There is Only One God? - A Fresh View of God for 2015

There is Only One God (The Shema)

One of the most important beliefs to the Jewish people and Judaism has always been “The Shema,” putting faith in only One True God:

• Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (ESV): "Hear, O Israel: The LORD [Yahweh] our God, the LORD [Yahweh] is one.”
• Jeremiah 10:10-11 (GW): But the LORD [Yahweh] is the only God. He is the living God and eternal king. ...Tell them this: These gods will disappear from the earth and from under heaven because they didn't make heaven and earth.
• Isaiah 43:10 (GW): "You are my witnesses," declares the LORD [Yahweh]. ... “No god was formed before me, and there will be none after me.”
• Isaiah 44:8 (ESV): ...And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any."

The New Testament teaches the same important doctrine:

• Mark 12:29, 32 (ERV): Jesus answered, "The most important command is this: 'People of Israel, listen! The Lord our God is the only Lord.'”… The man answered, "That was a good answer, Teacher. You are right in saying that God is the only Lord and that there is no other God.”
• James 2:19 (ESV): You believe that God is one; you do well.

This is why the Trinity Doctrine originally developed. Christians were trying to use logic and philosophy to figure out how they could hold onto the Shema, which Jesus said was the most important command (Mark 12:29), while adding the new Christian doctrine that Jesus was called God (John 1:1; John 20:28). How can we profess the truth that there is only one true God at the same time we proclaim that the Father and the Son are both called God?

Many early Christians, after pondering this, decided that there were only two options:

(A): Jesus and the Father must somehow be the same only true God

OR

(B): If Jesus was not the same God as the Father, then Jesus had to be a false god (idol).

These early Christians just could not see a third option. They had become convinced that the Bible only speaks of two categories of gods: The Only True God and false gods (idols). So over the centuries, they thought-up and built the Doctrine now known as the“Trinity,” to demonstrate that Jesus (and the Holy Spirit) must somehow be the One True God together with the Father.

But is this accurate? Does the Bible only speak of two categories of gods, or are there other categories? Were these early Christian thinkers correct, or did they unintentionally create a logical fallacy known as the false dichotomy?

Is there actually a...

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A Third Category of Gods in the Bible

The Holy Bible shows that there is indeed a third category of gods – and this category is made up of human beings and angels who represent Yahweh, speak for Yahweh, or rule over Yahweh's people under His authority.

At John 10:34-35, Jesus says that Jewish judges who represented Yahweh were called "gods" by Yahweh Himself in the Bible (Psalm 82). Jesus is using this to prove that there can be multiple lower gods who serve and represent Yahweh, without committing blasphemy or violating the Shema. At John 10:36 Jesus puts Himself in this category of "gods," but in a much higher position than those judges were.

You can't say that Yahweh that was sarcastically mocking those judges by calling them “gods,” because Jesus explicitly used the fact that those judges were legitimately called “gods” to support His own claim to be a God and the Son of God. Jesus realized some people would try to get around or explain away Psalm 82, though, and that is precisely why Christ makes a point of saying “The Scripture cannot be broken.”

So, we can see that Jesus was correcting the Pharisees' and Jewish leaders' mistaken belief that there were only two categories of gods – The Only True God and false gods (idols). And it just so happens that the early Christians who developed the Trinity Doctrine had this same mistaken belief because they failed to appreciate Jesus' words here. Yes, unfortunately, Trinitarians adopted the same incorrect views on “gods” that the Pharisees had.

This passage of Scripture poses huge problems for the Trinity Doctrine. If Jesus was claiming to be Yahweh God Almighty, when confronted by others, why would He skirt around the issue and deceptively appeal to human beings who were “gods,” in order to justify His own claim to be God. If Jesus were Yahweh, that's all He would need to appeal to. Jesus would have said: “I am the Lord your God. My miracles prove it. Worship Me.” It makes no logical sense for Jesus, if He were Yahweh, to place Himself in the same category of gods as the human judges in Psalm 82.

In addition, as further proof that a third category of gods existed in the Bible, Psalm 8:5 (in the Hebrew text) says that the holy angels are "gods” and Yahweh declared that Moses was a "god” also (Exodus 4:16; 7:1).

Psalm 45 may refer to a human Davidic king of Israel as “God,” yet still shows that Yahweh is the God above Him. (Psalm 45:6-7)

Surely Trinitarians do not (and surely the Pharisees also did not) claim that Moses, holy angels, and Davidic kings committed blasphemy by being referred to as gods by Yahweh! So why do they insist that there are only two categories of “Gods” that Jesus could belong to, instead of this third category?

Plus, does semantics and the creation of new words like "one substance" really magically solve the problem of worshipping two different Persons, while still claiming to hold onto Monotheism?

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Is Jesus the Same God as the Father, or a 2^nd God?

The Bible does call the Son (Jesus) “God” or “god.” Some of those verses are beyond dispute – there is no doubt among the language experts and Bible scholars that Jesus is referred to as God in these verses:

• John 20:28
• John 1:1
• Isaiah 9:6 (as a second fulfillment at least)

Many experts and scholars also believe Jesus was called “God” in the following Scriptures as well (but there is some dispute among them):

• Romans 9:5
• 2 Peter 1:1
• Titus 2:13
• Hebrews 1:8
• Hebrews 3:3-4
• 1 John 5:20
• Acts 20:28
• John 1:18

As we saw above, the Bible says there is a third category of “gods,” those who receive God's Word and speak as God's representatives and/or rule as God's designated king or governor. But does Jesus belong in this category or does He actually exist in the very same being of God (Yahweh) as His Father? Lets see what the Scriptures say on this:

• The God worshiped by the Jewish patriarchs and forefathers, was not Jesus, but instead was God the Father, who resurrected Christ (Acts 5:30; John 8:54; John 4:21-23; Acts 3:13).
• The Father is the invisible God whom no one can see, but the Son is a unique visible God that people have seen and touched (John 1:18; Colossians 1:15).
• John says that the disciples did see and feel the Son, then he writes that no one has ever seen God at any time (1 John 1:1-2; 1 John 4:12).
• Jesus made a big point of saying that the Father is one witness and the Son is a second witness. He bases His whole argument in John 8 on the fact that they are two individuals, which to most listeners, would imply that they are two separate beings, not one being (John 8:17-18).
• In the book of Acts, the disciples continued to proclaim the Father as the God whom the Jews worshiped, who has appointed Jesus as His separate designated Ruler and Representative (Acts 1:7; Acts 2:22; Acts 2:32-36; Acts 3:13; Acts 3:22-23; Acts 3:26; Acts 4:27; Acts 5:30-31; Acts 7:55-56; Acts 17:30-31).

There are really only two Scripture passages which can legitimately be used to support the belief that the Father and the Son are the same being or exist in the same essence of God – John 10:30 and 1 John 5:20:

• John 10:30 (NIV): “I and the Father are one.”
• 1 John 5:20 (NIV): We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Scholars are divided over whether 1 John 5:20 is saying that the Father is the true God or the Jesus is the true God. Given that the beginning of the verse refers to Jesus as “the Son of God,” and it says that the Father is “the true one,” it seems much more likely to me that John is referring to the Father as “the true God” here.

Now, regarding John 10:30, we have already seen above how Jesus responded immediately after making this statement. In John 10:30-32, the Pharisees were mistaken about what Jesus was claiming, and were jumping at any reason to try to murder Him. So Jesus corrects them, as shown above in the “Third Category of Gods” heading. He placed Himself in the category of gods which receive God's Word and represent Yahweh to His people.

But what did Jesus mean when He said He was “one” with the Father? Lets see if other statements by Jesus can shed some light on this:

At John 17:22-23, Jesus further explains what He means when He says that He and His Father are "one." He says it means they are in "complete unity" or "agreement." Jesus even says that His disciples will experience this same “oneness” with the Father and the Son. Obviously this cannot be speaking about being the one true Supreme Being. No, instead, this is talking about being in total unity of purpose, desires, and actions. It really has nothing to do with their divine nature, essence, or being. That was not being discussed anywhere in the context of either John 10 or John 17.

In Matthew 19:4-6, Jesus shows that a husband and wife becoming “one” in marriage means that they are “united,” “joined together,” and should not allow anyone to separate them.

So we can clearly see Jesus is consistent in how He uses the word “one” and speaks about “oneness with God” or “oneness with others.” Bottom Line: “One” means united in harmony, not united as one being or one essence.

Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is the exact copy of God's being. A copy of something is different from the original. It can be exactly like the original, but it is still not the original. Therefore, Jesus is not the same being as God. He is a separate being who perfectly reflects everything that Yahweh is.

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The Son has a God Above Him

If Jesus is Co-Equal to God the Father, and if Jesus is the absolute Almighty Supreme Being, then Jesus shouldn't have another God above Him. But He does! (See Hebrews 1:9; Revelation 3:12; Ephesians 1:17; John 20:17; Acts 2:36; Hebrews 5:8)

The most common explanation of this by Trinitarians is that Jesus only had a God above Him while He was a human being on earth, in the form of a slave (Philippians 2:6-8). The problem with this explanation is that, in Revelation 3:12 and John 20:17, it is the glorious resurrected Jesus speaking, not Jesus in the form of a slave on earth.

In addition, 1 Corinthians 11:3 declares that God is the Head of Christ. This was written years after Jesus returned to His glory in Heaven. We can thus see that Jesus has a God above Him even in His glorious, exalted position as Lord of all (1 Corinthians 15:24-28).

An alternative Trinitarian explanation for these passages is that in the personal relationships inside of the essence of the One Being of God, the Son has always (for some mysterious reason) subjected Himself to the Father and obeyed His commands. However, this appears to contradict the traditional Trinity Doctrine which declares that the Father and the Son are eternally Co-Equal.

Some Trinitarians elaborate further and say that the Father and Son are only Co-Equal in their nature (essence or “species”) but not in position or authority.

But even if we grant this explanation, in order for the Trinity Doctrine to work, there must still only be One God. But if Jesus is called God and Jesus is saying that another God is above Him, simple mathematics proves that there are two Gods, not just one. The Bible should have said that the Person of the Father is above Jesus, it should not say that Jesus has a God above Him.

Continue Reading More in this "Rethinking the Trinity" Series:

Jesus is Divine, but is He Equal to God?

Go back to the Introduction to Rethinking the Trinity