Note: All of the articles below have a link to a downloadable PDF version at the end of each article.
by Richie Temple
Cary, North Carolina
I have been spending a lot of time reading the Psalms over the last few years and have been abundantly blessed by the simplicity, beauty and majesty of their message. In addition to simply reading them over many times I also sometimes use my NIV Study Bible or The Companion Bible and refer to the study-notes or else look-up the verses in the center reference for further study in other sections of scripture. Perhaps my greatest impression from reading the Psalms is that it is impossible to read very far at any place without being quickly confronted with clear and simple statements about the sovereign power, all encompassing wisdom and gracious love of our God. Psalm 103 is a good example:
The Lord has established his throne in the heaven, and his kingdom rules over all (Psalm 103:19).
When the Bible speaks of God's kingdom ruling over all it is speaking of God's sovereign or kingly reign (rule). The word "kingdom" in the Bible sometimes refers to the "reign" or "rule" of a king while at other times it refers to the "realm" in which the king exercises his rule. Often both meanings are inherent in the same usage as when speaking about the future kingdom of God which will be established in a new heavens and earth after Christ's second coming.
As is clear from many sections of scripture God even now "reigns over all" despite the fact that not all recognize his rulership. In fact, from Genesis to Revelation the Bible presents the story of this sovereign God working in history to bring to pass his own set purposes in accordance with his own divine will. Chief among these purposes is God's plan for the ultimate salvation for all those who love him - a plan that will culminate in the destruction of all of God's enemies and the ushering in of the final paradise of God's kingdom when his rule will be recognized and enjoyed by all who are his.
This is the goal of history and it is the reason for creation itself. The Bible teaches that the world did not come into existence accidentally or by chance. It was created by an all-wise and all-loving God with specific purposes in mind and continues to be ruled, sustained and guided by this God. This is stated explicitly at many places in the Bible and is implicit throughout. God's purposes cannot be prevented from coming to pass - not even by all the power of the spiritual darkness of this world. The first chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians expresses these truths in a beauty which would be difficult to surpass:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace which he has freely given us in the One he loves ... And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment - to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will ... (Eph. 1:3-6, 9-11).
So great is this plan of salvation and God's wisdom in bringing it to pass that the apostle Paul, after establishing the certainty of God's sovereignty and the election by grace of both Jewish and Gentile believers in Romans 9-11, simply exclaims in utter amazement:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen (Rom. 11:33-36).
It is precisely because God is the creator, ruler and sustainer of the universe that we can trust him to meet our daily needs as we "seek first his kingdom and righteousness" - because surely if he cares for the birds of the air and the flowers of the fields he will care for us as well (Matt. 6:25-33).
Let there be no misunderstanding - for the Bible also clearly teaches that this "world" or this "present evil age" is in rebellion against the rulership of the one true God (Eph. 2:1-3; 6:10-12). Despite this fact, however, the Bible never once concludes that things have gotten out from under God's over-ruling control or that he is somehow no longer sovereign over all. As Jesus stated:
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows (Matt. 10:29-31).
It is this certainty that God is all powerful, all wise and all loving that is the bedrock of the believer's life and trust in him. It is this certainty that God is "over all" and that he is "working everything in conformity with the purpose of his will" that makes it possible for the believer to know that in the midst of all things "God works for the good of those who love him" and to be persuaded that nothing "can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:28,38-39). This knowledge of God's sovereignty also assures us that, even in the midst of life's many difficulties, "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed to us" (Rom. 8:18).
This biblical perspective is absolutely essential to a proper understanding of both the Bible and of life itself. As people we see only a very small part of the complete picture. But God who reigns over all and is guiding history to his own appointed goal sees everything from the big picture of eternity. The Bible teaches that it is only the transformation that will take place at Christ's second coming that will enable us to understand all of the "whys" and "wherefores" of this present life we now live. Now we only see "but a poor reflection as in a mirror" but then we shall see our savior "face to face" and "know even as we are known" (I Cor. 13:12).
Since the day of Pentecost God has poured out the "firstfruits of the Spirit" (Rom. 8:23) into the hearts of all those who believe in Christ. Thus, the sovereign God who created the heavens and the earth is now our Father. As a result, we can live in joy, peace and confident hope of the final manifestation of God's rule when all of creation will be transformed and we will enjoy forever "the glorious freedom of the children of God" (Rom. 8:23).
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by Chuck LaMattina
Chicago, Illinois
Power. It is the ability to perform effectively and get specific and desired results. It is just about the one thing that everyone wants in some form. Power is what men and women have sought for and fought for since the beginning of recorded history. But power in human hands has been a negative force, for the most part. It usually steals from the many to give to the privileged few. It is rare when power in human hands is freely exerted for the common good. The old saying, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely," has a lot of tragic reality behind it. The power of God is different, however.
Psalm 62:11-12a
God has spoken once, Twice I have heard this: That power belongs to God.
Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy ...
Power belongs to God. He is the source of all true might. He is omnipotent. He is all-powerful. His ability to perform effectively and get specific and desired results is infinite.
Speaking to God, Job says,
I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You (Job 42:2).
And when Mary questions the angel about her being the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, he tells her,
... with God nothing will be impossible (Luke 1:37).
But Psalm 62 also tells us something more. It says in verse 12, "Also to you O Lord, belongs mercy." The Hebrew word for "mercy" is "hesed." It is difficult to translate this precisely into one English word. Hesed is a strong and steadfast graciousness that is seen in acts of lovingkindness, mercy and abundant generosity.
God is the most powerful being in the universe, yet, His power is not a negative force. It doesn't take from others, it gives!
Genesis 17:1-2:
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.
And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly."
God appears to Abram (later called Abraham) and reveals Himself as "Almighty God." And he comes not to take from Abram but to bless him. The title or name "Almighty God" is one of the great names of God that is revealed in the Bible. It is the Hebrew "El Shaddai."
The word Shaddai is derived from a root word that literally means "breast." The title Shaddai indicates one who nourishes and supplies, and fully satisfies. Coupled with the title El, which means, the strong one, or mighty one, or the all powerful one, El Shaddai means the all powerful One, who nourishes and supplies and abundantly satisfies! Almost everywhere the name El Shaddai, the Almighty God, is used, it is in the context of great blessing from God.
It is the awesome and infinite power of God, manifested for the good of those He loves, that brings Him great praise and glory and majesty.
Psalm 145:1-16:
I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; And his greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts.
I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, And on Your wondrous works.
Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, and I will declare Your greatness.
They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness, And shall sing of Your righteousness.
The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy.
The LORD is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works.
All Your works shall praise You, O LORD, and Your saints shall bless You.
They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, And talk of Your power,
To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.
The Lord upholds all who fall, And raises up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look expectantly to You, And You give them their food in due season.
You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing [my emphasis].
God opens His hand and satisfies "the desire of every living thing." Proverbs 3:27 declares,
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in the power of your hand to do so.
God doesn't! What God has lovingly promised, His power enables Him to do. When He sees a need He acts.
This knowledge of God's "awesome acts" and "majesty", His "great goodness" and "power", is greatly lacking today. This is one of the basic reasons why our faith is often so feeble and our worship so weak. How could our faith be feeble if we were to constantly tell each other of God's "awesome acts"? How could our worship be weak, if we pondered in our hearts "the glorious splendor" of God's "majesty"? If our faith is small it may be because in our hearts our God is too small in power and goodness!
On our own, we may be weak, inadequate, ineffective and ungracious, but God is not, neither are those who avail themselves of His power. Our God is a mighty God!
Psalm 115:3
He does whatever He pleases.
Whatever God wills or desires, He can and will do. Whatever God takes pleasure in He does. He is never hindered or stopped from manifesting His power to those who desire it.
Psalm 135:5-6:
For I know that the LORD is great, And our Lord is above all gods.
Whatever the LORD pleases He does, in heaven and in earth, In the seas and in all deep places.
God commands all of nature and can make it serve His purposes. He can do whatever He desires. He never fails to accomplish His goal.
Isaiah 55:10-11:
For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it [my emphasis].
Our desires are many times far beyond our own powers. There are many things we may purpose or plan, but often we are powerless to bring our own will to pass. But not with God. It is no more difficult for God to create a universe or a butterfly. It is no more difficult for Him to destroy a galaxy or save a soul.
Such power in the hands of men would be terrifying! But our God is not only all powerful, He is righteous. He is the Almighty who abundantly satisfies.
Jeremiah 32:27
"Behold I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?"
There is nothing too hard for our God. What He has promised He is willing and able to do. There is no prayer too hard for Him to answer. No need too great for Him to supply. No temptation too powerful for Him to help you overcome. No hurt too deep for Him to heal!
Psalm 89:13-17:
You have a mighty arm; Strong is Your hand, and high is Your right hand.
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face.
Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O LORD, in the light of Your countenance.
In Your name they rejoice all day long, And in Your righteousness they are exalted.
For You are the glory of their strength, And in Your favor our horn [strength] is exalted.
Nothing and no one can be compared to the great majesty and power of our God. He alone uses His great power to cause His people to "rejoice", to have great "strength", and to be "exalted." If we are ever to live powerful lives, what we need to do, what we must do, is develop in our hearts a correct understanding of the awesome and gracious power of God.
In Isaiah chapter 40, God speaks to people who are like many Christians today. They are people of God, but they are despondent, defeated. They are people whose faith is feeble and whose worship is weak. To correct this God takes the initiative and calls out to His people.
Isaiah 40:9
O Zion, You who bring good tidings, Get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, You who bring good tidings, Lift up your voice with strength, Lift it up, be not afraid; Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"
"Behold your God!" Look at what He has done and rest your faith upon the One who can give you power and strength that will not fail.
Isaiah 40:10-31:
Behold, the Lord GOD shall come with a strong hand, And his arm shall rule for Him; Behold, his reward is with Him, And his work before Him.
He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young.
Behold our Almighty God. Though He is all powerful, He is ever so tender with His own people. His power is larger than all Creation since He is the one who created it all.
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, Measured heaven with a span And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales And the hills in a balance?
Who has directed the spirit of the LORD, or as His counselor has taught Him?
With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, And taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, And showed Him the way of understanding?
Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.
And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering.
All nations before Him are as nothing, And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless.
To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him?
The workman molds an image, The goldsmith overspreads it with gold, And the silversmith casts silver chains.
Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution Chooses a tree that will not rot; He seeks for himself a skillful workman to prepare a carved image that will not tatter.
Even all the nations of the world are nothing before Him!
Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless.
Scarcely shall they be planted, Scarcely shall they be sown, Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, When He will also blow on them, And they will wither, And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble.
"To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?" says the Holy one.
Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His power; Not one is missing.
Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my just claim is passed over by my God?"
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint [my emphasis].
Behold this awesome description of God and let it sink within the depths of your heart! Who can be compared with Him? Why do we say that God does not see our needs, or that He is unable to help? Our thoughts of God are not big enough!
No force of nature, no country, no power can thwart His purposes. God is able to carry out His will to its fullest and most glorious conclusion. Our God is able to conquer every obstacle. He is able to subdue all things to Himself. And he is willing to help us exchange our strength for His!
If we desire to evidence great strength and power we need to say to one another, "Behold your God!" We need to let our minds be renewed to the reality of God's immense power; power that is there for those He loves. The Bible teaches us that Abraham was strengthened in his faith by giving glory to God (Romans 4:20-21)!
God is not just some nice grandfatherly type who has a kind heart and can give good advice. He is not someone who had a command on things yesterday, is groping for a handle on today, and is out of touch with tomorrow. We have fooled ourselves into thinking that God was powerful in the days of the chariot and the abacus, but He is ineffective today. Today we have turbo charged cars and super computers and with these come turbo charged concerns and super problems. If this is your conception of God, I've got news for you, you are wrong! The God of the Bible, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the one and only all powerful God. And in Christ He has provided power for His people unlike anything seen in the Old Testament.
Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
We are usually ashamed of things when they don't measure up to our expectations. But Paul was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. In a world of competing ideas and power structures, the apostle found the gospel to be more powerful than them all. The gospel is the power of God for salvation! It is effective in healing absolutely every physical and spiritual sickness. The gospel of Christ is the power to bring about the most profound change we could ever experience. It takes us from being weak to being strong. It liberates us from every form of bondage. And it will bring us to eternal glory at the end of the age.
The power of God in Christ needs to be understood by every child of God. This is why Paul prays what he does in his letter to the Ephesians.
Ephesians 1:15-23:
Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,
do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power
which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
And he put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all [my emphasis].
God wants you to know "the exceeding greatness of His power" and to avail yourself of it. He wants you to have the power that raised Christ from the dead and gave him authority over all creation.
This great power of God is ours. We have power to transform our lives, power to triumph over all of life, power to live holy lives.
The power of God to those who believe is resurrection power - it raised Christ from the dead. It is ascension power - it has given him authority over all creation. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, as a part of his body, this power is ours!
We need to bring God's power out of the dusty pages of history and into the present reality of our lives. We need to remind one another of God's glorious majesty and power.
Power is available to us, real power. Power to heal the sick, to cast out demons, to bring about salvation and the new birth. There is power to energize our wills, renew our minds, reconcile our relationships and bring us peace.
We need to meditate on this wonderful truth. We need to let it sink into the depths of our hearts and take root. Our God is worthy of our total confidence. He is worthy of our absolute loyalty and He is worthy of our heartfelt praise.
Ephesians 3:20-21:
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
[This article is excerpted by permission from a wonderful book by Chuck LaMattina entitled, Our Awesome God. Chuck LaMattina is the pastor of Grace Fellowship Church of God in Front Royal, Va. Our Awesome God and his other books are available from Amazon.]
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by Mark Mattison
Kentwood, Michigan
According to the Bible, there is only one God. The Old Testament frequently affirms that God is one (cf. Deut. 6:4). However, I believe the one God of the Old Testament is identified in the New Testament as the Father and the Father alone. No passage of Scripture teaches that the one God is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or that the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are co-equal, co-eternal persons in one God. In fact, this theory is refuted by the very language of the New Testament itself.
God and Jesus are Distinct
Paul prefaced each of his letters with a formula that carefully distinguishes between "God the Father" and "our Lord Jesus Christ".1 Not only is the Father God (Phil. 4:20); the Father is the only God ("one God and Father of all," Eph. 4:6). This Father is the God of Jesus Christ. "We always thank God," Paul writes, "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Col. 1:3; cp. Eph. 1:17). There is one God, the Father, and this God is distinct from Jesus, his Son.
This observation is not new. In 1531, Michael Servetus wrote: "For that only the Father is called God by nature is plainly enough shown by Scripture, which says, God and CHRIST. CHRIST and God. It so joins them as though CHRIST were a being distinct from God." 2
Servetus went on to quote (among other verses) I Corinthians 8:6, which states that "there is but one God, the Father ... and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ." Similarly, I Timothy 2:5 states that "there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." God and Jesus are two separate beings.
Jesus himself referred to the Father as his God. In John 20:17, he instructed Mary Magdalene to tell his disciples that "I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." In John 17:3, Jesus said in prayer to God: "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (emphasis mine). Jesus carefully distinguished between the only true God and himself.
This distinction is clear on nearly every page of Scripture. The most famous verse of the Bible proclaims it: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son" (John 3:16). Notice what that verse does not say. It does not say that "God so loved the world that he went down into it," nor does it say that "God the Father sent God the Son" or that "the Father, who is God, sent the Son, who is also God." There are two persons in this verse: God and Jesus. God is the one who sends, and Jesus is the one who is sent. God is one person, Jesus is another.
Not only is God distinct from Jesus; he is superior to Jesus in rank. Jesus said "the Father is greater than I" (John 14:28). Paul wrote: "For he 'has put everything under his feet.' Now when it says that 'everything' has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all" (I Cor. 15:27, 28). Can these verses be reconciled with the teaching that the Son is co-equal with the Father? I do not believe that they can.
Jesus' human experience differentiates him from God. "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men" (Luke 2:52, emphasis mine). God, on the other hand, possessed wisdom already (Prov. 8). Jesus "learned obedience from what he suffered" and was "made perfect" (Heb. 5:10, emphasis mine); 3 God was already perfect (Matt. 5:48). Jesus was tempted in the wilderness and died on the cross; God cannot be tempted (James 1:13) and cannot die (I Tim. 6:16). Jesus "became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs" (Heb. 1:4, emphasis mine); God was superior to the angels already and has "inherited" nothing. The Father, and the Father alone, is God.
The Son of God
If only one person is God - and that person is the Father - then who is Jesus? Again the answer is clear from Scripture. Jesus is God's Messiah, the Son of God. This was Peter's confession of faith (Matt. 16:16). The Gospel of John was "written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God" (John 20:31). Jesus everywhere claimed to be the Son of God, but neither he nor the writers of the New Testament proclaimed him to be God Almighty. "If the New Testament writers believed it vital that the faithful should confess Jesus as 'God'," G.H. Boobyer asks, "is the almost complete absence of just this form of confession in the New Testament explicable?"4
On rare occasions Jesus is called "God" in a secondary sense as a representative of God, such as in John's Gospel (20:28). But "it is a misunderstanding to believe that the gospel of John makes Jesus into God, or identical with God," writes Jacob Jervell. "Jesus is not God but God's representative, and, as such, so completely and totally acts on God's behalf that he stands in God's stead before the world."5
This is what Jesus meant when he stated that "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). He meant that he and the Father were united in purpose (cp. 17:11). His enemies prepared to stone him, accusing him of "blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God"(v. 33). Many Bible students stop at that verse and assert that Jesus' enemies were correct. If we read on, however, we see that Jesus defined his ministry rather in terms of Sonship and divine representation: "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'?6 If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came - and the Scripture cannot be broken - what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, I am God's Son'?" (10:34-36, emphasis mine). Astonished at Jesus' skillful handling of the Scriptures and enmeshed in unbelief, Jesus' enemies were outraged (v. 39). As God's agent, Jesus functions as God, but he is not God himself.
Nor is the Son "eternal" as is commonly taught. He has risen from the dead and conquered death (cf. I Cor. 15:20-26, 57); he is now immortal. But that immortality was given to him at his resurrection. His existence does not extend into eternity past; he was created at a particular point in time.
Luke 1:35 explains the origin of the Son: "The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God' " (emphasis mine). Notice the cause-and-effect relationship here: Mary's child is the Son of God because of the descent of the Spirit, not because his Sonship extends into eternity past. Raymond Brown writes that "the child is totally God's work - a new creation."7 James D. G. Dunn adds that "it is a begetting, a becoming which is in view, the coming into existence of one who will be called, and will in fact be the Son of God, not the transition of a pre-existent being to become the soul of a human baby or the metamorphosis of a divine being into a human fetus."8
The doctrines of the preexistence and deity of Christ are conspicuously absent in the early Church's sermons as recorded in Acts. The apostles' biographical sketches of Christ's life (as in Matthew, Mark, and Luke) begin with his earthly ministry. "Jesus of Nazareth was a man" through whom God worked miracles and whom God raised from the dead (Acts 2:22ff; cf. also 10:36-43). Luke recorded no apostolic sermon which began "God came down from heaven and was born as man."
The Holy Spirit
What of the Holy Spirit, the alleged "third person" of the Trinity? The New Testament nowhere implies that the Spirit is a divine person distinct from God and Jesus.
Unlike God and Jesus, the Spirit has no name. Nor does the Spirit get "equal time" on the pages of Scripture (cf. note 1), which is strange if the Spirit is a separate co-equal person.
Matthew 11:27 states that "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." Some Polish Christians in the seventeenth century asked a very good question: Where does this leave the Holy Spirit? "If the Holy Spirit were a divine person, the Father would not alone know the Son and the Son alone know the Father. The Holy Spirit also, without a revelation from anyone, would know both."9
The Holy Spirit is God, but it is not a person separate from God. It is the presence and power of God himself. "Where can I go from your Spirit?" the psalmist asks. "Where can I flee from your presence?" (Psalm 139:7). Clearly God's Spirit is synonymous with his presence.
The Spirit is also the presence of Christ after his resurrection. In John 14:16-17, Jesus told his disciples he would ask the Father to send "another Counselor to be with you forever - the Spirit of truth." Then he said that "I will come to you" (v.18, emphasis; cp. Matt. 28:20). Lastly, he said that "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" (v. 23, emphasis mine). The indwelling of God's Spirit is the indwelling of the Father and the Son.
The Father, the Son and the Spirit
This brings us to an important point. The Bible does talk about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (cf. Matt. 28:19). I very much believe in them. I believe that God, the Father, is fully revealed in his Son, Jesus Christ, and that they dwell in us through the Spirit. There is clearly a "threeness" here. However, the Bible does not say that these three are one God, or that the one God includes these three as co-equal, co-eternal persons.
Footnotes
Rom. 1:7; I Cor. 1:3; 2 Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:1, 3; Eph. 1:2, 3; Phil. 1:2; Col. 1:3; 1 Thess. 1:1; 2 Thess. 1:1,2; 1 Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2; Tit. 1:4; Philem. 1:3. Notice also the conspicuous absence of the Holy Spirit.
On the Errors of the Trinity, p. 12.
Although he was sinless (Heb. 4:15), Jesus had to be tested and tried and had to reach a state of completion so he could "become the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him" (5:9; cf. 2:10).
"Jesus as 'Theos' in the New Testament," Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, Vol. 50, p. 253.
Jesus in the Gospel of John (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House), 1984, p. 21.
Psalm 82:6. The reference is to the judges of Israel. They were "gods" in the sense that "the word of God came" to them and they spoke as God's representatives. If a ruler of Israel could be called "god," how much more may we say this of Jesus, the supernaturally conceived Messiah of God.
The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in Matthew and Luke (Garden City, New York: Image Books), 1977, p. 314; cf. also pp. 290, 291.
Christology in the Making: A New Testament Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press), 1980, p. 51.
Quoted in "The Racovian Catechism and the Holy Spirit," Wisdom & Power, November/December 1993, Vol. 7, No. 3, p. 7
**
by Richie Temple
Cary, North Carolina
There are few Biblical subjects more fundamental to a proper understanding of the Bible than the recognition of God's sovereign rule over all. This idea is stated repeatedly in the Bible and underlies almost all of its records, principles and promises for God's people. The Bible is the story or record of what God, the creator of the heavens and earth, has done, is doing and will do in history. This principally involves the bringing to pass of his plan of salvation for mankind - all to his own glory. This plan of salvation is an all-encompassing concept and includes: God's reasons for creation, his dealings with the OT patriarchs, the OT nation of Israel, the life and accomplishments of Jesus Christ, the NT church of the body of Christ and the final out-working of God's purposes brought to pass by the second coming of Christ and the ultimate establishment of his sovereign reign in "a new heaven and earth, the home of righteousness" (II Pet. 3:13).
In all of this it is God himself who is at work to bring to pass his own plan "in conformity with the purpose of his will" (Eph. 1:11). Perhaps, the central idea that must be grasped in all of this is the understanding of the concept of God's "kingdom" as it is presented in the Bible. The NT scholar G.E. Ladd explains in his book The Gospel of the Kingdom (Eerdmans) what is meant by this Biblical word "kingdom:"
We must set aside our modern idiom if we are to understand Biblical terminology. The primary meaning of both the Hebrew word malkuth [kingdom] in the Old Testament and of the Greek word basileia [kingdom] in the New Testament is the rank, authority and sovereignty exercised by a king. A basileia may indeed be a realm over which a sovereign exercises his authority; and it may be the people who belong to that realm and over whom authority is exercised; but these are secondary and derived meanings. First of all, a kingdom is the authority to rule, the sovereignty of the king...
When the word refers to God's kingdom, it always refers to His reign, His rule, His sovereignty ... Psalm 103:19, "The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all." God's kingdom, His malkuth, is His universal rule, His sovereignty over all the earth. Psalm 145:13, "Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endures throughout all generations" ... It is God's rule which is everlasting.
When we pray, "Thy kingdom come," are we praying for heaven to come to earth? In a sense we are praying for this; but heaven is an object of desire only because the reign of God is to be more perfectly realized then than it is now. Therefore, what we pray for is, "Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." This prayer is a petition for God to reign, to manifest His kingly sovereignty and power, to put to flight every enemy of righteousness and of His divine rule, that God alone may be King over all the world.
However, a reign without a realm in which it is exercised is meaningless. Thus we find that the Kingdom of God is also the realm in which God's reign may be experienced. But again the facts are not so simple. Sometimes the Bible speaks of the Kingdom as the realm into which we enter as present, sometimes as though it were future ...
Fundamentally, as we have seen, the Kingdom of God is God's sovereign reign; but God's reign expresses itself in different stages through redemptive history. Therefore, men may enter into the realm of God's reign in its several stages of manifestation and experience the blessings of His reign in differing degrees. God's Kingdom is the realm of the Age to Come...; then we shall realize the blessings of His Kingdom (reign) in the perfection of their fullness. But the Kingdom is here now. There is a realm of spiritual blessing into which we may enter today and enjoy in part but in reality the blessings of God's Kingdom (reign).
We pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The confidence that this prayer is to be answered when God brings human history to the divinely ordained consummation enables the Christian to retain his balance and sanity of mind in this mad world in which we live. Our hearts go out to those who have no such hope. Thank God, His Kingdom is coming, and it will fill all the earth [pp. 19-23].
The sovereignty of God is shown throughout the Bible to include God's rule over both his creation and over time itself. The NIV does a particularly good job of emphasizing God's sovereignty over his creation in the translation of various titles for God. I will let the translators themselves explain in their book The NIV: The Making of a Contemporary Translation (Zondervan):
Because for most readers today the phrases "the LORD of hosts" and "God of hosts" have little meaning, this version renders them "the LORD Almighty" and "God Almighty." These renderings convey the sense of the Hebrew, namely, "he who is sovereign over all the 'hosts' (powers) in heaven and on earth, especially over the 'hosts' (armies) of Israel." For readers unaquainted with Hebrew this does not make clear the distinction between Sabaoth ("hosts" or "Almighty") and Shaddai (which can also be translated "Almighty"), but the latter occurs infrequently and is always footnoted ...
... The Hebrew for "hosts" can refer to (1) human armies (Ex. 7:4; Ps. 44:9); (2) the celestial bodies such as the sun, moon and stars (Gen. 2:1; Dt. 4:19; Isa 40:26); or (3) the heavenly creatures such as angels (Jos. 5:14; I Kings 22:19; Ps. 148:2). The title," the LORD of hosts," is perhaps best understood as a general reference to the sovereignty of God over all powers in the universe (hence the NIV rendering, "the LORD Almighty") ...
[OT scholar] Kiss ... maintains...The primary idea of God in Israel is that God is Lord and King of the whole universe ... according to the Old Testament view, there are different powers in the world - angels, hosts of stars, cosmic and natural powers - which are organized like an army. Above them all reigns the Lord. He is the God of gods.... the "almighty Lord" ... is a 'royal' concept stressing the kingship of Yahweh.
[OT scholar] Hartley concurs with this analysis of the epithet:
... [Yahweh Sabaoth] affirms his universal rulership that encompasses every force or army, heavenly, cosmic and earthly ... Ps. 24:10 clearly shows that 'Yahweh of hosts' conveys the concept of glorious king. Yahweh is King of the world (cf. Zech. 14:16) and over all the kingdoms of the earth (Isa. 37:16) ... Although the title has military overtones, it points directly to Yahweh's rulership over the entire universe ... [pp. 109-110].
This same understanding of God's absolute sovereignty is carried over into the NT by the use of such titles as "God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of Lords" (I Tim. 6:15) and in the use of OT titles such as "Lord Almighty" and "God Almighty" in various places. In the NT, however, a great deal of emphasis is also placed on God's sovereignty over time. Much of this takes place in the light of the background of the OT Book of Daniel where God is shown to be sovereign over all earthly kingdoms and will bring about the glorious victory of his own kingdom according to his own timetable. In his book Christ and Time (Westminster, pp. 49-50), NT scholar Oscar Cullman pointed out the significance of God's sovereignty over time:
The terminology of the New Testament teaches us that ... time in its unending extension as well as its individual periods and moments is given by God and ruled by him. Therefore all his acting is so inevitably bound up with time that time is not felt to be a problem. It is rather the natural presupposition of all that God causes to occur. This explains the fact that in a great majority of cases the terminology of the Primitive Christian writings has a time reference. Each individual item of the redemptive history has its fixed place in time [e.g. Gal.4:4; Mark 1:15; Rom.5:6; 8:18; Acts1:7; 2:23; 3:21;17:26; Eph.1:10; 2 Thess.2:6; I Tim.6:15; etc.]
I will let the Scriptures have the last word:
... It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority ...
... which God will bring about in his own time - God, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
**
by Don Robertson
Rock Hill, South Carolina
[All verses are from the King James Version]
All students of the Bible agree that there is only one God (I Cor. 8:4). However, not all Bible students agree on precisely who the one God is. Most professing Christians believe that the one true God is the Trinity. According to Trinitarian doctrine, the one God is a union of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. These three persons are not three gods, but, in some mysterious way, are one God. The three persons are said to be "co-equal and co-eternal."
The words "Trinity" and "Triune God" are not found in any manuscript of the Bible or in any translation. The word "Trinity" was first used by Tertullian, a north African theologian who died about A.D. 230. The terms "First Person," "Second Person," "Third Person," "God the Son" and "God the Holy Spirit" are not found in the Bible. No biblical writer ever uses the expression "one God in Three Persons." Nowhere does the Bible say, "The one God is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit."
The King James Bible
I will admit that I John 5:7 in the King James Version comes close to teaching the Trinity. It says, "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one." But there are serious problems with this verse. Most commentaries and dictionaries of the Bible agree that verse seven is not found in any Greek manuscript of I John written earlier than the 15th century. No modern translation, Catholic or Protestant, has the words of verse 7.
In fact, many verses in the King James Version used to teach the Trinity are misleading and mistranslated. Most modern versions render these verses - including Romans 9:5, Philippians 2:6 and I Timothy 3:16 - in a way that give no aid and comfort to Trinitarians.
The Father is the One God
You might be thinking that several verses in the Bible mention the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit together (Matt. 3:16; 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14). But the mere mention of Father, Son and Holy Spirit together does not prove the Trinity. We believe in their existence; anyone who believes in the Bible believes this. What we don't believe is the relationship that the Trinity doctrine sets forth: "one God in Three Persons."
The Bible says that God the Father is the only true God. In John 17, we read:
These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify they Son, that thy Son may also glorify thee ... this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent (John 17:1,3).
Paul expressed this same truth in his epistles. In I Corinthians 8:4-6, we read:
... we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many and lords many) but to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
When Paul said in verse 4 "there is none other God but one," he excluded all others. I believe the context clearly indicates that he is talking about God the Father. This harmonizes with what he said in the first chapter of this epistle. In I Corinthians 1:3, Paul says, "Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ."
Notice what Paul said and what he didn't say in verse 6. "But to us," to us Christians, that is, "there is one God, the Father." Paul did not say, "But to us there is one God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." For Paul, the Father alone was the living and true God. In I Thessalonians, he wrote,
... ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come (I Thess. 1:9-10).
In verse 10, we learn that the "living and true God" has a son named Jesus. Who has a son named Jesus? Obviously, the Father and the Father only.
At the beginning of this epistle, Paul tells us who "the living and true God" is. He wrote,
Paul and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks ... remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father (I Thess. 1:1-3).
Did you notice that Paul refers to the Father and only to the Father as "God"? Our Lord Jesus Christ is mentioned several times in these verses, but he is never identified as the "living and true God." He is "the Son of the living and true God."
One God, One Mediator
Another fact that is fatal to Trinitarian theory is this: Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and men.
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (I Tim. 2:5).
A mediator is a middle-man, one who goes between two parties to bring reconciliation. Sin has separated man from a holy God, but the Lord Jesus is the perfect mediator. As the Son of God, he can take hold of God's hand. As the Son of Man, he can take hold of our hand.
Now, is the Trinity the one God of I Timothy 2:5? If the Trinity is the one God of the Bible, then the Trinity should be the "one God" in this verse. But anyone can plainly see that the Trinity will not fit here. Jesus is supposedly the Second Person of the Trinity. However, in this verse, Jesus is not the one God or a part of the one God. He is the mediator between the one God and sinful humanity. Jesus could not be our mediator if he were God. Neither could he be our mediator if he were a part of sinful humanity. A mediator goes between two parties to bring a reconciliation. If the Trinity is not the "one God" of I Timothy 2:5, who is? Paul tells us in verse 2 of chapter 1: "Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father."
Christ our High Priest
In his role as mediator, the Lord Jesus is our High Priest. In the epistle to the Hebrews, we read:
Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession" (Heb. 4:14).
A priest represents man to God. A priest makes intercession for man. I think its obvious that a priest, even a high priest, is not the same person as God. Notice how Paul makes the distinction by saying that Jesus is "at the right hand of God" (Rom. 8:34).
Christ Distinct from God
There is an obvious distinction between the one God and Jesus Christ. Notice how Peter identified the Lord Jesus in Matthew 16:16. He said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." He did not say, "Thou art the living God." He did not say, "Thou art the Second Person of the living God." If Jesus is the Son of the living God, who is the living God? It certainly isn't the Trinity. The living God must be God the Father. In Acts 3:13, Peter said,
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our Fathers, hath glorified his Son, Jesus.
Again, who has a Son named Jesus? Obviously, God the Father is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Father must, therefore, be Yahweh.
Son, Spirit, God are Distinct
In Acts 5, Peter said,
The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior ... And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
In this passage, the word "God" is found four times. He is identified as "the God of our fathers." Since Yahweh is the one God of the Jewish fathers, this God must be Yahweh. But the God of this passage is not a union of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus is identified as the person whom God raised up. The Holy Ghost, or Spirit, is God's gift to "them that obey him." We see a clear distinction between God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
The distinction is even more plain in Ephesians 4:4-6, where Paul speaks of "one body ... one Spirit ... one Lord ... one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all." Most people would agree that the "one Spirit" of verse 4 is the Holy Spirit and the "one Lord" of verse 5 is our Lord Jesus Christ. But who is the "one God" of verse 6? Paul calls Him "Father." All three members of the "Trinity" are mentioned in this passage, but only one, the Father, is said to be the one God.
Subordination of the Son
There is no Bible verse correctly understood, that teaches co-equality of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are several that teach explicitly that the Son is in subordination to the Father. In John 14:28, Jesus said, "My Father is greater than I." Jesus did not say, "My Father and I are co-equal." You might reply that Jesus said this when he was on earth as a man. But since his ascension, he now would be co-equal with God the Father. Paul had a different view. He wrote that "the head of Christ is God" (I Cor. 11:3). Notice that he used the present tense in the verb. Even now, in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ is subordinate to God.
Clearly, the Father alone is God.
[Don Robertson has a tape on this subject which is available from this newsletter]
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by Wanda Shirk
Ulysses, Pennsylvania
[All verses are from the NASB]
Which has the ring of scripture to the well-trained ear: "the man Christ Jesus" or "the God Christ Jesus"? While the ear that has listened to man-made liturgies might want to grasp the latter, it is "the man Christ Jesus" that rings through the pages of scripture. Paul wrote, "There is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (I Tim. 2:5).
John the Baptist, introducing the Messiah to the world, presented not God, but a man, saying, "After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I" (John 1:30). Peter's Pentecost sermon did not introduce a God-man, but revealed "Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him" (Acts 2:22). Paul taught that God would one day judge the world through the Messiah Jesus, "a Man whom He has appointed" (Acts 17:31). Did John the Baptist, Peter or Paul ever teach or preach elsewhere that Jesus was God? We will search the gospels, Acts and Paul's letters to the churches in vain for such a statement.
When the disciples wondered, after their master had calmed a storm before their eyes, "what kind of a man" this was (Mt. 8:27), the gospel writer neither there nor elsewhere told his readers that Jesus was in fact God. Nor did Matthew indicate that the multitudes were mistaken when, after they witnessed a miracle, they "glorified God, who had given such authority to men" (Mt. 9:8). The Jews expected their Messiah to be a prophet raised up from their midst like Moses, for God had said, "I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you [Moses], and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak all that I command him" (Deut. 18:18). It was a man that the Jews expected as their Messiah, not God himself; it was a man who came, whom they heard and saw and touched (I John 1:1). "Behold the Man!" cried Pilate (John 19:5). The apostles and gospel writers never corrected such notions or tried to teach such a metaphysical impossibility as being fully man and fully God, fully finite and fully infinite. Such oxymoronic thinking never flowed through their brains nor their pens.
A God-man? No, the scriptures neither use the term nor teach the concept. A mere man then? No, for Jesus was one of two men who were unique in history. Interestingly, the great theologian of scripture, Paul the apostle, is triply clear that there is but One God, the Father (I Cor. 8:6, Eph. 4:6, I Tim. 2:5) and doubly clear about Two Men (Rom. 5:12-15, I Cor. 15:21-22).
The two unique men are Adam (the son of God - Luke 3:38) and Christ (the son of God - Mark 1:1). These two men stood apart from all other men in history in their capacity to choose good or evil, right or wrong, life or death. They differed in their choices, and thus one brought death and the other brought life to the rest of humanity.
In Romans 5 Paul explains that "through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men." However, he continued, "if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many." "The Man Jesus Christ" brought the answer to the problem of death which had reigned from the time of the first man, Adam.
In I Corinthians 15 Paul teaches the same "two men" concept, writing, "For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." Paul goes on to talk of these two as "the first man Adam" and "the last Adam" (v. 45), "the first man" and "the second man" (v. 47). Neither had a human father; both were unique in the history of humanity, but both were truly men in spite of their distinction from other men, and the second was no more a "God-man" than the first, except that while the first disobeyed his God and Father, the second fully obeyed his God and Father and was given a new name and exalted as Savior and Lord, worthy of our homage, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10-11).
Some have argued that Jesus had to be God himself because an infinite amount of sin requires the sacrifice of a being that is Himself infinite. However, the scripture never says this, and in fact, such reasoning poses the logical impossibility of having God die. " ' Tis mystery all, the immortal dies," a famous hymn-writer penned, and yet the self-contradiction of an immortal being dying is not at all what scripture teaches. The high priest Caiaphas had prophesied, "it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish," and John the apostle goes on to note that "this he did not say on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but that he might gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad" (John 11:50-52). As the first man had sinned, so the second man would pay for sin. As it was a man who had disobeyed, it was necessary that a man obey and be found worthy to be the perfect and spotless Lamb who would take away the sin of the world. Jesus was the man, the righteous son of God.
One God, the Father. Two men, Adam and Jesus. Even a child can learn these simple foundations of scripture. Those who learn this much well will avoid much error and confusion and go on from there to build a sound and accurate Biblical theology.
[Wanda Shirk, is an English teacher in Ulysses, Pennsylvania. She majored in Bible at Wheaton College, Illinois, one of the leading Evangelical Bible colleges in America. In the next few pages we present some more of her excellent articles on the oneness of God. But first I share some excerpts from a letter she sent to me in which she describes her own spiritual growth in coming to understand that there is only one God - the Father.]
**
by Wanda Shirk
Ulysses, Pennsylvania
1. The Jewish Concept of God as One.
Key text: Deut. 6:4 - "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is One Lord!"
Mark 12:28-34 - Jesus quotes the Shema as the first (Gr. protos) commandment in importance.
This basis of historic, first century and modern Judaism was never challenged by Jesus or the apostles. Jews and Moslems today find the trinity antithetical to monotheism. The doctrine of the trinity is more harmful to the spread of Christianity than any other doctrine.
2. The Jewish Concept of the Messiah: Not to be God himself, but one sent by God.
Deut. 18:15-18 - "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me (Moses)"
"The Lord said ... 'I will raise up a prophet ... like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him ...' " (cf. Acts 3:22-26).
A. Caiaphas did not expect the Messiah to be God Himself but "the Christ, the Son of God." It was this that Caiaphas called blasphemy (Mt. 26:63-65, Mk. 14:61, Lk. 22:70, Jn. 19:7).
B. Peter did not preach that Jesus was God but was "Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him" (Acts 2:22).
3. "Only One God, the Father." Paul wrote that "there is no God but one ... There is but one God, the Father ..." (I Cor. 8:4, 6). If the trinitarian view is correct, why didn't Paul write, "There is but one God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?"
4. "The Only True God" was identified by Jesus and Paul as the Father.
John 17:3 - Jesus prayed, "That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." He did not say, "That they may know US, the only true God."
I Thess. 1:9-10 - "You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven." If the "true God" is a trinity, the trinity has a Son!
5. The Mediatorship. I Timothy 2:5 - "There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." The mediator cannot be God, but must be between God and men. If Jesus is God, he cannot be our mediator. Only a sinless man could be the mediator between God and sinful humanity.
6. "God and Jesus." Scripture often talks of God and Jesus in the same sentence.
If we say "the Smith family and Hezekiah" or "the boys and Susie," it is obvious that the second is added because it is not included in the first. Is Jesus not included in "God"?
A. I Cor. 13:14 - "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all." Three persons mentioned. God is the Father only.
B. In all his letters, Paul speaks of "God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" - Rom. 1:7-9; I Cor. 1:3, 4,9; 2 Cor. 1:2,3,21; Gal. 1:1,3; Eph. 1:2,3,17,22; 5:20; 6:23; Phil. 1:2; 2:11; Col. 1:2,3,15; 3:17; I Thess. 1:1,3,9,10; 3:11, 12; 2 Thess 1:1,2,12; 2:16; I Tim. 1:1,2; 5:21; 2 Tim. 1:2, 4:1; Titus 1:4; Ph. 3.
General epistles, same: James 1:1, I Pet. 1:2,3; 2 Pet. 1:2; 2 Jn. 3; Jude 1.
7. Two Wills. Jesus said, "I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38), and "not my will, but thine be done" (Luke 22:42, Mt. 26:39). Two wills speaks of two persons, two personalities. Does God have a split personality? Is it not nonsense to say we have two persons but only one being?
8. Jesus is the Image/form/representation of God. Scripture does not say he is God himself.
A. Col. 1:15 - "He is the image of the invisible God." (Cp. also 2 Cor. 4:4).
B. Phil. 2:6 - "He existed in the form of God."
C. Heb. 1:3 - "He is the exact representation of His nature."
Observation: An image/form/representation can only exist after an original exists.
9. Jesus sits at the right hand of God. Does God sit beside Himself?
A place at the king's right hand is the highest honor a king can bestow, but the one who sits there is not the king himself. Mt. 26:64; Mk. 14:62; 16:19; Lk. 22:69; Acts 2:33; 7:55; Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1;Heb. 1:3; 10:12; 12:2.
Fittingly, Jesus is sometimes given the title "Prince." Acts 3:15; 5:31.
10. Begotteness. Jesus is uniquely begotten of God. Implies a time before being begotten. God, by definition, is unbegotten. How can the begotten and the unbegotten be the same? (monogenes - John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; I Jn. 4:9; Today - Ps. 2:7, Acts 13:33, Heb. 1:5, 5:5).
11. Sonship. The metaphor of sonship implies the priority of a father. Jesus is consistently identified in scripture not as God or "God the Son" (a term which never occurs in scripture) but as "Son of God." Peter's confession was that "You are the Christ, the SON OF the living God," not that Jesus was the living God Himself (Matt. 16:16). See also the testimony of John the Baptist (John 1:34), Nathaniel (John 1:49), Martha (John 11:27),
Mark (Mark 1:1), the Ethiopian (Acts 8:37), the enemies at the cross (Mt. 27:40, 43), the centurion at the cross (Mt. 27:54, Mark 15:39), the angel (Luke 1:32, 35), demons (Mark 3:11, 5:7), Satan (Mt. 4:3, 6), and God (Mt. 17:5).
12. The Temptation Question. Jesus was "tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin," (Heb. 4:15), but "God cannot be tempted by evil" (James 1:13). How then could Jesus have been "God 'in the flesh' "?
13. The "Sin-Potential" Dilemma. COULD Jesus have sinned?
If we say no, then the so-called "temptation of Jesus" by the devil was not temptation at all, and Jesus did not really know what it is like to be human. If he did not know what it was really like to be human then "incarnation" is meaningless. To acknowledge that Jesus could have sinned, to answer yes to our question, is to acknowledge that Jesus was not Almighty God Himself, for God by His nature is holy and could never, possibly, sin.
14. Jesus died. God is immortal (I Tim. 6:16) and cannot die. Did part of God die?
15. Jesus bore our sins. Could sin be laid on God Himself?
"The Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him" (Isa. 53:6).
16. Jesus was forsaken by God on the cross (Mt. 27:46, Mark 15:34).
"Did God forsake a third of himself, or what? Was Jesus God, or not God at that time?
17. Jesus descended to Hades. Hades by definition is the place of separation from God. Was God in Hades when
Jesus was there? Then it was not Hades.
18. Jesus had a God, and that God raised him from the dead.
A. Jesus called the Father his God - Mt. 27:26, Mark 15:34, John 20:17.
B. Peter talks of "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" - I Pet. 1:3.
C. Paul uses that expression 5 times - Rom. 16:6; 2 Cor. 1:3; 11:31; Eph. 1:3, 17.
D. Hebrews 1:9 speaks of the God of the Son.
E. This relationship continues in the eternal kingdom - Rev. 1:6; 3:12.
F. God raised Jesus from the dead and glorified him - Acts 3:13; 5;30.
Questions: If Jesus is God, is he his own father? Did he raise himself from the dead?
19. Subordination. The Scriptures consistently teach the subordination of the Son.
John 14:28 - "The Father is greater than I."
I Cor. 11:3 - "The head of Christ is God."
I Cor. 15:24-28 - The Son is subject to the Father in the eternal kingdom.
Matt. 28:18 - Jesus' authority was given to him (not inherent in him).
Jesus was sent/commissioned by the Father and did nothing on his own John 5:26, 27, 30, 36, 38, 43; 6:29, 39, 44, 46, 57; 7:16-18, 28, 29, 33, etc.
20. Argument from Silence. Put yourself in the context of the first century Jews. If Jesus had been GOD HIMSELF, that would have been the big announcement the disciples and Paul would have had to make to the world - and to DEFEND (assuming they taught a trinity) against the arguments of the Jewish paradigm of monotheism. Did they ever make claims that Christ was deity, or God was a trinity? No. Did the Jews understand them to hint at such claims, and therefore argue this case with them? NO! WHY THIS SILENCE?
**
by Richie Temple
Cary, North Carolina
Throughout the NT the one God of the Bible, the creator of the heavens and the earth, is consistently defined and referred to as:
"One God, the Father" (I Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:6);
"the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph. 1:3; Peter 1:3);
or, finally, "God our Father" (Rom. 1:7; Eph. 1:2).
Of all the titles for God which are used throughout the Bible it is the title "Father" which best sums up his character as a personal God who loves and cares for his people. It is in fact God's desire to be a father of a people who would freely worship and serve him in love that is at the heart of God's purpose in creation itself. This is set forth beautifully in Paul's Letter to the Ephesians:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment - to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ (Eph. 1:2-10 NIV).
It was God the Father's "good pleasure" and "will" to bring about a family of children - "to the praise of his glorious grace." This was his central purpose in creation and it is towards this goal that all of history has been moving until this very day. Through the redemptive work of God's own Son and through the power of his own Spirit, God has already made it possible for all of God's people - whether Jew or Gentile - to enter into the most intimate of personal relationships with God as their own Father. Paul sets this forth clearly in his letter to the Galatians:
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, so that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father" (Gal. 4:4-6).
It is this desire to have a people endowed with his own Spirit that is at the heart of God's desire to be "Father". As Jesus explained:
... a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for Salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:21-24).
God, who is spirit, cannot ultimately be worshipped through the works of men's hands: neither in a Jewish temple in Jerusalem nor through the temples of pagan religions. Stephen made this clear about the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and it was resistance to this line of thinking that ultimately cost him his life:
However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says:
Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord.
Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all of these things? (Acts 7:48-50).
Later in the Book of Acts Paul also made the same point in regards to the pagan temples that were so prevalent in the Greco-Roman world. When speaking to the Athenians he stated:
The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he gives all men life and breath and everything else (Acts 17:24-25).
"God is Spirit" and it was the massive misunderstanding of his nature, his character and his purposes that caused resistance to the gospel truth in NT times - both in Israel and the pagan religions of the world. Unfortunately, the same can be said about much of Christendom today. The fleshly "works" of religious ritualistic practices "cannot please God" because God is Spirit. As such he can ultimately be "truly" worshipped only by those who have received the Spirit of sonship (Rom. 8:15-16; Gal. 4:4-6).
It was for this purpose that God "poured out his Spirit" on Pentecost. It was always his desire to be a Father to a people in which he could "live" and "walk among" (II Cor. 6:16). As God stated in the OT and as we find fulfilled in the NT:
I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters (II Cor. 6:18).
Since Pentecost this gift of holy Spirit has been freely available to all of God's people, enabling them to "worship by the Spirit of God" (Phil. 3:3).
In short, it was for the purpose of building a new and permanent dwelling place for God - a "spiritual house" in which he could be truly worshipped - that Christ came. God our Father, who is Spirit, now "lives" or "dwells" in us his people - the true "temple of the living God" - thus, making it possible for us to know and worship him as a personal Father, in spirit and in truth. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians beautifully summarizes these truths:
For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit (Eph. 2:18-22).
May we as God's people "walk worthy of this calling" to which God has called us. May we manifest to the world "the unity of the Spirit" to which we have been called so that others may see that for us, God's children, there is:
One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph. 4:6).
**
by Richie Temple
Cary, North Carolina
True Christian unity can only be properly built upon the simplest and most profound of all biblical truths: "one God, the Father." All other Christian truths are ultimately derived from this truth. In essence, Christian unity is formed by becoming a part of God family through believing in God's Son, Jesus Christ, and then receiving the gift of God's own Spirit. It is for this reason that true Christian unity is called in Ephesians "the unity of the Spirit." This is a unity that is created by God himself - through his Son and through his Spirit - so that God then "lives" or "dwells" as a Father within his people. Paul states this clearly:
For through him (Christ) we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit (Eph. 2:18-22).
It is through the gift of God's own Spirit that believers have direct "access" to God as their personal Father and that God "lives" in his people. The key to all of this, of course, is that God himself is Spirit and that those who receive his Spirit are part of his family. Rather than seeking unity in post-biblical creeds we should recognize that for Christians spiritual unity already exists and it is this which we are exhorted to "keep". For the earliest Christians practical unity proceeded from the truth that they were already a part of God's family. As believers in Christ they had received God's Spirit and were thus able to exclaim, "Abba, Father."
With this truth as their foundation the first century believers could then proceed to work outwards to build unity within God's family on a practical basis. Always though, it was the truth that they had already received the "firstfruits of the Spirit" - with the final harvest of their inheritance still to come - that was the basis of their existence as God's family. Thus, practical unity proceeded from spiritual reality, as Paul wrote:
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit - just as you were called to one hope when you were called - one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph. 4:3-6).
In sum, Christian unity is built on God the Father's plan and corresponding action to bring about a family of children through the redemptive work of his Son. This becomes effective as a spiritual reality for believers in Christ through the gift of God's Spirit. In this way, all of God's children become "one in Christ" and can proceed from this foundation to bring about the practical unity of God's family in everyday life. The goal in this practical unity is to be "imitators of God as dear children" (Eph. 5:2) and thus to show forth his nature and character to the world.
The God of the Bible: His Nature and Character
When the Bible speaks of the nature1 and character of God it always does so in simple and clear terms, without philosophical language. God is presented throughout the Bible as the creator, sustainer and ruler of the universe. He is the almighty God for whom nothing is too difficult. In addition, God is said to be "love," "light" and "spirit." All of these being simple descriptions of a God who is both transcendent and personal. In short, he is a God of power, love, and holiness who constantly desires the best for his people. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology summarizes God's nature and character for us:
The OT contains no all-embracing definition of the concept of God. On the other hand, it makes an extensive range of statements which testify to the being of God and have their basis in the divine revelation. Nor is there in the OT any theogony; it does not go beyond the assertion that God is. He is the first and the last (Isa. 41:4; 44:6; 48:12), the eternal, the almighty and the living one (Ps. 36:10), the creator of the heaven and earth (Gen. 1:1; 2:4, etc.), the Lord, who guides the destinies of the nations, but who has made Israel a people for his own possession (Exod. 19:5f.). Israel, stands, therefore, under his special protection. Yahweh not only leads, guides and gives Israel his promises; he also imposes his judgments when he [Israel] goes his own way. God is the commanding and demanding God who makes his will known and demands obedience. The history of Israel is the history of God with this people. Thus Israel's belief in God is founded on a theology of history.
It expresses a conception of God as personal, that is capable of all the emotions that a person can have: love, anger, repentence and other emotions. But even if human characteristics can be attributed to him, he cannot be compared with any human being (Hos. 11:9). The transcendent God who dwells in light, where no one can approach, is exalted above time and space and is therefore unique in his Godhead, not to be portrayed or localized (Ex. 20:4). He is the eternal king (Isa. 52:7) who rules over all the kingdoms of the world (Isa. 37:16).
The most fundamental feature of God's being is expressed by the word "holy". In the OT this has become the characteristic attribute of God. He is the Holy One (Isa. 40:25; Hab. 3:3; Hos. 11:9). But the holy, transcendent God steps out of his concealment through his word and his acts of revelation, and repeatedly communicates with his people in demonstrations of power and glory.
The holy God is just in all that he does (cf. Ps. 7:11). He is the judge who condemns unrighteousness and to whom man has to answer. But the OT testifies to his grace and mercy (e.g. Ex. 34:6; Ps. 103:8). He comforts the pious (Job 15:11), blesses him and helps him in his need (Pss. 45:7; 90:1; 94:22). Through the personal relationship between God and his people there is created and I-Thou relation between God and the individual believer who can turn to him in prayer in all his needs.
God in the OT is also called Father; he is the father of the people of Israel (Ex. 4:22f.; Deut. 32:6; Isa. 63:16; Jer. 31:9; Hos. 11:1). However, a full knowledge of the divine grace and love which embraces the whole world is only arrived at through the revelation of the new covenant. Nevertheless, the OT testifies to the fact that God forgives transgressions and sins (Ex. 34:6f.). He has mercy on his people in everlasting grace (Isa. 54:8), and in particular takes up the cause of the poor and needy, and widows and orphans (Isa. 49:13; Ps. 146:9). Therefore, even in the OT God is not just a dreaded enemy of man in his unholiness; he also makes it possible for him to trust and love, because he himself loves his chosen people.
The NT rests firmly on the foundation of the OT, when it speaks about God, but its emphases are new. He is the God who is near, the Father of Jesus Christ, who justifies freely by his grace. His action in election bursts all claims to exclusiveness. But it is the same God who reveals himself here as in the OT, and whose plan of salvation, there promised, comes to fulfillment here [Vol. 2, pp. 70-73]
This biblical understanding of God contrasts sharply with the pagan religions of biblical times and with ancient Greek philosophical notions about God. It is useful to note the contrasts so that we are aware of that which is not "of God." Again, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology summarizes the ancient Greek development of the concept of "god" - a concept that was to have enormous influence on the post-biblical Christian understanding of God and comes to us today most vividly in the popular New Age movement:
Greek religion was polytheistic. The gods were represented in anthropomorphic form as personal beings who exercised a determining influence on the world and fate of men, but who themselves were dependent on a superior fate. As they were not creator-gods, they were not thought of as outside the universe and transcendent. The cosmos included both gods and men. The influence of the gods was not universal, but was limited by their natures and attributes. They were not righteous in the OT sense. The Greek gods had form. Consequently, the statement "God is spirit" (John 4:24) could not be applied to them. From Aeschylus onwards the different gods came increasingly to be identified. Their convergence into one divine being was prepared by the pre-Socratic thinkers and the ideas of classical tragedy.
The Greek philosophical understanding of god was non-personal. Philosophers sought the origin of all things and the principle that shaped the world. In the process of rationalizing and moralizing an important transformation of the Greek concept of god took place. The divine forms were spiritualized and finally replaced by general concepts like "world reason," "the divine," and "being," which influenced and formed the world as powers giving it meaning and creating order. In Hellenistic syncretism the various Greek and non-Greek divinities were assimilated and even equated as a result of the recognition that behind the diverse names stood the same entities. This is particularly clear in the Isis cult. Not infrequently these tendencies lead to the honoring of one godhead as the divine All. The development reached its height in Neo-Platonism, where the divine is the universal One which has no objective existence or personality. It is being itself which is manifest through a series of hypostases and emanations in the world, since it is the ground and force behind everything that is [Vo. 2, p. 66-67].
It is not difficult to see how these Greek philosophical notions influenced the post-biblical councils of Nicea (A.D. 325) and Chalcedon (A.D. 451) in their debates about the nature of God. Nor is it difficult to see the roots of the present day New Age movement, along with similar movements throughout history, in these notions.
In short, the contrast between the God of the Bible with these Greek conceptions of god (s) could hardly be sharper. The God of the Bible is not an all encompassing "principle" or "divine All". Nor does he exist as different hypostases ("persons"). Instead, the Bible insists that God is a single living being - or "person" - who is the creator of the world, the Lord of the world and the personal Father of his children. As such he is at work in history and is guiding history to his own appointed goals. These goals most definitely include a "oneness" for the world, but because of the sin and evil of this age it is a oneness that can only be achieved in Christ. In short, God's goal is to "bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ" (Eph. 1:10).
God, the Father, is Spirit
One of the simplest statements about God's nature and character is found in the New Testament in John 4:23-24 and it should be emphasized because it shows God to be both "spirit" and a personal "Father" to his people:
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Rather than simply being a metaphysical statement about God, this statement is made in relationship to God's desire to be a Father who can fellowship with his people in an intimate way - "in spirit and in truth." Thus, God is shown not only to be spirit in nature, but also to be a personal God who, through the impartation of his own Spirit, can have an intimate relationship with his people. However, since God is "spirit" he is also invisible. Thus, he must manifest or reveal himself to his people in some way if he is to be understood. Biblically, this is accomplished in several ways.
First, God's "eternal power and deity" can be seen and understood by all people from the natural world of God's creation (Rom 1:19-20; Acts 17:24-28). This should "by nature" lead a person to "seek" God and "find him" for "he is not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:26-27). In relation to his own people, Israel, God also revealed himself in the OT through his word - both spoken and written - and, through his mightily acts of power on their behalf. In the NT, however, this word, or self-expression, of God reaches its pinnacle when "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). Jesus Christ, God's unique Son, revealed God's character and nature to the his people - and to the world - in a way so full that he could state, "he who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). In short, Jesus "made known" God his Father to the world more fully than he had ever been known before. As the Gospel of John declares:
No one has ever seen God; God's only Son, he who is nearest to the Father's heart, has made him known (John 1:18 REB).
No one has ever seen God, but he who is "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15) made him known. And yet this also is the work of God, for Christ's conception, anointing and ministry were all accomplished through the power of God's Spirit. As Acts states,
... God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with Holy Spirit and power, and ... he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him (Acts 10:38).
As wonderful as this was God did not stop with Christ's ministry for it has always been his goal to bring into existence a family of children who would manifest his character to the world and who could worship him "truthfully by the Spirit of God" (Phil. 3:3). Through his death and resurrection Jesus is the "firstborn among many brothers," thus opening the way for a new humanity - a family of God's children -"conformed to the likeness of his Son" (Rom. 8:29). Thus, that same character and nature of God - which are revealed most fully in God's unique Son, Jesus Christ - are now revealed in all of God's children through his Spirit. As I John states:
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God (I John 4:12-115).
This is the "unity of the Spirit" which the New Testament proclaims. In short, the one God of the Bible, the creator of the heavens and the earth, is now our personal Father. He has manifested himself to the world through his Son, Jesus Christ, and now manifests himself to the world through us by way of his Spirit. In this way God our Father has brought into being a "unity of the Spirit" which magnifies his own nature and character to the world. As Jesus prayed,
I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me (John 17:20-23)
Footnote
It may very well be that to use the word "nature" in describing God's "being" is misleading. I'm not at all sure that the biblical writers would have been happy with the use of such a term about God. The word "nature" is used in this article for lack of a better alternative - or, for lack of precise understanding on my own part.
**
by Richie Temple
Cary, North Carolina
In the Bible there is one God, one people of God and one hope of salvation for all of God’s people. Throughout the Bible this theme of the oneness of God, his people and the hope of salvation for God’s people always begins with simple doctrinal truths and proceeds to simple practical truths. In the Old Testament this unity begins with the fundamental truth about the oneness of God and the calling out of the one people of God, Israel, to be a witness to the nations of the world of the goodness and love of that God. This belief was emphasized repeatedly in the pages of the Old Testament and was the single most important truth in bringing unity to the Old Testament people of God, Israel. This belief is set forth both in the first commandment (Exodus 20) and in what later became known as the Jewish Shema as set forth in Deut 6:4-5:
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
This belief in the one true God is the foundation upon which all other biblical beliefs and practices are built. Thus, the Old Testament commands of the Mosaic Law were specifically based on the nature and character of that one true God as exhibited in his covenant relationship with his chosen people, Israel. Man’s responsibilities in relation to God and to one’s fellowman were both stated in terms of God’s own character and nature which man was to imitate:
Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy.
… love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord (Lev. 19:2, 12).
In the New Testament the same principles are carried over from the Old Testament. God is still the only true God (John 17:2) and is to be worshipped and loved accordingly as Christ himself stated when he quoted the first and second great commandments directly from the Old Testament.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself … (Mark 12:29-31).
In the New Testament, however, the nature and character of the one true God is revealed as never before. God’s Word – which was with God in the beginning and which was the agent through which God created the world – became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (John 1:1-2, 14). Thus, to hear the words of Jesus and to witness his acts of love, mercy and power were to witness the nature and character of God himself. As Christ stated,
“Any one who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
However, not only could people witness God’s heart in the words and deeds of Christ, but it was through God’s redemptive work in Christ – made effective through faith in Christ and the gift of God’s Spirit - that people could come into fellowship and oneness with God, Christ and God’s family. As Christ himself prayed,
My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me (John 17:20-23).
This “oneness” or “unity” based on God’s redemptive work in Christ and brought to fruition through the work of God’s Spirit, should be the fundamental basis for practical unity amongst the people of God. However, it must be emphasized that this is a unity that must be sought and built through diligence and effort. Not by focusing on minute details of doctrine or practice, but by focusing on those central truths that unite us spiritually “in Christ” and enable us to live practically “after the example of Christ.” Paul set forth this goal of unity based on our oneness as God’s people in his Letter to the Ephesians,
As a prisoner of the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is,
one body, and
one spirit, just as you were called to
one hope when you were called –
one Lord,
one faith,
one baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all (Eph. 4:1-6).
Throughout the Bible – beginning in the Old Testament and continuing through the New – this theme of oneness, or unity, amongst the people of God was always built on simple and clear truths that were understandable to the common man. This unity was based first and foremost on the Old Testament belief in the one and only true God and his covenant people Israel. It then culminated in God’s redemptive work in Christ whereby people from amongst all nations throughout the world could be united in Christ above and beyond the geographical, ethnic, racial, economic and political divisions of mankind. May we as the people of God reflect this same unity of the spirit in the bond of peace as we seek to live for our God day by day. As Paul stated,
May the God who gives you endurance and encouragement give you the spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus,
so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 15:5-6)
**
By Chuck LaMattina
Chicago, Illinois
A kindergarten teacher told her student to draw a picture of something that was important to them. One little boy named Johnny began to work hard at his drawing. When the other students had finished and turned in their pictures, Johnny was still hard at work. So the teacher walked over to the boy, put her hand on his shoulder and asked, “Johnny, what are you drawing?” The young artist didn’t look up, he just kept working with great determination and said, “God.” “But Johnny,” said the teacher, “no one knows what God looks like.” Johnny answered, “They will when I finish this picture!”
This cute story brings up a good question. What is God really like? Agnostics and skeptics tell us that we cannot know if God exists, let alone what He is like. According to them if God exists He has hidden Himself from our sight and therefore we must remain in the dark about who He is and what He is like. The Bible on the other hand boldly states that God is–He exists. And we can know a great deal about Him.
In the gospel of Mark, chapter 12, Jesus Christ is asked a question about the first and greatest commandment. Let’s listen in.
“Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together…asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?” Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is; “Here, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:28-30 NKJV)
This command is a life consuming command! We are to love God totally, completely, with all that we are. But how can you truly love God like this unless you know who He is and what He does. Thankfully we are not left in the dark about God. The light of Scripture tells us that God has revealed Himself to us in three ways:
God has made Himself known in a general way through creation.
He has revealed His nature and character to us in the Bible.
God has given us a special revelation of Himself through His Son Jesus Christ.
Creation Makes Known God
We will begin to examine the fact that creation makes known the existence of God by looking at Psalm 19.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4)
The witness of the universe shows forth clearly and consistently, there is a Creator, there is a God. When you look up into the starry night sky or when you look at a sunrise on the ocean or the beauty of a forest a question comes to mind, “Where did all of this come from?” Psalm 19 tells us that every day and every night all over the world creation proclaims the glory of God its Creator. One of the great early scientists, Sir Isaac Newton, had this to say about creation,
“The most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets could only proceed from the counsel and domain of an intelligent and powerful being.”1
Newton was correct! In fact modern science began as a result of seeing order in creation and realizing that this complex order could not happen by chance. There had to be a Creator. And since there was a divine design and order to creation it could be studied and understood. The New Testament reveals the same truth as Psalm 19, creation makes known a Creator.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being seen by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, And their foolish hearts were darkened”. (Romans 1:18-21) [my emphasis]
Verse 20, tells us that creation makes known two invisible attributes of God, His eternal power and His Godhead. To those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, and a humble heart creation proclaims there is a Creator and He is awesome in intelligence and power. But these verses from Romans also tell us that there are people who just cannot see this or who refuse to see it. They suppress the truth. They are fools who say in their hearts that there is no God (Psalm 14:1). And they teach that all of creation, even human life, came into existence by mere chance and progressed through the process of evolution.
And yet when push comes to shove many scientists who want to deny the existence of God readily admit the absurdity of their position. In fact two famous scientists of recent years, Francis Crick, who discovered DNA and Carl Sagan the famous cosmologist, have estimated that the difficulty of humans evolving by chance alone is 1 in 10 to the negative 2 billionth. Now I can’t wrap my mind around that statement but I get the next one easily. Sir Fred Hoyle, the founder of the Cambridge Institute for Theoretical Astronomy, said,
“The chance that higher life might have emerged [though evolution] is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junkyard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the material therein.”
Therefore, in reality, it takes a bigger leap of blind faith to believe that creation began by chance than it does to believe in the Creator! Every day the wonder and beauty of creation declares that there is a God and that He is powerful and glorious.
The Bible Reveals God’s Nature and Character
Besides nature the Bible reveals God to us, specifically His nature and character. The Old Testament book of the prophet Isaiah proclaims something wonderful about God to us.
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.”(Isaiah 40:28)
The first thing that we learn about God from this verse is that He is everlasting. He is eternal. He has existed before all time and He will exist forever. When life is shaky, when changes in life come like a whirlwind, our all powerful, all knowing God is the same. He never loses heart. He never wearies. His understanding is infinite and unsearchable. But He does not stay above the fray of life. He is involved and strengthens His people.
He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:29-31)
What a glorious truth we learn here about God. The everlasting God, the Creator, the Almighty gives His people power and strength. Those who wait2 on the Lord find their lives renewed and borne up like on eagle’s wings! God also has a perfect knowledge of us.
O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell3, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light upon me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You. (Psalm 139:1-12)
God knows our every thought. He understands the deep motives, fears, concerns and hurts of our hearts. There also is no place where God is not. If I fear that I am left all alone I am not for God is with me. If I am surrounded by people God is still there by my side. If I am in outer space or in the depth of the earth the Almighty is near. There is never, ever a time when God cannot hold me and lead me. What a comforting truth to hold in our hearts.
I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts. I will mediate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, And on Your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, And I will declare Your greatness. They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness, And shall sing of your righteousness. The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy. The LORD is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works. All Your works shall praise You, O LORD, And Your saints shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, And talk of Your power, To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, And the glorious majesty of His kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.
The LORD upholds all who fall, And raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look expectantly to You, And You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing. The LORD is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works. The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and save them. The LORD preserves all who love Him, But all the wicked he will destroy. (Psalm 145:1-20)
This Psalm is a song praising God’s great majesty and love. Here we learn that God is not just good but full of goodness. His blessings to His people are never given with a restrained hand. God is righteous always doing the right thing at the right time. His generosity towards us is never skimpy, it is super sized. The Lord is full of compassion. He understands our frailties and our needs. God is slow to anger leaving us room to repent. The Lord God is good to all and His tender mercy, His loving kindness, is over all His works. Our God is a great King and His dominion endures throughout every generation. He cares enough to uphold and lift up all who fall. He is near to all who call upon Him in truth. And He will utterly destroy all the wicked.
This knowledge of God’s awesome majesty and goodness is lacking in many people who call themselves Christians. This is one reason why our faith is often so feeble, Our worship weak and our impact on the world so diminished. Our knowledge of what God is like is too small, too limited. But believers in a big, gracious, righteous and loving God live big, love big, they serve without reserve, they give generously, and they are bold in their witness for Christ. The prophet Daniel said, “the people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits (Daniel 11:32).” We also learn from the Bible that God is holy.
Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods?
Who is like You, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders? (Exodus 15:11)
In this song of Moses’ we learn that God is glorious in holiness. Did you know that God is called holy more often than He is referred to as good, powerful, loving or anything else? God’s holiness refers to His moral perfection. He is the sum total of all that is morally good and pure and beautiful. The core of His character is spotless and flawless. There is no microscopic trace of evil in Him at all. Here is how the apostle John portrays God’s holiness.
This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)
There is no error or falsehood in God. His agenda is not hidden. His promise of salvation is not deceptive. His love is not hypocritical. And His judgments on the wicked will be absolute and full of justice. The apostle James wrote,
Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. (James 1:16, 17)
God is holy and pure and this never changes. He is never fickle or unsure. He never says one thing but means another. His blessings are always good and perfect and given at the right time. And because God is holy, full of light and unchanging, His moral laws are pure and righteous and in force yesterday, today and tomorrow. The Bible also informs us that God is sovereign.
Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.’ (Isaiah 46:9, 10)
And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever. For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, “What have You done?” (Daniel 4:34, 35)
God’s sovereignty can be defined as the free exercise of His will. God is supreme over all and is Lord Almighty in fact as well as in name. When God declares His purposes and His plans He carries them out. When He makes a promise He fulfills it.
In the gospel of John we have a promise made by Christ concerning the believer being secure in the hand of God.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one. (John 10:27-30)
Here is a comforting promise that all who believe in Christ for salvation are secure in that salvation, safe in the Father’s hand. But how do we know that this promise is true? What gives us the assurance that no one will be able to snatch us out of God’s hand? The answer is our solid knowledge of the power and sovereignty of God!
Some people think that our world is like a great stage play produced by God. As the curtain goes up all is lovely to behold. The characters are wonderful and beautiful. The set design is fantastic. And all goes well until the leading man steps on the leading lady’s dress. She then trips over a chair and knocks over a lamp. He falls into a table which crashes into the stage set which brings the whole thing crashing down. And all the while God is running around back stage frantically trying to get the show back on track. But nothing is further from the truth. God has not lost control. And there should be no truth more encouraging and comforting to us then the fact of God’s sovereignty. It means that God rules and overrules in the affairs of our world. He is Master over creation. His plan of salvation will be fulfilled. He will make good on His Word!
We Have a Special Revelation of God in Jesus Christ
Finally, besides creation and the Scriptures, we have a special revelation of God given to us in and through His Son Jesus Christ.
No one has seen God at anytime. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. (John 1:18)
Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?
The words that I speak to you, I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. (John 14:8-10)
All that Jesus said and all that he did unveiled to us the heart of God. In his sinless life Jesus portrayed God’s holiness. In his teachings and his miracles Christ displayed the wisdom and power of God. And in his sacrificial death on the cross the Lord proved that God loves us individually, passionately and infinitely. When we see Jesus Christ we see into the heart of God. The one and only true God. God is someone that you can know. And in knowing Him we find life, everlasting life.
Footnote
This quotation and the following two are from a book titled, The Creation Hypothesis, (Intervarsity Press. Pp. 270-293).
The Hebrew word for “wait” literally means to twist or to intertwine. Just as single strands of rope braided together become stronger when united so the believer is made stronger as he wrap his faith around the all powerful God.
The Hebrew word for “hell” is sheol and means the grave.
[Chuck LaMattina is the pastor of Grace Fellowship Church of God in Front Royal, Va. His books are available from Amazon.]
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