TrueLife Tabernacle

Bixby, OK

Christ’s Truthful Claims

  • Jesus claimed that He was the resurrection, the answerer of prayers, the drawing power, the Alpha and Omega, and the coming One. Did He claim too much? We say no, for Jesus is the Father.
  • Christ is a Father to His children (Hebrews 2:13; John 1:12-13).
  • Christ is the Father of eternity (Isaiah 9:6).
  • Christ is the Father to the church (Isaiah 53:10).
  • Christ is the Father to over-comers (Revelation 21:7).
  • Christ is the Father of creation (John 1:3).
  • Christ is the Father to Israel, “his people” (Matthew 1:21).
  • Christ is the Father of lights (James 1:17; John 9:5).
  • Christ is the Father of spirits (Hebrews 12:9; John 1:3)

If we deny the Fatherhood of Jesus, then we deny that He is God for “there is but one God, the Father”
(I Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 4:6; John 4:21-24).

The view of the Apostles

This is how the apostles spoke of Jesus:

  • “The great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
  • “The Almighty” (Revelation 1:8).
  • “Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life” (I John 5:20).
  • “The only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4).
  • “Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory,” and “There is one God” (James 2:1, 19).
  • “Jesus Christ . . . the King . . . the only wise God” (I Timothy 1:16-17).

Jesus in HIS fullness, HIS oneness is a very precious apostolic truth that for long centuries has been obscured by apostasy and a tri-theistic theory.

  • If the Bible teaches Christ existing as Son prior to Bethlehem then surely it would not be hard to find the Son in existence in the Old Testament… Many have tried this but have never succeeded… Yes, the Son is mentioned in the Old Testament, but never as being then in existence. He is prophesied of as coming, which He did at Bethlehem…

Old Testament references to the son

In Proverbs 30:4 we find another reference to the Son:
“What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?“

Verse 1 tells us that this was a prophecy of Agur. He was speaking of things that were not as yet…  Agur prophetically asked the question, looking over into another time and era when Jesus would be born…

Although the Son is mentioned in Old Testament passages, they do not prove that Christ was the Son in the Old Testament. They are prophetical references to His coming…”

There be some that have said and some would bring up that, “I do read of the Father in the Old Testament and thereby their conclusion is if I can find the Father in the Old Testament then He must have had a Son…” “No man is a father until he has had an offspring, be it a son or a daughter. So if I can locate the Father in the Old Testament it will prove that He must have had a Son in the Old Testament.”

The Old Testament does refer to Jehovah as the Father… But within reference to what? Is this in relationship to Christ???

  • Jehovah is mentioned as the Father in Jeremiah 31:9. But this is speaking of HIM as the Father of Israel, not the Father of the Son… 

Jehovah was the national Father of the Israelite people in the Old Testament… He is spoken of as the Father, not relative to Christ but rather relative to Israel.

  • In Malachi 2:10 He is also called the Father, but in a creative sense: Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?

In that sense God was a Father in the Old Testament—He was the Father of all His created human beings.

  • There is only one plain reference in the Old Testament where God is called a Father relative to the Son…

Isaiah 9:6:  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.’

This again is a prophecy… This is not in Jesus as arriving that moment but in that the son was coming… It is a prophecy of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice also here Isaiah says, Jesus is the Father.

How does this not then remove even reject the theory that the Son is a person eternally distinct from the Father?”

The Pre-existence of Jesus

Some argue that Christ was a Son before Bethlehem because “The Father sent the Son.” But look what the word of GOD says of John the Baptist…

John 1:6 says, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.”

By the same reasoning we would be justified in saying that John was man before his birth, which is not true nor does it even make sense…

Others use the word gave, as in John 3:16, to prove that Christ was the Son before God gave Him to us…

Christ being sent speaks of HIM as the plan of where the WORD was to be made flesh… (THE BEGOTTEN SON/ NOT AS AN ETERNAL SON)… There is no such language in the bible referring to Christ as THE ETERNAL SON… Christ was sent as a man in maturity and not as a child in infancy (John 20:21; Isaiah 61:1; Matthew 21:37)…

Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.      KJV

He is introduced in as He is coming; not that HE existed at the moment…

And this we know HE did come… NT even speaks of HIM coming not as HE existing as a eternal son…

Luke 1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.     KJV

“Let Us Make Man In Our Image”    (Genesis 1:26)

  1. Some argue that this verse shows a trinity of divine persons, but the verse immediately following says, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.” 

“The world was made by him” [Jesus]. Isaiah 44:24 is crystal clear on this point. God speaks in the first person and says, “I am the LORD… that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.”

  • Creation is the work of one divine person only. (See also James 2:19; Malachi 2:10.) Angels were present when God made the world (Job 38:7), and they applauded His creative acts.
  • Jehovah converses with angels (Psalm 103:20). The Jews have always believed that the “us” of Genesis 1:26 refers to God and the angels. Man is certainly made in the likeness of angels (Hebrews 2:7). Indeed Jesus is the Fullness of the Godhead…
  • A careful study of Genesis 3:22-24, where the “us” again appears, reveals that God is addressing the cherubim or elect angels who, together with Himself, “know good and evil.”
  • “Us,” relative to God and the angels, is seen again in Genesis 11:7, where God indicates to the angels that Babel’s hour of judgment had come: “Let us go down, and there confound their language.” As at Sodom, God, in conjunction with the angels, executed the work of vengeance (Genesis 18:33; 19:1)… 
  • Isaiah 6:1-8 is crystal clear concerning the identity of the “us.” It is God and the seraphim. Angels cannot preach the gospel (see Acts 10:1-8), but they are deeply interested in its propagation (I Peter 1:12)…

A continued answer to the question: Was there a preexistence of Jesus?

  1. Many passages of Scripture refer to the existence of Jesus before his human life began… This does not mean that the Bible teaches that he existed apart or separate from the father… Jesus is the father and creator… Spirit of Jesus existed from all eternity because he is God…

Humanity of Jesus did not exist before incarnation…

Gal 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law (KJV)

There would be no declaration of “Christ made of a woman,” unless there was a fullness of time that was to come…

Some would argue that Jesus Christ was in heaven with God awaiting to be sent… That is not what this is saying… The son was sent from God as a man not as God: the word “sent” does not imply preexistence of Christ the man…

John 16 states that John the Baptist was a man sent from God, and we know he did not preexist his conception…

  • God formed a plan, put flesh on that plan, and then put that plan in operation… God manifested himself in flesh in order to reveal the plan…

John 1:1, 14… (Read)!!! In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word was made flesh…

In other words, Jesus existed from all eternity as God… The plan of Christ being sent existed with God from the beginning as an idea or in the mind of God…

CONCLUSION:

This by no means is all the scripture in revelation to this wonderful truth. What I have attempted to do is answer the question of WHAT IS THE (ONENESS OF GOD?)  If anything maybe this article has whet the appetite for conversation or a greater desire to know more about this subject. Please reach out to us for an additional study.

Perhaps the question is risen. Is this new? Does history record this doctrine outside of the bible? The answer is yes, it does. And of course this is not new. There can be much that can be added to this brief study. History does answer this question as well.

The greatest question this creates is this. Is this of any value? How important is my understanding of knowing that Jesus is the Father? That Jesus is GOD manifest in the flesh? As Paul stated to Timothy.

I believe it to be so important that I borrow the words of Jesus to give answer to this.

“I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” John 8:24 KJV

The word “he” was added by the translators. What we see here is JESUS is identifying as the “I AM” of the one name when Moses asked of GOD “who do I say that sent me.”

This Jews do know that their messiah will be GOD. The Jews are a monotheistic people. That was their difficulty in new testament times and even today for many in believing Jesus as their messiah. Yet, there have been many that have come already to this truth with what I believe to be many more in embracing Christ as the messiah today.

Thank you for taking time out to read.

May GOD bless you in your quest for HIM.