I lost a friend earlier because I told her I DO NOT BELIEVE IN THE TRINITY. This is a christian teaching and goes against scripture please read Isaiah 45:5 - I am Yahweh and there is none else, there is no God beside Me. Is. 45:18 - ...I am Yahweh; and there is none else. Is 45:21 - ...who hath declared it? Have not I Yahweh? And there is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside Me. Is 46:9 - Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none like Me. Mal. 2:10 - Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? Mark 12:32 - Well, Master, Thou hast said the truth: for there is one God, and there is none other but He. I Cor. 8:4-6 - ...we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none God but one... Gal. 3:20 - Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. James 2:19 - ...thou believe that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe and tremble. Clearly our God is one, not many, and if we believe this then it appears that we are monotheistic. However, before embracing this label, we must look further to learn whether there is anything in Scripture to support the concept of God having a dual nature, which would in essence contradict the doctrine of monotheism. The concept of duality is deeply rooted in John 1:1-15: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not made anything that was made...the world was made by Him...and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us...John...cried, saying, ...He was [existed] before me... If this passage is true - as we must believe it is - then in the beginning there was someone with God, someone who also was God. This, of course, demands two entities: God and the One with Him who was also God. This is where the concept of duality truly begins. Once we start to search for scriptural support for this concept, we find more than ample evidence of it. One very compelling proof is the Hebrew word translated God very frequently in the Old Testament. Elohim is plural in construction, implying more than one entity in the being of God. There is a perfectly serviceable singular word, el, which could have been used if God were truly one one, with a single nature, yet the plural word is used overwhelmingly in preference to the singular one. This tells us very clearly that the oneness of God encompasses more than one entity. Also, we have the following passages: Gen. 1:26 - And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness... Gen. 11:6-7 - And Yahweh said..Go to, let Us go down... Eccl. 12:1 - Remember now thy Creators in the days of thy youth. Isa. 54:5 - For thy Makers are thine husbands... I Cor. 8:6 - But to us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things...and one Lord Yahshua the Messiah, by Whom are all things, and we by Him. Eph. 3:9 - And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, Who created all things by Yahshua the Messiah... Heb. 1:1-2 - God...hath in these last days spoken unto us by His son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the worlds...Some of these passages (such as Eccl. 12:1 and Is. 54:5) as well as others not listed here can be verified in commentaries and versions other than the King James Version - we encourage all readers to search for and prove these verses for themselves. All of them, together with John 1, support the idea of duality: the fact that Yahshua truly was God, that He as God was the means by which the earth was created, that He pre-existed His physical birth and that there was another God with Him. (For a full discussion of Yahshuas pre-existence and identity as Yahweh in the Old Testament, see Yahshua/Yahweh/The Father: Who is Who? on our Church Literature - Doctrine page.) So, does the duality of God that we find revealed in Scripture contradict the Oneness of God which is also declared? No, this cannot be so for that would mean that Scripture contradicts itself, which we cannot accept. In fact, the only way that duality would contradict Gods oneness would be if Yahshua was God as a human being - thereby creating two separate, individual Gods - and we know from Scripture that Yahshua was not God while in the flesh; in fact He could not have been!John 4:24 tells us that God is spirit. Yahshua was not spirit, but flesh and blood. Phil. 2:5 tells us that He was in the form of God, but made Himself of no reputation, and was made in the likeness of man, in fashion as a man. Heb. 2:7-9 tells us that Yahshua was made a little lower than the angels - like man. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that Yahshua as a physical being was God. Truly He was the son of God and the son of man, but He was not God when He was physically on this earth. Only upon His spiritual resurrection was He able again to be called God: Thomas declaration to Yahshua after His resurrection in John 20:28, My Lord and my God, clearly illustrates this. Also, Heb. 1:3-8 states that the Son - after dying for our sins - was called God. In Rev. 21:6-7, the angel who speaks as Yahshua tells us, I am Alpha and Omega...he that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God...As we have proven from the above passages, we clearly have only one God. It is just as clear that our God has a dual nature, and is composed of two entities: Yahshua and the Father. The outright proof of Their unified oneness is found in the following proof texts: Deut. 6:4 - Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God is one Yahweh (an alternate reading is Hear, O Israel, Yahweh is our God: Yahweh is One). The word one here can denote a compound unity - one unified being composed of more than one part. John 10:30 - I and My Father are One. John 14:9 - ...he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father... John 17:11 - keep through Thine own name them whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be One, as We are. John 17:22 - And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are One. There are many more Scriptures which support the simultaneous concepts of duality and oneness: we must attempt to resolve them all into one coherent, non-contradictory understanding of Scripture, otherwise we find ourselves in possession of a self-contradictory, and therefore useless, Bible. There must be one God, or else Scripture lies. There must be a duality to that one God, or else Scripture lies. There must be unified oneness in that duality, or else Scripture lies.The key to this much misunderstood subject lies in a very compelling symbolism found in Ex. 25:17-20: the design of the mercy seat. In this passage we find a mercy seat made entirely of gold. Two cherubs are seated on this object, being made not only of the same substance (gold) as the seat, but made as part of the seat, out of the same piece of gold - make them in the two ends..., even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims. (see also Ex. 37:8) What we have here is one substance throughout - gold - symbolizing the Holy Spirit, of which God is composed. Made out of that single piece of gold are two cherubs: two entities created out of one substance, both part of one piece, one and the same but separate. This is the key to Gods simultaneous oneness and duality: as Spirit, Yahshua and the Father exist as One - one Spirit, one substance, one mindset (notice how the cherubs face each other, signifying unity or agreement). At the same time, there are two separate entities united in that oneness, the two cherubs symbolizing the Father and the Son, identical and one, but individual. We can see that the concepts of oneness and duality are not mutually exclusive, if we accept the proofs and examples supplied to us by Scripture.One truly awesome aspect of the unity and oneness of Yahshua and the Father is that although Yahshua gave up His existence as God and became a human being, subject to the same temptations of the flesh as all mankind, He still remained so sinless and unified with the Father in spirit that He could truthfully say, I and the Father are One. Even separated from God by flesh and blood, He remained so faithful to the purpose for which He was sent and to the Spirit from which He came that He could claim oneness with the Father. This gives us a perspective on the concept of unity and oneness that is not only unique, but inspiring. There are those who will insist upon monotheisms concept of oneness and reject the fact of Gods duality because it contradicts their strict definition of monotheism, and also because duality suggests to them the paganistic concept of multiple gods. The problem with this rejection is that it begins with an arbitrary, human definition and concept of oneness and ends with rejecting Scriptural truth in order to prevent similarity with pagan philosophy. Gods people cannot define their beliefs by comparing them to pagan doctrines - this only destroys Gods truth and strengthens paganisms lies. Pagan doctrine will always resemble Biblical truth - that is Satans way. From the Flood account in the Epic of Gilgamesh to Jannes and Jambres to Jeroboam to Egyptian myth, pagan lies are based on Scriptural truth, not the other way around. Our duty is to study Scripture and test it against itself, not against paganisms lies. If we consider the duality and unified oneness of God which is proven above, we find that none of the common terms used by the world to describe God and His nature are Scripturally accurate. Since the truth of Gods nature cannot be accurately described by the term monotheism or by any other convenient labels, we must discard those terms and labels and resist being forced into attempting to describe Gods truth with any one word. We must choose instead the more difficult path of explaining the true nature of God to anyone who asks, without the convenience of accepted - and erroneous - terms. In this way, we can reveal to others one of the greatest miracles contained in the Bible: the Oneness of our God, Who is Yahshua and the Father.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 03:22:22 +0000
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