IS GOD THE SON OF GOD?
TRANSLATION ERRORS AND CONFUSION
“Existing in the form of God” (Phil. 2:6). If you are reading the NIV, “being in very nature God” (the marginal note does better), you are being misled. If Jesus is God, that makes two Gods, since we all know that the Father is God. In fact, the Father is, as Jesus said, the “only one who is true God” John 17:3 “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” That is quite clear and easy. So is the Shema “Hear, O Israel” of Deut. 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”, Mark 12:29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” Mark 12:32 “And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he”.
In Philippians 2:5 Paul talks about the Messiah Jesus. By Messiah Jesus, he means “the man Messiah Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). He is not discussing a pre-human “God” person, a “God the Son,” a title which appears nowhere in Scripture. God in the Bible is strictly one Person, the Father Malachi 2:10 “Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?” as well as hundreds of other passages). Paul is urging his congregations to imitate and share the mind of Messiah Jesus, who though he enjoyed the elevated status of being uniquely the Messiah and Son of God, did not use his elevated and unique status and position to advance himself. Being in the form or image of God, he adopted the form or status of a servant/slave and learned obedience right up to the point of death. Because of this marvelous example of a human, the sinless life lived in perfect submission to God (an effective ideal model for us all), God super-elevated His Son to the position at the right hand of God where he is now. That position makes Jesus the unique human lord (adoni, “my lord,” Ps. 110:1) next to God. And all this is to the glory of God who is the Father (Phil. 2:11, as God is the Father stated 1300 times in the NT). So understood the words of Paul in Philippians 2:5-11 are a practical and intelligible lesson for us all. The same lesson is repeated in 2 Corinthians 8:9.
In Colossians 1:15-16 Jesus is the “image of the invisible God.” Your translation may tell you that “by him all things were made.” This is quite misleading since the Father was alone at creation (Isa. 44:24). The Greek says that things were made “in Jesus” or “with him in view.” The “in” (en) is said to be causal (because of) by a standard authority on Greek (Moulton, Milligan, Turner). Jesus was not the creator; the Father was. The Son began to exist in the womb of his mother as Luke 1:35 reports along with Matthew 1:18, 20 and 1 John 5:18 “He who was begotten of God [Jesus] preserves him [the Christian].”
The Lord God’s Anointed Is Christ, Messiah
In your Bible you have not been allowed to see the connection between the Messiah Jesus (“the man Messiah Jesus” — see 1 Tim. 2:5 for Paul’s brilliant summary) and the other king messiahs of the OT. The title you have been reading in the OT, “the Lord’s anointed,” is not wrong, but it does not tell you that it is the same precisely as “the Lord’s Messiah,” the exact title for Jesus in the NT in Luke 2:26. Jesus is the Lord (God)’s Messiah. Insert the word “Messiah” for “anointed” and you will see that Jesus is the ultimate King. He is not the second member of an imagined Trinity. There is only one God and He is the Father some 1300 times in the NT.
A TEST FOR GENUINE CHRISTIANITY
John, the disciple that claimed Jesus loved him especially, was very much concerned in his three letters to help Christians see the difference between truth and error.
“I have not written to you because you do not know the Truth but because you do know it, and that no lie can come from the Truth. Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. These things I have written concerning those who are seducing you” (1 John 2:22, 26).
Here is an alarming comment by the (one-time) head of the evangelical church in England, John Stott, a highly respected writer amongst American fundamentalists. In his commentary on the letters of John, he wrote:
“John’s black and white contrasts are healthily clear-sighted. Opposing views are not to him ‘complementary insights’ but ‘Truth and error.’ The heretics whom John describes do not have a defective theology; it is diabolical. The fundamental doctrinal test of the professing Christian concerns his view of the person of Jesus.”
So far, so good but — now read more of what John Stott says:
“If someone is a Unitarian or a member of a sect denying the deity of Jesus, he is not a Christian. Many strange cults which have a popular appeal today can be easily judged and quickly repudiated by this test. The extreme seriousness of the lie is that a second denial is implied: ‘He denies the Father and the Son.’ No system of teaching which denies either the eternal divine preexistence of Jesus or the historical incarnation of the Christ can be accepted as Christian.”1
John the Apostle says this also:
“Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ came in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus is not of God. And this is that spirit of antichrist, of which you have heard that it should come; and even now it is already in the world…Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:2-4).
“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God” 1 John 4:15.
“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Who is it who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” 1 John 5:1, 5.
“For many deceivers have gone forth into the world who do not confess that Jesus came in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist” 2 John 7.
“Whoever advances and does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have [a relationship with] God. He who remains in the teaching of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house nor tell him ‘God bless you,’ for he who says ‘God bless you’ becomes an associate of his evil works” (i.e. becomes guilty by association).
Not a word in the Apostle John’s inspired writings about believing that “Jesus is God.”
What is amazing and ridiculous to me is that the Word Biblical Commentary says incorrectly of Mark 12:29, “The shema [“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” from Deut. 6:4] is neither remarkable nor specifically Christian.” In other words though the Father says “listen to my Son” (Matt. 17:5), Christians claiming to follow Jesus are free to disregard the teachings of Jesus on the highest ranking of all the commandments (Mark 12:28 “And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?”)! Apparently Christianity is not then to be based on Christ?! This is cause for alarm. Christians must believe in the True Gospel and receive the True Jesus Paul preached in order to receive the True Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 11:4 “For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”
Bishop Wright says correctly that “the Shema is thoroughly non-controversial” (Mark 12:29) — thus conceding that it was and is Jewish and Unitarian. “The shema was as central to Judaism as it is now.”3 So said also Professor Hodgson lecturing on the Trinity at Oxford: “The monotheism of Judaism was then, as it is still, Unitarian.”4
But then Bishop Wright and Drs. Bauckham and Hurtado try to save a sinking ship by saying that later Paul in 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 inserts Jesus into the shema! They say that Paul added Jesus to the Godhead, changing the Shema. They call this radical change a “mutation,” “reinterpretation, “splitting,” or “expansion” of the Shema! This is an impossible claim, of course, but it helps us who promote the creed of Jesus in Mark 12 like this: These “giants” of Christology concede that when Jesus affirms the Shema in Mark 12:29, agreeing totally with a Jew, he has not expanded it, or “enriched” it! Jesus is thoroughly Jewish in his understanding and definition of the only true God.
The teaching of Jesus and the Apostles is binding on Christians. In 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 Paul puts the lord Jesus Messiah (not Lord God!) alongside the one God, exactly as in Psalm 110:1. Paul is following Jesus conscientiously. Jesus had already used Psalm 110:1 to silence all objectors, as we have seen, in the gospels, when he had taught that he, the son of David, would be super-exalted to sit at the right hand of the One God (Mark 12:35-37). The easy point is that Jesus is the “lord Messiah” who was born (Luke 2:11), and he is also the Lord God’s Messiah (Luke 2:26). Jesus is not God. He is the Messiah. God cannot be born and God cannot die (1 Tim. 6:16)!
Thus top scholars lay themselves open to the charge that they don’t much care about the central teaching of Jesus, as he uttered it in Mark 12:29! I would say that the NT is a sustained warning against claiming to accept Jesus while actually rejecting him. The fact that Wright, Bowman, Hurtado and Bauckham say that only in Paul in 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 is the Shema stretched or mutated to include Jesus, proves that it was unstretched when uttered by Jesus! So at stake is this: Do we listen to, believe in and obey the True Jesus or not? (2nd Cor. 11:4, Heb. 5:9; John 3:36; 1 Tim. 6:3). Serious business.
It is a miraculous misunderstanding not to hear and believe the words of Jesus in Mark 12:29. Agreeing with a friendly Jew, Jesus affirmed the Shema, the Unitarian creed of Israel, as the highest ranking of all the commandments.
The Jew was a Unitarian, of course, since Jews had never been other than Unitarians. Jesus was entirely orthodox in his definition of God as a single Divine Person, with no other besides Him (a singular Person). Jesus anticipated the later fatal departure from the Shema by immediately going on the offensive and asking them a question, citing Psalm 110:1. This verse is the NT’s favorite (by far) verse from the OT. To understand the mind of Jesus, you must grasp Psalm 110:1. YHVH speaks an oracle to “my lord.” The major point is that the word in Hebrew (adoni — my lord, not Lord) is never used of Deity! Adoni never means God, but always someone, a superior, who is not God. Adoni occurs 195 times in the Hebrew Bible (OT). Thus Jesus reaffirms his unitary monotheism, declared in the Shema, the greatest commandment. Expert Christologists Drs. Hurtado and Bauckham and Bishop Wright admit that when uttered by Jesus in Mark, the creed is strictly monotheistic, not Trinitarian. In desperation, they then say that Paul redefined or split or expanded the Shema to include Jesus in it in 1 Corinthians 8:4-6.
But note that they concede that Jesus did no such thing. The Church is left with the embarrassing fact that it takes no notice of Jesus in Mark 12:29. It ignores him, at the most basic of all issues — who is GOD? Note the interesting words of a leading Jewish scholar formerly at Oxford. He observes, with a keen sense of history and fact: “Jesus never imagined he was God. To a pious Palestinian Jew of his time, the very idea would have been inconceivable, pure blasphemy.”5 How far have churches moved from the mind and teaching of Jesus? Salvation is for those who believe the Gospel of Salvation taught by Jesus to Paul.
1 Cor. 15: 1-4 “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures"
Think about this from a very honest German professor who was most honest with his studies. How right Karl-Heinz Ohlig was in his magnificent summary of the history of the Trinity in his One or Three: From the Father of Jesus to the Mystery of the Trinity:
“From the point of view of religious studies, the doctrine of the Trinity grew out of the syncretism of Judaism and Christianity with Hellenism...Gregory of Nyssa (Oratio 3:2) was of the opinion that the doctrine of the Trinity represented the middle between two opinions between polytheism and Jewish monotheism. ‘If we keep the unity of nature from the Jewish doctrine, the differentiation of the persons from the pagans’ doctrine, thus godlessness is healed on both sides by the appropriate remedy.’ What the scholar of religion is able simply to state, however, signifies at the same time a question for theology about the legitimacy of such a construct. If it is certain — and there is no way of getting around this — that Jesus himself knew only of the God of Israel, whom he called Father, and nothing of his own later ‘deification,’ by what right can then a doctrine of the Trinity be normative?...How in other words can one legitimize doctrinal development that actually first began in the second century?…No matter how one interprets the individual steps, it is certain that the doctrine of the Trinity, as it in the end became dogma in the East and the West, possesses no biblical foundation whatever and also has no ‘continuous succession’ [back to the Bible]…Theology must gradually face the facts…The conclusion…is the result of historical circumstances which simply were not otherwise” (pp. 128-130).
Psalm 110:1 needs to be carefully examined because Jesus used this verse to settle all issues and silence all questions. Having established the Unitarian creed of Israel as the most important of all commands, he went on to define the relationship of the Messiah (himself) to the one God. The LORD GOD is precisely compared with a non-Deity lord, or superior.
In the following 34 verses we want you to see clearly the obvious difference between God and man. In each verse, you will see the precise contrast of the LORD (Yahweh) with a non-Deity superior. You find the same contrast between God and man in Psalm 110:1. The LORD (all caps.) translates to Yahweh, the One God of Israel and or to God. “My master” or “my lord” translates adoni, a superior who is not GOD! The last of our list, Psalm 110:1, is the favorite quotation from the Old Testament in the New. It governs the thinking of all the NT writers who did not imagine that the Messiah Jesus was God, which would make two Gods. (You will not find this information in Strong’s Concordance, and many commentators actually misstate the facts about the second lord.)
Genesis 24:12 “LORD, God of my master Abraham,” he prayed, “give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.”
Genesis 24:27 “Praise the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not withheld His kindness and faithfulness from my master. As for me, the LORD has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”
Genesis 24:35 “The LORD has greatly blessed my master, and he has become rich. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys.”
Genesis 24:42 “Today when I came to the spring, I prayed: LORD, God of my master Abraham, if only You will make my journey successful!”
Genesis 24:44 “If she responds to me, ‘Drink, and I’ll draw water for your camels also’ — let her be the woman the LORD has appointed for my master’s son.”
Genesis 24:48 “Then I bowed down, worshiped the LORD, and praised the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who guided me on the right way to take the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son.”
Genesis 24:56 “But he responded to them, ‘Do not delay me, since the LORD has made my journey a success. Send me away so that I may go to my master.”
Numbers 32:27 “your servants are equipped for war before the LORD and will go across to the battle as my lord orders.”
Numbers 36:2 “The LORD ordered my lord to give by lot the land to be inherited by the people of Israel, and my lord was ordered by the LORD to give the inheritance of our kinsman Zelophehad to his daughters.”
Judges 6:13 “Gideon said to him, ‘Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened? And where are all His wonders that our fathers told us about?’ They said, ‘Hasn’t the LORD brought us out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”
1 Samuel 1:15 “No, my lord,” Hannah replied. “I am a woman with a broken heart. I haven’t had any wine or beer; I’ve been pouring out my heart before the LORD. ”
1 Samuel 1:26 “Please, my lord,” she said, “as sure as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD.”
1 Samuel 24:6 “I swear before the LORD: I would never do such a thing to my lord, the LORD’s anointed.I will never lift my hand against him, since he is the LORD’s anointed.”
1 Samuel 24:10 “You can see with your own eyes that the LORD handed you over to me today in the cave. Someone advised me to kill you, but I took pity on you and said: I won’t lift my hand against my lord, since he is the LORD’s anointed.”
1 Samuel 25:26 “Now my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, it is the LORD who kept you from participating in bloodshed and avenging yourself by your own hand. May your enemies and those who want trouble for my lord be like Nabal.”
1 Samuel 25:28 “Please forgive your servant’s offense, for the LORD is certain to make a lasting dynasty for my lord because he fights the LORD’s battles. Throughout your life, may evil not be found in you.”
1 Samuel 25:29 “When someone pursues you and attempts to take your life, my lord’s life will be tucked safely in the place where the LORD your God protects the living. However, He will fling away your enemies’ lives like stones from a sling.”
1 Samuel 25:30 “When the LORD does for my lord all the good He promised and appoints you ruler over Israel.”
1 Samuel 25:31 “There will not be remorse or a troubled conscience for my lord because of needless bloodshed or my lord’s revenge. And when the LORD does good things for my lord, may you remember me your servant.”
1 Samuel 26:19 “Now, may my lord the king please hear the words of his servant: If it is the LORD who has incited you against me, then may He accept an offering. But if it is people, may they be cursed in the presence of the LORD, for today they have driven me away from sharing in the inheritance of the LORD saying, ‘Go and worship other gods.’”
2 Samuel 4:8 “They brought Ish-bosheth’s head to David at Hebron and said to the king, ‘Here’s the head of Ish-bosheth son of Saul, your enemy who intended to take your life. Today the LORD has granted vengeance to my lord the king against Saul and his offspring.’”
2 Samuel 14:17 “Your servant thought: May the word of my lord the king bring relief, for my lord the king is able to discern the good and the bad like the Angel of God. May the LORD your God be with you.”
2 Samuel 15:21 “But in response, Ittai vowed to the king, ‘As the LORD lives and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king is, whether it means life or death, your servant will be there!’”
2 Samuel 18:28 “Ahimaaz called out to the king, ‘All is well,’ and then bowed down to the king with his face to the ground. He continued, “May the LORD your God be praised! He delivered up the men who rebelled against my lord the king.”
2 Samuel 18:31 “May my lord the king hear the good news: today the LORD has delivered you from all those rising up against you!”
2 Samuel 24:3 “Joab replied to the king, ‘May the LORD your God multiply the troops 100 times more than they are — while my lord the king looks on! But why does my lord the king want to do this?’”
2 Samuel 24:21 “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David replied, “To buy the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to the LORD, so the plague on the people may be halted.”
1 Kings 1:17 “She replied, ‘My lord, you swore to your servant by the LORD your God, “Your son Solomon is to become king after me, and he is the one who is to sit on my throne.”
1 Kings 1:37 “Just as the LORD was with my lord the king, so may He be with Solomon and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.”
1 Kings 18:10 “As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent someone to search for you. When they said, ‘He is not here,’ he made that kingdom or nation swear they had not found you.”
1 Kings 18:13 “Wasn’t it reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel slaughtered the LORD’s prophets? I hid 100 of the prophets of the LORD, 50 men to a cave, and I provided them with food and water.”
2 Kings 5:18 “However, in a particular matter may the LORD pardon your servant: When my master, the king of Aram, goes into the temple of Rimmon to worship and I, as his right-hand man, bow in the temple of Rimmon — when I bow in the temple of Rimmon, may the LORD pardon your servant in this matter.”
1 Chronicles 21:3 “Joab replied, ‘May the LORD multiply the number of His people a hundred times over! My lord the king, aren’t they all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”
Psalm 110:1 “A Davidic psalm. This is the declaration of the LORD to my lord: ‘Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”
Observe most carefully that in this final verse, Psalm 110:1 which Jesus said defines the Messiah, there should be no capital letter on “lord.” The Hebrew word adoni means “my lord,” as in all the other verses in which Adoni occurs, 195 in all. Many translations mislead the reader by placing a false capital letter on the second lord of Psalm 110:1. Only in this one verse do they do this. But this ignores the Hebrew text which has adoni, my lord, and not Adonai, the Lord (God). Adoni is never a reference to God, but refers always to a human superior, particularly the king, or occasionally an angel.
Adonai, by contrast, some 450 times means Deity, the Lord God, the supreme Lord. In the same Psalm 110:5 we have a different picture. In this verse, it is the Lord God (Adonai) who stands as support for the Messiah. This biblical picture is found also in Psalm 16:8. What a privilege to have God at your right hand to fight your battles.
Show others the amazing accuracy and detail of the Hebrew Scriptures which as Jesus said “cannot be broken.” Take your stand on the greatest of all commands in Mark 12:29 “The most important commandment,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Mark 12:32 “And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he”.
Nine out of ten “Christians” have been deceived about the one True God! Do not let anyone deceive you about the one True God and His unique only begotten human Son of our one True God. Jesus is our Savior and Lord. We must believe in the True Gospel and receive the True Spirit of the True Jesus. 2 Cor. 11: 3-4 "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him."
Absolutely no one can be saved by believing a False Gospel!
1 Tyndale New Testament Commentary on 1 John, pp. 53, 111, 112.
2 Luther mistranslated this as “into the flesh,” in order to force on the reader the traditional view of the Incarnation of a pre-human, eternal Son.
3 Jesus and the Victory of God, p. 305.
4 Christian Faith and Practice, p. 72
5 Vermes, Jesus the Jew, p. 224
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