We do not deny the Father or the Holy Ghost. We believe on One universal God Who has revealed Himself as the Father in creation, the Son in redemption, and the Holy Ghost in regeneration. God revealed Himself in various ways in the Old Testament: Jehovah-Jireh (The Lord our Provider - Genesis 22:14,) Jehovah-Rapha (The Lord our Healer - Exodus 15:16,) Jehovah-Nissi (The Lord is our Banner - Exodus 17:15,) Jehovah-Shalom (The Lord our Peace - Judges 6:24,) Jehovah-Raah (The Lord is my Shepherd - Psalms 23,) Jehovah-Tsidkenu (The Lord our Righteousness - Jeremiah 23:6,) Jehovah-Shammah (The Lord is Present - Ezekiel 48:35.)
"Jehovah," means "the self-existent One." This one Lord of the Old Testament Who was many things to His people finally became our Savior, manifesting all of these Attributes in "Jesus," which means "Jehovah-Savior." "Call His Name Jesus, for He shall SAVE His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21 and Isaiah 45:15, 21.)
In the Old Testament, a new revelation on the Name of God or a different appearance (as the burning bush) did not mean another God, but merely the One God revealing Himself to man. What better way could there have been for God to reveal His true nature and love for man than to prepare Himself a "body of flesh" to dwell among men (Hebrews 1:1-3.)
Jesus is Prophet, Priest, and King - Son of man, Son of God, Son of David and Son of Abraham, not three persons or gods, but separate and distinct Offices reflecting dispensation claims at different times from His birth to the Millennium. We believe in three - Father, Son, and Holy Ghost - manifestations or dispensation claims of One God (Isaiah 41:4; Revelation 1:8, 17-18.)
JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY - THE DIFFERENCES: "The chief and fundamental difference between Judaism and Christianity is that the former is committed to pure and uncompromising monotheism and the latter subscribes to the belief in the trinitarian nature of the divine being - to the unconditional monotheism of Judaism the doctrine of the Trinity is profoundly objectionable, because it is a concession to polytheism or, at any rate, an adulteration of the idea of the one, unique, indefinable, and indivisible God.
The revolutionary feat of early Mosaism was the complete break with the cults of the many deities and the unconditional and unreserved espousal of the only God. God is one as a unity of oneness that cannot be divided" (JONATHON DAVID PUBLISHERS, 1943, page 15.)
Comprehension of the Godhead can only be attained when one realizes the uniqueness of the marvelous Personage depicted in the Gospels as the Son of God. The Trinitarians have succeeded in convincing much of the world that the Son of God is an eternal second person of the Godhead. This Sonship, however, was neither eternal nor does it refer to a Second Person. In simple terms, the Son of God is the expression used to describe the vessel that God ordained to manifest Himself in. To repeat: The term used to describe this man, or shall it be said this flesh that God dwelt in, is the Son of God. Whenever and wherever you find the expression, "Son of God," it is speaking of the man, Jesus Christ.
This marvelous creation was as much man as he was God. He was a Divine fusion of Deity and humanity. Through Him, God was made flesh and became a Kinsmen Redeemer. No revelation is more fundamental to the understanding of the Godhead, the Mediatorship of Jesus Christ and even our position as redeemed sons and daughters of God.
Where and when did this Son of God come into existence? Notice the words of Paul to the Galatians as he describes this Son of sons: "God sent forth His Son, made of a woman" (Galatians 4:4.) Thus the Son of God was made of a woman. Don't fail to see His humanity.
In Luke 1:35 when the angel came to Mary with the announcement of the miraculous birth she was soon to have, He described the Son in a most revealing way:
"...therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
Who then was this Son of God? The angel said that He was that holy thing which was soon to be born to a virgin named Mary. That baby, that flesh, that man-child, was called the Son of God.
I Timothy 3:16, "...God (the Fullness of His nature and character) was manifest in the flesh..." The Son, the man, was not eternal but begotten John 3:16 says, "He is the only begotten Son."
The Son of God is never mentioned in the Old Testament except in a prophetic sense. He is never mentioned because He did not exist except in the mind of God as One Who was to come. No Scripture speaks of an eternal son; the begotten son is familiar to all. In John 14:10, Jesus clearly explains who He is, "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The Words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: But the Father that dwelleth in me? He doeth the works." What could be clearer or more directly stated. Our Father, condescended and revealed Himself in His Son, a man born of a virgin. A God and a man. A God-man. Jesus said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." To see the Son is to see the Father. To know the Father is to know the Son.
The Bible is the story of the Eternal Spirit unfolding HIMSELF (His thoughts) through the Word to the Flesh of His Family. So when God says "us" He is speaking of Himself and the Logos or Word, the expression of His eternal thoughts. Understand this marvelous concept and the mystery of the Godhead becomes wonderfully clear.
Jesus Christ was the "BEGINNING of the creation of God" less than 2,000 years ago (Colossians 1:18: Revelation 3:14.) The New Testament saints are the continuation and ENDING of the creation of God (Hebrews 310-18.)
There are a number of arguments presented by the Trinitarians to support their doctrine. We will briefly view what appear to be the major ones:
In Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man in our image." Also Isaiah 6:8, "...I heard of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"
In this as well as other references, the use of the plural pronoun has been proffered by Trinitarians as conclusive proof of the plurality of the Godhead. This plural use is God's Way of indicating not a plurality of persons but of offices, dispensation claims to God by the believers, and manifestations of the same God. The New Testament saints Glorified together with Jesus, are ALL God, manifest in the Form of His Family. Jesus of Nazareth was the BEGINNING of God making Himself into a Creation and the New Testament Church is the CONTINUATION of the SAME Creation (Revelation 3:14; Hebrews 2:9-17.)
Another illustration of the plural pronoun is found in John 14:23, "If a man love Me, he will keep My Words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him."
As already shown in I Corinthians 12:13 and Acts 2:4, there was, in fact ONE Person who came to us - the Holy Spirit (to this even the Trinitarians agree.) Yet Jesus said, "We will come," so who was this "We?" It was the REVELATION of the flesh or the Son and the Deity of the Father. It was two expressions of the same God Who thus refers to Himself in a plural sense. Before the foundation of the world, this whole plan was fixed in the mind of God. From the beginning, He expressed this marvelous diversity as a plurality. Throughout eternity, He will still be expressed as flesh and Spirit.
The explanation is simply that God is throughout Holy Writ, identifying His attributes of Fatherhood and Sonship and indwelling Spirit. We are to believe in three offices, but to understand that it is One God, One Person. The splendid mystery is that one God did it all - He is Savior, Healer, Baptizer, Judge, Mediator, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
Elohim is actually a plural word for God and Trinitarians maintain that it indicates persons in the Godhead. One of the best known Titles of Elohim is "Jehovah" which means "the Self-Existent ONE" and when manifested in the flesh as our Kinsman Redeemer He was known as "Jesus." meaning "Jehovah Savior." Elohim however, is used to depict other Old Testament deities (whether real or imaginary.) Baal and Beelzebub, are both called Elohim but they were not trinities (Judges 6:31; II Kings 1:2.) The word "Elohim" does not express a plurality of persons but signifies God in His attributes is the sum of all deity. Jesus Christ and the Glorified New Testament Church will be the manifestation of those glorious attributes - Elohim in the flesh of His Family.
Trinitarians who link Genesis 1:26 with Colossians 1:13-19 prove to their satisfaction Jesus of Nazareth created the world with the Father and Holy Spirit, but the Bible says, "Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and He that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens ALONE; that spreadeth abroad the earth by Myself" (Isaiah 37:16; 44:24; Nehemiah 9:6; Psalms 33:8.)
God created all things by the spoken WORD when "time" began, NOT the Man from Galilee, Who is that Word made flesh, born of a virgin trillions of years later. Jesus has preeminence over all things, the first resurrected son. To make Jesus the beginning of God's creation, as Trinitarians teach is to make Him less than God. The beginning of God's creation is the sun, the planets, the rivers and trees Jesus is the beginning of ANOTHER Creation, the beginning of God creating HIMSELF.
RALPH E. KNUDSEN: "The word Elohim is one of the more general names for God and is plural in form. This is what is usually known as the plural of 'majesty or eminence,' or the plural of 'fullness or greatness.' It is not uncommon in the East to use the plural to express the idea of the singular in an intensified form. The singular of Elohim means strength, power, or might, and the plural is simply an intensifying of the singular meaning. There is no idea of making God more than one by the use of the plural form Elohim" (CHRISTIAN BELIEFS, 1947, Page 26.)
THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA: "By far the most frequent form of the Old Testament writers is the plural Elohim, but they use it regularly with singular verbs and adjectives to denote a singular idea" (Page 1254.)
DR WILLIAM SMITH: "The plural form of Elohim has given rise to much discussion. The fanciful idea that it referred to the Trinity of persons in the Godhead hardly finds now a supporter among scholars. It is either what grammarians call the plural of majesty, or it denotes the fullness of divine strength, the sum of the powers displayed by God" (DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE, Page 216.) "For in Him (Jesus) dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the Head of all principality and power" (Colossians 2:9-10.)
It is pointed out by the Trinitarians that there were three present at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. The Father was in heaven, the Holy Spirit was somewhere between heaven and earth and Jesus, the Son, was on earth. There is no clearer proof of God's majesty and manifestations than this picture of Jesus in the River Jordan. Do you see that God can be in heaven and manifested on earth at the same time? Jesus claimed Himself to be just that (John 3:13; 1:18.) Together with all of the New Testament saints I am even now seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:28-30; Ephesians 2:6.)
He claimed also, in John 14:10 that it was the Father Who dwelt in Him that did the marvelous works. If the Father remained in heaven while the Spirit descended, where and how did the Father finally get into Christ?
The Spirit who descended had also to be the Father. "God is a (ONE) Spirit" - He is the Holy Spirit (John 4:24.)
Trinitarians invariably overlook the fact that the Pillar of Fire in the form of a dove was a SIGN promised to John to identify the One he was to introduce. The Voice and the sign were seen and heard by John alone. Furthermore, Scripture does not say the dove was the Holy Ghost but that it was a manifestation of the Holy Ghost; the concept of a presence of three persons evaporates - yet there were three witnesses (I John 5:7.)
Incidences in the Gospels, such as Jesus on the cross where He prayed to the Father, have been used to support the idea that there must be two in the Godhead. A trinitarian would ask, "Did Jesus pray to Himself? If not, then there must be two - one praying to the other." Recognizing His Deity and His humanity provides the key which makes understanding very simple. Jesus was not praying to Himself.
"O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come" (Psalms 65:2.) rayer is defined in the Bible as flesh praying to deity. Like EVERY Son, the humanity of Jesus was praying to the Divinity dwelling within Himself. To Whom do you pray? If you are born again, you speak to the Holy Spirit Who dwells "in" you. Isn't that true? In Jesus dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily, He was God manifested in the physical Form of a man. God was both manifested in Him and in heaven (John 14:10; Matthew 12:50.)
Many times this marvelous duality was put on display before men. "In the days of His flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared" (Hebrews 5:7.) "As a man," Jesus hungered, slept, wept, learned, prayed, and experienced all that is common to man-kind. "As God," He healed the sick, raised the dead, calmed the seas and forgave sins. When the disciples were at sea and a storm threatened their lives, it was a man who was fast asleep in the boat, but when He awoke and lifted His voice to rebuke the winds and the waves, then it was God who spoke! As a man, He wept before the tomb of Lazarus, as God He cried, "Lazarus, come forth!" It should not be difficult to comprehend that as a man Jesus prayed, but as God, He heard and responded to those prayers.
"The vessel or manifestation of God, can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these things also doeth the Son likewise" (John 5:19; 14:19.) And is this not so with His brethren who are written epistles of the Word God is manifesting in THIS hour? A life lived by the Word is the Word expressed. "It is no longer I that liveth but Christ living through me by the faith of the Son of God" (Galatians 2:20.)
The only way God can be omnipresent is by the manifestation of His Word. That is how He was in Jesus and that is how He is in His saints, the New Testament Church. We receive the Spirit as we receive the understanding of the Word - by faith. We can only receive the Spirit in Word Form (Galatians 3:2,5.)
The Trinitarians maintain that because the Word was with God, that makes two persons. For those who feel that John 1:1 indicates two divine persons, let us read it as a trinitarian would have to, bearing in mind God, by their definition, is a trinity.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the trinity, and the Word was trinity." If the Word was with the trinity, we now have four persons. If we say that in this verse, God stands not for trinity but for Father, we would read, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with the Father and the Word was the Father." The Word, then is not he Son but the Father - It was His eternal thoughts yet unexpressed - which is precisely what we maintain.
What is true for God, is true for man also. How can you separate a man's word from himself? Although your word is with you and it is you, that does not make you two persons. God's thoughts he has always had, they are Eternal and they are real, they cannot be added to or taken from and we know them as Logos or concept. A thought expressed is a Word. In Jesus the fullness of the nature, character and purpose of God was manifested bodily. That is why He is called the "Word" or "Logos." This verse only substantiates that it was God manifest in the flesh of the Man we know as Jesus Christ, the beginning of the creation of God - less that 2,000 years ago.
Frequently, in the epistles, we find a variety of expression embodying the words Father or God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. For example, Ephesians 1:2, "Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." To whom, asks the trinitarian, can this refer if not to two divine persons? We will illustrate it in one source and it will suffice for all others, because the meaning is the same.
I Peter 1:3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
Notice what is being expressed - the Father and Jesus Christ who is risen from the dead. God and the man who died and rose again. Very simple, when we realize that God desires to express to the Church, not only His Deity, but also His justice in meeting sin's penalty and His righteousness and grace fulfilled in the humanity of the second Adam Who was raised for our justification. It identifies the sinless Source of the Son, for since Adam, "all are born in sin and shapen in iniquity." NOT a second person in the Godhead but THE Person. Our Kinsman Redeemer was be GOD manifest in flesh, or we are all lost. The Bible calls Him "Emmanuel" meaning, 'God with us', not a second, third or any other fraction of God (Matthew 1:18.)
This verse of Scripture, when understood in the light of God's foreknowledge cannot be interpreted to mean a preexistent glorified Son. Such an interpretation would contradict all other passages of Scripture which reveal the Son in relation to time and humanity.
Jesus, however, was glorified before the world was, He was also a Lamb before the world was, and was slain before the world was (Revelation 13:8.)
The whole plan of salvation including Christ's redemptive Work was established in the mind of God from eternity. This is the Glorification that Jesus prayed for.
Even we as redeemed sons of God are ALREADY glorified. "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the FIRSTBORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified" (Romans 8:29-30.)
We are even now glorified because it is established in the mind of God that we shall be glorified. He foreknew whom they would be therefore we too can pray like Jesus, "Father glorify me with the glory I had with You before the world was."
"Behold I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56.) It is ridiculous to suppose that Stephen, as his life was being dashed out of him, beheld two divine persons standing side by side. It is ridiculous because:
(a) "NO man hath seen God at anytime" (John 1:18; I John 4:12.)
(b) God "The Father," is a Spirit and as such invisible (Colossians 1: 15; I Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 11:27.)
Stephen did not see two Gods and He did not say, "I see Jesus standing beside God." The term, "right hand of God" provides us with the key that gives the explanation. In Exodus 15:6 Moses and the Israelites claimed to have "seen the right hand of God." But God is a Spirit with neither right nor left hand; what they saw was a manifestation of God's power and glory. Stephen as an Israelite knew what "the right hand of God" meant. He saw the son of God in power and glory. He saw the Son of God on the right hand of God. When Jesus ascended, "ALL power was given unto Him in heaven and in earth" - He was God's right hand Man, His first adopted son with all the Authority of His Father."
Jesus is actually saying "I and the Father are in perfect agreement by faith, or at-one with each other." His prayer for the New Testament saints was, "That they ALL might be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, THAT THEY MIGHT BE ONE IN US..." (John 17:21-26.) God and the soul that's joined together with God is ONE Spirit manifest in a many- membered Body (I Corinthians 6:17.) And "ALL the saints speak the same thing" because they are each a manifestation of the same (One) Spirit of God (I Corinthians 1:10; 12:4-12.)
Not "three in one" but "thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand" in One (Daniel 7:10; Hebrews 12:22-24; Revelation 5:9-13.)
What perfect clarity and certainty comes to the heart of the believer when he begins to rest on the majesty of the revelation that there is one God with one Name! And through the Spiritual Marriage Union or new birth, that Name is the Name of the Bride also - Christ is the Head and She the Body (Ephesians 1:21-23.)
When the believer thinks of Jesus Christ the Father, he thinks of the supreme deity who knows no rival and beside Whom there is no other.
When he thinks of Jesus Christ the Son, he thinks of the flesh that the Father dwelt in and through which He corresponded His plan of redemption to mankind. He thinks of the man who suffered, died and became a High Priest.
When he thinks of Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit, he thinks of the Spirit of the Father which is now abiding in him. He knows that God, all of God, has come to dwell in and guide the church to perfection.
Holy Spirit is "what" God is, Father is a Title or office He received when He created His first son, Adam, and Son is what He became when He began unfolding HIMSELF into the flesh of His Family (John 4:24; Genesis 2:4; Revelation 3:14.) "Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God is ONE Lord" unfolding Himself from the eternal Spirit alone with His thoughts to the Flesh of those thoughts in the Form of His Glorified sons and daughters of Whom Jesus is the firstborn of many (Colossians 1:18; Hebrews 1-3.)
Comparing the words of Isaiah and Paul we can see that Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus of the New:
"Tell ye and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time; have not I the Lord: and there is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by Myself, the Word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that until Me every knee shall bow, every tongue swear" (Isaiah 45:21-23.)
"That at the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father" (Philippians 2:10-11.)
The believer longs to behold the face of the Son in glory; when he falls at Jesus' feet, he will be at the feet of Jehovah - HIS GOD AND HIS SAVIOR.
The "message" sent by God through His prophet can change your life and make the Word of God come alive to you. Paul spoke of the Bereans on this wise: "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things Were so" (Acts 17:11.)
Take this message, consider it, check it out with the Scriptures and let the Lord reveal Himself to you.
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