Our dogma revolves around the great biblical truth that there is One God, also called “monotheism.” In his book, The Oneness of God, David K. Bernard, J.D. defines monotheism in this manner: “The belief in only one God is called monotheism, which comes from two Greek words: monos, meaning alone, single, one; and theos, meaning God.” Ralph V. Reynolds simply stated that “there is only one Supreme Being who is God; He cannot be multiplied nor pluralized.” He further declared, “There are over fifty passages of Scripture that teach that God is one and that there is no other.” In fact, the Word of God naturally assumes this universal truth. Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created..." God here is the transliterated form of Elohim, which means “plenitude of might,” or more simply, “one God whose characteristics are many.” This thought is carried further in Deuteronomy 6:4, "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD." In Colossians 2:9 we are told that in Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead (all the characteristics of God) bodily, and we (the Church) are complete in Him (Jesus).
When addressing Timothy, Paul wrote of a mystery, but then he further explained what that mystery was, "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (1 Timothy 3:16). Only Jesus Christ fulfills those six points. Therefore, Jesus Christ of the New Testament is Elohim of the Old Testament, which further explains why we are told that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God and that all things exist and consist by him, Colossians 1:12-17.
So, we are dogmatic in our belief that there is only one God and Jesus is His name. He is our Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, and Savior. Isaiah 9:6, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Only Jesus fulfills this messianic prophecy. He is the Father in Creation, the Son in Redemption, and the Holy Spirit in us today. Keep this great truth in mind and heart as you celebrate this Christmas season. Merry Christmas!
____________
SOURCES:
Bernard, David K. J.D. The Oneness of God. St. Louis: Word Aflame Press, 1983.
Reynolds, Ralph V. Truth Shall Triumph. Hazelwood, MO: Pentecostal Publishing House, 1965.
5 comments:
Greetings Stephen Kuntzman
There is indeed only one God,
who cannot be multiplied nor pluralized.
However His name isn't Jesus!!
That is the Name of His Son!!
Jesus the Messiah,the Righteous One, is the Son of the ONLY ONE & ONLY GOD, THE FATHER.
Remember Peter's revelation:
(Mat 16:16-17) And Simon Peter answered and said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
Jesus himself said:
(John 10:36) Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said,
I am the Son of God?
(John 17:3) And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
And John said:
(John 20:31) But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
(2 John 1:3) Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father,
and from the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
So, there is:
ONE GOD, THE FATHER
and
ONE Lord, the man Christ Jesus whom the ONE GOD has made both Lord & Christ, to His Glory
[1 Cor 8.4,6; Acts 2.36, Phil 2.11]
This was the message of the Apostles.
This is the Apostolic Message:
ONE GOD, the Father.
The man Christ Jesus is
the Lord Messiah,
GOD's human Son.
Jesus Christ of the New Testament is the Son of the Elohim of both the Old&New Testament.
Please, Think on these things!
Yours In Messiah
Adam Pastor
60 questions on the Godhead
Oneness on Trial - The Verdict
Oneness on Trial - The Verdict (part 2)
The Human Jesus
Adam, thank you for taking the time to post a comment on my blog. I do appreciate it when people read what's been written.
As to your bad argument that Jesus is merely the Son of God, well, I am forced to make a few comments.
First, Are you familiar with the many Old Testament prophecies regarding Jesus and the incarnation? How that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself?
Let's look at one, Isaiah 9:6, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." This is clearly speaking of Jesus and His name is to be called what? "The mighty God, The everlasting Father."
Second, proper context helps when making a claim. To that end, read this text in its context:
Matthew 1:18-23, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
Third, read 1 Timothy 3:16 and tell me please, when was God "manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."
I could add more good arguments to disprove your bad ones, but this is enough...along with what I initially wrote.
Greetings
Using this aforementioned link:
60 questions on the Godhead
Concerning Isaiah 9.6,
see question Nos. 13/15
Concerning Matt 1.23,
see question No. 51
Plus, this name is simply expressing the fact that the ONE GOD is with Judah via this child. This was the original context of the meaning of the name when given to the boy in Isaiah chapters 7 & 8.
Therefore, did that make that child, Almighty GOD? No!
Likewise, when the Messiah was born, GOD's purpose for the salvation of Israel was being initiated. GOD indeed was with Israel (cp. Luke 1.68-69) via the newly-born Messiah.
Concerning 1 Timothy 3.16,
here is some info concerning that verse:
1 Tim 3.16
(This has been a known fact about this verse for at the very least, 13 centuries!)
Yours In Messiah
Adam Pastor
Oneness on Trial - The Verdict
Oneness on Trial - The Verdict (part 2)
Pardon the book. :)
I am probably wasting my time. However, I believe the Word of God to be clear concerning the role of Jesus as God and as Messiah.
Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”
Here we have Yahweh Himself saying, “and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.” Yahweh is Elohim and Jesus Christ is Yahweh manifest in the flesh.
This Old Testament verse by itself shows us that Yahweh would carry out the part of Son as the Messiah.
John 20:27-31, “Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”
Here Thomas identifies Jesus as God. If Jesus is only the Son of God He would correct Thomas, but He does not.
John then ends the book by stating its purpose, which is to prove the messiahship of Jesus Christ. His role as Son of God speaks to His role as Messiah, but Jesus was not just the Son. He is God manifest in the flesh. This the beauty of the incarnation.
Christ, the Son of God, is not God, but Jesus is God. Christ is not a name but a title that God held/holds in Sonship. This office is not God, but God held the office. The Son was not Jesus, but Jesus is the Son.
So, I agree that the Son is not God, the Son died and God cannot die, but Jesus is God. To say the He is not God is to deny the multitude of scriptures in the Word of God identifying Him as such.
For example:
God is the only Savior (Is. 43:11; Lk. 1:47; Titus 2:10; 1 Tim. 4:10; Jude 1:12) and Jesus is the only Savior (I Jn. 4:14; 2 Peter 1:1; 3:18; Jn. 4:42; Titus 1:4; Lk. 2:11; Acts 4:12). Now either one is a liar (impossible since God cannot lie), or Jesus is God.
Both God and Jesus are identified as the Word (Jn. 1:1, 14), as the Redeemer (Is. 63:16; Titus 2:13-14), and both are called the “I AM” (Ex. 3:14 & Jn. 8:58).
The Word of God clearly states that God created the heaven and earth by Himself (GE. 1:1 & Is. 44:24), but it also states the Jesus created the heaven and earth (Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:10).
Finally, as a caveat, Jesus was not only the Son of God, but He is also identified as the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, The Son Over His Own House, the Son of the Woman, and Son of Joseph, and the Son of Man. That’s seven sonships fulfilled by Jesus.
The Son of God suffered, bled and died. Through Jesus God experienced death as we do when His spirit left the body of Christ. This is how we can say God had blood--only by Jesus Christ.
What does it mean to die? I think this is important Adam Pastor's argument fails because he assumes death means cessation of existence.
Did God die? Did the Father die if Jesus was God? It is important here as to what one means by “death.” If death refers to the separation of one’s spirit from their body, then I would say yes, the Father experienced death. After all, persons (conscious, thinking beings) are the subject of the experience of death. If Jesus is only one person—the divine person—and persons are the subject of the experience of death, then the divine person experienced death.
If one understands death to refer to cessation ONLY, then clearly the Father could not die. This is simply a false or incomplete understanding of death though. When you die, you will not cease to exist. You will simply begin to exist in an unembodied state. Nothing changes in your person/spirit. You will simply have the experience of having been separated from your body. I would argue that the same is true of the divine person: In Jesus, God experienced a separation of His person from His body, and hence God experienced death.
God became man by bringing human nature into union with His person. The properties of that human nature allow God to function as a human in every way, including psychological functioning. In Jesus, God is conscious of Himself as man in a fully human way, and yet because God continues to exist beyond the incarnation (and because He retained His divine nature), He continues to be conscious of Himself as God as well.
In the Incarnation we have a unique situation in which a single person is conscious of Himself in two distinct ways simultaneously, in two distinct modes of existence.
It may be more appropriate to use appellations that are specific to the incarnation when we talk about Christ’s suffering (such as “the Son of God/Christ/Jesus suffered”), but when it comes to the question of who experienced the suffering, I find it inescapable to conclude anything other than that it was the divine person Himself. God was the subject of those experiences in and through His incarnate mode of existence.
The fact that God is immortal does not mean that part of Him could not undergo human death which is merely the stopping of certain chemical processes and not complete cessation. Jesus was like us in all things and so he died as humans die just as he grew in wisdom and stature. And even here we find the mystery of the incarnation, for Jesus actually stated that He would raise Himself from the dead: "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up..." John 2:19, 22
Hebrews 4:14
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. ESV
Rom. 3:25, Eph. 1:7, 1 Pet. 1:19 all speak of His blood referring to Jesus as God. In a real way God suffered, bled, and experienced death through the Son of God. Dying as a mere man is not good enough to satisfy infinitely the sins of humanity. Bulls and goats alone did not do as well. The sin debt was owed to God himself. That is why God Himself has come to pay for our sins. Jesus was the mediator between God and man but the person of the mediator was God Himself. If Jesus is God then it is through His own death that sin is atoned. Only humans die so it was necessary for God to become a man.
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