Is There Only
One God? – Christians, Three
Gods, and the Trinity
(Part 1)
Shortly
before Jesus was crucified, He was
arrested and tried by the Sanhedrin,
Israel’s Supreme Court.
The Bible says, “The chief
priests and the whole Sanhedrin were
looking for false evidence against
Jesus so that they could put Him to
death. But they did not find any,
though many false witnesses came
forward.” (Matthew 26:59,60) Even though
the false witnesses accused Jesus of
several crimes, He did not defend
Himself.
Wishing to move quickly to a guilty
verdict, “The high
priest [Caiaphas] stood up
and said to Jesus, ‘Are you not
going to answer? What is this
testimony that these men are bringing
against you?’ But Jesus remained
silent. The high priest said to him,
‘I charge you under oath by the
living God: Tell us if you are the
Christ [the Messiah], the Son of
God.’ ‘Yes, it is as you
say,’ Jesus replied. ‘But I
say to all of you: In the
future you will see the Son of Man
sitting at the right hand of the
Mighty One and coming on the clouds
of Heaven.’ Then [with a
show of indignation and outrage] the
high priest tore his clothes [something
which God forbade the high priest to
do, Leviticus 21:10] and said,
‘He has spoken blasphemy! Why do
we need any more witnesses [to
condemn Him]? Look, now you have
heard the blasphemy [with your
own ears].’ ” (Matthew 26:62-65, insertions mine)
Caiaphas had heard that Jesus claimed
to be the Son of God on many
occasions. Therefore, he
reasoned that if he could get Jesus
to declare Himself the Son of God,
the Sanhedrin would hear this
“blasphemy” and reach a
unanimous verdict. When Jesus
confirmed that He was the Christ, the
Son of God, He insulted the most
sacred doctrine within Judaism, a
doctrine called
“monotheism.”
The Jewish version of monotheism
teaches there is one God. His
name is Jehovah and all other gods
are false and imaginary. The
Jews considered any challenge to this
doctrine to be blasphemy, punishable
by death. Jesus understood the
trap before responding to
Caiaphas. If He denied His
identity, He would be a liar.
If He spoke the truth, He would be
killed for blasphemy.
Monotheism and Judaism
The basis for Jewish monotheism is
described in the Old Testament.
Consider the following three
passages. One day, Moses saw a
burning bush and as he
approached, “ ‘Do not
come any closer,’ God said.
‘Take off your sandals, for the
place where you are standing is holy
ground.’ Then He said, ‘I
am the God of your
father [Amram], the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God
of Jacob.’ [Notice the
singular, “I am theGod.”]
At this, Moses hid his face, because
he was afraid to look at God.’
” (Exodus 3:5,6, italics and
insertions mine)
Later, from Mount Sinai, God spoke
the first commandment: “I
am the Lord [Jehovah] your
God, who brought you out of Egypt,
out of the land of slavery. You
shall have no other gods before me [Notice
that “me” is singular.].”
(Exodus 20:2,3) Shortly before
Moses died, he made the
declaration: “Hear, O
Israel: The Lord [Jehovah] our
God, the Lord is one [Notice
that “one” is singular.].” (Deuteronomy 6:4) Finally,
notice what God said about
Himself: “This is
what the Lord [Jehovah] says
— Israel’s King and
Redeemer, the Lord [Jehovah] Almighty:
I am the first and I am the last;
apart from methere is
no God [Notice that
“me” is singular.].”
(Isaiah 44:6)
These verses and many others in the
Old Testament explain why Jewish
monotheism teaches there is one God
and His name is Jehovah (Eternal
God). We need to understand
Jewish monotheism because Jesus came
to Earth to confront this doctrine
and the Sanhedrin sentenced Him to
death for it.
“Then the high priest tore his
clothes and said, ‘He has spoken
blasphemy! Why do we need any more
witnesses? Look, now you have heard
the blasphemy.’ What do you
think?” ‘He is worthy of
death,’ they answered.” (Matthew 26:65,66) Because
monotheism is the foundation of
Judaism, the Jews in Christ’s
day believed it was impossible for
Jehovah to have a Son.
Currently, orthodox Jews still
anticipate the Messiah will come, but
they insist He has to be an ordinary
mortal because monotheism mandates
that it is impossible for
more than one God to exist.
Judaism’s View of Jesus
The high priest became livid when
Jesus said that He was the Son of
God. The problem was this: If
Jehovah had a son, there had to be
two Gods! If there were two
Gods, monotheism was a false doctrine
and Judaism was a false
religion. This story in John
5 will help to illustrate the
problem. One Sabbath day, Jesus
came upon a crippled man lying beside
a pool of water in Jerusalem and
Jesus healed him. Later, when
the man learned that Jesus had healed
him, he told the priests. “So,
because Jesus was doing these things
on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted
Him [as a law breaker]. Jesus
said to them, ‘My Father is
always at his work to this very [Sabbath] day,
and I, too, am working [within
the boundaries of the Sabbath
commandment – which the Jews had
badly distorted].’ For this
reason the Jews tried all the harder
to kill Him; not only was He breaking
the Sabbath [they thought], but
He was even calling God His own
Father, making Himself equal
with God.” (John 5:16-18, insertions and
italics mine)
The Jews understood a son was the
equal of His father because this is
the order of life. A watermelon
produces a watermelon because the
seed within the parent is identical
to the seed within the
offspring. A cow produces a cow
because the seed within the parent is
identical to the seed within the
offspring, and the seed within the
father is identical to the seed
within his son. “Like
begets like.”
Therefore, when Jesus said that God
was His Father, the Jews became
furious because His use of language
declared that He was equal with
Jehovah. They screamed
blasphemy! Stone Him!
Jesus Spoke the Words of the Father
When Jesus said that God was His
Father, it was actually the Father
that spoke through Jesus’
lips. Jesus did not speak on
His own. The Father wanted the
Jews to know that Jesus was His
equal, so the Father spoke words
through the lips of Jesus that
clearly conveyed this idea to them.
The Jews were outraged and insulted
by the Father’s words, but Jesus
was not the one speaking! Jesus
said: “For I did not speak
of my own accord, but the Father who
sent me commanded me what to
say and how to say it.” (John 12:49, italics mine)
On another occasion, Jesus
said: “These words you
hear are not my own;
they belong to the Father who sent
me.” (John 14:24, italics mine)
Jesus said to His disciples, “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
just my own. Rather, it is the
Father, living in me, who is doing
His work.” (John 14:10, italics mine)
While praying for His disciples,
Jesus said to the Father, “For
I gave them the words you
gave me and they accepted
them. They knew with certainty that I
came from you, and they believed that
you sent me.” (John 17:8, italics mine)
This is a profound point to consider:
The Father confronted the Jews
through Jesus and He received their
abuse. The Jews were insulted
and highly offended because their
religious beliefs did not align with
the truth about God. This is
how it will be during the Great
Tribulation. Jesus will speak
through the lips of the
144,000! His words will be
insulting and inflammatory, and
Satan’s agents will punish and
torture God’s servants as if the
144,000 spoke on their own! We
should not be surprised because the
sinful nature is hostile toward
God. (Romans 8:7) For a moment,
put on the sandals of the Sanhedrin.
How could a poor, homeless and homely
looking man from Nazareth, about 33
years of age, be so insulting and
brazen? How could He claim to
be the Son of God? How could He
be an equal of Jehovah?
The Father confirmed who Jesus was on
several occasions: At His
baptism, the Father spoke from
Heaven. He said, “This
is my Son.” (Matthew 3:17) On the Mount
of Transfiguration, the Father spoke
from Heaven. He said, “This
is my Son.” (Matthew 17:5, 2 Peter 1:16,17) Just before
His crucifixion, Jesus was in the
temple and He called upon His Father
to speak from Heaven so that everyone
present could know that He was the
Son of God – and the Father
did! (John 12:28-30) When Jesus died, the
Father sent an angel to tear the
temple curtain from top to
bottom. This wool curtain,
believed to be about 4 inches thick,
separated the Holy place from the
Most Holy place. Tearing it
open indicated temple services were
finished. The Jews killed
“The Lamb of God” and His
death terminated the Levitical
system. (Mark 15:38, Colossians 2)
The apostle John describes another
time the Father conveyed the fact to
the Jews that Jesus was equal to
Himself. One day, after healing
the man beside the pool, “The
Jews gathered around Him [Jesus],
saying, ‘How long will you keep
us in suspense? If you are the
Christ [the Messiah], tell us
plainly.’ Jesus answered,
‘I did tell you [that I am
the Christ], but you do not believe.
The miracles I do in my Father’s
name speak for me, but you do not
believe because you are not my sheep.
My sheep listen to my voice; I know
them, and they follow me. I and
the Father are one.’ Again the
Jews picked up stones to stone him,
but Jesus said to them, ‘I have
shown you many great miracles from
the Father. For which of these
do you stone me?’ ‘We are
not stoning you for any of
these,’ replied the Jews,
‘but for blasphemy, because you,
a mere man, claim to be
God’ ” (John 10:24-33)
When the Father said through Jesus,
“I and the Father are one,”
He did not want the Jews to
understand that He and Jesus were the
same person. Instead, the
Father wanted the Jews to understand
that He and Jesus were like identical
twins. The Father wanted the
Jews to learn this because they
worshiped and embraced a
“Jehovah” which was nothing
like the
“Father.” “Jesus
said to them, ‘If God were your
Father, you would love me, for
I [am exactly like the Father
and I] came from God and now am
here. I have not come on my own [I
am not saying what I want to say or
doing what I want to do]; but He sent
me. . .’ ‘He who belongs
to [the genuine] God hears
what God [the Father] says.
The reason you do not hear is that
you do not belong to God [you
belong to your god, the devil].’
” (John 8:42, 44, 47, insertions mine)
I hope you now understand how the
Father’s testimony which Jesus
spoke put the Jews and Judaism in a
very difficult position. The
Jews could either admit that
monotheism was a false doctrine or
kill a lowly looking homeless man for
blasphemy. If the Jews admitted
that Israel’s most sacred
doctrine was false, their religion
which dated back to Abraham, would be
shaken. Truth is a doubled
edged sword, isn’t it? (Hebrews 4:12) Have you had a
cherished view about God
crumble? Have you experienced a
complete paradigm shift? Have
you lost friends, family, church and
job because of new light? If
you have, you understand the
bittersweet joy of truth and the pain
of rejection.
Jesus and the Father are One
Jesus spoke the Father’s
testimony which Jesus gave to the
Jews. The Father made it perfectly
clear that He and Jesus were equals,
and the Jews correctly understood the
Father’s testimony. This
is proven by their responses to Jesus
on several occasions. The Jews
eventually killed Jesus for
blasphemy. If you had been born
and raised a Jew and could trace your
religious culture and heritage all
the way back to Abraham, and you
heard the Father say through the lips
of Jesus that Jesus was a God, how
would you have reacted? What
would you have thought if Jesus said
to you: “He who belongs to
God hears what God says. The reason
you do not hear is that you do not
belong to God?”(John 8:47) Jesus said He
did not come to Earth on His
own. He was sent to
Earth to confront many errors which
the Jews embraced as truth.
Jesus allowed the Father to speak
through his lips and the result was
very painful. Looking ahead,
the 144,000 will endure the same
hardship for 1,260 days. No one
with a sinful nature could faithfully
endure this. This is why the
sealing is such a wonderful doctrine.
Jesus will remove the sinful natures
of the 144,000 before their work
begins; otherwise, the sinful nature
would retaliate and would ruin their
ministry! They would not be a
perfect reflection of Jesus!
Retaliation is rooted within the
sinful nature and it has to be rooted
out! To be continued.
