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“FDR’s Day of Infamy speech on Dec. 8, 1941, asking Congress to declare war omits all reference to his war provoking ultimatum (given to the Japanese), ten days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. It deliberately deceived all members of Congress, Democrats, and Republicans alike, when he said the united States was still in conversation with its government and its emperor, looking forward to the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. No member of Congress knew about FDR’s war ultimatum, or of his receipt of the decoded Japanese answer, the evening of December 6th, when he turned to Harry Hopkins and said that meant war. This is exactly what he wanted and expected, but strangely, although he was commander and chief of our armed forces, he did little or nothing about it. It was his duty to immediately call the Secretary of War and the Secretary of Navy and General Marshall and Admiral Stark. The only thing that that is known is that he did call Admiral Stark who was at the theatre and so did not reach him. There is no record that he ever communicated that night with any of the prominent navy or army officers. The record shows that FDR knew from the decoded answer that it meant war more than fourteen hours before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and did nothing about it, except in his ‘Day of Infamy’ speech to start the spread of the greatest cover-up in history which continued for many years. Quoting FDR,

‘Indeed one hour after the Japanese air squadron had commenced bombing Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the united States and his colleague delivered to the Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent message’ (FDR’s war ultimatum). As pointed out the Japanese decoded answer was known to FDR fourteen hours before, and presumably, to Hull, Stimson, Knox, Marshall, and Stark. If they were not notified, FDR is responsible. The big cover-up got a good start wrapped up in a well-publicized and universally acclaimed Day of Infamy speech to Congress because not one member knew of the existence of FDR’s war-making ultimatum.”

Hamilton Fish
US Congressman — November 2, 1920 – January 3, 1945
FDR, The Other Side of the Coin; How We were Tricked into WW II – p. 146f

Below is an excerpt from Rear Admiral Robert A. Theobald’s book, “The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor: The Washington Background of the Pearl Harbor Attack.” Theobald served in the US Navy during WW II and was in Pearl Harbor when the Japs hit the Pacific fleet eighty years ago today. Years later an unclassified National Security Council document included a recommendation that Theobald’s book be read on the subject of what happened at Pearl Harbor. Theobald’s contention is that the administration of FDR with malice afore-thought suppressed intelligence about the looming attack of the Japanese on Pearl Harbor in order to bring the United States into the European war through the back door. Though Theobald’s book was the first to make that accusation several books since then (Stinnett, Hoover, Gannon) have joined Theobald in the accusation providing more and more proof that FDR wanted the Japs to hit America and knew that the Japs would hit Pearl Harbor and kept that knowledge to himself. FDR not only knew this but he created the conditions wherein the Japanese had little choice but to strike. This of course doesn’t excuse the Japanese for their treachery but it does serve to reveal FDR as a mass murderer of American naval personnel. FDR’s treachery went one step further in pointing the finger at General Short and Admiral Kimmel (Army and Navy commanders at Pearl Harbor) for the ones being responsible for what happened at Pearl Harbor through their lack of preparedness. Then on top of that later Democrats would not allow, upon the request of Gen. Short and Admiral Kimmel, their court-martials to go through.

Indeed Pearl Harbor is a day that lives in the infamy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Begin quote by Rear Admiral Robert A. Theobald;

“President Roosevelt’s conversation with Admiral Richardson (Richardson was Kimmel’s predecessor in Pearl Harbor) in October 1940 indicate FDR’s conviction that it would be impossible without a stunning incident to obtain a declaration of war from Congress. Despite the conditions of undeclared war which existed in the Atlantic during the latter half of 1941, it had long been clear that Germany did not intend to contribute to the creation of a state of formal war between her and the united States.”

Theobald then lists the acts of the FDR administration in order to drive the Japanese to war.

1.) “The stoppage of Philippine exports to Japan via executive order on May, 1941.

2.) The freezing of Japanese assets and the interdiction of all trade with Japan by the united States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands on July 25, 1941.

3.) The termination of the Washington conference of Nov. 26, 1941, when Secretary Hull handed Admiral Nomura the famous war provoking ultimatum, unknown to Congress or the American people until after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

President Roosevelt and his military and naval advisors were well aware that Japan invariably started her wars with a surprise attack synchronized closely with her delivery of a declaration of war.

The retention of the fleet in Hawaii, especially after its reduction in strength after March 1941 could serve only one purpose, an invitation to a surprise Japanese attack.

The denial to the Hawaiian commanders of all knowledge of magic (code-breaking device that broke Japanese coded communications) was vital to the plans of enticing Japan to deliver a surprise attack upon the fleet at Pearl Harbor.

Everyone familiar with Japanese military history knew that her first acts of war against China in 1894 and Russia in 1904 have been surprise attacks against the main fleets of those countries. The only American naval force in the Pacific that was worth the risk of such an operation was the fleet in Hawaiian waters.

A Toyko dispatch to the Japanese Embassy at Washington on Nov. 28, 1941 definitely stated that the Japanese Government considered that the American note of the 26th had terminated all possibility of further (peace) negotiations. 

The Japanese code destruction messages of December 1st and 2nd meant that war was extremely close at hand.

With the distribution of the pilot message at 3 PM on Saturday, Dec. 6, the picture was complete for President Roosevelt and other recipients of ‘magic.’

Never before in reported history had a Field Commander been denied information that his country would be at war in a couple of hours and that everything pointed to a surprise attack upon his forces shortly after sunrise. No naval office on his own initiative would ever make a decision as Admiral Stark thus did. (Admiral Stark was Admiral Kimmel’s superior in Washington)

The fact and Admiral Stark’s decisions on that Sunday morning even if they had not been supported by the wealth of the earlier evidence, would reveal beyond question the basic truth of the Pearl Harbor story, i.e., that these Sunday messages and so many earlier ones of vital importance to Admiral Kimmel’s exercise of command were not sent because Admiral Stark had orders from the President which prohibited that action.

This deduction is fully supported by the Admiral’s statement to the press in August 1945 that all he did during the pre-Pearl Harbor days was done on order of higher authority, which can only mean President Roosevelt. The most arresting thing he did during that time was to withhold information from Admiral Kimmel.”

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John takes up this theme in his epistle as well

4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess [a]that Jesus [b]Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.

These passages are where we get the term “Incarnation.” The English word Incarnation comes from the Latin word Incarnatio which is in turn a translation of the Greek which literally says;

“Kai ho Λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο – And the Word flesh became

The word “sark” you heard there means “flesh,” and the Latin word “incarnatio” means taking or being flesh. So, even though like the word “trinity” we don’t find the word “incarnatio” in the Bible the word “Incarnation” certainly properly encapsulates the Greek idea of God becoming flesh.

This idea of the incarnation refers both to the act in which the eternal Son became flesh as well as the whole experience of human life into which He entered.

Of course, we have more than just John’s testimony concerning the incarnation. It is a doctrine testified to by Paul as well as other Holy Spirit inspired men. Here are just a few of the more obvious ones.

Hebrews 2:14 – Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,

Gal. 4:4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman

Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh …

I Tim. 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:  God was manifested in the flesh…

This is the universal testimony of Scripture. That the Word became flesh.

John’s testimony in vs. 1 is that this Word that became flesh was God. This testifies that the He who became flesh pre-existed before His incarnation. In short John is telling us that the Creator Himself enters into our world as a creature.

This is one of the realities that make Christianity sui generis … unique … one of a kind.

In Christianity God condescends to man. In the incarnation, God does all. Mary is merely a passive and willing vessel. If man is to be reclaimed by God then God must do all the reclaiming for man being fallen cannot rise to God and therefore God must condescend to man and in the incarnation, God stoops low, in the incarnation, in order to repair what man had destroyed, in order to bring in the recreation, in order to take the sting out of death.

Indeed, so central is the incarnation that we would say that it is the pivotal point of history. Before the incarnation, there was only anticipation of restoration. With the incarnation, the restoration has arrived.

Dutch Theologian Herman Bavinck agrees with us;

“If, however, Christ is the incarnate Word, then the incarnation is the central fact of the entire history of the world; then, too, it must have been prepared from before the ages and have its effects through history.”

Make no mistake, apart from the Word becoming flesh there is no Christianity and if there is no Christianity then Hobbes was correct in saying that life is solitary, poor, nasty and short and that with or without civil government. Because of this, we must always be vigilant to retain the incarnation for from the beginning through the centuries the incarnation has been denied in one clever way or another and cleverness still denies it today.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

When John wrote vs. 14 and testified that the pre-existent Logos became flesh he shocked his religious world at the time. The idea that God became flesh was considered blasphemy by the professional religious community as we see in John 10:33

³² Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? ³³ The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

So, the idea of the Word becoming flesh was not accepted among the professional religious class and this provides just one reason why Jesus the Christ was so hated by the professional religious class.

Now having made these introductory remarks on the incarnation let us spend just a little bit of time teasing out how the incarnation touches upon other key doctrines of our undoubted catholic Christian faith.

What we are doing here is looking at how the incarnation is involved in other central pillars of the Christian faith so that we see that Christianity can not exist as Christianity apart from the reality of the incarnation

For our purposes this morning we want to note that the incarnation, obviously enough has Trinitarian implications.

If all we had was the OT we could build a case for plurality in God but it would be a case based upon deduction. The OT gives us every reason to expect God with us but in the NT the legitimate anticipation becomes reality.

The NT, with the incarnation of Jesus Christ, screams that God is not only one but He is many. This idea of God being Trinitarian — being both one and many — makes Christianity Christianity. If we drop the incarnation we at that very moment drop the Trinitarian nature of God and so embrace an absurdity.

In this passage teaching us about the incarnation we can begin to limn out the reality of the doctrine of the Trinity. Which can be simply stated as

1.  ”There is but one God.”
2. “The Father and the Son and the Spirit is each God.”
3. “The Father and the Son and the Spirit is each a distinct person.”

1.) ”There is but one God.”

“In the beginning was the Word and the Word Was God”

Note the singularity in John  1:1. There is nothing here that denies the great Hebrew Shema … “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” Though there is a plurality in the Godhead God is still referred to as singular. It is very God of very God who has taken upon Himself very man of very man.

2.) “The Father and the Son and the Spirit is each God.”

We see the inspired John write repeatedly that the incarnate Son was God incarnate. Indeed this idea that Jesus is God is one of John’s labors in His gospel. He says it explicitly. His accounts note it implicitly. He demonstrates it in his unfolding narrative over and over again. The Gospel of John, right from vs. 1 teaches that Jesus is God and keeps teaching it over and over again ad nauseaum…. “The Word was God.”

If Jesus is not God then there is no Trinity and no incarnation and if there is no Trinity and no incarnation there is no Christianity whatever what might be left might be called.

3.) “The Father and the Son and the Spirit is each a distinct person.”

In Matthew & Luke we see the role of the Spirit in the incarnation so that we are taught the three distinct persons in the one God.

And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

So, the incarnation implies the Trinitarian nature of God and were we to explore this further we would see what is called the “personal properties” which distinguish the divine persons from one another, namely:

1. The Father’s eternal begetting of the Son (“paternity”).
2. The Son’s eternal generation from the Father (“filiation”).
3. The Spirit’s eternal procession from the Father and the Son (“spiration”).

   But that is a sermon series by itself. However, we did want to note that this morning.

   There is another dynamic on this point that we desire to bring out on this distinctly Christian doctrine of the incarnation. We have already noted that the incarnation is distinctly Christian as a doctrine because it is consistent with God condescending to man since man can not arise to God. We said this truth makes Christianity absolutely unique.

   Now we say that the incarnation is distinctly Christian as a doctrine because no other belief system can provide the possibility of an incarnation.

   There are really only three types of religions … and two of those three if one boils enough can be reduced to two. But for our purposes this morning lets us contemplate three types of religions.

   Those three are Deism, Pantheism, and Christianity. In Deism, one has the absent God. In Pantheism, one has the God is not distinct God.

   The incarnation sets Christianity apart because in Deism and Pantheism there is no room for the incarnation of God. In Deism, God has wandered off and is separate from humanity there can be no incarnation. In Pantheism God loses his distinctiveness in his creatures so that everything and nothing is an incarnation. Only with a Trinitarian God can we have an incarnation whereby God can be both God transcendent and at the same time God immanent — God with us.

   Citing Bavinck again,

   “The masters of these religions of Deism and Pantheism have scoffed at the Christian doctrine of the incarnation. In history, the Socinians, who were Deists called the incarnation a ‘human fantasy and a monstrous dogma and deemed it easier for a human to become a donkey than for God to become a man.’ On the other end, the pantheist Spinoza commented that the incarnation was as absurd as saying that “a circle assumes the nature of a square.”

   So, only Christianity, with its Trinitarian character can provide an incarnation … a “God with us.”

   Before we close however let us consider the incarnation as an act of the one Triune God. Here we lean on Dr. Mark Jones book “Knowing Christ.”

   The Scriptures teach that the Father was responsible as the Master Architect for designing and preparing the body of the Son. Hebrews 10:5 draws on the Psalm we read this morning (Ps. 40:6)

   ⁵ Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

   “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
       but a body you prepared for me;

   Here Christ is speaking to the Father and He says to the Father “a body you have prepared for me.” In this speech, we learn that the body that the Son offered up as a sacrifice for man’s sin was prepared by the Father. John 1:14 teaches that the Word became flesh — took on the whole human nature body and soul — and that flesh that the Word took on was prepared by the Father.

   Said simply, “The Father prepared the body which the Son would offer up.”

   The Puritan Thomas Brooks chimes in here,

   The Father “ordained, formed, and made fit and able Christ’s human nature to undergo suffer, and fulfill that for which He was sent into the world.”

   However we also see the work of the Person of the Spirit in the incarnation. If the Father was the architect of the incarnate body, the Spirit was the Master builder as the one who was responsible for the actual formation of the human nature of Christ.

   “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called^[a] the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)

   The Holy Spirit as the Master builder of the human nature of Christ bears the responsibility for the physical and spiritual life of Jesus.

    

   ^{Matthew 1:18} This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about^[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit 

   ²⁰ But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

   The Puritan Ussher speaks at this point of Mary’s womb as the ‘bride chamber’ where the Spirit knit the indissoluble knot between our human nature and His deity.

   Then of course, the Trinitarian work of the incarnation is made complete in the second person of the Trinity gladly embracing adding to His divine nature human nature. The intense love of the Son for the Father and for His people worked in Him a glad willingness to take on Adam’s manhood sin excepted.

   All of this once again demonstrates the Christian doctrine of perichoresis which holds that you cannot have one person of the Trinity without having the other two, and you cannot have any person of the Trinity without having the fullness of God. The inter-communion of the persons is reciprocal, and their operations are inseparable. As Augustine put it: “Each are in each, and all in each, and each in all, and all are one.”

   God being one, the work of any one of the persons of God finds all of God working.