02. God
GOD When Jesus went to Heaven, were there then two persons called God in Heaven who could talk, walk, etc.?
Yes, there were not only two, but three such Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And all of them could certainly talk, walk, etc. The Trinity is a fact, even though it is a mystery. We are not called upon to explain it.
I have been asked the question concerning “God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.” Are we to think of these as three separate persons, or as one?
Without controversy great is the mystery of the Trinity. For my own part I never use the expressions referred to, that is, “God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.” This would seem to imply not only three persons, but also three Gods. While without doubt the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, yet there are not three Gods, but only three persons in one God. Of course all this is quite beyond our comprehension and yet it is the plain teaching of the Scriptures. It sometimes appears that a single passage of Scripture will have reference to all three persons of the Godhead. For example, in the baptism of our Lord as recorded in Matthew 3:16-17, the Father is heard speaking out of Heaven, the Son is standing there in the water, and the Spirit of God descends like a dove and abides upon Him. In the very first sentence of the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” the Trinity is suggested in the fact that the name “God” or “Elohim” in the Hebrew is a plural noun, while the verb “created” is a singular verb. Thus we have an intimation that in some mysterious fashion God is three and God is one. The same principle is demonstrated also in Genesis 1:26, where God says, “Let us make man in our image,” etc. This plural pronoun indicates the Trinity; but in the 27th verse we read that God created man in (not “their” but) “his” own image, “In the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
It is related of a half-witted boy that when he applied for admission to the membership of a certain church and was asked for his confession, he could only say, as he held up his three fingers: “Three in one and one in three, and the one in the middle died for me.” Perhaps that is as profound as any other statement of the Trinity, and it may be as far as any of us could go in defining the wonderful mystery of the Godhead. Will you be so kind as to explain how God can be one and three at the same time?
Such an explanation is impossible. We may believe what we cannot explain; we may apprehend what we cannot comprehend. It is clear that the Bible teaches the trinity and unity of God. It is intimated at least in the first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, where “God” is a plural noun (which in the Hebrew indicates three or more persons) and the verb “created” is singular. ‘To one who receives with meekness the engrafted Word which is able to save our souls,” says Edward Henry Bickersteth, “the Scriptures prove beyond contradiction that as the Father is God, so is Jesus Christ God, and so the Holy Spirit is God. This truth, however, must be combined with another, which is revealed with equal clearness and enforced with equal solemnity: T am Jehovah, and there is none else, there is no God beside me.’ The combination of these truths establishes the doctrine of the holy Trinity, for these Three must together subsist in one infinite divine essence, called Jehovah or God; and as this essence must be indivisible, each of them must possess not a part or portion of it, but the whole fullness or perfection of the essential Godhead forming, in a unity of nature, One Eternal Jehovah, and therefore revealed by a plural noun as the Jehovah Elohim, which comprehends these Three; but with this solemn qualification, that the Jehovah Elohim is in truth but one Jehovah, a Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” Is there a book in the Bible which does not mention God by name?
Yes. In the book of Esther there is no mention of any of the names of God. Throughout the book, however, He reveals Himself most clearly by His mighty acts and His watchcare over His people.
Please tell us why the divine titles “Lord” and “God” are printed so differently in the Bible. Sometimes these words are found altogether in capital letters, and sometimes with only the first letter a capital. What is the reason for this? The name Jehovah, which occurs over seven thousand times in the Hebrew Scriptures of the Old Testament, is preserved to us only six times altogether in our common English version. Elsewhere it is translated either “Lord” or “God.” But when it is so translated, the word “Lord” or “God” is printed altogether in capital letters, LORD or GOD. Whenever you see either of these words printed in the Old Testament altogether in capitals you may know that it stands for the name Jehovah. When “Lord” is printed with only one capital letter it stands for Adonai which really means Lord or Ruler. When the word “God” is printed with only one capital letter it stands for the word Elohim which is the first name of Deity used in Scripture: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). And sometimes, when you see “lord” with no capital letter, it applies to a human being; and “gods,” without the capital, refers to heathen deities, except in one instance, where it applies to men (Psalms 82:6; John 10:34-36). The men called gods here seem to be the rulers and judges of the earth seen in Psalms 2 and Romans 13:1-7.
Beginning atGenesis 32:30we have followed through references, as given by the Scofield Bible, toJohn 1:18, concerning men seeing God. We understand that sin and a knowledge of sin separates men from God. Yet the passages are not clear to me or to the class of which I am leader. Will you please explain? The matter is explained for you in the final footnote on the page (1115) containing John 1:18, in which Dr. Scofield says: ‘The divine essence, God, in His own triune person, no human being in the flesh has seen. But God, veiled in angelic form, and especially as incarnate in Jesus Christ, has been seen of men.”
What is meant by the words ofHebrews 12:29, “our God is a consuming fire”?
Read the context, beginning at verse 25: “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven,” etc. God delights to save, and He will save those who listen to Him and receive His offered gift of eternal life, but He must, on account of His own righteousness, deal in righteous judgment with those who tread His Son under foot, making the blood of the covenant an unholy thing and doing despite unto the Spirit of grace. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:28-31). Fire is a symbol of God’s righteous wrath against sin. Does God have anything to do with war?
Yes. It is written that the Lord Jesus at His second coming will “judge and make war” (Revelation 19). And even before His coming to judgment, though not before His coming for His own, He will send universal war among the nations. ‘Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send upon you. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, Ye shall surely drink. For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city (Jerusalem) which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitated of the earth, saith Jehovah of Hosts” (Jeremiah 25:27-29).