Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
About
Christology
Israel/Palestine
Publications
KermitZarley.com
Archives
Categories
- Angels
- Blog Description
- Book Reviews
- Christian Living
  - Unconditional Love?
- Christianity
- Christology
  - Deity of Christ?
  - Holy Spirit
  - Incarnation?
  - My Change
  - Trinity?
- Church History
- Current Events
- War on Terrorism
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- Eschatology
- Ezekiel 38-39
- Last Empire
- Primitive Weapons
- Film Reviews
- God
- Golf
  - Billy Graham
  - Karsten Solheim
  - Lee Trevino
  - Major Championship Winners
  - Masters
  - Purpose
  - Ryder Cup
- Gospel Harmonization
- Interview
- Islam
- Jesus
- Literary Announcements
- Monotheism
- My Books
  - The Restitution of Jesus Christ
- Old Testament
- Politics
- Society of Biblical Literature
- The Bible
- Trinitarianism
- Uncategorized
FREE NEWSLETTER

Home
Progressive Christian
Religion News
Foster Friess Died at 81

Foster Friess Died at 81

Last updated on: June 17, 2021 at 9:36 pm by Kermit Zarley

Foster Friess Died at 81 2021-06-17T21:36:01-07:00 Kermit Zarley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Foster Friess died last Thursday here in Scottsdale, Arizona, where I live. He was 81 years old. He had been undergoing treatments here at the Mayo Clinic for a blood and bone marrow cancer. The gregarious Foster Friess will be greatly missed by friends. With a name like that, how could you not like Foster Friess. His name always reminded me of when I was growing up in Seattle, my family sometimes would go have an evening treat after supper by driving to the ice cream joint called Foster’s Freeze.

I was one of Foster’s many, many friends. Since he lived in both Scottsdale and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the always-smiling and positive-thinking Foster Friess often had his picture taken wearing a cowboy hat and perhaps riding a horse due to the founding of his organization Foster’s Outriders.

Foster Friess was well known in the financial industry for founding and operating the Brandywine Fund, the flagship of Friess Associates. Investors may be interested to know that CNBC once identified Foster Friess as one of the 20th “century’s great investors.” Forbes magazine named Foster Friess one the 1990’s top stock pickers. That decade, Brandywine Fund had average annual gains of 20% with up to $15 billion in assets managed, of which the Friess family owned 10%.

Foster was a devout Christian and a prominent Republican who once ran for governor of Wyoming. And he and his wife Lynn also were known for being philanthropists to Christian charities and donors to Republican politicians, such as Rick Santorum.

I first met Foster Friess at a private Golf Fellowship weekend retreat held at the elite Pine Valley Golf Club in southern New Jersey. During the 1980s, I worked with my two friends Jim Hiskey and Tom Flory in establishing Golf Fellowship groups throughout the U.S. It was an evangelical Christian ministry to amateur golfers. We played golf together, prayed together, studied the Bible together, and discussed our personal Christian faith together.

Golf Digest has always rated Pine Valley Golf Club as the #1 golf course in the U.S. It is surprising that no major, professional golf championship has ever been held at this venue. It is truly a remarkable golf course design. I have to say that Golf Digest got it right about this place. And that is the only time I ever played Pine Valley.

One day during this Golf Fellowship retreat at Pine Valley, Foster Friess and I were paired together playing the great Pine Valley Golf Club. You’d think that we would have our minds totally engrossed in playing such a world-famous track as Pine Valley. But somehow, we got into a slightly-tense discussion about whether or not Jesus is God. Of course, just about all Christians since the fourth century have been taught, just as I had been, that the Bible says Jesus is both God and man. This teaching was later included in the theological construct called “the doctrine of the Trinity.”

Christians who read my blog much know that I was a Trinitarian Christian for twenty-two years until one day a Bible verse caught my attention while I was studying the Bible in my home office. It is in Jesus’ so-called Olivet Discourse which he delivered privately to his apostles only a few days before his crucifixion on Good Friday, his resurrection the following Sunday morning, and his ascension to heaven forty days later. Jesus then said concerning his yet future return which he had predicted, “But about/of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of/in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24.32/Mark 13.32 NRSV).

Along with this teaching that Jesus is God and its corollary, the doctrine of the Trinity, I also had been taught “the hypostatic union” of Jesus Christ. The Catholic Church had established that Jesus was God during its first ecumenical council, in 325, and it further established its doctrine of the Trinity in its second ecumenical council, in 381. After that, the Church established its doctrine of the hypostatic union to explain how Jesus could be both man and God. The hypostatic union means that Jesus had two natures: a human nature and a divine nature. This teaching was applied to the deeds and sayings of Jesus as recorded in the four gospels of the New Testament. Thus, according to the hypostatic union, church leaders often explained that Jesus said his statement in Matthew 24.36/Mark 13.32 solely according to his human nature. That is, in his human nature he did not know the time of his return, but in his divine nature he did know because, being God, with a divine nature, God knows everything.

All of sudden, when I was reading that saying of Jesus in the winter of 1979-1980, I believe a light went on inside of me. Contemplating that Jesus did not know in his human nature the time of his return, yet he did know it in his divine nature, I then blurted out loud to myself, “That makes Jesus look like a liar. He said didn’t know, but he really did know.” I then decided that I must have a serious look at this issue.

Wow, did I ever. I estimate that for the next thirty years, I read about 1,000 books on the identity of Jesus. And I scoured hundreds of Bible commentaries regarding what they said of the critical Bible texts on this subject, which are several. The result of this immense study was that I wrote a 600-page book on my findings entitled The Restitution of Jesus Christ which I self-published in 2008. I believe this book presents the most thorough and biblical challenge to the teaching that Jesus is God that has ever been published from the viewpoint that Jesus is all that the church has agreed to about him–such as his virgin birth, miracles, sinless perfection, died for our sins as Savior and Lord, and literally arose from dead–except that he is not God.

So, Foster and I did not come to agreement about this. But that is the way it usually has been for me in discussing this subject with my Christian brethren. For the church generally says I am a heretic, and thus not a real Christian, because of I now believe the Bible does not say Jesus is God. Thus, I believe church fathers got this wrong. Nevertheless, Foster was such a loving friend to people that he and I did not let this ruin our Christian fellowship. And in my opinion, that’s the way it should be.

Previous Post

June 1, 2021

Virginia Theological Seminary Announces Reparations

Next Post

June 3, 2021 The Sign of Jesus' Return Will Be the Cross

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Angels Billy Graham Blog Description Book Reviews Christian Living Christianity Christology Church History Current Events Deity of Christ? Disarmament Eschatology Evangelicalism Ezekiel 38-39 Film Reviews God Golf Gospel Harmonization Health History Holy Spirit Incarnation? Interview Islam Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Jesus Last Empire Literary Announcements Major Championship Winners Masters Monotheism My Books New Testament Old Testament Politics Primitive Weapons Ryder Cup Science Society of Biblical Literature The Bible The Restitution of Jesus Christ Trinitarianism Trinity? Uncategorized Unconditional Love? War on Terrorism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many times is Jesus directly quoted in the book of Acts?

Select your answer to see how you score.

1 4 6 10

Books by This Author Books by Kermit Zarley Blog

See All Titles »