The God of the Bible

Luther Walker

Three Persons, One Being

The God of the Bible is not a man, nor did He come from humans. Numbers 23:19 states, God is not a man that He should lie, nor is He a son of man that He should rue what He has done. Has He not said and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not carry it out?

There is only one God. No others exist, nor have ever existed, beside Him, Deuteronomy 4:39. When Moses gave Israel the Law, he stated to Israel that God is One God, Deuteronomy 6:4. Through Isaiah, God states that He shares His glory with no one, Isaiah 42:8. The continuation of the nation of Israel shows that the God of Israel is the only One, for there are no others, 1 Kings 8:60.

The concept that God came from man or men become gods is a result of humans rejecting the knowledge of Who God is. Adam, Eve, and their children knew God, Genesis 4:4-5. They walked with Him. Noah and His sons knew God, Genesis 9:1. However, they decided that maintaining a proper understanding of Who God is was not something that was valuable to them, so they changed the glory of God into that of corrupt man, birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things, Romans 1:23. In their lack of appreciation towards God, they become futile in their rational, and their foolish hearts were darkened, Romans 1:20-21. Those who follow after false religions, including Atheism, have exchanged the truth of God for the lie, which is independence from God, and worship the creation instead of the Creator, Romans 1:25.

God is One and is not a human; however, being One, He possesses three persons. They are not three Gods, but One God. They all share in the same essence and, therefore, attributes as One Being. In Isaiah, the prophet is describing a vision in which he sees the seraphim, spirit beings that look like flames of fire, before the throne of God crying out to each other Holy, Holy, Holy, Isaiah 6:3. God does not accept vain repetition as worship, Matthew 6:7; therefore, repeating this phrase has meaning. They are stating that each Person of the Godhead is a separate (holy) Person: three Individuals Who are One Divine Being.

Before God created anything, the Godhead made a plan that involved salvation for humans. Within this plan it was determined that God the Son would wrap Himself in flesh and die on behalf of the sins of men to provide a way of salvation for them. In Hebrew, Israel knows the incarnate One as Yeshua (יְהֹושׁוּעַ); in Greek, the Gentiles came to know God the Son wrapped in flesh by Iesou (Ἰησοῦ), and in English, His name is Jesus. Jesus the Messiah (Christ) is God in the flesh. He is the radiance of the proper opinion and character of the essence of God the Father, for both are One Being, Hebrews 1:3. Jesus is not an angel, nor a created being. Jesus has obtained a name that is better than the angels, for God did not say to any angel, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.”, Hebrews 1:5. However when He brought Christ to the world, He stated, “Let all the angels of God worship Him.” Hebrews 1:6. God the Son created all things, and was before all things, Colossians 1:16. He is as to character and quality Deity, John 1:1.

God is One Being Who exists in three Persons Who are revealed to us as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All three are One Divine Being, yet wholly individual in their Persons. God the Father expresses to us that God is the source of all things. God the Son manifests God in the flesh so we can perceive the character of God. God the Holy Spirit emphasizes that the essence of God is Spirit. The Holy Spirit is specifically called God in Acts 5:3-4. Although the focus of the Old Testament was God being the source of all things, there are many instances where all three Persons are recognized as God. For example, the LORD on earth raining down fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the LORD in heaven, Genesis 19:24. The Spirit of God brooding over the earth after judgment came upon it because of Lucifer’s sin, Genesis 1:2.