Who Is the True God in 1 John 5:20? by Mario A. Olcese

Who Is the True God in 1 John 5:20?

The Truth that Few Want to See!

By Mario A. Olcese, Peru

“And we know that the Son of God has come and has
given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is
true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”

Many of those who mistakenly believe that the
Messiah is the true God maintain that the final sentence
in this verse, “This is the true God and eternal life,”
refers to Jesus, the Messiah, since the nearest noun to the
word “This” is “Jesus Christ.” However, since God and
the Messiah are both referred to in the first sentence of
the verse, the final sentence can refer to either one of
them. The word (a pronoun) “this,” which begins the final
sentence, is outos in Greek, and a study of it will show
that the context, not the noun nearest the pronoun, must
determine the reference of “this.”

The Bible provides examples to help us, and a good
one can be found in Acts 7:18-19: “Till another king
arose who did not know Joseph. This [Greek outos] man
dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our
forefathers, making them expose their babies, so that they
might not live.” It is clear in this example that “this”
(outos) cannot refer to Joseph, although Joseph is the
nearest noun. “This” refers to the king, the first one in the
verse, although that evil king is not the nearest noun.

If it is true that pronouns always refer to the nearest
noun, this would lead to serious theological problems.
Another example is found in Acts 4:10-11: “Let it be
known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you
crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this
man stands here before you whole. This [outos] is the
‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has
become the chief cornerstone.’” If “this” in the last
sentence refers to the nearest noun, then the man who was
healed is really the stone rejected by the builders who has
become the cornerstone, that is to say, the Messiah. Of
course this conclusion is not true.

The context, not the placement of the noun or
pronoun, is the vital key for correctly understanding
1 John 5:20: “And we know that the Son of God has come
and has given us an understanding, that we may know
Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His
Son Jesus Christ. This [outos] is the true God and eternal
life.” As in the two previous examples, the pronoun
“This” in this verse is not referring to the nearest noun,
but rather to the Father, one of two persons who are
mentioned in the verse.

A last example: 1 John 2:22. This interesting text
says, “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the
Christ? This [outos] is the antichrist, he who denies the
Father and the Son.” If we conclude that “This is the
antichrist” refers to the Messiah, the person who
immediately precedes this sentence, we would have to
conclude that the Messiah is the antichrist, and this would
be a serious blasphemy! So we see that we cannot
conclude that the sentence “This is the true God and
eternal life” refers to the immediately antecedent person,
because if we read it this way, we would have to read the
same thing in 1 John 2:22, and then we would be
blaspheming against the Son.
Finally, it is the same teacher, Jesus the Messiah,
who revealed the Father to us, saying: “And this is eternal
life: that they know You [not “know us”], the only true
God, and Jesus, the Messiah, whom You sent” (John
17:3). Here our dear Lord clearly teaches us a truth that
few want to accept because of Catholic and Protestant
tradition. This truth is that the same Messiah taught that
his Father is the only true God and nobody else. Even in
heaven, Jesus continues calling His Father “my God”
four times in Revelation 3:12: “He who overcomes, I will
make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall
go out no more. I will write on him the name of my God
and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem,
which comes down out of heaven from my God. And I
will write on him my new name.” We wonder, Can a true
God have his own true God? I believe that this point
deserves serious consideration.



Taken from: http://www.focusonthekingdom.org/151.pdf