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Many Christians
believe Yeshua (Jesus) is God Almighty. Yet when they are asked to substantiate this belief, they cannot. This
has happen to me. The subject of Apologetics is not my strong suit, however, I believe we are all called on to
give an account of what and why we believe what we do? Although I had studied in-depth this subject of Yeshua being God many years ago,
I could not and did not want to take the time to tell my friend why I believed what I believed when asked. The
truth is simple, I was unable to do so because I had not looked at the subject in some 10 years. Since that time, I have studied
the subject very little, until now. I went ahead and looked back over what I had studied, both the pros and cons.
At the time I did my study, I was not on the Internet nor did I have a PC. This article is only in part mine, however,
I will provide you the necessary documentation in this article for you to make up your own mind if Yeshua is just
a man and not Divinity. I fully believe Yeshua (Jesus) is God, and the Divine Son of God as well.
If a person
does not believe Yeshua is God, he obviously does not believe in the Triunity of the Godhead. In fact, many people
like this are usually quite vocal and quite critical of the doctrine of the Triune Godhead. I have often heard
people say something like, "Christians believe in three gods." If you have ever tried to explain the
Triune Godhead, you have an appreciation of it complexity. The difficulty is great to the spiritually blind. There
have been many attempts to fully explain how "One God" is made up of "three persons." Although
some of them are helpful as pictures, all of them still fall short of providing a truly clear picture of the Triune
Godhead.
Triunity By Definition
First let me give
you my definition of the Triunity (Trinity), and then we'll work from there.
The Whole Bible teaches that within the nature of the One True God exists
three distinct persons, not separate parts, but One: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are co-equal
in nature and co-eternal, but are distinct in their position or rank.
The Triunity (Trinity), is NOT three gods
in one, but ONE GOD in Unity!
Pictures in a Dull Mirror
Picture 1) Some people point to "water" and say water can be found in three physical
states: a solid such as ice, the liquid you drink, and gas. Although it can be observed in three different very
singular forms, it is still all "water." This comparison is then used to compare the Triune Godhead.
There is only One God, but He expresses Himself as three persons and diverse from one another at times.
Picture 2) Others understand the Triune Godhead to be like a person who is someone's father,
someone's son, and someone's husband as an example. Although this person has three titles, functions and purposes,
he is still only total one person.
Picture 3) The picture I like of the Triune Godhead is that of the egg. In one egg you have
three components, the shell, the egg yoke, and the egg white. You can take them apart, and use each part, however,
you cannot have new life (a chick) unless they are ALL together ONE. It's the same with our Lord, the Son, who's
"Yoke" is easy, --Matthew 11:29-30.
Picture 4) The sun as seen in the daytime has light, energy and power, yet it is One sun,
totally whole. The Father has light, energy and power. The Son has light, energy and power. The Holy Spirit has
light, energy and power. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are a total whole POWER HOUSE. Each person in the Godhead
have a full personality, and this personality can be seen throughout the Bible. Each One of them are Love, have
Anger, and show Mercy.
Picture 5)
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The Lord provided a Word picture for us to see:
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| Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth |
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Beginning
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Time
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Past, Present, Future
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Heaven
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Space
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Height, Width, Length
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Earth
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Matter
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Solid, Liquid, Gas
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| From the very start,
the GOD gave us the insight to comprehend the concept of Triune manifestation using an analogy that He knew our
limited human minds could grasp.... |
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| All of these pictures
are dull and lackluster liking looking in a mirror made of brass. If one is going to understand the Triunity of
the Godhead, it will be not by their might, nor will it be by the power of their mind, but it will be by God's
Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth revealing God to that person. |
The above five examples are still really lacking because they are a form
of "Modealism," but yet it is the only way one can try to put a face on the mystery of the Triunity of
the Godhead.
One Eternal True God
The Triunity is
a very important Church doctrine to know about because there are a lot of groups that deny the Triunity of the
Godhead. Some, like the Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs), would say that Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) is not
God and that the Holy Spirit is not a person. The Bible and the Faith of Christianity declares that there is One
Eternal True God, distinguishable, undivided, indivisible, in concentrated form yet there are three existing, eternal
persons who are distinct from each other, interrelated with each other, and each fully equal, fully Divine, not
three separate beings.
When a person
enters into a Covenant relationship with God thru Yeshua the Messiah, the more he or she will understand about
this very comprehended subject. Recognizing of who He (Yeshua) is comes from the Spirit of God. The revelation
to Believers of the three persons of the Godhead is one of the greatest themes of Truth, a scarlet thread throughout
the whole of Scripture. All three persons in One Eternal Being took part in the Creation. The Triunity of the Godhead
created and sustains the heavens and the earth even today. The stars that where flung into the heavens back then,
are still held up by the POWER of His spoken word (speech). The Son of God did not come to earth "to exist"
at His birth in human form, He has always existed. He is the Light of Eternal Mind! He upholds all thing by the
word of His power, Colossians 1:16-18.
God has revealed
to mankind that He is One Sovereign
Living God
with many characteristics - He is Eternal, Almighty, All Powerful, Unchangeable, All-knowing, Self- existent, He is
Everywhere, He is Love, a Consuming Fire, a Mighty Man Of War, a Kinsmen Redeemer, Sinless, Just, and Faithful.
He has also shown us that He is Good, Kind, Trustworthy, Holy, very Merciful and Gracious to sinners. The Bible clearly shows that the Triunity of the Godhead, existing of Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, equally each have the same characteristics because they are indeed ONE GOD!
What does the Bible really say about the Triune Godhead?
The actual word
"Trinity" or "Triunity" does not appear in the Bible at all. Triunity or Triune means "three
in oneness." The Bible does portray God as being made up of three persons. The whole counsel of the Bible
tells us that the Father is God, Yeshua (Jesus) is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. In the Bible God (Elohim) refers
to "Himself" in the plural form. Here are two places you can see this clearly:
Genesis 1:26 says,
"Let us create man in OUR own image."
Here is the verse 26 of Genesis chapter 1 with all the
Strong's numbers so you can check me out. - |0559|
And said |0430| God, |6213| Let us make |0120| mankind |6754| in Our image, |1823| according to Our likeness; |7287|
and let them rule |1710| over fish of |3220| the ocean |5775| and over birds of |8064| the heavens, |0929| and
over the cattle |3605| and over all |0776| the earth |3605| and over all |7431| the crawlers |7430| crawling |5921|
on |0776| the earth.
And then in Isaiah 6:8
says, "I
heard the voice of the Lord (Adonay), saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for US? And I said, 'Here am I!
Send me!" --The Stone Edition of the Tanach - The ArtScroll
Series - Mesorah Publications, Ltd
Although the
Bible we see the Father, Yeshua, and the Spirit of God, yet it clearly says that there is only "ONE GOD"
(see the verses listed in Citation Reference Section below). How can we believe all three are God and still believe
there is only ONE GOD? This is an ago old question, and I have no explanation that is 100% completely satisfying
to everyone. Yet I know by the Spirit of God that lives within me, that it is truth. By His Scriptures I know that
I know they are a Echad; ONE! - A side note here: The Hebrew word
echad (one) is a pural word used by Moses to tell us that man and woman when married become one (echad) flesh.
The word echad in itself is a mystery.
Making up your mind!
Therefore, I
see that after you look over and study all the evidence we have laid out for you in the following pages, you only
two choices to make. The first choice is we can simply recognize the doctrine of the Triunity of the Godhead (Trinity
if you like), as one of those aspects of GOD we are not going to fully understand with our incredibly limited minds.
No logic here will do for the Believer, it must be by the work of the Holy Spirit bring you revelation on this
doctrine.
The only other
choice is to conclude that the references listed below and on the following pages means there are some serious
errors in the Holy Bible. The repercussions of this choice are obvious and flawed in my opinion. God's word is
perfect, and He watches over it to perform it to the last jot (yod)! Truly every "word (emrah) of God is pure" (tested or tried): Psalms 18:30 If you are led by the Spirit of the Living God, you know the second choice is
no choice at all! However, it is up to you to make up your mind. God will not do it for you.
How great (big) is your God?
Does your God live in a small box of your making? Or could you write volumes about
how great (big) your God is? Well I can wrap up the volumes on how great (big) my God is in just one long sentence
for you. "My God is so great (big) that
the Universe cannot contain Him, yet He is so small, He can live in my heart because I am born again of God."
--BD
What is your
perception of God? Imagine being raised your whole life in a windowless room. You were never allowed to go or even
look outside. Your mother, who has previously lived on the outside, tries to explain what the outside world is
like to you. She draws pictures of trees, birds, flowers, sky, etc. - although she is trying to be as open with
you as possible, you would still have a very distorted view of the outside world. In all likelihood, your perceptions
of flowers and birds would be more two-dimensional than three-dimensional. In your mind's eye (and we all have
one), there are probably many things that are hard to understand or even seem contradictory to you. This is part
of the reason we have difficulty understanding God. We're trying to look at an Infinite Eternal Being through finite
eyes, it does not work perfectly. Your perception would be off or you could say, miss the mark.
Do we really
think we can comprehend the magnitude of a Being who has created a universe with more than a million billion galaxies;
where each galaxy has 100's of billions of stars? Are
we naive enough to think we can understand the complexity of a Being who created a universe where every ounce has
more than a 100 million trillion highly organized atoms? (Source:
National Geographic, June 1983. ChemCom, Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 1993.)
I think this
complexity of God is part of the reason we find the Triune Godhead so difficult to understand with our mind, we
MUST allow the Spirit of God to bring us the understand of GOD. Think about this for a moment; a single cell bacterium
has no capacity to comprehend or understand human beings. Likewise, even the simplest aspects of God are way beyond
our comprehension. Of course, the difference between God and us is far greater than the difference between the
bacterium and us. I am not saying the Triune Godhead is correct simply because we can't understand it all, no,
not at all. That would be wrong and in appropriate. However, it would be just as wrong to say the Triunity of Godhead
does not exist simply because it is not fully understandable to you. God wanted to commune and connect with us,
so He came down and dwell with us in His plan and for His purpose. That purpose was to save fallen mankind who
was in great need of saving.
A Fundamental Part
Actually, believing
in the Deity of Yeshua Messiah is a fundamental part of being a true Believer (Christian). For if Messiah was just
a man, or even a superman, then we are of all men most foolish to be looking to Him to be the "Saviour."
For there is no man who could have had every single sin of every Child of God laid upon Him, carried them to the
Cross, and suffered death as the wages for those sins, and be risen up from that death, free from that debt of
sin. There is no superman who could purge mankind from his sins as required, it would take a GOD! And there is
only ONE LORD GOD, who qualifies. In fact, the whole idea of the Messiah being just a man or lesser god, makes
the Messianic (Christian) Faith ridiculous in my book! Hear the words of Scripture...hear them with your spirit.
"Ye are My witnesses, saith the LORD, and My servant
whom I have Chosen: that ye may know and Believe Me, and understand that I AM He: 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 SAVIOUR!" --Isaiah
43:10-11
The word translated
"LORD" is the Hebrew word "Yahvah
- Yahweh" [yod hey vav hey], it is the holiest
name for God in the Hebrew Bible. Most people today pronouns it as Jehovah, and the religious Jews just say HaShem
(the Name) because it to holy for them to speak. So Isaiah is telling us there is no God before Him who is called
the Saviour, and no God after who is called Saviour. Yahvah God is the only possible Saviour! No man, nor superman,
could accomplish the task of being burdened with ALL our sins, judged for them, and be resurrected WITHOUT them.
Even non-Christians can understand the bankruptcy of any other idea. For when we actually stop to think about it
seriously, it's quite ludicrous!
Unless this
man was the very revelation of GOD (the only one able to become sin for us, and withstand the judgment thereof),
we have NO SAVIOUR! And that is exactly what God said in Isaiah
chapter 43 verse 11. Who could accomplish such a feat to be a saviour? The answer in all reasonableness is, no
one but "Yahvah God our Saviour."
"Yeshua came and spoke unto them, saying,
All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go therefore and make disciples of ALL the nations, baptizing
them in the NAME
(not names) of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and
lo, I AM with you always, even to the end of the age."
--Matthew 28:19-20
That
is plain enough, but if its not, here it is from the Jewish New Testament by David Stern:
18 Yeshua came and talked with them. He said, "All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore, go and make people from all nations into talmidim,
immersing them into the reality of the Father, the
Son and the Ruach HaKodesh, 20 and teaching them
to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember! I will be with you always, yes, even until the end
of the age."
--The Jewish New Testament, (Clarksville,
MD: Jewish New Testament Publications) 1996.
In the end there
are only four options for the identity of Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah. He is either a
legend, a liar, a lunatic or He is the LORD (Lord) God. There
is little likelihood that Yeshua's claims are legend, we know they are not. There just wasn't enough time for any
legendary development of the story to replace what really happened to Him and his followers. Also, if the claims
Yeshua made for Himself are legendary, the early Jewish opponents of Christianity would surely have charged that
these claims never happened. Unlike modern skeptics, the Rabbis apparently never denied that Yeshua made such claims
for Himself. Instead, they called Him a liar. And as far as Him being a lunatic, nobody
follows a lunatic
like His followers have done for some 2000 years. Nor would
they die for a liar or a lunatic, I know I would not. That leaves us with who He says He is, Son of God, and God
the Son.
What did Yeshua think of Himself?
Yeshua thought of Himself as the Divine Son of God. To think other wise is to be ignore of New Covenant Scriptures
as a whole. He knew He was God, and He was asking His followers to believe the same. The Hebrew idioms imbedded
within the Greek text clearly point to the fact He knew He was God the Son. According to the various gospel accounts,
Yeshua believed He was the "Light" of the world, that He had the "Power" to perform miracles,
and He had the Power to "Forgive Sins." He even claimed, "I and the Father are One (Echad)"
John 10:30, the rest is up to you now, you must weight all the evidence on this page and the following ones for
yourselves. May God be with you.
Pray this first:
Father God, I ask you to show me Your truth by Your Holy Spirit.
If Yeshua (Jesus) be the Son of God and God the Son
then please let me see it within Your Holy Scriptures.
I pray believing I receive in Yeshua' (Jesus') holy name. Amen
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