On Dec. 8, we lost Ken Westby! Some of you remember the name some of you remember the man. As a longtime COG Preacher and a Ambassador College Graduate 1962 and one 12 original regional pastors his resume was long and fruitful. Of his peers which I have meet many of them over the years, Ken was in my opinion always growing in grace and knowledge. He had a personal morale compass. He stood up against the very men he loved when he saw wrong doings and bad judgement not being addressed. He stood up while others coward out. divorce and remarriage was one such church ruling he had a belly full of. He walked into GTA office one day with a stack of divorce and remarriage cases and said he wouldn’t do it any more, he wasn’t going to break up anymore families. Only a short time later HWA would change the ruling. By then Ken had already been destroyed by the bully pulpit of WWCOG for that and other ungodly things he couldn’t turn his back on. Many of his colleges did… I would like to Comment On The Shining Light Blog author James Malm’s characterization of one of Kens greatest Contributions to COG…
Ken Westby News:
Dixon Cartwright, editor of The Journal, reports:
“Our good friend Ken Westby died this morning, Thursday, December 8, 2016, at 3:50am Pacific time. He had been under hospice care at home for about a week. He passed peacefully with JoAnn and their two daughters there with him.
There will be a private committal service for the family within a few days.
Then JoAnn is planning a celebration-of-life service for sometime in March.”
Ken Westby with Nehemiah Gordon, Anthony Buzzard and others, has led the Rabbinic Unitarian movement attacking the truth about Jesus Christ the Creator and leading many astray in the COG constellation, particularly in UCG with supporters like Mark and Tony Bosserman. Ken and his gross heresy have been a regular and main feature in Dixon’s Journal.
I have carefully read James Malms article and its very long and I could print it and go line by line which I have in the past to show his blindness to the biblical Jesus Son of the Living and Only God! The Critical thinker and seeker of Truth must search the Scripture to see if these things be true that was the Ken Westby I knew! And God bless him!!!
John 17New King James Version (NKJV)
Jesus Prays for Himself
17 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
John 17Wycliffe Bible (WYC)
17 These things Jesus spake, and when he had cast up his eyes into heaven [and the eyes lifted up to heaven], he said, Father, the hour cometh, clarify thy Son, that thy Son clarify thee.
2 As thou hast given to him power on each flesh, that all thing that thou hast given to him, he give to them everlasting life.
3 And this is everlasting life, that they know thee very God alone [that they know thee alone very God], and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ.
4 I have clarified thee on the earth, I have ended the work, that thou hast given to me to do.
5 And now, Father, clarify thou me at thyself, with the clearness that I had at thee, before the world was made.
Jesus Is Not God Bible Verses by Servetus the Evangelical
Nearly all Christians believe that Jesus was and is God. That is what the institutional church has always taught. Christians professedly rely strongly on the Bible for this belief. Yet there is not a single verse in the Bible which states unequivocally, “Jesus is God,” or the like. Moreover, the New Testament (NT) gospels have no statement by Jesus in which he identifies himself as God. In fact, there are many Bible verses which indicate that Jesus cannot be God by declaring that only the Father is God or by distinguishing Jesus from God. Three irrefutable texts in the NT declare both of these points. First, and foremost, is one of Jesus’ sayings recorded only in the Gospel of John. The setting is the Last Supper, right before he was arrested and crucified. He prayed for his disciples, saying, “Father,… This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17.3). So, Jesus tells the Father that he is “the only true God” and then distinguishes himself from that one God. Both of these points clearly indicate that Jesus himself cannot also be God. Two other times the Johannine Jesus identified the Father as the only God. Earlier, he told his Jewish opponents that the Father is “the one and only God” (John 5.44). And again, at the Last Supper, Jesus distinguished himself from this one and only God by commanding his disciples, “believe in God, believe also in Me” (14.1). The other two NT passages which irrefutably establish that only the Father is God and distinguish Jesus from God are in Paul’s letters. He writes to the church at Corinth, “There is no God but one…. yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him” (1 Corinthians 8.4, 6). Here, Paul clearly declares that for Christians there is one God, who is the Father, and there is no other God, so that Jesus is not God. Many traditionalist scholars cite this passage to support that Jesus preexisted, thus concluding that he was God. Yet in doing so, they often ignore its double declaration that there is only one God, who is the Father. Even if Jesus did preexist, this does not prove that he was God. Second Temple Judaism regarded that some righteous men preexisted, and Jews did not conclude that such preexistence indicated that they actually were gods. The third irrefutable NT text which establishes that there is God, who is the Father, and distinguishes Jesus from God is in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. He writes, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4.4-6). Here, Paul implicitly identifies Jesus Christ as “one Lord” and distinguishes him from the “one God,” whom he unequivocally identifies as “the Father.” Paul is a unique author of NT literature in that he exclusively and consistently calls Jesus “Lord” and the Father “God.” Therefore, he never calls Jesus “God.” So, these three NT passages—John 17.3; 1 Corinthians 8.4, 6; and Ephesians 4.4-6— establish without any doubt that only the Father is God, so that Jesus cannot be God. One of many other NT passages which confirm that Jesus is not God is his encounter with the rich young ruler. This man sincerely asked Jesus, “‘Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone’” (Mark 10.17-18/Luke 18.18-19; cf. Matthew 19.16-17).
Many Christians have been confused by this saying, thinking that Jesus implies that he himself is not good. Yet the NT often declares that Jesus was such a righteous man that he never sinned (Acts 3.14; 2 Corinthians 5.21; Hebrews 4.15; 7.26; 2 Peter 2.22). Then what did Jesus mean when he said, “no one is good but God alone”? In the OT, Judaism, and especially Hellenistic theism, only the one God was considered “good” in an absolute sense. This must be what Jesus meant in this encounter. Humans were called “good” only in a derived sense, with God being recognized as the Source of goodness. Many NT passages show that Jesus was not God. For instance, the NT often declares that God sent Jesus, God was with Jesus in his mission, and God raised him from the dead. Peter preached about “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst” (Acts 2.22). Peter later proclaimed about “Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with Him” (10.38). In the salutations of all ten of Paul’s NT letters he identifies God as the Father, distinguishes God from Jesus Christ, and he never mentions the Holy Spirit. He typically writes, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” This evidence further affirms that only the Father is God and that Jesus is not God. Moreover, the Bible contains several verses which state unambiguously that Jesus had a God, and most say he was the Father. When Jesus hung upon the cross he quoted Psalm 22.1, crying out to the Father, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME” (Matthew 27.46/Mark 15.34). The day Jesus was resurrected, he said to Mary Magdalene, “I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (John 20.17). And three times the Apostle Paul writes about “the God and Father of our/the Lord Jesus (Christ)” (Romans 15.6; 2 Corinthians 1.3; 11.31; cf. Ephesians 1.17). Finally, the heavenly Jesus is quoted five times saying “My God” (Revelation 3.2, 12; cf. 1.6). The one verse that caused this author to first question whether Jesus is God is Jesus’ saying in his Olivet Discourse about the time of his return. He said, “But of that day and/or hour no one knows, not even the angels of/in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” (Matthew 24.36/Mark 13.32). Since Jesus did not know the time of his return he could not have been God, for he reveals that God the Father did know it. Orthodox Christian theology has always insisted that God is omniscient, knowing everything, including everything about the future. Accordingly, Jesus could not have been God.
Preexistence is another layer of understanding that takes careful study. Each verse needs to be examined in detail. Mr Malm as I have pointed out is Binitarian and believes as HWA did and taught that two gods make one god as the Trinitarians believe 3 gods make one god. As I have written about in many articles on this WWPOG website.
Mr Malm says
HEAR the words of Jesus Christ himself:
John 8:56 your, father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. His audience understood correctly from this statement that Jesus was declaring that he had known and been known by Abraham. 8:57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
They inquired of him how he could make such a claim when he was not yet fifty years old. 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM. Jesus openly declared himself to be God; using the very name of the God of the ancients “I AM”
God told Moses Exodus 3:14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
John 8:59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: [because he called himself by the name of God] but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
This is a very important issue. The position that the word YHVH refers exclusively to God the Father, makes Christ a liar and denies the divinity of Christ; and therefore denies the efficacy of His sacrifice; Leaving us without an atonement or means of reconciliation with God the Father. Further this error prevents an understanding of a very large part of the scriptures.
Either Jesus Christ pre-existed as the “I Am” [YHWH], or he sinned and lied, making His sacrifice of no effect! IS this really what I am means in the Greek?
ego eimi “I am”, “I exist”, is the first person singular present tense of the verb “to be” in ancient Greek. The use of this phrase in some of the uses found in the Gospel of John is given theological significance by many Christians.
He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” John The Baptist
And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”
He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the Lord,”’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.”
Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
“Before A
Brethren are you going to Let Others think for you ? Or are you going to read and see if these things are So?
“Before Abraham was, I Am”.
These words, spoken by our Savior in Jn.8:58, have led to much controversy and confusion. Some use this verse to prove the Messiah’s pre-existence. Others use it to prove the trinity doctrine. And then there are those who use it to prove Yahshua is the great “I AM” of Ex.3:14. So, is Yahshua is also Yahweh the Father??.
The phrase “I am” is “ego eimi” in Greek. Since the Greek New Testament records Yahshua using “ego eimi” many times, Christian theologians term these sayings, “The I Am’s of Jesus”. It is believed that each of these occurrences implies Yahshua’s identity as the “I AM” of Ex.3:14. Can this be true? Can our Savior, the Son of Yahweh, actually be the “I AM,” can he also be Yahweh?
Ex.3:14-15 reads, “And Elohim said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And Elohim said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Yahweh, Elohim of your fathers, Elohim of Abraham, Elohim of Isaac, and Elohim of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.” Therefore, the “I AM” in this passage, is identified as “Yahweh,” or rather, is representing Yahweh. Through this representative authority, this messenger to Moses is able to use the Name of the Divine Creator of all, Yahweh.
One thing which must be clearly understood at this point of our discussion, is that The Father Creator Elohom called Yahweh, is “Spirit,” as Yahshua clearly taught us in Jn. 4:24. And, He is the only one “who only has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or is able to see, to whom be respect and everlasting might.” 1 Tim. 6:16. “No one has ever seen Elohim,” (Yahweh) Jn. 1:18. All Scripture then being correctly understood, would have to lead us to the conclusion, that all apparent communications between “Yahweh” and man, is through a Messenger (angel) Representative speaking with the full authority and power of Yahweh, and is thereby able to use the Divine Name in the “first” person.
And what does Yahweh say in Ps.2:7? “I will declare the decree: Yahweh hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” Yahweh is the Father of Yahshua. Yahshua is the Son of Yahweh. Yahshua is not Yahweh (the Son is not the Father). Therefore, it stands, that Yahshua (the Son of Yahweh) cannot be the “I AM” who is (Yahweh). That alone should be sufficient to discredit the belief that Yahshua was claiming to be the “I AM.” But let’s look into the matter a little farther.
It is believed that Jn.8:59 further supports the position that Yahshua is the “I AM.” Why else would the Yahudain try to stone him? He obviously blasphemed in the eyes of the Yahudain, a stone-able offense. Or did he? Is the mere utterance of “ego eimi” a blasphemy? Does the use of “ego eimi” automatically identify the speaker as Yahweh, the I AM, and thereby trigger a stone-able offense?
Several individuals aside from Yahshua used “ego eimi” as well. In Lu.1:19, the angel Gabriel said, “Ego eimi Gabriel.” In Jn.9: 9, the blind man whose sight was restored by Yahshua said, “Ego eimi.” In Acts 10:21, Peter said, “Behold, ego eimi (I am) he whom ye seek.” Obviously, the mere use of “ego eimi” does not equate one to the “I Am” of Ex.3:14. But perhaps the Savior’s use of it was somehow different.
If, in fact, Yahshua spoke Greek to the Yahudain (which is doubtful), he used the phrase “ego eimi” at least twenty times and yet, in only one instance did the Yahudain seek to stone him (Jn.8: 58). Yahshua said, “I am the bread of life” to a large crowd in Jn.6: 35 & 48, yet no one opposed him. In verse 41, the Yahudain murmured because he said, “I am (ego eimi) the bread which came down from heaven.” But in verse 42, the Yahudain questioned only the phrase, “I came down from heaven” and ignored “ego eimi.” The same is true of verses 51; 52.
In Jn.8: 12, 18, 24, & 28, Yahshua used “ego eimi” with Pharisees present (vs.13) and yet, no stoning. He, again, used it four times in Jn.10:7, 9, 11, & 14 with no stoning. Yahshua said to his disciples, “…that…ye may believe that I am (ego eimi)” in Jn.13:19 without them batting an eye.
An interesting account occurs in Jn.18 when the Yahudain came to arrest Yahshua in the Garden of Gethsemane. When the chief priests and Pharisees said they were seeking Yahshua of Nazareth, Yahshua said to them, “Ego eimi.” At that they fell backward to the ground, surprised and startled, that the one they were seeking, had the fortitude to confront them face to face. What followed will make it clear that Yahshua was not claiming to be the “I AM.”
After Yahshua’s arrest, the Yahudain took him to Annas first (vs.13). Then they took him to Caiaphas (vs.24) and eventually to Pilate (vss.28, 29). A parallel account is found in Mt.26: 57-68. Notice, in particular, verse 59. The same men that had fallen backward to the ground were in attendance when the council sought false witnesses against Yahshua to put him to death. Verse 60 says they couldn’t find any. Eventually two came forward. Interestingly, they didn’t bear false witness about what Yahshua said in Jn.8:58, but about his reference to destroying the temple and building it again in three days. Where were all those witnesses from Jn.8: 58?
The point about Mt.26 is, why would false witnesses be sought if they had true witnesses in attendance? The arresting officers heard Yahshua say “Ego eimi.” They could have stoned him right there in the garden for blasphemy, but they didn’t. They could have reported the supposed blasphemy to the council, but they didn’t. Why not? Because it wasn’t blasphemy, nor was it a stone-able offense. He was merely identifying himself as Yahshua of Nazareth. The fact of the matter is, the Greek phrase “Ego eimi”, simply means “I am the one”, or “I am He.”
This brings us back to Jn.8: 58. Why did the Yahudeans seek to stone him on that occasion? The context of Jn.8 shows that Yahshua;
1) accused the Yahudain of “judging after the flesh” (vs.15).
2) said they would die in their sins (vss.21,24).
3) implied they were in bondage (vss.32,33).
4) said they were servants of sin (vs.34).
5) said they were out to kill him (vss. 37,40).
6) implied they were spiritually deaf (vs.43,47).
7) said their father was the devil (vs.44).
8) said they were not of Elohim (vs.47).
9) accused them of dishonoring him (vs.49).
10) accused them of not knowing Yahweh (vs.55).
11) accused them of lying (vs.55).
Aside from that, the Yahudain misunderstood Yahshua’s words leading them to believe;
1) that he accused them of being born of fornication (vs.41).
2) Yahshua had a devil (vs.52).
3) that he was exalting himself above Abraham (vs.53).
4) that he saw Abraham (vs.56).
Yahshua’s words in verse 58 were the culmination of an encounter that was so offensive to the Yahudain that they couldn’t restrain themselves anymore. They simply couldn’t take it anymore so they sought to stone him, not because of two simple words, “ego eimi,” but because he was making himself out to be greater than their beloved father Abraham. They sought to stone him illegally.
So what does Jn. 8: 58 really mean?
Let’s look at the context of Yahshua’s statement. It begins in verse 51 with the thought of eternal life; “If a man keeps my saying, he shall never see death.” The Yahudain thought since Abraham and the prophets were dead, Yahshua must have a demonic teaching. The context is eternal life. Then in verse 56 Yahshua says Abraham “rejoiced to see my day.” He did not say he saw Abraham as the Yahudain misunderstood. How did Abraham see Yahshua’s day? Heb.11:13 says, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” He saw Yahshua’s day by faith.
Yahshua then resumed the context of his initial conversation by saying, “Before Abraham was, I am the ‘coming’ one.” “was” is from the Greek “ginomai” meaning, “to come into being, to be born,… to arise.” In the Greek, the tense of the word is NOT pure “past” tense. It is 2 Aorist, middle voice, infinitive, meaning past tense action without any indication that the act was completed. What Yahshua actually said ‘literally’ was, “Before Abraham “comes” to be born, I am he. In other words, before Abraham comes to be born (at his resurrection into eternal life), I am he, (the “coming” one).” Yahshua was the eternal coming one (the Messiah, deliverer) in the plan of Yahweh from the beginning. Confirmation of this understanding comes to us from Figures of Speech used in the Bible by E.W. Bullinger, pgs. 521,522. Under the heading “Heterosis (Of Tenses),” sub-heading “The Present for the Future,” he writes “This is put when the design is to show that some thing will certainly come to pass, and is spoken of as though it were already present.” He then lists some examples such as Mt.3: 10b, “therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is [shall be] hewn down;” and Mk.9:31a, “For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is [shall be] delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.” Included among this list of examples of Heterosis is Jn.8: 58. In other words, although properly written, “Before Abraham comes into being, I am (the one)” with “I am the one” in the simple present tense, the meaning points to the future, “Before Abraham comes to be born, I am the one.”
Some translators believe this verse should be translated, “Before Abraham existed, I existed.” However, neither Greek verb is in the perfect past tense. “was” is in the aorist ‘infinitive’ (or imperfect past) tense and “am” is in the present first person indicative tense. Let’s look a little closer at “was.” Concerning the aorist tense, A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament by Dana and Mantey says, “It has time relations only in the indicative, where it is past and hence augmented.” The verb ginomai ‘was’ (to have been born) is in the Greek aorist (infinitive) tense, not the indicative. Therefore it should not be understood as being in the past tense. This same reference says of the infinitive, “The aorist infinitive denotes that which is eventual or particular, …” Abraham will eventually resurrect (to have been born) which is why the Greek uses the aorist infinitive. The meaning is, “Before Abraham comes to be born” not “Before Abraham was (or ‘existed’).”
In conclusion, Yahshua was not declaring that he is the great “I AM” of Ex.3:14. There are many occurrences in the Greek, which proves that the term “I am” is a very common phrase, a verb of existence, meaning “I am He” or “I am the one.” This phrase by it’s self is not a ‘stone-able’ offense, for it is used many times. As we have already shown, there were a lot of implications in this chapter which ground into the minds and heart of the Yahudain leaders. All the offenses combined, culminated at this point, into the prophesied path (end result) for Yahshua.
Yahshua was not declaring himself to be Yahweh, or the eternal self existing one, and Yahshua was not declaring his pre-existence. He was, from the beginning of Yahweh’s plan, to be the Messiah, the deliverer, the King of Israel, the Son of Yahweh, the Son of the great “I Am.” The son had an eternal purpose (as do all of us) in the plan of the Father, but the son did not have a pre-existing life, or “life in himself” as a “Mighty One” or a deity from eternity past, for the Father Yahweh gave the son to have life in himself. (John 5:26).
Author of the original Document is John Cordaro. Visit his Web-site at:
The everlasting Good News of Yahweh to read the Document.
This Edition contains Revisions and Additions made by A.O.Y.,Cascade
Picture God at the top of this Mountain and the Man Jesus as the mediator
wwpog blog (Worldwide People Of God) 