Ryan Hicks and His Teachings

Good afternoon! First of all, let me thank God for your work. Just have browsed your website the other week and almost all your info presented has been printed by me in the office for references. I was looking for information about the Moonies and ACQ[1]. This is because I wanted to know more so that I can minister to my relatives in the province who are ACQ members.

I would like to ask about this http://www.ryanhicksministries.com. From their website they seem aligned with the orthodox faith but they only allow the use of KJV Bibles and they promote Holiness and Sanctification.

Please send me information and more about this ministry. It seems okay naman kasi and I have enrolled in the free bible school correspondence.

Thank you very much and more power!

“Nerio”
Binan, Laguna

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Justyn M’s Reply:

Thank you for visiting the official website of The Bereans: Apologetics Research Ministries. I visited Ryan Hicks Ministries website and read some of his articles particularly Theomorphism. I believe he wants to fully comprehend God a reason why he fends off theological terminologies such as anthropomorphism, omnipresence, person, and others. He stated,

“Many think God is incorporeal because they only are thinking of a physical human body. God is corporeal (has a body) according to the Scriptures. This does not mean that He has a human body or is a human; rather that He has a Spirit body. His Spirit body is not somehow less real than our physical bodies, and in truth it is a greater reality than our physical bodies. To make “spirit” into some force that has no location is to truly make illogic of angels which plainly have bodies and are the most well known spirit-beings. No one seems to question that angels have a form, though they limit the Creator of these spirit-beings to being merely a force with no specific locality in a spatial sense. Anyone who knows God knows that He has a body and is not just a cloud, force, or presence without a body. Many people rightly define the members of the Godhead as three distinct Persons, but they fail to correctly define this personhood.”[2]

He insisted that God cannot be incorporeal since the Scripture plainly describes Him to have a hands, hair, head, lips, tongue, breath, and mouth. His teachings differ from the Mormons because the latter believes in God having physical body while the former believes He has a body in relation to spiritual form. Therefore, since he believe God to have a “spirit body” possessing the parts which human has (but in the spirit) then He can also be everywhere in sense of being omnisoma (i.e. bodily everywhere) as in direct contrast to omnipresence (i.e. everywhere present). Hicks did not foresee that if he continues to believe this kind of distorted reasoning about “theomorphism” he will be force to literally accept too that God also has a spiritual body of a bird because he said “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust” (Ps. 91:4, KJV), a spiritual body of a blast furnace in Deuteronomy 4:24, a spiritual body of a boulder in Deuteronomy 32:4, etc. How come Hicks only zeroed in to all forms that are related to humans and not also to chickens, blast furnace, and boulder? This is because he will have to admit his need for proper logic and reasoning in explaining such passages. This is where Mormonism likewise errs. He cannot just discount the word omnipresence and replace it with the word “omnisoma” and say that God is “bodily everywhere.” The Greek word for soma refers to the following:

1. the body both of men or animals
   1. dead body or corpse
   2. the living body
      1. of animals
2. the bodies of plants and of stars (heavenly bodies)
3. is used of a (large or small) number of men closely united into one society, or family as  it were; a social, ethical, mystical body
   1. so in the NT of the church
4. that which casts a shadow as distinguished from the shadow itself[3]

It does not refer to God having a “spirit body” or “pneumatosoma” because that would be self-contradicting. In addition to Hicks dilemma is his wrong definition of the word “person.” Since God is a “person” he insists that God must be in a “specific locality in a spatial sense” just like the angels. But the word “person” in reference to God must not be taken literally to mean in reference to an individual human being. James White helps us in understanding how language fails to convey in his book The Forgotten Trinity,

“The second way in which our language fails us has to do with what I call ‘excess baggage.’ Words often carry with them ‘baggage’ that has become attached to the meaning of a word. The way we use the word may cause us to conjure up particular mental images every time we hear it. The most glaring example of this is the word ‘person,’ a word that is often used when discussing the Trinity. When we use the word ‘person,’ we attaché to it all sorts of ‘baggage’ that comes from our own personal experiences. We think of a physical body, an individual, separate from everyone else. We think of a spatial location, physical attributes like height, weight, age—all things associated with our common use of the word ‘person.’ When we use this word to describe a divine person (Father, Son, or Holy Spirit), we tend to drag along with it the ‘baggage’ that comes from our common use of the term in everyday life. Many people, upon hearing the word ‘person’ used of the Father, for example, conjure up an image of a kind of old grandfatherly figure who is the ‘person’ of the Father. He’s separate, different, limited—everything we think of when we think of the term ‘person.’ It will be our task (and it is a difficult one!) to labor to separate such ‘baggage’ from our thinking and use such terms in very specific, limited ways so as to avoid unneeded confusion.”[4]

White also cautions us, “As I warned before, we must not succumb to the temptation to read the term ‘person’ as if we are talking about finite, self-contained human beings. What ‘person’ means when we speak of the Trinity is quite different than when we speak of creatures such as ourselves. These divine persons are identified in the last clause[5] as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”[6]

According to a research conducted by Let Us Reason Ministries,

“We believe that Abraham, Moses, John and Peter were not only persons, but different persons, Yet, nowhere does it specifically say they are persons. When we read of angels such as Michael or Gabriel we know they are persons, just as we know Satan, who is a Spirit being, is a person. Yet the Bible never specifically says they are persons. The term ‘person’ should not be restricted to human beings, since angels are personal subjects also. Using this word is an accommodation to our human language to show individual identity. The term ‘person’ was chosen to convey the concept that the Father, Son and Spirit each have their own consciousness.”[7]

I also find Hicks’ stand in eternal security as works based because he stated,

Eternal Security – Men who have confessed and forsaken their sin in full faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are eternally secure as long as they choose to obediently follow the Lord. Should they choose to turn back to sin, they then are once again lost and in need of repentance. If such a backslider refuses to repent, then they will die a sinner. According to James 5:19-20 such people can be reconverted and saved, otherwise they will be damned with the rest of the sinners and have no forgiveness for their sins. As long as one walks in the light, they should not fear forsaking their salvation (Matthew 10:22; 24:13; Mark 16:16; John 1:12; 3:15-16; 5:24; Romans 8:24; Galatians 6:8; Ephesians 1:4, 13; 4:30; Philippians 1:6; 1 John 1:7-9; 2:1; 3:2, 8-10).[8]

I remember one Christian couple in Dagupan City who talk to me about one church they attended whose pastor teach that once a Christian backslides then he will loss his salvation. I have problems with this line of reasoning because if we will base our salvation by not backsliding (i.e., being carnal, worldly) then how can one measure if a person has already backslidden? How worldly and sinful must a person be in order for him to loss his salvation? Then you will have to depend on human works in order to maintain your eternal security rather than base it on Christ by faith in His finish works in calvary. In fact, the apostle Paul called the Corinthian believers as brothers despite of them being worldly (Gk. carnal) in 1 Corinthians 3:1,3. A Christian cannot not loss his salvation just because he yielded to worldly pressure. If that believer wants to live on this earth in a miserable life condition after all the encouragement he gets, then that will be his privilege since God will surely discipline him. (cf. Heb. 12:5-12) The grievous thing that God can do to him is to cut short his life. (cf. 1 Cor. 11:27-32; 2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Pet. 4:17)

But what if that Christian dies in his state of being worldly or carnal? Then he will be accountable to God for all the things he had done while still living on this earth and his rewards will be affected but not his eternal life. The apostle Paul made it clear,

If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Corinthians 3:12-15, NIV. See also 5:5)

I suggest that you get your feeding from other respected and reliable Bible teachers who knows the Scripture well. God bless you!

Justyn M.
The Bereans Coordinator
(63)916-434-9485

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Notes:

[1] Acronym for Apollo C. Quiboloy who is the founder of one of the fast-growing Oneness cult groups in the Philippines namely “Jesus the Name Above Every Name.”[2] Ryan Hicks, “Theomorphism,” (1996-2004). Refer to: http://www.ryanhicksministries.com/anthropo.htm (emphasis’ his)[3] Joseph Henry Thayer’s Greek Lexicon (Refer to: Bible Companion Series software)[4] James White, “The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the heart of Christian Belief,” (Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers, 1998), 25-26.[5] White, Forgotten Trinity, 26. (First clause) Within the one Being that is God, (Second clause) there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, (Third clause) namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.[6] White, Forgotten Trinity, 27.[7] An excerpt in an article entitled The Word Persons from Let Us Reason Ministries.  (emphasis’ his)[8] Ryan Hicks, “Ryan Hick’s Expanded Doctrinal Statement,” (1996-2004). Refer to: http://www.ryanhicksministries.com (emphasis’ mine)