Faith and God

To have faith in God, or the Bible, it must prove itself to be sure and certain. Can we prove God and the Bible to be sure and certain?  YES!  Let us start with God.

 

 Who is the God of the Old Testament?

 

 Who is the God of the New Testament?

 

 Who or what is "GOD"?

I needed to understand the concept of God. Understanding God was fundamental to my being set free. If I believed that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament were two different individuals, it would be easy to change "truth" from Old to New. This I learned was part of the confusion in worldly Christian teachings.

"GOD" I learned was not a person. The letters "G-O-D" are not the name of a person, entity or spirit. They are just letters. These letters represent a title. A friend of mine in the California Prison System is called an "inmate". That is his title. Inmate is not a person; it is not his name. Inmate simply is a title, a label, for easy identification of all 200,000 inmates in the California prison system.

When the California Department of Corrections wants to inform the prisoners of rules or changes that will affect them, it does not notify all of them by name. It uses the label, title, "inmate". That way the inmates know that the rules apply to them, all 200,000 individuals. Even though the one title applies to all 200,000 inmates, all 200,000 are not one. Yet all have the same privileges and responsibilities as each and every other "inmate". All are one, yet individuals.

If the prison wants to contact my friend, it uses his name and personal designation number. The same is true for "God". The Bible uses the term God when it speaks in general terms about those who have the God title. When it wants to get personal and identify which God, it then names that specific individual.

Three distinct individuals have the God title. This is what confused the Jews. Yet, if they had been true students of the Old Testaments, they would have understood that there were three individuals with the God title.

Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God... ". In the Hebrew language, the word we translate as God in this text is written in the plural form. It should be translated, "In the beginning Gods... ". The Gods: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were all involved in planning and creating the world. They also became involved in a very personal way in making man. "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness." Genesis 1:26. "The man has now become like one of us." Genesis 3:22

"Us" and "our" are key words. They are plural, as is "God".  They worked as a team in building our planet. The Father acted like the Architect. Jesus was the Builder and the Holy Spirit was the Inspector.

At this point in a study, a Rabbi would know that there were more than just one individual with the God title. How many more were there? The Jews might not know the answer to that question. How many was not important. Only that there were more than one holders of the God-title.

The problem that arises is when people misquote the Bible. How many times have you heard the phrase, "the Lord our God is one God"? The sad fact is, that is a misquote. The truth is found in Deuteronomy 6:4. "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one." This does not say that there is one God, only that the LORD is one. You see, the individual with the God title who is called "LORD" is only one person. He is not many. Only one person of the three God-title holders can be called "LORD". That person is Jesus Christ.

 In the study of the book of Daniel the Jews would have gained further understanding into this truth. In Daniel 7:13, 14 Daniel shows us the "Son of man" approaching the Ancient of Days. The son of man (Jesus) was given authority, sovereign power, dominion and most importantly, worship.

The Ten Commandments strictly forbids the worship of any other person or thing. Therefore the Jews, and us, would have known that these two individuals had the God title. They also knew from scripture that the Holy Spirit was also a holder of the God title. Put it all together and you have One, Two, Three individuals with the one "God" title.