| GOD: WHO HE IS,
AND WHAT HE IS
Section
3 - Yahweh: Only He is God
He is the Only Source
Yahweh:
Only He is God
The true God of the Scriptures,
the
Father, is God in the absolute sense! Only He, Yahweh,
is God! It is He Who
delegates His authority to some who are to
subject others in the process of carrying out His grand ultimate
purpose (cf. Jn.19:11; Rom.13:1).
1Cor.8:4,6
...there is no other God except One….
for us there is one
God, the Father, out of Whom all is, and we for Him,...
Jn.17:3
that they may know Thee, the only true God,
and Him Whom Thou
dost commission, Jesus
1Jn.5:20 Yet
we are aware that the Son of God is arriving,
and has given us a comprehension,
that we know the True One,
and we are in the
True One, in His Son, Jesus Christ.
This One is the true
God and life eonian.
Rom.16:27
to the only, and wise God, …be glory for the eons of the
eons. Amen!
1Tim.1:17 …
the King of the eons, the incorruptible, invisible, only,
and wise God,…
1Tim.2:5
For there is one God, and one Mediator of God and
mankind…
Rom.3:30 God
is One, …
justifying the Circumcision
out of faith and the Uncircumcision through faith.
2Sam.22:32 For
who is El save Yahweh? And who a Rock save our Elohim?
Deut.4:35 to
know that Yahweh, He is the only Elohim.
There is no one else aside
from Him.
Isa.43:11 I,
I, Yahweh am El! And there is no Saviour apart from
Me.
Isa.45:22 …be
saved, all the limits of the earth, for I am El, and there is none
else.
Isa.46:9 ...for
I am the El, and there is no further Elohim, and the limit is
as Me.…
Ps.95:3
For Yahweh is the great El, And the great King
over all the elohim,
Ps.138:1
I shall acclaim You, O Yahweh,…
In front of the elohim
shall I make melody to You.
This Creator God, Yahweh, has
chosen to identify Himself to His chosen people Israel, and to us, of course,
under various titles.
Ex.3:14 …say
to the sons of Israel, I-Shall-Come-to-Be has sent me to
you.
* KJV …to Moses, I am that
I AM:…
say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Isa.12:2 El
is my Salvation….
my Strength and Melody is Yah, Yahweh,
…for salvation."
Ps.50:1 El,
Elohim,
Yahweh,
He speaks, calls to the earth
From the rising of the sun unto its setting.
Ezr.5:1 …Haggai, Zechariah
…
prophesied … in the name of Eloah of Israel Who was over
them.
Dan.5:21 the
Supreme Eloah is in authority in the kingdom of mortals,
and whom He is willing …
Ps.18:31 For
is there any Eloah apart from Yahweh?
And is there any Rock except our Elohim?
Ex.5:1 …says Yahweh
the Elohim of Israel,
Dismiss My people that they may celebrate to Me …
Ex.24:10
And they saw the Elohim of Israel and beneath His feet as
it were…
1Chr.17:24 …Yahweh
of Hosts, Elohim of Israel, is Elohim to
Israel,
Gen.17:1 …appearing
is Yahweh to Abram and is saying to him,
"I am the El-Who-Suffices….
Gen.26:24
To Isaac …"I am the Elohim of Abraham your father. ...
Gen.28:13 To
Jacob…"I am Yahweh, the Elohim of Abraham,…
and the Elohim of Isaac….
Ex.3:6 To Moses…I
am the Elohim of your fathers,
the
Elohim of Abraham, of Isaac, of
Jacob.
Ex.3:15 … sons of
Israel, Yahweh, the Elohim of your fathers…
This is My name for the eon, …
Ex.6:2,3
to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob as the El-Who-Suffices;
as…
Yahweh, I was not fully realized
1Chr.29:18 Yahweh,
Elohim
of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers,…
Isa.42:8
I am Yahweh, The Elohim!
That
is My name, and I will not give My glory to another,
Ps.83:18 …You, Whose
Name is Yahweh, Yours alone,
Are the Supreme over all the earth.
2Sam.22:32 For
who is El save Yahweh? And who a Rock
save our Elohim?
Deut.4:35 to
know that Yahweh, He is the only Elohim.
There is no one else aside from Him.
Ex.3:18 … say
to him: Yahweh, the Elohim of the Hebrews, has met
with us....
Ex.10:3 … Thus
says Yahweh, Elohim of the Hebrews,
How long will you refuse to be humbled…
Ps.71:22 ...my
Elohim; I will make melody to You with the harp,
O Holy One of Israel!
Jer.51:5
not forsaken is Israel and Judah, By its Elohim--by
Yahweh
of Hosts,
For their land has been full of guilt, Against the Holy One of Israel.
Ezek.39:7
And My holy name I make known…Yahweh, the Holy One,
[am] in Israel.
Isa.9:6
is called "Marvelous."
Counsel to the master shall He bring, to the chief of the future, welfare.
* KJV …called Wonderful,
Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
He
is The Only Source
When there was God, and God
only, there was nothing but light. Light has always been - but Darkness
had to be created! There was nothing but Good - and Evil had to
be created!
1Jn.1:5
… that God is light, and darkness in Him there is none.
1Tim.6:16 making
His home in light inaccessible,
Whom not one of mankind perceived nor can be perceiving…
Isa.45:7 Former
of light and Creator of darkness,
Maker of good and Creator of evil.
I,
Yahweh Elohim, made all of these things.
* KJV I form
the light, and create darkness:
I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these
* NIV
I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create
disaster;
* RSV I form light
and create darkness, I make weal and create woe,
Such declarations of Scripture
show that our orthodox concepts of God, and of existence itself, are in
utter confusion.
In accord with ‘the wisdom
of the world’ we have taken it for granted that, in the beginning, all
was darkness and that it was light that had to be created to clear away
part of this ‘original’ darkness. Scripture, however, claims that GOD creates
Darkness
(Isa.45:7a). Can we see from this that, when there was God only, everything
was light (1Jn.1:5; 1Tim.6:16) - and that darkness was deliberately created
and introduced into this all-pervading light?
Even in the spiritual realm
it is clear that GOD brings on darkness - it is GOD Who sends a spirit
of stupor on Israel (Rom.11:8); it is GOD Who will be sending an operation
of deception on those who do not love the truth (2Thes.2:11); it is GOD
Who makes stupid the wisdom of the world (1Cor.1:18-31; 3:18-20); it is
GOD Who hides things from the wise and intelligent (Mt.11:25; Lk.10:21);
etc. In spite of the many and tremendous signs that Christ performed
during His ministry, the Jews could not believe - because GOD ‘has blinded
their eyes and callouses their heart’ (Jn.12:39,40) so that it would
be so!
Theology may conveniently
ignore the implications concerning light and darkness - but it has tremendous
difficulties with that concerning the creation of evil by God! It wants
to 'protect' God from such 'contamination' at all costs. So we see that
the NIV and the RSV render what should be 'evil' by 'disaster' and
'woe', thus robbing the passage of its intended impact.
We even have teachings which
claim that Satan was actually an angel of light named Lucifer, or light-bringer
( Isa.14:12 KJV, Douay, Living), who because of pride fell from his position
as the most powerful of the good angels and became the source of all evil.
Was there some carelessness in God’s design which allowed this pride into
his make-up? Did this flaw creep in surreptitiously, with God entirely
unaware of it? Was God caught by surprise that one of His creatures had
come down with a disease that was outside His creation?
Scripture contradicts this
false teaching that has become accepted as standard Christian doctrine.
With unmistakable clarity it insists that the Adversary:
Jn.8:44 ...He
was a man-killer from the beginning,
and does not stand in the
truth, for truth is not in him….
he is a liar, and
the father of it
1Jn.3:8
…for from the beginning is the Adversary sinning.
Another non-biblical doctrine
that masquerades as truth is that Satan, the Adversary, was cast out of
heaven when his pride surfaced; that God cannot bear the sight of him.
Tied to this error is the teaching that all the evil ones of heaven, Satan’s
evil forces, have been cast with him into hell forever.
Scripture, however, shows
that Satan, periodically, goes up from patrolling the earth (cf.1Pet.5:8)
to heaven for an audience with God. On one such occasion God initiated
an operation through the Adversary, within specific limits set by Him,
concerning righteous Job (cf.Job.1 and 2), the result of which brought
Job a clearer understanding of God which he could not have had without
the ‘bad’ experience (Job.42:5,6)! Scripture asserts that Satan and his
evil forces will be cast out of heaven just before the commencement of
the Great Tribulation (Rev.12:7-17) that is still future to us!
Meanwhile, we are advised
to prepare ourselves against the strategies and onslaughts of Satan and
his cohorts:
Eph.6:12 for
it is not ours to wrestle with blood and flesh,
but with the sovereignties,
with
the authorities,
with the world-mights
of this darkness,
with the spiritual forces
of wickedness among the celestials.
Scripture asserts, in no uncertain
terms, that it is GOD Who is the Creator of EVIL (Isa.45:5-7)! This means
that GOD claims full responsibility for the introduction of evil
into His creation (Lam.3:38)! God, therefore, insists that Evil DID NOT
originate out of Satan! And, if it is GOD Who brings evil into existence,
then evil is under the complete control of its Creator! This means that
Satan can operate all his deception and cunning only under the authority
of God (cf.Job.1and 2) - even though, until the Consummation when God has
come to be All in all (1Cor.15:23-28), this limitation is not to his liking,
nor in accord with his will! After all, Satan as well as his hordes of
messengers are mere creatures of God (Jn.1:3)!
Let us consider Paul's experience
of his 'thorn in the flesh' in Second Corinthians, chapter twelve, verses
one to ten. He had been granted a vision of the far future, under 'the
third heaven' in which will be the 'paradise', and had become privy to
revelations which he was not allowed to reveal at that time. So that he
would not become carried away by this signal privilege 'there was given
to me a splinter in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, that he may be buffeting
me'. Reading further we see, once again, that it was God Who was utilising
Satan as His instrument to create a condition and an environment to achieve
His intended goal. See 2Cor.12:7-10.
In the case of Joseph's experience
with his jealous brothers, too, Scripture demonstrates that evil is used
of God for His own ends, always for the good of all concerned. See
Genesis chapters 37 and 39-46 for the details, noting especially,
Gen.45:5-9
"… now, you must not grieve, and it must not be hot in your eyes,
that you sell me hither,
for
to preserve life the Elohim sends me before you.
"For this two years the
famine is within the land,
and there are still five
years in which there is no plowing or harvesting.
"And sending me is
the Elohim before you to constitute you a remnant in the earth
and to preserve your
lives for a great deliverance.
And now, not you send
me hither, for it was the Elohim.
And constituting me is He
a father to Pharaoh,
and lord of all his household,
and ruler in all the land of Egypt.
"Hasten and go up to my
father, and say to him, `Thus says your son Joseph,
"The Elohim has
constituted me lord of all the land of Egypt. Come down to me. …
Scripture declares that everything
occurs 'according to the purpose of the One Who is operating all in
accord with the counsel of His will,' (Eph.1:11). This is an essential
understanding we should have of God. It bears repetition that God, being
GOD, works out everything in the universe according to the counsel
of His Own will! He is the ONLY One who can! Scripture recognises no Dualism
where good and evil co-exist in an eternal struggle.
Christian theology, though
it claims a belief in monotheism, in practice subscribes to this
Dualism - which all other religions seem to subscribe to also. It is popular,
according to human wisdom, to declare a seemingly profound summation and
to call this the ‘Ying and Yang Principle’ or to say that these are ‘two
sides of the same coin’ and that one cannot exist without the other! It
makes it out that God and Satan are engaged in a struggle for supremacy.
The outcome will see, on one side, God with some of His creation saved
and in heaven, and, on the other side, Satan with the majority of creation
deservedly lost and burning forever in hell - and with God completely unable
to do anything about the situation. Why do Christians contort the truth
of Scripture to accommodate this fallacious teaching? Where can there be
an eternal struggle if there is an outcome, a point beyond which there
is no more change? How can this doctrine be compatible with Scripture which
reveals an omniscient, an Almighty, God?
Isa.46:11
… Indeed, I speak! Indeed, I will bring it about!
I formed. Indeed, I will do it.
Num.23:19 …
Does He say it and then not do it?
Or speak and then not carry it out?
Scripture shows us that Evil
was brought into existence to serve as a contrast and a counterfoil for
good, as well as to produce a desired result - and will be removed
when it has fulfilled its God-determined function. It declares in no uncertain
terms that everything is according to God’s determination and will
work out exactly as He designed it to!
2Cor.5:18
Yet all is of God,...
1Cor.8:6 ...
there is no other God except One….
the Father, out of Whom all is, and we for Him,...
Rom.11:36 seeing
that out of Him, and through Him, and for Him is all:
to Him be the glory…
Lam.3:38 Do
not both the evil and the good
come forth
from
the mouth of the Supreme?
Job.2:10 …Indeed
should we receive good from the One, Elohim,
and should we not receive evil?
In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.
Jn.5:26 even
as the Father has life in Himself,
thus to the Son also He gives to have life in Himself.
Act.17:25
neither is He attended by human hands,…
He Himself gives to all life and breath and all.
Jn.16:28 …I
came out from God… from the Father and have come into the world…
Rom.11:34
For, who knew the mind of the Lord? or, who became His adviser?
Rom.11:35
who gives to Him first, and it will be repaid him?
Jn.3:27 A man
can not get anything if it should not be given him out of heaven.
1Cor.4:7 RSV
… What have you that you did not receive?
If then you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?
1Cor.3:7 neither
he who is planting anything, nor he who is irrigating,
but God Who makes it grow up.
April 2001
Back to:
....Main
menu of articles
....Section
1 - Introduction
.....................God
is Spirit
.....................He
is Unknowable Apart From His Revelation
....Section
2 - God's
Titles and Offices
......................His
Name
Proceed to:
....Section
4 - Creator
......................Subjector
& Placer
....Section
5 - Constant
and Reliable
......................The
God and Father
....Section
6 - The
God and Father of Believers
......................Conclusion |
