Did Christian Worship one God or three Gods? Old Testament evidence of divine plurality The biblical Doctrine of the Godhead is progressive. By that we mean that the concept unfolds, being gradually illuminated from the Old Testament to the New Testament. Nevertheless, the multiple personalities of the holy Godhead clearly are distinguished in the Old Testament. 1. In the beginning God (elohim-plural) created(bar singular)”(genesis 1:1). In the plural from elohim, many scholars see a “ foreshadowing of the plurality of persons in the Divine Trinity”. o (Smith 1959, 11). Adam Clarke declared that the term ” has long been supposed, by the most eminently learned and pious men, to imply a plurality of Persons in the Divine nature” (n.f., 28) Richard Watson wrote the elohim “seems to be general appellation by which the “Triune Godhead” is collectively distinguished in scripture”(1881.1024). o Though some scholars call this plural form a “plural of majesty” (i.e., a suggestion of multiple majestic traits), Nathan Stone observed that the plural of majesty “was not know of personalities in the Godhead’ implied in the creative (Pro 1:2), is involved in the creative and redemptive work of God” (1976’47) 2. Multiple divine personalities are alluded to in such passage as follows: • And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). (Not: This cannot refer to angels, as the often claimed, for angels are themselves created(Nehemiah 9:6, Psalm 148:2,5) not creators: and the context limits the creating of God (V. 27) • “The man is become as one of us to know good and evil” (Genesis 3:22) • “Come, let us do Down, and there confuse their language” (Genesis 11:7) (Incidentally, “come” in the Hebrew text is plural, so that the divine spokesman must be addressing and acting in union with at least to others ( Thiessan 1949, 126) • “And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” ( Isaiah 6:8) • “Remember also thy Creator ( Hebrew plural) in the days of thy youth” ( Ecclesiastes 12:1) 3. Numerous other passages reveal a distinction of personalities within the Godhead: • In Genesis 1821, Jehovah, temporarily assuming the form of a man, visits Sodom. Surveying the evil of that area, this ‘Jehovah’ then “rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brim stone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven” (19:24) Two persons are clearly denominated “Jehovah”. • Thus says “Jehovah”, the king of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts: I am the first, and I am the last: and be sides me there is no God” (Isaiah 44:6). ( Note : the language of this verse is applied to Christ in Revelation 1:17) • In Zechariah 11:12, 13 Christ prophetically says “And I said unto them, if ye think good, give me my hire: and if not forbear. So they weighed for my hire thirty pieces of silver. And Jehovah said unto me…” • “Jehovah (the first person) said unto my Lord (the second person), Sit thou ay my right hand” (Psalm 110:1). • “Jehovah (the father) laid on him ( Christ) the iniquity of us all” ( Isaiah 53:6) • The king of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against Jehovah (the father) and against his anointed ( the Son) saying, Let us break their bonds asunder,, And cast away their cords from us” (Psalm 2:2,3) This is but a fractional sampling of a vast amount of Old Testament evidence for the plural personalities of deity.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 15:02:39 +0000
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