| Rev. George Rendon Nava Bible study: “On the Godhead in relation to the Trinitarian concept” Scripture reading: Isaiah 43:10-13 The intent of this bible study is not to prove one group wrong or right? but rather to rightly understand and interpret the scriptures in light of the Godhead biblically 10-13 For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily..” for by him and thru him do all things consist and exist..” without controversy great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifest in flesh, justified in the Spirit, believed on in the world, seen of angels, preached unto the gentiles and received up into glory “In the beginning was the word (Jesus) and the word (Jesus) was with God and the word (Jesus) was God..” I am..” I and the father are one.” I am the Lord..( Kurios =lord=Jesus) which is, which was, and is to come, the almighty” Col. 2:9-11, 1:13-17, 11 Tim. 3:16, John 1:1-2,14, Rev. 1:8-11 These are just a few of the many scriptures that address the issue of the deity of Christ (God) and how he consist and what his make up is? Otherwise know as the Godhead! Let’s biblically try to clarify his make up, composite nature, essence and attributes, we will then get a clearer more concise and complete understanding of how the various attributes and manifestations actually work in unity and harmony within a divine plan? working together in a unified purpose! will, substance and plan. But bare in mind that our conceptualization of who he is, is limited to our frail human logic? thus we can never really truly grasp nor understand totally his essence or nature, without the help of his Holy Spirit indwelt presence and revelation. Rather we know of him thru his word, and the world we see? as he is revealed to us thru his word and our experiences in this world, by reflecting upon those experiences we can thus compare our circumstances to his purpose for us as creation; and see how they fit in the grand scheme of things in his divine plan? for every situation and person can reveal and acknowledge something of the nature and glory of God “ The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies show his handiwork..” “ and what man knoweth the things of God save the Spirit of God within him..” so we see it is not by our reasoning process that we figure him out? but by what the bible saids! we are not asked to reason his essence nor divinity only to believe by faith what is expressed and explained in his word in fact proclaimed authoritively! That He is one! He is God! alone! Let us first establish that he is as God, Almighty, greater than us! and wiser than us! since he “created “us and “all things for his good pleasure” he is thus not only greater and more honorable than us! but more qualified to rule and lead as well, and has rights to our being and our future! including authority over us! “ and God formed man out of the dust of the ground.. and God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.. “In the beginning God created (not gods created?) the heavens .. Hence if we are then just a minute part of his total essence and nature? then he is consequently greater! NOTICE: when God breathed part of his make up into man we became a living (eternal) soul that lives forever, and where we will live in eternity is determined by who we recognized and worshiped (or rather served) as lord, albeit demon or divine? “ for you cannot serve two masters for either you will love the one and hate the other..” for it is appointed unto man once to die after this the judgment” So you see we don’t just die, just to be awakened to be put back to sleep again? for what purpose would the judgment have or serve? if there are no consequences to sin? no punishment? sleep is not a punishment so don’t even go there, hello! God is no dummy, he’s not confused, he knows what He’s doing, another point to consider is this? knowing the hell that Satan was going to cause this world do you think for one moment that God would not have just wiped out Satan if it were possible? think with me for a moment.. his soul too will live forever? “for hell was created for the devil and his followers..” (as a place of confinement until the day of redemption and judgment when he will finally be cast into the lake of fire) so you see because God gave us the breath of life we have a part of his eternal essence (thus our soul lives forever and will either be given the liberty of Heaven or confined to the torment of Hell at the end of the age! because every soul must have a place to live eternally?!) Thus we are only a minute part of his make up and this makes us less than him, remember in Colossians 1: It saids Jesus is the firstborn (prototokos) the firstborn of creation and of the dead” not first by birth physically but by virtue of his deity, his pre-eminence! again Colossians states the Jesus is the origin of creation, (however here we have a problem because the bible saids “ in the beginning God created .. “not Jesus created? yet here we clearly have the bible saying Jesus is the source of all creation? what’s wrong here? the word in the Greek for origin actually means the first bringer forth of, the originator of, the source of, thus it is saying both God and Jesus are the source of creation as one being!) and firstborn from the dead, though others were raised from the dead before him? Jesus was the only one who was raised from the dead, to never see death again unlike the others who were raised but went on to die again eventually. Remember he is God creator we are God created! we need him he doesn’t need us. We cant live without him but he can live without us! So why the teaching of more than one God? it is a trick of the enemy! if he (Satan) can get us to believe in more than one God? then he will try to sneak in somewhere so he can get us to worship him as a god? Remember his fall from nobility was because he wanted to be like God? : for I will be the like the most high.. I will be as God..” (Isaiah 14: ) thus his desire shows that he is less than God! so he deceives many with his lies of many Gods? albeit deism, theism, docetism, polytheism, trinitarianism Now lets take a closer look at some scriptures used for and against his deity? “my father is greater than I.” Romans 8:48, the word used in the Greek is Meizon which means to be greater quantitively but not qualitively? thus God was greater than Jesus (in his humanity) by virtue of his deity and divinity his pre-eminence, of which Jesus in his humanity choose not to rely on nor draw upon, remember in the book of Philippians it said’s he emptied himself of his right to draw on his deity, royalty, and power (called the kenosis) thus he was Qualitively the same as God but Quantitively less due to his choice again lets look at verse 6-7, “who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God ..“did not count equality with a God a thing to be grasped“ (the word used for equal here in the original Greek means a set of characteristics which constitutes a thing or person and what it is) It is generally held the thrust of verse 6 is that Jesus possessed equality with God not subordination? but did not attempt to draw upon it! Hence equality with God was something he antecedently possessed. And one who is equal with God must be God! (the Greek word for qualitively different; as used in the book of Hebrews is Kreitton) Why? would he draw on and live from the perspective of his humanity only? so that he would know what it was like to live in a human body of flesh and bone just like us? to struggle? cry? be tempted? fear? hurt? to be rejected? etc.. So you see if he had drawn on his deity as God to help him, to numb the pain, to fight on his behalf, to lift the burdens, then he would not be able to truly say that he “was in all points tempted as we are“? let alone know what it feels like as a human to suffer? to feel abandoned? rejected? etc. and in that state of humanity he cried out as a human would and sometimes does? “my God my God, why has thou forsaken me?” he did not carry the sin and pain of this world as God but rather as a sinless human begotten of the father ye God in flesh minus his right to draw on and feel that deity and authority! Though he was God he didn’t feel as God at that moment of payment for our sins. Then “ I am that I am..” ..before Abraham was I am..” the Greek word used here is Ergoi eimie: which means the self existing eternal one, to inhabit eternity, In other words he has always existed! notice he said before Abraham was I am? Abraham had already been dead several hundred years? yet Jesus said I am! not was, not will be, but is! how is this? simply because (God) Jesus cannot be restrained nor defined by the element of time, for he inhabits eternity, time you see was made TO CONTAIN mankind in his physical makeup? not God? for heaven and hell which is eternal will receive, and contain or restrain mans soulish or spiritual nature? at a certain point in time, because the soul is eternal; it must live somewhere in eternity? but as for God he already exist and inhabits eternity that’s why he said he has neither ending nor beginning? he just IS! always has been! a rather difficult concept for us humans to comprehend let alone accept, due to our finite thinking faculties And yet in another place he said’s “ He is the image of the invisible God” the word used here for image is Imago Dei which implies or means the exact and complete representation or manifestation of God! not a copy? not a likeness? which by the way is a different word in the Greek? thus he is an exact replication or manifestation of God in his completeness!’ God was manifest in flesh..” 11 Timothy 3:16 (Remember that the Greek is an exact & precise language that is why Jesus choose to use it in the writing of the N.T. bible (known as the Septuagent) the Greek language does not allow for the denying, spiritualizing, stretching or rejection of literal facts as worded in the Greek text) And another: “ In the beginning was God and the word was with God, and the word was God.. and he became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld the glory as of the only begotten of the father” Here is where some people have denied and even actually changed the verses translation? even against all Greek grammatical construction? for the word God Which is (Theos) (which is the subject here)is a predicate nominative and is proceeded by the word WAS which is an intransitive verb? and thus cannot carry an object? thus it must refer back to the subject? (the word) and because it follows a predicate nominative thus the person spoken of in the beginning GOD cannot be separated from the 2nd person or object the word, which is Jesus? and so must be considered one and the same! To sum it all up according to Greek grammatical construction there can be no direct object following was since according to grammatical usage intransitive verbs (was) cannot carry an object but instead must refer back to the predicate nominative, (God) which refers back to the subject the word in this case no article is needed for (God) Theos this is why it is in the anatherous construction (but without an article) remember the Greek has no definite article for the Greek the article is used to point out particular identity whereas the anatherous is used to point out character or quality, so if there would have been an article after the word in front of God? it would have been giving him a separate identity from the word (Jesus) so despite the anatherous construction and because of the intransitive verb according to Greek grammar no article can be inserted! meaning you cannot insert an (a) or (the) after the word WAS! case close! they are one and the same! Then there is our opening text: Isaiah 43: 10-11, “ 44:6,8, 45: 22-23, “ ye are my witnesses sayeth the Lord.. that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he, and before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.. I even I am the Lord and beside me there is no Savior.. and beside me there is no God.. Look unto me and be ye saved, I am God and there is none else .. I have sworn by myself, ..the word has gone out of my mouth and will not return void.. that unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess ( that Jesus is Lord) (God) Then in Philippians 2:5-11, “ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.. and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (God)“ Then in Romans 14: 11“ for it is written as I live sayeth the Lord (JESUS), every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess..” Then in John 6:61-62 “ ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before” oh oh we have a problem didn’t we just read earlier that God said there were no Gods before him or after him? yet here Jesus saids he was there before? if he’s not God then God would have had to be there also as another God? unless we try to make him a lesser God but scripturally that’s not possible? It would seem after reading these verses that there is an apparent contradiction or confusion? For on the one hand we clearly have God saying that he alone is God and he alone is the savior? and that there is not and was not, and will not be another God nor savior after him, yet in another place in scripture we find Jesus saying he alone is the savior? why he even goes about forgiving peoples sins, and claiming his deity! for which they attempted to stone him and yes eventually crucified him. Jesus is no liar! “ let God be true and every man a liar..” And in Acts 4:12 “ for there is no other name given among men under heaven whereby we must be saved, save the name of Jesus..” So we have two individuals both saying they are the only God and the only savior, the creator, the forgiver, etc. How can this be? either God and Jesus are psychos or schitzo? or worse yet liars? could it be that the reason that they both can say the same thing or even claim the same title as God? Is simply because they are one and the same being! Jesus said: “ I and my father are one” he who has seen me has seen the father..” Remember in the beginning God was a spirit and that spirit put on a body later in time and became flesh among us.. 1 Tim 3:16 So lets reflect on what we have discussed here, God who was a spirit in the Old Testament claimed that he alone was God, then He put on flesh in the New Testament and again claimed He was God and savior! now the only God we will see in heaven will be him in His glorified humanity inclusive of his deity! So we see if God said that there was no God before or after him, then how do we explain Jesus who obviously came at a later date in time or rather was just simply a different manifestation and revelation of the same essence and nature of God? (remember the bible saids that in the beginning God was a Spirit, and in John 1:13-14 it saids that God became flesh.. not became another God?.. and dwelt among us) and even claimed his deity as God? he did not come after God as another God? nor was he there beside God as another God? Hence there is only one conclusion! he is God and always has been, HE IS! because to say he is a another person or personality, a lesser or subordinate God or even another God would have to imply that he came later and is less qualitively aswell as quantitively thus making him a demi-god or lesser god but the bible saids that Jesus is the almighty God! Now some of the verses that those who believe in a triune Godhead use: “and being seated at the right hand of God” Oh Oh makes it look like there are two thrones or gods? but in reality the right hand of God as used in the bible is a Hebrew idiom, which implies in place of the power and authority of an individual, (in sit-tu) In the same way many of us still use the term he or she is my right hand person! but do not mean to imply that that person is at our right hand literally? NOTICE: John said he saw one throne in heaven “and I saw a throne..(not three thrones) and one seated on the throne” Rev. 4:2 yet he claimed to have seen God in heaven! whom he describes as JESUS? which is, which was, and which is to come! if we know our bible we know that Jesus is the one it says was, and is to come. 1 Thessalonians . 4:13-17 (remember the word Lord (Kurios) in the bible means Jesus as God.) for to call him Lord is to acknowledge his Godhood (deity) Hey anybody ever notice that John didn’t see anyone at the right hand of the throne? Jesus means Jehovah is salvation? Jesus prayed; “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” father, father why hast thou forsaken me?” Again realize that in his humanity he felt God forsaken? just like us when we hurt and are discouraged we feel Like God has left us and forgotten us? like he does not hear us? but he there with us despite what we feel like? “ for I will never leave you nor forsake you lo I am with you even until the end of the world” “ for there are three that bear record in heaven..(of which most trinity believers like to ignore the end of this verse? as follows) and these three are ONE!” The Greek word used for the noun forms (Holy Ghost, the Father, and the Son) is Elohim which implies an indication or intensity of majesty and attributes, but not a multiplicity of personalities or Gods nature.. Hence there is no subordination! nor separation? as is implied when we split God into individual personalities or persons. Remember Jesus came to bare the sin of the world, to carry our pain and misery, our shame and sickness without help from his deity so he could know what it is like to live in this frail human body? without help from divinity to numb the pain? to face temptation and trials alone so he could intercede on our behalf. “he was wounded for our transgressions.. bruised for our inequities, he bore our sorrows and carried our grief's.. so he could say “who was in all points tempted like as we are” and who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities” Isaiah 53:1-5 In his flesh he was setting and demonstrating an example for us! that we should do like wise, yes in his flesh and in great pain he felt God forsaken as we at times do in our flesh when we are under stress and pain, and circumstances are to hard to bare? “my grace is sufficient for thee” remember in flesh He separated himself from his deity in order that he might truly feel what and how humans feel. “ let us make man in our image..” Oh Oh here we go again with the split personality thing? not! well he certainly was not speaking to the angels? for according to the book of Hebrews we are made a little lower than the angels.(so we are not made in the image of angels then) neither was he talking to another God? “ for there is no other God beside me” This leaves us only one conclusion? remember when God plans something to be done its as good as done as far as he is concerned? though in the space of time it may not yet be completed or done? time which was made for man? cannot restrain God? for he knew that he would one day put on a body of flesh as Jesus, thus he was just talking to that body (himself) as if it were a done deal! do you ever talk to yourself? are you crazy because you do? of course you do, and your not crazy? like wise God is not crazy yet he clearly speaks to himself in scripture on few occasions. Doesn’t the bible say that Jesus existed from the foundation of the world in the beginning? yet he was born at a later date? thus could not have been there next to God? He was in the mind of God! think about it! the problem is we try to reason his essence and deity out by our finite mind by what makes sense to us? instead of taking what the word said’s at face value by faith! “ for my ways are not your ways.. lean not unto your own understanding..” for my thoughts are higher than yours” Now for the concept of three or many Gods, this s clearly an unbiblical teaching and error in understanding, for the most part even most so called trinitarians believe the same as oneness believers do? it is just a matter of terminology? though there are those who choose to relegate and subordinate one to the other? John said that this kind of teaching is Ant-Christ! In his various manifestations God was the father in creation, the Son in redemption, the Holy Spirit in revelation and illumination. many attributes, functions and titles but all the same in essence! Adonai, Elohim, El shaddai, Yeshua Hamashia, etc. and so with that in mind.... Alechem Adonai Ephesians 4: “ one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is above all, in you all, and through you all” Note that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are all titles of the one and the same God, notice it says baptize them in the name of the father not names?( the word used here in the Greek for name is singular not plural?) who is the father? who is the Holy Ghost? by the way the book of Mathew was written much later than the other writings including the book of Acts and after the method and practice of baptism was already a well established fact! that baptism was in Jesus name was known to all, and that he was the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, thus in the name of: JESUS!!!!! notice that if you were to review the book of Acts in chapter 2, 4,8,10,19,28 etc you always find individuals being baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus! and not in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost? even in your dictionary or encyclopedia Britannica it saids that back from the time of the Apostolic era baptism was always ministered in the name of the Lord Jesus until the late third century when it was changed by some Church’s to the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost otherwise known as the so called triune formula. As for the concept of the trinity it did not even exist nor was it acknowledged in the apostolic era, baptism was always in Jesus name you can even find this info. in your standard encyclopedia or dictionary! it was not until 150 A.D. that the concept even had any support, and not until 325 A.D. at the council of Nicea and in 357 A.D. at the council of Constantinople, where it was propagated and distorted, and even then it was considered a form of heresy! It was Tertillian who coined the term and phrase the trinity? since then it has been perverted and twisted, to give it a meaning quite different from what he meant? God is one even though he is a Father, the Spirit, and the Son, just like you may be a son, a father, an uncle but yet you are not three different persons? you are one and the same but many titles or names? Remember John said to believe in anything less than his Deity is Anti-Christ, thus to split him into lesser beings or to say he is a different personality from the father or Holy Ghost? is to subordinate him to one or the other? thus this is to deny his Deity! (deity cannot be subordinated) who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist “ that is why it is important that we realize that we cannot split him up as if it is only some minor issue? his very nature and essence is at stake here or rather what we believe as to his deity, the bible says “ For I have written .. that no lie is of the truth.. we “must believe that he is!” one, not many? for to say he is Christ is to say that he is God! not some lesser part of God? any Christian knows that! 1st John 2:22 still confused then read Isaiah 9:6 and ask yourself who is this? “for unto us a child is born (JESUS) and unto us a Son is given (JESUS) .. and his name shall be called Wonderful, counselor, THE MIGHTY GOD! the everlasting father, the prince of peace” (Jesus) AND YES IN REVELATION, IT EVEN SAIDS THAT JESUS IS THE ALMIGHTY GOD! CLEARLY NO SUBORDINATION THERE! Prepared by : George R. Nava 2170 e. Market st. Stk, Ca phone -46-59731 |