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Frequently Asked Questions on Jesus and the Trinity

Most Common Questions:
1. How can 1+1+1=3? Isnt the trinity simply three Gods, which the Quran condemns?

Elohim is the One Living God, but Elohim is not a federation or union of three separate gods. The Living God is a single God. There are no other gods than this One God. However the One God exists always as the Most High, the Angel and the Spirit. As soon as we define one of these Three as a separate being then we have destroyed the definition of Elohim. For a Muslim, as for Aristotle, the word person means an individual being. It is this underlying assumption about being that we must address. In the Bible the being of God is Three Persons. Matthew 28:19 go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit If we have followed the logic of the Scriptures we can see that the Most High, the Divine Mediator and the Spirit cannot act individually. To accomplish any of their works they utterly depend on each other precisely because they are together the single Living God. 2. Where does Jesus ever say I am God...worship me?

Jesus deliberately does not use a formula like I am God presumably because it would be very misleading. His knowledge of life within Elohim does not really permit Him to say something like that. He is the Son of the Father; the One sent from the Father. It would sound completely wrong for Him to say of Himself individually that He was God. He is the One who always, eternally, at all times carries out the will of the Most High. Whenever Jesus speaks about His place within the Living God He speaks simply of His relationship with the Father. A Muslim worships a god who can make statements like I am god because allah is simply an individual who claims deity. This is not like the Living God. The Three Persons are together the One God. 3. If the idea of the trinity is so important, than why does the word not exist in the Bible?

The word trinity is not that important. It wouldnt matter at all if we never used it again. We use it simply as a shorthand way of referring to the teaching of the Bible about Elohim. 4. Where does it say in the Bible that the Spirit is God?

The same answer needs to be born in mind as in question 2. The identity and role of the Spirit is expressed in the Bible in terms of the Spirits place within Elohim. So we find many examples of the work of the Spirit being the work of God, or the Spirit sharing features of the divine life but we do not have an Islamic-like statement where the Spirit simply claims to be individually god. However, Acts 5:3-4 is as clear as anybody could want. More generally, on the theme of the deity of the Spirit, the following passages are useful. 1 Samuel 10:6-7 The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you. The newly anointed King Saul is told that God is with him because the Spirit of the LORD is with him. The Spirits presence is Gods presence. We find just the same thing in Psalm 139:7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? Psalm 51:11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Davids prayer has two aspects. First he prays that he would not be thrown out of the company of the LORD, yet from the other direction he asks that the LORDs fellowship would not be withdrawn from him. To have the Holy Spirits company is to have the presence of the LORD. Psalm 106:32-33 By the waters of Meribah they angered the LORD, and trouble came to Moses because of them; for they rebelled against the Spirit of God, and rash words came from Moses' lips. If we compare these comments with the account in Numbers 20:12-13 we see that the Spirit of God is the LORD. Numbers 20:12-13 But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them." These were

2 the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarrelled with the LORD and where he showed himself holy among them. Isaiah 63:7-16 I will tell of the kindnesses of the LORD, the deeds for which he is to be praised, according to all the LORD has done for us -- yes, the many good things he has done for the house of Israel, according to his compassion and many kindnesses. He said, "Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to me"; and so he became their Saviour. In all their distress he too was distressed, and the Angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them. Then his people recalled the days of old, the days of Moses and his people--where is he who brought them through the sea, with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he who set his Holy Spirit among them, who sent his glorious arm of power to be at Moses' right hand, who divided the waters before them, to gain for himself everlasting renown, who led them through the depths? Like a horse in open country, they did not stumble; like cattle that go down to the plain, they were given rest by the Spirit of the LORD. This is how you guided your people to make for yourself a glorious name. Look down from heaven and see from your lofty throne, holy and glorious. Where are your zeal and your might? Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us. But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. This passage from Isaiah is worthy of deep meditation. The Three Persons of Elohim are set in their redeeming work, all emerging from the Fathers great love for His people. The whole prayer is addressed to the Father [specifically using that title]. Unusually the Divine Mediator is mentioned only once as the one who accomplished salvation. However, in this prayer the Spirit occupies a much more explicit role than is normal in Scripture. Here it is the Holy Spirit who is grieved by Israels rebellion, the One who indwelt the people in the wilderness and gave them Sabbath even in such circumstances. We must always remember though that the role of the Spirit within Elohim does not conform to the expectations and assumptions of Islamic theology. It is important that we do not drag the Spirit into a front stage position alongside the Son in an attempt to demonstrate His divinity. This seems to violate the way in which the Scriptures speak of Him. 5. 6. Why did God have to become a man, and come to earth...why cant he simply forgive sins, like Allah? Why does the act of blood sacrifice (God or mans) suffice for taking away our sin?

Allah treats sin much more lightly than the Living God. Far Allah sin doesnt ultimately matter not in the sense of causing a genuine injury to the divine life. Allah can simply arbitrarily decide to forgive a sin at no cost to his own justice or hatred of evil. The Living God cannot do that without violence to the divine hatred of sin. Sin cannot ever be simply ignored just as a rotting disease cannot be simply ignored. Sin has to be fundamentally addressed so that humanity can be healed from it and so that the divine life is not destroyed by it. Islam does not see sin in this fundamental way. Sin is nothing less than an attempt to kill God. Atonement is what is required to address sin. Atonement is required by the life of the Living God because it is the place where wrath and mercy meet; the place where the divine hatred of sin and the divine desire for forgiveness are both free to be true and real. Look at Hosea 11 for a wonderful example of the turmoil between forgiveness and wrath within the Living God. Only when the divine hatred of human sin is fully satisfied can Elohim allow us to approach. Blood sacrifice is when the life of the victim is deliberately poured out. Throughout the Bible, as Leviticus 17 shows, blood is the sign of a life poured out and the sign of the sinners life poured out is what satisfies the divine hatred of sin. Nothing less than the death of the sinner is enough. According to Hebrews 10:1-10, animal blood can never atone for human sin. It was only ever a forward pointing sign. What was required was a sinless, human sacrifice and sinful humanity could never provide such a thing. The Divine Angel became one of us, yet remained sinless and so satisfied wrath and love in Himself. The critical Trinitarian character of the Cross needs to be remembered. Sometimes, by way of shorthand, we may present the gospel as a chasm with humanity on one side, God on the other and the Cross bridging the chasm. Although such a diagram can be a helpful shorthand, it tends to miss the fact that it is the Living God who is on the Cross. The atonement of the Cross does not happen outside of Elohim, but within the divine life. It is not abstract justice or a universal abstract law that needs to be satisfied at the Cross, but the heart of the divine life. When we contemplate the Cross, the whole creation watches in awe as a spectator as the Mighty Living God wrenches apart the divine life in order to make forgiveness possible. There has only been one moment from everlasting ages when the Divine Son has ever even contemplated not performing the will

3 of the Father and it was in Gethsemane as He faced the utter, absolute horror of the Cross. The horror of the Cross was not the physical pain, but the awareness that the very life of Elohim would be shaken by what must happen. The Living God IS the intimate fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If the Father forsakes the Son on the Cross then how can the Living God survive such a shock to the divine life? As we contemplate these things we are drawn into the profound and awesome nature of this atonement. It required nothing less than this to atone for human sin. 7. If the trinity is so obvious in both the Old and New Testament, then why dont Jews speak of it, or believe in it?

The Ancient Jews did speak of it. Philo openly acknowledges the Father, Son and Spirit throughout his studies of Moses and he lived before Jesus. Go to the Jews for Jesus website for more. 8. Can God die? And if so, what part of God died (Rom.1:2)? Death is not annihilation. Death, as Muslims believe, is experiencing the separation of the spirit and soul from the body. When a person dies they do not cease to exist. So, when we speak of the death of God on the Cross, we are saying that the Divine Son really and truly experienced the end of bodily life. The blood of God was truly poured out on the Cross. Of course, as Luke 23:43 tells us, as soon as God died, He returned to Paradise until the third day. There was never a single moment when the Son did not exist.

Logical Fallacies:
1. John 1:14, "and the Word became flesh"...So who was in Heaven while God was on earth?

The Father was in heaven enthroned, in sovereign providence governing the whole creation. The Son was on earth during the incarnation but He had been on earth many times before. The Spirit can be in many places at once as Psalm 139 tells us but we know that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One, so it is very clear that the Spirit was present in the Son, equipping and empowering Him for all His work. 2. Is God a Trinity? Ans: Yes - Is Jesus God? Ans: Yes - Therefore, Jesus is a Trinity!

This relates to question 2 above. Jesus is a member of the Trinity, a member of Elohim. He is not individually the whole of Elohim all on His own. With the Father and the Spirit, they are together Elohim, the One Living God. 3. John 1:20-1 John says he is not the Christ, they ask him if he is Elijah and he says no, but they still have to ask him if he is not the Prophet - therefore the Prophet is not the same person as the Christ.

In the gospels the temple authorities are not models of Scriptural understanding. They frequently make basic and stupid mistakes in their handling of the Bible. For example, they could refer to the Messiah as the Son of David, without appreciating Psalm 110:1 where David describes the Messiah as his Lord. 4. John 1:1 Muslims say this does not make sense! If you say Jesus is God then John 1:1 is saying, "In the beginning was God, and God was with God, and God was God, and He was with God in the beginning." It's like saying: "here is Bill, and Bill was with Bill, and Bill was Bill, and Bill was with Bill in the beginning." How does this make sense?

Again this relates to what is meant by the word god. The Muslim uses the word god to refer to a single person, allah. If we do this then of course John 1 does not make sense along with most of the other Scriptures in the whole Bible! However, in the Bible the word God, as defined for us at the beginning in the books of Moses, refers to one plural being the One God who is the Most High, the Divine Angel and the Divine Spirit. From this perspective we can fully understand why John writes as he does. He is expressing the life of the Logos within Elohim. 5. How can God have a Son (biological sonship, begotten)?

We must always remember which came first. The Father, Son and Spirit are from everlasting to everlasting. They are the eternal God. In the Fathers great wisdom He decided to give us many echoes of the wonder of the divine life

4 throughout the creation when He drew up the plans for the Son to build. He gave us Father-Son relationships not only in our own lives but also in the animal kingdom. We see how a tigers son bears the fathers likeness, with the same character and life. In human life we see the ways in which fathers instruct their sons and the way [hopefully] sons obey their fathers. There are many lessons for us to learn about the relationship between the Father and the Son throughout the whole creation. However, we must not run away on our own and draw our own inappropriate conclusions. In our sinfulness we are very likely to focus on features of created father-son relationships that do not inform us about the Divine Life. As John Calvin expressed the matter, the Bible is like a pair of glasses that enable us to see the world correctly. The Bible teaches us what are the features of created fathers and sons that we are to mediate on a father commanding a son, a father giving his inheritance to his son, a son bearing the character of his father, upholding his fathers honour. BUT, the creaturely, biological process by which a father and mother produce a son is never highlighted as the process by which the Father begets the Son. Nor does the Bible ever indicate that the Father is older than the Son. In fact, the Bible goes out of its way to show us that before anything at all had been created the Father, the Son and the Spirit were together from everlasting to everlasting. Proverbs 8 specifically details how the Divine Craftsman was there before any creature. That is itself evident from Genesis 1 where we are explicitly shown how all created things came to be through the Voice of God. According to the Scriptures, as far as I can see, the Most High and the Divine Angel have always been related to each other as Father-Son and this relationship did not first begin at the incarnation. For example, in Psalm 2 [which Hebrews 1:5 explicitly tells us contains a conversation between the Father and the Son], they address each other as Father and Son. In Psalm 2:12 the Old Testament saints were urged to kiss the Son which does seem to indicate that the Angel has always been The Son. Certainly Philo speaks of the Father begetting the Son when he had no New Testament at all. 6. With Jesus, we have simply made a man, God, the old Arian accusation?

Have we committed the ultimate Islamic blasphemy? Well, we have not elevated a man to the status of God. not only is this impossible but we would regard such an action as blasphemous also. Rather, the Divine Angel came down and became one of us. The direction of travel is not earth to heaven, but heaven to earth. All that we have seen the Divine Mediator doing throughout the Hebrew Scriptures anticipates the incarnation. 7. How can the spirit be a person?

I think that question 4 in the first section deals with this. He speaks, is grieved, teaches, comforts, acts and strives. The Scriptures often refer to the Spirit with personal pronouns although it should be born in mind that in the Hebrews Scriptures He is a She.

Jesus seeming Inferiority:

1. Jesus said (Jn 14:28) "... for the Father is greater than I", therefore he is not equal with him.

The Father always commands the Son and never the other way around. The Father has that greater authority than the Son. All the authority of the Son is given to Him by the Father as Jesus so openly confesses throughout His incarnate ministry. This is why we need to always avoid seeing the Three Persons as three identical divine persons who just happen to work together. They are the single Living God who performs every work as Father, Son and Spirit. They are utterly dependent on each other.. but they have a definite order between them. All divine works are from the Father through the Son in the power of the Spirit. 2. Luke 18:19, Why do you call me good, only God is good proves Jesus is not good, or God.

Jesus is simply questioning whether the man understands what he is saying when he called Jesus good. Did the man truly recognise the identity of Jesus? 3. Jesus prayed to The Father, so how can He be God then?

Of course, he prayed to the Father because He always looks to the Father for everything that He does and says. There is always conversation between the Father and the Son. However, when we overhear the kind of prayers that Jesus prayed [especially John 17], we see the ways in which His prayer life is so very different to our own.

5 4. John 5:19; 8:54 say that the son can do nothing on his own, proving Jesus inferiority.

Rather these Scriptures describe the way in which Jesus is truly divine! 5. Jesus had to be given authority (Matt 28:18) yet God would have authority.

See above. 6. God is all knowing, Jesus wasn't (only God knows the final hour, Matt 24:36).

When we say that God is all-knowing we need to be very careful that we dont formulate a definition of God that the Three Divine Persons dont fit! The Father knows the date of Judgement Day because it is the day on which He will send the Son to judge all the world and regenerate all things. The Son simply waits for the Father to send Him on that final day. Elohim, together, knows everything necessary but we must always allow the Scriptures to determine exactly what each Person knows and how they know. The Son learned obedience to the Father. The Father forgets our sins when He forgives us. The Spirit knows the deep things of God. We must always resist abstract definitions of the Living God and instead focus on what the Scriptures actually tell us about the Three Persons who actually are the Living God. 7. God is immortal (1 Tim 6:15-16), which means undying, Jesus died, therefore he is not God.

That Scripture is talking about the Father. He is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light. The Son is able to mediate between that unapproachable light and the creation and the Cross makes it clear that He is also able to submit Himself to the experience of death. Having said all that, we must always bear in mind that Jesus could not be killed unless He allowed Himself to die. It was part of His submission to the Fathers will that He gave up His life. John 10:17-18 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life-- only to take it up again. No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father." 8. What were Jesus' last words in Matthew 27:46? "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me", a human response!!

See question 6 from section 1. This was the genuine cry of anguish as Elohim experienced what they had never experience before the Father forsaking the Son. There is nothing pretend about this. It is the agony of the Eternal Son being denied the fellowship of His Father. The very identity of the Son was being shaken by this ineffable experience. 9. Why is Jesus called the son of man. Does not this imply his humanity? (Matt26:45).

No. The title is taken from the Hebrew Scriptures, especially Daniel 7 and the whole book of Ezekiel. In Daniel 7 we see the Father being approached by the Son. Daniel 7:9-14 "As I looked, "thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened. "Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. (The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time.) "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of

6 every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. When Jesus speaks of Himself as the Son of Man He uses the title in this way the Divine Mediator who has all authority and power given to Him by the Ancient of Days. Again, we always need to challenge the assumptions that people might have. Son of Man may sound as if it simply referred to a son of humanity, a human child. However, the Bible doesnt use the title in this way. It refers to the wonderful and divine Man from heaven [as 1 Corinthians 15:47-49 describes Him]. 10. Jesus is only the Word of God, and not God himself.

If we understand the divine life of Elohim then we will see how God, His Word and His Spirit together are the One God. It is true that the New Testament in particular often uses the word God to refer specifically to the Father. This seems to be because He is the first in the divine life: the Son is begotten of the Father, receives His authority from the Father and always does what the Father wills. The life and action of the Trinity finds its origin in the Father. What the Father wills to do is the action of God. We pray [mostly] to the Father because He is the decision-maker in Elohim. Nevertheless, the Son and the Spirit are just as essential members of the Living God as the Father. The Father cannot act without the Word and Spirit. 11. Paul seems to show a quantitative distinction between the godhead in 1 Tim. 1:1; 2:5; James 1:1; 1 Tit. 1:1.

See previous answer. If we see 2 Peter 1:1-2 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord . Here we get the phrase God and Jesus our Lord but before it we have Jesus identified as our God and Saviour. Therefore we know that to the apostles the two phrases fit together. 12. Other passages of inferiority: John 11:22,42; 14:28; Romans 16:27; 1Cor.8:5-6; Heb.1:8-9.

John 11:22 surely demonstrates the incredible relationship that the Son has with the Father. The Father would not keep anything from the Son that He asks for. In verse 42 Jesus builds on this, proving to the crowd [even in their own thinking] that the Father will always give Him what He asks for. John 14:28 why must the disciples rejoice when they know that the Son is returning to the Father? Well, why had the Son come from the Father in the incarnation? He came in order to redeem the world and make atonement for sin, to destroy the works of the devil and bring about the new creation. If He was about to return to the Father it must be because He was about to complete the work that the Father had given Him to do. That is confirmed by verse 31 the world must learn that the Son always accomplishes the will of the Father. 13. Is the role of the 2nd person of the trinity to relate personally with man, a role not possible with the 1 st or 3rd persons of the trinity?

Yes. He is the Mediator and it is His job to make it possible for humanity to relate to the Father and to receive the Spirit. We must always pay attention to the specific roles that the Three Persons have as described in the Bible. We will see the Father in the new creation, but we will do this only because we will have been fully united to Jesus the Son. We receive the Spirit because Jesus is the One who baptises with the Spirit.

Jesus Disclaims Deity:

1. Jesus said follow me, he never said worship me. Even Jesus doesn't claim he is God.

See question 2 section 1.

7 2. John 10:34-35....Is it not written in your law, I have said you are gods. If he called them gods' to whom the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken, then Jesus is not claiming to be God.

This is a hard Scripture. Here is my attempt at understanding it. The Father who is greater than all is one with Jesus [v29-30]. The Jews claimed the Father as their God, even though they had never heard Him or seen Him at any time. They would have agreed, presumably, that the Father is greater than all. Yet, God the Word is one with God the Father. The Jews wish to stone Jesus as soon as He utters these words - verse 31. Seeking His death had become almost the sole focus of their minds. Jesus doesn't run away from them, but confronts them with a question. They have had difficulties before over the sheer undeniable fact of His miracles e.g. 9:16 - "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" Jesus won't allow them to run away from this problem. For which miracle were they going to stone Him? [verse 32] If His words are lies, if His claims to be the LORD alongside the Father are lies, why does the Father allow Him to carry out such unprecedented miracles in His name? His opponents ignore the force of the question and cut to what they see as the unarguable blasphemy that He has just uttered - "you, a mere man, claim to be God" [lit. `makes himself God' - verse 33]. John allows the opponents of Jesus to tell His readers the meaning of Jesus' words, just in case we have missed them. This is useful to point out to those who blasphemously deny the Trinity. Jesus had not `made himself' God. He is in Himself the Eternal Word, the Word that was with God and is God. He is the unique Son, utterly obedient to his Father and doing everything the Father does [5:19ff]. As the Son, there has indeed been a change in His status, but one that is almost the reverse of what the Jews thinks: he has obediently and humbly accepted the Incarnation. He has not become God, rather the Word became flesh [1:14]. The Pharisees were pretending to be deeply upset at the very idea of a mere man having any kind of divine title. They were acting as if God and humanity could never be joined together. Because their trust was in the Law they were very far from the Living God, so far that when He was standing right in front of them they refused to acknowledge Him. The god of their hearts and minds was a god who stayed at a distance and gave them instructions to carry out, but that god had nothing to do with the real God of the Bible. So, Jesus takes them back to the Scriptures to show them that the relationship between the LORD God and humanity is not what they thought. Psalm 82 challenges all formal and distanced views of the Living God. The first verse has been translated in many ways, but the literal meaning of the Hebrew would be: God stands in the congregation of God; in the centre God gives judgement. The congregation is the word used many times to refer to the family or assembly of Israel, particularly in the writings of Moses. Psalm 74:2 uses the word: Remember the people [congregation] you purchased of old, the tribe of your inheritance whom you redeemed Psalm 82 begins with the LORD God standing at the centre of the assembly of Israel giving His judgements. It is a striking image. When the congregation was in the wilderness in Exodus-Deuteronomy the tabernacle was set up in the very centre of the camp with all the tents of the people carefully arranged around it. In that tabernacle the Angel of the LORD, marked out by the great pillar of fire and cloud, lived right there among the assembly, speaking to them and instructing them on how to fulfil the Law [see, for example Leviticus 1:1]. That is the understanding of Israels life that Asaph presents at the beginning of Psalm 82. Standing among His people God [Elohim] urges them to share His life, to take His heart as their own, to join in with His own actions and desires. The Psalm is focussed on the issue of judgements. When the Bible talks about making judgements it is not thinking simply of forming opinions, but acting in the right way. When God stands in the assembly and challenges His people to judge in the way that He judges, He isolates certain actions that would show that they were joining in with His judgements. These judgements are the special works of the Living God. Deuteronomy 10:16-18 is very striking: Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. Moses preached to the assembly of Israel, urging them to be born again [circumcise your hearts], so that they could join in with the righteous judgements

8 and holy life of the LORD God. Psalm 82 is just the same. The LORD God is not pronouncing judgements on slaves from on high. He is standing in the middle of the assembly urging His people to do what He does: show no partiality, defend the fatherless and rescue the needy. The assembly is contrasted in Psalm 82:5 with the wicked. The wicked have no understanding because they walk in darkness. Sharing the life of God in His family is infinitely more wonderful than the blind, evil ignorance of the wicked. To do the things that God does is the very definition of sharing Gods life in the teaching of Jesus throughout Johns gospel. However, Psalm 82:6, although He had called the assembly of Israel elohim, giving them the family name of the Living God, yet in choosing the darkness with the wicked they will fall so far short of what was offered to them. Instead of sharing the life of God they will die like mere men and fall like Satan. Remember that in 2 Peter 1:4 we are told that through the gospel we may participate in the divine nature. If we had an understanding of the divine nature like Aristotles [that is, seeing the divine essence as a collection of infinite attributes], then this verses would appear very strange. But, because we begin with the Scriptures, we know that the divine nature is nothing less than the fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is the destiny of those who trust in Jesus to be caught up into that divine life as we are united to Jesus. We enter the life of Elohim through the Divine Mediator. Its clear why Jesus chose this psalm in His confrontation with the Pharisees back in John 10:34. The issue in John 10 is also about true judgement, judging as God judges. The Pharisees found it offensive that any mere man could talk of being joined to God. Jesus answer then moves in two stages. First, from Psalm 82 He shows them that sharing the life of God is the whole point of the life of Israel. Union with the Father is the destiny of the assembly of Israel. Jesus will have a lot more to say about this in John 14-17. Not only is Jesus truly God, but He is also able to bring humanity into the life of God. Of course the fact that the psalm also rebukes the wicked for living in darkness and missing out on this joy fits perfectly into the issues of John 10. Second, if the Scriptures made this wonderful and unbreakable statement about the destiny of the assembly of Israel, how infinitely more true it must be of the One whom the Father has set apart as His very own? If the people whom God the Word formed and guided are promised a place in Gods family, then the Eternal Son who has always existed at the Fathers side must have an eternal and supreme union with His Father. So, instead of accusing Jesus of blasphemy, the Pharisees should think long and hard about their whole understanding of the life and destiny of Israel. 3. Mark 10:18 Jesus is telling the guy off for calling him God.

see above. 4. Jesus claimed He was only a prophet (Luke 4:24).

Jesus is prophet, priest and king. These are the three anointed offices in the Hebrew Scriptures. The Messiah, The Anointed One is the ultimate example of these three offices. All the earlier prophets, priests and kings were at best pointing forward to the work of the Divine Mediator as the definitive prophet, priest and king. The priests were anointed with oil when they took up their position Exodus 25; 28:41. The anointing of the priests with oil showed that their job could only be done properly in the power of the Spirit. In 1 Samuel 9 we discover that kings also needed to be anointed before they could do their job. The anointing of a king was the coronation of the king. In 1 Samuel 16:13 & 14 the relationship between the sign of the oil and the presence of the Holy Spirit is clearly displayed. The king could only be a real king so long as the Spirit gave him the ability to do so. Finally, in 1 Kings 19:16 we see Elisha anointed to be a prophet following on from Elijah. So, to be a prophet, a priest or a king one had to be anointed with oil to show that the job required the anointing of the Holy Spirit. All of these prophets, priests and kings were preparatory to the definitive Prophet, Priest and King, Jesus Christ. He is anointed with the Spirit without measure, because in Him all the offices meet in One Person.

Prophecy:
1. Moses is clearly talking about Mohammed in Deut 18:15, since Moses and Mohammed were married, were political leaders, had children, had an earthly Father and Mother, Jesus shared in none of these.

Moses was a descendant of Jacob. This prophet had to be from among the brothers. That is the feature that Deuteronomy points out.

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Character of God:
1. Jesus was violent against property (Jn 2:15), that's not a very God like thing to do.

He was driving people out of His own temple. These people were wickedly turning His house into a place of commerce rather a place where the nations of the world could receive the free grace of the Living God through trusting in the Messiah. It is amazing that He was not a great deal more violent!!! It is a very small taste of the great cleansing of Judgement Day when He will drive all wickedness out of the universe. 2. Jesus insulted the Pharisees (Matt 23), that are not a very God like thing to do.

Why not?! When the Living God sees the wicked, hard-hearted foolishness of humanity [especially those humans who have see so much of the truth] then it is a great thing when He tells us some hard truths. 3. Jesus insulted His mother (Jn2:4), that's not a very God like thing to do.

I cannot see any insult here. In the context of Johns gospel the time or hour of Jesus is the time of His death on the Cross. The subject of wine seems to speak to Jesus of the time of His death, the time of His bloodshedding. He reminds her that it was not yet that time. It was not for Mary to try to control or direct Jesus the Eternal Son in His ministry. 4. Jesus called all the gentiles dogs, this isn't a very God like thing to do. (Matt 15:26, Mark 7:27)

In this exchange with the Canaanite woman, Jesus tests the woman to see where she really stood. Did she really throw herself unconditionally on His mercy? Did she abandon herself to Him? On the other hand we must not forget that the Law of Moses drew a circle around the multi-national people of Israel and determined that the only way for a Gentile to be saved was for them to become a member of Israel. You couldnt remain a Gentile and be saved. Jesus does not simply brush this away. It was at Pentecost, following His ascension into heaven as King of the Universe, that the perimeter of Israel was torn down, the Law ended and Gentiles invited to follow the Messiah as Gentiles. 5. God cannot die, yet Jesus died, not a God like thing to do...

see earlier answers.

Misunderstandings:
1. Muslims say, God's name is of questionable origin....... Who was the first to pronounce Yahweh? What is the origin of Yahweh? When was the name first given, in Genesis or Exodus? When did Jesus use the name Yahweh or claim the name Yahweh for Himself? Adonai has been added to YHWH to make the name Yahweh. Yahweh is a man made name.

Yahweh is the personal name of the Persons from the very beginning. Eve uses the name and from Genesis 4:26 many people invoked this Divine Name. Exodus 6 has caused some confusion. Exodus 6:2-4 God also said to Moses, "I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they lived as aliens. The footnote in the NIV is very helpful. The verse should of course be translated as but by my name the LORD did I not make myself known to them? expecting the answer, of course you did, because Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knew you so well!

11 In John 8:56-59 we see that Jesus clearly claims the name Yahweh for Himself as He claims to have been the One speaking to Moses in Exodus 3. It is clear that the crowd in John 8 understand what Jesus was claiming. 2. How is Yahweh different from Elohim, Eloi, or Eloha?

Yahweh seems to be the covenant name of God, the name used to indicate His intimate relationship with His own people. Elohim seems to be a more simple description of the One plural God. 3. Is not the angel of the Lord also Yahweh, and thus a God himself?

Yes, He is Yahweh also, but He is not A god. He is a member of Elohim, along with the Most High and the Spirit. 4. Why don't Christians use the name Yahweh for God today, if that is the name that God gave?

Many Christians do, but it isnt necessary. The New Testament uses the word Lord when it translates Hebrew Scriptures that contain the name Yahweh. Islam has serious problems with translation, but translation is actually part of our Scriptures. The New Testament assures us that the use of the word Lord is an acceptable translation. 5. Jn 17:3 isn't this just like the Shahada?

It certainly looks as if somebody corrupted this to produce the Shahada. 6. Jn 17:4 Jesus had completed his work, therefore the cross was not part of his work.

John 17 was Jesus pray as He was about to die on the Cross the very night before. He knew that the moment of His death had come. 7. Is the concept of trinity not borrowed from a pagan source?

The knowledge of the Living God as Father, Son and Spirit [Most High, Angel and Spirit] is much older than any of the pagan sources that anybody offers. Given that the whole human race is descended from Noah, it seems clear that many of the pagan religions around the world have tried to create their own man-made versions of the ancient truth if the Trinity. Justin Martyr accuses the Greeks of stealing their trinity from Moses. 8. Acts 13:32-33 says, You are my son, today I have become your father, implying his sonship happened at a certain time (tying in with Psalm 2:7).

According to the Scriptures, these words were spoken to the Son by the Father during the Old Testament time, when He became incarnate and at His resurrection. How can the Father become the Father of the Son on more than one day? There have been two classic answers to that. 1. The Father always begets the Son. It is never a past event, but a constant, eternal activity of the Father. The being of Elohim is not a static form but an ever-fresh, ever-new relationship as the Son is born of the Father and the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son. 2. The Father re-affirms their eternal relationship at those moments when He takes so much pleasure in His Son. He loves to declare to the whole creation that He is the Father of the Son. When the incarnation happened and at the resurrection and at the ascension He could not contain His fresh affirmation of His joy in being the Father of the Son. 9. If Jesus blood sufficed, then how would it suffice for those who came before, specially since they would not have known his name?

We have shown at length in the paper that the saints before the birth of Jesus were looking forward to the Messiah through the prophecies, sacrifices and promises given to them. They were given forgiveness and new birth

12 and adoption and the Spirit simply because the redeeming work of Jesus was such a certainty in the mind of the Father. The Scriptures tell us that the Son is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world [Revelation 13:8], seemingly indicating the reality of His historic death even from the beginning of creation. 10. In Exodus 33:11, Moses saw God face-to-face, yet in Exodus 33:20, it says no-one can see God faceto-face and live? We have dealt with this in detail in the paper. Since in Isaiah 7:14 it is prophesied that the child will be called Emmanuel...where is Jesus ever given this name in the New Testament (maybe Matt.1:22-23)?

11.

Instead of this being a personal name, it is a title. Jesus has been called God with us by hundreds of millions of people all over the world for hundreds of years. This prophecy has been fulfilled in a massive way. Every Christmas half the world refers to that little child of Bethlehem as Emmanuel on Christmas cards and in carols.