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The Godhead
Remember, always
let the Word of God Explain itself!
We just read that the Name of
Jesus (although Isaiah didn't reveal the name in that passage) was going
to be synonymous with the TITLE of
"The Father" and "The Mighty God". Let's
look at the name that Isaiah did give to us:
"Therefore the Lord himself
shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and shall call his name Immanuel". (Isaiah 7:14)
We get a little more insight
into the name Immanuel in
Matthew 1:23:
"Behold, a virgin shall be with
child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,
which being interpreted is, God with us".
Note the verse
does not say God
"IS" with us. Why? Well, the reason is twofold. One, God is ALWAYS with
us, period. It doesn't matter whether you are good, bad or ugly, God is
always there. Remember, God is a Spirit that fills the universe. He is
EVERYWHERE.
The other and most significant
meaning of the verse is in the name itself: Immanuel (or Emmanuel if you prefer). It
is particularly noteworthy in that it literally means GOD with us. This is
the entire theme of the Word of God. Let's look at some scriptures as we
examine this a little further.
"For I am the LORD thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and
Seba for thee." (Isaiah 43:3)
"I, even I, am the LORD; and
beside me there is no saviour." (Isaiah 43:11)
Now we know that Jesus is the
Saviour, however, the entire theme of the word is God our saviour.
2 Samuel 22:3, Isaiah 45:15, Isaiah 45:21, Isaiah
49:26, Isaiah 60:16, all support this.
Hosea 13:4 presents an interesting
statement:
Hosea
13:4
"Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou
shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me."
Back in Isaiah again:
Isaiah describes the Messiah as a BRANCH out of Jesse, and
as the ROOT of Jesse. (Isaiah 11:1, 10).
Look now at Revelation 22:16: This is
very powerful;
Jesus said "I AM
THE ROOT AND THE OFFSPRING of David, and the bright and morning
star." You mean he is BOTH ... the ROOT (the
creator and source of life).... and the Offspring? What is a
root...it is the one from which all like kind will come. What is
offspring? It is children (one who comes from the root). That's pretty
powerful. Jesus is saying DAVID CAME FROM ME ... and ... I CAME FROM
DAVID.
You
see, this is exactly the idea that Jesus used to confuse and confound the
Pharisees in Matthew 22:41-46. Jesus
was basically quoting Psalm 110:1 and
asked them (my paraphrase) "Well, how could David call the Messiah Lord,
when the Messiah was going to be one of his Descendants"?
Isaiah
35:4-6 states it is GOD who will come to save. Do you see
verses 5 and 6? The lame are going to leap, the blind eyes
opened and the deaf ear will hear. This exactly what the Pharisees had
such a problem with concerning the testimony of a blind man in
John 9:32 "Since the
world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was
born blind".
Micah
5:2 states the the Messiah's goings forth would be from "of
old, from everlasting". See also the description given of God in
Daniel chapter 7...the ANCIENT of DAYS.
ALL Scriptures point to the one
NAME above every name...JESUS.
AGAIN, LET THE WORD
OF GOD EXPLAIN ITSELF !
It's Ok if you don't quite
understand right now. Keep in the study. Tackle the hard scriptures. It is
a blind man that cannot see the evidence placed straight before him and a
fool who will not believe all the scriptures. There are those who will at
this point be accusing me of promoting confusion and will no doubt, be
turning to 1 Corinthians 14:33
"For
God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of
the saints".
Perhaps
I'M not the one
who is confused! It could be that you have never been taught correctly by
the Scriptures themselves and the resulting confusion came because YOU
were taught wrong to begin with!
Again, don't be afraid of the
hard scriptures….use the word of God as it is written….DO NOT change it
to suit your interpretation. Let the WORD EXPLAIN ITSELF…THE WORD does
not need YOU TO INTERPRET IT.
I’ve heard entire groups change
the Word to suit themselves and their particular dogma/doctrine. For
example, there are those who quote John 3:16
and state that God gave “HIMSELF” instead of His 'ONLY BEGOTTEN SON'….this
is no different than the perversions of some modern translations of
scripture and is in fact borderline SATANIC in that it perverts Jesus
Christ into something that he is NOT.
For you Jesus Only and many of
you Oneness people, look at these scriptures:
Philippians 1:1-2, Colossians 1:1-3, Galatians
1:1-3, Ephesians 1:1-2, 1 Thessalonians 1:1, 2 Thessalonians 1:1-2,
Philemon 1:1-3, 1 Timothy 1:2.
What do you see in each and
every passage? "Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and
from the Lord Jesus Christ." (or similar). Now, can you explain THAT?
You might also try to
explain these questions of scripture.
(Opens
in a new page).
Many
of you have never tried to explain it because your pastors and teachers
can't explain or understand it either. Many today will get to the hard passages and refuse to study
them. Those are the parts of the bible that you just 'skip' and only
read in passing without trying to understand them. Stop being afraid of
the Word of God.
DON'T EVER BE
AFRAID to use the Word of God EXACTLY as it is written.
If this challenges your belief,
then you've found a good thing, it will cause you to study and know what
you believe. You need to know WHAT YOU BELIEVE, WHY YOU BELIEVE IT and
WHERE IT IS FOUND in the Word of God.
YOU MUST NEVER CHANGE THE WORD
OF GOD TO SUIT YOURSELF OR YOUR CHURCH CONGREGATION.
PASTORS, IF YOU
CANNOT UNDERSTAND PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE WITHOUT CHANGING THEM, THEN YOU
NEED MORE STUDY. IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THEM AS THEY ARE WRITTEN,
PERHAPS YOU NEED MORE TEACHING FOR YOURSELF.
YOU MUST RECONCILE THOSE "HARD"
SCRIPTURES WITH THE REST OF THE WORD. THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR STUDY,
STUDY, STUDY, FOLLOWED BY PRAYER, PRAYER, PRAYER AND FASTING, FASTING,
FASTING.
GET INTO THE HARD VERSES, STUDY
THEM, RECONCILE THEM BY THE REST OF THE WORD OF
GOD AND UNDERSTAND THEM.
Let's get back
to the study
OK, so we left off with
Isaiah 9:6 with the Names (and titles) associated with
Jesus. Now let's get a little deeper in the Godhead.
Turn to 1
Corinthians 15:22-28
Look at
verse 24 of that passage. Let's establish
first that in 1 Corinthians 15:22-23
we are speaking of CHRIST and that this continues through
verse 28. Verse 24
reads:
"Then
cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even
the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and
power."
About whom are we speaking?
Christ? Yes, the "he" in this passage is referring to Christ. Now (and it
really seems like I'm picking on 'Jesus Only' people here),
IF......IF....and
I say again IF Christ and the Father
are one and the same entity, you cannot logically (or even illogically)
understand these passages. Christ must reign UNTIL when? Until the end
when he (Christ) shall have put down all authority, all rule, all
power and must reign until (reading in verse 25 now)
he (Christ) has put all enemies under his feet.
Verse 26: "The
last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." So
Jesus is reigning now, correct? He will reign until ALL enemies are
DESTROYED. GONE...Eradicated...Wiped Out, Finished, .......well, you get
the picture.
So just when is this that all
enemies will be put under his feet? Is there a place in the Word of God
when this will happen? Sure there is.
Read
Revelation Chapter 20
for the times when Jesus will have destroyed all enemies. (Pay
particular attention to verses 7-10 and especially verse 9). The
last enemy is .... death? Ask yourself this question before we move
on "When is the last time we see ANY death on this present earth?
This is a teaching that will be presented at a later time and in a
different topic. Watch for it!
BACK TO 1 CORINTHIANS 15
Beginning again at
verse 27: WHO put all things under
Christ? Read the Scripture. Who did it? Himself? That's ludicrous. So who
did? God did. The Father did. In verse 28,
we read that the SON will be SUBJECT unto the Father (unto him that put
all things under him.) The SON will not be subject unto "himself"!
Are you thinking yet? Good.
Turn now to
Revelation 3:5. Who is speaking here? It
should be very easy to establish just who is speaking. JESUS is speaking.
Revelation 1:18 reveals who is speaking (along with
subsequent verses). Look at what Jesus says here.
"...I will not blot out his name
out of the book of life, but I will confess his name
before my Father..."
I don't know about you, but I'm
glad that Jesus will someday confess my name before the Father and the
Angels.
If you are "Jesus Only"
in your theology tonight,
ask yourself about this verse. Is Jesus going to confess your name to
himself? Of course not, that is ridiculous.
Again Don’t be ashamed or afraid to tackle the word as it is written.
Ephesians
1:15-23
Again,
as in Colossians 2, GOD WANTS YOU TO
HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM. (verse 17). Now
you find in verse 20 that it was GOD
who raised Jesus from the dead and set him at his 'own right hand'...We
will get to the right hand just a little later. Note in
verse 23 that Jesus will be "...above all
principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is
named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:" This
tells us plainly that Jesus will reign FOREVER.
Verse
23 of 1 Corinthians 15 again states the same thing that we find in
Colossians 2:9: It
reads: "Which is
his body, the fulness of him that filleth
all in all." Again we see that Jesus is the
BODY of the invisible God.
Now the question is always asked "Well, if Jesus is the body of God, then what about the scriptures that
say He is sitting at the right hand of God"?
Good Question. Let's examine
that. Let's look into Ephesians to get an explanation of how this
terminology is used as applied to the right hand.
Still in Ephesians 1:15-23
Verse 17: Paul is praying
for you to have wisdom and understanding and that you will have a
revelation of the knowledge of God. In verse
20
of Ephesians Chapter 1, we find that Jesus DID NOT raise
himself from the dead. God (the Father) raised Jesus from the dead and set
him at his "right hand" in heavenly places.
Continuing ...
Verse 22-23 (Still in
Ephesians chapter 1) tells us that the
church is the body of Christ who is
"THE FULNESS OF HIM THAT FILLETH ALL
IN ALL" (In other words, the FULNESS of GOD). How much is the fulness?
Everything? Of course.
Now what about this right hand
thing? We read much about the right hand. So, just how does that work, and
how do you explain it? It must first be noted that when the term right
hand is used concerning Jesus being 'at the right hand', it NEVER states
"RIGHT SIDE". So just where is the right hand of God? If the passages of
scripture refer to a literal place, where is that place? If God is a
Spirit that fills the universe, then where is His right hand? Is it on
Pluto? Beyond the milky way somewhere? Where it it? I thought God is a
spirit that fills the universe!
The bible clearly teaches that
GOD is a SPIRIT that fills the universe, that he is Omnipresent
(everywhere at the same time). If He is omnipresent, then WHERE is his
right hand? If God is omnipresent, you could NEVER point a finger and say
"Here He is, or There He is". If you can put God in one place at any given
time, then he is not OMNIPRESENT, is he?
John
4:24 states "God is a Spirit: and
they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Can you
see God? Can you see a Spirit? What is the nature of a Spirit? People who
believe the Jesus only Doctrine claim that Jesus is a Spirit. Is that a
true statement? Look at Luke 24:36-40.
Jesus himself stated that he
WAS NOT a spirit, but rather we see that he had a glorified body.
Look at
Luke 24:36-40.
"And
as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith
unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and
supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye
troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my
feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me
have. And when he had thus spoken, he
shewed them his hands and his feet."
Again in Acts 1:11. The bible clearly and without
any doubt states THIS SAME JESUS, (the very same one that appeared to the
disciples in the upper room), shall come IN LIKE MANNER.
Again, I ask you, can you see
God? If the answer is yes, then he is not a spirit. Look at the following
scriptures:
John
1:18 ... "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."
1
Timothy 6:13-16. This states that No man CAN see God.
1 John
4:12 "No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another,
God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us."
When the Word states that NO MAN
HATH SEEN GOD....guess what? NO MAN hath seen Him.....not Moses, not
Abraham, not Jacob, NO MAN. (More on this later).
Let me ask you another question?
Since I've already shown you that Jesus was NOT a Spirit. Are you ready
for this? Was Jesus OMNIPRESENT? Come on now, THINK. Remember, OMNIPRESENT
means "everywhere at the same time".
If you answer NO, he was NOT
omnipresent, then explain
John 1:44-49.
It certainly appears that he WAS omnipresent, at least in Spirit anyway,
wouldn't you agree?
So what is it with this "Right
Hand" Business? Let's examine some more scriptures.
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