I have found that many seemingly sincere believers and ministers of Jesus Christ respond similarly when challenged about the contradictions of their beliefs in the absolute deity of Christ and the ‘Trinity’. They say something like, "Well, God is so great and mysterious, we humans can’t even begin to understand Him anyway. After all, God is so great, profound, and almighty. They say we shouldn’t try to fit God into the little box of our understanding by using human logic and reasoning." While this is very true in its proper perspective, Scripture says we should be mature in our thinking (1Cor.14:20). We mustn’t use this truth as an excuse to stubbornly continue to believe in shallow false teachings once God brings the truth to our attention. We must aim to be responsibly consistent with the truth we have if we desire to help others with that truth. We must also learn to responsibly reconcile any contradictions between our beliefs and clear Scripture with proper reasonableness, or re-evaluate our position. That doesn’t mean we will or should necessarily understand every seeming contradiction of Scripture, or allow logic to be our only guide. But it is a very dangerous habit to ignore or rationalize clear scriptures that obviously contradict what you believe, and then evade the issues when questioned. This will often prove disastrous for the many who don’t learn to love the truth.

Of course we can't get close to fully comprehending God, especially on our own, but He has revealed Himself wonderfully through the Lord Jesus and by the Holy Spirit. He has given us the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit that we can become enriched to know Him. He wants all of us to come to know Him more and more, by coming to know Jesus His Son, and as His Son. “...UNTIL WE ALL REACH UNITY in the faith and IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD AND BECOME MATURE...” (Eph.4:13). We do not yet understand even one thing completely. But we can learn true wisdom, knowledge and understanding from our Lord Jesus Christ, just as Paul did, to distinguish between God the Father, His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and their respective functions and predominate characteristics concerning us (1Cor.12:4-6). “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2Cor.13:14). Jude understood the distinctions between God, the Son OF God, and the Holy Spirit OF God: “...pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ...to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord...” (Jude 20-25). One God and one Lord.

"The Trinity", they say, "is a mystery." However, a ‘mystery’ according to the Bible is not something that cannot be understood. It is rather something that is not understood by very many, something that has been previously hidden but now revealed to some. The Bible confirms, “Great is the mystery of our religion, who appeared in a body...” (1Tim.3:16). Some Byzantine manuscripts after the 8th century have very apparently been altered by scribes who may have tried to ‘help God out’ by defining the word ‘who’ for the readers by substituting the word ‘God’. It seems to me that this was deliberately done to try to substantiate that God was manifest in the flesh. Because of this rendition in the King James Bible, and the misunderstanding of John 1:1, 14, the multitudes are today certain that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. The true rendering is ‘who’, or ‘he who‘, as many or most translations of the Bible translate it, meaning “THE MYSTERY OF GOD, CHRIST” HIMSELF (Col.2:2,4:3,Eph.3:4-12). I give a very interesting account of the historical record concerning this addition later in this work.

Since we know even the most basic things only in part, of course we will not yet be able to understand God's mysteries fully. Yet Jesus said, “To you has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God…“ (Mk.4:11). Paul claims that the apostles, and thus potentially the rest of the body of Christ by association, were “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1Cor.4:1). Concerning another mystery, Paul didn’t want the church “to be ignorant of this mystery” (Rom.11:25). He talked about “THE REVELATION OF THE MYSTERY hidden for long ages past, but NOW REVEALED AND MADE KNOWN through the prophetic writings...” (Rom.16:25,26). He says, “I SHOW YOU A MYSTERY” (1Cor.15:51). He also says that God “...MADE KNOWN TO US THE MYSTERY OF HIS WILL (Eph.1:9). And, “...l WILL fearlessly MAKE KNOWN THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL...” (Eph.6:19). “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God, but THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE REVEALED BELONG TO US and to our children forever” (Dt.29:29). God has sent the Prophets, the Lord Jesus and the other apostles to teach us what He wants to reveal to us. We can, by the Holy Spirit’s illumination of the Scriptures, understand whether Jesus is literally God or God’s Son, and whether God has revealed Himself to be a triune God composed of three persons or not. And we should be able to give a reasonable answer to those who ask sincere questions, or at least find out from God one way or another (1Jn.2:26,27).

Chapter 39) MORE ABOUT THE DETRIMENT OF THESE PARTICULAR FALSE TEACHINGS



Many who are unsure may consider that it is a low risk to mistakenly believe and teach that Jesus is literally God, compared to the seemingly high risk of mistakenly believing and teaching that He is a man. Admittedly, it would be serious to teach that Jesus is a man IF He were literally God and not a man, BUT HE IN FACT IS THE SON OF GOD who is not literally God. Since the detriment of believing and teaching the absolute deity of Christ and the ‘Trinity’ is so underestimated, Iwill now address more of the dangers associated with these teachings. If we teach that Jesus is God without proper explanation, we create confusion, and “God is not the author of confusion”. For example, as a new disciple reads the Scriptures, He encounters the man Jesus talking about and praying to the one true God. He may then wonder, “How can Jesus be God and talk about God as if He were another person?”

The Bible is full of many similar and potentially confusing contradictions to this erroneous sweeping general statement about Jesus, many that have already been mentioned in this work, or soon shall be. If I don't mention these contradictions they don't go away. I am not at all attacking my Lord Jesus, who bought me with His holy blood, my very life and master. I am only reporting the truth I’ve learned from the Lord Jesus Himself by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures. As a person learns the doctrines of Christ’s absolute deity and the ‘Trinity’, they never really learn the balanced truth concerning who Jesus really is, and their foundation becomes faulty. We are supposed to learn and then go on beyond the elementary teachings of the Christ to maturity, not rebuilding our foundation over and over (Heb.6:1). We can only do this if God permits us to do so (Heb.6:3). So ask, knock, and seek.

Remember, Peter had the truth of who Jesus was revealed to him by God. Jesus said that it would be upon this rock of the revealed knowledge from God that He was the Messiah, God’s Son, that He would build His church (Mt.16:18). Knowing who Jesus really is was not just automatically revealed to the other apostles when it was revealed to Peter, and this revelation does not just fall into our laps automatically either. Much different from ‘head knowledge’, this experiential ‘revelation knowledge’ of Jesus is crucial to the very foundation of the church. This is one reason I am convinced that these false teachings are one of the modern day church’s main problems, and are the main reason for the extreme divisions in a group that is supposed to be of the same spirit and supposed to agree with each other. That is also why the Bible says that only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God overcomes the world. This is the foundational truth of who Jesus is, and therefore who we are in Him.

Believing and speaking these truths about Jesus is the only way we can fully mature as sons of God in Him. We believe the truth about Jesus, and therefore speak (2Cor.4:13). Remember the good confession of God (Mt.17:5,Mk.1:11), Jesus (Jn.10:36,Rev.2:18), Gabriel (Lk.1:32,35), John the Baptist (Jn.1:34), the apostles (Mt.14:33), John (Jn.20:31,1Jn.4:15), Nathanael (Jn.1:49), Paul (Ac.9:20), Timothy (1Tim.6:12,13), Mark (Mk.1:1), Peter (Mt.16:16), Martha (Jn.11:27), the Centurion (Mt.27:54), and the writer of Hebrews (Heb.4:14), all declaring that Jesus is the Son of God. Remember, we all mature together as the body of Christ as we grow in the KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF God (Eph.4:13). We can join in the work by serving (ministering to) Christ and God’s people as Paul started his ministry, by publicly declaring that Jesus is the Son of God (Ac.9:20).

The truth about who God and Jesus are is the part of our foundation that is most critical. To believe, declare, and live according to the truth is essential for us to be able to respond to God and to our fellow man properly. We must love God and one another “in deed and in truth” (1Jn.3:18). We must also worship God “in spirit and in truth” (Jn.4:23). If we will all continue to obey what Jesus teaches, we will come to know the truth, and it is only that truth which sets us free (Jn.8:31). I have already shown that same connection when reminding the reader that it is only the person who believes that Jesus is God’s Son who truly overcomes the world (1Jn.5:5). It is only to those who overcome that God’s conditional promises in Revelation chapters two and three apply. But no one can force someone to see the great treasure in seeking out the truth.

There is another serious error associated with the current false teachings concerning Jesus. You may have heard people talk about the obedience, humility, love, righteous life, good deeds or miracles that Jesus exemplified and did. Some people have said things like “Oh, yeah, Jesus could do it because He was God.” Their real insinuation was, “...but surely God doesn’t expect me to live like Jesus, I’m not God!” For example, C. S. Lewis, who is often quoted as an authority on Christ’s deity and the ‘Trinity’, states, “The perfect submission, the perfect suffering, the perfect death were not only easier to Jesus because He was God, but were possible only because He was God.” {5}. That is shocking heresy, and it exemplifies the dangers of these teachings. God has never had to submit to anyone, or to die. The fact is, Jesus did everything He ever did as a real man who was born of the Holy Spirit, and thus without a sinful Adamic nature, who loved and therefore learned to obey His God. And we, as new creatures born again in Christ, are called to follow His example and to live like Him (1Jn.2:6,1Pt.2:21).

These scriptural injunctions to live like Jesus did would be unjust expectations from God if we were expected to emulate God's perfection as mere humans. Jesus commands us, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt.5:48). This righteous life that God requires is possible for us born again humans who are in Christ, for we are believing in, and are one spirit with the Jesus who attained perfection as a man (Heb.5:9). The implication is also often made that Jesus could not have possibly sinned when He was tempted, nor could He have possibly refused to go to the cross, because He was God. There is no true obedience where there is no possibility of disobedience. If Jesus was not a completely human man, and therefore capable of giving in to temptation, then His whole life and ministry was deceitful, especially His forty days of being tempted in the desert, and His agony in Gethsemane. We are to overcome sin as Christ did. Jesus sanctified Himself so we can become truly sanctified ourselves (Jn. 17:19). We are to keep ourselves in Christ's love just as Jesus kept Himself in the love of God by obeying God's commands (Jn. 15:10). Jesus overcame temptation as a man who depended upon God, so that we could then follow Him. These are some of the great dangers associated with the errors I am refuting, that often lead to people to excuse their continuing to sin as being “only human”.

Another misunderstanding associated with these same erroneous doctrines involves the question of just who died on the cross for our sins. Some who may realize how preposterous it is to think that God died have tried to split the one Lord Jesus up into two natures to try to explain these types of impossibilities. Others who try to explain how Jesus could be God and still be praying to and be forsaken by God have similarly found it very convenient to explain these conundrums in a similar manner. For example, while asserting that Christ was omniscient as God in the flesh, these teachers explain away the contradiction of Jesus’ statement concerning the day of His return, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, NOR THE SON, BUT ONLY THE FATHER” (Mk.13:32) by employing this dual nature theory. They seem to say that Jesus was speaking or acting as God when His words or deeds appear to help prove that He is literally God, but yet they conveniently assert that He is speaking or acting as a man when His words or deeds prove that He is not literally God. Jesus was made like us, a spiritual being who was a living soul while “in the flesh” here on earth, but the whole real Jesus was incarnated in the flesh at that time, the son of David who was simultaneously the Son of God. He was a spiritual man from heaven who lived according to the Spirit, His spirit ruled by God’s Spirit, and not according to the desires of the flesh. He was subject to (as in prone to be affected by) his fleshly desires, and to the temptations of Satan, though He did not have Adam’s predisposition as a slave of sin, yet He refused to subject Himself to those desires apart from the will of God. As I have recently addressed, the great apostle John wrote concerning the extremities of this dual nature misconception, “Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge (and according to the context I add “…the complete“…) Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.”

Derek Tidball, Principal of London Bible College, quotes Tom Smail concerning one common variety of this same error. Although he doesn’t address the contradiction specifically, he writes concerning the "enigma" created when we teach that Jesus is literally God, and yet we read of Jesus crying out to God from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Quoting Mr. Tidball, including the quote from Mr. Smail: “How can this be? Some have sought to solve the enigma by saying that it was the human nature of Christ that suffered and died, and was therefore abandoned by God, while his divine nature did not; so in his divinity he remained in fellowship with the Father throughout. But this is ‘quite unsatisfactory, because it seems to tear Jesus into two parts with opposite qualities, a humanity that suffered and a divinity that could not suffer.’ Christ is one, and either the whole of him suffered, or none of him.” {6}

This same truth applies to all instances where those who acknowledge that Jesus was a man try to validate their claim that He was at the same time literally God by saying that He had two natures, one divine and the other human. “Christ is one”, and if He was and is truly a man, then all of Him was and is a man. You cannot “tear Jesus into two parts with opposite qualities”. Again, Christ was divine in His pre-incarnate existence, living in the same form as God, and remained the same person even while becoming completely human, taking upon Himself the very nature of a servant (Phil.2:6-11).

C. S. Lewis poses another anomaly to someone who believes that Jesus is literally God, and then he tries to answer the error induced mystery. He states, “The Christians said that the eternal God who is everywhere and keeps the whole universe going, once became a human being. Well, then, how did the whole universe keep going while He was a baby, or while He was asleep? How could He at the same time be God who knows everything and also a man asking His disciples ‘Who touched me?”’ Instead of correcting this error, he instead then tries to validate this different gospel by a complicated explanation of how Jesus could be a man, and yet still simultaneously be God, because God is not subject to time as we are. {7} While it is true that God is not subject to time as we are, his erroneous conclusions are a theological disaster built upon the faulty premise that Jesus is literally God.

Paul told the church of the Thessalonians, “God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth” (2Th.2:13). He then urges them to “ ...stand firm and hold on to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. May OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF, AND GOD OUR FATHER, encourage your hearts...” (2Th.2:15,16). You can see that the truth they believed and preached included the recognition that Jesus Himself is Lord, and that God is the Father.

Many have said that if Jesus were not God, then His sacrifice would not be sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world. Such people seem to lack an understanding that only as a real man who isn’t God could Jesus become our legitimate substitute, for we are men and not God. How could the blood of bulls and goats and lambs be enough to even temporarily atone for the sins of all of Israel according to their theory? Those who maintain that the blood of the Man Christ Jesus is not an efficacious propitiation for our sins are seriously demeaning our Lord even though they try to honor Him by insisting that He is God! Please reread that point, if necessary, to make sure you grasp the truth contained therein, because it is very important indeed.

Chapter 40) DON'T DESPISE THE HUMANITY OF OUR LORD, NOR THE FACT THAT HE HAS A GOD



Is it possible that even while insisting that Jesus is God, some could be dishonoring God and the Lord Jesus by despising, and even negating His humanity? What is so dishonorable about the fact that God sent His Son as a man of flesh, so that He could identify with us and save us? Why is it so terrible that Jesus is a man who died for us, so that by His death and resurrection as a spiritual man we can now share His glory as God’s spiritual sons forever? What will be so tragic when you find out that Jesus isn’t literally God, but rather God’s Son, ‘merely’ the Messiah, ‘just’ the Man Christ Jesus. I believe none of us have a very accurate understanding of just who this Jesus really is, and how great and astounding He is, but we will all find out very soon.

Hebrews, chapter 2, discusses the amazing things God has done for men by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom.8:3), so that He could exalt us along with Jesus, putting all things under the feet of mere man. This change occurred when God crowned Jesus with glory and honor BECAUSE HE SUFFERED DEATH FOR EVERYONE, not because He is God. To do this, Jesus had to first be “made a little lower than the angels”, but is “now crowned with glory and honor BECAUSE HE SUFFERED DEATH...FOR EVERYONE” (Heb.2:9). You cannot be literally God if you are lower than an angel. In the same way, you cannot be God and be dead, as Jesus was for three days. Look again at the distinction between God and Jesus: “...I saw someone who looked like a man coming with the clouds of heaven. HE APPROACHED THE ANCIENT ONE (God) AND...WAS GIVEN AUTHORITY, HONOR AND ROYAL POWER OVER ALL THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD...His rule is eternal...His kingdom will never be destroyed” (Dan.7:13).

Chapter 41) JESUS IS LORD, BUT HIS HEAD IS GOD

Anyone reading this far probably already knows that Jesus is Lord, but what does ‘Lord' really entail? I have shown that the fact Jesus is Lord does not mean that He is Yahweh, the LORD God of Israel Himself, for Yahweh is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus. Jesus is Lord, not because he is God, but rather: “...Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Ph.2:11). The man Jesus, God’s Son, is Lord, not because He is God, but because God gave Him all authority and power and dominion, placing “everything under His feet” (Eph.1:22,Dan.7:13).

But there is something that you rarely ever hear mentioned, because it contradicts popular teaching about God, Jesus, and woman’s proper position under man’s authority. But it is a truth we need to realize, for Jesus wants us to realize it: “Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and THE HEAD OF CHRIST IS GOD” (1Cor.11:3). This scripture was supposedly written over twenty years after Christ ascended back into heaven, and again, IT CLEARLY SHOWS THAT HE IS NOT GOD, who is spoken of here as being Christ’s head. Look at the scripture again. The "man" is not "Christ", who is his "head". "The woman" is not the "man", who is her "head". And "Christ" is not "God", who is His "head".

The Bible says in the book of Revelation that Jesus, the Lamb, sits on the right hand side of God, in the midst of His throne. THE LAMB TAKES THE SCROLL FROM THE HAND OF GOD, and being found worthy, opens it. The Lamb is declared worthy, not because He is God, but BECAUSE He was slain, and with His blood purchased men FOR GOD (chapter 5). And we see that we will be “priests OF GOD AND OF CHRIST...” (Rev.20:6), and that in The New Jerusalem, “...the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY AND THE LAMB are its temple” (Rev.21:22). That doesn’t sound like a Trinity of three persons sitting on the throne as being the one God!

Again, when spelled out like this I believe that the truth is clear for those who “have ears to hear’. As a whole, we as God’s people have always been declared by God to be stubborn and rebellious, refusing to see with our eyes, or hear with our ears. We have always been slow to believe everything the Scriptures say, especially concerning Christ (Lk.24:25). We were told by Jesus to be careful how we listen (Lk.8:18). We have to guard against becoming so entrenched in defending our own position that we should fail to notice if we are wrong about something important like this. It is so easy to lose honest objectivity when we agree with the majority, for that means the majority agrees with us, which can give us such a powerful false certainty. If we could only see that JESUS, GOD’S SON HAS A GLORIOUS GRANDEUR THAT IS INFINITELY GREATER THAN OUR MOST EXTREME IMAGINATIONS OF GOD HIMSELF, we would then understand what God has done for us humans in our Big Brother Christ. Then we would have much less trouble trusting God’s love for us, obeying, thanking, and praising Him, rejoicing in the Lord no matter our circumstances. But by faith we are to believe God’s word and act accordingly, without seeing, for we shall soon see that this Jesus is, for all practical purposes, as great and glorious and awesome as God is, even though He is not literally God nor equal to God in every way.

Chapter 42) WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT THE TRINITY?

As many know, the Bible says absolutely nothing about a Trinity. Not one scripture ever mentions anything close to what is taught today. But many insist that the term ‘Trinity’ defines what the Bible teaches about God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Ask them to show you where. Any doctrine of that magnitude should be explained clearly, and should also be peppered throughout the whole of the Bible, yet it is not mentioned even once in any way. Of course they can show you God the Father, the Son OF God, and the Holy Spirit OF God, for God has revealed Himself through His Son and by the Holy Spirit.

God has spoken to men at times Himself, or in the name of the Father. He has also spoken to us by His Son Jesus, or in the name of the Son of God. And of course He has spoken to us through prophecy and the Scriptures by the Holy Spirit, or in the name of the Holy Spirit of God. Now that Jesus’ work is finished and the Holy Spirit has been given to the church, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ fully encompasses the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus' name is fully representative of God. You can see that in the way the apostles carried out Jesus’ command to baptize in the name (singular) of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit by always baptizing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (or variations thereof Ac.2:38,8:16,10:48,19:5).

Chapter 43) WHAT IS THE TRINITY AND WHY DO SO MANY BELIEVE SOMETHING SO UNBIBLICAL?



With all of Paul’s intricate theological discourses, surely he would have explained the teaching of the ‘Trinity’ even once, as it is taught today, if it were true. But you will not find even a hint from Paul, Jesus, or any of the apostles, and not one single remote reference in the Old Testament. There are various teachings from men concerning just exactly what constitutes this so called Trinity, since there is no scriptural standard, and all the variations I’ve heard are similar and very wrong. Remember, this teaching was birthed (or at least conceived) out of desperation during the Nicene Council while trying to prove that Jesus is literally God. Knowing that the Bible is very clear that there is only one God, Arius’ accusers had to reconcile this truth with their teaching in some way. The result was the most intense and prolonged debates in church history, with the majority finally agreeing that Jesus is 'very God'. Approximately 75 years later the ‘Christian’ doctrine of the ‘Trinity’ was adopted, or more fully invented as a theological byproduct.

The basis of the Trinity doctrine teaches that the one God consists of three persons, each being God, but none are completely God independently. In other words, God the Father is not God independent of Jesus. It teaches that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all three 'coequal' and 'co-dependent'. The teaching gets very confusing when you try to study the official foundation for the doctrine of the Trinity, the ‘Athanasian Creed’, and all of its implications. That is how you can find out exactly what the doctrine of the Trinity actually teaches, and how different it's spirit and wording is from the Holy Spirit and the wording of the holy Scriptures. You will find that those who hold these false beliefs about God and Jesus, many who are sincere believers in our Lord Jesus, cannot satisfactorily explain how God could be ‘God the Son’s’ God, and them still be equal, how God could still be completely God while Jesus was dead, or how Jesus could be God and forsaken by God at the same time. They will often try to sidestep those and other valid issues without addressing them squarely.

Technically, Jesus can be called 'God the Son' accurately according to Hebrews 1:8, although Scripture never uses this name for Him, nor does it ever say 'God the Spirit'. To call Jesus 'God the Son’ without properly showing that God is still His God, or in some way showing that He isn’t THE God is wrong, for without correct explanation that designation leads any listener to believe the popular Trinitarian errors which I am refuting. The Bible says the Logos OF God, the Son OF God, the Lamb OF God, the Holy Spirit OF God, etc. Of course God and Jesus are in complete unity by means of the same Spirit. Thus, if you lie to Jesus or to the Spirit, you also lie to God. Likewise, the gospel of God is also the gospel of Christ. The Spirit of God is also the Spirit of Jesus. The love of God is also the love of Christ. Jesus came in the name of His Father, and we heal, baptize and cast out demons in the name of Jesus. God is our Savior through Jesus, therefore Jesus is also our Savior. The grace of God is also the grace of our Lord Jesus, and so on. There are many such commonalities that can be said concerning God the Father and His Son Jesus. That doesn't change the fact that God is the Father and the Father is God, period.

During the first thousand years of the Roman Catholic Church, there were sometimes severe penalties for any teaching that opposed the official party doctrine. There were also the natural rewards for conformity, therefore the great demand upon ecclesiastical scholars was to conform to and validate official church doctrine. During recent times the persecution for denying that God is a ‘Trinity’ is in many ways different and usually much less severe. However, there has continued to arise scholar after scholar to supply the demand to confirm the ‘orthodox’ standard, to defend the Triune God’s honor, and to affirm that Jesus is literally God, as the Nicene Council decreed. Interestingly, you will not find one truly scholarly book in any form ever written that attempts to prove that God is a ‘Trinity’ with any genuine biblical integrity, for that would be impossible. Most have apparently found it easier to emphasize the several scriptures that, when combined to the exclusion of the rest, can seem to ‘prove’ that Jesus is literally God, than to try to defend the extremely untenable doctrine of the Trinity. Notice how impossible it is today, after 6000 years of men walking with and teaching about God, and the combined five millenniums of Jewish and two millenniums of Christian ‘research’ about God, to find even one truly scholarly work proving the ‘Trinity’ as it is taught today. Yet there are hundreds of clear scriptures that prove that the one and only true God in the ultimate sense of the word is God the Father.

Chapter 44) DOESN'T FIRST 1 JOHN 5:7 SUPPORT THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY?



There is one sentence that was inserted into the Catholic dominated Latin translation of the Bible called the Latin Vulgate, which afterwards found its way into the King James Bible, that seems to vaguely lend credence to the doctrine of the ‘Trinity’. Not one of the many Greek manuscripts written before the sixteenth century contain the insertion. The inserted phrase is found in First John 5:7. According to the King James Version: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.” The man who translated the Greek text from which the K.J.V. was translated, Desiderius Erasmus, a devout Catholic scholar, did not originally include it in his work. Here is a historical account of how it was finally included in the third edition of his work “When the first edition of Erasmus’ work came out in 1516, this phrase, dubbed today the ‘Johannine comma’, ...was not in the text for a very simple reason: it was not found in any Greek manuscript of First John that Erasmus had examined. Instead, the phrase was found only in the Latin Vulgate. Erasmus rightly did not include it in the first or second editions. The note in the ‘Annotations’ simply said, ‘In the Greek codex I find only this about the threefold testimony: ‘because there are three witnesses, spirit, water and blood.’His reliance upon the Greek manuscripts rather than the Latin Vulgate caused quite a stir. Both Edward Lee and Diego Lopez Zuniga attacked Erasmus for not including this passage and hence encouraging ‘Arianism' ...Erasmus protested that he was simply following the Greek texts.

In responding to Lee, Erasmus challenged him to ‘produce a Greek manuscript that has what is missing in my edition.’ {8} Likewise Erasmus rebutted Zuniga by pointing out that while he (Zuniga) was constantly referring Erasmus to one particular Greek manuscript, in this case he had not brought this text forward, correctly assuming that even Zuniga’s manuscript agreed with Erasmus’ reading. He also said, ‘Finally, the whole passage is so obscure that it cannot be very valuable in refuting the (Arian) heresies.’ {9} Since Erasmus had promised, in his response to Lee, to include the passage should a Greek manuscript be found that contained it, he was constrained to insert the phrase in the third edition when presented with an Irish manuscript that contained the disputed phrase, Codex Montfortianus, now at Trinity College, Dublin. {10} The manuscript is highly suspect, in that it most probably was created in the house of the Grey Friars, whose provincial, Henry Standish, was an old enemy of Erasmus {11}, and whose intention was simply to refute Erasmus. The text note in the ‘Annotations’ grew tremendously, for Erasmus inserted many of the arguments and citations he had used in replying to Lee and Zuniga. He remarked, ‘I have restored the text.. .so as not to give anyone an occasion for slander.’ {12} ...The ‘Comma Johanneum’ is extremely important. Here we have a phrase that is simply not a part of the ancient Greek manuscripts of John’s first epistle. The few manuscripts that contain the phrase are very recent, and half of these have the reading written in the margin. The phrase appears only in certain of the Latin versions. There are, quite literally, hundreds of readings in the New Testament manuscript tradition that have better arguments in their favor that are rejected by both Erasmus and the KJV translators. If indeed the ‘Comma’ was a part of the original writing of the apostle John, we are forced to conclude that entire passages, rich in theological meaning, can disappear from the Greek manuscript tradition without leaving a single trace.” {13}

From this account we can all but confirm what already seemed to be probable to many, that the ‘Comma Johanneum’ was added to try to refute ‘Arianism’, which opposed the now commonly accepted teachings that Jesus is very God, and also to try to create scriptural proof of ‘the Trinity’. We also learn that both Zuniga and Lee, along with their probable conspirators, realized that the Bible on its own, without this added insertion, encourages what they call “Arianism”. In other words, they knew the Bible seems to teach that Jesus is not literally God, and they feared that future new translations using Erasmus’ Greek text might end up in the language and hands of the laity. The Bible could then be used to effectively refute the doctrine of the ‘Trinity’, and of Christ’s literal deity, unless they could add something to substantiate their teaching scripturally. I believe that this was one of the main reasons the Catholic Church fought so hard, even sometimes torturing and murdering God’s people, to keep the Bible from being translated into the common languages, such as English. It was because the doctrine of ‘the Trinity’, the absolute 'deity of Christ', and so many other practices and teachings could be exposed should the Bible become readable to all, instead of only to the few who could read Latin. Who would have ever dreamed that their worries were unfounded for the most part. Even after the centuries of widespread Bible studies that followed, very few have ever really noticed, much less properly pursued the issue!

Chapter 45) WHAT ABOUT MATTHEW 28:19? See also Matthew 28:19

Christ’s command to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit in no way establishes the complicated and very comprehensive teaching of ‘the Trinity' as it is taught today. Yet the naive conveniently accept that since this verse seems like a good indication of some kind of triune aspect to God, therefore this verse must confirm that God is indeed a 'triune' being. Ironically, the way many of the denominational churches carry out this command of our Lord in Matthew 28:19 shows that they don’t really understand what Jesus meant when He said this, nor who Jesus really is. Most of us say that Jesus is literally God, but yet we don’t even baptize in His name, as the early church did. Instead, we now often baptize babies and almost anybody else who will join our church, by sprinkling or pouring ‘holy water’ on their foreheads, in the much more ambiguous, acceptable, and less specific names (plural) of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This tragic practice allows many who are not penitent or regenerated to falsely believe that they are ‘going to heaven’ because they were ‘baptized’. They often, therefore, see no real need for repentance.

Even though some denominational churches have restored immersion as the proper baptismal method, very few have restored the proper invocation of the name of Jesus, because they still hold to the Catholic teaching of the ‘Trinity’, and I believe are often controlled at the top by the Roman Catholic Church and her Protestant associates. I believe the Jesuits and their associates have been very active since their inception infiltrating and bringing back under their control those churches they believe left and therefore still belong to their one true church. And I believe that it doesn’t stop there, but that there is a cosmic, and therefore an international conspiracy on Earth to control all religions, especially Christian churches.

Those who deviate from true religion always eventually try to abolish the proper public use of the name of Jesus Christ. At a person’s baptism they are supposed to exercise their opportunity to publicly make the good confession of faith in the presence of many witnesses, that they believe that Jesus is the true Messiah, especially that He is the Son of God, who was sent by God, who died for their sins and was raised from the dead (1Tim.6:12). The leaders of the Jewish reprobates “commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.” (Ac.4:18). The Roman Catholic Church long ago stopped the baptizing in Yeshua's name, and most of us still have yet to realize the error. Some people even say that they would rather obey Jesus’ injunction to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit than to baptize the way the apostles did, as if the apostles, to whom Jesus was speaking when He gave us this command, acted contrary to Christ’s command in the way they carried it out.

Before leaving this topic, I feel compelled to say that some denominations have arisen who baptize with the verbal formula, “in Jesus’ name“, often thinking that their use of Christ’s name during baptism validates their denomination and everything else they teach. True baptism in the Lord Jesus’ name has to do with preaching the true gospel about and having genuine faith in the real Jesus, first and foremost. Lastly, proper methods are important, or else why not just skip the water if you are somewhere where water is scarce, or if it is too cold? The importance of which verbal formula to speak is not the important issue, for doing things in the name of Jesus Christ is not a matter of speaking a formula, but surely mentioning the name of Jesus Christ during one’s baptism is crucial, and I just noted above, it should be the time when the convert makes the good confession (1Tim.6:12, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God) before many witnesses.

It seems that in their argumentative beginnings, these particular denominations grossly erred by saying that since Christ's command to baptize in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is obviously fulfilled by baptizing in the name of the Lord Jesus, then therefore Jesus must BE the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in three different manifestations of Himself. This error is not new, and is historically called 'Sabellianism' or 'Modalism'. It is today called ‘Jesus Only’, 'oneness' or the so called 'apostolic faith'. This error, like the ‘Trinity’ doctrine, depends upon spiritual deception, ignorance of the Scriptures and/or misinformation to be believed by any enlightened Christian. These denominations, along with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, have proliferated to such vast degrees largely because it is relatively easy to prove to others that the trinity doctrine is false, and also people often recognize through their own Bible study that the trinity doctrine cannot be true. These groups err from one extreme to the other, either teaching that Jesus is God the Father in a body to teaching that He is a manifestation of the archangel Michael.

We need not doubt our baptism if we were truly believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ, for baptism is a spiritual reality. The names of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (within faith in the Lord Jesus Christ) are scripturally valid, and you have in fact been baptized into Christ Jesus if you have really believed on Him as the Son of God and repented in your heart of your sins. Just make sure you are now reckoning yourself to be a new person in Christ, dead to sin and alive to God with Christ, one spirit with the Lord. If you believe in baptizing in the name of the Lord Jesus, don’t be contentious about it, or deny the validity of our true brothers and sisters in Christ who have yet to learn this. And if you think baptism is merely an induction into your church, you misunderstand that IT IS BEING UNITED WITH CHRIST SPIRITUALLY into His death to sin, burial and resurrection life, into the spiritual body of Christ worldwide. Beware when you are sure that your denomination is the only true church, for there is only one real church. It isn‘t any particular sectarian denomination, and it is certainly a spiritual entity comprised of all who are truly in Christ (1Cor.12:12,13), of which there are still many local expressions worldwide, which are not yet fully corrupted.

Chapter 46) THE BIBLE TELLS US EXACTLY WHO JESUS IS



Jesus is the display, the likeness and reflection of God, He is the personified expression of God the Father, and yet He is a distinct person. Jesus was God’s agent in creating the world. He created everything through Jesus. Notice again that Jesus is clearly not literally God: “In the past, God spoke to our ancestors many times and in many ways through the prophets, but in these last days HE has spoken to us THROUGH HIS SON. HE IS THE ONE THROUGH WHOM GOD CREATED THE UNIVERSE, THE ONE WHOM GOD HAS CHOSEN to possess all things at the end. HE REFLECTS THE BRIGHTNESS OF GOD’S GLORY AND IS THE EXACT EXPRESSION OF HIS SUBSTANCE (personal essence- “stamped with God’s own character” Moffat), SUSTAINING THE UNIVERSE WITH HIS POWERFUL WORD. After achieving forgiveness for the sins of mankind, HE SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT-HAND SIDE OF GOD, THE SUPREME POWER. THE SON WAS MADE GREATER than the angels, just as the name GOD GAVE HIM is greater than theirs. For God never said to any of His angels, ‘YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU’. Nor did God say about any angel, ‘I WILL BE HIS FATHER, AND HE WILL BE MY SON.’ But when GOD WAS ABOUT TO SEND THE FIRSTBORN INTO THE WORLD, HE said, ‘All God’s ANGELS MUST WORSHIP HIM.’...BUT TO THE SON, (GOD SAID): Your kingdom, O GOD, will last forever and ever! You rule over your people with justice. You loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. THAT IS WHY GOD, YOUR GOD HAS ANOINTED YOU with the oil of joy far greater than he gave your companions.’ He also said, ‘YOU, LORD, IN THE BEGINNING ESTABLISHED THE EARTH, AND WITH YOUR OWN HANDS YOU MADE THE HEAVENS…YOU ARE THE SAME AND YOUR YEARS WILL NEVER END'" (Heb.1:1-12).

The scripture portion quoted above starts out by saying that in these last days God has spoken to us through His Son. Jesus did the talking, but God Himself was the source of everything Jesus did and said. Jesus spoke and acted only as the Father directed Him. He said that it was the Father in Him doing His work. It was similar during creation. If you had been watching, you would have seen Jesus forming everything, but GOD WAS THE SOURCE AND ORIGINATING INSPIRATION, and is therefore ultimately attributed as being the Creator. God is the Creator through Christ being His own hands, as it were. Christ is said to be the wisdom and power of God. So again we see the commonalities between God and Jesus. Their relationship during creation explains who God was talking to when He said, “Let us make man in our image…” It was not the three unified God’s of ‘the Trinity’ talking among themselves, as is commonly taught. This chapter one of the Book of Hebrews is full of revelation concerning the grandeur of the Lord Jesus, and deserves extra study.

Now notice the apostle John’s revelation of Jesus, again here revealed not as being God, but as being who He really is: “Grace and peace to you from HIM WHO IS, AND WHO WAS, AND WHO IS TO COME, AND FROM the Faithful Witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth… and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve HIS GOD AND FATHER - to Him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen” (Rev.1:4-6). Here is another scripture that clearly sums things up. There is a tremendous PEACE when your beliefs about this ultimately vital subject don’t depend upon ignoring so many plain scriptures to the contrary. There is a continuity of consistent teaching about Jesus throughout the Bible, so there is no reason for us to fail to come to a correct belief about Him, to our great profit and God’s glory.

So we continue to see God and Jesus. The Scripture says that we who are called ones “...are sanctified in God the Father and kept in Jesus Christ” (Jude1). And, “GOD EXALTED HIM TO HIS OWN RIGHT HAND AS PRINCE AND SAVIOR…” (Ac.5:31). Jesus is not now exalted as God, but as Lord, Prince and Savior, to the glory of God. Can Jesus really be literally God and literally man at the same time? This would be the ultimate oxymoron, for it is a total contradiction in the two very specific terms.

This next portion of Scripture is again very revealing, and it is called part of the elementary and foundational teachings about Christ (Heb.6:1): “EVERY HIGH PRIEST IS SELECTED FROM AMONG MEN AND IS APPOINTED TO REPRESENT THEM IN MATTERS RELATED TO GOD... No one takes this honor upon himself; HE MUST BE CALLED BY GOD, just as Aaron was. SO CHRIST ALSO DID NOT TAKE UPON HIMSELF THE GLORY OF BECOMING A HIGH PRIEST. BUT GOD, WHO SAID TO HIM, ‘YOU ARE MY SON; THIS DAY I HAVE GIVEN YOU BEING,‘ {14} ALSO SAYS in another place, ‘YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER, in the order of Melchizedek.’ During THE DAYS OF HIS FLESH, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears TO THE ONE who could save him from death, and HE WAS HEARD BECAUSE OF HIS REVERENT SUBMISSION. Although HE WAS A SON, HE LEARNED OBEDIENCE from what he suffered, and ONCE MADE PERFECT, HE BECAME the source of eternal salvation FOR ALL WHO OBEY HIM, and WAS DESIGNATED BY GOD TO BE HIGH PRIEST...” (Heb.5:1-10).

Many will agree that Jesus is not the Father, and that the Father is God, but adamantly refuse to admit that God is the Father HIMSELF AS OPPOSED TO BEING A TRINITY, regardless of the clear facts. Either the one true God is only God the Father, or, hypothetically speaking, He is only the combination of God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. You cannot have it both ways and still think you are believing and teaching the consistent truth about God. You can’t have a God who is God the Father at certain times and yet insist that God is a trinity. And for those of you who acknowledge that God is the Father, you prove to yourself by your own God given knowledge from His Spirit in you, that in light of this fact you should know that God cannot also be, in fact, a ‘Trinity’ of three persons as the One. “Wisdom is proved right by all her children” (Lk.7:35).

Some of the hypocritical Jews were claiming that God was their father (Jn.8:41). “Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I CAME FROM GOD and now am here. I HAVEN’T COME ON MY OWN, BUT HE SENT ME...I have no wish to glorify myself, (but) GOD WANTS TO GLORIFY ME...You say, ‘He is our God’, but you don’t even know him...I KNOW HIM AND OBEY HIM” (Jn.8:42-54). This is the context immediately preceding Jesus’ statement in verse 68, “...before Abraham was, I AM.” When His statement is read within an accurate understanding of the context of this aforementioned introduction, combined with the context of all the rest of Scripture, you can easily see that Jesus was not claiming to be Yahweh God Himself. He spoke as God’s pre-existent Son.

Many religious people today likewise say that God is their God and Father, and those who don’t really know God would be just as offended as the Pharisees to be told differently. Becoming offended when we are corrected about not knowing God is a very effective way to insure that we will never get what we should really want (to know Him), for our God loves and desires truth to dominate the very core of our heart (Ps.51:6). I have admitted many times throughout my life that I didn’t know or properly love God and Jesus, for my actions proved it. Yet I kept praying and studying to know Him and His ways, by proper experience and truth. I am only beginning to start to get to know God and the Lord Jesus, for I still do not know Him very well at all. But I greatly rejoice that I am known by God, and He knows me as His son, because by His grace and through my God given faith I am in vital spiritual union with Christ Jesus, His dearly loved son. Glory be to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ forever, amen.

Chapter 47) JESUS DEPENDED UPON GOD FOR EVERY WORD, DEED AND MIRACLE



We know that God is self sufficient and all powerful. Now here comes another verse that I believe offers clear proof of my assertions: “…AND THE POWER OF THE LORD WAS PRESENT FOR HIM (JESUS) TO HEAL THE SICK“ (Lk.5:17). Uh-oh! How did that get in the Bible? You wont hear this one preached very often. This was not written concerning some ordinary human being, but about our Lord Jesus Himself! Think about this. This scripture unequivocally proves that Jesus healed by God’s power, and NOT AS BEING GOD! It also NECESSARILY proves that GOD’S POWER TO HEAL WASN’T ALWAYS PRESENT FOR HIM TO HEAL, or this scripture would be just plain redundant, or worse, erroneous and misleading. God’s power to heal was present for Jesus to heal ONLY whenever His God wanted Him to heal. This also proves my statements that all of Jesus’ miracles were obedient good deeds done as a man depending on God‘s leading and empowerment, and not as being God. So too by God’s empowerment we can now live as Jesus lived (1Jn.2:6), and do even greater things than some of the things He did (Jn.14:12).

The Bible says that Jesus was “… giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles…” (Acts.1:2) Here we see that Jesus didn’t even give instructions to His apostles as being God, but He gave them instructions BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. After His forty day fast overcoming temptation, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit (Lk.4:14). Jesus said, “All power is GIVEN TO ME in heaven and on earth” (Mt.28:18). God doesn’t need anyone to give Him power. Jesus always had all the power He needed to do God’s will, but He did it as a man who was God’s Son, who obeyed and prayed out of dependence upon God. Sometimes Jesus was actually hindered from doing some of the things that He wanted to do for Israel, by their unwillingness or lack of faith (Lk.13:34,Mt.13:58). Jesus, filled with the Spirit without limit (Jn.3:34), operated in any and all of what we now call the gifts of the Spirit (listed in 1Cor.12) that He needed in order to do God’s will. And now, in Christ, we have this same potential according to God‘s will.

Jesus prayed to God, calling Him Father, “...for YOU GRANTED HIM AUTHORITY OVER ALL PEOPLE that he might give eternal life to those YOU HAVE GIVEN HIM. Now this is eternal life: that THEY MAY KNOW YOU, THE ONLY TRUE GOD, AND JESUS CHRIST, WHOM YOU HAVE SENT.” (Jn.17:2,3). We see again that God is the one who gave Jesus authority over all people. We cannot expect to be faithful stewards of the mysteries of God who will one day judge angels (1Cor.6:3), ruling and reigning with Christ (2Tim.2:12 ,Rev.1:6, 5:10), if we refuse to embrace clear truths like these, costly and distasteful as they may be to some.

If we study more of what is sometimes called Jesus’ ‘High Priestly Prayer’ in the seventeenth chapter of John, we can gain many insights about God and Jesus. And we can continue to see over and over again that Jesus is not literally God in any form, as so many believe. Nor is He ‘co-equal’ with the Father in every way. He prays, “I have revealed your name to those whom you gave me...they were yours; you gave them to me...NOW THEY KNOW THAT EVERYTHING YOU HAVE GIVEN ME COMES FROM YOU. For I gave them the words you gave me. THEY KNEW WITH CERTAINTY THAT I CAME FROM YOU, AND THEY BELIEVED THAT YOU SENT ME...ALL I HAVE IS YOURS, AND ALL YOU HAVE IS MINE...Holy Father, protect them by the power of YOUR NAME, THE NAME YOU GAVE ME, SO THAT THEY MAY BE ONE AS WE ARE ONE” (Jn.17:6-11). Jesus doesn’t say, “They knew with certainty that I am God”. Nor did He say, “…and they believed that I am God”. He apparently thought it was important that we know with certainty that HE CAME FROM GOD, that we believe that GOD SENT HIM. If we would obediently believe in, and therefore speak (2Cor.4:13) of Jesus as the Messiah, God’s Son whom God sent, we could also learn to do the works of God, even the miraculous, if God is willing (Jn.6:29). As I have said, Jesus did not volunteer to come to earth and die on the cross at some imaginary meeting of the so called Trinity, as is sometimes erroneously taught. He was willingly sent by God the Father(Jn.3:16, 17 ,34, 4:34, 5:23, 24, 30, 36, 37, etc). Jesus explicitly taught that He didn’t come on His own initiative. Jesus also believed it was important that we know God gave Him everything He has. For example, He said: “As the Father has life in himself, so HE HAS GRANTED THE SON TO HAVE LIFE IN HIMSELF. And HE HAS GIVEN HIM AUTHORITY TO JUDGE BECAUSE HE IS SON OF MAN“ (Jn.5:26,27). Jesus has been given authority to judge, not because he was God, but because He is human! So then, the fact that Jesus prayed this way means that God thinks these things are important priorities for us to know, believe and therefore teach about Jesus. Believing these things are crucial to being truly orthodox in our beliefs. It is amazing how our emphasis can be so much different than His, though most will not notice.

You cannot believe that Jesus did His miracles because He was God if you really know that everything He had was given to Him by God. If Jesus did extraordinary miracles because He was God, did the apostles do miracles because they were God? The truth is, God did the miracles through the apostles, just as GOD DID THE ACCREDITING MIRACLES THROUGH THE MAN JESUS. Here comes another unmistakable opportunity to recognize the truth in this matter. The Bible says, “JESUS THE NAZARENE, A MAN HAVING BEEN APPROVED FROM GOD among you by powerful deeds, wonders and signs, WHICH GOD DID THROUGH HIM among you, as you yourselves know” (Ac.2:22). Here we again see the ONE GOD, AND THE MAN ACCREDITED BY GOD, JESUS. AND THE ONE GOD DID THE MIRACLES THROUGH JESUS! Concerning the fact that Jesus was a man, Peter here told the Jews, “…as you yourselves know”. It is amazing that unregenerate Jews who had just helped crucify Jesus knew more about Jesus’ humanness than many of us do today! Some versions mistranslate this verse, “Jesus of Nazareth ‘WAS’ a man. That is another sadly interesting addition to the words of Scripture, since it is nowhere in any of the Greek manuscripts I have access to, and nowhere else in the Bible does it ever use the phrase, “was a man”, concerning Jesus.

If Jesus overcame temptation because He was God, how could it all be fair? And how then could we who are not God be expected to overcome temptation and not sin (1Jn.2:1, 3:5-9, 1Cor.15:34), be perfect (Mt.5:48), be completely holy (1Pt.1:16), and be imitators of God (Eph.5:1)? The man Paul, being in Christ, said that he had fulfilled his duty to God in all good conscience up until the last part of his life (Ac.23:1). Jesus knew people’s thoughts, not as being God, but by the Spirit, just as Peter knew Ananias had lied (Ac.5:3), and that Simon was full of bitterness and captive to sin (Ac.8:23). Through the gift of prophecy any believer can know men’s secrets (1Cor.14:24,25). Remember, Jesus worked “…miracles, wonders and signs, which GOD DID…THROUGH HIM.“ Notice similarly, “GOD DID extraordinary miracles THROUGH PAUL...” (Ac.19:11), Peter (Ac.5:15), and many signs and wonders through the other apostles (Ac.5:12). As the Bible says, “Whoever claims to live in him must also walk even as Jesus did” (1Jn.2:6).

Chapter 48) IF YOU'VE SEEN JESUS, YOU'VE SEEN GOD



Jesus said, “‘If you really have known me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.’ Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ Jesus answered, ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father.” DON’T YOU BELIEVE THAT I AM IN THE FATHER, AND THAT THE FATHER IS IN ME? The words I say to you are not from myself. Rather, IT IS THE FATHER, LIVING IN ME, WHO IS DOING HIS WORK. BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY THAT I AM IN THE FATHER AND THE FATHER IS IN ME, or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father”’ (Jn.14:7-12). HERE WAS A PRIME OPPORTUNITY FOR JESUS TO SAY THAT HE WAS GOD IN THE FLESH, IN A BODY, if that were true. But He instead says that THEY SHOULD BELIEVE THAT GOD IS LIVING IN HIM, THE MAN, NOT JUST A BODY. It can be easily understood that Jesus is not saying that the reason we see the Father when we see Him is because He is the Father in a body. He instead is saying that He is in the Father, and the Father is living in Him, the man Jesus, this complete person who Scripture proves to be God’s Son. This is a great vantage point for us all to notice that Jesus doesn’t say, "Don't you understand that I am God inside this body?”

Jesus always made the clear distinction between Himself and God, not just between Himself and the Father, and He does so again here. He says that His words are not His own words, but the Father’s, whom Jesus said is “living in ME”. God fully lives in Jesus by His Spirit, “and in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Eph.2:22). Long after Jesus told His disciples that anyone who had seen Him had seen the Father, the apostle John writes by the Spirit, “NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN GOD...” (1Jn.4:12), and, “NO ONE HAS SEEN GOD AT ANY TIME, the only begotten Son, who is the closest to the Father, HE HAS DECLARED HIM” (Jn.1:18). They had seen the very essence of God’s person in Christ, but not God's unapproachable, invisible deity. If more people really believed Jesus when He said, "Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me", we would hear more people teaching that truth about Jesus instead of the unscriptural teaching we hear so often. When we deviate "beyond what is written" to try to explain God, we can and often do get into serious error very easily.

The Bible outlines a very definite conception of God, and repeatedly the light it sheds gives the honest lover of truth no other option than to realize that Jesus is not literally God. In another such passage the Bible says, "...until the appearing of OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, which GOD WILL BRING ABOUT IN HIS OWN time, GOD, THE BLESSED AND ONLY RULER, THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS, WHO ALONE IS IMMORTAL AND WHO LIVES IN UNAPPROACHABLE LIGHT, WHOM NO ONE HAS SEEN OR CAN SEE” (1Tim.6:14-16). Again, how can anyone insist that Jesus is 'fully God' in such light? As we walk in the light God gives us through Christ’s illumination, we can have true fellowship with one another, and be cleansed from all sin by the blood of God’s Son (1Jn.1:7). Yes, “King of kings and Lord of Lords” is first and foremost the title that applies to God, and then respectively also to Christ. Yet keep in mind, 1 Cor. 15:27 proves that this, of course, does not mean that Jesus is God's King and Lord.

Chapter 49) “MY LORD AND MY GOD!”



THE FULLNESS OF GOD’S “DIVINITY”(not the ambiguous and artificially manufactured word, ‘Godhead’, that so many try to equate with ‘the Trinity’) LIVES IN CHRIST BODILY (Col.2:9). Why then is it so unbelievable, unless we insist on grasping at the last straws, that Thomas received this same revelation from God that Jesus had earlier tried to explain to Philip, Thomas and the rest (just cited above from John chapter fourteen), that GOD WAS LIVING IN HIM? When Thomas said, “My Lord, and my God! “ (Jn.20:28), he was addressing the Lord Jesus, AND then God the Father, who he finally realized was in and revealing Himself through Jesus. He was not saying that Jesus was his God (FOR THAT WOULD CONTRADICT AND BREAK SCRIPTURE - 1 Cor. 8:6 and very many others), and Jesus was not saying, “Oh, you finally believe that I’m your God”, something He never claimed. He had always taught that the Father was our one and only true God (Jn.17:3), and that He was our Lord (Jn.13:13). The fact that God was in Christ meant that Thomas could say to Jesus, “My Lord!” and in the same breath address God through Christ, just as we now do in prayer through our High Priest and mediator.

Jesus had already said, “I AM NOT ALONE. I AND THE ONE HAVING SENT ME” (lit.GreekJn.8:16), and, “THE ONE WHO SENT ME IS WITH ME; HE HAS NOT LEFT ME ALONE...” (Jn.8:29). What Thomas believed about Jesus is summed up three verses AFTER his easily misunderstood exclamation, and it is the same thing that the rest of the Scriptures teach: “THESE ARE WRITTEN THAT YOU MAY BELIEVE THAT JESUS IS THE MESSIAH, THE SON OF GOD…” (Jn.20:31). The sum of John’s writings say that Jesus is God’s Son, see First John chapter five.

WE SHOULD ALREADY KNOW THAT “FOR US (‘my’ God) THERE IS BUT ONE GOD, THE FATHER, AND THAT (FOR US) THERE IS BUT ONE LORD (‘my’ Lord), JESUS CHRIST (1Cor.8:6). NOTICE THOMAS DID NOT SAY, “My Lord and God”, BUT HE SAID, “My Lord AND MY God!” WE SEE THE SAME ‘AND’ throughout the Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit ALWAYS SEPARATES the clearly distinct personages of (THE) GOD ‘AND’ THE LORD JESUS. “Grace and peace to you from GOD our Father AND the LORD Jesus Christ” (2Cor.1:2). Again, “...sent by JESUS CHRIST AND GOD The Father” (Gal.1:1). And again, “...God our Father AND the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Eph.1:2). One more: “Our fellowship is with the Father AND with His Son, Jesus Christ” (Jn.1:3). You will also find the same ‘AND’ distinguishing God the Father from the Lord Jesus in a great many other places throughout the Bible (i.e. 1Cor.1:3, Phil.1:2 ,Col.1:2, 2Th.1:2, 1Tim.1:2, 2Tim.1:2, Phile.3,etc.). The Bible is clear throughout the Old Testament, and confirmed throughout the New Testament, that “...GOD IS ONE” PERSON (Gal.3:20,Eph.4:6,1Cor.8:6). If we understand Thomas’ words in the light of all the Bible says, we will realize that he was not establishing a new doctrine that everyone else ignored. JESUS CAME IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, YAHWEH

We should know that Jesus came to Israel in the name of Yahweh (Jn.5:43,Mt.23:39), and revealed to us just what that name really means (Jn.17:6,26). Through Jesus we see “Yahweh is our provider” (“Jehovah Jireh”), “Yahweh is our healer”, “Yahweh is our banner”, “Yahweh our righteousness”, “Yahweh our sanctification” (or “holiness”) and redemption, etc. (1Cor.1:30). In Jesus we see that “Yahweh is our Salvation”, "our Savior”, displaying all these attributes of God based upon His great love and mercy toward His people. In fact, Jesus’ name means just that. The name Jesus is the English equivalent (of the Latin translation of the Greek version) of the Hebrew name ‘Yahshua’, or its variant forms ‘Yeshua’, ‘Joshua’, or ‘Yehoshua’. It literally means, ‘Yahweh saves!’, ‘Yahweh is Salvation’, or 'Yahweh is our Salvation/Savior'. This does not mean that Jesus IS literally Yahweh our Savior Himself, although in a way Jesus is Yahweh our Savior, according to His oneness with God, being the very demonstration and personification of God, and of the salvation of God. Joshua son of Nun, who succeeded Moses, was not Yahweh Himself, although His name can be interpreted as “Yahweh our Savior”.

As God’s Son and perfect personal representative, God is our Savior in and through Jesus, and therefore Jesus is our Savior in and of God. Because of their perfectly intimate union they are not detached as we normally think of two individual persons to be. We can see that even in the anatomical composition of Yahshua’s name, God’s name ‘Yah’ is inherent. God has sent Jesus as His name personified, His self revelation (The Logos) to man. Jesus is therefore God’s perfect messenger, HIS FAITHFUL AND TRUE WITNESS (Rev.3:14), not as someone prophesying imperfectly according to his faith as we do (1Cor.13:9,Rom.12:6), but as God’s Son speaking only what He saw and heard from the Father (Jn.8:26,38,12:50,14:10). Jesus revealed God’s glory, God’s name, to us.