WHO IS THE GOD OF ABRAHAM?

THE WORD OF YAHWEH TO ABRAM

Gen 15:1,2 -- "After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great. But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD ..."

These are not the first words God spoke to Abram. There has been a growing relationship initiated not by Abram but by God [Gen 12:1]. Here God iniates his leadership in Abram's life directing him to leave Haran to follow God into a new promised land.

“The word of the Lord came.” This is a phrase typically introducing revelation to a prophet, e.g., 1 Sam 15:10; Hos 1:1; but in Genesis it is found only here and in v 4 of this chapter. Abraham is actually called a prophet in 20:7."
“I am your shield.” Here the military metaphor is unmistakable (cf. 2 Sam 22:3, 31; Ps 3:4 [3]; 115:9–11, etc.). In view of the frequency of the idea that God is the shield of his faithful people (cf. Ps 84:12–13 [11–12]; Prov 30:5), particularly the protector of the king."
“Sovereign Lord.” This formula occurs only here and in v 8 in Genesis “sovereign” is a characteristic mode of address to God in intercessory prayer; cf. 18:3, 27, 30–32; 19:18; 20:4. It is not found in Genesis outside the Abraham cycle." [Wenham, Gordon J., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 1: Genesis 1-15, (Dallas, Texas: Word Books, Publisher) 1998].

Even though Abram is considered the father of faith and as such a great human being we see that he never addresses God in a way that suggests they are on an equal basis. Abram addresses Yahweh as "Sovereign Lord."

Another element that set Abram's God apart from the pantheon of gods in the world of his day was in the way God led Abram to develop trust in God. This required from God an element of trustablity absent from the surrounding pantheon. Here was a God who made bold promises and then made certain those promises were fulfilled.

If we study events between chapters 12 to 15 we see evidence of the way a righteous God protects, shields and prospers a very imperfect but believing human being. We see an absence of similar gods in the ancient world.

Chapter fifteen became the climax however as we see God imputing righteousness into Abram solely because of his belief in God.

Gen 15:6 -- "Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness."

It is important that we see from this passage how a new quality of being right in God's eyes came from Yahweh himself and not Abram.

“he believed” can mean “he relied on someone, gave credence to a message or considered it to be true, trusted in someone” (Jepsen, TDOT 1:308). It occurs quite rarely in a positive context in the OT: much more often the texts speak of people not believing in God, or in someone, cf. 45:26; Exod 4:8; 14:31; Num 14:11; 20:12; Deut 1:32; 9:23."
“It was counted to him.” Here the imperfect qal is used. Similar constructions using the niphal are found in Lev 7:18; 17:4; Num 18:27, 30; Prov 27:14. But the closest parallel is Ps 106:31: “that has been reckoned to him [niphal] as righteousness.” The legal texts quoted illustrate the meaning of “count”: when Levites pass on a tenth of the tithes they receive, that counts as though they had given a tithe from their own produce (Num 18:27, 30). Similarly, killing a sacrificial animal outside the tabernacle compound counts as murder: “he has shed blood” (Lev 17:4).
"Just as priests declared sacrifices acceptable (Lev 7:18), or men clean or unclean (Lev 13), so they could declare them righteous (Ezek 18:9). Here in Gen 15, von Rad says, there is a spiritualized idea of righteousness that is not dependent on cultic worship."
"It does seem likely that once again Abram’s experiences are regarded as archetypal for later generations. Just as he exercised faith in God’s revelation, so too must his offspring exercise faith in their situation by obediently carrying out God’s will declared in the law; cf. Ps 119:66."
"Normally righteousness is defined in terms of moral conduct, for example, Ezek 18:5." "But here Abram is not described as doing righteousness. Rather faith is being counted for righteousness. Here faith, the right response to God’s revelation, counts instead." [Wenham, Gordon J., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 1: Genesis 1-15, (Dallas, Texas: Word Books, Publisher) 1998].

SUMMARY ABOUT THE GOD OF ABRAHAM

2. Abraham's God is evidenced as being both holy and righteous in the way that he presented himself as someone that can be feared in trust rather than feared in contempt.

3. The knowledge about God's integrity was something Abraham passed on to his family.

Exod 3:1-5
Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, "I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up." When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then He said, "Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."

We see everywhere Moses claiming to have seen the glorious cloud of glory associated with God's presence. Yet we also see God standing back from too close an inspection by Moses. "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live" [Exod 33:20]. It took the apostle John to clear up this mystery in his prologue of his Gospel. "No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him" [John 1:18]. We see John identifying the Logos Christ as that glorified deity Moses and others saw in the Old Testament. Sometimes Biblical authors say these visions are of the Angel of Yahweh. [A.C. Thiselton, Truth, Dictionary of New Testament Theology, vol. 3, 889].

WHO IS THE ANGEL OF YAHWEH?

International Standard Bible Encylopaedia, Angel of Yahweh

The Angel of the Theophany:
This angel is spoken of as "the angel of Yahweh," and "the angel of the presence (or face) of Yahweh." The following passages contain references to this angel: Gen 16:7 ff-- the angel and Hagar; Gen 18-- Abraham intercedes with the angel for Sodom; Gen 22:11 ff-- the angel interposes to prevent the sacrifice of Isaac; Gen 24:7,40-- Abraham sends Eliezer and promises the angel's protection; Gen 31:11 ff-- the angel who appears to Jacob says "I am the God of Beth-el"; Gen 32:24 ff-- Jacob wrestles with the angel and says, "I have seen God face to face"; Gen 48:15 f-- Jacob speaks of God and the angel as identical; Exo 3 (compare Acts 7:30 ff)-- the angel appears to Moses in the burning bush; Exo 13:21; 14:19 (compare Num 20:16)-- God or the angel leads Israel out of Egypt; Exo 23:20 ff-- the people are commanded to obey the angel; Exo 32:34--33:17 (compare Isa 63:9)-- Moses pleads for the presence of God with His people; Josh 5:13--6:2-- the angel appears to Joshua; Judg 2:1-5-- the angel speaks to the people; Judg 6:11 ff-- the angel appears to Gideon.

A study of these passages shows that while the angel and Yahweh are at times distinguished from each other, they are with equal frequency, and in the same passages, merged into each other. How is this to be explained? It is obvious that these apparitions cannot be the Almighty Himself, whom no man hath seen, or can see.

In seeking the explanation, special attention should be paid to two of the passages above cited. In Exo 23:20 ff God promises to send an angel before His people to lead them to the promised land; they are commanded to obey him and not to provoke him "for he will not pardon your transgression: for my name is in him."

Thus the angel can forgive sin, which only God can do, because God's name, i.e. His character and thus His authority, are in the angel. Further, in the passage Exo 32:34--33:17 Moses intercedes for the people after their first breach of the covenant; God responds by promising, "Behold mine angel shall go before thee"; and immediately after God says, "I will not go up in the midst of thee." In answer to further pleading, God says, "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." Here a clear distinction is made between an ordinary angel, and the angel who carries with him God's presence.

The conclusion may be summed up in the words of Davidson in his Old Testament Theology: "In particular providences one may trace the presence of Yahweh in influence and operation; in ordinary angelic appearances one may discover Yahweh present on some side of His being, in some attribute of His character; in the angel of the Lord He is fully present as the covenant God of His people, to redeem them." The question still remains, Who is the theophanic angel? To this many answers have been given, of which the following may be mentioned:

(1) This angel is simply an angel with a special commission

(2) He may be a momentary descent of God into visibility

(3) He may be the Logos, a kind of temporary preincarnation of the second person of the Trinity.

Each has its difficulties, but the last is certainly the most tempting to the mind. Yet it must be remembered that at best these are only conjectures that touch on a great mystery. It is certain that from the beginning God used angels in human form, with human voices, in order to communicate with man; and the appearances of the angel of the Lord, with his special redemptive relation to God's people, show the working of that Divine mode of self-revelation which culminated in the coming of the Saviour, and are thus a fore-shadowing of, and a preparation for, the full revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Further than this, it is not safe to go. [International Standard Bible Encylopaedia].

YAHWEH PRESENTS HIS HOLINESS FROM THE FIRE

THE MOSAIC LAW

Exod 25:8-9
"Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. "According to all that I am going to show you, {as} the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct {it.}

Exod 28:1-3
"Then bring near to yourself Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the sons of Israel, to minister as priest to Me-- Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons. "You shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. "You shall speak to all the skillful persons whom I have endowed with the spirit of wisdom, that they make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister as priest to Me.

SUMMARY OF THE GOD OF MOSES

2. We see Yahweh clearly identifying his own holiness. This act stood to set apart this ground of meeting as not common. We see this being the prototype of the way Mosaic worship protected that holiness with tabernacle.

3. We see God's holiness evident in his Ten Commandments as well as in the entire Law. God has within his person a nature that does not accept any behavior. God wanted a people seperated by him and made holy by him.

4. We see how imperfect priests must receive cleansing in the Law before ministering to the people.

5. We also saw how the Law permitted the people to receive atonement through obedience to the Law which demanded a proper sacrifice done according to the revealed Law of Moses.

6. Both faith and conduct are presented as vital to the follower of Yahweh throughout the Mosaic Law. The God revealed there has integrity and he demands integrity from his people.

7. Punishments including the death penalty are spelled out which demostrate that the God of Moses was serious when he gave a command.

Everything we learn about God in the New Testament adds to what we already knew about God in the Old. The primary purpose for the New Testament was to present the incarnation of the Son of God.

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

As we examine the way the gospel writers present God early in the New Testament we see God alerting witnesses of the coming of Messiah. John, however gives us an early theological message in his prologue that reaches back to Genesis.

“In the beginning” recalls Gen 1:1. But it relates here not to the act of creation, but to what existed when creation came into being, namely the Word, who was with God and was God. As Haenchen pointed out (116) the subject is surprising; one expects to read, “In the beginning … God,” but it is “the Word”; yet it would be impossible to read in its place any other title that has been appropriated for Jesus, e.g., “In the beginning was the Christ,” or “the Son,” or “the Son of Man.” Not even the lofty title “the Lord” or the more ancient “the Wisdom” could adequately convey the associations of the following utterances, for the connotation of “the Word” is unique; and its without parallel in the languages of modern culture."
"The statement of v 2 emphasizes, through repetition, (i) that the Word, and none other (ou|to"), was with God in the beginning; (ii) that he was with God before all times and did not come into being at the “beginning” (contrast the ejgevneto of vv 3 and 6); and (iii) the paradox of the Word who was God, and yet in fellowship with God." [Beasley-Murray, George R., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 36: John, (Dallas, Texas: Word Books, Publisher) 1998].

ISBE ON THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD
"Divine Fatherhood: The fundamental and central idea about God in New Testament teaching is His Fatherhood, and it determines all that follows. In some sense the idea was not unknown to heathen religions. Greeks and Romans acknowledged Father Zeus or Jupiter as the creator and preserver of Nature, and as standing in some special relation to men. In the Old Testament the idea appears frequently, and has a richer content. Not only is God the creator and preserver of Israel, but He deals with her as a father with his child. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so Yahweh pitieth them that fear Him" (; compare ). Even His chastisements are "as a man chasteneth his son" . The same idea is expressed under the figure of a mother's tender care , and it is embedded in the covenant relation. But in the Old Testament the idea does not occupy the central and determinative position it has in New Testament, and it is always limited to Israel." [International Standard Bible Encylopaedia].

GOD AS THE SENDER OF MESSIAH

GOD AFFIRMING MESSIAH AT HIS BAPTISM

GOD AFFIRMING MESSIAH AT THE TRANSFIGURATION

Peter's testimony of this event,

2 Pet 1:17-18 - - "For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased"-- and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain."

GOD SPOKE TO MESSIAH AT THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY

THE ONLY TRUE GOD RECEIVED JESUS' HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER

In the original Greek Jesus prayed, to monon theon who was the only God.

"The only true God" may be rendered in some languages "the only one who is really God." This appositional definition of God must be closely combined in some languages with the preceding [you], for example, "to know you, you are the only God that really exists" or "...you are the only God there is." [UBS Translator Handbook Series].

THE APOSTLE PAUL'S TESTIMONY ABOUT THE GOD WHO RECEIVED MESSIAH

Phil 2:5-11
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, {and} being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

"9. At this point there is a radical change in the hymn. Whereas the first half spoke of Christ as the acting subject of all the verbs, now in the last half “it is God who acts and Christ is the object of the divine action” (Beare). Whereas the first half of the hymn described Christ’s self-humiliation, the last half describes his exaltation by God."
"The exaltation of Christ, which is now the theme of the second half of the hymn, is not described in stages as was his humiliation-descent. Rather the hymn-writer depicts God in one dramatic act lifting Christ from the depths to the heights. The verb he chose to describe this astonishing change of events is the verb uJperuYou`n, a compound word that lost none of its intended composite force through usage (Bertram, TDNT 8, 609). Found only here in the NT, uJperuYou`n means “to super-exalt,” “to raise someone to the loftiest height” (BGD)."
"The aorist tense is used, uJperuvYwsen—God “exalted” him—to refer implicitly to that moment in history marked by the resurrection-ascension of Christ. Jesus Christ, who humbled himself in obedience to God to the point of accepting death in its most horrible form, was resurrected from the dead by God, and raised to the place of supreme authority (cf. Acts 2:32, 33; 5:30, 31; Eph 1:20, 21; see Foerster, TDNT 3,1089). And this resurrection “was not resuscitation, not restoration to life, not an evasion of death, but death accepted and death defeated” (Synge)."
"The statement that God “highly exalted” Christ is accompanied by the statement that God “gave (ejcarivsato) him the name (to; o[noma) that is above (uJpevr) every name.” This second statement parallels the first, but serves both to reinforce the fact of Christ’s resurrection-exaltation and at the same time to measure its extent."
"10. God’s purpose in thus exalting Christ and bestowing on him this all-surpassing name is twofold. The first thing that God intended by his actions is expressed in the clause: i[na ejn tw`/ ojnovmati ÆIhsou` pa`n govnu kavmYh/ (“in order that at the name of Jesus every knee might bow”)." [Hawthorne, Gerald F., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 43: Philippians, (Dallas, Texas: Word Books, Publisher) 1998].

GOD THE SOURCE FOR JESUS' MESSAGE
John 12:49-50 - - "For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment {as to} what to say and what to speak. "I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me."

ISBE JESUS TEACHING ABOUT GOD

In the teaching of Jesus Christ-- God is preeminently the Father. It is his customary term for the Supreme Being, and it is noteworthy that Jesus' usage has never been quite naturalized. We still say "God" where Jesus would have said "the Father." He meant that the essential nature of God, and His relation to men, is best expressed by the attitude and relation of a father to his children; but God is Father in an infinitely higher and more perfect degree than any man. He is "good" and "perfect," the heavenly Father, in contrast with men, who, even as fathers, are evil . What in them is an ideal imperfectly and intermittently realized, is in Him completely fulfilled. Christ thought not of the physical relation of origin and derivation, but of the personal relation of love and care which a father bestows upon his children. The former relation is indeed implied, for the Father is ever working in the world , and all things lie in His power . By His preserving power, the least as well as the greatest creature lives . But it is not the fact of God's creative, preserving and governing power, so much as the manner of it, that Christ emphasizes. He is absolutely good in all His actions and relations . To Him men and beasts turn for all they need, and in Him they find safety, rest and peace . His goodness goes forth spontaneously and alights upon all living things, even upon the unjust and His enemies . He rewards the obedient , forgives the disobedient (; compare <18:35>) and restores the prodigal ( ff). "Fatherhood is love, original and underived, anticipating and undeserved, forgiving and educating, communicating and drawing to his heart" (Beyschlag, New Testament Theology, I, 82). To the Father, therefore, should men pray for all good things , and He is the ideal of all perfection, to which they should seek to attain . Such is the general character of God as expressed in His Fatherhood, but it is realized in different ways by those who stand. to Him in different relations.

(a) Jesus Christ knows the Father as no one else does, and is related to Him in a unique manner. The idea is central in His teaching, because the fact is fundamental in His experience. On His first personal appearance in history He declares that He must be about His Father's business , and at the last He commends His spirit into His Father's hands. Throughout His life, His filial consciousness is perfect and unbroken. "I and the Father are one" . As He knows the Father, so the Father knows and acknowledges Him. At the opening of His ministry, and again at its climax in the transfiguration, the Father bears witness to His perfect sonship . It was a relation of mutual love and confidence, unalloyed and infinite. "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand" . The Father sent the Son into the world, and intrusted Him with his message and power .

He gave Him those who believed in Him, to receive His word . He does the works and speaks the words of the Father who sent Him . His dependence upon the Father, and His trust in Him are equally complete ( f; 17). In this perfect union of Christ. with God, unclouded by sin, unbroken by infidelity, God first became for a human life on earth all that He could and would become. Christ's filial consciousness was in fact and experience the full and final revelation of God. "No one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him" . Not only can we see in Christ what perfect sonship is, but in His filial consciousness the Father Himself is so completely reflected that we may know the perfect Father also. "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (; compare <8:19>). Nay, it is more than a reflection: so completely is the mind and will of Christ identified with that of the Father, that they interpenetrate, and the words and works of the Father shine out through Christ. "The words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me" . As the Father, so is the Son, for men to honor or to hate <5:23; 15:23>. In the last day, when He comes to execute the judgment which the Father has intrusted to Him, He shall come in the glory of the Father . In all this Jesus is aware that His relation to the Father is unique. What in Him is original and realized, in others can only be an ideal to be gradually realized by His communication. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me" . He is, therefore, rightly called the "only begotten son" <3:16>, and His contemporaries believed that He made Himself equal to God <5:18>.

(b) Through Christ, His disciples and hearers, too, may know God as their Father. He speaks of "your Father," "your heavenly Father." To them as individuals, it means a personal relation; He is "thy Father" . Their whole conduct should be determined by the consciousness of the Father's intimate presence <6:1,4>. To do His will is the ideal of life <7:21; 12:50>. More explicitly, it is to act as He does, to love and forgive as He loves and forgives <5:45>; and, finally, to be perfect as He is perfect <5:48>. Thus do men become sons of their Father who is in heaven. Their peace and safety lay in their knowledge of His constant and all-sufficient care <6:26,32>. The ultimate goal of men's relation to Christ is that through Him they should come to a relation with the Father like His relation both to the Father and to them, wherein Father, Son, and believers form a social unity (; compare verse 21).

(c) While God's fatherhood is thus realized and revealed, originally and fully in Christ, derivatively and partially in believers, it also has significance for all men. Every man is born a child of God and heir of His kingdom . During childhood, aIl men are objects of His fatherly love and care , and it is not His will that one of them should perish <18:14>. Even if they become His enemies, He still bestows His beneficence upon the evil and the unjust . The prodigal son may become unworthy to be called a son, but the father always remains a father. Men may become so far unfaithful that in them the fatherhood is no longer manifest and that their inner spirits own not God, but the devil, as their father . So their filial relation to God may be broken, but His nature and attitude are not changed. He is the Father absolutely, and as Father is He perfect . The essential and universal Divine Fatherhood finds its eternal and continual object in the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father. As a relation with men, it is qualified by their attitude to God; while some by faithlessness make it of no avail, others by obedience become in the reality of their experience sons of their Father in heaven. [International Standard Bible Encylopaedia].

"I and the Father are one" [John 10:30]

EVIDENCE FOR TRIUNE GOD?

"Nevertheless the observation is justified that in v 30 we have a glimpse of “the metaphysical depths contained in the relationship between Jesus and the Father” (Schnackenburg, 2:308), so long as it is recognized that the Evangelist has not spelled out the nature of those “metaphysical depths.” The sentence in v 30 played an important role in the early Church controversies on Christology and the doctrine of the Trinity; these are reviewed by T. E. Pollard in his article “The Exegesis of John x.30 in the Early Trinitarian Controversies,” but it is evident that the conclusions drawn from the statement by many of the early Fathers were far from the mind of the Evangelist." [Beasley-Murray, George R., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 36: John, (Dallas, Texas: Word Books, Publisher) 1998].

SHOW ME THE FATHER?
John 14:9-11 - - "Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and {yet} you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how {can} you say, "Show us the Father'? "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves."

1998 Word Biblical Commentary

7 Since Jesus as the Way is the mediator of the truth of God and of life from God, to know him is to know the Father. The statement follows naturally on v 6a and puts positively what is negatively stated in v 6b. The future gnwvsesqe (“you will know”) is logical rather than temporal, as is apparent from the latter clause: “Assuredly you do know him and you have seen him!”

8 “Seen him?” Philip is astonished; if only Jesus were to show them the Father, that would scatter all their doubts and fears! If this is to be classed as a “Johannine misunderstanding,” enabling the revelation to be further clarified, it yet expresses the deepest yearning of the human race and of all its religions. We recall the desire of Moses on Mount Sinai: “Show me your glory,” and the reply of God, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live”; Moses was nevertheless allowed to glimpse God’s back as his glory passed by him (Exod 33:18–23). Philip had failed to grasp that in Jesus the glory, grace, and truth of God, whom none has seen or can see, stands unveiled (John 1:18). For one whose spiritual sight is clear, the revelation is indeed “enough.”

9 A gentle rebuke from Jesus leads to another peak point in the mountain ranges of revelation: “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” Here is the needed counterpart to v 6b: that which humankind seeks through its religions, and partially finds, stands revealed in its completeness in Jesus. But the question posed to Philip, “How is it that you are saying, ‘Show us the Father’?” challenges all would-be disciples. As Bultmann observed: “The implication behind the reproachful question is that all fellowship with Jesus loses its significance unless he is recognized as the one whose sole intention is to reveal God, and not to be anything for himself; but it also implies that the possibility of seeing God is inherent in the fellowship with Jesus. What need is there for anything further?” (608–9).

10 The basis of the revelation in v 10 is now made known. It is not simply that Jesus has been sent by God, and so according to Jewish definition, “One sent is as he who sent him,” though that is uniquely true of Jesus in relation to God; nor is it solely because the revelation of God, made known “in many times and in various ways,” is now made known in its completeness (cf. Heb 1:1); the affirmation holds good because Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in him. This so-called formula of reciprocal immanence is, as Schnackenburg puts it, “a linguistic way of describing … the complete unity between Jesus and the Father” (3:69). Significantly it was earlier stated to Jewish opponents of Jesus in justification of a statement closely related to that in v 9, namely, “I and the Father are one” (10:30, 37–38).

The reality is greater than human language can express, but that to which it points is sufficiently clear: in the depths of the being of God there exists a koinonia, a “fellowship,” between the Father and the Son that is beyond all compare, a unity whereby the speech and action of the Son are that of the Father in him, and the Father’s speech and action come to finality in him.

11 If such assertions transcend understanding and therefore are difficult to grasp in faith, appeal is made to “believe the works,” i.e., the signs of Jesus. The major part of this Gospel is taken up with the narration of the signs performed by him and expositions of their meaning. They who penetrate the significance of Jesus turning water into wine, of his healing miracles, of the feeding of the multitude in the wilderness and the walking on the water, and of the raising of Lazarus, will perceive in Jesus the saving sovereignty of God in action and his utterances as “words of eternal life” (6:68). In the words and works of Jesus the eschatological purpose of God is both declared and fulfilled. [Beasley-Murray, George R., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 36: John, (Dallas, Texas: Word Books, Publisher) 1998].

John 14:23
Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.

"And make our abode with him" If the Holy Spirit "abides," John 14:17 in you, that heart becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit 1 Cor. 3:16, and so a fit dwelling place for the Father and the Son, a glorious and uplifting reality. [Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament].

"And live with him" is literally "and will make a dwelling with him." The word "dwelling" is the same word translated rooms by TEV in John 14:2." [UBS Translator Handbook Series].

ISBE ARTICLES

"Abode, as a noun twice in NT: "make our abide with him" Jn 14:23; "mansions," the Revised Version, margin "abiding-places" Jn 14:2). The soul of the true disciple and heaven are dwelling-places of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit." DWIGHT M. PRATT, International Standard Bible Encylopaedia

"God is said to dwell in the ark, in the tabernacle, on Mt. Zion Num 10:35; 2 Sam 6:2; 2 Kin 19:15; Ps 3:4; 99:1; in the temple 1 Kin 8; Ps 20:2; 26:8; 46:5; 48:2; Isa 8:18; Joel 3:16,21; Amos 1:2; in the Holy Land 1 Sam 26:19; Hos 9:3; in Christ Jn 1:14; 2:19; Col 2:9; in the church Jn 14:23; Rom 8:9,11; 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19; Eph 2:21-22; 3:11; 2 Tim 3:15; Heb 10:21; 1 Pet 2:5; in the eschatological assembly of His people Rev 21:3.

In the light of the same principle must be interpreted the presence of God in heaven. This also is not to be understood as an ontological presence, but as a presence of specific theocratic manifestation (1 Kin 8:27; Ps 2:4; 11:4; 33:13 ff; 104:3; Isa 6:1 ff; 63:15; 66:1; Hab 2:20; Mt 5:34; 6:9; Acts 7:48; 17:28; Eph 1:20; Heb 1:3).

How little this is meant to exclude the presence of God elsewhere may be seen from the fact that the two representations, that of God's self-manifestation in heaven and in the earthly sanctuary, occur side by side 1 Kin 8:26-53; Ps 20:2-6; Amos 9:6. It has been alleged that the idea of God's dwelling in heaven marks a comparatively late attainment in the religion of Israel, of which in the pre-prophetic period no trace can as yet be discovered (so Stade, Bibl. Theol. des Altes Testament, I, 103, 104).

There are, however, a number of passages in the Pentateuch bearing witness to the early existence of this belief Gen 11:1-9; 19:24; 21:17; 22:11; 28:12. Yahweh comes, according to the belief of the earliest period, with the clouds Exo 14:19-20; 19:9,18; 24:15; Num 11:25; 12:5. That even in the opinion of the people Yahweh's local presence in an earthly sanctuary need not have excluded Him from heaven follows also from the unhesitating belief in His simultaneous presence in a plurality of sanctuaries. If it was not a question of locally circumscribed presence as between sanctuary and sanctuary, it need not have been as between earth and heaven (compare Gunkel, Gen, 157)." [GEERHARDUS VOS, International Standard Bible Encylopaedia].

THE FATHER SENDING THE HOLY SPIRIT
John 14:16-17 - - "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; {that is} the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, {but} you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you."

GOD INDWELLING BELIEVERS AND THE CHURCH
Eph 4:6 - - "one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all."

"one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” Behind this acclamation lies that of Paul in 1 Cor 8:6, which was in turn a Christian modification of the Shema of Deut 6:4.

It contains the characteristically Christian way of speaking of the one God as Father (cf. also Gal 4:6; Rom 8:15). Here in Ephesians it is basically an affirmation of both God’s supreme transcendence, “above all,” and his pervasive immanence, “through all and in all.”

A number of scholars prefer to take the “all” references as masculine rather than neuter and therefore as denoting those in the Church, holding that the preceding context of a discussion of the Church’s unity requires that any original cosmological meaning has now been transferred to believers (cf. Meyer, 201; Abbott, 109; S. Hanson, Unity, 155; Masson, 187; Schlier, 189; Ernst, 349, Mitton 143; Mussner, 120; Schnackenburg, 170).

But Ephesians does not completely collapse cosmological categories into ecclesiological ones, and it may well be better to take “all” as neuter and as continuing its cosmic connotations from 1:10, 22, 23; 3:9, which will also occur in 4:10 (cf. also J. A. Robinson, 93–94, 179; Houlden, 309; Gnilka, 204; Barth, 471).

Formulations about God which use “all” have a cosmic reference in Paul (cf. 1 Cor 8:6; 15:28; Rom 11:36), and the elaboration on the universal fatherhood of God earlier in Eph 3:14, 15 surely tips the balances against restricting the scope of that fatherhood here.

Formulations relating God to all things may well have been mediated to the Christian community via the Hellenistic synagogue from Stoicism (cf. Marcus Aurelius addressing Nature in Medit. 4.23, ejk sou` pavvnta, ejn soi; pavnta, eij" se; pavnta, “All things are from you, all things are in you, all things are to you”; and for further discussion of the notion of God permeating all things, see Comment on 1:23).

The God acclaimed by believers is the universal Father who is at work throughout his world. This confession of the one universal God means that, despite its distinctiveness from the world which will be stressed later in the paraenesis, the Church continues to exist for the world.

The writer’s primary purpose must, however, not be forgotten. The climactic acclamation of the one God in his universality is meant to provide the most profound ground for the Church’s unity.

Paul himself had reflected on the significance of God’s oneness for the unity of Jew and Gentile in Rom 3:29, 30. As we noted above, this is similar to Jewish thought in which monotheism was seen as the source of Israel’s unity (cf. S. Hanson, Unity, 5–23; W. A. Meeks, The First Urban Christians [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983] 165–68).

For Ephesians, it is no longer Israel, nor is it the world with its alienations and divisions, but it is the Church that is the expression of God’s unity. There is an obvious corollary to such a notion. When the Church fails to maintain and express unity, it radically undermines the credibility of its belief in the one God. [Lincoln, Andrew T., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 42: Ephesians, (Dallas, TX: Word Books, Publisher) 1998].

ISBE UNITY OF GOD

The Unity of God: It is both assumed through the New Testament and stated categorically that God is one . No truth had sunk more deeply into the Hebrew mind by this time than the unity of God.

(1) The divinity of Christ.-- Yet it is obvious from what has been written, that Jesus Christ claimed a power, authority and position so unique that they can only be adequately described by calling Him God; and the apostolic church both in worship and in doctrine accorded Him that honor. All that they knew of God as now fully and finally revealed was summed up in His person, "for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" . If they did not call Him God, they recognized and named Him everything that God meant for them.

(2) The Holy Spirit.-- Moreover, the Holy Spirit is a third term that represents a Divine person in the experience, thought and language of Christ and His disciples. In the Johannine account of Christ's teaching, it is probable that the Holy Spirit is identified with the risen Lord Himself (; compare verse 18), and Paul seems also to identify them in at least one passage: "the Lord is the Spirit" <2 Cor 3:17>. But in other places the three names are ranged side by side as representing three distinct persons . [International Standard Bible Encylopaedia].

ISBE ON THE UNITY OF GOD AND CHRIST

The church's problem.-- But how does the unity of God cohere with the Divine status of the Son and the distinct subsistence of the Holy Spirit? Jesus Christ affirmed a unity between Himself and the Father , a unity, too, which might be realized in a wider sphere, where the Father, the Son and believers should form one society <17:21,23>, but He reveals no category which would construe the unity of the Godhead in a manifoldness of manifestation. The experience of the first Christians as a rule found Christ so entirely sufficient to all their religious needs, so filled with all the fullness of God, that the tremendous problem which had arisen for thought did not trouble them. Paul expresses his conception of the relation of Christ to God under the figure of the image. Christ "is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation" . Another writer employs a similar metaphor.

Christ is "the effulgence of (God's) glory, and the very image of his substance" . But these figures do not carry us beyond the fact, abundantly evident elsewhere, that Christ in all things represented God because He participated in His being. In the prologue to the Fourth Gospel, the doctrine of the Word is developed for the same purpose. The eternal Reason of God who was ever with Him, and of Him, issues forth as revealed thought, or spoken word, in the person of Jesus Christ, who therefore is the eternal Word of God incarnate. So far and no farther the New Testament goes. Jesus Christ is God revealed; we know nothing of God, but that which is manifest in Him. His love, holiness, righteousness and purpose of grace, ordering and guiding all things to realize the ends of His fatherly love, all this we know in and through Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit takes of Christ's and declares it to men . The problems of the coordination of the One with the Three, of personality with the plurality of consciousness, of the Infinite with the finite, and of the Eternal God with the Word made flesh, were left over for the church to solve. The Holy Spirit was given to teach it all things and guide it into all the truth . "And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" . See JESUS CHRIST; HOLY SPIRIT; TRINITY.

LITERATURE.-- Harris The Philosophical Basis of Theism; God the Creator and Lord of All; Flint, Theism; Orr, The Christian View of God and the World; E. Caird, The Evolution of Religion; James Ward, The Realm of Ends; Fairbairn, The Philosophy of the Christian Religion; W.N. Clarke, The Christian Doctrine of God; Adeney, The Christian Conception of God; Rocholl, Der Christliche Gottesbegriff; O. Holtzmann, Der Christliche Gottesglaube, seine Vorgeschichte und Urgeschichte; G. Wobbernim, Der Christliche Gottesglaube in seinem Verhaltnis zur heutigen Philosophie und Naturwissenschaft; Kostlin, article "Gott" in See Hauck-Herzog, Realencyklopadie fur protestantische Theologie und Kirche; R. S. Candlish, Crawford and Scott-Lidgett, books on The Fatherhood of God: Old Testament Theologies by Oehler, Schultz and Davidson; New Testament Theologies by Schmid, B. Weiss, Beyschlag, Holtzmann and Stevens; Wendt, The Teaching of Jesus; sections in systems of Christian Doctrine by Schleiermacher, Darner, Nitzsch, Martensen, Thomasius, Hodge, etc. [International Standard Bible Encylopaedia].
T. REES

In the apostolic teaching, although the Fatherhood of God is not so prominently or so abundantly exhibited as it was by Jesus Christ, it lies at the root of the whole system of salvation there presented. Paul's central doctrine of justification by faith is but the scholastic form of the parable of the Prodigal Son. John's one idea, that God is love, is but an abstract statement of His fatherhood. In complete accord with Christ's teaching, that only through Himself men know the Father and come to Him, the whole apostolic system of grace is mediated through Christ the Son of God, sent because "God so loved the world" , that through His death men might be reconciled to God . He speaks to men through the Son who is the effulgence of His glory, and the very image of His substance . The central position assigned to Christ involves the central position of the Fatherhood.

As in the teaching of Jesus, so in that of the apostles, we distinguish three different relationships in which the fatherhood is realized in varying degrees: (a) Primarily He is the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ . As such He is the source of every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ . Through Christ we have access unto the Father . (b) He is, therefore, God our Father . Believers are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus . "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" . These receive the spirit of adoption whereby they cry, Abba, Father . The figure of adoption has sometimes been understood as implying the denial of man's natural sonship and God's essential Fatherhood, but that would be pressing the figure beyond Paul's purpose. (c) The apostles' teaching, like Christ's, is that man in sin cannot possess the filial consciousness or know God as Father; but God, in His attitude to man, is always and essentially Father. In the sense of creaturehood and dependence, man in any condition is a son of God . And to speak of any other natural sonship which is not also morally realized is meaningless. From God's standpoint, man even in his sin is a possible son, in the personal and moral sense; and the whole process and power of his awakening to the realization of his sonship issues from the fatherly love of God, who sent His Son and gave the Spirit . He is "the Father" absolutely, "one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ" . [International Standard Bible Encylopaedia].

GOD AS KING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

God is King: After the Divine Fatherhood, the kingdom of God (Mark and Luke) or of heaven (Matthew) is the next ruling conception in the teaching of Jesus. As the doctrine of the Fatherhood sets forth the individual relation of men to God, that of the kingdom defines their collective and social condition, as determined by the rule of the Father.

(1) The kingdom of God.-- Christ adopted and transformed the Old Testament idea of Yahweh's rule into an inner and spiritual principle of His gospel, without, however, quite detaching it from the external and apocalyptic thought of His time. He adopts the Jewish idea in so far as it involves the enforcing of God's rule; and in the immediate future He anticipates such a reorganization of social conditions in the manifestation of God's reign over men and Nature, as will ultimately amount to a regeneration of all things in accordance with the will of God . But He eliminated the particularism and favoritism toward the Jews, as well as the non-moral, easy optimism as to their destiny in the kingdom, which obtained in contemporary thought. The blessings of the kingdom are moral and spiritual in their nature, and the conditions of entrance into it are moral too . They are humility, hunger and thirst after righteousness, and the love of mercy, purity and peace (; compare ). The king of such a kingdom is, therefore, righteous, loving and gracious toward all men; He governs by the inner communion of spirit with spirit and by the loving coordination of the will of His subjects with his own will.

(2) Its king.-- But who is the king? (a) Generally in Mk and Lk, and sometimes in Matthew, it is called the kingdom of God. In several parables, the Father takes the place of king, and it is the Father that gives the kingdom . God the Father is therefore the King, and we are entitled to argue from Jesus' teaching concerning the kingdom to His idea of God. The will of God is the law of the kingdom, and the ideal of the kingdom is, therefore, the character of God.

(b) But in some passages Christ reveals the consciousness of his own Kingship. He approves Peter's confession of his Messiahship, which involves Kingship . He speaks of a time in the immediate future when men shall see "the Son of man coming in his kingdom" . As judge of all men, He designates Himself king . He accepts the title king from Pilate , and claims a kingdom which is not of this world . His disciples look to Him for the restoration of the kingdom . His kingdom, like that of God, is inner, moral and spiritual.

(c) But there can be only one moral kingdom, and only one supreme authority in the spiritual realm. The coordination of the two kingships must be found in their relation to the Fatherhood. The two ideas are not antithetical or even independent. They may have been separate and even opposed as Christ found them, but He used them as two points of apperception in the minds of His hearers, by which He communicated to them His one idea of God, as the Father who ruled a spiritual kingdom by love and righteousness, and ordered Nature and history to fulfil His purpose of grace. Men's prayer should be that the Father's kingdom may come . They enter the kingdom by doing the Father's will . It is their Father's good pleasure to give them the kingdom . The Fatherhood is primary, but it carries with it authority, government, law and order, care and provision, to set up and organize a kingdom reflecting a Father's love and expressing His will.

And as Christ is the revealer and mediator of the Fatherhood, He also is the messenger and bearer of the kingdom. In his person, preaching and works, the kingdom is present to men , and as its king He claims men's allegiance and obedience . His sonship constitutes His relation to the kingdom. As son He obeys the Father, depends upon Him, represents Him to men, and is one with Him. And in virtue of this relation, He is the messenger of the kingdom and its principle, and at the same time He shares with the Father its authority and Kingship.

(3) Apostolic teaching.-- In the apostolic writings, the emphasis upon the elements of kingship, authority, law and righteousness is greater than in the gospels. The kingdom is related to God , and to Christ , and to both together (; compare <1 Cor 15:24>). The phrase "the kingdom of the Son of his love" sums up the idea of the joint kingship, based upon the relation of Father and Son.

Moral Attributes: The nature and character of God are summed up in the twofold relation of Father and King in which He stands to men, and any abstract statements that may be made about Him, any attributes that may be ascribed to Him, are deductions from His royal Fatherhood.

(1) Personality.-- That a father and king is a person needs not to be argued, and it is almost tautology to say that a person is a spirit. Christ relates directly the spirituality of God to His Fatherhood. "The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is Spirit" ( m). Figurative expressions denoting the same truth are the Johannine phrases, `God is life' <1 Jn 5:20>, and "God is light" <1 Jn 1:5>.

(2) Love is the most characteristic attribute of Fatherhood. It is the abstract term that most fully expresses the concrete character of God as Father. In John's theology, it is used to sum up all God's perfections in one general formula. God is love, and where no love is, there can be no knowledge of God and no realization of Him <1 Jn 4:8,16>. With one exception , the phrase "the love of God" appears in the teaching of Jesus only as it is represented in the Fourth Gospel. There it expresses the bond of union and communion, issuing from God, that holds together the whole spiritual society, God, Christ and believers . Christ's mission was that of revelation, rather than of interpretation, and what in person and act He represents before men as the living Father, the apostles describe as almighty and universal love. They saw and realized this love first in the Son, and especially in His sacrificial death. It is "the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" . "God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (; compare ). Love was fully made known in Christ's death <1 Jn 3:16>. The whole process of the incarnation and death of Christ was also a sacrifice of God's and the one supreme manifestation of His nature as love (<1 Jn 4:9-10>; compare ). The love of God is His fatherly relation to Christ extended to men through Christ. By the Father's love bestowed upon us, we are called children of God <1 Jn 3:1>. Love is not only an emotion of tenderness and beneficence which bestows on men the greatest gifts, but a relation to God which constitutes their entire law of life. It imposes upon men the highest moral demands, and communicates to them the moral energy by which alone they can be met. It is law and grace combined. The love of God is perfected only in those who keep the word of Jesus Christ the Righteous <1 Jn 2:5>. "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments" <1 Jn 5:3>. It is manifested especially in brotherly love <1 Jn 4:12,20>. It cannot dwell with worldliness <1 Jn 2:15> or callous selfishness <3:17>. Man derives it from God as he is made the son of God, begotten of Him <4:7>.

(3) Righteousness and holiness were familiar ideas to Jesus and His disciples, as elements in the Divine character. They were current in the thought of their time, and they stood foremost in the Old Testament conception. They were therefore adopted in their entirety in the New Testament, but they stand in a different context. They are coordinated with and even subordinated to, the idea of love. As kingship stands to fatherhood, so righteouness and holiness stand to love.

(a) Once we find the phrase "Holy Father" spoken by Jesus (; compare <1 Pet 1:15-16>). But generally the idea of holiness is associated with God in His activity through the Holy Spirit, which renews, enlightens, purifies and cleanses the lives of men. Every vestige of artificial, ceremonial, non-moral meaning disappears from the idea of holiness in the New Testament. The sense of separation remains only as separation from sin. So Christ as high priest is "holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners" . Where it dwells, no uncleanness must be <1 Cor 6:19>. Holiness is not a legal or abstract morality, but a life made pure and noble by the love of God shed abroad in men's hearts . "The kingdom of God is .... righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" .

(b) Righteousness as a quality of character is practically identical with holiness in the New Testament. It is opposed to sin and iniquity <2 Cor 6:14>. It is coupled with goodness and truth as the fruit of the light (; compare <1 Tim 6:11; 2 Tim 2:22>). It implies a rule or standard of conduct, which in effect is one with the life of love and holiness. It is brought home to men by the conviction of the Holy Spirit . In its origin it is the righteousness of God (; compare ). In Paul's theology, "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe" is the act of God, out of free grace, declaring and treating the sinner as righteous, that he thereby may become righteous, even as "we love, because he first loved us" <1 Jn 4:19>. The whole character of God, then, whether we call it love, holiness or righteousness, is revealed in His work of salvation, wherein He goes forth to men in love and mercy, that they may be made citizens of His kingdom, heirs of His righteousness, and participators in His love.

7. Metaphysical Attributes: The abstract being of God and His metaphysical attributes are implied, but not defined, in the New Testament. His infinity, omnipotence and omniscience are not enunciated in terms, but they are postulated in the whole scheme of salvation which He is carrying to completion. He is Lord of heaven and earth . The forces of Nature are at His command . He can answer every prayer and satisfy every need . All things are possible to Him . He created all things . All earthly powers are derived from Him . By His power, He raised Christ from the dead and subjected to Him "all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion" in heaven and on earth (; compare ). Every power and condition of existence are subordinated to the might of His love unto His saints . Neither time nor place can limit Him: He is the eternal God . His knowledge is as infinite as His power; He knows what the Son and the angels know not . He knows the hearts of men and all their needs . His knowledge is especially manifested in His wisdom by which He works out His purpose of salvation, "the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" . The teaching of the New Testament implies that all perfections of power, condition and being cohere in God, and are revealed in His love. They are not developed or established on metaphysical grounds, but they flow out of His perfect fatherhood. Earthly fathers do what good they can for their children, but the Heavenly Father does all things for the best for His children-- "to them that love God all things work together for good"-- because He is restricted by no limits of power, will or wisdom . [International Standard Bible Encylopaedia].

"Called gods" So-called gods, reputed gods. Paul denied really the existence of these so-called gods and held that those who worshipped idols (non-entities) in reality worshipped demons or evil spirits, agents of Satan <1 Cor. 10:19-21>.

"Yet to us there is one God, the Father" Codex Vaticanus (B) omits [all'] (grk 235) here, but the sense calls for it anyhow in this apodosis, a strong antithesis to the protasis (even if at least, [kai] (grk 2532) [eiper] (grk 1512))." [Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament].

"An idol is nothing in the world" probably should be [there is no idol in the world]. An idol cannot really be a representation of God. How could wood or stone represent God's incorruptibility?
5. The apostle admits, however, that there are those called gods.
6. But to us marks a forceful contrast.
Of whom are all things refers to the first creation; the Father is the source of all (cf. ). We in him (lit., [we for him]) refers to the Father as the goal of the new creation, the Church. The Church's function is to glorify him. By whom are all things points to the Lord Jesus Christ as the agent of God in creation (cf. ). We by him presents him as the agent responsible for the new creation (cf. )." [Wycliffe Commentary].

BARNS NOTES

"That are called gods" Gods so called. The pagans everywhere worshipped multitudes, and gave to them the name of gods.

"Whether in heaven" Residing in heaven, as a part of the gods were supposed to do. Perhaps, there may be allusion here to the sun, moon, and stars; but I rather suppose that reference is made to the celestial deities, or to those who were supposed to RESIDE in heaven, though they were supposed occasionally to visit the earth, as Jupiter, Juno, Mercury, etc.

"Or in earth" Upon the earth; or that reigned particularly ever the earth, or sea, as Ceres, Neptune, etc. The ancient pagans worshipped some gods that were supposed to dwell in heaven; others that were supposed to reside on earth; and others that presided over the inferior regions, as Pluto, etc.

"As there be gods many" [hoosper (grk 5618)], etc. As there are, in fact, many which are so called or regarded. It is a fact that the pagans worship many whom they esteem to be gods, or whom they regard as such. This cannot be an admission of Paul that they were truly gods, and ought to he worshipped; but it is a declaration that they ESTEEMED them to be such, or that a LARGE NUMBER of imaginary beings were thus adored. The emphasis should be placed on the word "many;" and the design of the parenthesis is, to show that the number of these that were worshipped was not a few, but was immense; and that they were IN FACT worshipped as gods, and allowed to have the influence over their minds and lives which they WOULD have if they were real; that is, that the EFFECT of this popular belief was to produce just as much fear, alarm, superstition, and corruption, as though these imaginary gods had a real existence. So that though the more intelligent of the pagan put no confidence in them, yet the effect on the great mass was the same as if they had had a real existence, and exerted over them a real control.

"And lords many" [kurioi (grk 2962) polloi (grk 4183)]. Those who had a "rule" over them; to whom they submitted themselves; and whose laws they obeyed. This name "lord" was often given to their idol gods. Thus, among the nations of Canaan their idols was called [Ba`al] (heb 1168), ("Baal, or lord"), the tutelary god of the Phoenicians and Syrians; . It is used here with reference to the IDOLS, and means that the laws which they were supposed to give in regard to their worship had CONTROL over the minds of their worshippers.

"But to us" Christians. We acknowledge but one God, Whatever the pagan worship, we know that there is but one God; and he alone has a right to rule over us.

"One God, the Father" Whom we acknowledge as the Father of all; Author of all things; and who sustains to all his works the relation of a father. The word "Father" here is not used as applicable to the first person of the Trinity, as distinguished from the second, but is applied to God AS God; not as the Father in contradistinction from the Son, but to the divine nature as such, without reference to that distinction-- the Father as distinguished from his offspring, the works that owe their origin to him. This is manifest:
(1) Because the apostle does not use the correlative term" Son" when he comes to speak of the "one Lord Jesus Christ;" and
(2) Because the scope of the passage requires it.
The apostle speaks of GOD, of the divine nature, the one infinitely holy Being, as sustaining the relation of Father "to his creatures." He produced them, He provides for them. He protects them, as a father does his children. He regards their welfare; pities them in their sorrows; sustains them in trial; shows himself to be their friend. The name "Father" is thus given frequently to God, as applicable to the one God, the divine Being; , etc. In other places it is applied to the first person of the Trinity as distinguished from the second; and in these instances the correlative "Son" is used, , etc.

"Of whom" [ex (grk 1537) hou (grk 3757)]. From whom as a fountain and source; by whose counsel, plan, and purpose. He is the great source of all; and all depend on him. It was by his purpose and power that all things were formed, and TO all he sustains the relation of a Father. The AGENT in producing all things, however, was the Son, ; see the note at .

"Are all things" These words evidently refer to the whole work of creation, as deriving their origin from God, . Everything has thus been formed in accordance with his plan; and all things now depend on him as their Father.

"And we" We Christians. We are what we are by him. We owe our existence to him; and by him we have been regenerated and saved. It is owing to his counsel, purpose, agency, that we have an existence; and owing to him that we have the hope of eternal life. The leading idea here is, probably, that to God Christians owe their hopes and happiness.

"In him" [eis (grk 1519) auton (grk 846)]; or rather UNTO him: that is, we are formed FOR him, and should live to his glory. We have been made what we are, as Christians, that we may promote his honor and glory.

"And one Lord ..." One Lord in contradistinction from the "MANY lords" whom the pagans worshipped.

The word "Lord" here is used in the sense of PROPRIETOR, ruler, governor, or king; and the idea is, that Christians acknowledge subjection to HIM ALONE, and not to MANY sovereigns, as the pagans did.

Jesus Christ is the Ruler and Lord of his people. They acknowledge their allegiance to him as their supreme Lawgiver and King. They do not acknowledge subjection to MANY rulers, whether imaginary gods or human beings; but receive their laws from him alone. The word "Lord" here does not imply of necessity any inferiority to God; since it is a term which is frequently applied to God himself. The idea in the passage is, that from God, the Father of all, we derive our existence, and all that we have; and that we acknowledge "immediate and direct" subjection to the Lord Jesus as our Lawgiver and Sovereign. From him Christians receive their laws, and to him they submit their lives. And this idea is so far from supposing INFERIORITY in the Lord Jesus to God, that it rather supposes equality; since a right to give laws to people, to rule their consciences, to direct their religious opinions and their lives, can appropriately pertain only to one who has equality with God.

"By whom ..." [di' (grk 1223) hou (grk 3757)]. By whose "agency;" or through whom, as the agent. The word "by" [di' (grk 1223)] stands in contradistinction from "of" [ex (grk 1537)] in the former part of the verse; and obviously means, that, though "all things" derived their existence FROM God as the fountain and author, yet it was "by" the agency of the Lord Jesus. This doctrine, that the Son of God was the great agent in the creation of the world, is elsewhere abundantly taught in the Scriptures; see the note at .

"Are all things" The universe; for so the phrase [ta] (grk 3588) [panta] (grk 3956) properly means. No words could better express the idea of the universe than these; and the declaration is therefore explicit that the Lord Jesus created all things. Some explain this of the "new creation;" as if Paul had said that ALL THINGS pertaining to our salvation were from him. But the objections to this interpretation are obvious:
(1) It is not the natural signification.
(2) the phrase "all things" naturally denotes the universe.
(3) the scope of the passage requires us so to understand it.
Paul is not speaking of the new creature; but he is speaking of the question whether there is more than one God, one Creator, one Ruler over the wide universe. The pagan said there was; Christians affirmed that there was not. The scope, therefore, of the passage requires us to understand this of the vast material universe; and the obvious declaration here is, that the Lord Jesus was the Creator of all.

"And we" We Christians <1 Pet. 1:21>; or, we as people; we have derived our existence "by" [di' (grk 1223)] or "through" him. The expression will apply either to our original creation, or to our hopes of heaven, as being BY him; and is equally true respecting both. Probably the idea is, that ALL that we have, as people and as Christians, our lives and our hopes, are THROUGH him and by his agency.

"By him" [di' (grk 1223) autou (grk 846)]. By his agency. Paul had said, in respect to God the Father of all, that we were unto [eis (grk 1519)] him; he here says that in regard to the Lord Jesus, we are BY [di' (grk 1223)] Him, or by His agency.

The sense is, "God is the author, the former of the plan; the Source of being and of hope; and we are to live TO Him: but Jesus is the AGENT by whom all these things are made, and through whom they are conferred on us." Arians and Socinians have made use of this passage to prove that the Son was inferior to God; and the argument is, that the "name" God is not given to Jesus, but another name implying inferiority; and that the design of Paul was to make a DISTINCTION between God and the Lord Jesus. It is not the design of these notes to examine opinions in theology; but in reply to this argument we may observe, briefly:

(1) That those who hold to the divinity of the Lord Jesus do not deny that there is a DISTINCTION between him and the Father: they fully admit and maintain it, both in regard to his eternal existence (that is, that there is an eternal distinction of persons in the Godhead) and in regard to his office as mediator.

(2) the term "Lord," given here, does not of necessity suppose that he is inferior to God.

(3) the DESIGN of the passage supposes that there was equality in some respects. God the Father and the Lord Jesus sustain relations to people that in some sense correspond to the "many gods" and the "many lords" that the pagan adored; but they were equal in nature.

(4) the work of creation is expressly in this passage ascribed to the Lord Jesus. But the work of creation cannot be performed by a creature. There can be no delegated GOD, and no delegated OMNIPOTENCE, or delegated infinite wisdom and omnipresence. The work of creation implies divinity; or it is impossible to prove that there is a God; and if the Lord Jesus made "ALL THINGS," he must be God." [Barnes' Notes]

SUMMARY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT GOD

We learn more about God as Father in ways that clearly demonstrate how he is still fully Sovereign. Though the New Testament documents the coming of Messiah, we see the Father sending, affirming and then receiving Messiah back in heaven after the cross.

When Jesus teaches the world about the Father it includes more on prayer and the pathway to salvation than theology.

The Father everywhere is presented as Triune in person and one in being as our only true God. Messiah is not presented as Israel's second god but as the Son of God. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of God in ways that evidence the Trinity.

There is evidence for God indwelling believers.

The apostles taught much about God which evidence testimonies of his being Sovereign and Holy.

God is revealed as the King in the New Testament.

God is presented with Moral Attributes as in the Old Testament.

Even though Paul spoke of "many gods" in reference to the false gods in Rome all the authors of the New Testament were strict monotheists.

GOD AND SALVATION IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
God's place in the New Testament directly effects the salvation of his people. God so loved the world that he sent his Son to die on a Roman cross. From JOhn the Baptist on Christ was known as the Lamb of God. This means this sacrifice was offered to God the Father. God's work in resurrection of His Son is also directly linked to saving faith.

1 Cor 15:3-4 - - "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures."

Rom 10:9 - - "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus {as} Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

IS THE GOD OF THE BIBLE PHYSICAL LOOKING LIKE A MAN?

POLYTHEISM FORBIDDEN

YAHWEH IS OMNIPRESENT AS A SPIRIT

NEW TESTAMENT TESTIMONY

Acts 17:29 -- "Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.

Col 1:15 -- "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation."

1 Tim 1:17 -- "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, {be} honor and glory forever and ever. Amen."

Luke 24:39 -- "Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."

Romans 1:22-32 -- "Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; {they are} gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."

GOD IS A SPIRIT	WHAT IS A SPIRIT LIKE?
John 4:24 -- "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."	Luke 24:39 -- "Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."

THE MORMON GOD FROM DOCTRINE & COVENANTS 130:3,22

"3. John 14:23--The appearing of the Father and the Son, in that verse, is a personal appearance; and the idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man's heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false."

"22. The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us."

SOURCE: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Topical Guide to the Scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1977. http://scriptures.lds.org/tg/contents 11/30/02 4:52 PM

As we examine the passages that draw on the "likeness" or "image" of God we spent quality time giving those arguments Biblical answers. The next passage is Gen 18:33 "And the LORD awent his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place." [KJV] The NIV version uses the word "speaking" which implies Yahweh God had a voice which was able to be manifested when he chose. Several passages in this list are also here because they evidence God having a voice.

THE VOICE OF THE FATHER?

If we examine the way God manifests his voice in the Bible we see harmony. While many may be confused about God's voice it is certainly manifest at his own time and place as he wills to do so. It is not like a human voice obviously because others back in Exodus confused it with the storm. Yet he spoke to evidence his only begotten Son on several occasions. The fact that God has a voice does not evidence he has vocal chords or other speech organs.

THE FACE OF GOD THE FATHER?

"The reference to the intimacy of Yahweh’s communion with Moses is almost certainly to be considered a reflection of the traditions represented by the narratives of 33:12–17 and 33:18–34:9. As the second of these narratives makes clear, “face to face” is here to be understood as an idiom of intimacy, not as a reference to theophany. Following the conversation with Yahweh, presumably indicated by the ascension or disappearance of the cloud, Moses returned to the camp, a move that apparently would mean a return to normal activity in the camp." [Durham, John I., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 3: Exodus, (Dallas, Texas: Word Books, Publisher) 1998].

The Topical Guide links two quotes. The first was spoken by Jesus about his resurrected body which evidenced he maintained some of his humanity which he added to his deity at Bethlehem. When Jesus compared his own resurrected body to that of a spirit he said the spirit lacked flesh and bones [Luke 24: 39]. The other quote is also one from Jesus which evidences the "image" and "likeness" of the fullness of deity in Christ [John 14: 9]. When Jesus said, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father" he was not evidencing God's physical body because Jesus said "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" [John 4:24]. In order to be a proper sacrifice for humanity, Jesus had to take on a human body at Bethlehem.

THE SON OF MAN STANDING ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD?

The Topical Guide presents v. 56 as evidence that Stephen saw two physical gods standing side y side in a way that reminds them of the two seen by Joseph Smith in his First Vision. Here is an important LDS commentary authored by apostle Bruce R. McConkie,

55-56. To Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon a similar vision was vouchsafed. "The Lord touched the eyes of our understandings and they were opened," the Prophet wrote, "and the glory of the Lord shone round about. And we beheld the glory of the Son, on the right hand of the Father." (D. & C. 76:19-20.)
56. I see . . . God] See Heb. 12:11-17. The Son of Man] In the pure Adamic language, the name of Elohim, the Father, is Man of Holiness (signifying that God is a Holy Man), and the name of Christ, the Son, is Son of Man of Holiness or Son of Man. (Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed., pp. 467; 742-743; Moses 6: 57.) [Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, Vol.2, p.78].

ORIGIN OF THIS LANGUAGE DAVIDIC PSALM
Ps 110:1-2 - - "The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." The LORD will stretch forth your strong scepter from Zion, {saying} "Rule in the midst of your enemies."

Heb 1:3 - - "And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."

Heb 8:1 - - "Now the main point in what has been said {is this:} we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens."

"Jesus is usually pictured seated at God's right hand (). It is possible that he is here represented as rising from his throne to receive this martyr. The name the Son of man does not designate Jesus' humanity; it is a Messianic title, based upon , and designates the Messiah as a heavenly, supernatural being. This is the only place outside the Gospels where the title is applied to Jesus." [Wycliffe Commentary].

Peter used the reality of Jesus being raised up back into the presence of the Father in his first public preaching after Pentecost in Acts 2. "Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know-- this {Man} delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put {Him} to death. "But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. "For David says of Him, "I SAW THE LORD ALWAYS IN MY PRESENCE; FOR HE IS AT MY RIGHT HAND, SO THAT I WILL NOT BE SHAKEN" [Acts 2:22-25]. The words "standing at the right hand of God" are an idiom which communicated Jesus place of co-equal power and honor.

1998 WORD BIBLICAL COMMENTARY ON HEBREWS 1:3

The declaration that the Son has been exalted to a position at God’s right hand bears an unmistakable allusion to Ps 110:1, for this is the only biblical text that speaks of someone enthroned beside God. In later Jewish literature the psalm was interpreted as addressed to an individual who enjoyed extraordinary favor with God (cf. Hay, Glory, 21–33, 54–56). The one clear allusion to Ps 110:1 in a pre-Christian literary source occurs in a hellenistic-Jewish document from the first century, the Testament of Job (33:3). When Elihu asks the humiliated patriarch eleven times, “Where now is the glory of your throne?” Job responds, “My throne is in the heavenly world and its glory and splendor are at God’s right hand” (ejk dexiw`n tou` qeou`). Elsewhere, divine Wisdom is depicted as sitting beside God’s throne (Wis 9:4), and the Logos, who attacks Egypt in the night of the final plague, leaps down “from heaven, from the royal throne” (Wis 18:15).
The concept of enthronement at God’s right hand would convey to contemporaries an impression of the Son’s royal power and unparalleled glory. In antiquity generally the right side symbolized supreme authority and highest honor (e.g., 1 Kgs 2:19, “So Bathsheba went to King Solomon.… And the king rose to meet her, and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne, and had a seat brought for the king’s mother; and she sat on his right”; cf. Hay, Glory, 52–58; Gornatowski, Rechts und Links; O. Nussbaum, “Die Bewertung von Rechts und Links in der römische Liturgie,” JAC 5 [1962] 158–71.) Christians were familiar with the notion of the Son’s session at God’s right hand from creedal confessions and hymns. They would recognize immediately that the reference was to Christ’s exaltation after his resurrection. This may explain why there is so little direct appeal to the fact of Jesus’ resurrection in Hebrews (cf. 13:20). In v 3, and elsewhere, an allusion to the position at God’s right hand apparently served as an inclusive reference to Jesus’ resurrection, ascension, and continuing exaltation (Hay, 43–45, 90).
The choice of megalwsuvnh, “majesty,” as a circumlocution for God here (and in 8:1; cf. T. Levi 3:9) sharpens the impression of the Son’s incomparable glory. Concurrently it affirms the eternal majesty of God. Enthronement at “the right hand of the divine Majesty” asserted the supreme exaltation of the Son without compromising the rank and rule of God the Father (cf. Hay, 91, 159). The addition of ejn uJyhloi`", “on high” (cf. Ps 92[93]:4; 112[113]:5), emphasizes the heavenly sphere of Christ’s exaltation and intensifies the spatial aspect of the image (cf. ejn toi`" oujranoi`", “in heaven,” in 8:1).
Although the Son can be described as the radiance of the divine glory from eternity (v 3a), there is a profound sense in which it can be maintained that he entered into a perfect state of glory only after his humiliation and sacrificial death (cf. 2:9, “crowned with glory and honor”). The Son’s exaltation is thus described as a heavenly enthronement (v 3), validated by the proclamation of his name (v 4) and rank (v 5), the call for angelic recognition of his supreme dignity (v 6), and the fresh enunciation of his exaltation (vv 8–13). This same pattern is recognizable in other confessional passages in the NT (e.g., Phil 2:9–11; 1 Tim 3:16; Rev 5:6–14; cf. Käsemann, Das wandernde Gottesvolk, 58–71). That the Son has been exalted to God’s right hand means that he lives and rules with the authority and power of God himself. [Lane, William L., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 47a: Hebrews 1-8, (Dallas, Texas: Word Books, Publisher) 1998].

1998 WORD BIBLICAL COMMENTARY ON HEBREWS 8:1

In 7:28 the writer drew together the concepts of priesthood and sonship; in 8:1 he unites the themes of priesthood and heavenly session. Jesus’ session at God’s right hand is linked with his priestly office only in 8:1 and at 10:12–13. The phrasing o{" ejkavqisen ejn dexia`/ tou` qrovnou th`" megalwsuvnh" ejn toi`" oujranoi`", “who has taken his seat at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven,” recalls the formulation in 1:3, where the writer alluded to Ps 110:1 to assert the exaltation of the incarnate Son to a position of supreme honor. The session at God’s right hand is invoked here not for its connotation of transcendent dignity but for its implication that Jesus exercises a heavenly office. The primary allusion is to Ps 110:1, but the writer may have intended a secondary allusion to Zech 6:13 LXX, where the one who is seated at God’s right hand is the anointed priest: kai; e[stai oJ iJereu;" ejk dexiw`n aujtou`, “and the priest shall be at his right hand” (cf. Synge, Hebrews and the Scriptures, 25). That Jesus was the ministering priest in the celestial sanctuary was a crucial consideration in the writer’s argument for the superiority of Jesus to the Levitical priesthood. The formulation in v 1 attests that he based this conviction on the wording of Ps 110:1. In v 4 he will acknowledge that apart from the heavenly session asserted in Ps 110:1, Jesus would not be a priest at all. Ps 110:1 is thus an essential ingredient in the two-sanctuary reasoning elaborated in 8:1–5 (Hay, Glory, 87, 151; cf. Gourgues, A la droite de Dieu, 114–18).
The writer used the terminology of the heavenly sanctuary and the true tabernacle as spatial expressions for the session at God’s right hand, as the collocation of the two ideas in 8:1–2 shows (cf. Nomoto, NovT 10 [1968] 17–19, who argues that the contrast between the earthly and heavenly sanctuary is not an expression of Alexandrian metaphysics, but the writer’s way of presenting the typological relation between the old and new covenants; the heavenly liturgy is the eschatological reality that the OT institutions only foreshadowed, and the relationship between the two sanctuaries is basically a temporal one). The point emphasized in v 2 is that the possibility of access to God through a Levitical and earthly arrangement no longer exists because of their intrinsic inadequacy. Access is possible only through the ministering priest who serves in the heavenly sanctuary. [Lane, William L., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 47a: Hebrews 1-8, (Dallas, Texas: Word Books, Publisher) 1998].

MAN GIVEN GODLIKE DOMINION?
The first Biblical evidence Mormons claim for justifying that God was once man and man can become God are passages which identify the "dominion" which God placed in humanity. We see this being taught in Gen 1:26 and again in Psalm 8:6. The Genesis word comes from the Hebrew word radah which Brown, Driver and Briggs says means to rule, to have dominion, to dominate, to tread down, to subjugate, and cause to dominate. The word from Psalms is mashal which Brown, Driver and Briggs define in the same way as radah.

While the Old Testament view of Adam's dominion does evidence a high place for him, we never evidence Biblical authors considered him to be an additional "God" as Mormon creation accounts teach.

Instead, Old Testament accounts see God as Potter forming and shaping Adam. Adam, unlike other creatures, was inbreathed with God's Spirit and thus enabled with the ability to commune with God intimately. This is referred to Biblically as the "image" and "likeness" of God being placed within Adam. But we always see biblical accounts showing God as Sovereign and humans as subjects. This is taught clearly in the Psalms 8 passage.

Psalm 8:6-9 - - "You make him to rule over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

Here we see Yahweh delegating rule over sheep, oxen and fish to man who is reminded he has been called to tend these things as his life work. Instead of man being exalted we see God being called majestic in this passage as is the case elsewhere in both testaments.

In relation to other creatures we see man being described as the crowning event of all God's creatures. Ps 8:5 - - "Yet you have made him a little lower than God, and you crown him with glory and majesty!" The word "lower" comes from the Hebrew word chacer which means to be wanting or to lack something. It means to be diminished or inferior according to Brown, Driver and Briggs. As we look ahead into the Book of Revelation's look at the future we see many key exalted human elders casting their crowns before the heavenly king in worship, fear and adoration. We never see man elevated as being God. We saw God declare man good in Genesis one and here we see him having a relative glory when compared with sheep, oxen and fish but we never see God speaking to man as an equal.

IS GOD SPEAKING TO MAN AS AN EQUAL?
"Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" [Gen 3:22].

"The words should be rendered, `Behold what has (by sin) become of the man who was as one of us! ' formed at first in our image, a holy and happy being: How sad his condition now!" [Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary]. "Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, "You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die."' The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" [Gen 3:1-5].

Satan made some quality promises to Eve. You will not die. Instead your eyes will be opened and in a limited way you will the experience of knowing both good and evil. In response to their evil choice Yahweh Elohim "made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them" [Gen 3:21]. "Clothed in this sign of mercy, the man was driven out of paradise, to bear the punishment of his sin. The words of Jehovah, "The man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil," contain no irony, as though man had exalted himself to a position of autonomy resembling that of God; for "irony at the expense of a wretched tempted soul might well befit Satan, but not the Lord." Likeness to God is predicated only with regard to the knowledge of good and evil, in which the man really had become like God. In order that, after the germ of death had penetrated into his nature along with sin, he might not "take also of the tree of life, and eat and live for ever." [Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament].

Following verse 22 we never see God carrying on an ongoing conversation with Adam as if he were on an equal basis. We still see the Potter and his clay moving out of Eden into a cursed life and eventually suffering death which is not something God is able to experience because God is an eternal being.

DID JESUS TEACH MEN ARE GODS?
If we examine both of these passages in context we see some similarity. Psalm 82 contained some angry language describing the behavior of some of Israel's judges. This was at a time when those judges were behaving in evil unjust ways. The author is remarking that the power to judge and carry out judgment is really the work of God himself. But these judges were perverting judgment and enslaving God's people under their power. "God takes His stand in His own congregation; He judges in the midst of the rulers. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah. Vindicate the weak and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and destitute" [Ps 82:1-3]. The word rulers in this setting comes from the Hebrew word elohim. Here is some irony in the Hebrew text when it reads "Elohim takes his stand in his own congregation, he judges in the midst of the elohim [rulers].

When we examine the context in which Jesus quotes this passage from Psalms it is just prior to his own coming to Jerusalem as their Passover Lamb. False judges acting as gods were putting to death the Son of God in an unjust evil plan [Jn 10:34]. In both sections we see figurative language that never communicates that men can become gods. Everywhere in the Law, the Prophets, the Writings, and in the New Testament we see polytheism forbidden.

When we study far enough into eternity past, we only see God. There, standing outside of time, space and matter, God created everything else [Gen. 1, John 1:1-3, Heb. 1:10]. World religions from the east [with Mormonism in agreement] see God as being part of the creation. The difference can not be negotiated away. Abraham called God Yahweh the everlasting God [Gen.. 21:33]. When God introduced himself to Moses he said even his name was eternal [Exod. 3:15]. His reign is eternal [Exod. 15:18]. Later in the second law in Deuteronomy God twice more referred to himself in those terms [Deu. 32:40, 33:27]. As the prophets and psalmists followed they continued to uphold the fact of God’s eternality [Neh. 9:5, 1 Chron. 16:36, Psalm 9:7, 41:13, 90:1-2, 93:2, Isa. 40:28, 41:4, 43:13, 44:6, Mic. 5:2, Hab. 1:12, 3:6]. We see New Testament authors like Paul in agreement [Rom. 1:20, 16:26, 1 Tim. 1:17]. We see agreement from the Pentateuch to John’s final revelation [Rev. 1:4, 6, 4:8-10, 10:6, 11:17, 15:7].

A simple reading of the Old Testament Law clears up any confusion about who God is. Jews and Christians both agree in saying “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent....” Num 23:19 The Ten Commandments forbid any form of polytheism [Ex. 20]. When we move into the New Testament, we see the Ten Commandments being brought into the New by Jesus and his apostolic authors. We see Paul for example writing to the Romans, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image made like to corruptible man....” Rom 1:22-23 God does not want to be confused with man.

GOD IS HOLY

MORMONS IN DENIAL
Mormons are confused by the infinitely holy God of the Bible. They do not view him as having the integrity to fulfill or be faithful to his own words.. LDS apostle, Bruce R. McConkie wrote, “By the standard works of the Church is meant the following four volumes of scripture: The Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. The Church uses the King James Version of the Bible, but acceptance of the Bible is coupled with a “reservation” that it is true only insofar as translated correctly. The other three, having been revealed in modern times in English, are accepted without qualification.” Another LDS apostle, Mark E. Peterson wrote, “the Bible as we know it is a different volume from what it was - and would have been - had it not been changed so much ... many insertions were made ... at times deliberate falsifications and fabrications were perpetrated.”

GOD IS TRIUNE IN BEING

While the word “Trinity” is not found in Scripture, we see evidence of God being Triune from Genesis through Revelation. The “Trinity” is usually described in mysterious terms and should be studied with that understanding [Col 2:2]. We have already looked at the deity of Christ. Titus 2:13, Jn 1:1, Heb 1:8; Rom 9:5, 1 Jn 5:20-21 Most of Jesus’ disciples were devout Jews who believed in the One True God of Israel. They were monotheistic to the core yet they still recognized Jesus as God incarnate. When Thomas called Jesus God Jesus accepted Thomas affirmation of deity with no censure or criticism. Jn 20:26-29 Jesus said clearly that there is only one God Mt 4:10 yet he said he is equal with God Jn 5:18 and that He and the Father are one. Jn 10:30 Elsewhere He said, “If you knew Me, you would know My Father also.” Jn 8:19 Then He said, “He who beholds me beholds the One who sent me.” Jn 12:45 Even adding “He who hates me, hates my Father also.” Jn 15:23 Yet in Mark Jesus quoted the famous Shema which every Jewish child memorizes in order to maintain faith in the One True God of Israel. Mk 12:29-32

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:” Deut 6:4

It is clear that the Jews, who best understood their language understood that they only were to worship One God. It is also true that both Jesus’ and his disciples were orthodox monotheists. Yet they understood that Jesus was Emmanuel or “God with us” in a way that did not violate God’s own command to be obedient to monotheism.

Isaiah wrote, “You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no savior.” Isa 43:10-11 Jesus confirmed the reality of the Trinity, “Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.” Gal 3:20 Paul also taught the Trinity, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” 1 Tim 2:5

MORMONS IN DENIAL

Biblical Response
Yahweh and elohim are found linked together hundreds of times in the Bible as being the name title of the same God [Isa 44:6]. Yahweh is the personal proper name for God and elohim is a title meaning God. Mormons still use a King James Bible. Our LDS friends can recognize these names behind their English translations by noting occurrences of the capital LORD followed by God. In contrast to clear Biblical injunctions against teaching polytheism,

Joseph Smith said, “If Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a Father, you may suppose that he had a Father also.” Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 1, p. 11 Joseph Fielding Smith who was the tenth President wrote, “Joseph Smith taught a plurality of gods, and that man by obeying the commandments of God and keeping the whole law will eventually reach the power and exaltation by which he also will become god.”

GOD IS OMNIPOTENT, OMNIPRESENT, AND OMNISCIENT

The Encyclopedia on Mormonism appears to agree in their article titled God, “The Father, as God, is omnipotent, omniscient, and, through his spirit, omnipresent (see Light of Christ).” Their Encyclopedia does not say they have a problem with God being omnipotent or omniscient. But because of the limitation a human shaped body places on an individual this makes being omnipresent impossible.

THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD

MORMONS IN DENIAL

OMNISCIENCE OF GOD

God’s omniscience is a great encouragement for believers who take comfort in knowing God intimately knows them and every condition they face. “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of those whose hearts are mature toward Him.” 2 Chron. 16:9 God in His “infinite” mind “... has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heaven by His understanding.” Jer. 51:15 Man’s knowledge has a beginning and his days are filled with training, but “The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations” [Ps 33:11]. God’s infinite understanding includes the thought life of humanity, “For I know their works and their thoughts...” Isa 66:18 “... For I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.” Ezek. 11:5 Jesus said, “Your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask Him. Mt 6:4, 8, 32 Paul said God’s omniscience is “past our finding out.” Rom 11:33

MORMONS IN DENIAL
Mormons are confused by God’s infinite omniscience. The current president of the LDS church, Gordon B. Hinckley said, “God is in form like a man. He is personal. He speaks, and has spoken to man. He is exalted, and “by human standards” he is all﷓wise and all﷓powerful.” Mormons struggle with this concept because they believe there was a time when God was not God and was being trained as a man living on an earth like this one. Lorenzo Snow wrote a poem that said,

“First babes, then men - to gods they grew. As man now is, our God once was; As now God is, so man may be.”

Brigham Young said, “He is our Father - the Father of our spirits, and was once a man in mortal flesh as we are, and is now an exalted being ... God has once been a finite being.” Brigham Young also taught that, “... I shall see the time with yourselves that we shall know how to prepare to organize an earth like this - know how to people that earth, how to redeem it, how to sanctify it, and how to glorify it, with those who live upon it.” He taught that “every earth has its redeemer, and every earth has its tempter.” Milton R. Hunter said, “We accept the fact that God has the greatest knowledge of any person within the realm of our understanding ... Yet if we accept the great law of eternal progression, we must accept the fact that there was a time when Deity was much less powerful than He is today.” The dilemma is brought home by Joseph Smith himself when he said, “... if it were not for the idea existing in the minds of men that God had all knowledge it would be impossible for them to exercise faith in him.”

OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD

MORMONS IN DENIAL
Mormons are confused by the “infinitely” omnipotent God of the Bible. A recent general authority, Milton R. Hunter wrote, “We accept the fact that God is ... the most infinite power of any person within the realm of our understanding ... yet if we accept the great law of eternal progression, we must accept the fact that there was a time when Deity was much less powerful than He is today.” LDS President, Spencer W. Kimball also wrote about an omnipotence that is not infinite but grown into over time, “God created man to live in mortality and endowed him with the potential to perpetuate the race, to subdue the earth, to perfect himself and to become as God, omniscient and omnipotent.”

GOD IS UNCHANGING

MORMONS IN DENIAL
An important modern LDS leader and author Milton R. Hunter said, “aeons ago God undoubtedly took advantage of every opportunity to learn the laws of truth and as He became acquainted with each new verity He righteously obeyed it ... His understanding of the universal laws continued to become more complete.” Milton R. Hunter had reference to the Mormon Doctrine called “eternal progression” which teaches man will never cease to progress even after he becomes a “god.”

Because of the confusion Mormons are experiencing describing God, I have included the entire article from their Encyclopedia on Mormonism titled God the Father. It was written by their New Testament BYU scholar Stephen E. Robinson who coauthored How Wide the Divide with Craig Blomberg in 1997.