Living the Christian life demands that we develop right attitudes and motivations. Here are some attitudes that we should definitely not develop.
Has anyone ever accused you of being in a "bad attitude"?
What, exactly, is a "bad attitude"?
It's easy, of course, to tell when others are not rightly motivated not thinking as true Christians should — isn't it? After all, you can hear their nasty remarks. You can see the wrong things they do and the selfishness they display. You may wonder. How can anyone be so bad?
Good question' But how about you'' Aren't you. at least and maybe more than occasionally, in a similar frame of mind? Do you abhor your own behavior as much as you do others? Do you always recognize when you are in a bad attitude? Are you deeply, honestly aware of it?
Perhaps you mislead someone — or maybe cloud the issue or exaggerate the facts. Or you are harsh toward a friend. Or you turn down an opportunity to help. Are you converted enough to repent of your mistake, to try to repair the damage and to do what you are supposed to do?
Some people are only in a good attitude when everything goes well with them - when their needs are fulfilled to their own satisfaction. But is there any merit in that? Can you still be in a good attitude when you are sick or when you lose a job or when people spread false rumors about you? Can you still fully live the Christian way when things get really tough''
Attitude spells success or failure depending on whether the attitude is good or bad. A good attitude can mean a happy home. a pleasant job situation, genuine friends — certainly a closer relationship with God. But a bad attitude can result in a broken home. unhappy surroundings, frustrations and loneliness!
For the true Christian, having the right attitude is all-important. God judges us according to our attitudes! Having the right attitude is our key to God's Kingdom.
After God's heart
Consider the criterion God used to choose David to be king over Israel.
When God told Samuel to go to the house of Jesse to find out which of Jesse's sons God would select to replace King Saul. Samuel first looked as we all do — at the sons' appearances.
"But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him for the lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" " (verse 7).
And God chose David. But why? What made David, and not his brothers, a man after God's own heart? The Bible clearly reveals the answer in one single verse: "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will" (Acts 13:22).
Notice it! David was a man after God's own heart because he was ready and willing to fulfill all God's will. Not his will, but God's. Despite his main sins and none of us is without sin - David's heart was right.
This mental frame of wanting to obey and serve God is the essence of a right altitude and its the opposite of a bad attitude. When you are wrong, are you willing to admit it? The hardest thing for any human being to do is admit that he is wrong. But a willingness to see and correct error is an important part of a right attitude.
Christ gave a striking example to illustrate the importance of correcting wrong: "A man had two sons." Christ said, in parable, "and he came to the first and said. "Son, go, work today in my vineyard." He answered and said. I will not, but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, 'I go, sir,' but he did not go" (Matt 21:28=30) Which one of the two sons resembles you? The decisions you make may not always be wise, but after thinking things over and examining the facts, arc you Christian enough to change your mind and do what you should have done in the first place?
If you are not willing to recognize your mistakes and change, then Christ will give you the same answer He gave those who heard this parable, saying, "Assuredly. I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you" (verse
31)
Let's briefly examine four major aspects of wrong attitudes. We all have wrong altitudes from time to time, and we need to overcome them. When we do. we will have made a giant step toward the Kingdom of God.
Constantly finding fault
Some people constantly look for faults in their neighbors. They criticize and condemn, making themselves judges. This always-
wanting - to - find - fault attitude makes them feel superior — fills them with self-righteousness.
Do you realize that you can never enter God's Kingdom until you get rid of this altitude?
Christ said: "Judge not. that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use. it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye. but do not consider the plank in your own eye?" (Matt. 7:1-3).
Satan was the first to develop and exercise this fault-finding attitude. As the archangel Lucifer. before he became Satan, he-found fault with God's government and began to want to take-God's place Isa. 14:12-14. Ezek. 28:12-15). He influenced a third of all the angels to develop this same rebellious attitude toward God. convincing them to join him in an unsuccessful attempt to knock God off His throne (Rev.12:3-4).
Then, alter God created the first man and woman. Satan convinced Eve that God was wrong to forbid Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The couple believed Satan and disobeyed God. Consequently, they were afraid when the) heard the sound of their Creator's voice in the garden of Eden. They hid themselves.
When God asked their why, Adam answered. "I was afraid because I was naked: and I hid myself" (Gen 3:10).
"Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat.'" asked God (verse 11).
Adam's answer is typical of one who wants to justify himself by accusing someone else. He didn't think that he should be blamed for his disobedience. According to Adam, it was the woman's fault! "The woman whom You gave to be with me. she gave me of the tree, and I ate," he told God (verse 12).
Did Eve, then, accept any Blame, No, Her answer was just as self-justifying and accusatory as Adam's: She, too, put the blame on someone else, saying. "The serpent deceived me. and I ate" (verse 1 3).
All things considered, Adam probably thought that the fault for the whole incident was God's, since God made the serpent who, in turn, deceived the woman who convinced Adam to eat the fruit.
This reasoning, strange but familial to us all, is called human logic: It enables us to blame-others for our own shortcomings or wrongdoings. Rather than admitting and correcting our mistakes. we declare ourselves innocent and expect others to repent of having been instrumental in our misbehavior.
Before it's too late, we need to get rid of this always-wanting-to-find-fault attitude.
Being unwilling to forgive
Do you easily forgive others' For instance, if there is a misunderstanding between you and another member of your family. are you willing to recognize your faults and to forgive his? Suppose one of your friends does something wrong and. afterward, tells you he really is sorry. Would you forgive him. or would you hold a grudge against him.?
Most of us don't have a forgiving attitude. We want to get even with people, vindicate ourselves. prove our own righteousness. But one thing is sure: If we don't forgive our neighbor. God will not forgive us our sins.
In the model prayer Christ gave. He taught us to ask God to "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Malt. 6:12).
Christ added: "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (verses 14-15).
God is love, He is always willing to forgive us if we truly repent of our sins. He wants us to develop this same forgiving altitude. Remember Christ's answer when Peter asked Him how often he should forgive his brother? Was it seven times? "Jesus said to him, I do not say to you. up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven" " (Matt 18:22).
Afterward, Christ spoke of a servant who owed a considerable amount of money to his master. His master, filled with compassion and showing mercy, forgave him and canceled the debt.
Shortly thereafter, the same servant was unwilling to write off a small debt someone else owed him. He "went out . . and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me what you owe!" So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying. 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you all' " (verses 21-29).
But he would not. He threw his fellow servant into prison. Upon hearing this his own master called him and said: "You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity On you?" (verses 32:13).
Of what value are these parables if we don't learn the lessons they contain for our growth?
What would your attitude be if you were arrested on false accusations and sentenced to die? Suppose your persecutors even mocked you and spat on you Would your attitude be one of forgiving those who falsely condemned you?
This actually happened to Stephen. He was arrested, persecuted and falsely accused His attackers cast him out of the city and stoned him. But he knelt and "cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord. do not Charge them with this sin." And when he had said
this, he fell asleep {died]" (Acts 7:60).
A true Christian should have this type of forgiving attitude at all times. This is the attitude Christ Himself had toward His own murderers! He said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34)
When you repent, God completely forgives and forgets your sins. You cannot enter God's Kingdom unless you learn to forgive your brother's sins.
Feeling sorry for yourself
Some people are perpetual mourners, they can't stop feeling sorry for themselves. Suffering from self pity, they consider themselves victims of circumstance. They seem to be burdened with questions like. "Why me'' and "Why did it have to happen to me?" Somehow everything always seems to go wrong, for them, and they convince themselves that they have no reason to
be happy.
Are you like this? Think of all the seriously handicapped people on earth who have succeeded despite adverse circumstances. These people have worked hard in order to, in many eases, achieve simple things that those of us who are more fortunate take for granted. But whatever their trials, they had one thing in common: They never pitied themselves — never let themselves he discouraged or overcome by their physical handicaps. They didn't waste time complaining about their misfortune.
Are you like this?
Think: If people in the world without God's Spirit - can succeed despite their handicaps, how much more reason do you and I we who have God's Spirit of power — have to succeed! God loves you even it you are Crippled or handicapped. Those
are only temporary physical hindrances, He will never forsake you. Therefore, be courageous and grateful for what you have.
Stop Complaining about what you don't have. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Greatness was never attained through self-pity.
No one will enter God's Kingdom until he learns to appreciate life.
The apostle Paul suffered more than most people. He endured hardship, persecution and all kinds of false accusations He would have had good reasons, humanly, to pity himself After all, before his conversion, he was a well-respected, powerful individual, filled with zeal for a task he did (Phil. 3:4-6).
When he became a Christian, Paul just about lost everything he had, including his friends in the world. For a long lime even those in the Church doubted his conversion and turned away from him. Also, he continually suffered from a thorn in the flesh some physical handicap (II Cor. 12:7).
Wouldn't you think that Paul had enough reasons to complain and to pity himself? But he didn't. Instead, he wrote for our instruction: "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice!" (Phil 4:4).
When you rejoice in the Lord you cannot pity yourself. Rejoicing and pitying are opposites. How did Paul endure suffering and still remain in a good attitude? What formula did he use?
Under God's inspiration, he reveals it to us: "Whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, what ever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy meditate on these things" (Phil. 4:8). The greatest curse in life is when you are cut off from God — when you are left without His Spirit. But there is no reason for you to be cut off from God. You are not alone. If you are a true Christian, you have His Spirit Therefore, whatever your problems, you a begotten child of God must never feel sorry for yourself, never pity yourself (I John 3:22). You will always have the courage to go forward in life in the right altitude.
Feeling "holier than thou"
Some people suffer from an inferiority complex: others have a vain sense of superiority. How about you? If you pity yourself, it may be that you suffer from an inferiority complex. On the other hand, if you think of yourself as being better than others if you are boastful then you are manifesting a "holier-than-thou" attitude.
Examine yourself! Do you think of yourself as better than others little more right more generous — more Christian? When you are proven right and someone else is shown to be wrong about something, do you feel superior to them as a human being?
"Whoever desires to be first among you," said Christ, "let him be your slave" (Matt. 20.27).
The book of Proverbs gives us many admonitions regarding vanity, conceit and self-righteousness. For instance, we read in Proverbs 26:12: "Do you see a man wise in his own eyes'? There is more hope for a fool than for him." Or, "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes. But the Lord weighs the hearts" (Prov. 21:2).
In other words, you might think that you have more going for you than someone else. You might consider yourself a better person perhaps a more valuable helper! But whatever your achievements, however great they may be — if you have conceit in your heart you are in the wrong attitude. And unless you repent of that wrong attitude with all your heart, you will never enter the Kingdom of God.
"Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; A stranger. and not your own lips" (Prov. 27:2)
Read the parable Christ gave about the prayers of a publican and a Pharisee. The Pharisee, disdaining the publican next to him. had nothing but good to say about his own attitude, his praiseworthy deeds and his willingness to sacrifice. But the publican, realizing how insignificant he was before God, would not even raise his eyes while praying (Luke 18:9-14). God accepted the publican. but not the Pharisee!
Are you a Pharisee or a publican'? Where is your greatness? What do you have that you have not received from God? Every blessing comes from God. All the glory is His (II Cor. 10:17-18).
If you want to be a Christian after God's own heart, then you must get rid of conceit and boastfulness. You must serve in all humility, counting others better than yourself (Phil. 2:3). You must help without seeking glory.
God is not a respecter of persons. He loves us all and wants us all to be great. But remember The greatest among us is the humblest of all and the servant of all!
In this area, as well as in the case of every one of God's commandments, we need to strive mightily to have right attitudes pleasing to God.
Start the change now — don't put it off! Your attitude is the key to making you a Christian after God's own heart — and will unlock before you the door to the Kingdom of God!
By Dibar K. Apartian, Good News Magazine, January 1983
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Brought to you as a Study Resource by the
Church of God Faithful Flock
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Are You Expressing True Love?
Everyone thinks he knows what real out going love is- but few do. Even fewer realize the vital importance of expressing it
Every human being is just naturally interested in his or her own things.
He knows nothing else!
He is interested in his own pleasure. His own happiness. His own profit, His own importance. Charm, Effectiveness, Success, Friends, who mean a lot to him.
Often, He is concerned for others only when he is reminded that he should be, and then it is because doing, nice things makes him feel like a better person. A small sacrifice or a charitable act becomes a means of self exaltation, TO do something nice for others makes him feel good, and makes others admire him.
Yet, in his own mind he thinks he has "love." Truly, as God's Word tells us, man's heart is deceptive above all things and desperately wicked( Jeremiah 7:9).
A Loveless Generation
One of the saddest commentaries of our time is the lack of genuine love and concern for other members of the human race.
Almost everyone suffers from the loneliness of being shut out from the thoughts and actions of others.
Loneliness has come to be a major problem in our modern way of life, it has probably been the cause of more delinquency, destructive acts and desperate behavior than any other single factor.
As Norman Roston wrote in the article "The Ones - Who Wait" published several years ago in The Saturday Evening Post,"you can see them (the unloved) in the city or town, men or women, the young and the old, gathering in the late afternoon or evenings, strolling in the streets, or wandering through stores or in the parks, or sitting on park benches or heading for bars. They are in search of others, the unnamed, the yet to be found, the hour-long or night long companions. And the numberless unseen who merely wait alone in separate rooms, in small desperate rooms, their, hope behind, accepting defeat. These are the ones who have somehow missed the miracle. Passed by while others were chosen."
"Perhaps the saddest of these are the aged and ill, betrayed by the world, forgotten by kin. The living turn cruelly and irrevocably away from the dying. And love, the root of life, withers."
"'I don't know why they're keeping me alive,' said the man in the sun tilled ward in the hospital, his hands flat upon the sheet his head turned toward the window where the sun danced. I'm not going anywhere if I get better. I've got a sister living in California, but she hasn't written for years, and I never hear from my daughters. No one visit's me now except a nun sometimes, who is very nice, but I don't even know her name. It doesn't mean anything."
"It is not merely a matter of age. The loveless exist wherever life may be. They are the obviously scarred or the seemingly well, the wounded with the scar hidden, they are married or single, in and out of careers, in and out of marital beds or motel adventures, all touched by that, shadow of having been denied, forgotten, unblessed."
This is a pitiful, sad commentary on real life! Perhaps you feel that you are being left out of the affection and concern of others.
But what are you doing for others? How about you? Do you have any loved ones going hungry for a word of encouragement, a note or visit that says you care about them?
Truly, outgoing love is in desperately short supply in this generation. If you and I are not careful, we will fall right into the trap that so many people without any knowledge of God's truth are in. But if we will begin to exercise outgoing concern ourselves, our own loneliness will evaporate.
Even though this godless generation makes goodwill diilicult, it is still necessary for human happiness. Life without personal warmth and goodwill is not real living.
Love Absolutely Necessary
People need to see a smile and receive a cheery greeting that some how conveys interest in their welfare, with a willingness to stop and help when necessary. Such love is a vital part of any happy society.
And it will be a prominent, personal, daily quality in God's Kingdom. Those of us who are able to see that outgoing love is, a part of God's way of life, and who have chosen to come out of this world and to learn and practice God's way, may not excuse ourselves from having and practicing outgoing love and concern for others. It is an absolute requirement for any who expect to enter His Kingdom.
Those who have not demonstrated genuine outgoing concern for others in their daily lives will not enter at all (Matthew 25:31-4)!
To those who do not aid the stranger, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick and the confined, Jesus Christ will say, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."
True love is so important that Almighty God warns those without it that they are as worthless as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1).
A personality devoid of outgoing love is a sick personality! It is unpleasant, unwholesome and ineffective.
On the other hand, an outgoing personality adds immeasurably to health, happiness and prosperity. It is a delight to everyone, and it will certainly make the lives of those around much brighter and more worthwhile.
The apostle Paul, wrote: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing" (I Corinthians 13:1-2).
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This knowledge comes only from, the Bible, and understanding Comes from God's Holy Spirit, which no one possesses naturally.
Without God's Holy Spirit, the only genuine interest we have is self-interest. Unconverted people are interested, in others only in relation to what others mean to them - what they get in return.
Since this world's advisers are without God's Spirit, their writings or examples unwittingly advocate "putting it on" in order to receive. But giving in order to receive is not goodwill. It is pursuing self-profit.
All of us have heard about love and goodwill from people who don't really understand it. We have seen others' examples of what it is supposed to be, but We have received wrong information. Right Knowledge was simply not available because of a lack of spiritual understanding.
Some Are Asleep
Yet even some who have been baptized, have God's Spirit, know God's plan and hope to enter God's Kingdom lack this outgoing love. They just don't think about others. Their fruitless lives make it obvious that they do not actively care for others. They intend to do right. They often think to do good works, yet seldom get around to actually doing them. They try to be nice they often say and do pleasant things They try to be fair.
Yet, no one is benefited. No one's life is being changed. No one's hope is lifted up. No happiness is radiated to others. No joy is spread,. Instead, they are forced to rationalize, defend themselves, argue or retreat. This kind of behavior falls far short of truly outgoing love.
In fact, it is, not love at all.it is merely living up to what we feel is required of us. It is a person's way of demanding credit for being nice. It is selfish.
Goodwill or true outgoing love must come from a Spirit-led heart, Even though the heart of man is not naturally inclined to love his fellows, through God's help we can change.
And there is a lot we must do ourselves.
What can we do?
The formula for receiving God's Holy Spirit is given by the Apostle Peter in Acts 2:38.
Peter said to those pricked in the heart and wanting to do something about their condition: "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Repentance means turning 'from your human way of self-centeredness And pursuing God's way. It means repenting of breaking. God's law. and setting your will to obey from here on.
God will then give you His Holy Spirit, a spirit of a sound mind -- wisdom by which you can intelligently love and consider others. You cannot work up goodwill by yourself.
To act like you have is to be false. Any act, no matter how good; is eventually discovered to be just that - acting.
On the other hand; when we receive God's Holy Spirit we do. not just automatically and mysteriously become perfect. We work toward perfection with much effort on our part using the Spirit God gives us.
God's Spirit opens our minds to realize the importance of others in our lifes and our importance in theirs. The goodwill we give and receive is a vital commodity. We come to realize that fellowship of kindred spirits is most beautiful. God's Spirit also gives us the assurance that this harmonious love and goodwill is worth working for.
If you would like to know more about this vital key, to true outgoing love, write for our free reprint "How You Can Be Imbued with the Power of God" See the middle front cover for the address nearest you.
Your part
Outgoing love requires work along with willpower and determination. It is an uphill pull: because human nature is not natrally outgoing.
Human nature, as influenced by Satan the devil, the "Prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2) is selfish.. To be outgoing in love cuts against the grain of what we have been absorbing through Satan's influence all our lives.
Wisdom to try - wisdom to correctly guide your efforts - wisdom to keep trying in spite of all adversity, wisdom to discern God's will - is an absolute necessity in learning to exercise true love.
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If any of you lacks wisdom let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him But let him ask in faith, with no "doubting" (James1: 5-6).
In faith, you must stand unwaveringly on your trust and conviction.
In hope, you guide your action expecting to receive the desire you have set your heart on. This hope adds the spiritual motivation to go forward. In love, you must act with un-selfishness, with initiative and genuine concern for everyone.
These three important ingredients are added to your gilt of wisdom through effort on your part they are all important, but the most important, and the one that takes most effort, is love. (I Corinthians I3:13)
Love and Godly Character
This what life is all about. This is how you have your part in your own salvation.
This process of creating Godly Character in us is God's plan of creating children. It is His doing, but we also have our part. Besides our willpower and determination, it takes our resourcefulness, perseverance and drive.
It requires breaking old habits - habits of thinking and acting selfishly. It then requires building new habits - habits of thinking and acting in outgoing love. The old habits are deeply ingrained, just as the new habits must become deeply ingrained if they are to become part of us.
To build a habit .you must do a thing over and over until it becomes automatic behavior. It has been said that we are want we habitually are, and you become godlike when you become habitually and consistently godlike.
God is love and He acts habitually 'and consistently in outgoing love. That is what we are learning to do through HIS Holy Spirit. The basic laws of God are given for the 'purpose of developing godly love and goodwill. They are laws of love (I John 4:8).
The meaning
I Corinthians 13 makes it clear what true love is. The word translated charity in the Authorized Version does not mean "giving to the poor." Verse 3 clearly demonstrates that - read it yourself.
The Greek word translated "charity" is agape, not Phileo which is more commonly used, to denote emotional love. Agape and Phileo have similar meanings, but Phileo "Comes chiefly from the heart," explains Strong's Exhaustive Concordance while agape "comes from the head." It means to think and act toward others with genuine concern and tenderness. It means having goodwill -feeling it deeply but intelligently.
While either word can be translated "love," the Authorized Version translators used "charity"to distinguish this intelligent, heartfelt concern (outgoing love or goodwill) from the kind of emotion that the word love conveys to the average person.
What True Love is Like
Verse 4 shows that this agape, this intelligent outgoing love or goodwill, is always patient with others, suffering long with any grievance received from them.
It is kind - unfailingly kind - as you will see by comparing verse 4 with verse 8.
Love never compares itself with others (II Corinthians 10:12) so that it is never envious (jealous), never vaunts itself (boasts) to get self acclaim.
It is never puffed up (arrogant, self-important). Such puffed-up ego only shows, that you have compared yourself with others and found them beneath you. Goodwill - will never behave itself unseemly (unpleasantly, unbecomingly). Phillipians 4:8 also adds information on the pleasant things we should do instead: "Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, what ever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy meditate on these things."
True love seeks not its own - is not self-centered, not carnal (1 Corinthians I3:5).
It is not easily provoked (aroused to anger).
It thinks no evil - does not dwell on the ugly, wicked side of others behavior, nor is resentful OR bitter!
And it never rejoices in hearing or seeing iniquity. Instead, it rejoices in truth in wholesomeness (verse 6). If a person belittles or insults you, real love never causes you to rail back, but it bears all things (forbears in all provocations). It never inflicts harm for harm, evil for evil or insult for insult.
This agape believes, the best in all matters. It does not show unpleasantness and ill-will by doubting or causing dissent, but hopes for the best in all things - is not negative!
God's Love Endures all things. Trials unpleasant episodes, differences of opinion, misunderstandings do not send it off in a corner to mope or to turn away in bitterness. It does not lose friends over them. It does not give up. It never fails! When everything else has failed, true love - .genuine goodwill and outgoing concern for others will still be going strong.
Jesus Christ's example while On the cross ,is the one we should strive to follow. He said of all His scowling, bloodthirsty, hate filled tormentors, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34).
Can you still be a friend to those who hate you? Can you still have goodwill toward them? Can you still be concerned for their welfare?
You must, you know! And, you must come to have it habitually and consistently.
How to have True Love
If you want to live and act in love and goodwill, go to the author of all that is good. Ask Him prayerfully to give you this attitude and show you the way. Expect Him to answer and to keep on, giving it to you us long us you are trying to give up your old. self-centeredness and striving to " live God's way".
Then follow God's biblical instructions on how to behave toward others in love and goodwill.-Live by the Laws of love.
Your selfish human nature has always had its way in the past and will continue to crop up so you must continue to resist self-will while you step out in faith to do God's will. - "goodwill".
Like a baby's first steps, your first attempts may not be very skillful. You may stumble, you may even fall. But dust yourself off, ask forgiveness and try sgain and again, until you habitually come to have goodwill - God's will towards all people. .
Romans 13:8-9, says: "Owe no man anything, except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandment, "You shall not commit adultery.' 'You shall not murder' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,' 'You shall not covet,' and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, 'You shall love your neighbor, as yourself."
It takes work to be, outgoing. You won't even think to do it without effort, and it won't be successful even then if you don't stay close to God. This also takes effort of will and energy.
Yet this love is absolutely required by God. It is a wonderful thing to have. No one will enter His Kingdom without it (Matthew 25:3l-46).
Now is. The time to "marshal your energy" to make certain you have God's great love. Develop it and radiate it all the rest of your life. The time is short. It is later than you think.
Reprinted from an article by Jack H. Elliott in the Jume 1984 Good News Magazine
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Brought to you as a Study Resource by the
Church of God Faithful Flock
Every human being is just naturally interested in his or her own things.
He knows nothing else!
He is interested in his own pleasure. His own happiness. His own profit, His own importance. Charm, Effectiveness, Success, Friends, who mean a lot to him.
Often, He is concerned for others only when he is reminded that he should be, and then it is because doing, nice things makes him feel like a better person. A small sacrifice or a charitable act becomes a means of self exaltation, TO do something nice for others makes him feel good, and makes others admire him.
Yet, in his own mind he thinks he has "love." Truly, as God's Word tells us, man's heart is deceptive above all things and desperately wicked( Jeremiah 7:9).
A Loveless Generation
One of the saddest commentaries of our time is the lack of genuine love and concern for other members of the human race.
Almost everyone suffers from the loneliness of being shut out from the thoughts and actions of others.
Loneliness has come to be a major problem in our modern way of life, it has probably been the cause of more delinquency, destructive acts and desperate behavior than any other single factor.
As Norman Roston wrote in the article "The Ones - Who Wait" published several years ago in The Saturday Evening Post,"you can see them (the unloved) in the city or town, men or women, the young and the old, gathering in the late afternoon or evenings, strolling in the streets, or wandering through stores or in the parks, or sitting on park benches or heading for bars. They are in search of others, the unnamed, the yet to be found, the hour-long or night long companions. And the numberless unseen who merely wait alone in separate rooms, in small desperate rooms, their, hope behind, accepting defeat. These are the ones who have somehow missed the miracle. Passed by while others were chosen."
"Perhaps the saddest of these are the aged and ill, betrayed by the world, forgotten by kin. The living turn cruelly and irrevocably away from the dying. And love, the root of life, withers."
"'I don't know why they're keeping me alive,' said the man in the sun tilled ward in the hospital, his hands flat upon the sheet his head turned toward the window where the sun danced. I'm not going anywhere if I get better. I've got a sister living in California, but she hasn't written for years, and I never hear from my daughters. No one visit's me now except a nun sometimes, who is very nice, but I don't even know her name. It doesn't mean anything."
"It is not merely a matter of age. The loveless exist wherever life may be. They are the obviously scarred or the seemingly well, the wounded with the scar hidden, they are married or single, in and out of careers, in and out of marital beds or motel adventures, all touched by that, shadow of having been denied, forgotten, unblessed."
This is a pitiful, sad commentary on real life! Perhaps you feel that you are being left out of the affection and concern of others.
But what are you doing for others? How about you? Do you have any loved ones going hungry for a word of encouragement, a note or visit that says you care about them?
Truly, outgoing love is in desperately short supply in this generation. If you and I are not careful, we will fall right into the trap that so many people without any knowledge of God's truth are in. But if we will begin to exercise outgoing concern ourselves, our own loneliness will evaporate.
Even though this godless generation makes goodwill diilicult, it is still necessary for human happiness. Life without personal warmth and goodwill is not real living.
Love Absolutely Necessary
People need to see a smile and receive a cheery greeting that some how conveys interest in their welfare, with a willingness to stop and help when necessary. Such love is a vital part of any happy society.
And it will be a prominent, personal, daily quality in God's Kingdom. Those of us who are able to see that outgoing love is, a part of God's way of life, and who have chosen to come out of this world and to learn and practice God's way, may not excuse ourselves from having and practicing outgoing love and concern for others. It is an absolute requirement for any who expect to enter His Kingdom.
Those who have not demonstrated genuine outgoing concern for others in their daily lives will not enter at all (Matthew 25:31-4)!
To those who do not aid the stranger, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick and the confined, Jesus Christ will say, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."
True love is so important that Almighty God warns those without it that they are as worthless as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1).
A personality devoid of outgoing love is a sick personality! It is unpleasant, unwholesome and ineffective.
On the other hand, an outgoing personality adds immeasurably to health, happiness and prosperity. It is a delight to everyone, and it will certainly make the lives of those around much brighter and more worthwhile.
The apostle Paul, wrote: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing" (I Corinthians 13:1-2).
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This knowledge comes only from, the Bible, and understanding Comes from God's Holy Spirit, which no one possesses naturally.
Without God's Holy Spirit, the only genuine interest we have is self-interest. Unconverted people are interested, in others only in relation to what others mean to them - what they get in return.
Since this world's advisers are without God's Spirit, their writings or examples unwittingly advocate "putting it on" in order to receive. But giving in order to receive is not goodwill. It is pursuing self-profit.
All of us have heard about love and goodwill from people who don't really understand it. We have seen others' examples of what it is supposed to be, but We have received wrong information. Right Knowledge was simply not available because of a lack of spiritual understanding.
Some Are Asleep
Yet even some who have been baptized, have God's Spirit, know God's plan and hope to enter God's Kingdom lack this outgoing love. They just don't think about others. Their fruitless lives make it obvious that they do not actively care for others. They intend to do right. They often think to do good works, yet seldom get around to actually doing them. They try to be nice they often say and do pleasant things They try to be fair.
Yet, no one is benefited. No one's life is being changed. No one's hope is lifted up. No happiness is radiated to others. No joy is spread,. Instead, they are forced to rationalize, defend themselves, argue or retreat. This kind of behavior falls far short of truly outgoing love.
In fact, it is, not love at all.it is merely living up to what we feel is required of us. It is a person's way of demanding credit for being nice. It is selfish.
Goodwill or true outgoing love must come from a Spirit-led heart, Even though the heart of man is not naturally inclined to love his fellows, through God's help we can change.
And there is a lot we must do ourselves.
What can we do?
The formula for receiving God's Holy Spirit is given by the Apostle Peter in Acts 2:38.
Peter said to those pricked in the heart and wanting to do something about their condition: "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Repentance means turning 'from your human way of self-centeredness And pursuing God's way. It means repenting of breaking. God's law. and setting your will to obey from here on.
God will then give you His Holy Spirit, a spirit of a sound mind -- wisdom by which you can intelligently love and consider others. You cannot work up goodwill by yourself.
To act like you have is to be false. Any act, no matter how good; is eventually discovered to be just that - acting.
On the other hand; when we receive God's Holy Spirit we do. not just automatically and mysteriously become perfect. We work toward perfection with much effort on our part using the Spirit God gives us.
God's Spirit opens our minds to realize the importance of others in our lifes and our importance in theirs. The goodwill we give and receive is a vital commodity. We come to realize that fellowship of kindred spirits is most beautiful. God's Spirit also gives us the assurance that this harmonious love and goodwill is worth working for.
If you would like to know more about this vital key, to true outgoing love, write for our free reprint "How You Can Be Imbued with the Power of God" See the middle front cover for the address nearest you.
Your part
Outgoing love requires work along with willpower and determination. It is an uphill pull: because human nature is not natrally outgoing.
Human nature, as influenced by Satan the devil, the "Prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2) is selfish.. To be outgoing in love cuts against the grain of what we have been absorbing through Satan's influence all our lives.
Wisdom to try - wisdom to correctly guide your efforts - wisdom to keep trying in spite of all adversity, wisdom to discern God's will - is an absolute necessity in learning to exercise true love.
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If any of you lacks wisdom let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him But let him ask in faith, with no "doubting" (James1: 5-6).
In faith, you must stand unwaveringly on your trust and conviction.
In hope, you guide your action expecting to receive the desire you have set your heart on. This hope adds the spiritual motivation to go forward. In love, you must act with un-selfishness, with initiative and genuine concern for everyone.
These three important ingredients are added to your gilt of wisdom through effort on your part they are all important, but the most important, and the one that takes most effort, is love. (I Corinthians I3:13)
Love and Godly Character
This what life is all about. This is how you have your part in your own salvation.
This process of creating Godly Character in us is God's plan of creating children. It is His doing, but we also have our part. Besides our willpower and determination, it takes our resourcefulness, perseverance and drive.
It requires breaking old habits - habits of thinking and acting selfishly. It then requires building new habits - habits of thinking and acting in outgoing love. The old habits are deeply ingrained, just as the new habits must become deeply ingrained if they are to become part of us.
To build a habit .you must do a thing over and over until it becomes automatic behavior. It has been said that we are want we habitually are, and you become godlike when you become habitually and consistently godlike.
God is love and He acts habitually 'and consistently in outgoing love. That is what we are learning to do through HIS Holy Spirit. The basic laws of God are given for the 'purpose of developing godly love and goodwill. They are laws of love (I John 4:8).
The meaning
I Corinthians 13 makes it clear what true love is. The word translated charity in the Authorized Version does not mean "giving to the poor." Verse 3 clearly demonstrates that - read it yourself.
The Greek word translated "charity" is agape, not Phileo which is more commonly used, to denote emotional love. Agape and Phileo have similar meanings, but Phileo "Comes chiefly from the heart," explains Strong's Exhaustive Concordance while agape "comes from the head." It means to think and act toward others with genuine concern and tenderness. It means having goodwill -feeling it deeply but intelligently.
While either word can be translated "love," the Authorized Version translators used "charity"to distinguish this intelligent, heartfelt concern (outgoing love or goodwill) from the kind of emotion that the word love conveys to the average person.
What True Love is Like
Verse 4 shows that this agape, this intelligent outgoing love or goodwill, is always patient with others, suffering long with any grievance received from them.
It is kind - unfailingly kind - as you will see by comparing verse 4 with verse 8.
Love never compares itself with others (II Corinthians 10:12) so that it is never envious (jealous), never vaunts itself (boasts) to get self acclaim.
It is never puffed up (arrogant, self-important). Such puffed-up ego only shows, that you have compared yourself with others and found them beneath you. Goodwill - will never behave itself unseemly (unpleasantly, unbecomingly). Phillipians 4:8 also adds information on the pleasant things we should do instead: "Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, what ever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy meditate on these things."
True love seeks not its own - is not self-centered, not carnal (1 Corinthians I3:5).
It is not easily provoked (aroused to anger).
It thinks no evil - does not dwell on the ugly, wicked side of others behavior, nor is resentful OR bitter!
And it never rejoices in hearing or seeing iniquity. Instead, it rejoices in truth in wholesomeness (verse 6). If a person belittles or insults you, real love never causes you to rail back, but it bears all things (forbears in all provocations). It never inflicts harm for harm, evil for evil or insult for insult.
This agape believes, the best in all matters. It does not show unpleasantness and ill-will by doubting or causing dissent, but hopes for the best in all things - is not negative!
God's Love Endures all things. Trials unpleasant episodes, differences of opinion, misunderstandings do not send it off in a corner to mope or to turn away in bitterness. It does not lose friends over them. It does not give up. It never fails! When everything else has failed, true love - .genuine goodwill and outgoing concern for others will still be going strong.
Jesus Christ's example while On the cross ,is the one we should strive to follow. He said of all His scowling, bloodthirsty, hate filled tormentors, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34).
Can you still be a friend to those who hate you? Can you still have goodwill toward them? Can you still be concerned for their welfare?
You must, you know! And, you must come to have it habitually and consistently.
How to have True Love
If you want to live and act in love and goodwill, go to the author of all that is good. Ask Him prayerfully to give you this attitude and show you the way. Expect Him to answer and to keep on, giving it to you us long us you are trying to give up your old. self-centeredness and striving to " live God's way".
Then follow God's biblical instructions on how to behave toward others in love and goodwill.-Live by the Laws of love.
Your selfish human nature has always had its way in the past and will continue to crop up so you must continue to resist self-will while you step out in faith to do God's will. - "goodwill".
Like a baby's first steps, your first attempts may not be very skillful. You may stumble, you may even fall. But dust yourself off, ask forgiveness and try sgain and again, until you habitually come to have goodwill - God's will towards all people. .
Romans 13:8-9, says: "Owe no man anything, except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandment, "You shall not commit adultery.' 'You shall not murder' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,' 'You shall not covet,' and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, 'You shall love your neighbor, as yourself."
It takes work to be, outgoing. You won't even think to do it without effort, and it won't be successful even then if you don't stay close to God. This also takes effort of will and energy.
Yet this love is absolutely required by God. It is a wonderful thing to have. No one will enter His Kingdom without it (Matthew 25:3l-46).
Now is. The time to "marshal your energy" to make certain you have God's great love. Develop it and radiate it all the rest of your life. The time is short. It is later than you think.
Reprinted from an article by Jack H. Elliott in the Jume 1984 Good News Magazine
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Brought to you as a Study Resource by the
Church of God Faithful Flock
Friday, February 13, 2009
Are you a LIVING Sacrifice
Today we don't worship God by slaying a bull or a goat and offering it as a sacrifice. The sacrifice Christians are to offer is a living one. But what does that mean?
In Romans 12:1 the apostle Paul wrote that we should present our bodies "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God."
A "Living Sacrifice?" What.was Paul talking about? Aren't sacrifices killed?
Well, they were in Old Testament times. Back then the slaying of an animal foreshadowed the time when the Lamb of God would be offered for the sins of the World. Since the death of Jesus we no longer need to offer animal sacrifices as part of our religious worship.
Even under the Old Covenant, though, animal sacrifices were only substitutes for what God really wanted. It wasn't that He needed animals offered to Him. He owns every thing. "For every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills," He declares (Ps. 50:10).
Samuel put his finger on what God really desires; "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offering and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?" He asked, "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams (I Sam. 15:22).
The prophet Micah inquired: ''Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" (Mic. 6:6-7).
Would these actions satisfy God?
Here is the answer; "he hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do Justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (verse 8).
That's what God WANTS!
The sacrifice's that truly please Him involve genuine repentance, '"For thou desirest not [animal] sacrifices else would I give it," David stated. "Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart O God, thou wilt not despise.'' (Ps. 51:16-17)
The problem was that without the Holy spirit, carnal human beings, could not fulfill the requirements for Conversion. So the physical Levitical System was set up, by witch sin was acknowledged (but not paid for) by various sacrifices. Physical substitutions and profound ceremonial symbols were used to foreshadow, the spiritual administration under the New Testament, when the Holy Spirit would be given to those God called.
Physical Types
Physical Israel had a physical priesthood serving in a physical tabernacle or temple. Today the church is spiritual Israel. And the Church is the Temple. The church in one sense is also a priesthood, as the apostle Peter pointed out in I Peter 2:5 "Ye also, as lively [living] stones, are built up a spiritual house [not a physical temple], an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices." Agajn in verse 9 he staled, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation."
Of course, for we are training to be kings and priests in the coming government of God (Rev. 1:6, 5:10."
"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection... they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years" (Rev. 20:6). What an awesome calling!
In view of that calling, one cannot help but notice many parallels between various aspects of the Old Testament priesthood and what our spiritual lives should be like.
Take, for example, the clothing the priests wore. It was to be made of fine linen garments "for glory and for beauty" (Ex. 28:40-43, 39:27-31).
Revelation 19:8 tells us that "fine linen is the righteousness of saints," Fine white linen represents God's righteousness - the keeping of commandments (Ps. 119:172). David exclaimed, "Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness" (Ps, 1329).
The priests' clothing was given to them. They had to put off their own. In the same way we must get rid of our own righteousness, which Is as filthy rags, (Isa. 64:6), and let God clothe us with His righteousness (Is. 61:10).
Jesus - The Eternal- is our righteousness (Jer. 23:6). That's why we are told to "put off" the deeds of the flesh and to "put on" the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14, Gal. 3:27).
God's Spirit is Unique
Some mistakenly think I there are other churches similar to God's Church. Actually, there is no such thing AS being almost God's Church. Either it is God's Church with God's Spirit, or it is as far from it as death is from life. The Holy Spirit makes the difference. There is no substitute for God's Spirit.
This is made clear by the Holy anointing oil …symbol of the Holy Spirit with which the Levitical priests were anointed, it was a special bled of prize spices and oil, not to be duplicated for any other use (Ex. 30: 22-33).
If you have received the Holy Spirit and are letting it lead you, stop and think how very different it makes you from those who do not have it. The way you think and act and react, the fruits borne in your life; We are different. GOD'S Spirit sets us apart and makes us holy. We are "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling," "partakers OF the. Holy Spirit" (Heb. 3:1, 6:4), for we have been anointed by the Holy One" (I John 2:20, Revised Standard Version).
Not just everybody could be a priest. No one else could "join" the priesthood; only those chosen by God, the descendants of Aaron in the tribe of Levi.
When God told Moses to anoint Aaron and his sons, He pointed out that "their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations" (Ex. 40:15). We too, have been anointed to serve God forever throughout all eternity. The priests in ancient Israel had to be totally familiar with God's laws, statutes and judgments so they could teach others, the right way (Deut. 17:9-12, Lev. 10:10-11).
In the government of the world tomorrow, the church and state will not be separate. One government will enforce both civil and religious laws, Because the principles overlap. That's why we will be kings and priests. Do you know God's spiritual and, physical laws well enough that you will be able to teach the world in that day?
God told Moses "Aaron and his sons, thou shall bring unto the door of the tabernacle… and shall wash them with water" (Ex. 29:4). They had to be clean to be consecrated to God, just us we must he cleansed by the waters of baptism. Not only that, they had to continually cleanse themselves when they appeared before God! Otherwise they would die (Ex.30:19-21).
"Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord" (Isaiah 52:11 admonishes. "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (II Cor. 7:1).
Spiritual Sacrifices
What about the "spiritual sacrifices" we are offer. (1 Pet. 2:5)? Here, too, Old Testament types are instructive.
The offerings performed by the Levitical priests particularly foreshadowed facets of' Jesus Christ's life and death. Of special interest to us here is the burnt offering.
In this sacrifice the entire animal (except the skin of the larger animals) was burned upon the altar. It was not classified as an offering for sin; it had a different spiritual significance. It was a voluntary offering of a sweet savor to God (Lev. 1:3, 9), sweet because God loves voluntary serving. Not all sacrifices were voluntary. Not all were of a sweet savor (Lev. 4-6:7).
Jesus was the perfect fulfillment of the burnt offering. He was without blemish (Lev. 1:3). He gave Himself completely to God. He was completely consumed in dedication to God. We are to follow His example.
Notice, in Leviticus 1:8-9, how the different parts of a burnt offering are listed: the head (having the eyes, ears and mouth, as well as the mind and thoughts), the fat (the health and well-being), the innards (the feelings, emotions and affections) and the legs (the path or way of walking). The total being - this is what we must offer to God when we "present our bodies" to Him (Rom 12:l).
We are expected to give our lives; emotions, thoughts, desires, plans - all that make up us - as a voluntary offering to God, to be totally burned up in service to Him.
When the brethren at Philippi performed a good work bv sending help to the apostle Paul, he wrote back "I have received all, and abound: I am full having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God" (Phil. 4:18).
Of course, we are not ''without blemish'' as burnt offerings were supposed to be and as Christ was. But God has provided for that. Jesus our great High Priest, typified Aaron (Ex. 28), appears before God on our behalf. On him is the divine seal of approval that he is "Holiness to the Lord" (verses 36-37).
As far as we are concerned, even our best efforts are often imperfect. But God looks on the heart. And Jesus, is as Aaron was, before God to bear the iniquity [the imperfection] of the Holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts… that they may be accepted before the Lord" (verse 38).
That is how our spiritual, sacrifices are "acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (I Pet. 2:5).
The "GIVE" Way of Life
Voluntary sacrifices such as those even under the Old Covenant, typified the way of life called the way of giving, to take a choice, spotless animal from one's herd or flock and slay it was, an expensive proposition. It was indeed a sacrifice.
Voluntarily giving the best to God - that is the kind of offering God wants.
Obeying God has a price. There is a sacrifice: We must lay down our own lives. And - not just once - we must do it repeatedly;
God commanded that the fire on the sacrificial altar was never to go out. The priests had to keep it burning constantly (Lev. 6:12-13). There was to be a "continual burnt offering" - a sacrifice totally consumed twice a day, evening and morning, day in .and day out (Ex. 29:38-42).
Our prayers ascend before God's throne as ceremonial incense once did. David prayed, "let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and evening sacrifice" (Ps. 141:2). How sweet smelling and pleasing it is to, God when a human being sincerely offers himself totally to God, daily.
Or why not even twice a day, as the evening and morning sacrifices were offered?
An animal sacrifice died once and that was that. We are to be living sacrifices, offered anew every day. And if we are ever called on to give up even these physical lives for God, we, like the apostle Paul, must be "ready to be offered" (II Tim. 4:6) in that manner also.
Notice what Jesus is recorded as saying to God: "Sacrifice and offering [of animals] thou wouldest not [that's not what God is really after], but a body hast thou prepared me [a human body in which he could do the Work of God, giving himself daily in service, fulfilling God's will in everything and finally laying down His life for the sins of mankind]: In [animal] burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come [and here is what really matters]... to do thy will, O God (Heb. 10:5-7).
Our lives are made up of time. It takes time to visit the sick. It takes time to pray for others. It takes time to help those who need help. A Christian life is a life of outgoing giving - sacrificing selfish, personal desires.
Not that we should go around looking at everything we do for God, as a painful exercise in sacrificing, feeling sorry for ourselves us though life should be a bed of nails. Our sacrifices, should be "sacrifices of joy"(Ps. 27:6), "sacrifices of thanksgiving" (Ps, 107:22, 116:17) and "sacrifices of praise" (Heb. 13:15).
It is an honor and privilege to sacrifice anything for the One who gave more to us than we can ever give to Him. David asked, "what shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me'?'' (Ps 116:12).
God wants us to serve Him "with joyfulness and with gladness of heart" (Deut. 28:47) - not begrudgingly. A Christian should totally offer himself to God every day, seeking to obey Him and to live a life based an the principles of the way of give, ''for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul and with all the strength, and to love [one's] neighbor as himself, is more than all whole [ceremonial] burnt offerings and sacrifices" (Mark 12:32-33).
Yes, it is a living sacrifice!.
Janurary 1982 Good News Magazine Article reprint by Clayton Stoop
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Brought to you as a Study Resource by the
Church of God Faithful Flock
In Romans 12:1 the apostle Paul wrote that we should present our bodies "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God."
A "Living Sacrifice?" What.was Paul talking about? Aren't sacrifices killed?
Well, they were in Old Testament times. Back then the slaying of an animal foreshadowed the time when the Lamb of God would be offered for the sins of the World. Since the death of Jesus we no longer need to offer animal sacrifices as part of our religious worship.
Even under the Old Covenant, though, animal sacrifices were only substitutes for what God really wanted. It wasn't that He needed animals offered to Him. He owns every thing. "For every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills," He declares (Ps. 50:10).
Samuel put his finger on what God really desires; "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offering and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?" He asked, "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams (I Sam. 15:22).
The prophet Micah inquired: ''Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" (Mic. 6:6-7).
Would these actions satisfy God?
Here is the answer; "he hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do Justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (verse 8).
That's what God WANTS!
The sacrifice's that truly please Him involve genuine repentance, '"For thou desirest not [animal] sacrifices else would I give it," David stated. "Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart O God, thou wilt not despise.'' (Ps. 51:16-17)
The problem was that without the Holy spirit, carnal human beings, could not fulfill the requirements for Conversion. So the physical Levitical System was set up, by witch sin was acknowledged (but not paid for) by various sacrifices. Physical substitutions and profound ceremonial symbols were used to foreshadow, the spiritual administration under the New Testament, when the Holy Spirit would be given to those God called.
Physical Types
Physical Israel had a physical priesthood serving in a physical tabernacle or temple. Today the church is spiritual Israel. And the Church is the Temple. The church in one sense is also a priesthood, as the apostle Peter pointed out in I Peter 2:5 "Ye also, as lively [living] stones, are built up a spiritual house [not a physical temple], an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices." Agajn in verse 9 he staled, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation."
Of course, for we are training to be kings and priests in the coming government of God (Rev. 1:6, 5:10."
"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection... they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years" (Rev. 20:6). What an awesome calling!
In view of that calling, one cannot help but notice many parallels between various aspects of the Old Testament priesthood and what our spiritual lives should be like.
Take, for example, the clothing the priests wore. It was to be made of fine linen garments "for glory and for beauty" (Ex. 28:40-43, 39:27-31).
Revelation 19:8 tells us that "fine linen is the righteousness of saints," Fine white linen represents God's righteousness - the keeping of commandments (Ps. 119:172). David exclaimed, "Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness" (Ps, 1329).
The priests' clothing was given to them. They had to put off their own. In the same way we must get rid of our own righteousness, which Is as filthy rags, (Isa. 64:6), and let God clothe us with His righteousness (Is. 61:10).
Jesus - The Eternal- is our righteousness (Jer. 23:6). That's why we are told to "put off" the deeds of the flesh and to "put on" the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14, Gal. 3:27).
God's Spirit is Unique
Some mistakenly think I there are other churches similar to God's Church. Actually, there is no such thing AS being almost God's Church. Either it is God's Church with God's Spirit, or it is as far from it as death is from life. The Holy Spirit makes the difference. There is no substitute for God's Spirit.
This is made clear by the Holy anointing oil …symbol of the Holy Spirit with which the Levitical priests were anointed, it was a special bled of prize spices and oil, not to be duplicated for any other use (Ex. 30: 22-33).
If you have received the Holy Spirit and are letting it lead you, stop and think how very different it makes you from those who do not have it. The way you think and act and react, the fruits borne in your life; We are different. GOD'S Spirit sets us apart and makes us holy. We are "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling," "partakers OF the. Holy Spirit" (Heb. 3:1, 6:4), for we have been anointed by the Holy One" (I John 2:20, Revised Standard Version).
Not just everybody could be a priest. No one else could "join" the priesthood; only those chosen by God, the descendants of Aaron in the tribe of Levi.
When God told Moses to anoint Aaron and his sons, He pointed out that "their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations" (Ex. 40:15). We too, have been anointed to serve God forever throughout all eternity. The priests in ancient Israel had to be totally familiar with God's laws, statutes and judgments so they could teach others, the right way (Deut. 17:9-12, Lev. 10:10-11).
In the government of the world tomorrow, the church and state will not be separate. One government will enforce both civil and religious laws, Because the principles overlap. That's why we will be kings and priests. Do you know God's spiritual and, physical laws well enough that you will be able to teach the world in that day?
God told Moses "Aaron and his sons, thou shall bring unto the door of the tabernacle… and shall wash them with water" (Ex. 29:4). They had to be clean to be consecrated to God, just us we must he cleansed by the waters of baptism. Not only that, they had to continually cleanse themselves when they appeared before God! Otherwise they would die (Ex.30:19-21).
"Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord" (Isaiah 52:11 admonishes. "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (II Cor. 7:1).
Spiritual Sacrifices
What about the "spiritual sacrifices" we are offer. (1 Pet. 2:5)? Here, too, Old Testament types are instructive.
The offerings performed by the Levitical priests particularly foreshadowed facets of' Jesus Christ's life and death. Of special interest to us here is the burnt offering.
In this sacrifice the entire animal (except the skin of the larger animals) was burned upon the altar. It was not classified as an offering for sin; it had a different spiritual significance. It was a voluntary offering of a sweet savor to God (Lev. 1:3, 9), sweet because God loves voluntary serving. Not all sacrifices were voluntary. Not all were of a sweet savor (Lev. 4-6:7).
Jesus was the perfect fulfillment of the burnt offering. He was without blemish (Lev. 1:3). He gave Himself completely to God. He was completely consumed in dedication to God. We are to follow His example.
Notice, in Leviticus 1:8-9, how the different parts of a burnt offering are listed: the head (having the eyes, ears and mouth, as well as the mind and thoughts), the fat (the health and well-being), the innards (the feelings, emotions and affections) and the legs (the path or way of walking). The total being - this is what we must offer to God when we "present our bodies" to Him (Rom 12:l).
We are expected to give our lives; emotions, thoughts, desires, plans - all that make up us - as a voluntary offering to God, to be totally burned up in service to Him.
When the brethren at Philippi performed a good work bv sending help to the apostle Paul, he wrote back "I have received all, and abound: I am full having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God" (Phil. 4:18).
Of course, we are not ''without blemish'' as burnt offerings were supposed to be and as Christ was. But God has provided for that. Jesus our great High Priest, typified Aaron (Ex. 28), appears before God on our behalf. On him is the divine seal of approval that he is "Holiness to the Lord" (verses 36-37).
As far as we are concerned, even our best efforts are often imperfect. But God looks on the heart. And Jesus, is as Aaron was, before God to bear the iniquity [the imperfection] of the Holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts… that they may be accepted before the Lord" (verse 38).
That is how our spiritual, sacrifices are "acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (I Pet. 2:5).
The "GIVE" Way of Life
Voluntary sacrifices such as those even under the Old Covenant, typified the way of life called the way of giving, to take a choice, spotless animal from one's herd or flock and slay it was, an expensive proposition. It was indeed a sacrifice.
Voluntarily giving the best to God - that is the kind of offering God wants.
Obeying God has a price. There is a sacrifice: We must lay down our own lives. And - not just once - we must do it repeatedly;
God commanded that the fire on the sacrificial altar was never to go out. The priests had to keep it burning constantly (Lev. 6:12-13). There was to be a "continual burnt offering" - a sacrifice totally consumed twice a day, evening and morning, day in .and day out (Ex. 29:38-42).
Our prayers ascend before God's throne as ceremonial incense once did. David prayed, "let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and evening sacrifice" (Ps. 141:2). How sweet smelling and pleasing it is to, God when a human being sincerely offers himself totally to God, daily.
Or why not even twice a day, as the evening and morning sacrifices were offered?
An animal sacrifice died once and that was that. We are to be living sacrifices, offered anew every day. And if we are ever called on to give up even these physical lives for God, we, like the apostle Paul, must be "ready to be offered" (II Tim. 4:6) in that manner also.
Notice what Jesus is recorded as saying to God: "Sacrifice and offering [of animals] thou wouldest not [that's not what God is really after], but a body hast thou prepared me [a human body in which he could do the Work of God, giving himself daily in service, fulfilling God's will in everything and finally laying down His life for the sins of mankind]: In [animal] burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come [and here is what really matters]... to do thy will, O God (Heb. 10:5-7).
Our lives are made up of time. It takes time to visit the sick. It takes time to pray for others. It takes time to help those who need help. A Christian life is a life of outgoing giving - sacrificing selfish, personal desires.
Not that we should go around looking at everything we do for God, as a painful exercise in sacrificing, feeling sorry for ourselves us though life should be a bed of nails. Our sacrifices, should be "sacrifices of joy"(Ps. 27:6), "sacrifices of thanksgiving" (Ps, 107:22, 116:17) and "sacrifices of praise" (Heb. 13:15).
It is an honor and privilege to sacrifice anything for the One who gave more to us than we can ever give to Him. David asked, "what shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me'?'' (Ps 116:12).
God wants us to serve Him "with joyfulness and with gladness of heart" (Deut. 28:47) - not begrudgingly. A Christian should totally offer himself to God every day, seeking to obey Him and to live a life based an the principles of the way of give, ''for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul and with all the strength, and to love [one's] neighbor as himself, is more than all whole [ceremonial] burnt offerings and sacrifices" (Mark 12:32-33).
Yes, it is a living sacrifice!.
Janurary 1982 Good News Magazine Article reprint by Clayton Stoop
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Brought to you as a Study Resource by the
Church of God Faithful Flock
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Elohim thoughts
The Word, in the beginning--before ANYTHING had been created--was with God, and he, also, was God. Now how could that be?
There might be a man named John. And John might be with the man named Smith, and John might also be Smith because John is the son of Smith, and Smith is the family name. Yet they are two separate persons.
The only point of difference in that analogy is that the Word, at the time of John 1:1, was not, yet, the Son of God. But he was with God, and he also was God.
They were not yet Father and Son--but they were the GOD KINGDOM! From Mr. Armstrong
From Randall Ricker
As he wrote, he substituted names. Substitute the word “John” for “the Word” and substitute the last name “Smith” for “God.” So what we have is: In the beginning was John and John was with Smith and John was Smith. This can be true because John is the son of Smith. Smith is the family name, but they are two separate persons. You can call them persons or personages. One is called the Word which comes from the Greek word “Logos”, which means “spokesman”.
Mr. Herbert Armstrong referred to it as a uniplural noun like family, group or church containing two or more members. Uniplural is an unusual term. Most people have not heard that term, but there is a term in English grammar called a collective noun. That is exactly what this is, like group, family and church. Elohim, this term for God, is a collective noun. Think of it that way if you like. It is the same thing. It allows for a God family with two members, as we have talked about in John 1:1 the Word and God.
collective noun - 3 dictionary results
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collective noun
–noun Grammar. a noun, as herd, jury, or clergy, that appears singular in formal shape but denotes a group of persons or objects.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Origin:
1510–20
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
Cite This Source
collective noun
n. A noun that denotes a collection of persons or things regarded as a unit.
Usage Note: In American usage, a collective noun takes a singular verb when it refers to the collection considered as a whole, as in The family was united on this question. The enemy is suing for peace. It takes a plural verb when it refers to the members of the group considered as individuals, as in My family are always fighting among themselves. The enemy were showing up in groups of three or four to turn in their weapons. In British usage, however, collective nouns are more often treated as plurals: The government have not announced a new policy. The team are playing in the test matches next week. A collective noun should not be treated as both singular and plural in the same construction; thus The family is determined to press its (not their) claim. Among the common collective nouns are committee, clergy, company, enemy, group, family, flock, public, and team. See Usage Notes at government, group.
Fundamental of Belief #1
Part A; God Is One
Edited Sermon Transcript
Jon W. Brisby; 11-27-99
Well, what is Elohiym? Elohiym is a uniplural noun, very similar to words like church and family and kingdom. It is a single word and yet the word itself denotes more than one within the composition. When we talk about a church it is singular and yet it is a uniplural noun that implies there are multiple individuals that make up the body that forms the church. The same way that the word family implies that it is made up of several members. So it is in a kingdom, it is one kingdom, a unified kingdom, and yet within that kingdom are several parts. That's what we are talking about with this term God. Within the very uniplural noun that's talking about one God is contained a description that tells us there is more than one part. So therefore an explanation that says there is only one being that is considered God is refuted by the very Hebrew words that were inspired to describe that God.
Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
That's Elohiym, a God defined in a plural form. What's further proof of that? Skip down to verse twenty-six and what do we read? What was it that God did and accomplished?
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion of the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
If "God" refers only to a single individual, why is Elohiym a uniplural noun and why then is it translated "us" and "our" in Genesis 1? This tells us very specifically that there is more than one being in that Godhead that had a part in the design and the execution of everything that was involved in that creation. God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Otherwise, maybe we think we are serving a God that is schizophrenic. We would be considered crazy, wouldn't we, if we talked about ourselves individually as if we were two people or if you talked about yourself as "us," "we," or "our"? I think people would wonder about our sanity. Wonder if that's what we do when we look at the scripture and see that whoever was involved in this creation talked about "us" and "our." So we know by the use of Elohiym in the Old Testament that we are dealing with God, singular God, and yet it is a divinity, a family that is composed of more than one being. Who are those beings? Well, let us look next at that word YHVH.
Jimmy Swaggart
ELOHIM
The names of God prove plurality of persons. The Hebrew word Elohim, translated "God" in Genesis 1:1 and also in more than 2,700 other places in the Old Testament, is a uniplural noun which means "more than one." Had the sacred writer been led to use the singular El, then there would have been no indication of a divine plurality. But in this initial reference to God, he was led of the Holy Ghost to pen the Word Elohim (Genesis 1:1). Also when one considers that the word Elohim is used about ten to one over the word El, we would have to conclude that this preference for the plural over the singular indicates a definite sign of plurality in the Godhead.
nccg.org
Man Created in God's Image
The first chapter of the Bible says: "Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness..." (Genesis 1:26, NIV). The word for "God" in the Hebrew is Elohim and is what is called a "uniplural noun". Literally translated, the word Elohim means "gods" and is frequently used in the Old Testament to describe human judges too. Here, though, Elohim is a name for God that not only depicts the plurality of His majesty but also the plurality of the Godhead.
It is plain from the text that more than one divine Person is involved in the creation, as is evidenced by the use of the plural forms "us" and "our". The New Testament teaches that Jesus pre-existed the creation and was Himself God, or part of the Godhead (John 1:1). It also teaches that Jesus Christ created the world at the command of His Heavenly Father (John 1:10). It is reasonable to suppose, therefore, that the Elohim of Genesis 1:26 refers to both God the Father and the pre-existent Jesus Christ since elsewhere we are told that God created the universe through His Son.
Mankind is therefore made in the express image of God the Father and God the Son. This same wording is used to describe the relationship between Adam and his son Seth: "When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth" (Genesis 5:3, NIV). Thus the testimony of Paul, in which he says that "we are (God's) offspring" (Acts 7:28-29), suggests that the relationship between God, Christ, and man is closer than most ordinary Christians might care to admit.
Missing Dimension in Sex
WHO—WHAT IS God?
I have quoted that passage in the English language. But when God inspired Moses to write it, originally, it was written in the Hebrew language. What I quoted is a translation from the Hebrew. And in the Hebrew, the word—or the name—translated into the English name, “God,” was Elohim. That is a uniplural [collective] noun. It is uniplural, like such words as group, church, crowd, family or organization.
Take, for example, the word church. You will read, in I Corinthians 12:20, that the Church is only one Church—the “one body” yet composed of “many members.” Even though it takes many persons to constitute the Church, it is not many churches—it is only the one Church!
A family is made up of more than one person, yet only the one family.
And so, incredible as it may seem to those who do not rightly and fully understand the Bible—and only an infinitesimal minority does—God is not merely one Person, nor even limited to a “Trinity,” but God is a Family.
The doctrine of the Trinity is false. It was foisted upon the world at the Council of Nicaea. It is the pagan Babylonish trinity of father, mother and child—substituting the Holy Spirit for the mother, Semiramis, and calling it a “person.”
God is a Kingdom—the supreme divine Family which rules the universe! The whole Gospel Jesus brought to mankind is, merely, the Good News of the Kingdom of God—and that Kingdom is God. It is a family—a ruling divine Family into which humans may be born!
It is vitally necessary that we understand this truth—if we are to understand the meaning and purposes of sex!
There is only the ONE GOD! Because of false teaching—including that of a “Trinity”—nearly all of us have been reared from childhood to assume that God is one individual Person. It is true that one Person—the Father—is head of the family, but each Person in the God Family is an individual divine Person.
Elohim is the divine Family—only one family, but more than one divine Person. Jesus Christ spoke of His divine Father as God. Jesus said He was the Son of God (as well as the Son of man). Jesus is called God in Hebrews 1:8 and elsewhere. All the holy angels are commanded to worship Jesus (Heb. 1:6, Ps. 97:7)—and none but God may be worshiped!
In Genesis 1:26, Elohim said, “Let us [not me] make man in our image.”
So the Eternal Father is a Person, and is God. Jesus Christ is a different Person—and is God. They are two separate and individual Persons (Rev. 4:2, 5:1, 6-7). The Father is Supreme Head of the God Family—the Lawgiver. Christ is the Word—the divine Spokesman.
There might be a man named John. And John might be with the man named Smith, and John might also be Smith because John is the son of Smith, and Smith is the family name. Yet they are two separate persons.
The only point of difference in that analogy is that the Word, at the time of John 1:1, was not, yet, the Son of God. But he was with God, and he also was God.
They were not yet Father and Son--but they were the GOD KINGDOM! From Mr. Armstrong
From Randall Ricker
As he wrote, he substituted names. Substitute the word “John” for “the Word” and substitute the last name “Smith” for “God.” So what we have is: In the beginning was John and John was with Smith and John was Smith. This can be true because John is the son of Smith. Smith is the family name, but they are two separate persons. You can call them persons or personages. One is called the Word which comes from the Greek word “Logos”, which means “spokesman”.
Mr. Herbert Armstrong referred to it as a uniplural noun like family, group or church containing two or more members. Uniplural is an unusual term. Most people have not heard that term, but there is a term in English grammar called a collective noun. That is exactly what this is, like group, family and church. Elohim, this term for God, is a collective noun. Think of it that way if you like. It is the same thing. It allows for a God family with two members, as we have talked about in John 1:1 the Word and God.
collective noun - 3 dictionary results
Sponsored Links Learn English
Learn or improve your english in 3 months, guaranteed!
www.Englishtown.com
collective noun
–noun Grammar. a noun, as herd, jury, or clergy, that appears singular in formal shape but denotes a group of persons or objects.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Origin:
1510–20
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
Cite This Source
collective noun
n. A noun that denotes a collection of persons or things regarded as a unit.
Usage Note: In American usage, a collective noun takes a singular verb when it refers to the collection considered as a whole, as in The family was united on this question. The enemy is suing for peace. It takes a plural verb when it refers to the members of the group considered as individuals, as in My family are always fighting among themselves. The enemy were showing up in groups of three or four to turn in their weapons. In British usage, however, collective nouns are more often treated as plurals: The government have not announced a new policy. The team are playing in the test matches next week. A collective noun should not be treated as both singular and plural in the same construction; thus The family is determined to press its (not their) claim. Among the common collective nouns are committee, clergy, company, enemy, group, family, flock, public, and team. See Usage Notes at government, group.
Fundamental of Belief #1
Part A; God Is One
Edited Sermon Transcript
Jon W. Brisby; 11-27-99
Well, what is Elohiym? Elohiym is a uniplural noun, very similar to words like church and family and kingdom. It is a single word and yet the word itself denotes more than one within the composition. When we talk about a church it is singular and yet it is a uniplural noun that implies there are multiple individuals that make up the body that forms the church. The same way that the word family implies that it is made up of several members. So it is in a kingdom, it is one kingdom, a unified kingdom, and yet within that kingdom are several parts. That's what we are talking about with this term God. Within the very uniplural noun that's talking about one God is contained a description that tells us there is more than one part. So therefore an explanation that says there is only one being that is considered God is refuted by the very Hebrew words that were inspired to describe that God.
Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
That's Elohiym, a God defined in a plural form. What's further proof of that? Skip down to verse twenty-six and what do we read? What was it that God did and accomplished?
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion of the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
If "God" refers only to a single individual, why is Elohiym a uniplural noun and why then is it translated "us" and "our" in Genesis 1? This tells us very specifically that there is more than one being in that Godhead that had a part in the design and the execution of everything that was involved in that creation. God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Otherwise, maybe we think we are serving a God that is schizophrenic. We would be considered crazy, wouldn't we, if we talked about ourselves individually as if we were two people or if you talked about yourself as "us," "we," or "our"? I think people would wonder about our sanity. Wonder if that's what we do when we look at the scripture and see that whoever was involved in this creation talked about "us" and "our." So we know by the use of Elohiym in the Old Testament that we are dealing with God, singular God, and yet it is a divinity, a family that is composed of more than one being. Who are those beings? Well, let us look next at that word YHVH.
Jimmy Swaggart
ELOHIM
The names of God prove plurality of persons. The Hebrew word Elohim, translated "God" in Genesis 1:1 and also in more than 2,700 other places in the Old Testament, is a uniplural noun which means "more than one." Had the sacred writer been led to use the singular El, then there would have been no indication of a divine plurality. But in this initial reference to God, he was led of the Holy Ghost to pen the Word Elohim (Genesis 1:1). Also when one considers that the word Elohim is used about ten to one over the word El, we would have to conclude that this preference for the plural over the singular indicates a definite sign of plurality in the Godhead.
nccg.org
Man Created in God's Image
The first chapter of the Bible says: "Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness..." (Genesis 1:26, NIV). The word for "God" in the Hebrew is Elohim and is what is called a "uniplural noun". Literally translated, the word Elohim means "gods" and is frequently used in the Old Testament to describe human judges too. Here, though, Elohim is a name for God that not only depicts the plurality of His majesty but also the plurality of the Godhead.
It is plain from the text that more than one divine Person is involved in the creation, as is evidenced by the use of the plural forms "us" and "our". The New Testament teaches that Jesus pre-existed the creation and was Himself God, or part of the Godhead (John 1:1). It also teaches that Jesus Christ created the world at the command of His Heavenly Father (John 1:10). It is reasonable to suppose, therefore, that the Elohim of Genesis 1:26 refers to both God the Father and the pre-existent Jesus Christ since elsewhere we are told that God created the universe through His Son.
Mankind is therefore made in the express image of God the Father and God the Son. This same wording is used to describe the relationship between Adam and his son Seth: "When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth" (Genesis 5:3, NIV). Thus the testimony of Paul, in which he says that "we are (God's) offspring" (Acts 7:28-29), suggests that the relationship between God, Christ, and man is closer than most ordinary Christians might care to admit.
Missing Dimension in Sex
WHO—WHAT IS God?
I have quoted that passage in the English language. But when God inspired Moses to write it, originally, it was written in the Hebrew language. What I quoted is a translation from the Hebrew. And in the Hebrew, the word—or the name—translated into the English name, “God,” was Elohim. That is a uniplural [collective] noun. It is uniplural, like such words as group, church, crowd, family or organization.
Take, for example, the word church. You will read, in I Corinthians 12:20, that the Church is only one Church—the “one body” yet composed of “many members.” Even though it takes many persons to constitute the Church, it is not many churches—it is only the one Church!
A family is made up of more than one person, yet only the one family.
And so, incredible as it may seem to those who do not rightly and fully understand the Bible—and only an infinitesimal minority does—God is not merely one Person, nor even limited to a “Trinity,” but God is a Family.
The doctrine of the Trinity is false. It was foisted upon the world at the Council of Nicaea. It is the pagan Babylonish trinity of father, mother and child—substituting the Holy Spirit for the mother, Semiramis, and calling it a “person.”
God is a Kingdom—the supreme divine Family which rules the universe! The whole Gospel Jesus brought to mankind is, merely, the Good News of the Kingdom of God—and that Kingdom is God. It is a family—a ruling divine Family into which humans may be born!
It is vitally necessary that we understand this truth—if we are to understand the meaning and purposes of sex!
There is only the ONE GOD! Because of false teaching—including that of a “Trinity”—nearly all of us have been reared from childhood to assume that God is one individual Person. It is true that one Person—the Father—is head of the family, but each Person in the God Family is an individual divine Person.
Elohim is the divine Family—only one family, but more than one divine Person. Jesus Christ spoke of His divine Father as God. Jesus said He was the Son of God (as well as the Son of man). Jesus is called God in Hebrews 1:8 and elsewhere. All the holy angels are commanded to worship Jesus (Heb. 1:6, Ps. 97:7)—and none but God may be worshiped!
In Genesis 1:26, Elohim said, “Let us [not me] make man in our image.”
So the Eternal Father is a Person, and is God. Jesus Christ is a different Person—and is God. They are two separate and individual Persons (Rev. 4:2, 5:1, 6-7). The Father is Supreme Head of the God Family—the Lawgiver. Christ is the Word—the divine Spokesman.
Elohim
El is the singular form of the word God, when -im is added e.g. Elohim, it is made plural. When used to refer to God Almighty, Elohim is similar to a uniplural noun. A uniplural noun can be used to indicate an object in the singular or plural sense. Example: The word sheep can be used to describe one sheep or many sheep. Example: Deer. One deer was at the lake. Many deer are in the woods.
Uniplural noun
The word "God" here is Elohim. It says, "The LORD our Elohim is one LORD." This phrase is not normally grammatically correct—a plural noun [Elohim] with a singular verb, "is." Elohim is the plural of both El and Eloah. El and Eloah mean "mighty One," "strong One," or "powerful One" according to Brown, Driver, and Briggs. Elohim, being either of these two words in the plural, therefore means "strong Ones," "mighty Ones," or "powerful Ones."
Just from these definitions, Elohim consists of at least two powerful beings. But, as the New Testament shows, Elohim is not limited to two. It can actually signify an unlimited number, so Elohim is a group or assembly of powerful beings.
It is jarring to the ear to say "Gods is," because there is a plural noun and a singular verb, but it is not incorrect. Consider "United States of America." States is plural, but one does not say, "The United States are going to war." One says, "The United States is going to war." One uses a singular verb with a plural noun. Gramatically, we are speaking of collective nouns.
Elohim is plurality in one, and because the sense is singular, it calls for a singular verb. However, everyone using it knows that it is plural and represents many in unity. Our culture forces us to look for a singular being, but Elohim is not singular.
In the New Testament, it becomes very clear that Elohim is a kingdom, consisting of many! Elohim always acts in a singular way. There is never any divisiveness, only agreement.
We have no problem at all saying or hearing, "The United States is bordered on the north by Canada," or, "The United States is in the northern hemisphere," or "The United States delivered a sharp memo to the Japanese today." We always speak of the United States in the singular. We speak of it as an composite of many rather than a singular entity.
When Moses wrote this verse, it was no more discordant to a Hebrew-speaking person, no more grammatically wrong, than it is for us to say, "The United States is. . . ." Elohim, "the powerful Ones," is a Family of at least two divine beings, and many sons and daughters are being prepared to be born into it. A family, whether human or divine, is a unit of many individuals joined as one.
The Bible reveals that a nation is nothing more than a family grown great. This is why we have the Table of Nations in Genesis 10, which shows the forebears of the nations after the Flood. They began with one man and one woman, and they grew great. So it is that Elohim is one institution—a Family—growing ever larger and more complex until it becomes a nation, the Kingdom of God. We see, then, that this is what Elohim is developing.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Just from these definitions, Elohim consists of at least two powerful beings. But, as the New Testament shows, Elohim is not limited to two. It can actually signify an unlimited number, so Elohim is a group or assembly of powerful beings.
It is jarring to the ear to say "Gods is," because there is a plural noun and a singular verb, but it is not incorrect. Consider "United States of America." States is plural, but one does not say, "The United States are going to war." One says, "The United States is going to war." One uses a singular verb with a plural noun. Gramatically, we are speaking of collective nouns.
Elohim is plurality in one, and because the sense is singular, it calls for a singular verb. However, everyone using it knows that it is plural and represents many in unity. Our culture forces us to look for a singular being, but Elohim is not singular.
In the New Testament, it becomes very clear that Elohim is a kingdom, consisting of many! Elohim always acts in a singular way. There is never any divisiveness, only agreement.
We have no problem at all saying or hearing, "The United States is bordered on the north by Canada," or, "The United States is in the northern hemisphere," or "The United States delivered a sharp memo to the Japanese today." We always speak of the United States in the singular. We speak of it as an composite of many rather than a singular entity.
When Moses wrote this verse, it was no more discordant to a Hebrew-speaking person, no more grammatically wrong, than it is for us to say, "The United States is. . . ." Elohim, "the powerful Ones," is a Family of at least two divine beings, and many sons and daughters are being prepared to be born into it. A family, whether human or divine, is a unit of many individuals joined as one.
The Bible reveals that a nation is nothing more than a family grown great. This is why we have the Table of Nations in Genesis 10, which shows the forebears of the nations after the Flood. They began with one man and one woman, and they grew great. So it is that Elohim is one institution—a Family—growing ever larger and more complex until it becomes a nation, the Kingdom of God. We see, then, that this is what Elohim is developing.
John W. Ritenbaugh
sermon: The Nature of God: Elohim
The God Family
John W. Ritenbaugh
Given 03-Jun-95; Tape #185; 76 minutes
For almost sixty years the church of God has sailed along with very little controversy about the nature of God. There were always times during that sixty-year period that the world took potshots at us because of our stand on the nature of God, that God is not a trinity, but there was never any serious problem from within. Then about mid-1993 came the "God Is ..." doctrinal papers in which over a period of about a year the Worlwide Church of God changed its doctrinal position in regard to the nature of God from being a family to a Trinity.
I do not know how much you are aware of what a bombshell this was, but it created a bombshell out in the world at least, and was the single step that was most significant in turning the world's attitude from being antagonistic toward the Worldwide Church of God to one that was looking forward to making the Worldwide as part of them.
Now no less authority than the Catholic Encyclopedia calls the Trinity the central doctrine of the Christian Church. What they are saying is that the Trinity doctrine is the doctrine around which all other doctrines revolve, and it is the concept to which all others owe their existence. They say all other doctrines hang on, lead to, and exist to support this one doctrine.
For the past two years I have been gathering papers from church of God sources in order to distill from them truth on this very important subject. There is no way that I can give you an extremely detailed account in two sermons on this weekend, but this weekend is going to be devoted to this subject. I have gathered papers from the Worldwide Church of God both before and after the change, from the Christian Biblical Church, from individuals such as Keith Hunt, Ernest Martin, and also from the Philadelphia Church of God, the Church of God International, the Church of God Seventh Day, and from quite a number of groups as well, many of them quite small.
These sermons are going to be more like two Bible studies rather than sermons. Like I said, there is no way I can cover everything in detail, so what I have decided to do is to concentrate on two very closely related areas of this subject that I think are essential for us to understand, and are essential to understanding the doctrine.
In Part Two I am going to be quoting at the beginning fairly extensively from a couple of papers that come from the world, but in this sermon almost the entirety of this (95%) is going to be taken from the Bible. We will not be delving into the esoteric writings of some of the world's scholars. I want us to see very clearly what the Bible has to say on this subject. Today we are going to focus on Elohim, because it is central to the Trinity issue. This is not going to be a technical expounding of words.
Since I have been somehow or other put into this position, more and more I am beginning to appreciate Mr. Herbert Armstrong's scorn for biblical scholars, not that he was against scholarship at all, but he meant the scholars of this world who tangle people around on studies of words. The apostle Paul warned Timothy two different times—once in I Timothy and once in II Timothy—not to allow himself, as a minister, to get bound up in arguments about words. He said that they are not profitable to godliness, and he called them to be nothing more than vain jangling.
Understanding Elohim teaches us a great deal about the nature of the Godhead, and this is essential to the direction of our lives. We must be well-grounded if indeed this is the foundational doctrine of the Church of God. Let us turn to Exodus 32.
Exodus 32:1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said to him, Up, make us gods which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.
Exodus 32:4 And he [Aaron] received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Exodus 32:7-10 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get you down; for your people which you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be your gods, O Israel, which have brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of you a great nation.
God was not faking His anger. To say He was mad is, I think, to underestimate the intensity of His anger. I think He meant exactly what He said. God does not mislead people and fake something. He was upset by what these people had done. This occurred pretty early in their journey, and it is important because it shows the concept of the nature of God that the Israelites brought with them out of Egypt. To them, God's nature—His very being—was conceived to be something no greater than an uncomprehending, non-communicating beast that had nothing in common with them, except that it was a mammal, and that it was alive.
Now what or who a nation worships is very important to the quality of life within that nation. It is going to pretty much determine the nation's morality, its kind of government, and the way that government is operated, its educational system, and its economics. It will determine much of its entertainment, music, literature, architecture, art, clothing fashion, and its vision of the future.
In our western cultures we tend to look upon God in a very narrow way. I am telling you right up front here that this way is different from the Bible's approach on this perhaps the most important of all subjects. I say most important, because what an individual worships is going to pretty much determine what he is going to do with his life, how it is going to be lived, and what is going to be big and important to him.
To understand what I mean, we are going to look right at this example. I will give you an illustration of what I am talking about, because as soon as they once again gave their mind over to the Egyptian bull-god, called in history "Apis," look what they did with their lives.
Exodus 32:6a And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings.
What happened to the God that brought them out of Egypt? Burnt offerings and peace offerings are symbols of worship. They started worshipping it. They started giving it honor, reverence, and respect.
Exodus 32:6b And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
That is not put in there with a clean connotation to it. "They sat down to eat." This indicates gluttony. "They sat down to drink." This indicates over-imbibing and drunkenness. "And they rose up to play." This indicates fornication, sexual things that are beyond the pale of marriage.
Exodus 32:25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked: (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies.)
Here the word "naked" does not mean that they were without clothing, but rather that their spiritual condition had been exposed. It is very similar to "naked" as it is used in Revelation 3 in reference to a Laodicean. "They're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked." They did not have the righteousness of God clothing them.
Do you see what they did? They gave their mind to a different god, and immediately things began to take place in their life. That is the principle that is involved here. You do that on a nationwide scale, and it is going to determine the direction, the morality, the government, the art, the literature, the education, the economics of the entire nation.
You already know about the record of the Israelites throughout the journey. There was a constant repetition of murmuring, of fornication, and a political and religious rebellion. That was the way of the bull-god, and that was what was driving them.
I am not kidding when I say to you that all one has to do is look at a person and see their style of clothing, and you are pretty well on your way to understanding what might be important in that person's life. The reason is that there is a very powerful drive within us to conform to what we respect. Why do you think all the little groupies, let us say, of rock stars, try to imitate and be like the one that they respect? "Birds of a feather flock together."
There are people who are always concerned about having the latest fashions in terms of dress. They always have to have the latest things. Those people have a problem with lust and with the respecting of a vanity. Where does the god tend to lie? Do you understand what I am driving at?
God is very concerned about the image that His children project, and this is called in the Bible "our witness." If we really are worshipping Him, we will be strongly motivated to be like Him, because we love Him, because we respect Him, and we want to, just like the rock star groupies, imitate, to live like, to dress like, to entertain like, to speak like, to act like, to do everything in the image of this one that we admire and respect. In this case that is exactly what our God wants. This is why He wants us to study His word so deeply and so often. He wants us to get as much an impression in our mind of what He is like as we possibly can, because it is going to profoundly affect what we do with our life; if we believe Him, that is.
Now here is a question that you can answer yourself. Are you a monotheist or a polytheist? Do you worship many gods, or do you worship one God? This is important in regard to Elohim.
Let us go to I Corinthians 8:5. Maybe you have never thought of this verse in respect of this particular subject. Notice the admission.
I Corinthians 8:5 For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many.)
An interesting thought, and from an apostle yet. I do not think that we would call Paul a liar. He said, "There are gods many, and lords many." In verse 6 he says, "But to us there is but one God." It looks to me like Paul is saying that God has some competition, that He is not alone among the gods.
Let us go back to the Old Testament toPsalm 86.
Psalm 86:8 Among the gods there is none like unto you, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto your works.
Now it begins to look like the Lord, the God of creation, is one God among many gods.
Psalm 135:5 For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.
You begin looking this up, and you are going to find this appears all over the Bible.
Psalm 97:9 For you, LORD, are high above all the earth: you are exalted far above all gods.
Just so you do not think that this is something that is confined to the Psalms, let us turn to Deuteronomy 10.
Deuteronomy 10:17 For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regards not persons, nor takes reward.
This is a concept that is shown throughout the Bible because it is true. There is a plurality within Elohim, and Elohim is consistently described as "the Lord of hosts." "Hosts" means armies. A little bit broader and clearer definition is, "He is Lord of many things."
We also caution throughout the Bible not to let any of these lesser gods take the place of Elohim, who is revealed to us in the very first chapter of His book. The reason our culture has such a narrow view of this is because a false Christianity has dominated its religious thinking, and that false Christianity, for the past 1600 years, has taught a false god who is non-biblical and inexplicable "three-in-one" Trinity. The reason that it is inexplicable is because they are trying to make the explanation fit into biblical context, and it does not fit, and so the final outcome is that it is a mystery that one has to accept on faith.
The following is a quote from A Handbook of Christian Truth by Harold Lindsell and Charles Woodbridge, Pages 51 and 52.
The mind of man cannot fully understand the mystery of the Trinity. He who has tried to understand the mystery fully will lose his mind; but he who would deny the Trinity will lose his soul.
Now wait a minute here! Did not Jesus say in both Mark 4 and Matthew 13 that it was given to the apostles to understand the mysteries of God? I am going to read to you exactly what He said to them in Matthew 13:11.
Matthew 13:11, 16 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given....But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Did not the apostle Paul write in I Corinthians 2 that we were given the spirit of God in order that we might understand the things of God, and yet these people try to tell us that the Trinity is a mystery, that we will go crazy trying to understand? No. You see, their concept of the Godhead is what is not able to be fit into the Scriptures, and so they have to go into the convoluted argument in order to try to convince others who are looking to the Bible that their explanation is correct, and yet they themselves admit that nobody will ever understand the Trinity. What they are trying to palm off on us is not truth at all. It is an error, and it is beyond them, because they do not have the spirit of God, and because they do not believe what the Bible says.
But really, the nature of God is not hard to understand at all. He gives His children the ability to understand it. If I can say it, it is so simple. You see, the world has a pattern of taking simple biblical truth and making it into a complicated and confusing false teaching. That is why Paul said do not get involved in these arguments over words.
That same Catholic Encyclopedia that I referred to before, very early in their discussion of the Trinity, admitted that the Old Testament has no teaching on the Trinity at all, (I have to hand it to them for being honest) and that the New Testament had no clear statement affirming it. They admitted that the doctrine of the Trinity is developed by what they called "Christological speculation."
Speculation means we are guessing. When you speculate that something is going to happen, you are guessing. You may have a basis in fact in that, but you are still guessing. Now we will give them the benefit of the doubt and say that this central doctrine of the Christian church has been arrived at by deduction. We will change the word "speculation" into "deduction," but it is plain and simple human reason, and not clear scriptures in God's Word.
I will tell you something. It did not come easy into the church. It came in through very much disputing. It was first introduced at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. This is that famous Council that was presided over by the Roman Emperor Constantine, but it did not become firmly entrenched within the church until the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD. I am not talking here about the true church. I am talking about the false church.
I want you to compare that just briefly with the Council that was held in Acts 15, where appears to have taken God only a couple of days to get a true teaching into the true church, as compared to 125 years for the false church to pick up a false teaching. You can see how confusing it was to them. It was not until, I guess, a majority of the people were finally argued into believing it that they were able to force it into the doctrines of that false church.
It is very important for the worshipper—the one who is seeking God—to identify God as accurately as possible. When we look to the Bible to identify God, to find out much about what God is like, we are confronted with a difficulty. It is a language difficulty, and it is a cultural difficulty. The cultural difficulty I mentioned before—how that for all these centuries the western world has been under the domination of a false church teaching a false concept of God.
This has a way of picking up steam until it becomes like a tidal wave, and it is just something that is accepted, and you grow up with it from your earliest years of getting teaching on the nature of God. It had basically been on a trinitarian God, so the cultural difficulty is there.
The language difficulty is something that exists not just with those who speak the English language, but also for people who speak other languages than Hebrew as well. This has inadvertently played a part in the Trinity doctrine becoming a part of the fabric of this world's Christianity.
The English language translation consistently teaches us to identify God as a singular personality. It does this by referring to Elohim as "He" or "Him," or in the case of the Holy Spirit as a "He" or a "Him." We are monotheist, are we not, and so a monotheist would look to the Godhead and look for one personality, Supreme and unique, someone singularly different from everyone else. We would look for someone who would look like us, because right in the first chapter of His book He tells us that we are made in His image, and so we look for someone who is singular and unique. Nobody compares to Him in holiness or in power or intelligence.
Turn now to Genesis 1, and we will begin to get a handle on Elohim.
Genesis 1:1, 26 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth....And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.
If we are studying with any depth at all, even before we leave the first verse we are confronted with a problem of some difficulty unless one is willing to believe what the Bible consistently shows from the beginning to the end. The fourth word in the Bible, in English translation, is "God." Do you believe that? No, it is not. That forth word is Elohim. Elohim is Gods—plural. "In the beginning Gods created the heaven and the earth." That is confirmed, for an English-speaking person, in verse 26, where the translators finally used plural pronouns to conform to the plural noun antecedent, Elohim.
Perhaps they were forced to do that, because they recognized that Elohim—God—was speaking to somebody, and He was speaking to someone who was just like Him—"Us"! They were forced into using a plural pronoun. "Let Us make man in our image." In fact Elohim is used 66 times in a row at the beginning of the Bible before any other Hebrew word is translated into the English "God." That occurs in Genesis 6:5 when finally another word is used for God.
If you were reading that in the Hebrew, I think that you would have to be impressed that the author of this book was trying to get something across to the reader that "Gods" (plural) did everything; not a singular individual, but at least two. Are you getting my drift? In fact, brethren, Elohim is used in the Old Testament 2,570 times, every one plural—"Gods."
Whoever, or whatever, this God is, or I think it would be better still to say "Godhead," consists of more than one being, or more than one person, or we might say, more than one personality.
When Jesus preached, He clearly identified one in the Godhead as being Father. Let us go back to the New Testament to the book of Matthew. Toward the end of the first chapter in the Sermon on the Mount He makes this statement about loving your enemies. The reason that we are to do this is:
Matthew 5:45 That you may be the children of your Father.
Now hang onto this term "your Father," because it is going to mean something in just a bit. Now to whom is He speaking? He is speaking to His disciples, and we are His disciples today.
Matthew 5:48 Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Matthew 6:1 Take heed that you do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
Now who is in heaven? God is.
Matthew 6:4 That your alms may be in secret: and your Father which sees in secret himself shall reward you openly.
Matthew 6:6 Pray to your Father [Do you pray to God? Sure.] which is in secret: and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly.
Matthew 6:9 After this manner therefore pray you: Our Father which art in heaven, . . .
Matthew 6:14-15 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
With that thought in mind, turn to John 5:17. The discussion here is in regard to Jesus' use of the Sabbath.
John 5:17-18 But Jesus answered them, My Father, [now instead of being your father, it is My Father] works hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because [according to them] He not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.
You do not have to go any further than that and two of the Godhead are identified. And now they have titles: the Father, and the Son. They understood what He was driving at, because He was saying in a fact, "I am God," and He was placing Himself within Elohim. They understood it. They knew, and they were ready to jump on Him for blasphemy. Now Jesus came right back with an answer:
John 5:19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do.
That's pretty clear. Where would He see the Father do it? He would have had to have been with the Father.
John 5:20-23 For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that Himself does. For as the Father raises up the dead, and quickens them: even so the Son quickens whom He will. [Now He is asserting Himself as having the powers that go with the Godhead: to raise the dead.] For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honor the Son, [in the same manner, with the same reverence, with the same respect] even as they honour the Father. He that honors not the Son honors not the Father which has sent Him.
That is pretty clear. He is clearly asserting, affirming to those people that He is one of the Godhead. One is called the Father. The other is called the Son. Now the plural "Elohim" is beginning to become much easier to understand.
John 14:6-13 Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by Me. If you had known Me, you should have known My Father also and from henceforth you know Him, and have seen Him. Philip said unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us. Jesus said unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known Me, Philip? He that has seen Me has seen the Father: and how say you then, Show us the Father? Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in Me, he does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works' sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do because I go unto My Father. And whatsoever you shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Now I am going to show you something else that is in some ways rather shocking. Turn to Romans 8 and we will read a series of verses here.
Romans 8:9 But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.
We are talking about human beings in whom the Spirit of God dwells.
Romans 8:11, 14 But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal body by His Spirit that dwells in you....For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Are you with me? Are you beginning to follow the drift? If Jesus, as a human being, having the Spirit of God without measure, was still considered to be part of the Godhead, (and that's very clear), now what if God begins to give His Spirit to others, and they become the sons of God? Let us chase this out a little bit. Turn to I John 3. This is another very familiar scripture. You ought to be able to see what I am heading for here.
I John 3:1-2 Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knows us not because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him: for we shall see him as he is.
Let us put a cap on this principle. Go to Ephesians 3:14.
Ephesians 3:14-15 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.
Now we see that the family of God is located both in heaven and on earth. In heaven we know that there are two who are spirit who are part of the Godhead. This flies right in the face of monotheism. But even more startling brethren, is that God considers you and me right now to be part of the Godhead already!
Mr. Armstrong used to say that we are the Kingdom of God in embryo. Does that begin to make some sense? Now we have two who are spirit, but if you are with me, you can begin to see what is occurring from the beginning of the Book right till now. He said, "Let us create man in our image," and what we see from the beginning of the Bible all the way to the end is that Elohim is expanding! God is increasing what Elohim is. God is increasing the number who are in the Godhead. That is not hard to understand. We are already children of Elohim. We are in His family.
To us monotheism indicates that one is worshipping one distinct and unique almighty personality, and if anyone claims anything more than that, that person is considered to be a polytheist—worshipping many gods. This is very hard for us to accept here in this western world, and I think that the resistance to accepting what the Bible clearly reveals about the Godhead has in large measure led to the introduction of the "Trinity" because people just cannot accept the simple truth that is in the Bible—that God is expanding. He is increasing His number. We are going to be a part of that Godhead.
So powerful has the belief in the Trinity become that it is the litmus test for whether or not a person is considered to be Orthodox. I do not know how many of you have heard any of those broadcasts by The Watchmen Foundation, or have read any of their material. That is at the head of their list as to what they consider to be a cult. If a group does not believe in the Trinity, they consider them to be a cult.
It is also true that there were ancient pagan trinities, and that those things were undoubtedly drawn upon by those who forced this doctrine upon the church. However, these people still had to deal with the Bible, and so ways had to be devised to make this pagan doctrine appear to agree with it.
What they have done with the Trinity is that the Holy Spirit has been elevated to divine status as a personality, just like the Father and the Son. In fact "co-equal" is what they say—"co-equal and eternal with them"—and yet at the same time they make the "three" also to be "one." The result is this incomprehensible mixture—"a mystery"—that a true child of God—one who believes the Bible—cannot accept.
We are going to read the scripture, that along with Judaism, forced these people to do this. Let us go back to Deuteronomy 6:4.
Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.
The word "God" there is "Elohim." It says, "The LORD our Elohim is one LORD." What we have here is a phrase that is not normally grammatically correct—a plural noun (Elohim) with a singular verb, "is." Elohim is the plural of both "El" and "Eloah." El and Eloah mean "mighty one." It means "strong one" or "powerful one" according to Brown, Driver, and Briggs. Now Elohim, being those two words plural, therefore means "strong ones" (plural);" "mighty ones" or "powerful ones."
Just from the definition of the word, it means then that Elohim consists of at least two powerful beings. But as we are beginning to see, Elohim is not limited to two. It can actually signify an unlimited number, and so what it means then is a group or assembly of powerful beings.
It may sound jarring to your ears to say "Gods is," where you have the plural noun and a singular verb, but I am going to give you several words in the English language, some of which you may use everyday of your life. You may use at least one of these words several times a day. If you are paying any attention to world news, if you are paying any attention at all to things that are happening in America, and you use this, it does not sound grammatically difficult or unusual to you at all. You have just grown accustomed to it.
Do you know what that word is? It is the "United States of America." States is plural. Now use United States in a sentence. "The United States are going to do this." You do not say that! You say, "The United States is." Singular. You are using a singular verb with a plural noun. You say, "The United Nations is going to do this or that." That is exactly what Elohim is. It is plurality in one, and because the sense is singular, it calls for a singular verb; but everybody using it knows that it is plural, and represents many in unity. Is that not simple? But you see, our culture forces us to look for a singular being, and Elohim is not singular.
In the New Testament it becomes very clear that Elohim is a kingdom, consisting of many, many, many! Did I not tell you this is so simple? But let me tell you this. Elohim never acts in anything but in a singular way. That is how in agreement Elohim is. There is never any divisiveness.
The analogy kind of breaks down, because the United States is fifty states going in the opposite direction it seems, and we have a hard time doing anything in a singular way. We think of the United States as a singular institution consisting of over 260 million people. There are multitudes of towns, cities, counties, 50 states, each with its own government. There is a Federal government over them with its three branches. There is an infra-structure within it in order to support life. There is an army to act as defender, and an economy to produce income, and so forth and so on, and yet we always speak of it in the singular.
We have no problem at all saying or hearing that "The United States is bordered on the north by Canada," or "The United States is bordered on the south by the Caribbean and by Mexico," or that "The United States is in the northern hemisphere," or "The United States is in the western hemisphere," or "The United States delivered a sharp memo to the Japanese today." We always speak of the United States in the singular. We speak of it as an institution rather than a singular individual.
When Moses wrote what he did, it was no more discordant to a Hebrew-speaking person, no more grammatically wrong than it is for us to say, "The United States is." Elohim, "the powerful One," is a family of at least two divine beings, and besides that we are beginning to see many sons and daughters being prepared to be born, and the family, whether human or divine, is both joined in one. It is an institution created by the institution itself—Elohim.
The Bible gives us a very clear revelation that a nation is nothing more than a family grown great. That is why we have the table of nations there in Genesis showing the forebears. They began with one man and one woman, and they grew great; and so it is that Elohim is one institution—the family—growing ever larger and more complex until it becomes a nation—the Kingdom of God. We see then that this is what Elohim is developing.
Let us begin to expand out from this. Jesus very clearly established that there is government within Elohim.
John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify You Me with Your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world was.
The first thing that Christ does in this prayer is establish that He was with the Father. In this case the word "with" means "beside" or "along side of." This is in agreement with John 1:1 where it says, "In the beginning was the word [Christ], and the word was with [alongside of] God, and the word was God."
So the first thing that He does in this prayer is establish that He was with the Father. Let's begin to watch how this expands out.
John 17:11 And now I am no more in the world, but these [His disciples] are in the world, and I come to you, Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom you have given me, that they may be one as We are.
Remember, "The Lord our God, Elohim, is one Lord." In verse 5 He established that there was a time when He was along side the Father, but now He says that He is with, He is alongside of His disciples—His apostles. He is not alongside of the Father, and in this context He asks the Father "that they [the apostles] may be one as we are." What kind of oneness is this if it is not being "alongside of"? We will see.
John 17:20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word.
We are reading right now their word; that is, the word that the apostles wrote. And so Jesus' prayer is that those of us who now believe through the writings of the apostles, that we may be one with the Father and the Son, and that oneness may come through the reading of the word that the apostles have written.
John 17:21-23 That they all may be one; as You, Father, are in Me, [We are beginning to see this is not "alongside of," but "inside."] and I in you, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
They most assuredly were not in the same location, alongside of, beside of, and so the request that Christ made has to be a oneness in unity, a oneness as a unit. The oneness that He is asking for consists of agreement. There ought to be a verse that may come to your mind in reference to this. It is not directly on this subject, but the principle applies to this subject. This is in Philippians 2:5 where it says, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."—to be one in mind, one in heart, one in spirit.
Matthew 11:29 Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.
Again, it is the principle that is involved here. The way we become one with Elohim is to learn of Christ until we have the knowledge of Christ. That is what Peter said there in II Peter 3:18, that we "grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ." It means "Christ's knowledge." It does not mean knowledge about Christ. It means "the knowledge of Christ.
The entire purpose of this is that we become in the image of Elohim, and the primary example is Jesus Christ, and the primary teachings are those of Christ.
Let us go now to John 11:52. We will continue to develop this thought here. This was actually a prophecy that was uttered by Caiaphas. He, of course, was used by God to utter this, but it is very interesting in light of this.
John 11:51-52 And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation. [Now why?] And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
Why did Christ die for our sins? It is for the same reason that we are talking about, that the children of God can be gathered in one. One what? One Family. One Kingdom. It begins with the one church; that we all have one spirit, that we are in one body that becomes the Kingdom of God that is "Elohim"—the Godhead.
Let us go back to that scripture in Ephesians 3, and we will complete Paul's thought where he mentioned the family of God, because that thought was a prayer. In order to really fully understand this, it actually has to be connected with the very end thought of chapter 2 where he is talking about the body of Christ.
Ephesians 2:20-22 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;In whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto an holy temple in the Lord; [It's one temple.] In whom you also are builded together for an habitation of God through the spirit.
Ephesians 3:1a, 14-19 For this cause, [for this very cause, that we are being built together] . . . I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
That is mind-boggling! That blows your mind! The whole purpose of everything that God is working out is that YOU, (Put your name in there!) might be filled with all the fullness of Elohim! BOOM! That blows your mind to think of that!
Is Elohim one? Yes! It is one institution. It is one family. It is one kingdom in which everybody agrees. It acts as one, and because it acts as one, even though it consists of many, it takes a singular verb. We have to change our thinking so that we understand that "Elohim" consists of more than one, even though individual members of Elohim acting in the name of our God, because they are part of the Godhead.
Jesus tried His hardest to help us to understand this by using family terminology: father, son, children, brothers, sisters. Brethren, is a family one, even though it has many members? Of course it is, and Elohim is that family.
Even in the Old Testament, brethren, there are two Jehovahs identified. Does that astound you? There is one verse that you are so familiar with. David said, "The Lord said to my Lord," clearly showing that there are two in Elohim. But that is not the only place it appears. In Daniel 7 you will find, "One like the son of man was brought before the Ancient of Days." There are other places as well where two Jehovahs—Yahwehs—are clearly shown.
I think most important of all for us right now is to get our minds straightened out to be in harmony with the Father and the Son. He tells us in this section right here that Christ may dwell—live, abide—in our heart. It means to settle down, as if in a house. Even there is a family inference, because that is where families live. They live in a house. He is telling us that we might be strong, to grasp, and to know by experience the vastness of Christ's love. This is something that cannot be adequately explained, and Paul never really attempted it. Of course, the purpose of all of Paul's request there is that we might be filled with the fullness of God.
Colossians 1:13-19 Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated [transferred] us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins: who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: [Now listen to this description in verse 16. We are going to be brought to this kind of fullness.] For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, [certainly showing that there are going to be more coming. And what was He born into? He was born into that which He left—the family—Elohim.] that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.
We are being brought to the fullness of God. I am not saying that as soon as we are born into the Kingdom of God that we are going to be like that, because I am sure we have a lot of growing to do afterward.
Colossians 2:8-9 Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
The enmity against God is so powerful that people would rather devise a scripturally non-supportable doctrine than accept what the Bible clearly reveals the Godhead is.
What we have seen today is that if one allows the Bible to interpret itself, it clearly shows that Elohim is an institution consisting of more than one person. We did not look at the Old Testament, but it, like the New Testament, also shows that Elohim consists of two divine beings. The New Testament adds that we are being drawn into that same institution to be one with those who are already there.
It is true that Elohim is also used in many places to indicate a singular divine being. This is because Elohim always acts as one. They are in perfect harmony, in perfect agreement. We did not examine that because of a lack of time, but it is so easy to determine I think that just about any son of God can figure that out.
We also did not examine whether the Holy Spirit is God, co-equal with the others, forming a triune Godhead. But the elements are already in place to show the fallacy of that. When one considers that almost everybody on earth is going to be part of the same Godhead that now consists of two, how could there only be three?
John W. Ritenbaugh
Given 03-Jun-95; Tape #185; 76 minutes
For almost sixty years the church of God has sailed along with very little controversy about the nature of God. There were always times during that sixty-year period that the world took potshots at us because of our stand on the nature of God, that God is not a trinity, but there was never any serious problem from within. Then about mid-1993 came the "God Is ..." doctrinal papers in which over a period of about a year the Worlwide Church of God changed its doctrinal position in regard to the nature of God from being a family to a Trinity.
I do not know how much you are aware of what a bombshell this was, but it created a bombshell out in the world at least, and was the single step that was most significant in turning the world's attitude from being antagonistic toward the Worldwide Church of God to one that was looking forward to making the Worldwide as part of them.
Now no less authority than the Catholic Encyclopedia calls the Trinity the central doctrine of the Christian Church. What they are saying is that the Trinity doctrine is the doctrine around which all other doctrines revolve, and it is the concept to which all others owe their existence. They say all other doctrines hang on, lead to, and exist to support this one doctrine.
For the past two years I have been gathering papers from church of God sources in order to distill from them truth on this very important subject. There is no way that I can give you an extremely detailed account in two sermons on this weekend, but this weekend is going to be devoted to this subject. I have gathered papers from the Worldwide Church of God both before and after the change, from the Christian Biblical Church, from individuals such as Keith Hunt, Ernest Martin, and also from the Philadelphia Church of God, the Church of God International, the Church of God Seventh Day, and from quite a number of groups as well, many of them quite small.
These sermons are going to be more like two Bible studies rather than sermons. Like I said, there is no way I can cover everything in detail, so what I have decided to do is to concentrate on two very closely related areas of this subject that I think are essential for us to understand, and are essential to understanding the doctrine.
In Part Two I am going to be quoting at the beginning fairly extensively from a couple of papers that come from the world, but in this sermon almost the entirety of this (95%) is going to be taken from the Bible. We will not be delving into the esoteric writings of some of the world's scholars. I want us to see very clearly what the Bible has to say on this subject. Today we are going to focus on Elohim, because it is central to the Trinity issue. This is not going to be a technical expounding of words.
Since I have been somehow or other put into this position, more and more I am beginning to appreciate Mr. Herbert Armstrong's scorn for biblical scholars, not that he was against scholarship at all, but he meant the scholars of this world who tangle people around on studies of words. The apostle Paul warned Timothy two different times—once in I Timothy and once in II Timothy—not to allow himself, as a minister, to get bound up in arguments about words. He said that they are not profitable to godliness, and he called them to be nothing more than vain jangling.
Understanding Elohim teaches us a great deal about the nature of the Godhead, and this is essential to the direction of our lives. We must be well-grounded if indeed this is the foundational doctrine of the Church of God. Let us turn to Exodus 32.
Exodus 32:1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said to him, Up, make us gods which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.
Exodus 32:4 And he [Aaron] received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Exodus 32:7-10 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get you down; for your people which you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be your gods, O Israel, which have brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of you a great nation.
God was not faking His anger. To say He was mad is, I think, to underestimate the intensity of His anger. I think He meant exactly what He said. God does not mislead people and fake something. He was upset by what these people had done. This occurred pretty early in their journey, and it is important because it shows the concept of the nature of God that the Israelites brought with them out of Egypt. To them, God's nature—His very being—was conceived to be something no greater than an uncomprehending, non-communicating beast that had nothing in common with them, except that it was a mammal, and that it was alive.
Now what or who a nation worships is very important to the quality of life within that nation. It is going to pretty much determine the nation's morality, its kind of government, and the way that government is operated, its educational system, and its economics. It will determine much of its entertainment, music, literature, architecture, art, clothing fashion, and its vision of the future.
In our western cultures we tend to look upon God in a very narrow way. I am telling you right up front here that this way is different from the Bible's approach on this perhaps the most important of all subjects. I say most important, because what an individual worships is going to pretty much determine what he is going to do with his life, how it is going to be lived, and what is going to be big and important to him.
To understand what I mean, we are going to look right at this example. I will give you an illustration of what I am talking about, because as soon as they once again gave their mind over to the Egyptian bull-god, called in history "Apis," look what they did with their lives.
Exodus 32:6a And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings.
What happened to the God that brought them out of Egypt? Burnt offerings and peace offerings are symbols of worship. They started worshipping it. They started giving it honor, reverence, and respect.
Exodus 32:6b And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
That is not put in there with a clean connotation to it. "They sat down to eat." This indicates gluttony. "They sat down to drink." This indicates over-imbibing and drunkenness. "And they rose up to play." This indicates fornication, sexual things that are beyond the pale of marriage.
Exodus 32:25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked: (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies.)
Here the word "naked" does not mean that they were without clothing, but rather that their spiritual condition had been exposed. It is very similar to "naked" as it is used in Revelation 3 in reference to a Laodicean. "They're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked." They did not have the righteousness of God clothing them.
Do you see what they did? They gave their mind to a different god, and immediately things began to take place in their life. That is the principle that is involved here. You do that on a nationwide scale, and it is going to determine the direction, the morality, the government, the art, the literature, the education, the economics of the entire nation.
You already know about the record of the Israelites throughout the journey. There was a constant repetition of murmuring, of fornication, and a political and religious rebellion. That was the way of the bull-god, and that was what was driving them.
I am not kidding when I say to you that all one has to do is look at a person and see their style of clothing, and you are pretty well on your way to understanding what might be important in that person's life. The reason is that there is a very powerful drive within us to conform to what we respect. Why do you think all the little groupies, let us say, of rock stars, try to imitate and be like the one that they respect? "Birds of a feather flock together."
There are people who are always concerned about having the latest fashions in terms of dress. They always have to have the latest things. Those people have a problem with lust and with the respecting of a vanity. Where does the god tend to lie? Do you understand what I am driving at?
God is very concerned about the image that His children project, and this is called in the Bible "our witness." If we really are worshipping Him, we will be strongly motivated to be like Him, because we love Him, because we respect Him, and we want to, just like the rock star groupies, imitate, to live like, to dress like, to entertain like, to speak like, to act like, to do everything in the image of this one that we admire and respect. In this case that is exactly what our God wants. This is why He wants us to study His word so deeply and so often. He wants us to get as much an impression in our mind of what He is like as we possibly can, because it is going to profoundly affect what we do with our life; if we believe Him, that is.
Now here is a question that you can answer yourself. Are you a monotheist or a polytheist? Do you worship many gods, or do you worship one God? This is important in regard to Elohim.
Let us go to I Corinthians 8:5. Maybe you have never thought of this verse in respect of this particular subject. Notice the admission.
I Corinthians 8:5 For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many.)
An interesting thought, and from an apostle yet. I do not think that we would call Paul a liar. He said, "There are gods many, and lords many." In verse 6 he says, "But to us there is but one God." It looks to me like Paul is saying that God has some competition, that He is not alone among the gods.
Let us go back to the Old Testament toPsalm 86.
Psalm 86:8 Among the gods there is none like unto you, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto your works.
Now it begins to look like the Lord, the God of creation, is one God among many gods.
Psalm 135:5 For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.
You begin looking this up, and you are going to find this appears all over the Bible.
Psalm 97:9 For you, LORD, are high above all the earth: you are exalted far above all gods.
Just so you do not think that this is something that is confined to the Psalms, let us turn to Deuteronomy 10.
Deuteronomy 10:17 For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regards not persons, nor takes reward.
This is a concept that is shown throughout the Bible because it is true. There is a plurality within Elohim, and Elohim is consistently described as "the Lord of hosts." "Hosts" means armies. A little bit broader and clearer definition is, "He is Lord of many things."
We also caution throughout the Bible not to let any of these lesser gods take the place of Elohim, who is revealed to us in the very first chapter of His book. The reason our culture has such a narrow view of this is because a false Christianity has dominated its religious thinking, and that false Christianity, for the past 1600 years, has taught a false god who is non-biblical and inexplicable "three-in-one" Trinity. The reason that it is inexplicable is because they are trying to make the explanation fit into biblical context, and it does not fit, and so the final outcome is that it is a mystery that one has to accept on faith.
The following is a quote from A Handbook of Christian Truth by Harold Lindsell and Charles Woodbridge, Pages 51 and 52.
The mind of man cannot fully understand the mystery of the Trinity. He who has tried to understand the mystery fully will lose his mind; but he who would deny the Trinity will lose his soul.
Now wait a minute here! Did not Jesus say in both Mark 4 and Matthew 13 that it was given to the apostles to understand the mysteries of God? I am going to read to you exactly what He said to them in Matthew 13:11.
Matthew 13:11, 16 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given....But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Did not the apostle Paul write in I Corinthians 2 that we were given the spirit of God in order that we might understand the things of God, and yet these people try to tell us that the Trinity is a mystery, that we will go crazy trying to understand? No. You see, their concept of the Godhead is what is not able to be fit into the Scriptures, and so they have to go into the convoluted argument in order to try to convince others who are looking to the Bible that their explanation is correct, and yet they themselves admit that nobody will ever understand the Trinity. What they are trying to palm off on us is not truth at all. It is an error, and it is beyond them, because they do not have the spirit of God, and because they do not believe what the Bible says.
But really, the nature of God is not hard to understand at all. He gives His children the ability to understand it. If I can say it, it is so simple. You see, the world has a pattern of taking simple biblical truth and making it into a complicated and confusing false teaching. That is why Paul said do not get involved in these arguments over words.
That same Catholic Encyclopedia that I referred to before, very early in their discussion of the Trinity, admitted that the Old Testament has no teaching on the Trinity at all, (I have to hand it to them for being honest) and that the New Testament had no clear statement affirming it. They admitted that the doctrine of the Trinity is developed by what they called "Christological speculation."
Speculation means we are guessing. When you speculate that something is going to happen, you are guessing. You may have a basis in fact in that, but you are still guessing. Now we will give them the benefit of the doubt and say that this central doctrine of the Christian church has been arrived at by deduction. We will change the word "speculation" into "deduction," but it is plain and simple human reason, and not clear scriptures in God's Word.
I will tell you something. It did not come easy into the church. It came in through very much disputing. It was first introduced at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. This is that famous Council that was presided over by the Roman Emperor Constantine, but it did not become firmly entrenched within the church until the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD. I am not talking here about the true church. I am talking about the false church.
I want you to compare that just briefly with the Council that was held in Acts 15, where appears to have taken God only a couple of days to get a true teaching into the true church, as compared to 125 years for the false church to pick up a false teaching. You can see how confusing it was to them. It was not until, I guess, a majority of the people were finally argued into believing it that they were able to force it into the doctrines of that false church.
It is very important for the worshipper—the one who is seeking God—to identify God as accurately as possible. When we look to the Bible to identify God, to find out much about what God is like, we are confronted with a difficulty. It is a language difficulty, and it is a cultural difficulty. The cultural difficulty I mentioned before—how that for all these centuries the western world has been under the domination of a false church teaching a false concept of God.
This has a way of picking up steam until it becomes like a tidal wave, and it is just something that is accepted, and you grow up with it from your earliest years of getting teaching on the nature of God. It had basically been on a trinitarian God, so the cultural difficulty is there.
The language difficulty is something that exists not just with those who speak the English language, but also for people who speak other languages than Hebrew as well. This has inadvertently played a part in the Trinity doctrine becoming a part of the fabric of this world's Christianity.
The English language translation consistently teaches us to identify God as a singular personality. It does this by referring to Elohim as "He" or "Him," or in the case of the Holy Spirit as a "He" or a "Him." We are monotheist, are we not, and so a monotheist would look to the Godhead and look for one personality, Supreme and unique, someone singularly different from everyone else. We would look for someone who would look like us, because right in the first chapter of His book He tells us that we are made in His image, and so we look for someone who is singular and unique. Nobody compares to Him in holiness or in power or intelligence.
Turn now to Genesis 1, and we will begin to get a handle on Elohim.
Genesis 1:1, 26 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth....And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.
If we are studying with any depth at all, even before we leave the first verse we are confronted with a problem of some difficulty unless one is willing to believe what the Bible consistently shows from the beginning to the end. The fourth word in the Bible, in English translation, is "God." Do you believe that? No, it is not. That forth word is Elohim. Elohim is Gods—plural. "In the beginning Gods created the heaven and the earth." That is confirmed, for an English-speaking person, in verse 26, where the translators finally used plural pronouns to conform to the plural noun antecedent, Elohim.
Perhaps they were forced to do that, because they recognized that Elohim—God—was speaking to somebody, and He was speaking to someone who was just like Him—"Us"! They were forced into using a plural pronoun. "Let Us make man in our image." In fact Elohim is used 66 times in a row at the beginning of the Bible before any other Hebrew word is translated into the English "God." That occurs in Genesis 6:5 when finally another word is used for God.
If you were reading that in the Hebrew, I think that you would have to be impressed that the author of this book was trying to get something across to the reader that "Gods" (plural) did everything; not a singular individual, but at least two. Are you getting my drift? In fact, brethren, Elohim is used in the Old Testament 2,570 times, every one plural—"Gods."
Whoever, or whatever, this God is, or I think it would be better still to say "Godhead," consists of more than one being, or more than one person, or we might say, more than one personality.
When Jesus preached, He clearly identified one in the Godhead as being Father. Let us go back to the New Testament to the book of Matthew. Toward the end of the first chapter in the Sermon on the Mount He makes this statement about loving your enemies. The reason that we are to do this is:
Matthew 5:45 That you may be the children of your Father.
Now hang onto this term "your Father," because it is going to mean something in just a bit. Now to whom is He speaking? He is speaking to His disciples, and we are His disciples today.
Matthew 5:48 Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Matthew 6:1 Take heed that you do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
Now who is in heaven? God is.
Matthew 6:4 That your alms may be in secret: and your Father which sees in secret himself shall reward you openly.
Matthew 6:6 Pray to your Father [Do you pray to God? Sure.] which is in secret: and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly.
Matthew 6:9 After this manner therefore pray you: Our Father which art in heaven, . . .
Matthew 6:14-15 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
With that thought in mind, turn to John 5:17. The discussion here is in regard to Jesus' use of the Sabbath.
John 5:17-18 But Jesus answered them, My Father, [now instead of being your father, it is My Father] works hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because [according to them] He not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.
You do not have to go any further than that and two of the Godhead are identified. And now they have titles: the Father, and the Son. They understood what He was driving at, because He was saying in a fact, "I am God," and He was placing Himself within Elohim. They understood it. They knew, and they were ready to jump on Him for blasphemy. Now Jesus came right back with an answer:
John 5:19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do.
That's pretty clear. Where would He see the Father do it? He would have had to have been with the Father.
John 5:20-23 For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that Himself does. For as the Father raises up the dead, and quickens them: even so the Son quickens whom He will. [Now He is asserting Himself as having the powers that go with the Godhead: to raise the dead.] For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honor the Son, [in the same manner, with the same reverence, with the same respect] even as they honour the Father. He that honors not the Son honors not the Father which has sent Him.
That is pretty clear. He is clearly asserting, affirming to those people that He is one of the Godhead. One is called the Father. The other is called the Son. Now the plural "Elohim" is beginning to become much easier to understand.
John 14:6-13 Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by Me. If you had known Me, you should have known My Father also and from henceforth you know Him, and have seen Him. Philip said unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us. Jesus said unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known Me, Philip? He that has seen Me has seen the Father: and how say you then, Show us the Father? Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in Me, he does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works' sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do because I go unto My Father. And whatsoever you shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Now I am going to show you something else that is in some ways rather shocking. Turn to Romans 8 and we will read a series of verses here.
Romans 8:9 But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.
We are talking about human beings in whom the Spirit of God dwells.
Romans 8:11, 14 But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal body by His Spirit that dwells in you....For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Are you with me? Are you beginning to follow the drift? If Jesus, as a human being, having the Spirit of God without measure, was still considered to be part of the Godhead, (and that's very clear), now what if God begins to give His Spirit to others, and they become the sons of God? Let us chase this out a little bit. Turn to I John 3. This is another very familiar scripture. You ought to be able to see what I am heading for here.
I John 3:1-2 Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knows us not because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him: for we shall see him as he is.
Let us put a cap on this principle. Go to Ephesians 3:14.
Ephesians 3:14-15 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.
Now we see that the family of God is located both in heaven and on earth. In heaven we know that there are two who are spirit who are part of the Godhead. This flies right in the face of monotheism. But even more startling brethren, is that God considers you and me right now to be part of the Godhead already!
Mr. Armstrong used to say that we are the Kingdom of God in embryo. Does that begin to make some sense? Now we have two who are spirit, but if you are with me, you can begin to see what is occurring from the beginning of the Book right till now. He said, "Let us create man in our image," and what we see from the beginning of the Bible all the way to the end is that Elohim is expanding! God is increasing what Elohim is. God is increasing the number who are in the Godhead. That is not hard to understand. We are already children of Elohim. We are in His family.
To us monotheism indicates that one is worshipping one distinct and unique almighty personality, and if anyone claims anything more than that, that person is considered to be a polytheist—worshipping many gods. This is very hard for us to accept here in this western world, and I think that the resistance to accepting what the Bible clearly reveals about the Godhead has in large measure led to the introduction of the "Trinity" because people just cannot accept the simple truth that is in the Bible—that God is expanding. He is increasing His number. We are going to be a part of that Godhead.
So powerful has the belief in the Trinity become that it is the litmus test for whether or not a person is considered to be Orthodox. I do not know how many of you have heard any of those broadcasts by The Watchmen Foundation, or have read any of their material. That is at the head of their list as to what they consider to be a cult. If a group does not believe in the Trinity, they consider them to be a cult.
It is also true that there were ancient pagan trinities, and that those things were undoubtedly drawn upon by those who forced this doctrine upon the church. However, these people still had to deal with the Bible, and so ways had to be devised to make this pagan doctrine appear to agree with it.
What they have done with the Trinity is that the Holy Spirit has been elevated to divine status as a personality, just like the Father and the Son. In fact "co-equal" is what they say—"co-equal and eternal with them"—and yet at the same time they make the "three" also to be "one." The result is this incomprehensible mixture—"a mystery"—that a true child of God—one who believes the Bible—cannot accept.
We are going to read the scripture, that along with Judaism, forced these people to do this. Let us go back to Deuteronomy 6:4.
Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.
The word "God" there is "Elohim." It says, "The LORD our Elohim is one LORD." What we have here is a phrase that is not normally grammatically correct—a plural noun (Elohim) with a singular verb, "is." Elohim is the plural of both "El" and "Eloah." El and Eloah mean "mighty one." It means "strong one" or "powerful one" according to Brown, Driver, and Briggs. Now Elohim, being those two words plural, therefore means "strong ones" (plural);" "mighty ones" or "powerful ones."
Just from the definition of the word, it means then that Elohim consists of at least two powerful beings. But as we are beginning to see, Elohim is not limited to two. It can actually signify an unlimited number, and so what it means then is a group or assembly of powerful beings.
It may sound jarring to your ears to say "Gods is," where you have the plural noun and a singular verb, but I am going to give you several words in the English language, some of which you may use everyday of your life. You may use at least one of these words several times a day. If you are paying any attention to world news, if you are paying any attention at all to things that are happening in America, and you use this, it does not sound grammatically difficult or unusual to you at all. You have just grown accustomed to it.
Do you know what that word is? It is the "United States of America." States is plural. Now use United States in a sentence. "The United States are going to do this." You do not say that! You say, "The United States is." Singular. You are using a singular verb with a plural noun. You say, "The United Nations is going to do this or that." That is exactly what Elohim is. It is plurality in one, and because the sense is singular, it calls for a singular verb; but everybody using it knows that it is plural, and represents many in unity. Is that not simple? But you see, our culture forces us to look for a singular being, and Elohim is not singular.
In the New Testament it becomes very clear that Elohim is a kingdom, consisting of many, many, many! Did I not tell you this is so simple? But let me tell you this. Elohim never acts in anything but in a singular way. That is how in agreement Elohim is. There is never any divisiveness.
The analogy kind of breaks down, because the United States is fifty states going in the opposite direction it seems, and we have a hard time doing anything in a singular way. We think of the United States as a singular institution consisting of over 260 million people. There are multitudes of towns, cities, counties, 50 states, each with its own government. There is a Federal government over them with its three branches. There is an infra-structure within it in order to support life. There is an army to act as defender, and an economy to produce income, and so forth and so on, and yet we always speak of it in the singular.
We have no problem at all saying or hearing that "The United States is bordered on the north by Canada," or "The United States is bordered on the south by the Caribbean and by Mexico," or that "The United States is in the northern hemisphere," or "The United States is in the western hemisphere," or "The United States delivered a sharp memo to the Japanese today." We always speak of the United States in the singular. We speak of it as an institution rather than a singular individual.
When Moses wrote what he did, it was no more discordant to a Hebrew-speaking person, no more grammatically wrong than it is for us to say, "The United States is." Elohim, "the powerful One," is a family of at least two divine beings, and besides that we are beginning to see many sons and daughters being prepared to be born, and the family, whether human or divine, is both joined in one. It is an institution created by the institution itself—Elohim.
The Bible gives us a very clear revelation that a nation is nothing more than a family grown great. That is why we have the table of nations there in Genesis showing the forebears. They began with one man and one woman, and they grew great; and so it is that Elohim is one institution—the family—growing ever larger and more complex until it becomes a nation—the Kingdom of God. We see then that this is what Elohim is developing.
Let us begin to expand out from this. Jesus very clearly established that there is government within Elohim.
John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify You Me with Your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world was.
The first thing that Christ does in this prayer is establish that He was with the Father. In this case the word "with" means "beside" or "along side of." This is in agreement with John 1:1 where it says, "In the beginning was the word [Christ], and the word was with [alongside of] God, and the word was God."
So the first thing that He does in this prayer is establish that He was with the Father. Let's begin to watch how this expands out.
John 17:11 And now I am no more in the world, but these [His disciples] are in the world, and I come to you, Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom you have given me, that they may be one as We are.
Remember, "The Lord our God, Elohim, is one Lord." In verse 5 He established that there was a time when He was along side the Father, but now He says that He is with, He is alongside of His disciples—His apostles. He is not alongside of the Father, and in this context He asks the Father "that they [the apostles] may be one as we are." What kind of oneness is this if it is not being "alongside of"? We will see.
John 17:20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word.
We are reading right now their word; that is, the word that the apostles wrote. And so Jesus' prayer is that those of us who now believe through the writings of the apostles, that we may be one with the Father and the Son, and that oneness may come through the reading of the word that the apostles have written.
John 17:21-23 That they all may be one; as You, Father, are in Me, [We are beginning to see this is not "alongside of," but "inside."] and I in you, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
They most assuredly were not in the same location, alongside of, beside of, and so the request that Christ made has to be a oneness in unity, a oneness as a unit. The oneness that He is asking for consists of agreement. There ought to be a verse that may come to your mind in reference to this. It is not directly on this subject, but the principle applies to this subject. This is in Philippians 2:5 where it says, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."—to be one in mind, one in heart, one in spirit.
Matthew 11:29 Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.
Again, it is the principle that is involved here. The way we become one with Elohim is to learn of Christ until we have the knowledge of Christ. That is what Peter said there in II Peter 3:18, that we "grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ." It means "Christ's knowledge." It does not mean knowledge about Christ. It means "the knowledge of Christ.
The entire purpose of this is that we become in the image of Elohim, and the primary example is Jesus Christ, and the primary teachings are those of Christ.
Let us go now to John 11:52. We will continue to develop this thought here. This was actually a prophecy that was uttered by Caiaphas. He, of course, was used by God to utter this, but it is very interesting in light of this.
John 11:51-52 And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation. [Now why?] And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
Why did Christ die for our sins? It is for the same reason that we are talking about, that the children of God can be gathered in one. One what? One Family. One Kingdom. It begins with the one church; that we all have one spirit, that we are in one body that becomes the Kingdom of God that is "Elohim"—the Godhead.
Let us go back to that scripture in Ephesians 3, and we will complete Paul's thought where he mentioned the family of God, because that thought was a prayer. In order to really fully understand this, it actually has to be connected with the very end thought of chapter 2 where he is talking about the body of Christ.
Ephesians 2:20-22 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;In whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto an holy temple in the Lord; [It's one temple.] In whom you also are builded together for an habitation of God through the spirit.
Ephesians 3:1a, 14-19 For this cause, [for this very cause, that we are being built together] . . . I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
That is mind-boggling! That blows your mind! The whole purpose of everything that God is working out is that YOU, (Put your name in there!) might be filled with all the fullness of Elohim! BOOM! That blows your mind to think of that!
Is Elohim one? Yes! It is one institution. It is one family. It is one kingdom in which everybody agrees. It acts as one, and because it acts as one, even though it consists of many, it takes a singular verb. We have to change our thinking so that we understand that "Elohim" consists of more than one, even though individual members of Elohim acting in the name of our God, because they are part of the Godhead.
Jesus tried His hardest to help us to understand this by using family terminology: father, son, children, brothers, sisters. Brethren, is a family one, even though it has many members? Of course it is, and Elohim is that family.
Even in the Old Testament, brethren, there are two Jehovahs identified. Does that astound you? There is one verse that you are so familiar with. David said, "The Lord said to my Lord," clearly showing that there are two in Elohim. But that is not the only place it appears. In Daniel 7 you will find, "One like the son of man was brought before the Ancient of Days." There are other places as well where two Jehovahs—Yahwehs—are clearly shown.
I think most important of all for us right now is to get our minds straightened out to be in harmony with the Father and the Son. He tells us in this section right here that Christ may dwell—live, abide—in our heart. It means to settle down, as if in a house. Even there is a family inference, because that is where families live. They live in a house. He is telling us that we might be strong, to grasp, and to know by experience the vastness of Christ's love. This is something that cannot be adequately explained, and Paul never really attempted it. Of course, the purpose of all of Paul's request there is that we might be filled with the fullness of God.
Colossians 1:13-19 Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated [transferred] us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins: who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: [Now listen to this description in verse 16. We are going to be brought to this kind of fullness.] For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, [certainly showing that there are going to be more coming. And what was He born into? He was born into that which He left—the family—Elohim.] that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.
We are being brought to the fullness of God. I am not saying that as soon as we are born into the Kingdom of God that we are going to be like that, because I am sure we have a lot of growing to do afterward.
Colossians 2:8-9 Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
The enmity against God is so powerful that people would rather devise a scripturally non-supportable doctrine than accept what the Bible clearly reveals the Godhead is.
What we have seen today is that if one allows the Bible to interpret itself, it clearly shows that Elohim is an institution consisting of more than one person. We did not look at the Old Testament, but it, like the New Testament, also shows that Elohim consists of two divine beings. The New Testament adds that we are being drawn into that same institution to be one with those who are already there.
It is true that Elohim is also used in many places to indicate a singular divine being. This is because Elohim always acts as one. They are in perfect harmony, in perfect agreement. We did not examine that because of a lack of time, but it is so easy to determine I think that just about any son of God can figure that out.
We also did not examine whether the Holy Spirit is God, co-equal with the others, forming a triune Godhead. But the elements are already in place to show the fallacy of that. When one considers that almost everybody on earth is going to be part of the same Godhead that now consists of two, how could there only be three?
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