Anti-Catholic/Orthodox Protestant polemicists will often employ arguments against specific, core Catholic and Orthodox beliefs, which are both inconsistent and dishonest.

For instance, in their zeal to deny the blessed Mother’s perpetual virginity certain Protestant apologists will argue that the word adelphe always refers to either a flesh and blood sister or to a spiritual sister. They employ this claim for the express purpose of showing that Jesus had biological sisters (cf. Mark 6:3), which therefore disproves Mary’s being Ever-Virgin.

What makes this inconsistent, in fact dishonest, is that Anti-Trinitarians employ the same method to deny and oppose the Trinity, which these same Trinitarian apologists would be the first to oppose and reject.

For instance, arian cult leader Gregory Stafford claims that the following text proves that Jesus is the archangel Michael:

“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call (en phonee archangelou), and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first;” 1 Thessalonians 4:16

Stafford bases this on the fact that in every place where the preposition en (“with/in”) is used alongside of the term phonee in the dative case (indirect object), it is always referring to the voice of the subject in question. It does not refer to someone else’s voice.

Here are the examples he gives to bolster his case:

“Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he said with a loud voice (en phonee megalee), ‘Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the fountains of water.’” Revelation 14:6-7  

“And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice (en phonee megalee), ‘If any one worships the beast and its image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,’” Revelation 14:9

“And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice (en phonee megalee) to him who sat upon the cloud, ‘Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.’” Revelation 14:15  

“After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority; and the earth was made bright with his splendor. And he called out with a mighty voice (en ischyra phonee), ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! It has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul spirit, a haunt of every foul and hateful bird;’” Revelation 18:1-2

“Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice (en phonee megalee) he called to all the birds that fly in midheaven, ‘Come, gather for the great supper of God,’” Revelation 19:17

“Forsaking the right way they have gone astray; they have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Be′or, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a dumb ass spoke with human voice (en anthropou phonee) and restrained the prophet’s madness.” 2 Peter 2:15-16  

Stafford reasons, would anyone deny that these verses all refer to the voice of the specific individuals/entities mentioned within the context? I.e., it is the voice of the various angels mentioned and not some other entity’s voice, and it was Balaam’s ass that was enabled to speak with the voice of a man.

In this series of posts I will refute Stafford’s faulty methodology and biblical exegesis (more like eisegesis), and in doing so I will show why Trinitarian anti-Catholics/Orthodox need to abandon such sloppy and poor hermeneutics.  

GOD’S TRUMPET AND THE COMING OF YHWH    

According to the text in question, the risen Lord is said to descend with the trumpet of God:

“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God (salpingi Theou). And the dead in Christ will rise first;” 1 Thessalonians 4:16

The reason why this is an astonishing proclamation, as well as essential in refuting Stafford’s poor exegesis, is that according to the Hebrew Bible it is YHWH God himself who will blow the trumpet on the day in which he comes to reign on the earth:

“Then Yahweh will appear over them, And His arrow will go forth like lightning; AND THE LORD YAHWEH WILL BLOW THE TRUMPET And will go in the storm winds of the south. Yahweh of hosts will defend them. And they will consume and trample on the stones of a sling; And they will drink and roar as with wine; And they will be filled like a sacrificial bowl, Drenched like the corners of the altar. And Yahweh their God will save them in that day As the flock of His people; For they are as the stones of a crown, Sparkling in His land.” Zechariah 9:14-16

Now compare the Greek rendering of the specific text in question:

“And the Lord shall be over them, and [his] arrow shall go forth as lightning: and the Lord Almighty shall blow with the trumpet (kai Kyrios pantokrator en salpingi salpiei); and shall proceed with the tumult of his threatening.” Zechariah 9:14 LXX

Earlier, the prophet foretells that this will take place when the King of Israel comes riding into Jerusalem on a young donkey:

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Make a loud shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is righteous and endowed with salvation, Lowly and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a pack animal. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; And the bow of war will be cut off. And He will speak peace to the nations; And His reign will be from sea to sea And from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.” Zechariah 9:9-11

Here’s where it gets astonishing.

Zechariah goes on to show that the coming King will not be a mere human being. Rather, this Ruler is none other than YHWH God Almighty himself whom the prophet states shall descend upon the Mt. of Olives, and whose glorious feet will split it in half upon impact, as he enters Jerusalem to reign as King over the entire world!   

“Behold, a day is coming for Yahweh when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. Indeed, I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished, and half of the city will go forth in exile, but those left of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then Yahweh will go forth and fight against those nations, as the day when He fights on a day of battle. And in that day HIS FEET will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. And you will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; indeed, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then Yahweh, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him! And it will be in that day, that there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. And it will be a unique day which is known to Yahweh, neither day nor night, but it will be that at evening time there will be light. And it will be in that day, that living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter. And Yahweh WILL BE KING over all the earth; in that day Yahweh will be THE ONLY ONE, and His name ONE… Then it will be that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship THE KING, Yahweh of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship THE KING, Yahweh of hosts, there will be no rain on them.” Zechariah 14:1-9, 16-17

In other words, the inspired prophet is announcing that YHWH comes to dwell on earth as a physically embodied Being, which explains why he has feet and how he can ride upon a physical animal. This also helps us make sense of God’s commanding people to go up to worship YHWH in Jerusalem, since that is the earthly location where they will actually see God visibly in a physical body.

Even more remarkable is that the NT writings identify Jesus as that very YHWH who comes to rule on earth!

For instance, we are told that Christ deliberately rode on a foal as he entered Jerusalem in fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy:

“On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.’And Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, ‘Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.’These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him, and that they had done these things to Him.” John 12:12-16

The NT further states that it is Jesus who will descend upon the Mt. of Olives where he shall return from heaven with all his holy ones:

“And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’ Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away;” Acts 1:9-12

“and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men, as we do to you,so that he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13

What this means is that Zechariah was seeing the risen and exalted Christ returning to the earth in his physical, glorified body in order reign as the divine King from Jerusalem over all the earth!

Therefore, we can now appreciate why Paul claimed that Christ will descend with the trumpet of God. Jesus is that very YHWH God that became a physical Being, and who will blow his own trumpet in order to announce to the world that their God has returned to rule over the whole earth!

I have more to say in the next part of my refutation to arian cultist Stafford’s claims: WHEN PROTESTANTS ARGUE LIKE ARIAN HERETICS PT. 2.

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