Jeshua

the Messiah

 

Is He

the SON of GOD

or

Part of

a Trinity?

 

 

Bruce Armstrong and Bruce Harris

Central Highlands Congregation of God

 

 

Contents

Jehovah and Jeshua in the Scriptures

Jehovah God

Jeshua, God’s Son

Athanasius’ Heresy

The Trinity

Co-equality?

Are Jeshua and His Father Co-Eternal?

What Did Jeshua Mean When He Said “I and My Father are One”?

Are We to Become God’s Children?

Conclusion

Appendix: The Arian Dispute

 

 

“Nor do I pray for the sake of these only, but also for the sake of those who will trust in Me through their word; that they will all be one, just as You, My Father, are in Me, and I am in You; so that they also will be one in Us.  And the glory which You gave Me, I have given to them, so that they will be one as We are one, so that the world will believe that You sent Me.

I in them, and You in Me; that they will be perfected as one, and that the world will know that You sent Me, and that You have loved them just as You have also loved Me.”

John 17:20-23

 

 

 

Jehovah and Jeshua in the Scriptures

Jesus Christ1 said He was the Son of God.  Not only this, He even claimed that He and His Father were one.  The Pharisees believed that by these claims Jesus (Jeshua) was making himself equal with God.2  Indeed, His words started an intense controversy which is still hotly debated today.  Some use His statements to support the concept of the trinity.  Others claim that His words clearly show that He is indeed the Son of God in every respect.  Still others say that Jeshua (Jesus) was merely a creation of God.

It is critical to know who Jeshua really is to understand what His mission on earth was and who or what God is.  So, exactly what did Jeshua say, and what did He mean?  If He was truly the Son of God, who was this Father of His?  And how could they be one?  We will examine these concepts in the light of Scripture.

 

Jehovah God

Jeshua, as explained in Footnote 1, means “Jehovah Saves”.  But who is Jehovah?  Jehovah is God.  Jehovah is His personal name, used seven thousand times throughout the entire Bible, including the Aramaic New Covenant.3  You may not be familiar with God’s actual name, as Bible translators mostly follow the non-biblical tradition of Judaism and refuse to actually use His Name.  For example, the King James Version uses Jehovah only four times (Exo 6:3, Psm 83:18, Isa 12:2 and Isa 26:4) out of all of these thousands of places that Jehovah Himself and His servants use His Name.4  All the other occurrences of Jehovah’s name are substituted with mere titles, such as LORD or GOD, printed in small capitals to acknowledge that it is really Jehovah in the original manuscripts.  The oldest fully vocalised Hebrew manuscripts, including the Aleppo and Leningrad Codices, confirm that Jehovah (or Yehovah if you use the other major tradition of Hebrew pronunciation) is the true Name of our God.5
So Jehovah is God’s Name.  But what does that name mean, and who is this God?  Jehovah has several meanings, including “the one who is”, “the self-existing”, “Giver of Life”, “the one bringing into being”.6  Putting this together gives us a clear picture of who Jehovah is: He is the self-existing, eternal creator who has made everything that exists apart from himself and He gives life to His creatures and sustains them.  No one created Him.  He is far, far greater than everything that He has created and made.  As the self-sustaining eternal being, His existence does not depend on anyone else.  He has always existed, exists now and will always continue to exist.

Jehovah God also insists that He is the only self-existing eternal Creator:

 

“Thus says Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; and apart from Me there can never be God.’”    Isaiah 44:6

 

“Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been upheld by Me from birth, who have been carried from the womb: even to your old age.  I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you!  I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.

“To whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal and compare Me, that we should be alike?

“They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance; they hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god.  They prostrate themselves, yes, they worship.  They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it and set it in its place, and it stands; it will not move from its place.  Though one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer nor save him out of his trouble.

“Remember this, and show yourselves men; recall to mind, O you transgressors.  Remember the former things of eternity, for I am God, and there is no other God.  There is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from the past things which were not yet done, saying, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all My desire,’ calling a bird of prey from the sunrise, from a far land the man to do My purpose.  Yes, I have spoken it.  Yes, I will bring it to pass.  I have formed it.  Yes, I will do it.”    Isaiah 46:3-11

 

Not only is Jehovah our Creator, He is also our Saviour:

 

But thus says Jehovah: “Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the prey of the terrible be delivered; for I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children.

I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh, and they will be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine.  All flesh will know that I, Jehovah, am your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”    Isaiah 49:25-26

 

But if Jehovah is our Saviour, why didn’t He die on the Stake for us Himself?  For one simple reason which we have already looked at: Jehovah God is the self-existent, eternal Creator.  He cannot die, for if Jehovah died, everything would cease to exist, as He sustains everything (Isaiah 42:5).

Before anything else existed, Jehovah decided that He would like to share being alive.  He considered all of the almost innumerable possible ways of creating other beings and universes for them to live in.  Finally, He selected the most effective plan which would result in many, many loving children living together in joy and harmony forever (Eph 3:11).  Implementing the plan began with the creation of His Son, a true son who was begotten directly from Jehovah (Psalm 2:7-12).7  Jeshua is made from the same ‘God-stuff’ as His Father.  The difference between them is this: Jeshua had a beginning.  He owes his existence to his Father and his life was sustained by His Father.  And this meant that, unlike His Father, Jeshua could die without destroying the yet-to-be-created universe when he died (Dan 7:9-14).

 

Jeshua, God’s Son

But like his Father, Jeshua is also unique.  He is the “only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).8  The manner of Jeshua’s ‘birth’ is not spelt out in detail in Scripture, but it seems that Jehovah has indicated how He did it in the account of how He created (built) Chavvah (her Biblical Hebrew name, which means Life.  Eve is the Greek equivalent) from one of Adam’s ribs (Gen 2:15-24).  Chavvah was in this sense a descendant of Adam, but had no mother.  It is likely that Jeshua was formed from a part of His Father, and just like Chavvah, there is no indication that Jeshua had a mother when He was first built.  So this is another way that Adam and Chavvah were made in the image and likeness of God and His Son.  Just as Chavvah became an independent and different person from Adam, but was still a human, so it is that Jeshua was formed into an independent and different person to Jehovah, His Father, but was still a God.  No one else will ever be born directly from the Father.  In this way Jeshua is also an “alap and tau (alpha and omega)”, “the First and the Last” like His Father (Rev 1:8, Rev 1:17, Rev 22:13).

Jeshua had to grow in wisdom, learning from His Father.  His greatest trial was submitting to death by being impaled on a stake.  In this act, Jehovah God offered up His Firstborn, fulfilling what He had prophesied through Abraham and Isaac (Gen 22:1-18) and at the Passover in Egypt (Exo 12:1 to 13:15).  And one of Jeshua’s rewards for allowing himself to be sacrificed was that He was given life within Himself.  Now Jeshua is self-sustaining and cannot die again, just like His Father (John 5:17 to 34, Romans 6:8-10).  Again, Jeshua is unique in this: though we are promised everlasting life, we are not promised self-sustaining life.  Can you see why He is called the “express image of the Father”, making Jeshua also God, but not the Only True God (Col 1:13-19, I John 5:20, John 20:28)?  Here are a few of the dozens of supporting Scriptures:

 

“Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah!”    Deuteronomy 6:4

 

For even though there are what are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, yet for us ours is one God, the Father, for everything is from Him, and we are in Him; and one Lord Jah─Jeshua the Messiah─for all is through Him, and we are also in His hand.    1 Corinthians 8:5 & 6

 

Let this mind be in you which was also in Messiah Jeshua, who, while He was in God’s form, did not consider the extortion that He was the equal of God, but He stripped Himself and He took the form of a servant, and was in the form of a child of man and was in nature as a man.    Philippians 2:5-7

 

Jeshua spoke these things, lifted His eyes to heaven, and said: “My Father, the hour has come.  Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, because You have given absolutely everything to Him.  He will give everlasting life to them.

“And these things are everlasting life, that they will know You, because You alone are the God of Truth, and He whom You have sent; Jeshua the Messiah.    John 17:1-3

 

Jeshua agreed to his Father’s plan before anything else was created:9  He would one day have to die to redeem the yet-future fallen creation.  We are told of Jeshua’s obedience in Galatians:

 

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jeshua the Messiah, who gave Himself because of our sins, to set us free from this evil world, according to the will of God our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever.  Amen.    Galatians 1:3 to 5

 

Then Jeshua helped Jehovah create everything else (John 1:1-18).  The entire plan of salvation, indeed the entire Creation, is founded on love and built upon the death and resurrection of God’s Son.10
Like His Father, Jeshua is a triune being: he is one person composed of a body, soul and spirit.11  We also have this triune image, though our current bodies are made from earth (I Thes 5:23).  In contrast, God’s Holy Spirit is divine, has a personality, but has no body and is under the authority of both Jehovah God and Lord Jeshua (John 15:26).  The papacy has a counterfeit: their renamed pagan trinity (Figure 1, also read Rev 16:13-14, where Satan’s ‘trinity’ of three demonic spirits working together like one is exposed).12  In this they deny both the Father and the Son (even while still using a version of their names), resulting in a bizarre perversion of the truth promoted by the “church” of Rome and enforced brutally by all state governments under their control.  And so we see one of the deep corruptions of the Great Apostasy revealed.

 

 
 

 

Figure 1: Chaldean and Hindu Trinities from The Two Babylons by Hislop.  Typical pagan trinities comprised the Father, Mother and Son.  The Mother was often represented by a dove, as Romanism sometimes represents Mary.

 

Athanasius’ Heresy

As shown above, until about 120 CE, there was only one Christian view of the Godhead: Jehovah, the One True Eternal God and His only begotten Son, our Lord Jeshua the Messiah.  But during the first centuries of Christianity, a “new” and very different view of the Godhead arose.

This opposing view was in fact transposed from the Babylonian Mystery religion and grafted into an increasingly paganised perversion of Christianity.  One of the main proponents of this distorted ‘Godhead’ was Athanasius (AD. 297-373), whose position is summed up in his Creed:

 

1. Whosoever will be saved, before all things [it] is necessary to hold the Catholic faith.

2. Which faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he will perish everlastingly.

3. But this is the Catholic faith: That we worship one God in trinity, and trinity in unity;

4. Neither confounding the persons; nor dividing the substance.

5. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son; another of the Holy Ghost.

6. But the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one: the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.

7. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, such is the Holy Ghost.

8. The Father is uncreated; the Son is uncreated; the Holy Ghost is uncreated.

9. The Father is incomprehensible; the Son is incomprehensible; the Holy Ghost is incomprehensible.

10. The Father is eternal; the Son is eternal; the Holy Ghost is eternal.

11. And yet there are not three eternals; but one eternal.

12. And also there are not three uncreated; nor three incomprehensible; but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible.

13. So likewise the Father is almighty; the Son is almighty; and the Holy Ghost is almighty.

14. And yet there are not three almighties, but one almighty.

15. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God.

16. And yet there are not three Gods, but one God.

17. So the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Holy Ghost is Lord.

18. And yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord.

19. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every person by Himself to be God and Lord;

20. So are we forbidden by the Catholic religion to say: there are three Gods, or three Lords.

21. The Father is made of none; neither created nor begotten.

22. The Son is of the Father alone; not made; nor created; but begotten.

23. The Holy Ghost is of the Father and the Son not made; neither created; nor begotten, but proceeding.

24. Thus there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons: one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.

25. And in this trinity none is before or after another, none greater nor less than another.

26. But the whole three persons are co-eternal together, and co-equal.

27. So that in all things, as aforesaid, the unity in trinity, and the trinity in unity is to be worshipped.

28. He, therefore, that will be saved, must thus think of the trinity.

 

The Creed of AthanasiusVol. 7, page 366, Anti-Nicene Fathers.  However, there is some evidence that this creed was actually finalised after Athanasius’ death.

 

The creed claims that our salvation is totally dependent on our belief in the trinity as expounded by the Catholic church.  If this is correct, knowing God’s true nature is critical to our salvation.  This may largely explain the violence with which the Catholic church has enforced their trinity concept over the centuries.13

It is undoubtedly true that our concept of God influences how we think about Him and how we relate to Him.  Our relationship with God is very important to Him, as He demonstrates by devoting the first four of His Ten Commandments to that topic.  But does God require us to believe He is a trinity before He will save us?  Is God actually a trinity?  Does He even want us to think He is a trinity?  What does the Bible say on this subject?

 

The Trinity

If God really is a trinity, why is Athanasius’ Creed such contradictory gobbledegook?  Even Athanasius admits five times in his own creed that his idea of the Godhead is ‘incomprehensible’. Furthermore, why doesn’t the Bible, not even once, say that God is a trinity?  After all, one of the Bible’s central purposes is to reveal God to man.  Can God’s attempt to reveal Himself to us be so incompetent that we find that He is ‘incomprehensible’?  Surely, if God is a trinity and He requires us to believe He is a trinity before He will save us, He will have clearly stated that He is a trinity and will have shown us that it is a necessary belief.

 

However, the only ‘scripture’ which openly supports the trinity concept is embedded into some Greek manuscripts of 1 John 5:7-8.  This notorious section of the Bible is known as the ‘Johannine comma’.  The italicised words between the colons in the following passage do not exist in any Aramaic Peshitta manuscript nor in any Greek manuscript prior to about 1300 AD:

 

For there are three who bear witness in heaven: The Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.    1 John 5:7 & 8

 

The italicised sections have beenjustifiablyremoved from most modern translations.  Evidently it was so difficult to prove that the trinity was a Christian concept that during the Middle Ages a particularly corrupt monk added these words to the Bible to support their doctrine.  They have almost certainly brought upon themselves (and their mastersthe popes) the curse of Revelation 22:18, which states that “If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book.”

 

The Aramaic Peshitta does not contain this insertion either, and translates as:

 

“Who is he who conquers the world for himself, but he who believes that Jeshua is the Son of God?

This is He who came by water and blood; Jeshua the Messiah; not only by water, but by water and blood.

And the Spirit bears witness because the Spirit is Truth.

And the three of them bear witness: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and the three of them are as one.

If we receive the witness of men, how much greater is the witness of God?  For this is the witness of God which He testifies about His Son.”    1 John 5:5-9

 

As the creed shows, Athanasius taught that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were all of one essence, each ‘person’ just another aspect of this one essence.  The trinitarians included the concepts of co-eternal and co-equality in their definition, which is the logical extension of this philosophy.  But do these concepts fit with God’s own Word?

 

It is well known that the trinitarian theory of the nature of God is not taught in scripture, but is adopted from pagan religions.  Alexander Hislop shows this in his excellent book on the origin of pagan beliefs in orthodox Christianity entitled The Two Babylons or The Papal Worship proved to be the Worship of Nimrod and his Wife, mentioned earlier.  On pages 16 to 19 he illustrates and documents the ancient trinities of the Chaldeans, Babylonians and Indians (Figure 1, on pg 8 is from his book).14  The Chaldeans eventually moved to Rome, bringing their religion with them, where they infiltrated and corrupted the Christian Church.

The trinity doctrine was one of the early distinguishing marks of the Roman Catholic church, which they used (via Constantine and most of the succeeding Roman Emperors) to justify persecution of Bible-believing Christians who refused to accept their perverted neo-pagan ‘Christianity’.

The trinity doctrine did not become dominant until it was enforced by Constantine in the fourth century.15

We would do well to remember the warning recorded in Jude, vs 3 and 4.  Jude states that the faith had already been delivered then; well before the end of the first century.  We are told to earnestly contend for that doctrine.  Furthermore, we are to beware of the heresies which were being stealthily introduced.

The danger of false teachings was also referred to more specifically by Paul, who in 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 gives this warning:

 

But I fear, lest as the serpent seduced Chavvah by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the integrity that is in the Anointed.

For if he who comes preaches another Jeshua to you whom we have not preached, or you receive another spirit which you have not received, or another Good News which you have not accepted, you may well be persuaded.

 

We believe that the changes to the Biblical concept of God required by trinitarians actually give us another Jehovah (the LORD), another Jeshua (Jesus) and another Spirit (the Holy Ghost).  Surely we should be very diligent in checking out what these changes mean and understanding why they have been introduced.  Most importantly, are these changes scriptural?

God says He made us in His image (Gen 1:26).  Thus our composition should give us some idea of what He is like.  We have a triune nature: each of us is one person composed of a body, soul and spirit (I Thes 5:23).  Likewise the Bible tells us that God also has a triune nature: He has a body, soul and spirit (Dan 7:9, Lev 26:11, Gen 6:3).  Note that in both cases this is not three persons in one being, but simply one person composed of three parts.  This is not an incomprehensible concept: our very own being gives us some understanding of the nature of our Creator God.

Remembering this, let us see if the Bible supports the main concepts of the trinity.

 

Co-equality?

Co-equality, in this case, means that each person of the Godhead is equal with each other part, so that none is ascendant over the others.

 

What does the Bible say? All of the following passages clearly show that Jeshua’s Father is greater than Jeshua, thus denying this aspect of the trinity which Athanasius pretends we must believe to be saved:

 

“You have heard and I have told you that I am going away and I will come to you.  If you love Me, you will rejoice that I am going to My Father, for My Father is greater than I.”    John 14:28

 

Only the Father, not even Jeshua, knows the time of His second coming:

 

“But concerning that day and that hour no one knows, not even the envoys16 of heaven, nor the Son.  Only the Father knows.”    Mark 13:32

 

Christ is always subject to God the Father:

 

But I want you to know that every man’s Head is the Anointed, the head of woman is man,17 and the Head of the Anointed is God.    1 Corinthians 11:3

 

But now the Messiah is risen from the place of the dead, and has become the Firstfruit of those who sleep.  For since by a man came death, also in this way by a man came the resurrection of the dead.

For just as by Adam all the children of men die, also in this way by the Anointed all of them will live.18  But each person in his order: the Firstfruit was the Messiah, afterward those who are the Messiah’s at His Coming.

Then comes the end, when He delivers the Kingdom to God the Father, when He destroys every ruler and every authority and all powers.  For He is going to reign until all of His enemies have been set under His feet.  The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

For He will bring all into submission under His feet.  But when it says “all things are subjected to Him,” it is understood that this excepts Him who subjected all to Him.  Now when all is subjected to Him, then the Son will be subjected to Him who subjected all to Him, that God may be All in All.    1 Corinthians 15:20-28

 

God raised Jeshua from death and exalted him to the position of His right hand as Prince and Saviour:

 

Then Simon answered with the apostles and said to them: “It is proper to be persuaded towards God more than towards men.

“The God of our fathers raised up Jeshua; He whom you murdered when you hung Him on a tree.  God has appointed this One to be Prince and Saviour and He has exalted Him at His right hand, such that He gives repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.  And we are witnesses of these things, and the Holy Spirit whom God gives to those who are believing in Him.”    Acts 5:29-32

 

This was confirmed by Stephen:

 

But he was full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jeshua standing at the right hand of God,  and he said, “Behold!  I see the heavens opened and the Son of Mankind standing at the right hand of God!”    Acts 7:55-56

 

Jehovah God gives the Revelation to Jeshua:

 

The Revelation of Jeshua the Messiah, which God gave to Him to show His servants what will soon take place    Revelation 1:1

 

Jehovah God gives the scroll to Jeshua:

 

And I saw on the right hand of Him who sits on the Throne a scroll written on the inside and on the back, and sealed with seven seals.

Then I saw another mighty envoy proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loosen its seals?”  And there was no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth who was able to open the scroll, or to open its seals and look upon it.

So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and to loosen its seals.  But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep.  Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and its seals.”

And I saw in the midst of the Throne and the four Beasts and the elders, a Lamb which was as though it had been slain.  And It had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into the whole earth.  Then He came and took the scroll from the hand of Him who sat on the Throne.

Now when He had received the scroll, the four Beasts and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, and every one of them had a stringed instrument, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.  And they sang a new hymn of praise, and they said: “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to loose its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and nation and people, and You have made them a Kingdom and priests and kings to our God; and they will reign over the earth.”    Revelation 5:1 to 10

 

Jeshua says His Father is the Only True God:

 

Jeshua spoke these things, lifted His eyes to heaven, and said: “My Father, the hour has come.  Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, because You have given absolutely everything to Him.  He will give everlasting life to them.

And these things are everlasting life, that they will know You, because You alone are the God of Truth, and Him who You have sent; Jeshua the Messiah.  I have glorified You on the earth.  I have finished the work that You have given to Me to do.

Now, My Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with that glory which I had together with You before there was a universe.  I have revealed Your Name to the children of men who You have given Me from the world.  They were Yours, and You have given them to Me, and they have kept Your word.    John 17:1 to 6

 

God the Father speaks to Jeshua:

 

Jehovah said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”    Psalm 110:1

 

While the Pharisees were assembled, Jeshua asked them, saying, “What do you say about the Anointed?  Whose Son is He?”  They said to Him, “The Son of David.”

He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord Jah’, for he says: ‘Jehovah said to my Lord Jah,19 “Sit at My right, until I place Your enemies under Your feet”’?

“If David then calls Him ‘Lord Jah’, how is He his son?”  And no one was able to give Him an answer, and from that day on no one dared to question Him again.    Matthew 22:41 to 46

 

Unconverted Jews think Jeshua claims to be equal with his Father. However, Jeshua denies this, explaining that everything he does is done under his Father’s authority and after his Father’s example.  Jeshua bases this difference on the fact that only the Father has always had life in Himself, though His Father has given this to Jeshua too:

 

But Jeshua said to them, “My Father has been working until now, and I am also working.”

Therefore the Judeans sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but He was also saying that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.20

Then Jeshua answered and said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you; the Son is not able to do anything from His own will, except what He sees the Father do; for the things that the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.  For the Father loves His Son, and everything that He does He shows to Him; and He will show greater works than these to Him, that you may marvel.  For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.

“For it is not the Father who judges man, instead He has transferred all judgement to the Son, so that everyone will honour the Son just as they honour the Father.  He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent Him.

“Truly, truly I say to you that whoever hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life and will not come into judgement.  He has passed from death into life.

“Truly, truly I say to you that the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.  For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to also have life in Himself, and He has given Him authority to execute judgement also, because He is the Son of Mankind.

“Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all those who are in the grave will hear His voice, and come forth; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgement.

“I am not able to do anything from My own will.  But as I hear, I judge; and My judgement is just, because I do not seek My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.  If I bear witness concerning Myself, My testimony is not true.  He is another who bears witness concerning Me, and I know that His testimony which He testifies concerning Me is true.

“You have sent to John, and he has testified concerning the truth.  Yet I do not receive testimony from man, rather I say these things that you may live.    John 5:17 to 34

 

God calls Jeshua His Servant:

 

Behold, My Servant will deal prudently, He will be exalted and extolled and be very high.

Just as many were astonished at you, so His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men; so will He sprinkle many nations.  Kings will shut their mouths at Him; for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will consider.

Who has believed our report?  And to whom has the arm of Jehovah been revealed?  For He will grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground.  He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.  He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.  Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgement, and who will declare His generation?  For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken.  And they made His grave with the wicked; but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.

Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, and the pleasure of Jehovah will prosper in His hand.

He will see the travail of His soul, and be satisfied.  By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, for He will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.    Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12

 

Jeshua confirms that his Father has sent him:

 

“But I have a greater testimony than John’s, for the works which My Father has given to Me to finish, those works that I do testify concerning Me, that the Father has sent Me.  And the Father who sent Me, He testifies concerning Me.  You have never heard His voice at any time, nor have you seen His form.    John 5:36 & 37

 

Jeshua confirms that His Father is greater than Him:

 

“Truly, truly I say to you; there is no servant who is greater than his lord; nor a messenger who is greater than he who sent him.    John 13:16

 

Paul says he worships one God (the Father) and one Lord (Jeshua the Anointed):

 

For even though there are what are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, yet for us ours is one God, the Father, for everything is from Him, and we are in Him; and one Lord JahJeshua the Messiahfor all is through Him, and we are also in His hand.    1 Corinthians 8:5 & 6

 

We are reconciled to God through Jeshua the Anointed:

 

Therefore, all who are in the Anointed are a new creation; with this the old things have passed away, and everything from God has become new.  He has reconciled us to Himself through the Messiah, and He has given us the service of reconciliation, for it was God, who in the Messiah reconciled the world to Himself in His majesty, not counting their sins against them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Therefore we are ambassadors on behalf of the Anointed, as though He who is God invited you through us.  Therefore we implore you on the Anointed’s behalf, be reconciled to God.  For He who had not known sin made Himself as sin in your place, that through Him we would become the righteousness of God.    2 Corinthians 5:17 to 21

 

There is one God and one Mediator:

 

For One is God and One is Mediator between God and the children of men, the Son of Man; Jeshua the Anointed; He who gave Himself as a ransom instead of every person, as a testimony that came in its time,    1 Timothy 2:5 & 6

 

There is one Lord and one God, who is the Father of all:

 

For you are in one body and in one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; for there is one Lord Jah, and one faith, and one immersion; and one God, the Father of all and above all, and with all, and in us all.    Ephesians 4:4 to 6

 

This accurate translation of Philippians shows both the glory of Jeshua’s pre-human position in the Heavens and His attitude:

 

Let this mind be in you which was also in Messiah Jeshua, who, while He was in God’s form, did not consider the extortion that He was the equal of God, but He stripped Himself and He took the form of a servant, and was in the form of a child of man and was in nature as a man.    Philippians 2:5 to 7

 

As Isaiah 14:12 to 17 and Ezekiel 28:14 to 17 show, it was Satan who had no such reservations about his own importance.  This led to his attempt to usurp God’s throne and his subsequent removal from God’s sanctuary.  Satan, though one of the principal envoys, was not a begotten son of God like Jeshua, but merely a created envoy, created by Jeshua under His Father’s instructions (John 1:1, Colossians 1:13 to16).

 

These scriptures show beyond any doubt that Jeshua is indeed not equal with His Father.  And there is not a single Scripture which says that Jeshua is equal to, much less greater than, His Father.  But this does not detract from Jeshua’s unique position as Jehovah’s only directly begotten Son.

 

The two scriptures following indicate Jeshua’s true authority, but note that even they do not go as far as making Jeshua and his Father equal:

 

God the Father is called the Almighty God:

 

Also God said to him: “I am God Almighty.”    Genesis 35:11

 

Jeshua is called the Mighty God, but NOT Almighty:

 

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgement and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.    Isaiah 9:6 & 7

 

The Hebrew word ad עַד translated as Everlasting in the above passage essentially means to ‘advance without end’.  It does not say that the object or person referred to has always existed in the past.  A typical example of this usage of ad is Psalm 22:26, where ad is translated as forever:

 

The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek Him will praise Jehovah.  Let your heart live forever!

 

And is the Holy Spirit equal in power and authority to Jehovah and Jeshua?  The scriptures clearly show that the Holy Spirit always acts under instruction from them, and never shows the reverse.  Therefore the Holy Spirit is of lesser power and authority than theirs:

 

“But the Redeemer, the Holy Spirit, that one whom My Father will send in My name, He will teach you everything, and He will remind you of everything that I said to you.    John 14:26

 

“But when the Redeemer of the accursed comes, whom I will send to you from the presence of My Father, He is the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the presence of My Father, He will testify about Me.    John 15:26

 

“But I speak the truth to you, that it is better for you that I go; for if I do not go, the Redeemer will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.    John 16:7

 

There is also no Biblical evidence that the Holy Spirit has a body, again making it of a lesser nature than the Father and His Son.  But even so, this is still God’s Spirit who fulfils some of the functions of Redeemer and is of enormous importance (Luke 12:10).

 

This brings us to the next conjecture of the trinity: That the various ‘persons’ of the Godhead have always existed together.

 

Are Jeshua and His Father Co-Eternal?

The Bible clearly teaches that both Jeshua and His Father exist together now, and will always continue to do so in the future.  But does the Bible teach that both Jeshua and his Father have always existed, or does it teach that there was once a time when only God the Father existed?

 

“I was watching visions in the night, and behold, One like the Son of Man was coming with the clouds of heaven!  And He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him.

Then dominion was given to Him, and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.  His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and His kingdom is that which will not be destroyed.21    Daniel 7:13 & 14

 

It is clear that the Son of Man referred to in this prophetic passage is none other than Jeshua the Anointed, and further that the Ancient of Days is Jehovah God, Jeshua’s Father.  Calling only his Father the Ancient of Days strongly indicates that He is older, far older, than the Son of Man.

Again we see the word everlasting used, this time referring to a Kingdom which did not yet exist, but which will continue to exist forever once it is established.  In contrast, a truly eternal being is one who has always existed, exists now and will continue to exist forever.

 

The Bible clearly teaches that only Jeshua’s Father, Jehovah God is such a being:

 

Now to God, who is able to establish you in my Good News which has been preached about Jeshua the Messiah, by the revelation of the mystery that had been hidden from the time the world began, but has now been revealed in this time by the writings of the prophets and by the commandment of the Eternal God and has been taught in all the nations for the hearing of faith.    Romans 16:24&25

 

Now to the King of eternity, to Him who is indestructible and invisible, the One God, be honour and glory for eternities of eternity.  Amen.    1 Timothy 1:17 (Aramaic CHCoG version)

 

Jehovah, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.  Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting and to everlasting, You are God.    Psalm 90:1&2

 

For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose Name is Sacred: “I dwell in the high and sacred place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the crushed.    Isaiah 57:15

 

In my youth, my eyes saw your writings.  Behold, all these were written before there were days, when there was not a man in them.    Psalm 139:16

 

The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, and will say, ‘Destroy!’    Deuteronomy 33:27

 

Are You not from everlasting, O Jehovah my God, my Sacred One?  We will not die.    Habakkuk 1:12

 

And when the beasts give glory and honour and thanks for grace to Him who sits on the Throne, and to Him who truly lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the Throne and worship the Living One who truly lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the Throne, saying: “You are worthy, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honour and power; for You created all things, and by Your pleasure they exist and were created.”    Revelation 4:9-11

 

These scriptures show that Jehovah God is the only one with true immortality.  He alone has always existed, exists now and will continue to exist forever (Rev 1:8).  All the rest of us have a point at which God brings us into being, even His only begotten Son Jeshua.

 

Daniel refers to Jeshua as the Son of Man.  The New Covenant contains many references to Jeshua as both the Son of Man and the Son of God and to God as Jeshua’s Father.  Two examples are given here:

 

“For it is necessary for the Son of Mankind to come in the glory of His Father with His holy envoys, and then He will reward each person according to their works.22  Truly, I say to you, there are men standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Mankind coming in His kingdom.”23    Matthew 16:27

 

“How can you say to the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme!’ because I said to you, ‘I am the Son of God.’?  If I do not do the works of My Father, you should not believe Me;”    John 10:36-37

 

Jeshua is referred to as the Image of God, His Firstborn and Only Begotten:

 

He has saved us from the power of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son.  He in whom we have salvation and the forgiveness of our sins.

He is the Image of the unseen God and the Firstborn of all creation.  By Him everything was created which is in heaven and on the earth, everything seen and everything unseen, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.  Everything has been created by His hand and for Him.24

And He is the One before all, and all things exist through Him.  And He is the head of the body, which is the church, for He is the Head and the Firstborn from the dead, so He is the First in everything.  For it pleased the Father that all the fullness should dwell in Him,    Colossians 1:13 to 19

 

“And to the envoy of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the Creation of God:    Revelation 3:14

 

“And to the envoy of the church in Thyatira write, ‘Thus says the Son of God, He who has eyes like flames of fire, and His feet are like the brass of Lebanon:    Revelation 2:18

 

And the Word became flesh and boothed25 among us, and we beheld His glory, as the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, who is full of grace and truth.    John 1:14

 

No one has ever seen God.  The Only Begotten of God is He who is in the bosom of His Father.  He has declared Him.    John 1:18

 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not be destroyed but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be given life by His hand.  He who believes in Him is not judged; but he who does not believe is judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the Only Begotten Son of God.    John 3:16-18

 

If we are to believe that Jeshua is literally and actually God’s Son, when and how did he come into being?  What does the Bible say about this?

 

In the beginning the Word existed, and that Word existed with God, and that Word was Himself God.  This One existed in the beginning with God.  Everything was in His hand, and not even one of the things that exist would exist without Him.    John 1:1 to 3

 

This passage makes it clear that if Jeshua had a beginning, it must have been before the creation of our physical universe, as He played a key role in its creation:

 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.    Genesis 1:1

 

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the flying creatures of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth and over all the creeping things that creep on the earth.”    Genesis 1:26

 

So we read that God is discussing the creation of man with another being, one whom He addresses as sharing His image and likeness.  This can only be another God-like being, such as His Son.  It looks like Jeshua must have been with His Father when Adam and Chavvah were created.

 

And Jeshua Himself tells us twice that He existed before our earth was created:

 

“Now, My Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with that glory which I had together with You before there was a universe.    John 17:5

 

“Father, these who You gave Me; I want it to be that where I am, they will also be there with Me, that they will see My glory which You have given Me because You loved Me before the creating of the world.”    John 17:24

 

Would you like another passage of Scripture to confirm this?  Hebrews does exactly that:

 

God, who in various places and in different forms,26 spoke with our fathers by the prophets from the beginning, He has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed the Heir of all things, and by Him He made the universe; for He is the brilliance of His glory and the image of His being, and is upholding all things by the power of His Word, and when He had personally accomplished the cleansing of our sins, He sat down at the right side of the Majesty on high,27 and this One is far greater than the envoys, just as the Name He possesses is so much greater than theirs.
For to which of the envoys did God ever say: “You are My Son, today I have begotten You.”?28  And again: “I will be His Father, and He will be My Son.”?29  But again, when He brings the Firstborn into the universe, He says: “All the envoys of God will worship Him.”30    Hebrews 1:1-6

 

Please read the above passage again.  It tells us that the Father brought Jeshua, His Firstborn, into the universe.  So Jeshua had a beginning.  But it also tell us that Jeshua then worked with His Father to create everything else in the universe, and He is to be heir of everything.  God also tells us that His Son Jeshua is unique, so much greater than the envoys that He is deserving of their worship.31  And beyond all of this, Jeshua has personally cleansed the sins of every one of us.

And to reinforce the fact that Jeshua came into existence before our earth was created, and now has everlasting life, Hebrews has more to say:

 

And again: “You, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.32
“They will pass away, but You will remain; and they will all wear out like a garment; and like a cloak You will fold them up, and they will be changed.  But You will remain Yourself, and Your years will not end.”33    Hebrews 1:10-12

 

In Psalm 2, God’s Son speaks of His begetting:

 

Why do the nations rage, and the people plot uselessly?  The kings of the earth present themselves, and the rulers lay foundations together, against Jehovah and against His Messiah, saying, “Let us break Their bonds apart and cast Their cords away from us.”

He who dwells in the heavens will laugh; Jehovah will mock them.  Then He will speak to them in His wrath, and trouble them in His fierce wrath:  “Yet I have anointed My King on My holy mountain of Zion.”

“I will declare the decree: Jehovah has said to Me, ‘You are My Son.  Today I have begotten You.  Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and to the ends of the earth for Your possession.  You will break them with a rod of iron; You will shatter them like a potter’s vessel.’”

Now, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth.  Serve Jehovah with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled even a little.  Blessed are all who seek refuge in Him.    Psalm 2:1 to 12

 

Psalm 2 begins with God the Father speaking.  However, note the change of speaker in verse 7 (I will declare...), which is spoken by Jeshua.  Also note that the change of speaker is not announced or documented.

In the same manner, Jeshua has inserted a section in the middle of a discourse on wisdom given in Proverbs 8 which explains the time and manner of his birth as God’s son.  Also read 1 Corinthians 1:24 which teaches us that Jeshua is the power and wisdom of God, showing that Proverbs 8 applies to Jeshua:

 

“Jehovah created34 me as the firstfruit of His journey, before His works of old.  I was to be poured out from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth.

There were no depths when I was brought forth, there were no fountains abounding with water.  Before the mountains were set down, before the hills, I was brought forth; while He had not made the earth or the fields, or begun making the dust of the world.

When He prepared the heavens, I was there, when He placed a curve on the face of the deep, when He established the clouds from above, when He strengthened the eyes of the depths,35 when He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters would not pass over His word,36 when He cut out the foundations of the earth,37

Then I was beside Him as a master’s apprentice; and I was His delight every Day, always rejoicing before Him, rejoicing in His inhabited world, and My delight was with the sons of men.

“Now therefore, listen to Me, My children, for blessed are those who keep My ways.  Hear Instruction and be wise, and do not let go of it.  Blessed is the man who listens to Me, watching day by day at My gates, waiting at the posts of My doors.

For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains pleasure from Jehovah; but he who sins against Me does violence to his own soul; all those who hate Me love death.”

Proverbs 8:22 to 36

 

The Hebrew word chuwl חוֹלָ, translated as brought forth in Proverbs 8:24 and Isaiah 66:8 (below) show that this word often refers to birth.  This passage of Proverbs does indeed reveal that Jeshua was born from God the Father before the beginning of our earth and stood beside Him helping in the Creation.

 

“Before she travailed, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a male child.

Who has heard the like of this?  Who has seen the like of this?  Shall the earth bring forth in one day?  Shall a nation be born in one step?  For Zion travailed and she gave birth to her sons.”    Isaiah 66:7 & 8

 

God, referring to Jeshua’s then future birth in Bethlehem, says in Micah 5:2:

 

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you will come forth to Me the One to be ruler in Israel.  His origins have been from of old, from the days of eternity.”

 

So we see again that Jeshua did have an origin, but it was during the days of eternity, meaning before the beginnings of the creation of our physical universe.

 

Does Jeshua Himself clearly claim that He existed before the Israelite nation did?

 

“Abraham, your father, longed to see My day, and he saw it and rejoiced.”

The Judeans said to Him, “You are not fifty years old yet, but You have seen Abraham?”

Jeshua said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you that before Abraham existed, I AM, I am.”    John 8:56-58

 

Abraham was born about 2055 BCE, based on Biblical chronology.  This is more than two thousand years earlier than the discussion Jeshua was having with the Judeans recorded in John.  And Jeshua says that He is older than Abraham.  So yes, Jeshua does clearly claim that He existed long before His birth to Mary.

 

And what does Paul say about Jeshua’s activities in the distant past?

 

Therefore, my brethren, I want you to know that all of our fathers were under the cloud, and all of them passed through the sea, and all of them were immersed by Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all of them, they ate the one food of the Spirit, and all of them, they drank the one drink of the Spirit.  For they drank of that Rock of the Spirit which was with them, and that Rock was the Messiah.38    1 Corinthians 10:1-4

 

Paul’s account of the Exodus from Egypt under Moses places Jeshua there with them, watching over the Israelites and providing for them. The Exodus was about 1550 BCE, and thus over fifteen hundred years before Jeshua was born to Mary.  Neither of these two accounts suggest that they are when Jeshua came into existence.  They just confirm that He was already there.

 

Ignoring all of the above Scriptures, some people still claim that Jeshua only came into existence when he was conceived within Mary.  But that is when He actually became the Son of Man.39  Why would a human birth be needed to make Him God’s Son when He had already existed as God’s Son for at least four thousand years?  The following scriptures confirm that He was already the Son of God when His divine nature was sent to earth to be implanted in a human egg within Mary:

 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not be destroyed but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so the world could be given life by His hand.”    John 3:16 & 17

 

In this is the love of God known to us; that God has sent His Only Begotten Son into the world, that it will live through Him.  In this is love; it was not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atonement because of our sins.    1 John 4:9 & 10

 

As discussed earlier, it seems that Jeshua was begotten directly from God in a similar way to how Chavvah was begotten from Adam.  In both cases, neither Jeshua nor Chavvah had a mother.  But in both cases, a part of the father’s body was required in the begetting.

 

In a normal human conception, a single cell from the father’s body, the head of a sperm cell, fuses with a single egg cell from the mother, each contributing half of the DNA required to form a new body.  In Jeshua’s case, the DNA normally supplied by a sperm cell was divinely created and implanted into Mary’s egg, while Jeshua’s existing soul and spirit, complete with his memories and character, were joined to the fertilised egg to form a complete being.  In these ways, Jeshua is unique.  The Son of God thus became also the Son of Man.  He is thus both a second ‘new’ Adam and a descendant of Adam and Abraham. 1Cor 15:22, Mat 1:1-18, Luke 3:34-38.  He is thus both David’s creator and David’s son. Mat 22:41-45.  And when Jeshua rose from the dead, his human body was converted into the first transformed spiritual body. John 20:1-8, 1Cor 15:44, Acts 26:23.  In this way too, Jeshua is unique, and also different to what he was before he became a fertile egg within Mary.  Indeed, due to his faithfulness, his glory is now greater than it was before. Rev 1:12-18.  Both of Jeshua’s begettings required miracles, but the techniques required were within Jehovah God’s abilities, and embedded in His love.

 

If Jeshua is God’s Son as Proverbs and John say, it is also probable that He, like Adam, needed experiences to mature.  The two following passages suggest that was indeed the case, and Jeshua’s life and death as a mortal on earth were an essential part of his development as God’s Son.

 

Jeshua said to them, “Go, tell that fox, ‘Behold, I will cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will be completed.’    Luke 13:32

 

For every High Priest from the children of men is appointed for the sake of men over the things that are of God, presenting offerings and sacrifices because of sin.  He who can humble himself and suffer with those who did not know their errors because he is also clothed in weakness.  Because of his own debt and because of the people’s, thus also for himself, he makes offering for his sins.

And it is not for himself that a man takes this honour, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.  So also the Messiah did not become High Priest to glorify His Soul, but it was He who said to Him: “You are My Son, today I have begotten You.”40
As He also says in another place: “You are a priest forever according to the likeness of Melchizedek”;41 who, while in the flesh, He offered prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to give Him Life from death, and He obeyed.

Though He is the Son, He learned obedience from the fear and the suffering which He endured.  And in this way He was perfected, and He became the Cause of everlasting life to all those who obey Him, and God named Him as High Priest “in the likeness of Melchizedek”.

Now about Him and about this Melchizedek we have much to say, and it is hard to explain to you, because you have impaired hearing.    Hebrews 5:1 to 11

 

Surprisingly, Points 21 and 22 of Athanasius’ Creed actually support these truths.  They affirm that the Father is self-existent, and acknowledge that Jeshua has come from the Father, and that he was begotten.  And the above passage also confirms that Jeshua, as a son, had to learn obedience and until His resurrection was not perfect.  That He was initially not fully perfect shows that He could not be an all-knowing, flawless person of the trinity.

 

And there is another essential thing to know about Jeshua.  Unlike his eternal Father, who cannot die, Jeshua could and did die.  There were three days and three nights during which Jeshua was dead, breaking any claim that He was truly eternal:

 

“For just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Mankind be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.42    Matthew 12:40

 

But if we died with the Anointed, we believe that we will also live with the Anointed, knowing that the Anointed, having been raised from the house of the dead, dies no more.  Death has no further dominion over Him.  For when He died, He died to sin once for all; but now that He lives, He lives to God.    Romans 6:8-10

 

What Did Jeshua Mean When He Said “I and My Father are One”?

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow after Me.  And I give everlasting life to them, and they will not perish forever; and no one will pluck them out of My hand.  For My Father, who gives them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to pluck anything from My Father’s hand.

I and My Father are one.”    John 10:27 to 30

 

Note that even while Jeshua claims an identity with His Father, He continues to acknowledges that His Father is superior to Himself, as we examined earlier.  Jeshua expands on these concepts:

 

Jeshua said to him, “I AM! I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to My Father except through Me.  If only you had known Me, you would also have known My Father; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

Philip said to Him, “Our Lord, show us the Father, and that will satisfy us.”

Jeshua said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, and you do not know Me, Philip?  Whoever sees Me sees the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  Do you not believe that I am in My Father, and My Father is in Me?  These words that I speak I do not speak from Myself; but My Father who dwells in Me, He does these works.

“Believe that I am in My Father and My Father is in Me; and if not, believe because of the works.

“Truly, truly I say to you that whoever believes in Me, these works that I do, he will do also; and more than these he will do, because I go to the Father.

“And whatever you ask in My name, I will do for you, that the Father may be glorified by His Son.    John 14:6 to 13

 

There is much to study in this passage, but the essential point for this discussion is that Jeshua says seeing Him is the same as seeing the Father.  This is consistent with Colossians 1:15, which we looked at before: “He is the Image of the unseen God and the Firstborn of all creation.”  Jeshua is almost identical to His Father, but He is still a separate individual.

 

Let’s examine the ‘Father and I are One’ concept a little more deeply:

 

“Nor do I pray for the sake of these only, but also for the sake of those who will trust in Me through their word; that they will all be one, just as You, My Father, are in Me, and I am in You; so that they also will be one in Us.

“And the glory which You gave Me, I have given to them, so that they will be one as We are one, so that the world will believe that You sent Me.  I in them, and You in Me; that they will be perfected as one, and that the world will know that You sent Me, and that You have loved them just as You have also loved Me.

“Father, these who You gave Me; I want it to be that where I am, they will also be there with Me, that they will see My glory which You have given Me because You loved Me before the creating of the world.

“My Righteous Father!  Though the world has not known You, I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me.  And I have made Your Name known to them, and I am proclaiming it, that the love with which You loved Me will be in them, and I will be in them.”    John 17:20 to 26

 

Note especially verse 21: Jeshua says that all of us who believe in Him will all be One in exactly the same manner that He and His Father are One.  And not only that, but we will also be One with Him and His Father.  And how can Jeshua, his Father and we all be One?  Is there some way we can all be fused into a single body, and yet still somehow remain separate beings?  Or is it done through us all sharing the One Spirit, God the Father’s own Holy Spirit?  Is there scripture which clearly shows us how this all works?  Yes, there is!

 

But that One Spirit does all of these, and distributes to every person as He wills. In a similar way the body is one and there are many members in it, but all of them are members of that body; we, while being many, are thus also one body in the Anointed.

For by one Spirit we were all immersed into one body; whether Judeans or Aramaeans, whether servants or children of the free; and we have all been caused to drink the One Spirit.  For the body is not one member but many.    1 Corinthians 12:11 to 14

 

So not only can this happen, it is already happening to all of us who have God’s Spirit. The connection between Jeshua and his Father is built on exactly the same basis as the relationship between any two Spirit-filled Christians, though obviously Jeshua and His Father have a much richer and fuller connection.  As Messiah perfects us, our union with each other and Him will grow stronger and we will become more completely members of His body.  This theme is expanded in the following scriptures:

 

“I and My Father are one.”  Then the Judeans picked up stones again, to stone Him.

Jeshua said to them, “I have shown you many excellent works from My Father.  For which of these works do you stone Me?”

The Judeans said to Him, saying, “It is not for the excellent works that we stone you, but because you blaspheme, when you, a son of Man, you make yourself God.”

Jeshua said to them, “Is it not written in your Instructions, ‘I said, “You are gods”’?  If He called them gods because the word of God was with them, and the Scripture cannot be removed, how can you say to the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme!’ because I said to you, ‘I am the Son of God.’?

“If I do not do the works of My Father, you should not believe Me; but if I do, even if you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that My Father is in Me, and I in My Father.”    John 10:30 to 38

 

Behold how greatly the love of the Father abounds to us, that He has called us and He has made us His children!  Because of this, the world does not know us, because it does not know Him either.

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we are going to be, but we know that when He is revealed, we will be like Him, and we will see Him as He is.  And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.    1 John 3:1 to 3

 

Are We to Become God’s Children?

The First John passage above says that we are to become Jehovah God’s own children.  Can such a wonderful promise be true?  Let us look at other passages that confirm this promise:

 

But those who received Him, He gave to them authority that they will be the children of God, to those who believe in His name: those who, neither from blood, nor from the will of the flesh, nor from the will of man, but instead were begotten by God.    John 1:12-13

 

For those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God.  For you have not received the spirit of bondage to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as children, by whom we cry out, “Aba, our Father.”

And that Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, also heirs.  Heirs of God and children inheriting with Jeshua the Anointed, for if we suffer with Him, we will also be glorified with Him.

For I conclude that the sufferings of this present time are not comparable to the glory which will be revealed in us.  For the entire creation hopes for and expects the revelation of the children of God.    Romans 8:14-19

 

Truly, God says that we are to become His children, and brothers and sisters to Jeshua the Anointed, His First-Born Son.

The trinity concept denies this Promise.  It obscures the distinction between the One True God and His First Born Son.  In doing this it denies that Jeshua is truly God’s Son.  It also gives the Father’s glory to His Son, which is something which neither Jeshua nor the Bible ever do.  Indeed, Jeshua’s glory is second only to His Father’s, but it is still distinct from the Father’s glory.  The trinity concept also denies that we can ever truly be brethren to Jeshua and God’s children.

God is not a God of confusion, requiring us to believe something as obscure, inexplicable and nonsensical as the trinity.  Instead, Jehovah wants us to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.  He is a god with so much love that He chose to share His love by creating us and giving us an opportunity to become His own children for ever more.  Our world, despite all of its seeming flaws in its current state, has been selected by Him as the best possible environment for each of us to grow into the people He wants us to become.  We only need to choose to trust and obey Him and then work with Him so His plan for us can unfold.  The joy of knowing God can start in your life today!

 

Conclusion

And what of Athanasius’ claim, still enforced by the ‘orthodox’ churches today, that we must believe in the trinity to be saved?  Let us see what God, through His Apostles Peter and John, said was necessary for salvation:

 

“Therefore let the whole house of Israel know truly that Lord Jah has made this Jeshua, whom you impaled, God and the Messiah.”  And when they heard these things, they were stricken in their hearts, and they said to Simon and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what should we do?”

And Simon said to them, “Repent, and every one of you be immersed in the name of Lord Jah in Jeshua for the release from sins so you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all those who are far off, to them who God calls.”  And with many other words he testified to them and he beseeched them, as he said, “Be saved from this perverse generation.”

And among the people were those who readily received his word, and they believed and were immersed; and in that day about three thousand souls were added.  And they continued in the apostles’ teaching, and they were partakers in prayer and in the breaking of the eucharist.    Acts 2:36 to 42

 

Here is the patience of the saints; those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jeshua.    Revelation 14:12

 

And He said to me, “It is done!  I am the Alap and the Tau,43 the Origin and the Fulfilment.  I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to the one who thirsts.  And he who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.

“But the cowards, and unbelievers, and the evil, and the defiled, and murderers, and sorcerers, and fornicators, and idol worshippers, and all liars will have their part in the lake of fire burning with brimstone, which is the second death.”    Revelation 21:6 to 8

 

Nowhere does Jehovah God even mention Athanasius’ trinity, let alone require us to believe in it to receive everlasting life.

 

As always, God leaves it for you to decide.  Will you choose to turn to Him for forgiveness, allow His Spirit to come and live within you, then work to overcome sin in your life and eventually receive God’s Gift of everlasting life in Paradise?  Or will you reject God’s offer of abundant and joyful life and instead choose to be utterly destroyed in the Lake of Fire?

 

 

 

Appendix: The Arian Dispute

As noted above, when Athanasius tried to make the Babylonian trinity into Christianity’s new godhead, Arius strongly opposed him.  It is probable that the scriptures used throughout this article were used by Arius.

Sadly, our knowledge of Arius’ teachings mostly come from his opponents, the trinitarians.  Indeed, Roman Emperor Constantine made it a crime worthy of death to possess anything written by Arius in an attemptmostly successfulto destroy any trace of what he believed.  It is very likely that his real position is the one presented in this articleJeshua is the only begotten Son of God, begotten before the universe was created.

However, the Catholic church says he taught that there was a time before Jesus existed, and that Jesus was essentially merely a created being, though the first created being.  In saying this, they claim that Arius denied that Jesus was in any true sense divine or a real member of God’s family.

This view conflicts with what we do know about this dispute: First, Arius had a high view of Scripture and he would not have been able to derive the doctrine they try to put into his mouth from the Bible.  Second, Arius’ friends claimed that Arius did not invent his teachings on the nature of Jeshua, but in fact received them from his teacher, Lucian of Antioch, who in turn claimed that his teachings were passed down unchanged from Jeshua’s Apostles.44  Third, we have records of the teachings of “Arian’s disciples” which show that what they believed is what has been presented throughout this article.  To quote from the creed of Ulfilas, a missionary to the Goths in the fourth century who translated the Bible into Gothic:

 

I, Ulfila, bishop and confessor, have always so believed, and in this, the one true faith, I make the journey to my Lord; I believe in one God the Father, the only unbegotten and invisible, and in his only-begotten son, our Lord and God, the designer and maker of all creation, having none other like him (so that one alone among all beings is God the Father, who is also the God of our God); and in one Holy Spirit, the illuminating and sanctifying power, as Christ said after his resurrection to his apostles: “And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49) and again “But ye will receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you” (Acts 1:8); being neither God (the Father) nor our God (Christ), but the minister of Christ ... subject and obedient in all things to the Son; and the Son, subject and obedient in all things to God who is his Father ... (whom) he ordained in the Holy Spirit through his Christ.

 

Another witness supporting this, from the seventeenth century, is from Limborch’s History of the Inquisition, p. 95:

 

The Arian Controversy, that made such Havock in the Christian Church, was, if I may be allowed to speak it without Offence, in the Beginning only about Words; though probably, some of Arius’s Party went farther afterwards than Arius himself did at first.  Arius, as hath been shewn, expressly allowed the Son to be πριν από όλους τους χρόνους και τις εποχές, before all Times and Ages, τέλειος Θεός, perfect God, αμετάβλητος, unchangeable, and begotten after the most perfect Likeness of the unbegotten Father.

 

Today the Jehovah’s Witnesses embrace the Arian position as formulated by Arius’s opponents, who claimed that Arius taught that Jesus was in His essence different from God and thus fully a creation rather than a true son.  The Catholic, Orthodox and most Protestant churches embrace Athanasius’ heresy.  We only know of some in the Congregations of God who adhere to the true nature of God and His Son as it is taught in the Word of God.

 

 

 

 

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Endnotes

 

1 Jesus is the anglicised version of the Greek Iesous Ἰησοῦς, pronounced ee-ay-sooce.  It is the Greek version of the Hebrew Jayshua יֵשׁ֨וּעַ and the Aramaic Jeshua יֵ֣שֻׁוע .  Though Jesus is the commonly recognised name of our Saviour, we will use His Aramaic name Jeshua throughout this article, as Aramaic was the common tongue of Israel during Jeshua’s human ministry and was the original language of the New Covenant.  Jeshua means “Jehovah Saves”.  In a similar manner, Christ is an English transliteration of the Greek Christos Χριστός, meaning ‘the Anointed’ after the Hebrew for Mashiyach מָּשִׁיחַ, and the Aramaic Mesheecha משׁׅיחָא which also meaning ‘the Anointed’ and usually translated as Messiah.  Christ, Anointed and Messiah will all be used for Jeshua’s title.

2 The Jews who rejected Jeshua claimed He was neither part of God nor God’s Son, but merely a self-deluded blasphemer.  They, however, were never able to explain how Jeshua performed His miracles, nor could they find His body after His Resurrection.

3 The Aramaic Peshitta uses Jehovah’s more intimate name of MarJah מַריַם, meaning Lord Jah, as shorthand for Jehovah.  The New Covenant quotes in this article are translated from the Aramaic Peshitta, which is available at https://chcpublications.net/Holy_Bible_CHCP.html.

4 Even worse, the NKJV and ESV refuse to use God’s Name even once. And the Roman Catholic ‘church’, on 29 June, 2008, banned any use of any version of God’s Name.  On the positive side, the ASV, Darby, Young and Green translations use Jehovah extensively.

5 Jehovah is written fully vocalised fifty times in the Leningrad Codex, including Gen 3:14, 9:26, Exo 3:2, 13:3, 13:9, etc.  Jehovah is יְהׂוׇ֙ה in Hebrew.  For more detail, see our article What is God’s Name?

6 These meanings are given in the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon.

7 All of these concepts are explored in greater detail later in this article.  These paragraphs just provide an introductory summary.

8 Jeshua is called the Son of God in Mat 4:3, Mat 4:6, Mat 8:29, Mat 14:33, Mat 26:63, Mat 27:40, Mat 27:43, Mat 27:54, Mar 1:1, Mar 3:11, Mar 15:39, Luk 1:35, Luk 4:3, Luk 4:9, Luk 4:41, Luk 22:70, Joh 1:34, Joh 1:49, Joh 3:16, Joh 3:17, Joh 3:18, Joh 5:18, Joh 5:19, Joh 5:20, Joh 5:21, Joh 5:22, Joh 5:25, Joh 5:26, Joh 9:35, Joh 10:36*, Joh 11:4, Joh 11:27, Joh 19:7, Joh 20:31*, Act 9:20, 1Jo 3:8, 1Jo 4:15*, 1Jo 5:5, 1Jo 5:12, 1Jo 5:13, 1Jo 5:20, Rom 1:3, Rom 1:4, 2Co 1:19, Gal 2:20, Eph 4:13, Heb 4:14, Heb 6:6, Heb 7:3, Heb 10:29, Rev 2:18 and probably in Dan 3:25.  This is 51 (52) times.  Of these, Jeshua refers to Himself as Son of God eleven times, and He is referred to as the Son of God by His disciples twenty-one times, by Satan and his demons seven times, by his persecutors four times, by the Romans two times and by an envoy once.  In addition, Jehovah calls Jeshua His Son seven times in Mat 2:15, Acts 13:33, 1Jo 5:9, 1Jo 5:10, 1Jo 5:11, Heb 1:5 and Heb 5:5.  Jehovah also calls us to be His sons (and daughters) three times in 2Co 6:18, Heb 12:5 and Rev 21:7.  And Jeshua refers to us as His sons in Mat 9:2 and Mar 2:5.  Beyond all of this, Jeshua refers to Jehovah God as “My Father” eighty-seven times.

9 This means that Jeshua was begotten before the start of Creation Week. He was with His Father while all the events of Creation Week were being planned.  See the Co-eternal section for confirming scriptures on this.

10 For much more information on how Jeshua truly kept the Sign of Jonah and thus confirmed that He is our Saviour and God’s Son, please read our article God’s Calendar and the Sign of Jonah.

11 Please read our Spirit, Soul and Body article for many more details.

12 See The Two Babylons by Hislopon our website.  Also be aware that the apparently trinitarian formula in I John 5:7-8 that appears in the KJV is a forgery that was added to these verses about 1300 CE.

13 The Catholic church is an organisation that is committed to preventing people from learning Bible Truths and obeying God.  If they cannot corrupt people within their organisation, they try to turn them off Christianity entirely by their foul practices.  Ex-priest Charles Chiniquy’s Fifty Years in the Church of Rome exposes many of their anti-Biblical tactics.

14 His book is available at https://chcpublications.net/Two_Babylons.html.

15 Which he did vigorously for some time.  Eventually Constantine discovered how immoral Athanasius was, rejected his trinity and reinstated Arius, who had consistently opposed the introduction of the trinity.  Catholic ‘history’ reverses these truths and pretends that it was Arius who was introducing a new heresy (see the Appendix).

16 As translated from the Aramaic and Hebrew.  Angel is a transliteration from the Greek.

17 Gen 3:16

18 Gen 2:16-3:19

19 Jeshua clearly indicates that ‘Lord’ should read MarJah (Lord Jah), though we are not aware of any extant manuscripts that read MarJah, either here or in Psalm 110:1.

20 Jeshua did not ‘break the Sabbath’.  He was actually teaching them that the Sabbath is a day of redemption and healing.  In doing so, He was exposing how the legalistic regulations invented by the Jewish authorities had stifled the real purpose of the Sabbath.  As to their claim that Jeshua made ‘Himself equal with God’, in the next few verses Jeshua shows that He is under the authority of the Father, not equal with Him.

21 Rev 1:6 and 11:15.

22 Psa 62:12, Pro 24:12

23 It is likely that Jehovah God began Jeshua’s Kingdom when He presented His blood to His Father in Heaven after His resurrection.  Thus when Jeshua returned to earth, He came and initiated His Kingdom with His followers.  Also, in Rev 19:11-16, John saw Jeshua’s Return after the Great Tribulation when Jeshua takes full control of Earth.

24 Gen 1:1-2:4.  Notice that our Earth was created for Jeshua, not just for us.  We will rule under His authority as His servants (Rev 5:10).

25 As in the sense of the booth (his human body) being a temporary dwelling, also called a tabernacle.

26 See Joh 1:18 footnote.

27 Psa 110:1

28 Psa 2:7

29 2Sa 7:14

30 Deu 32:43 (Septuagint), less directly in Psa 97:7

31 This verse also means that Jeshua is not, and never has been, the archenvoy Michael.  This unbiblical idea is taught by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who do not believe that Jeshua is truly God’s Son.

32 Genesis chapters 1 & 2, John 1:1-3

33 Psa 102:25-27

34 From the Hebrew qanah קָנָה, which can also mean acquire or possess.  The Peshitta uses branee ברני and the Septuagent has ektisen εκτισεν, which both mean ‘create’.

35 From ayin עִין , which in this case may refer to springs of water.

36 Literally ‘mouth’, as in the source of the word.

37 Note that God did not say the waters could never cover the mountains later, as they did in the Great Flood, obeying His new word to them at that time.

38 Exodus chapters 13 to 17

39 Jeshua is called the Son of Man(kind) in Mat 4:4, Mat 8:20, Mat 9:6, Mat 10:23, Mat 11:19, Mat 12:8, Mat 12:32, Mat 12:40, Mat 13:37, Mat 13:41, Mat 16:13*, Mat 16:27, Mat 16:28, Mat 17:9*, Mat 17:12, Mat 17:22, Mat 18:11, Mat 19:28, Mat 20:18, Mat 20:28*, Mat 24:27, Mat 24:30, Mat 24:30, Mat 24:37, Mat 24:39, Mat 24:44, Mat 25:31, Mat 26:2, Mat 26:24, Mat 26:24, Mat 26:45, Mat 26:64, Mar 2:10, Mar 2:28*, Mar 8:31, Mar 8:38, Mar 9:9, Mar 9:12, Mar 9:31, Mar 10:33, Mar 10:45, Mar 13:26, Mar 14:21, Mar 14:21, Mar 14:41, Mar 14:62, Luk 5:24, Luk 6:5, Luk 6:22, Luk 7:34, Luk 9:22, Luk 9:26, Luk 9:44, Luk 9:56*, Luk 9:58, Luk 11:30*, Luk 12:8, Luk 12:10, Luk 12:40, Luk 17:22, Luk 17:24, Luk 17:26, Luk 17:30, Luk 18:8, Luk 18:31, Luk 19:10, Luk 21:27, Luk 21:36, Luk 22:22, Luk 22:48, Luk 22:69, Luk 24:7, Joh 1:51, Joh 3:13*, Joh 3:14, Joh 5:27, Joh 6:27, Joh 6:53, Joh 6:62, Joh 8:28, Joh 12:23, Joh 12:34, Joh 12:34, Joh 13:31, Act 7:56, Heb 2:6, Rev 1:13.  Jeshua calls Himself the Son of Man 84 times in the Gospels, while He is only called the Son of Man three other times in the rest of the New Covenant.  Clearly, Jeshua is proud of being born from Mary and living as a human while He was serving on Earth.  In contrast, Jeshua only calls Himself the Son of God eleven of the 58 times He is called the Son of God in the New Covenant, but He calls Jehovah God “My Father” 87 times.  Obviously Jeshua is both the Son of God and a Son of Man.  So Jeshua has been ‘born’ twice and died once.  We also must be ‘born’ twice and die once to become God’s children.  We differ from Jeshua, whose first ‘birth’ was spiritual and His second birth physical: our first birth is physical and our second ‘birth’ is spiritual.

40 Psalm 2:7

41 Psalm 110:4

42 Jeshua literally fulfilled this Sign (See Jon 1:17, Mat 16:4 and Luk 11:29), being impaled as the Passover Lamb on the Preparation Day to Unleavened Bread, which fell on Wednesday that year (31 CE).  He was sealed in the tomb at dusk that day and rose from the dead at dusk at the end of the seventh-day Sabbath, passing exactly 72 hours in the earth.  See God’s Calendar and the Sign of Jonah for details.

43 In Greek this is ‘Alpha and the Omega’ -that is, the first and last letters of each language’s alphabet.

44 There is a series of very useful short articles on Arius and Arianism in Wikipedia that show a good level of understanding on these issues.