Is God One or is He Three?

[First and the Last]

Is God absolutely monotheistic, inseparably and numerically One or is He three separate distinct persons?

 

[Bill Taylor]

Our Elohim is the One God revealed in one person.

 

[joestue]

Im more of a unitarian at this point.
The Holy spirit is the spirit of God and they make up one person.

Jesus is one with God and so its a distinction without a difference.

No split personalities and definitely not 3 persons

 

[Bill Taylor]

Im more of a unitarian at this point.
The Holy spirit is the spirit of God and they make up one person.

Jesus is one with God and so its a distinction without a difference.

No split personalities and definitely not 3 persons

Joe, my head and fingers were elsewhere yesterday, I'm a Trinitarian, one God revealed in three distinct persons.

 

[joestue]

I would encourage you to read through all the main arguments for unitarianism.

But to be honest i'm not sure it makes much difference because at the end of your life, all that matters is whether you made a habit of asking God what to do.. or you didn't. and when God told you NO, did you ask Jesus instead? Did you ask someone else to pray that you get what you want when you already know the answer is NO! .. and did you do it anyways?!

Anyhow, the only thing the Holy Spirit has told me regarding the "trinity" is: "do not divide my people" -and this applies to a lot of contentious topics.

Find the root of the insecurity and you'll solve a lot of denominational squabbles.

 

[MedicBravo]

God IS three persons. He has a triune nature.

 

[vhusley]

One God who has chosen to manifest Himself to us in 3 ways…as (1) Father and Creator, (2)the Son in flesh…Jesus…the Redeemer, and (3)the Holy Spirit who is God’s/Jesus’ Spirit that is still in the world and fills born-again believers, convicting, sanctifying and guiding us.

God IS both omnipotent and omnipresent…..He can be ALL THREE….even AT THE SAME TIME!

 

[B-A-C]

One egg has three parts, shell, white and yolk, but it's still one egg.
One tricycle has three wheels, but it's still one tricycle.
The US government has three branches, but it's still one government.
One family may have a husband, wife and child, but it's still one family.

One God can be three people.

John 10:30; "I and the Father are one."

John 1:1; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2; He was in the beginning with God.
John 1:3; All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

John 1:14; And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Gen 1:1; In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Col 1:16; For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
Col 1:17; He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
Col 1:18; He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

God created everything, Jesus created everything, Jesus is God.
Jesus sometimes calls the Father "my God". I sometimes say something like "I need to get home to my Family", even though "I" am part of my family.

Col 2:9; For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,

Even the Father calls Jesus "God".

Heb 1:8; But of the Son He says, "YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM.
Heb 1:9; "YOU HAVE LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATED LAWLESSNESS; THEREFORE GOD, YOUR GOD, HAS ANOINTED YOU WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS ABOVE YOUR COMPANIONS.

Exod 20:4; "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
Exod 20:5; "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,

We are to only worship God.

Heb 1:6; And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, "AND LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM."

But God the Father tells the angels to worship Jesus.

Jesus spends most of the second half of John chapter 5 explaining why He is not an ordinary man. He came from heaven, He isn't like other people.

John 5:18; For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.
John 5:34; "But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.

 

[Curtis]

Oops

 

[MedicBravo]

One God who has chosen to manifest Himself to us in 3 ways…as (1) Father and Creator, (2)the Son in flesh…Jesus…the Redeemer, and (3)the Holy Spirit who is God’s/Jesus’ Spirit that is still in the world and fills born-again believers, convicting, sanctifying and guiding us.

God IS both omnipotent and omnipresent…..He can be ALL THREE….even AT THE SAME TIME!

Exactly.
Before there was anything; Time, Space, or Matter, God existed in all three and three as One.
People that don't believe or think it's scripture are putting God into a box He won't fit.

 

[First and the Last]

Let me ask this: If the Invisible God we serve was able to look into a mirror who would be that reflection?

 

[First and the Last]

John 10:30; "I and the Father are one."

Jesus said, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). Some try to say that He was one with the Father much as a husband and wife are one or as two people can be one in agreement. This interpretation attempts to weaken the force of the assertion Jesus made. However, other verses fully support that Jesus was not only the Son in His humanity but also the Father in His deity.

When Jesus said, “I and my Father are one,” the Jews sought to stone Him for blasphemy, because He being a man made Himself God the Father (John 10:30-33). They sought to kill Him when He said the Father was in Him, again because He was claiming to be the Father incarnate (John 10:38-39).

When Jesus forgave a paralyzed man of His sins, the Jews thought He had blasphemed because they knew that only God could forgive sin (Isaiah 43:25). Jesus, knowing their thoughts, healed the man, thereby showing His divine power and proving His deity (Luke 5:20-26). The Jews were right in believing that there was one God, in believing that only God could forgive sin, and in understanding that Jesus claimed to be the one God (the Father and Jehovah) incarnate. They were wrong only because they refused to believe Jesus’ claim.

When Jesus said, “I and my Father are one,” the Jews correctly understood Him to mean He was God, and they sought to kill Him (John 10:30-33). On that occasion, He did not merely claim unity with God but identity with God. Jesus also said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). No matter how united a Christian is with God, he could not make that statement. No matter how united two Christians are, one could not say, “If you have seen me, you have seen my friend.” The same is true of a husband and wife, even though they are one flesh (Genesis 2:24). So, the oneness of Jesus and the Father means more than the oneness that human relationships can attain. As a man Jesus was one with the Father in the sense of unity of purpose, mind, and will (John 17:22). As God, Jesus is one with the Father in the sense of identity with the Father—in the sense that He is the Father manifested in flesh (John 10:30; 14:9).

 

[First and the Last]

John 1:1; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14). Literally, the Word (God) was tabernacled or tented among us. When did God tabernacle or robe Himself in flesh? In Jesus Christ. Both verses prove that Jesus is God—that He is God manifest (revealed, made known, made evident, displayed, shown) in flesh.

John 1 beautifully teaches the concept of God manifest in flesh. In the beginning was the Word (Greek, Logos). The Word was not a separate person or a separate god any more than a man’s word is a separate person from him. Rather the Word was the thought, plan, or mind of God. The Word was with God in the beginning and actually was God Himself (John 1:1). The Incarnation existed in the mind of God before the world began. Indeed, in the mind of God the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world (I Peter 1:19-20; Revelation 13:8). In Greek usage, logos can mean the expression or
plan as it exists in the mind of the proclaimer—as a play in the mind of a playwright—or it can mean the thought as uttered or otherwise physically expressed— as a play that is enacted on stage. John 1 says the Logos existed as the mind of God from the beginning of time. When the fullness of time was come, God put His plan in action. He put flesh on that plan in the form of the man Jesus Christ. The Logos is God expressed. As John Miller says, the Logos is “God uttering Himself.” In fact, TAB translates the last phrase of John 1:1 as, “The Word was God Himself.” Flanders and Cresson say, “The Word was God’s means of self disclosure.” This thought is further brought out by verse 14, which says the incarnated Word had the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, and by verse 18, which says that the Son has declared the Father.

In Greek philosophy, the Logos came to mean reason or wisdom as the controlling principle of the universe. In John’s day, some Greek philosophers and theologians influenced by Greek thought (especially by the Jewish thinker Philo of Alexandria) regarded the Logos as an inferior, secondary deity or as an emanation from God in time. Some Christian heresies, including an emerging form of Gnosticism, were already incorporating these theories into their doctrines and therefore relegating Jesus to an inferior role. John deliberately used their own terminology to refute these doctrines and to declare the truth. The Word was not inferior to God; it was God (John 1:1). The Word did not emanate from God over a period of time; it was with God in the beginning (John 1:1-2). Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was none other than the Word, or God, revealed in flesh. Note also that the Greek word pros, translated “with” in verse 1, is the same word translated “pertaining to” in Hebrews 2:17 and 5:1. John 1:1 could include in its meanings, therefore, the following: “The Word pertained to God and the Word was God,” or “The Word belonged to God and was God.”

The Word had preexistence and the Word was God (the Father), so we can use this term without reference to humanity. However, the Son always refers to the Incarnation, and we cannot speak of the Son in the absence of the human element. Except as a foreordained plan in the mind of God, the Son did not have preexistence before the conception in the womb of Mary. The Son of God preexisted in thought but not in substance. The Bible calls this foreordained revelation the Word (John 1:1, 14).

 

[Bill Taylor]

Let me ask this: If the Invisible God we serve was able to look into a mirror who would be that reflection?

Yashua but He is not insecure and does not need to comb his hair.

 

[B-A-C]

. Rather the Word was the thought, plan, or mind of God. The Word was with God in the beginning and actually was God Himself

It doesn't matter if it was a Word, a hamster or a tooth brush. It was God, and became flesh and dwelt among us.
The point is He was/is God.

 

[First and the Last]

It doesn't matter if it was a Word, a hamster or a tooth brush. It was God, and became flesh and dwelt among us.
The point is He was/is God.

i was just adding more insight into what was quoted. Trying to show that there is no such thing as the eternal Son because He was begotten at a specific time in Mary's womb and was God from the beginning of His human life.

 

[First and the Last]

Only two verses of Scripture in the entire Bible mention Father, Son (or Word), and Holy Ghost in a way that could suggest three persons or a special significance of the number three in relation to the Godhead. They are Matthew 28:19 and I John 5:7. However, both of these passages present serious problems for the trinitarian view.

Matthew 28:19
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19).

In this passage, Jesus commanded His disciples to baptize “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” However, this verse of Scripture does not teach that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three separate persons. Rather, it teaches that the titles of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost identify one name and therefore one being. The verse expressly says “in the name,” not “in the names.”

To answer any doubt that the singular-plural distinction is significant or was planned deliberately by God, we need only read Galatians 3:16, where Paul emphasized the significance of the singular “thy seed” in Genesis 22:18. Many trinitarian scholars have recognized at least partially the significance of the singular in Matthew 28:19. For example, Presbyterian professor James Buswell stated, “The ‘name,’ not ‘names,’ of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in which we are to be baptized, is to be understood as Jahweh, the name of the Triune God.” His insight of the singular is correct, although his identification of the singular name is in error. Jehovah or Yahweh was the revealed name of God in the Old Testament, but Jesus is the revealed name of God in the New Testament. However, the name Jesus includes Jehovah since Jesus means Jehovah-Savior.

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost all describe the one God, so the phrase in Matthew 28:19 simply describes the one name of the one God. The Old Testament promised that there would come a time when Jehovah would have one name and that this one name would be made known (Zechariah 14:9; Isaiah 52:6). We know that the one name of Matthew 28:19 is Jesus, for Jesus is the name of the Father (John 5:43; Hebrews 1:4), the Son (Matthew 1:21), and the Holy Ghost (John 14:26). The New Testament church understood this to be so, for they baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:5; I Corinthians 1:13). Matthew himself endorsed this interpretation by standing with Peter and the other apostles during the sermon in which Peter commanded the people to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:14-38).

Some claim that the references in Acts do not really mean that the name of Jesus was orally uttered as part of the baptismal formula. However, this appears to be an attempt to twist the language to comply with an erroneous doctrine and practice. Acts 22:16 says, “Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” The Amplified Bible says, “Rise and be baptized, and by calling upon His name wash away your sins.” The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament says, “Invoking the name.” Therefore this verse of Scripture indicates the name Jesus was orally invoked at baptism. James 2:7 says, “Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?” The Greek phrasing indicates that the name was invoked over the Christians at a specific time. Thus, TAB says, “Is it not they who slander and blaspheme that precious name by which you are distinguished and called [the name of Christ invoked in baptism]?” (brackets in original).

For an example of what “in the name of Jesus” means, we need only look at the story of the lame man’s healing in Acts 3. Jesus said to pray for the sick in His name (Mark 16:17-18), and Peter said the lame man was healed by the name of Jesus (Acts 4: 10). How did this happen? Peter actually uttered the words “in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 3:6). The name Jesus invoked in faith produced the result. The name signifies power or authority, but this signification does not detract from the fact that Peter orally invoked the name of Jesus in effecting the healing.

Matthew 28:19 does not teach three persons in one God, but rather it gives three titles of God, all of which properly apply to Jesus Christ. These titles sum up different roles of God or modes of His revelation; by the singular reference to “name,” the verse focuses upon the one name of God revealed in the New Testament. That name is Jesus.

 

[First and the Last]

I John 5:7 “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one” (I John 5:7)

Although this verse of Scripture is often used by those who believe in three persons of God, it actually refutes this view, for it says that “these three are one.” Some interpret this phrase to mean one in unity as husband and wife are one. But it should be pointed out that this view is essentially polytheistic. If the word one referred to unity instead of a numerical designation, then the Godhead could be viewed as many gods in a united council or government. If unity were meant, the verse should have read, “These three agree as one.”

It is also interesting to note that this verse does not use the word Son, but Word. If Son were the special name of a distinct person in the Godhead, and if this verse were trying to teach distinct persons, why did it use Word instead of Son? Son does not refer primarily to deity, but Word does. The Word is not a distinct person from the Father any more than a man and his word are distinct persons. Rather, the Word is the thought, plan, or mind of God and also the expression of God.

In a similar way, the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit is not a distinct person from the Father any more than a man and his spirit are distinct persons. “Holy Spirit” just describes what God is. I John 5:7 says that three bear record in heaven; that is, God has recorded Himself in three modes of activity or has revealed Himself in three ways. He has at least three heavenly roles: Father, Word (not Son), and Holy Ghost. Furthermore, these three roles describe one God: “these three are one.”

[NOTE: Just explained I John 5:7 in a way that is consistent with the rest of Scripture. However, there is practically unanimous agreement among Bible scholars that this verse is really not part of the Bible at all! All major translations since the King James Version have omitted it, including the Revised Standard Version, The Amplified Bible, and the New International Version. So does the generally accepted Greek text (Nestle’s text). The NIV renders I John 5:7-8 as, “For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and these three are in agreement.”
The KJV included verse 7 only because the 1522 edition of the Greek text compiled by Erasmus included it. Originally Erasmus had excluded this passage from his editions of 1516 and 1519 because it was not in any of 5,000 Greek manuscripts but only in late manuscripts of the Vulgate—the Latin version then used by the Roman Catholic Church. When the Catholic church put pressure on Erasmus to include this verse, he promised to do so if they could find even one Greek manuscript that had it. They finally produced one, so Erasmus reluctantly added the verse in, even though the manuscript so produced dated from 1520. (See Norman Geisler and William Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible, Chicago: Moody Press, 1968, 370.) From this evidence, it seems plausible that some overzealous copyist saw “there are three that testify” and decided to insert a little teaching of his own. Certainly, the passage in question is completely unrelated to the rest of John’s discussion here and interrupts the flow of his logical argument.

Although all the evidence indicates this passage was not originally a part of I John, God had His hand of protection and preservation on His Word. Despite the efforts of humans, God did not allow the passage to contradict His Word. Whether a person believes that I John 5:7 was originally part of the Bible or that it was a later interpolation, it does not teach three persons of God but rather reaffirms the Bible’s teaching of one indivisible God with various manifestations.]

 

[Curtis]

Heb 1:3 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 on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Jhn 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

Jesus is the exact image of the invisible God.

 

[Curtis]

Col 2:9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;

God has a body and it is Jesus Christ and within Jesus dwells all of the fullness of God. God the Father and God the Spirit dwell in their fullness inside God the Son.