IS GOD THREE OR IS HE ONE?

One question that continues to crop up is whether we worship a Tri-une God or an exclusively Unitary God? Rather than rehash old theogical arguments, let’s let the Scriptures speak for themselves—and I speak here solely of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Tenach, without a single reference of any kind to the Brit Kadosha or the New Testament.

Pick up your Bible and go with me to the first chapter of the first book, namely B’rashees or Genesis. In the very first verse, Gen.1:1, we read B’raishees buruh Elohim ais hashomayim v’ais hueretz, "In the beginning God(s) created the heavens and the earth." You note that I’ve translated the word Elohim as "God(s)", because that is literally what it means. Elohim is the plural form of the singular noun El, which we find used throughout the Torah to form the many composite names of the Living Gods. For example El Shaddai, God Almighty, Panu-el, the Face of God, Emanu-el, God In The Midst of Us, and so on.

But here in Gen.1:1, we encounter the plural form which should be translated "Gods," as it is elsewhere even when applied to pagan gods. If we are to take the Scriptures seriously and insist they mean, both in grammar, form and context, what they clearly mean, then Elohim must mean "God(s)" and nothing else.

Later in the first chapter of Genesis, 1:26, we read how our Elohim God says, "Let Us make man in Our Image and in Our Likeness." Here again, the grammar forces us to understand that God, the One who speaks as well as the Ones with whom He is speaking, are all of the same Divine nature, because He uses the Hebrew words Demuth Tzelem, meaning "Image and Likeness," in their singular form and attaches the personal pronoun "Our" in the suffix of these two words as follows in bitzlimeinu kidmusainu, with the "u" ending demanding they be read as "Our."

Some rabbinical sources claim that in this passage, God is speaking with the angels of heaven. But angels are simply created beings like ourselves, incapable of creating anything but simply messengers carrying instructions from God to his human creatures. Another even less credible argument says that God speaks of "we" and "our" as a "plurality of majesty," whatever that means—in essence, pure nonsense. So, like it or not, we are stuck by the very explicit Hebrew language with dealing with a God who has an Image and Likeness that is shared with one or more other Divine Persons.

And again, in Gen.3:22, after Adam and Eve have sinned and eaten from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Yehovah God(s), Yehova Elohim, says, "Behold, the man has become as one of Us"—Keechod Meemenu in the Hebrew—again speaking of Beings who are of the same Divine nature as Himself. And in Gen.11 at the Tower of Babel, God(s) says, "Come, let Us go down there and confound their language.."

In Gen.20:13, Abraham says, "And it came to pass that when God caused me to wander from my father’s house.." The key Hebrew words in this text is "Hisu ahsee Elohim," which means "Elohim caused me to wander," where the plural form of the verb hisu takes as its object the noun Elohim.

In some of the Tenach Scriptures, a distinction is made between "God" and "God" as being two Divine Personalities. For example, in Hosea 1:7, the verse reads "I will have mercy on the House of Judah and will save them through Jehovah their God." Here we find God speaking in His own voice about saving Israel through another Divine Person, namely Yehovah. In Psalm 110:1, David says, "The Lord says unto my Lord..", in Hebrew Yehovah Adenoi which in this context refers to the Messiah. Here again, the noun Adenoi is the plural form of the singular noun Adon, just as Elohim is the plural of El and Eloha. This sacred term Adenoi literally appears hundreds of times in the Tenach, the Hebrew Scriptures, and always refers to Divinity.

In Ecclesiastes 12:1, Solomon refers to "your Creator" as Buhrechuh, using the plural form of the noun. As we see this pattern repeated many hundreds of times in the Tenach, it becomes crystal clear that the ancient Israelites understood that God was a composite unity of several Personalities or Persons, all of them Divinely God.

Finally, this truth becomes indisputable when we consider the principal great profession of all Judaism, the Great Sh’ma. This appears in Deut.6:4, which proclaims "Sh’ma Yisrael Adenoi Elohainu Adenoi Echud," which is literally translated as "Hear O Israel, Jehovah our God(s) is Jehovah a Unity." As long as the Hebrew language and grammar mean anything at all, these words cannot be twisted to mean anything other than how it is literally rendered.

The Zohar is the sacred portion of the Jewish Kabbalah (devoted to the study of Biblical mysticism). First published in the 13^th century, it is based the 2^nd century writings of Tanna Simeon ben Yohai, who survived the last Jewish revolt against Rome led by Bar Kochba in 165 A.D. Hiding in a cave for thirteen years, Rabbi Simeon and his son Eleazar were said to have received frequent visits from Elijah who instructed them in the hidden meanings of the Torah.

Concerning Deuteronomy 6:4 cited above, the Zohar repeats the verse “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,” and then asks the expected rabbinical question—

“Why is it necessary to mention the name of God three times in this verse? The first Jehovah (Lord) is the Father on high. The second is the descendant of Jesse, the Messiah, who is to come from the family of Jesse through David. And the third is the way which is below (the Holy Spirit who shows us the way), and these three are one.”

Some rabbis try to point to the word Echud which means "One" as an argument against any Tri-une God. But the Hebrew language itself does not allow for such an interpretation. Echud as used in the Hebrew Scriptures does not mean a singular, absolute and unique "one" but rather a unity composed of two or more parts.

A pointed example occurs in the early verses of the first chapter of Genesis, where God first creates the heavens and the earth, and then creates light and darkness. After affirming that the light "was good," He writes "..and there was evening and there was morning, one day. Yom echud, one day composed of two parts, vayehi erev vayehi boker, yom echud—literally, "there was evening, there was morning, one day."

He uses the same term for the second day-- vayehi erev vayehi boker, yom sh’nee, and the same for the third day, yom shleeshee. Each day is composed of two parts comprising the one 24-hour time period. Later in Gen.2:24, God speaks of the man leaving his father and mother and cleaving to his wife—"and they shall be one (echud) flesh." So echud does not mean "one" in an absolute sense of unique singularity but rather one "as a unity of several."

Finally, through the prophet Jeremiah in 31:31, God announces the New Covenant. He says that at the time that Israel will receive the New Covenant, "I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever," using the word echud to mean a "unity of heart for all the people of Israel."

There is a Hebrew word that does mean "one exclusively, uniquely and only one." That word is yichad which is used in Gen.22:2, where God instructs Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar he is to build. God says, "Take Isaac, your one and only son whom you love.." The Hebrew word used here for "one and only" is yichad, spelled yod chess daleth—while echud is spelled aleph chess daleth. If God wanted to say He was "one and only one," He would have told Moses "Sh’ma Yisrael Adenoi Elohainu Adenoi Yichad"—but as we know, He never said such a thing—instead, He chose the word echud to express composite unity of three parts.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, God expresses Himself as three Persons who are together or individually God en toto. In Genesis 1, we find Elohim creating the universe. God speaks His will even as the Spirit of God (Ruach Hakodesh, the Holy Spirit) carries out what is spoken. In Gen.6:3, God looks upon the evil on earth and says, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever..", where His Spirit is clearly Divine. Nehemiah 9 describes the rededication of Israel to Torah after the Israelites returned from Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem, and as they prayed in Thanksgiving, they praised the God who nurtured the nation during their wilderness wanderings and, in verse, gave "Thy good Spirit to instruct them."

In chapter 11 of Isaiah, prophesying of the Messiah, God says "And the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding.." Then when the prophet Zechariah was being shown the wonders of heaven and prophesy, the Angel of the Lord gave him the Word of the Lord, saying, ‘Not by might, or by power, but by My Spirit,’ sayeth the Lord of Hosts."

So finally we come to what for many Jews and Moslems and many Gentiles who say, "How can the eternal Creator God have a Son?" That is undoubtedly the greatest stumbling block for any person to believe, let alone understand. But, as before, we must let the Scriptures speak for the truth.

Psalm 2 speaks of the Lord’s Anointed, the Messiah, and speaks eloquently of the Son’s position as a Divine Person. In verse 7, David writes that the kings of the earth conspire together against the Lord and His Messiah. Then in verse 7, the Messiah speaks prophetically to say, "I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me: ‘Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee." And in verse 11 and 12, He says, "Worship the Lord with reverence, and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, lest He become angry and you perish on the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him (the Son)."

And in Proverbs 30, we see an eloquent description of the all-wise God as compared to mankind. The Scripture says in verses 2-4, "Surely I am more stupid than any man.. neither have I learned wisdom nor do I have knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended into heaven and ascended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped the waters in His garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name or His Son’s name? Surely you know!"

How then can the Son of God, if He indeed be eternal and Divine, be spoken of as "begotten?" Only if He, as an eternal Spirit, at some point took flesh and lived as God-as-Man on the very earth He created and among the very people He chose as His own "special treasure," the Israelites. Isaiah gives us this prophetic view of who the Messiah will be when in chapter 9, verse 6 when he speaks from the Word of God—"For a child will be born unto us, a Son will be given unto us, and the government shall rest on His shoulders. And His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace."

"A child will be born unto us (the Son of Man), a Son will be given unto us (the Son of God).. and His name shall be called Mighty God, Eternal Father.." He could not be called those names unless He himself were Divine. So we are stuck with the great wisdom of God and the mystery of how we can truly understand heavenly things with our limited carnal minds? Truth is, we cannot. We can only study the Scriptures, and believe what they teach. And here we have taught solely from the Hebrew Scriptures, never once going to the New Testament which describes what happened when, in the fullness of time, the Son was sent to take flesh, become a man and provide the cure for rebellion and sin caused by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the legacy of all flesh ever since.

I’ll finish with a single verse from the Tenach that describes all Three Persons of the Triune God. It appears in a Messianic prophesy given to Isaiah in chapter 48. In verse 12, He—the Messiah to come—says, "Listen to me, O Jacob, even Israel My called one. I am He, I am the first and I am also the last. Surely my hand founded the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens.." And in verse 16, He says, "Come near to me, listen to this—from the first I have not spoken in secret, from the time it took place, I was there. And now the Lord God has sent Me, and His Spirit."

And now, as the Word of God proclaimed 2,500 years ago, God the Father has indeed sent God the Son and God the Holy Spirit to accomplish His good pleasure, to complete the prophetic revelation, satisfy God’s perfect justice to pour out His wrath for sinful man upon His Son on the cross, shed the blood of the New Covenant and make the Way for eternal life to all who believe, trust and obey. The name God the Son was born under was Jesus—Yeshua—King of the Jews, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And He’s coming soon again, this time not as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of all who believe, but as the Lion of Judah who will judge the world and all those who refuse to believe.

There is only one choice every human being born of woman has in this life—to accept God’s gift and spend eternity with God and all His people, or spurn His loving sacrifice and spend eternity cut off from God with all those who have made and will make the same rebellious choice as Satan. The only remaining question is--where will you spend eternity?

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