HOW IS GOD ONE? ON THE NATURE OF GOD AND JESUS CHRIST

Excerpts from an article title:
"HOW IS GOD ONE? ON THE NATURE OF GOD AND JESUS CHRIST"

by an ANONYMOUS writer

 

^{Nowhere in Scripture does God tell us He is two or three persons or distinctions in one being. Such ideas are simply the extrabiblical constructs of theologians who see them implied in Scripture.}

^{When pressed by skeptics, these same theologians waffle on the meaning of the words in their formula — … When quizzed about the meaning of the word person in the Trinity formula, theologians are guilty of amphiboly (giving words two conflicting meanings at the same time). If you ask them if the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are persons each having will and personality, they will answer that, no, they are more like "distinctions"—not wanting to convey the idea of three Gods (tritheism). Yet they will insist that each is "personal. "}

^{To break free of such ambiguity, one must phrase the question another way: Is Jesus someone other than the Father, the Father someone other than the Son and the Holy Spirit someone other than the Father or Son?}

            This question puts Trinitarians in an awkward position. If they answer affirmatively, they are guilty of tritheism. If they answer negatively, they deny the reality of each, and the three become impersonal and surreal.

^{The New Testament shows clearly that the Father is someone other than the Son and vice versa. In his own words Jesus reveals more than distinction between himself and the Father; he shows separateness of being: "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working" (John 5: 17). "It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one who bears witness of myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness of me" (John 8: 17, 18). Praying to his Father before his crucifixion (an act of separateness in itself), Jesus says: "O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as you will" (Matt. 26: 39). Jesus also proclaims; "My Father loves me" (John 10: 17) and "I love the Father" (John 14. 31).
Each works, witnesses, has his own will, converses with the other and loves the other.}

^{The apostles continue to emphasize this separateness of being between the resurrected Jesus and the Father. Paul writes of Jesus as mediator (1 Tim. 2. 5) and intercessor between God and men. He proclaims to the Athenians that God will judge the world through Jesus (Acts 17: 31), a reference to the Millennium, when Jesus will rule on earth while his Father is in heaven. Mediating, interceding, judging and ruling are all acts of independent mind and will, illustrating that there is more than just "distinction" between the Father and the Son; there is separateness of being.}

^{The apostle John warned: "He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either, he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also" (1 John 2: 22-23).}

John is telling us that true Christians must acknowledge that the Father and the Son are real, thinking, sentient beings.

^{Is the Holy Spirit Someone Other Than the Father or Son?}

 

^{The Hebrew word for "spirit" (ruach) literally means breath, air or wind and is often translated as such. It is "breath" in Psalm 33:6, "air" in Job 41:16 and "wind" in Genesis 8:1.}

^{"Spirit" is the figurative translation of ruach. God is invisible and powerful like breath, air and wind. Therefore ruach was an appropriate Hebrew word to use in reference to God's interaction with man and the cosmos because His Spirit was like a powerful invisible force carrying His presence everywhere.}

            In the Jewish perspective, the Holy Spirit is not another person within God any more than man's spirit is another person within man (Job 32: 8).

 

 

^{Nothing in the writings of the apostles indicates a shift in their paradigm of the Holy Spirit away from their Jewish heritage and toward Trinitarian pneumatology. ...} 

 

^{Who Is the God of the Old Testament?}

 

^{When Moses encountered God at the burning bush, he was given these instructions: "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'YAHWEH God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations' " (Ex. 3: 15).}

^{Having seen the biblical evidence that the Father and Son are each independent beings and that the Holy Spirit is not, our next logical question to ask is, Did the Father or the Son say these words to Moses? The simplest way to answer this question is to search the Scriptures for such titles as "The God of our Fathers, "
"The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, " and "The God of Israel" and see whether they are applied to the Father or the Son.}

^{In Acts we find Peter making a couple of such references; "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus" (Acts 3: 13). Here Peter makes it clear that Jesus was not the God of the Old Testament but that Jesus was glorified by the God of the Old Testament, whom corroborating texts show was the Father (John 13: 31-32; 17: 5).}

^{Peter also said, "The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree" (Acts 5: 30). Here, also, Peter shows his understanding that Jesus was not the God of the Old Testament but that Jesus was raised by the God of the Old Testament, whom other texts show was the Father (see Gal. 1: 1 and Acts 2: 24).}

^{Paul corroborates Peter's words: "The God of this people Israel ... raised up for Israel a Saviour — Jesus" (Acts 13: 17, 23). Here Paul shows that he understood that the God of the Old Testament was someone other than Jesus, who was "raised up" by Him. John says that the Father was the one who sent the Son as Saviour (1 John 4: 14), thus "the God of this people Israel" must have been the Father.}

^{Luke records Zacharias as saying: "Blessed is YAHWEH God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation [Jesus] for us in the house of his servant David" (Luke 1: 68-69). Again we find a reference to Jesus being "raised up" (this time a reference to his birth) by YAHWEH God of Israel: someone other than himself. This, too, is clearly a reference to the Father (Psalm 89. 19-27).}

^{Jesus himself implied that it was his Father who was the God of the Old Testament when he said to the Jews: "If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God" (John 8: 54). "But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God saying,
'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Matt. 22: 31-32). At no time did Jesus imply that he was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: the God of Israel.}

^{The above texts reveal that Jesus was not the God of the Old Testament, but was commissioned, raised up and glorified by his Father, who was.}

^{We read in the book of Hebrews a statement that further confirms that the Father was the God of the Old Testament: "When God made a promise to Abraham [Gen. 22:16-17], because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself" (Heb 6:13). This passage cannot be speaking of Jesus, for Jesus himself said, "My Father is greater than I" (John 14:28).}

 

^Conclusion

 

^{Scripture is consistent in its insistence that God is unipersonal (that is, God is referred to more than 10,000 times with singular pronouns - I, me, myself, he, him, himself - and God is said to be "one" hundreds of times but never more than one).}

^{The Bible clearly identifies the one God of the Bible as the Father.
[Deut. 32:8; Mal 2:10; Joh 17:3; 1 Cor 8:4-6; Eph. 4:6)}

^{The only way the First Commandment rings true is to acknowledge that it refers to the Father alone.}

^{The inescapable conclusion: God is the Father.}