The strong words in this paragraph are intentional because I want to open hearts and minds. This message is one of two that “gore a lot of scholar oxen.” Our goal for this book is to escape ELB and lift our lives up to our Abba Father through his Scripture. This walk through the Scripture is what the 3-in-1 doctrine in ELB tries to avoid. Move on; nothing to see here. So let’s take that walk, and if you still want a “3-in-1 God,” go for it. It won’t send you to the fiery pit. This book is about you and your relationship; I am just sharing mine with the Scripture.
Two Examples
The doctrine says God is three persons, the Trinity or Godhead, and one person simultaneously. Some say one “essence.” Two examples of this doctrine are below. I have not cited the sources because my only interest is the ELB in them.
“The Bible does not teach polytheism; these three Persons who are called God are not three separate beings, but rather, three Persons who share the same being and nature. God is One being who exists as Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The One and only existing God of the Bible is a trinity in unity.”
Another version is:
“The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. These definitions express three crucial truths: (1) the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, (2) each Person is fully God, (3) there is only one God.”
This doctrine is an attempt to answer the question, what is God. Chapter 4 starts to answer both what is and who is God from the Scripture. But it really takes the entire Scripture and that is why this book is just a “starter dough” for the reader to start adding research to their Holy Bible study.
Our Abba Father’s Doctrine
Ephesians 4:4-6 is our Abba Father’s actual, perfect, descriptive words to put in our heart because they include us, something man’s doctrine does not, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”
The Trinity
I prefer the “Holy Three” moniker because they are holy, not just three. (Subtle ELB point.) Some denominations challenge the exact nature of the Son and the Holy Spirit, but what each of the Holy Three does in the Scripture matters most, and that is almost consistent across denominations that serve our Abba Father’s purpose. He wants our hearts, not our description of him.
Conclusion
Three individual beings are connected in spirit thought, and the hierarchy is crystal clear: God is the Father. “One God and Father who is above all” is crystal clear. And it establishes the Family relationship in the Ephesians 4 description. “In all and through all” cannot be one being. “All” means there are others.
Romans 10:8-9 is how we are redeemed, “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the Word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” These words cannot be about “one person” and there is zero reason defendable in the Scripture to do so.
After Genesis 1, the Father is the theme in the Old Testament, and he shares the stage with the pre-incarnate Jesus. The pre-incarnate Jesus is clear to me, and hopefully, you as well after S4M2. In the four New Testament Gospels, Jesus is the incarnate Jesus sharing the stage with his Father and the Holy Spirit. After that, Jesus and the Father share the stage with the Holy Spirit building the New Testament and the church.
The Scripture is clear that each of the three has independent thoughts and powers, and Father God gets his way whenever he wants. It is virtually impossible to get from the Holy Three in Ephesians 4, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, to” one being” in the context of the entire Scripture. And that is the problem. The whole Scripture cannot be compressed into a soundbite, nor a doctrine. The ELB behind the doctrine is parsing the word “God,” not the Creator God himself. That is typical ELB.
The four words, “our God is one,” do appear in the Scripture a few times but never in the context of the magical 3 persons in 1 person God. They are not separate views or contexts. And after the first mention in Deuteronomy, all but one quote the first mention in Deuteronomy. That is discussed in detail further down in the message.
The second question is, where does the Scripture ever say anything in a clear context that confirms the magic 3-in-1? If it truly mattered, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” would have been a great place to add, “and oh, by the way, they are one God!” (Mathew 28:19.) The 3-in-1 concept feels so out of place here. Please pray on that.
Find the “One”
Acts 7:55-56, “But he (Stephen), being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into Heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
Hebrews 1:1-4, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high . . .”
Colossians 1:15-18, “He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in Heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.“
Colossians 1:15-18 is profound. Jesus is the “image of the invisible God . . .” “The God,” singular. Jesus is the image of the God and Father we cannot see. Jesus is “the head of the body, the church . . .” If Jesus was of “One God,” this phrase would not be necessary. Look at Daniel 7:13-14, “I saw (Daniel) in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of Heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” To Daniel, this was about the promised Messiah. Look at Mathew 28:18, “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” “Given” to him is not one God.
The Holy Three share eternal existence as spirit beings before this world was created. Then, after the creation, Jesus’ form changes to what we see in the New Testament. And once he returns to Heaven from his business trip to earth, he goes to work getting Heaven ready for his return. We then live in his presence for eternity with no more pain or sorrow.
Essence and Person in ELB
I ask a straightforward question for “one in essence.” Where is the verse behind it? The one “essence” concept is pure ELB. “Essence” is the permanent, ultimate nature of a being. We cannot look at our Abba Father because he is so bright. Jesus is incarnate, and the Holy Spirit has no visible characteristics. Does that sound like one essence to you?
Equally disappointing is the attempt to define the Holy Three in human terms. That brings them down to our life instead of us moving into theirs. The Scripture shows us how our Abba Father attached his glory to his names so that we can relate to him through them and how we are connected to him through the Holy Spirit and Jesus. I implore my flock and readers to use nothing but their names and see all their glory in them.
Conservative scholars are also insistent that each entity in the Holy Three be seen as a separate “Person.” That is the center of the doctrine’s ELB. Each of the Holy Three already has its unique existence, as revealed quite clearly in the Scripture. How can our infinite, almighty spirit Abba Father, virtually without limit, be described by a word that means “finite human being?”
Psalm 33:6, “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” Psalm 33:8-9, “Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” “He spoke, and it was done” by the Holy Three doing their part, as revealed in Ephesians 4.
The New Testament is quite clear about “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” and there can be no other descriptive word for what each is except their name. It does not help our faith when we discount them in any way, especially with finite human descriptions like essence or Person. The Father is everything the Scripture says about him, and the same is true for Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
To their credit, the doctrine makers claim they mean a particular type of “Person,” but it is still an ungodly ELB word that brings “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” down to human speak. Each has a holy, unique spirit, godly existence, and relationship connection in Scripture. Nothing more exists, nor is it needed.
Forcing the “Person” label onto “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” makes no sense except in ELB trying to bring our Abba Farther down to our level as an attempt to understand him, which it fails to do.
The most serious difficulty with the 3-in-1 doctrine is the “1” part. That leaves people shaking their heads with illustrations like one egg with three parts, 3-in-1; a shell, the white, and the yolk. That is silly because the shell becomes trash, and the yolk and white get eaten. Or, like water, 3-in-1 with vapor, liquid, and solid states, which is silly because it can’t be all three simultaneously. How can three Persons be one Person?
I once used a grapevine, a living thing even referenced by Jesus, with a branch, a leaf, and a fruit that all experience the same life flow. But the grapes get eaten. I can’t see the glory to our Abba Father in this approach, and if we cannot explain something any better than that, shouldn’t we stay in the Scripture?
Ephesians 4 would have been a great place to add, “and oh, by the way, the three are one God!” But Paul didn’t. Could any concept feel more out of place than the 3 are 1 here?
The magic 3-in-1 doctrine ignores our connection to “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” which is a huge omission. Our Abba Father brings us together in Ephesians 4, and the magic 3-in-1 doctrine separates us. Ephesians 4 gives me joyous chills every time I read it. I conclude that Ephesians 4 is the doctrine of our Abba Father, and it completely outshines, in its majesty and completeness, man’s ELB rendition of the 3-in-1. Please pray on that.
1. The 3-in-1 doctrine has no stated purpose for its existence except the fear of polytheism.
2. The fear of “polytheism” is driven by ELB and is a straw issue that the Scripture does not support.
3. Man’s 3-in-1 doctrine could be the #1 ELB intermediary achievement of the enemy because it confuses our relationship with our Abba Father.
Man’s 3-in-1 doctrine not only inhibits our journey through the Scripture; it reduces our Abba Father to a human sound bite which is a fruit of ELB.
3. Man’s 3-in-1 doctrine is the catalyst for much of the separation of believers into disparate denominations.
We strongly recommend that church leaders elevate all of man’s doctrines into journey’s through the Scripture or put them aside.
When we ask “what” is God, are we asking to grow closer to him or trying to decide to believe him? If we are trying to believe him, man’s doctrine can’t help us because belief must come through the heart of our Abba Father with the Holy Spirit. If we seek to grow closer to our Abba Father, ELB will never provide us enough incite to break free from the ELB. If neither reason, in what context can the 3-in-1 doctrine be essential to the Christian church?
Earth-life is barely a blip on our eternal timeline, and we are not even a visible spec in the universe itself, except to our Abba Father. That relationship is all we have that matters in life. Only the Scripture and the Holy Spirit can move us out of ELB into that relationship. Man’s rewrites can never do that.
Discussion
Who is this pastor to challenge such long-established biblical teaching? That is a great question. The answer is simple, “I am a child of God,” as the song goes, and so are you. It is not hard to “mine” the Scripture, and it is easy to obtain the tools. It is a life changer once you get started.
We know this doctrine benefits the enemy with its resulting division and ambiguity while doing nothing to glorify our Abba Father. ELB is the only possible motivation for this doctrine. The doctrine almost seems like a “secret knowledge” for insiders who pretend to “get it,” The rest of us need them because it is hard to understand. I believe the actual harm of this doctrine is that it shuts down critical and healthy inquiry in many believers who will miss Ephesians 4 because of it.
This message is simply a walk through the Scripture, and it will resonate with you, or it won’t. I suggest we always stay with the Scripture because it is rich, beautiful, uplifting, and inspired by the Holy Spirit. Human rewrites are not necessary and can do enormous harm.
What is God (Part1?)
Part II of “What is God” is presented in S4M1. We present “who is our Abba Father” in Chapter 4. The 3-in-1 doctrine attempts to answer the ELB question, “what” is God” with Cliff’s Notes type approach. “What is God” is a typical question inquiring minds want to know, right? Part 1 is focused more on the “logic” of the doctrine in the Scripture, and Part II presents the actual Scripture.
The more important question is, “who” is the God we relate to? That is the question that our Abba Father goes to great lengths to reveal the answer to us in the Scripture. Our Abba Father spends the entire Old Testament building our faith and relationship with him, and the whole New Testament redeems us and launches his plan to redeem as many as he calls with our help.
We discuss the “who” is God question in Chapter 4 within the context of our relationship with him. Like the 3-in-1 doctrine, the rest of this message about “what” God has zero bearing on our redemption. Most believers will experience that in the Scripture and from where virtually all the joy, peace, and glory are derived. That is a significant reason I do not understand why this doctrine is so vital to so many church leaders. But prayerfully, this journey will grow our relationship and faith.
Polytheism
The first example above reveals their reason for the 3-in-1 doctrine, “The Bible does not teach polytheism.” The heart of polytheism is autonomy and independent powers amongst the pantheon of gods mentioned in the Scripture and folklore. In ancient times, people had a different god to ask for everything. If we are going to shudder in fear of polytheism, it makes sense to understand the meaning and context in which we fear it. Our Abba Father’s words, “fear not” (Psalm 23), will get us through this.
Besides polytheism, we could also worry about henotheism, kathenotheism, or animism, one of which is probably closer to our Holy Three than polytheism. These are modern terms, but ELB does not want any discussion. Just accept the doctrine and move on.
If “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” had individual autonomy, we might have a pantheon of polytheism. But we don’t. We have a Kingdom with a Patriarch, “one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. “One Elohiym, above all, through all, and in all. That is not a pantheon and, therefore, cannot be polytheistic. If it can’t be polytheism, no doctrine is needed to protect our Abba Father from such accusations, as if he needed any protection of himself from us. That is ELB as well.
Of the Holy Three, only our Abba Father cannot be in the presence of sin. Jesus and the Holy Spirit handle it just fine. But think a minute; if a human with sin is presented to our Abba Father, it does not hurt our Abba Father; the sinner dies. Our Abba Father sees believers through Jesus, who cleans us first.
The divine spirit and human creations brought into existence by the Holy Three have free will and can turn against our Abba Father. There is zero evidence that the Holy Three can go rogue, so there is zero threat of any of the Holy Three becoming an independent God. They are like a three-legged stool; nothing works without all three legs. But the legs are not also one leg; that is just silly.
Unity and the “One”
Ephesians 4:4-6 presents many “ones.” I observe that the concept of “one” means a lot to our Abba Father but has the opposite meaning than the magic 3-in-1 doctrine. Let’s look at the word “one” in other contexts in the Scripture.
Let’s look at Acts 2:1, “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord . . . “One accord” appears twenty-nine times, ten in Acts. It means oneness in hearts and minds and sometimes “one mind.” Romans 15:5-6, “Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.“
Scholars cite John 19:30 in support of the doctrine. John says, “I and the Father are one.” But John 10:29 before it says, “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” No one can snatch them out of Jesus’ hand either; it does not mean one being.
Genesis 2:24, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Science and the Scripture must converge, as discussed in S2M6, so it is safe to say that this phrase does not mean “one actual flesh” from a supernatural marriage. It means something like “in one accord” and “inseparable.”
Right before Ephesians 4:4-6 presented above, comes v4:1-3, another important conclusion. “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.“
I see unity as critically important to our Abba Father. He wants it for us in the body, a feature of “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” They are unified in one purpose, redeeming God’s children. Being a “one” in unity does not need an egg to explain it. The four words “our God is one” remind us of the unity our Abba Father craves. There is no evidence it means anything more in the Scripture than its context of “one mind.”
The New Covenant Reveal
In the New Covenant, there is also a huge reveal. And I do not mean the incarnate Jesus. The reveal I speak of starts in Mathew 6:31-32, “For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
Let’s also look at Luke 4:43, “And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them; but He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.“
Let’s look at Mark 1:14-15, “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” Another “one” is in the Kingdom of God. Jesus was sent to preach the Kingdom of God as the first part of our Abba Father’s New Testament plan. The other two parts were the ultimate sacrifice to atone for our sins and his conquering physical death. The “one” directly related to “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” is the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom is what our Abba Father wants us to know. Our Abba Father has a kingdom, and he reveals all its glory in the Scripture. Our Abba Father is analogous to the king, the ruler, in an earthly kingdom, and also, like King Arthur and others, the father of the royal family. Our Abba Father is the ruler of the Kingdom of God and the Father of the Family of God. From Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, that never changes.
In an earthly kingdom, the next king is the first son of the king, AND he is born a king. The father is the top king until he dies or stands aside. Mathew 28:18, “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” In Daniel, we see Jesus receive it. Our Abba Father gave his Kingdom to his Son. It did not come from any magic 3-in-1 condition. That is where the 3-in-1 doctrine seems to fail seriously.
In our Abba Father’s Kingdom, we have the eternal Father, the eternal Son, and the eternal Holy Spirit. All three have God-power that flows from the Father, it is not from a magic oneness. They also have the unique attribute of infinite existence without creation. That is the glory of God, as stated by God! We need no other ELB labels for any reason.
The Holy Spirit might be called God in Acts 5 but that is not the point. He is not the Father, not the Son, and is an essential being to the other two as the Kingdom. We do not know his parallel in an earthly kingdom, perhaps a trusted brother (our Uncle) with valuable abilities and power. But it does not matter because rewriting the Scripture in human terms is ELB. Until I meet our Abba Father, I am perfectly content to follow the Scripture and wait to ask him about anything I cannot find or understand. The Kingdom of God and the transference of power to Jesus explain all three being God without any secret ELB knowledge or 3-in-1 doctrine. Please pray on that.
Connecting to the Kingdom of God
Now let’s look at how we connect to the Kingdom. John 14:13-24, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
The “Me/My” is Jesus, praying to the Father, who sends the Holy Spirit. Exactly how we connect to the Kingdom of God is enhanced in John 14:18-21, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.“
John 22-24, “Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”
John 5:18-24 is a pivotal verse in understanding the Kingdom, “Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” “Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, 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 the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.“
1 Peter 1:17-22, “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.“
Hebrews 2:9, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.” V2:16-18, “For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.“
Are we really to believe our Abba Father did all this work and said, “never mind, we are all just one thing?” There is simply no path from these verses to a magical 1. What is crystal clear with zero ambiguity is that we live with Jesus in us and us in him through the Holy Spirit and Jesus is in our Abba Father, which puts us there as well.
The Holy Three reminds me of a divine spirit Matryoshka doll; the three are distinct in the description and connected through our divine spirit feature. There is zero need for the doctrine of 3-in-1 with the Scripture. Our Abba Father is the ultimate authority, he passed it all to his Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit makes everything happen that is needed to happen.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Galatians 3:19-22, and John 1:1-3
It is worth a walk through the 3-in-1 doctrine’s weak foundation in the Scripture because it is feeble. Our Abba Father cannot reveal the Messiah’s origin in the Old Testament because Israel must reject him for the plan to work. It is the reveal of the origin that finally gets him killed.
The doctrine starts with Deuteronomy 6:4-5 NKJV, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!” Mark 12 12:28-29 uses this quote in the same context. The difficulty with the doctrine is that Israel knows nothing about Jesus or the Holy Spirit. The context is all about Yahweh being the only God needed in a world of other gods, whose existence comes from Yahweh, as presented in S3M4. He knows a thing or two about the other gods.
S3M4 presents the supernatural world, which explains more about the other gods Yahweh created, and S2M1 explains how ELB minimizes the supernatural world. Please remember that the Scripture is a progression of the revelation of our Abba Father’s plan, and the Scripture reveals the Holy Three clearly and thoroughly, as seen above.
Israel would never be thinking about any God but Yahweh talking to them. Remember the first exegesis rule; a verse can never mean what it never said. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 says, “Yahweh” is one,” which he is. And Yahweh is God, which he is. That is an example of where translating Yahweh to LORD creates confusion. Yahweh is a personal name. Still, our first reaction to “the LORD” is impersonal.
The very next line is the greatest commandment, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Which words bring us closer to our Abba Father, the greatest commandment or an imagined obtuse meaning of “the LORD is one?” It is your choice.
Deuteronomy 5:6-10 reveals our context for “the LORD is one,” “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ‘You shall have no other gods before Me. ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in Heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.“
It is unrealistic to leap from all the singular pronouns above to anything plural regarding Yahweh. Why? Because he can’t reveal who the Messiah is. Clearly, the context of Deuteronomy is Yahweh vs. other gods. The pagans in that time had a different god for everything that moved, all heard about by Israel for 430 years in Egypt with no priests, no temple, and no reported talks with Yahweh. And yes, the other gods are “polytheistic.” And our Abba Father handled that in Deuteronomy 5.
Our Abba Father’s point here is that the other gods all have to go. No using Yahweh for the big stuff and other gods for the lesser things. Yahweh is a one-stop God. Need rain? Yahweh. Need a crop? Yahweh. Need a child? Yahweh. Need to defeat an enemy? Yahweh. Need your soul saved? Yahweh.
Polytheism is an ELB concept and the “raison d’être” (ultimate purpose) for the 3-in-1 doctrine. Men in ELB believe they need to protect God from an accusation of polytheism, a misconceived understanding of God to begin with, i.e., that Jesus and the Holy Spirit could ever give the impression of polytheism. Perhaps they could without the Scripture, but that is a straw issue I perceive as an insult to our Abba Father.
Our Abba Father can take care of himself and did quite well in Deuteronomy 5:6-10, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” That is the first commandment. The following is overkill, but I extracted all the references to the singular Yahweh from Genesis 1. All of Deuteronomy is like this:
“The LORD our God spoke to us in Horeb; the land which the LORD swore to your fathers; The LORD your God has multiplied you, and here you are today; May the LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous; as the LORD our God had commanded us; which the LORD our God is giving us; Look, the LORD your God has set the land before you; as the LORD God of your fathers has spoken to you; it is a good land which the LORD our God is giving us; but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God; you complained in your tents, and said, ‘Because the LORD hates us; The LORD your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you; where you saw how the LORD your God carried you; you did not believe the LORD your God; And the LORD heard the sound of your words, and was angry; because he wholly followed the LORD; The LORD was also angry with me for your sakes; We have sinned against the LORD; we will go up and fight just as the LORD our God commanded us; And the LORD said to me, ‘Tell them, “Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; but rebelled against the command of the LORD; Then you returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD would not listen to your voice nor give ear to you.” ‘
The New Testament brings in the Holy Spirit and Jesus in their perfect context when the world is ready. Virtually all the translations are made in the context of one God, Yahweh, being complete and sufficient to rule the world. As we learn more about him, that never changes.
Galatians 3:19-22
Galatians 3:19-22 is another discussion in an Old Testament context of the law and what God said, but it also references the Seed to come, Jesus Christ, “What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one.”
“Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.“
The Amp translation is interesting. The context of “but God is one” is one party to a covenant and the only one that matters. “Now the mediator or go-between (in a transaction) is not needed for just one party; whereas God is only one and was the only One giving the promise to Abraham, but the Law was a contract between two, God and Israel; its validity depended on both.“
The three words “God is one” cannot be pulled out of their context and assigned a new meaning that is not there to support a doctrine. The context here is that God is only one party in a covenant. Jesus is even mentioned but never merged with God.
To worry about an unholy polytheism belief, Israel must know about the other Creator God options. If they knew nothing about the Holy Spirit or the Word of the LORD, it is hard to understand why they would think Yahweh was more than one God. It makes no sense that our Abba Father would hide meaning in a verse that had nothing to do with anything around it and never reinforce or reveal it elsewhere.
John 1
John 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.“
“The Word was with God” comes both before and after, “the Word was God.” There is no question Jesus is God; he just isn’t the Father God. A close read starts with God, then Jesus receives all authority to be God, and finishes in Heaven with God. The verse does not conflate the Holy Three John 1:18, “The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” This verse is our Abba Father affirming the reality of his Son. A beautiful description of the relationship between Jesus and the Father, nowhere to be found in the 3-in-1 doctrine. John 1 is not a path to a conflated 3-in-1 God doctrine.
