Questions
about the Trinity
(Monotheism
Versus Tritheism)
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The Deity
of Jesus
Now that we
have briefly examined some church
history and mildly challenged two
forms of monotheism, we need to dig a
little deeper into the Bible to see
if Jesus is, in fact, a co-eternal,
separate and distinct Deity
independent of the Father. In short,
we need to learn if the bible teaches
polytheism. Please examine the
following passages and consider my
response to each one.
1. Psalm 45:7
[The Father said to the Son,] You
love righteousness and hate
wickedness; therefore God,
your God, has set you above
your companions by
anointing you with the oil of
joy.” (insertion and
emphasis mine) This text indicates
polytheism since one deity spoke to
another deity. (Paul repeats this
text in his letter to Jewish
believers that affirms that Jesus is
God who was set above His companions.
At a point in time, God the Father
revealed to the angels that Jesus had
a status above the angels. See
Hebrews 1:9.)
Comment:
This verse, twice repeated in
Scripture, confuses many Christians
because they either reject or do not
know that Jesus once lived among the
angels as one of them. Before
coming to Earth, Michael was the
archangel. For the purpose of
discussion, consider this: Before
Jesus lived on Earth in the form of a
man, Jesus lived in Heaven in the
form of an angel. Just as many people
did not know that Jesus was God when
He was on Earth, many angels did not,
at first, know that Michael was God.
When sin occurred on Earth, Michael
offered to give up His eternal life
for sinners and the Father responded
with the words written in Psalm
45:7. The Father openly
declared Michael to be
“God” before the angels and
this is how Michael was exalted above
His companions. This is one of the
wonderful things about the Godhead.
They do not lord their awesome powers
over their subjects. Love does not
permit it! (Presentations about
Michael/Jesus as God are in Chapters
1-3 of my book, Jesus: The Alpha
and the Omega and Prophecy 12 of
my book, Jesus’ Final
Victory.)
2.
Philippians 2:6, Colossians 2:9 “[Jesus]
Who, being in very
nature God, did not
consider equality with God something
to be grasped…For in Christ all the
fullness of the Deity lives in
bodily form.” (insertion and
emphasis mine)
Comment:
Because Jewish converts to
Christianity often stumbled and
struggled with the deity of Jesus,
Paul was forced to confront the
monotheism of Judaism regularly.
Wishing to clear the air on this
topic, Paul wrote to the churches in
Philippi and Colossae saying, (a)
Jesus was “in very nature God,
and (b) in Christ body, all the
fullness of deity lives.” Paul
is adamant that Jesus is Deity like
the Father. Jesus also said that He
should be honored (worshiped) even as
the Father is honored. (John 5: 22,
23) If the Father and the Son were not
equals, Jesus’ words would
have been blasphemous and this is
precisely how the Jews interpreted
His words.
3. John
5: 18 “For this reason the
Jews tried all the harder to kill
Him; not only was He breaking the
Sabbath, but He was even calling God
his own Father, making
himself equal with God.”
(Emphasis mine)
Comment: The
Jews were fiercely loyal to “one
God” and because of this, they
“tried all the harder to kill
Jesus” when He called God His
Father. To better appreciate their
hatred for Jesus, please consider
this backdrop:
The devil is
a master at creating lies and
counterfeits. For example, the Bible
says that Jesus created the world in
six days, but the devil has led a
huge number of educated and
intelligent people to believe that
the world and everything in it evolved
over billions of years. Jesus
made the seventh day holy at the end
of the Creation Week and the devil
has created competing holy days
(Friday for Muslims and Sunday for
Christians) to largely obscure this
fact. The bible teaches that
salvation comes through faith in
Christ, but the devil has led
billions of people into thinking they
can obtain salvation through
sacraments, merits, or good
works. For every good thing
God has said or created, the devil
has created a lie or a counterfeit.
This is particularly true regarding
the Godhead. After Noah’s flood,
at the time of the Tower of Babel,
God divided the world. The devil
seized upon this development by
leading mankind into the darkness of
superstition and counterfeit
polytheism. Attempting to obscure the
truth about the Godhead, the devil
led the ancients to believe there
were many gods. (Greek mythology is a
good example of counterfeit
polytheism.)
Lucifer’s
counterfeit polytheism was already at
work by the time of Abraham. The
Egyptians worshiped many gods. After
Abraham’s descendants were held
as hostages and used for slavery for
400 years in Egypt, many of them also
worshiped the gods of Egyptians. The
biblical documents this practice: “When
the people saw that Moses was so long
in coming down from the mountain,
they gathered around Aaron and said,
‘Come, make us gods
who will go before us. As
for this fellow Moses who brought us
out of Egypt, we don’t know what
happened to him.” (Exodus
32:1, emphasis mine) I am sure that
you remember that Aaron made a golden
calf which probably represented Apis,
a powerful “bull god” which
the Egyptians worshiped.
When Jesus
spoke to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai,
He spoke to them in the singular
because Jesus spoke on behalf of a
united Deity. Therefore, the
first commandment says, “I
am the Lord your God, who
brought you out of Egypt, out of the
land of slavery. You shall have no
other gods before me.”
(Exodus 20: 2, 3, emphasis mine)
Given their
polytheistic experience in Egypt, the
Jews understood the first commandment
to mean the gods of Egyptians were
nothing because there was only one
God, the God who had delivered them
from Egypt. However, their simplistic
understanding of the Godhead
eventually set them up for a fatal
mistake. Their narrow understanding
of the first commandment gave them
the reason and authority to reject
Jesus as another God 1,500 years
later. Ironically, the Jews never
discovered that the God who they
called Jehovah for 1,500 years was
Jesus Christ Himself. When Jesus
claimed that God was His Father, they
understood Jesus to claim equality
with the Father which made them so
angry they tried ‘all the harder
to kill Him.”
This brings
us to an important point. If a person
wishes to properly understand the
doctrine of the Godhead, he has to
search the bible with timeliness in
mind. In other words, a Bible student
has to be aware of a divine process
called “progressive
revelation.” Progressive
revelation means that over time, more
about the Bible subject is revealed.
The book of Genesis introduces the
Godhead in the first verse by using
the Hebrew word elohiym (elohiym
indicates plural Gods) and 65 books
later, the book of Revelation brings
this topic to a profound climax. The
book of Revelation is called
“The Revelation of Jesus
Christ” because at the end of
sin’s drama, Jesus will be
revealed to the universe as a
distinct, separate, co-eternal God
equal to the Father. Of
course, Jews and Christians through
the ages could not understand the
Godhead because the book of Daniel
was sealed up until the time of
the end. (Daniel 12:9) Now that
Daniel has been unsealed and the
rules of interpretation have been
discovered, Revelation’s story
unfolds to reveal the truth about the
Godhead. For the first time in
Earth’s history, all 66 books in
the Bible can be understood. They are
in perfect harmony – just as
they read.
Before we
move forward to item 4, please
consider three examples of
progressive revelation. The Lord said
to Moses, “I [Jesus] appeared
to Abraham, to Isaac, and to
Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name
the Lord [Jehovah] I did
not make myself known to
them.” (Exodus 6:3,
insertions and emphasis mine)
Paul wrote: “Now
to him who is able to establish you
by my gospel and the proclamation of
Jesus Christ, according to the
revelation of the mystery hidden for
long ages past, but now revealed and
made known through the
prophetic writings by the command of
the eternal God, so that all nations
might believe and obey
Him…” (Romans 16: 25,
26, emphasis mine)
Peter wrote: “He
[Jesus] was chosen [by the
Father] before the creation
of the world, but was
revealed [to us] in
these last times.” for
your sake.” (1 Peter 1:20,
insertions and emphasis mine)
You may
wonder what progressive revelation
has to do with monotheism and the
first commandment. When Jesus spoke
from Mt. Sinai, He spoke in the
singular because the Godhead is
singular in purpose, plan, and
action. The oneness of the Godhead is
declared in the first commandment.
When Jesus said “I am the
Lord your God….you shall have no
other Gods before me,” we
know that Jesus spoke for the Godhead
because He used the plural for God (elohiym)
when He said, “I am the Lord
your God.” Speaking in the
singular, Jesus counteracted the
gross polytheism which permeated the
world at the time. Remember, Jesus
speaking in the singular is not a
problem for the Father. The worship
of the Son is permitted because the
Son is also a member of the deity.
(john 5: 22, 23) Even more, no one
learns the truth about the Father
without first learning the truth
about Jesus. (John 14:6) This brings
us to the next text.
4. John 1: 1,
3 “In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was
God. He was with God in
the beginning….The Word became
flesh and made his
dwelling among us. We have seen his
glory, the glory of the One and Only,
who came from the Father,
full of grace and truth…Through
Him [the Word] all things were
made; without Him nothing was made
that has been made.” (insertions
and emphasis mine)
Comment: If
we allow the Bible to speak for
itself, this text is radiantly clear.
John declares that Jesus is the
Creator of everything; Jesus is a
separate God, independent from the
Father. John says Jesus was with God
and Jesus was God, before anything
was made. This indicates polytheism
and that more than one deity was
present in the beginning. Jesus is
given the title, “the
Word,” in John 1 because Jesus
is the voice of the Godhead.
When the Godhead has something to
say, Jesus speaks it.
5. Genesis
1:1 “In the beginning God
created the Heavens and
the Earth.” (emphasis mine)
Comment: Does
the first verse in the Bible indicate
monotheism or polytheism? The word
used for God in Genesis 1:1 is the
Hebrew word elohiym which is
the plural form of elowahh
which means the Deity. Three Deities
(plural) were present at the creation
of Earth. The Father commissioned
Jesus as the creative agent of the
Godhead to create Earth. (Hebrews
1:2; John 1:3, 10) and at the same
time, the Holy Spirit was hovering
over the waters. Wherever the Father
and/or Jesus go, the Holy Spirit is
already there because the Holy Spirit
is everywhere; He is omnipresent.
(Genesis 1: 2; 2; Acts 5: 31, 32;
Timothy 1: 14)
6. Genesis
1:26 “Then God said, ‘Let
us make man in our image,
in our likeness,
and let them rule over the fish of
the sea and the bird of the
air…’” (emphasis
mine)
Comment: The
plurality of God cannot be overlooked
or ignored in the first chapters of
Genesis. At Creation, Jesus said to
the Father and to the Holy Spirit,
“Let us make man in our
image, in our likeness….”
This passage and Genesis 1:1
indicates polytheism existed before
the creation of Earth and John 1:1
affirms this point. All of God’s
children are created in His image,
after His likeness. Every child of
God has a separate, distinct will
because each member of the Godhead
has a separate, distinct will. Every
child of God can know and understand
the principles of love because each
member of the Godhead is a God of
love. When Jesus created Adam and
Eve, He gave them characteristics
that mirror the characteristics of
the Godhead. Because the Godhead
lives and one Deity, a husband and
wife can live together as one flesh.
7.
Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O
Israel: The Lord our God,
the Lord is one.”
(emphasis mine)
Comment: The
English translation of this verse
appears to support monotheism (one
God). However, when we look into the
Hebrew language, Jesus Himself
used the plural from of deity (elohiym)
in this declaration. A literal
translation of this verse means:
hear, O Israel: Our God is plural and
Jehovah (Jesus) is the One [who
represents them]. Incidentally, about
98% of the references to Jehovah in
the Bible refer to the God we call
Jesus!
8. Isaiah 45:
5 “I am the Lord and there is
none else, there is no God
beside me…” (emphasis
mine)
Comment: At
first glance, the English translation
of this verse supports monotheism.
However, if we look again into the
Hebrew language, Jesus Himself
used the plural form of deity (elohiym)
in this declaration. A literal
translation of this verse means:
“I am Jehovah (Jesus). I speak
for the Godhead. What I say is from
Us.” This truth is affirmed in
John 1 when Jesus is called “the
Word.” Jesus is called “the
Word” or “the Word of
God” (Revelation 19:13) because He
alone speaks for the Godhead.
Jesus Is
an Almighty God!
Before we
leave this discussion on monotheism
versus polytheism, I need to address
some issues that have been postponed
in previous paragraphs.
Look at this
text: “This is what the Lord
says-Israel’s King and Redeemer,
the Lord Almighty:
I am the first and I am the last; apart
from me there is no God (elohiym).”
(Isaiah 44:6, emphasis mine) Did
Jesus or the Father make this
declaration? Please open your Bible
and compare Isaiah 44:6 with
Revelation 2:8, and then compare
Revelation 22:13 with Revelation 1:8.
Exchange the different terms
describing Jesus within these four
verses and you will discover four
facts: (a) Jesus declared that He is
the first and the last, (b) Jesus
declares that He is the Lord
Almighty, (c) Jesus declares that He
is Israel’s King and Redeemer
(Pilate’s sign on the cross was
correct-compare Luke 23:3 with John
19: 19-22), and finally (d) Jesus
declares that He is the Alpha and the
Omega. Please review these supporting
verses until they make sense, just as
they read. Jesus has revealed many
characteristics about Himself
in these verses that separates Him
from the Father.
When Jesus
said that He is the First and the
Last, the Alpha and the Omega, He was
not saying that chronologically
speaking, He was the first God
to exist. Rather, Jesus was saying
that from the cosmic beginning
(before anything existed), He had
been the voice of the Godhead. He
does not speak on His own behalf.
Therefore, as the Word of God, His
words are first and they are final
(the beginning and the end). When
Jesus said that He is the Lord
Almighty, He declared that He is
Almighty God, Israel’s interface
with an Almighty Godhead.
Worshiping Jesus is the same as
worshiping the Father because they
are one and they are equal! (John 5:
22, 23; Colossians 2:9)
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