The Godhead; also called Deity, Divinity, Godhood in
the Bible
or, Does Jehovah,
the only true God of the Bible, consist of one Being, or three Beings?”
Acts
17:29
A. Many different teachings concerning God:
1. Jehovah’s Witnesses: Only one eternal being, or person; Jehovah God, and that He created Jesus Christ as ‘a god’ (3rd century ‘Arianism’),
and that the Holy Spirit is simply the invisible active force of the one being, Jehovah God.
2. Christian Scientists: Jesus is simply the Son of God, and that God is simply an impersonal spirit or force.
3. Mormonism: Many Gods, that Adam was God the Father, and that the Gods are flesh and bone, including the Father.
4. Unitarianism: One person only in Godhead, and that God simply manifested Himself in three different roles; Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
(Jesus only – oneness holiness – some Pentecostal groups)(Father only – Jehovah’s Witnesses and others).
- But What Saith the Scriptures?
I. THREE DIVINE
BEINGS:
- All referred to as God:
- The Father: Romans 1:7
- The Son: John 1:1, 14, 18
- The Holy Spirit: Acts 5:3, 4
- All three separately identified:
- Matthew 3:16, 17; John 14:26;
16:12-15
a. They are separate and distinct from one another:
b. Jesus is not God the
Father:
c. “No man has seen God at any time” John 1:18.
d. Men have seen Jesus: John 1:14.
e. God the Father only knows the day & hour of Christ’s second coming: Mark 13:31, 32.
(1.) God the Father has not flesh and bones: John 4:24. Jesus had flesh and bones: Luke 24:39.
(2.) Jesus is the Word, John 1:1, but the Father is not the Word, and the Father did not take upon Himself flesh, as the Son did: Hebrews 10:5.
(a.) Some teach that since Jesus was ‘flesh and spirit”, this would indicate two separate Beings, so we are told that the ‘flesh’ was the Son,
and the ‘Spirit’ was and is the Father. So they say, we have one divine Being, not two! But Hebrews 10:5 shows the fallacy of this
argument; flesh clothed ‘Me’ (the Word, Jesus Christ; verse 10: “by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all.”) The ‘Thou’ here is a different Divine Being from the ‘Me’. The ‘Thou’ is the Father; the ‘Me’ is the Son.
Two different beings! Philippians 2:5-9.
II. But only ONE God: Deuteronomy 6:4, 5; 4:39; 32:39; etc.
A. These three that are called God make up the one true God! There is no polytheism as the Jehovah Witnesses would have us to believe (three Gods in one).
No, there are three Divine Beings that compose the One True God = Jehovah God!
B. When you think of God, do you see one God, with only one Being, or do you see one God, with three Beings, as the Bible shows?
C. How are they one then?
1. Notice Deuteronomy 6:4 again: “…Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.”
2. Notice Genesis 11:6: “…they are one people…” How many beings are involved here?
a. The word ‘one’ in Deut. 6:4 does not limit ‘God’ to one Divine Being any more than the word ‘one’ in Gen. 11:6 limits ‘the people’ to one person!
b. This word ‘one’ is from “Echad” meaning; “united one”, as also in Genesis 2:24; “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave
unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.” (two people, but one!) See also Genesis 3:22, 23; 11:7, 8.
(1.) Word
for God in these passages is ‘Elohim’
a plural noun, and also used in Genesis
1:26; “And God said,
let Us make man in Our image, after Our
likeness…vs. 27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him…” Notice how both the singular and plural are
used for Deity!
D. John 17:20-22: This shows that the Father and Son are NOT the same Being!
a. If Father & Son are 1 Being, then Jesus prayed for all believers to be 1 being!
b. If Father & Son are separate Beings who are united, thus, one, then Jesus prayed for all christians (separate beings) to be united, thus one!
c. How can we be one as the Father & Son are one? In nature, purpose, word and work:
(l.) Nature:
(a.) Christians: II Corinthians 5:17; Galatians
3:26,27; II Peter 1:4.
(b.)
Godhead: Romans 1:7; John
20:28; Acts 5:3, 4.
(2.) Purpose:
(a.) Christians: I Corinthians 1:10
(b.) Godhead: John 6:38
(3.) Word:
(a.) Christians: I Corinthians 1:10
(b.) Godhead:
John 14:24-26; 16:13-15
(4.) Work:
(a.) Christians: Philippians 3:16
(b.)
Godhead: John 6:38
III. Other passages that are used to try and teach only one Being in the Godhead:
A. Matthew 1:23: Jesus is ‘God with us’.
1. This does not teach that there is only one Being. God the Father was manifested in Jesus: I Timothy 3:16.
a. John manifested Jesus: John 1:31. ‘Manifest’ means “to make known”.
B. John 14:7-9: Know Christ, know the Father; seen Christ, seen the Father.
1. This does not teach the Father & Son are the same Being!
a. If speaking of physical seeing, then we would have a contradiction, for ‘no man hath seen God at any time’, but the Son declared unto us the
Father – John 1:18.
b. They saw:
(1.) Fleshly body of Jesus. Was that the Father?
(2.) Perfect love, mercy, justice, goodness, etc., in the sinless life of Jesus Christ – was that the Father? YES, His attributes! – sent from
Him. Jesus spoke FOR Him!
C. Christ is the very image of the Father: Hebrews 1:3, that is, “the impress of His substance”. “His character was the character of the Father’s very essence!”
The fullness of Deity was revealed in Jesus – Colossians 2:9; “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily…”.
D. Isaiah 9:6: Jesus called ‘everlasting Father’ – He was involved in Creation!
1. Does not teach Jesus & Father same Being:
(a.) A Son is given – by whom? The Father!
(2.) Joseph a Father to Pharaoh – Genesis 45:8.
(3.) The Devil the Father of those who twist the Truth (lie) – John 8:44.
(3.) Abraham a Father to christians – Romans 4:11.
(4.) Paul a Father to Corinthian christians – I Corinthians 4:15.
(5.) Christ a Father to christians – Hebrews 2:13.
2. Thus, God – Father of christians – Galatians 3:26
Abraham “ “ - Romans 4:11
BUT NOT SAME BEING (God & Abraham)
3. Likewise, God – Father of christians – Galatians 3:26
Christ - “ “ - Hebrews 2:13
BUT NOT SAME BEING (God the Father & Jesus)
IV. The Scripture’s clearly show that there is but one God, consisting of three distinct Beings, who have existed for all eternity, with no beginning and no ending!
This One True Living God will not give His glory to another: Isaiah 42:8. And He didn’t when ‘we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father’ (John 1:14), because He is God the Son! Also John 17:22, 24; Matthew 16:27; Mark 8:38.
Can man understand God? NO – Job 11:7; “Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?”
