s False Teachings in a Nutshell
In a nutshell, here’s what Mark T. Barclay has heretically taught.
Mark T. Barclay has taught that God is made up of parts and is a three-part being.
He has taught that the Trinity is not individual persons (hypostasis) for he heretically states: “We teach them sorta, kinda almost as three different people for the sake of teaching.”
Like the Jehovah Witnesses, has taught that in heaven God was Creator and not the Father. Thus, teaching an Arian concept of the person of the Father.
He has wickedly taught that God changed for human understanding.
Barclay’s heretical teachings on the Godhead, damages the orthodox and cardinal teaching of Christ’s hypostatic union, being fully and truly God and fully and truly man in one single divine person.
If Jesus is only a part and isn’t truly a person as with the other members of the Godhead, then he can’t be biblically God. This is how radically destructive Mark T. Barclay’s false teachings are to the orthodox understanding to the nature of the Trinity and to the Gospel, because Barclay like other heretics and cults destroys the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
Simply put, salvation depends on a right formulation of Christ’s nature. This is why we can say that the Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses for example have a different god and their Jesus can’t save. [5]
Christ’s Hypostatic Union.
Furthermore, the correct understanding of Jesus Christ is that he is God in the flesh and is one person with two natures, being truly man and truly God. Thus, we can unequivocally conclude through the objective truth of Scripture that Mark T. Barclay’s god like the Jehovah Witnesses is radically different than the God of Christianity and like other cults can’t save. [6]
The Orthodox and Biblical Understanding of the Trinity: “Tres personae, Una Substantia”
“The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. These definitions express three crucial truths: (1) The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, (2) each Person is fully God, (3) there is only one God.” [7]
Barclay’s Error is Historically Rooted in Gnosticism.
What we find out its that Mark T. Barclay’s heresy on the Trinity and his destructive teaching on the Biblical understanding of Jesus Christ were refuted and condemned in the early church, because Barclay’s false teachings are historically pinpointed in time and space as Gnostic.
I have quoted this quote from Irenaeus before in connection with Barclay’s condemnation as a heretic, but this time I will unpack it and since this is a book review I think it’s appropriate.
Attacking the Gnostics, Irenaeus writes:
“But if they had known the Scriptures, and been taught by the truth, they would have known, beyond doubt, that God is not as men are; and that His thoughts are not like the thoughts of men. Far removed is the Father of all from those things, which operate among men, the affections and passions. He is simple, not composed of parts, without structure, altogether like and equal to himself alone. He is all mind, all spirit, all thought, all intelligence, all reason . . . all light, all fountain of every good..” Irenaeus, Against Heresies 2:13:3 (A.D. 189).
Further attacking the Gnostics and defending the one and undivided nature of God, Irenaeus writes:
“For if He produced intelligence, then He who did thus produce intelligence must be understood, in accordance with their views, as a compound and corporeal Being; so that God, who sent forth [the intelligence referred to], is separate from it, and the intelligence which was sent forth separate [from Him]. But if they affirm that intelligence was sent forth from intelligence, they then cut asunder the intelligence of God, and divide it into parts.” Irenaeus, Against Heresies 2:13:5
Church father Irenaeus goes on further and places Gnostic thought and heresy in the ancient doctrines of heathenism, which were taught by the philosophers.
He writes:
“These men (the heretics), adopting this fable as their own, have ranged their opinions round it, as if by a sort of natural process, changing only the names of the things referred to, and setting forth the very same beginning of the generation of all things, and their production.” Irenaeus, Against Heresies 2:14:1
He further writes:
“This thought, too, these men have transferred to “the seed” of their Mother, which they maintain to be themselves; thus acknowledging at once, in the judgment of such as are possessed of sense, that they themselves are the offspring of the irreligious Anaxagoras”. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 2:14:2
Who was the philosopher Anaxagoras? Well, a Greek philosopher. He believed that all matter was infinitely divisible and motionless until animated by mind.
Thus, we can conclude a few things here about Mark Barclay’s Heresies:
It’s an irrefutable fact that Mark T. Barclay is teaching on the Trinity is Gnostic, being rooted and grounded in that heresy.
Even with biblical names as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Barclay’s god being Gnostic is radically different than the biblical God who is triune in three persons.
Barclay’s Gnostic heresy is time dated to just under a hundred years after the death of the Apostle John.
Our information as we will see comes from the number one expert on Gnosticism, Irenaeus.
Who was Saint Irenaeus?
It’s important to note here that what we historically know about Gnosticism in the early Church comes from Church father Irenaeus himself. This is how important his apologetic work is to the Christian church.
“He studied twenty of the most influential Gnostic writers and defined and criticized their beliefs. Other early church fathers, such as Tertullian and Origen also provide information regarding Gnostic beliefs.” [8]
So who was Irenaeus? Well, he was taught by another Church father by the name of Polycarp who was the disciple of the Apostle of John. It is for certain that Irenaeus knew the teachings of the Apostles on the Trinity and knew the errors of the Gnostics. He spent his whole life attacking their false teachings.
Gnosticism Defined
What is Gnosticism? “Gnosticism is a heresy which is made up of a diverse set of beliefs. It is the teaching based on the idea of gnosis (a Koine Greek word meaning “secret knowledge”), or knowledge of transcendence arrived at by way of internal, intuitive means.” [9]
Further, what we do know by history is that the Gnostics repudiated major Christian doctrines like the Trinity and the person of Jesus Christ.
So again, we can see that Mark T. Barclay’s Jesus being a Gnostic and a false Jesus is radically different than the biblical Christ who is one person with two natures, being truly God and truly man.
Moreover, to refute these facts is to refute not only the Scriptural teaching of the Trinity and the person of Jesus Christ, but it’s also a rejection of historical reality itself, which is a dangerous thing that all members of cults do to their own eternal destruction.
Thus, a god who is of three-parts can’t save anyone and is a false god, being an idol and breaks the Second Commandment of the Law.
Further, for arguments sake, someone wouldn’t say that America was founded on Communism. I’m sure, if someone came to you and told you that that you would tell them that they were lying and refute them with evidence, because everyone knows that the early settlers were Christians, and America was founded on Democracy and not Communism.
So in the same sense we know that Mark T. Barclay’s heresies on the Trinity and the person of Jesus Christ are Gnostic, which factual truths are historical and this is irrefutable.
Read the rest of the review at the Theology of Mark T. Barclay blog
March 20, 2015
this is a great book! deals with the fact that many churches and ministries are backing away from the words of Christ. it is really encouraging to dig back into The Word, study the parables of Christ, and push forward into what's ahead!
"So don't let anyone tell you to lay down your Bible. Not any part of it. That would be like surrendering your sword in the battlefield.... You and I were purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ. We belong to Him. We are not our own. We follow His footsteps, His style of living, His ways, and His Words. I enjoy it!" (p 54)
"So don't let anyone tell you to lay down your Bible. Not any part of it. That would be like surrendering your sword in the battlefield.... You and I were purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ. We belong to Him. We are not our own. We follow His footsteps, His style of living, His ways, and His Words. I enjoy it!" (p 54)
December 5, 2014
This is old-fashioned righteousness teaching!
This little book will challenge you to come up higher! Jesus is our example for life and ministry. This book will reintroduce you to the "Red Letters", so sadly absent from so many pulpits today.
This little book will challenge you to come up higher! Jesus is our example for life and ministry. This book will reintroduce you to the "Red Letters", so sadly absent from so many pulpits today.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews