|
God, Yahweh/Yahshua/Jesus, who said in Mark 12:29,32 "The Lord our God is One." In order to be effective Followers of God, it is imperative that we understand what His Word says about Him. God wants us to know what to believe, and why we believe, and to test all things by comparing Scripture with Scripture. Do you know what God's Word says about His Sacred Name in the Old and New Testaments? This is an indepth study of the Doctrine of God and who He is. We pray you will be blessed and filled with awe and joy as you read!
God's intent is that every Christian be grounded in His Word---"study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth" 2 Timothy 2:15. Not everyone can attend Bible Colleges, but by diligent study of the Bible we can learn the BIBLICAL Doctrines taught there. The Doctrine of God tops the list---what what does He say about Himself and His Plan for the human race? To begin, it's essential to know who He is and what His Name is---in the Old Testament it is is YHWH (pronounced Yahweh) and Yahshua-Jesus in the New Testament---Yahshua means "YHWH saves (Messiah)." YHWH is translated in almost every English translation as LORD (some translate it as Jehovah). "God said to Moses, I AM the LORD God Almighty ... YHWH/YAHWEH is MY NAME" Exodus 3:2-3. Jesus said, "I have manifested Thy Name." "HIS NAME IS JESUS ... JESUS IS LORD!" John 17:6, Matt.1:22-5, Rom.10:9-10. Matthew 1:23 says that EmmanuEL (God with us) is Yahshua-Jesus. God in the flesh. Philippians 3:8 says. "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing who Christ Jesus my Lord is!" Jesus said, "Have I been so long with you, and YOU HAVE NOT KNOWN ME? How do you say 'show us the Father?' The Father and I are One" John 14:8, 10:30. Isa.9:6. The entire Bible was written by Jewish Believers in God who adhered to the first of all His Commandments, "Hear, O IsraEL, the LORD OUR GOD is ONE LORD, and THERE IS NONE OTHER BUT ME" Mark 12:29; "...neither is there any God besides You" 2 Samuel 7:22. But in Romans 10:9-10, the Apostle Paul warns us to beware lest "any man should rob you by philosophy and by empty deception according to the doctrines of the sons of men, and according to the elements of the world, and not according to the Messiah in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." He beseeches us in I Corinthians 1:10, "through The Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, speak the same thing so there be no divisions among you..." He warns us in Galatians 1:8-9 that we need to be very careful what we believe about God in Jesus and what people teach about Him ... saying that "if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." In Isaiah 42:8 God says, "I AM YAHWEH, that is My Name, and My Glory will I not give to another, neither My Praise unto graven images". And in Philippians 2:9-11, "God exalted YAHSHUA/JESUS to The Highest Place, and gave Him The Name that is above every other name; so that at The Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, to the glory of God the Father." Yahweh is in Jesus in all His fullness. Ephesians 4:4 says, "There is ONE LORD, One faith, One baptism; ONE GOD AND FATHER OF ALL who is over all and through all and in all."
"Thine, O LORD is the greatness, and the power and the glory, and the victory and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine! Thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and Thou art exalted as Head above all." Micah 5:4:
Someone wrote that "Jesus is the brightness of God's Glory, and the Express Image of Him, and upholds all things by the Word of His Power" Colossians 1:16-20. Everything---absolutely everything above and below that is visible and invisible and rank after rank after rank of angels---everything got started in Jesus and finds its purpose in Him! He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment! And when it comes to the church, He organizes and holds it together like a head does a body. He was Supreme in the beginning and, leading the Resurrection Parade, He is Supreme in the end! From beginning to end He's there, towering far above everything and everyone! So spacious and roomy is He, so that everything of God finds its proper place in Him without crowding! Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe (people and things, animals and atoms) get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of His death, His blood that poured down from the Cross!" Jude 1:25." Jesus Christ is God Incarnate, the God of the Old Testament in the flesh, YHWH=Yahweh. God in Jesus is omnicient, omnipresent, and in His omnipotence can circumvent physical laws in answer to His people's prayers, such as the Bible's accounts of causing the sun to stand still, calming the stormy sea, raising Lazarus, healing the blind, etc., and is full of examples of people doing what they could while asking God to do what they couldn't do. “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the Head over every power and authority” Colossians 2:9-10. The Name of Jesus is written over 700 times in the New Testament, and Romans 10:13 says it is only when we "call upon THE NAME OF THE LORD" can we be saved. Acts 4:12 says, "There is salvation in no other name."
JESUS is EmnanuEL (ELohim) meaning God in Psalm 45:6, Hebrews 1:8-9. Isaiah 9:6. EmanuEL is God in the flesh Matt.1:27. God's Name, EL (ELohim), is in Jesus (EmmanuEL).
COMPARING SCRIPTURE WITH SCRIPTURE:
Certainly the Bible calls God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit---but not three Persons---and teaches that God is One, the Holy Spirit who manifests Himself as the Father in the Son whose NAME IS JESUS. His first Commandment is "Hear, O IsraEL, the Lord our God is One Lord, and there is none other but He." When confronted with the illogicality of the Three-In-One doctrinal position, the most popular escape route is for such people to claim that God is a mystery, and we should accept such things in faith without requiring a logical explanation. This pointedly overlooks the references in the New Testament to the mystery of God being revealed through the Word and Work of Jesus Christ: "I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery" (Rom. 11:25). "The preaching of Jesus...the revelation of the mystery" (Rom. 16:25). "I shew (explain to) you a mystery..." (1 Cor. 15:51). "Having made known unto us the mystery of his will" (Eph. 1:9; 3:3). Paul's preaching was "to make known the mystery of the Gospel" (Eph. 6:19; Col. 4:3). "The mystery...now is made manifest to his saints" (Col. 1: 26,27). Like no other doctrine, Christians are on opposite sides of this doctrinal fence regarding the Three-In-One. A partial answer is that we know only in part, we see "through a glass darkly." The other major doctrine on which Christians are on opposite sides is regarding the Conditional or Eternal Security of the Believer. But this does not incur such strong reactions as those who subscribe to the Trinity. They go so far as to say that those who do not are a cult and not saved. However, the Bible teaches that there is only One uncreated, eternal, True God (Exodus 3:14; Deuteronomy 6:4; John 17:3), and that there will never be any other uncreated, eternal, true God(s) to come into existence (Isaiah 43:10; 44:6-8; 1 Cor. 8:4-6; Galatians 4:8); and that this One True God created everything from nothing (Psalm 90:2; Isaiah 44:24; Hebrews 3:4; 11:3). God's Truth blazes across the pages of the Bible that Jesus is the Express Image of the Invisible God, the Firstborn over all creation, Colossians 1:16. The amazing reality of Jesus is that He was, and is, and will always be, God among us! Jesus said, "A time is coming, and has now come, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks ... He is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth---John 4:23.24-25. God is Spirit, the Invisible Holy Spirit, and the Father of our Lord Jesus EmmanuEL who is God in human flesh.
Matthew calls Jesus ImmanuEL which means "God with us," and in Colossians 1, Paul pours out every superlative he can use to describe Jesus' preeminence over everything and everyone---He is God with a human face, the ruler, the transcendent One who reigns above all creation, and He is also our Savior and our Sacrifice!
God wants us to know what to believe, and know why we believe, and to test all things and compare Scripture with Scripture. Acts 17:11 says, "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." In order to test doctrine, we must shine the full Light of God's Word on it to see the Truth. Jesus said in the Book of Revelation, "Woe to those who add to or delete from" His Word! The Disciples and early Christians did not teach this doctrine. Jesus said, "If you continue in My Word you will know the Truth" (John 8:31,32). For instance, Jesus said in Matthew 28:19 to "baptize them in the NAME of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". He said in "THE NAME"---singular. (It is fantastic to make a study of NAME in a good concordance, such as Scofield's Reference Edition of the Bible).
Church history shows that when a State Church was formed in one of the earliest centuries, it began to outlaw the Bible from the common people. This was the beginning of the apostate church. The true Church was in exile right from the beginning, and was persecuted, lied about, hated, and many put to death for refusing to follow doctrines made by man.
Jesus said in Revelation 1:8 that He is the LORD GOD, the Alpha and the Omega. He always said that it was the Father in Him that did the works that He did. He said when you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. Not He, nor any writer of the New or Old Testaments, ever said "When you have seen Me, you have seen the Second Person of the Trinity." He said in John 8:32 that the "Truth will set you free" ... 1 Timothy 6:3-5 says that if "anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the Doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing...he is deprived of the Truth...” God is One, the Holy Spirit who manifests Himself as the Father in the Son, whose NAME IS JESUS! The first of all His Commandments is, "Hear, O IsraEL, the Lord our God is One Lord, and there is none other but He." Galatians 1:10 says, "I want you to know, brothers, that the Gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ."
Matthew 15:8-9 says, "These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain, their teachings are but rules taught by men."
Those who believe the Three-In-One doctrine say it is a mystery that cannot be explained or understood. They even go on to say that it can make one insane by dwelling on it too much. Yet they believe that to question this doctrine is a mortal sin. However, Jesus says in John 14, "The Comforter, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send IN MY NAME, will TEACH YOU ALL THINGS and will remind you of everything I have said to you." He said in John 16, "when the SPIRIT OF TRUTH comes, HE WILL GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH, and then went on to say "I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE!" Colossians 1:27-28 says, "To them GOD HAS CHOSEN TO MAKE KNOWN AMONG THE GENTILES THE GLORIOUS RICHES OF THIS MYSTERY, WHICH IS CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY. WE PROCLAIM HIM, ADMONISHING AND TEACHING EVERYONE WITH ALL WISDOM, SO THAT WE MAY PRESENT EVERYONE PERFECT IN CHRIST." Jesus promised that He would teach us all things and guide us into all Truth, and that He would not leave us in the dark about anything---He promised complete understanding because He is not the author of confusion! He said in Luke 8:10, "Unto you it is given to KNOW THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, but to others (unbelievers) I speak in parables that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. Then opened He their understanding that they might UNDERSTAND THE SCRIPTURES" Luke 24:45 ...
Paul said, "...YOU MAY UNDERSTAND THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST" Ephesians 3:4 ... "that you may be encouraged in heart and united in love so that you may have the full riches of COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING, in order that you may KNOW THE MYSTERY OF GOD, NAMELY, CHRIST IN YOU, IN WHOM ARE HIDDEN ALL THE TREASURES OF WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE ... I TELL YOU THIS SO THAT N0 ONE MAY DECEIVE YOU BY FINE-SOUNDING ARGUMENTS" Colossians 2:2.
JESUS CHRIST IS THE IMAGE OF GOD (2 Corinthians 4:4). He is God in the flesh, our Savior and Lord God. He is the All-IN-ALL, the God-man, the Last Adam, and the Mediator between God and men! It is our delight to evermore praise and worship His wonderful Name and declare it to the world -- to JESUS, the ONLY WISE GOD OUR SAVIOR be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever, Amen! SHINE, JESUS, SHINE!
To read more about who Jesus our Lord God says He is, click HERE. A more indepth study about God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit continues HERE.
write to us HERE.
|
