Information Related to "Three Keys to Knowing God"
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Do you want to live forever with God? Let me ask you another question. Do you really know God? Do you know who God is? Do you know what God intends for us? Don't be too sure. Most people don't.
But these issues are crucial. As Jesus said in prayer to the Father, "This is the way to have eternal life -- to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth" (John 17:3, New Living Translation).
Notice there's no mention of the Holy Spirit in this statement, even though many proclaim the Spirit to be a third person in a divine Trinity. Yet the Holy Spirit is certainly vital, as we will see.
The idea that God is a Trinity is widely accepted, even though many churchgoers don't actually know what their church teaches on the topic and probably couldn't explain it. Despite confusion over this doctrine, it has for many become a litmus test of who is or is not a Christian.
A book titled The Forgotten Trinity points out: "We hang a person's very salvation upon the acceptance of the doctrine, yet if we are honest with ourselves, we really aren't sure exactly why. It's the topic we won't talk about: no one dares question the Trinity for fear of being branded a 'heretic,' yet we have all sorts of questions about it . . . Many believers . . . have often been confused by the contradictory answers they received" (James White, 1998, p. 14).
Yet the same source asserts on the very next page: "We must know, understand, and love the Trinity to be fully and completely Christian. This is why we say the Trinity is the greatest of God's revealed truths" (p. 15).
That's quite a statement to make about a teaching that really can't be found in Scripture!
We find the same in many reputable mainstream Christian sources on biblical teaching, some with shocking admissions about the Trinity doctrine. It's called "an absolute mystery," in both its origin and content. It's labeled "unintelligible" and even "impossible for Christians to understand."
That's interesting. Why would a supposedly fundamental, necessary teaching about God be impossible to understand? Could it be that something is seriously wrong with the teaching of the Trinity?
Keep an open mind, and let's see from the Bible what we can know about God and about the family of God. The truth sets us free from error and ignorance and opens entirely new understanding about God.
Following are three biblical keys to knowing God.
First, the Bible reveals two Beings who are God, not one God in three persons.
We'll start with the plural aspect. Genesis 1:26, a bedrock scripture about the creation of human beings, says, "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness'" (emphasis added throughout).
Note the plural forms "Us" and "Our." To whom is this referring? Throughout the creation account in the first chapter of Genesis, and in much of the Old Testament, the Hebrew word translated "God" is Elohim, a plural noun denoting more than one entity.
God, then, is presented as a plurality. Yet who are these entities who together are God?
Let's look at another passage in Scripture that identifies just who was at work in creation. We find it in the New Testament, in the opening of the book of John. Here, we can say, is the real beginning of understanding this topic. John 1:1-3 states: "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 were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."
The original Greek wording here says that the One called the Word was with "the God," while the Word Himself was also God. There are two Beings mentioned in these verses. Again, there is no mention of a third person. If God were three, wouldn't we see that here? But we don't. There's One called "God" and another with Him called "the Word" who is also God.
Continuing further in the account, we see exactly who this Being called the Word was. Verse 14 states: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." The Word was conceived and born in the flesh as a physical human being -- the One we know as Jesus Christ.
Thus in this passage in John we have two great personages, two uncreated eternal Beings, the One called the God, or God the Father as we know Him, and God the Word who became Jesus Christ -- both divine and both bringing about the creation of everything else, giving life to others.
What does this mean? It means that the classic Trinitarian doctrine is false. There is no third person, only two who are God. The truth here also upends a common argument that rejecting the Trinity equates to a denial of Christ's divinity -- as there is no denial of that in accepting that the Father and Christ are both God, as They clearly are. The problem is the addition of a third person and claiming that the supposed three persons are one being.
If you hold this popular idea of three divine persons in one, you actually have a wrong understanding of God. And you cannot truly worship the God described in Scripture with this false concept, as Jesus Himself said we must "know what we worship" and "worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:22-24).
Likewise, He said that eternal life comes through truly knowing God and Himself. What you believe about the nature of God does matter. It's a salvation issue. We can't have a relationship with God unless we understand the truth of who and what He is.
Related to the fact of God as a plurality is a more specific description -- God is a family. That's our next key. This relationship of the two divine Beings, again not three, is pointed to in many places.
The apostle John opened His first epistle in similar terms to that of his Gospel yet more personally, writing: "We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and we touched Him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us" (1 John 1:1-2, NLT).
A major aspect of what's revealed here is the special relationship between the two divine Beings, which They wanted to expand on, as we'll see. John continues: "We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ" (verse 3, NLT).
It is clearly revealed here and elsewhere that God the Father and Jesus Christ constitute a divine family -- a Father and a Son, as Scripture repeatedly refers to them. And they have a very close, loving relationship.
That bond of love was between Them always. In fact, Jesus prayed, "Father . . . you loved me even before the world began!" (John 17:24, NLT). They existed then in that loving relationship.
And amazingly, They decided to produce others with whom to share that relationship -- creating offspring who would also bear the divine nature. That's where you and I come in. It's through that family relationship that human beings made in the image of God can be empowered to share in this love of God at a much higher level than we can ever imagine!
That's why human marriage and family are so important. They mirror what God is doing on a far higher level. This awesome parallel is something that is frankly not offered by false teachings such as the Trinity, which hides the truth about what God is ultimately doing in expanding His divine family relationship through humankind.
The Scriptures, all the way from Genesis to Revelation, reveal God in terms of a family relationship -- God the Father and Jesus the Son together as the God family. And when we understand this, it changes how we understand God's eternal plan for us, because it's what God has purposed to have and to be with His human creation made in His image.
God tells us, "I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:18). Thus we too can become part of the spiritual family of God, bearing the name of God along with Christ as other children of "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named" (Ephesians 3:14-15).
Sadly many have, on the human level, missed out on family or had bad family experiences. But realize that God has made people to be part of His perfect divine family -- which He will grant to all who accept His offer and live accordingly.
We see, then, that God is personal and wants to expand the divine relationship. Indeed, God through Christ is "bringing many sons to glory" to share His divine nature (Hebrews 2:10). Again, the teaching of the Bible is that there are two Beings who are God -- God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son. And Their purpose is to share Their divine nature with human beings, transforming the human family into the divine family.
Traditional Trinitarian doctrine doesn't teach this. That unbiblical position in fact distorts and even hides, when it's all said and done, who and what God is along with God's ultimate purpose for human life. That's why this matter is so important. We must have this foundation right to know God -- and for His purpose for us to be fulfilled!
As a last key here, we'll delve more into God's desire to expand His family, particularly the fact that God wants a relationship with you. We'll also cover here a critical role for the Holy Spirit.
In Genesis 2 we're given a second account of the creation. Verse 7 tells us, "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." These words paint a warm portrait of very close, intimate involvement by God in forming and shaping man from the ground -- like a potter with clay, as presented in other verses.
So right at the outset we see that God is not impersonal. Previous acts of creation were presented declaratively. But here we see more -- a God who is gentle, who desires hands-on interaction and deep fellowship with us, with human beings, the highest expression of His creation. Man was made in God's image. Think about that. We were planned and designed to have a family relationship with God.
Even after man's sin and rebellion against Him, God still desired this relationship. And later God the Word came down again, this time as a man -- the Word made flesh as Jesus Christ -- to live among us and die to redeem us.
A beautiful passage from the apostle Paul in Philippians 2 states of Christ: ". . . who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped [or tightly held onto], but emptied Himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature [being truly a man though uncorrupted]. He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death -- even death on a cross!" (verses 6-8, New English Translation).
God wanted so much to share glory and life on the divine level of existence with His human creation that the divine Word emptied Himself of these to take on human flesh. In doing so He took the longest of steps for mankind. His coming as the only begotten Son of God has made possible our redemption and hope for salvation and sharing in divine glory.
He also came down for a further creative purpose as in Genesis 2:7, this time to intimately fashion us into a new creation -- and to breathe new life into us.
The very essence of salvation -- living forever with God, as I asked you about at the outset -- is to know that God is able through the life of Jesus Christ to begin the process of a new life in those who are called to the purpose of God. And that purpose is to put His life, His Spirit, His very essence, His power into us in the act of a spiritual creation, forming us in His image by the power of His life, which is the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not a third person in a Trinitarian conception of God. The Holy Spirit is the very power of God by which He made the universe. It is the very essence of the nature of God, and He puts that within us. The Holy Spirit is, furthermore, the agency of spiritual conception into a profound relationship with God. As Romans 8:16 states, "The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (New American Bible Revised Edition).
God's Spirit joins with our human spirit to bear witness that we are God's own children -- His spiritual family. It's through that Spirit that we are enabled to partake of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), the very nature of God, according to the purpose and plan He's bringing to pass.
Moreover, God dwells within us through His Spirit, His life essence. God's "spiritual DNA," as it were, is in all true Christians -- those who have repented of their sins, accepted Jesus Christ as personal Savior, been baptized and, through the laying on of hands of Christ's ministry, received the gift of the Holy Spirit. That is the source of the power that connects us with God in our new life in Him.
In 2 Timothy 1:7 Paul says that "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." It is a spirit and a power that changes us.
Once more, the Holy Spirit is not a third person of a Trinity. The Holy Spirit is the essence and the power of God. It is the means by which God the Father and God the Son live in us, Their projected presence imparting to us the very divine nature. It's how we enter the ultimate relationship with God and stay in that relationship.
The doctrine of the Trinity is, to be blunt, a destructive heresy that denies the true God, both the Father and His Son Jesus Christ -- locking Them into a coequal Trinity with a nonexistent third person and rejecting God's great purpose of exalting mankind to divinity as His family. Denying the Father and Son, as the Trinity does, makes it part of the doctrine of antichrist (1 John 2:22). Those who promote this false teaching will have to answer for that before God in the judgment. Think about that in studying the nature of God. The truth of God's Word is so much more sensible -- and wonderful!
As I asked at the beginning, do you want to live forever with God? You can, in a deep, spiritual relationship with God the Father as your Father and Jesus Christ as your Elder Brother. God is expanding the divine family, of which you can be part. Eternal life comes through knowing and understanding the true God and the purpose He is working out. Begin to worship that true God today!
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