One God Report

In this episode we show why the Trinitarian and “deity of Christ” understanding of Jesus’s words in John 8:58 are wrong. In neither Hebrew nor in Greek is the phase “I am” in the Bible a title for deity. In Hebrew, God says in Exodus 3:14 “I will be who I will be”. In Greek, it is the “Living One” who speaks to Moses. “I am”, in Greek, ego eimi, is not a divine title. We show that the “deity of Christ” interpretation of Jesus’s statement, “before Abraham was I am” contradicts the Apostle Peter’s belief (Acts 3:15), the disciples Steven’s belief (Acts 7), the author of the Gospel of John (John 20 30:31) and Jesus in the Gospel of John (John 17:3). We give two possible meanings for Jesus “I am” statement in John 8:58. We favor the second interpretation. 1. Jesus’s statement relates to his superiority to Abraham in the plan and purpose of God. The Messiah Jesus was known by God before Abraham was called in God’s purpose. 2. Jesus is pre-eminent to Abraham in resurrection. Jesus was repeating what he said earlier in John chapter 8, “I am the light of the world”. All of the “I am” statements of Jesus in John 8 relate to his claim to be “the light of the world”. We examine the Greek verb genesthai and see that especially in the Gospel of John it means to “come into being at some point in the future”. John 8:58 is best translated as “before Abraham comes to be”, that is, at some future point in time. For additional evidence that the Trinitarian, “deity of Christ” interpretation of John 8:58 is wrong, see here. https://www.angelfire.com/space/thegospeltruth/TTD/verses/john8_58.html

In this podcast I translate a few verses in the Book of Genesis (1:1, 26-27) in a way that many Trinitarians read or understand the text. I address the question if the word for “God” in Hebrew Elohim, which is a grammatical plural, is a hint or means that God is more than one. 1. No, this grammatically plural form does not mean more than one numerically. 2. Hebrew grammarians call this the “plural of majesty”. It is used in an honorific way with titles like “God”, “master”, even “Baal” to refer to one individual. 3. No Hebrew scholar makes the claim that the grammatical plural Elohim hints or suggests that the God of Israel is more than one individual. The claim is a popular “man/pastor” on the street claim that ignores what Hebrew grammarians say. 4. If the word means a plural, it would be translated as “gods”, more than one god. It does not mean more than one person in a god. 5. Other Hebrew words that are grammatically plural but singular in meaning are mentioned. 6. Trinitarians are inconsistent since sometimes they claim Elohim means more than one person, but other times it means only one person. Sometimes the contradiction is in one verse right next to another. 7. Many times the God of Israel is referred to in the singular form El. The God of Israel is also referred to tens of thousands of times with singular masculine verbs, pronouns and adjectives. We ask which member of the Triune god is being referred to in the hundreds, thousands, of place, like here in Psalm 86:10:  כִּי-גָדוֹל אַתָּה וְעֹשֵׂה נִפְלָאוֹת אַתָּה אֱלֹהִים לְבַדֶּךָ 8. We challenge those who make the claim that Elohim means a multi-personal god to explain why the Hebrew word for “master/sir/lord” also occurs in grammatical plural forms to refer to one individual person. Additional resources: “An Introduction to the Plural of Majesty in the Hebrew Bible” Podcast by Dustin Smith https://biblicalunitarianpodcast.podbean.com/e/139-an-introduction-to-the-plural-of-majesty-within-the-hebrew-bible/

A Trinitarian Baptist pastor says the Father veiled himself in flesh, bled and died. Really? Why such confusion? Does the New Testament really tell believers in Jesus to take a little wafer and cup of juiced or wine to remember Jesus’s birth? What did Jesus mean when he said, “Do THIS in remembrance of me”? Resources for this episode: Video: The Promised Land is not a Desert and is a Paradigm of the Age to Come https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJxghQtxBEQ Podcast Interview with Mark Cain, “A Good Land” https://podcast.unitarianchristianalliance.org/41-a-good-land-bill-schlegel Long Hollow Baptist Church Christmas Eve Sermon (pastor’s prayer starts around 17:35 minute) https://longhollow.com/christmas-eve-sermon Meaning of “Mass” https://aleteia.org/2017/08/24/why-do-catholics-call-their-main-church-services-mass/

This episode is part 3 of the three part series, “Finding the Deity of Christ in the Old Testament is not a New Testament Exercise”. In Part 1 we saw that on the day of his resurrection, as recorded in Luke 24, Jesus appealed to the Old Testament Scriptures not to proclaim his deity, but to proclaim that the Messiah would suffer and die before being resurrected and exalted. In Part 2 we saw that when Peter and Paul in the Book of Acts appealed to the Old Testament to declare who Messiah/Christ is, they never claim anything about the deity of Christ. Rather, like Jesus, they proclaim that the Christ had to suffer and die and then be raised by God to glory. In this episode we examine two famous Old Testament texts that traditional Christianity has claimed to be evidence of the deity of Christ. We see that the New Testament never makes this claim. Rather, appeals to the Old Testament to proclaim the deity of Christ only come from church fathers of later centuries after Christ. The claims are tradition, not biblical. For the full written text, see here. https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2021/12/finding-evidence-for-deity-of-christ-in.html

In the previous episode, "Finding the Deity of Christ in the Old Testament, Part 1", we saw that Jesus believed that the Old Testament spoke of the death and resurrection of the Messiah, not deity.   In this episode we examine the sermons of Peter and Paul as recorded in the Book of Acts to see if they ever appealed to Old Testament Scriptures to find evidence for the deity of Christ.  We discover that the apostles, like Jesus, never appealed to the Old Testament in an effort to find evidence for the deity of Jesus Christ. Rather, like Jesus, the apostles appealed to Old Testament Scriptures to declare the death and resurrection of Christ. Finding evidence for the deity of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is an activity which began in the centuries after the New Testament was written. Such efforts are foreign to the New Testament. - One God believers can and should challenge those who appeal to the Old Testament for evidence of the deity of Christ: Jesus never appealed to the Old Testament in an effort to prove the deity of Christ. Why are you? Jesus never appealed to the Old Testament in an effort to prove that God is triune. Why are you? Do you know better than Jesus and the New Testament authors?  What is your source, since it is not the Bible?

Jesus believed that the prophets spoke of the death and resurrection of the Messiah, not deity. Neither Jesus nor any author of the New Testament appealed to the Old Testament in an effort to find evidence for the deity of Jesus Christ. Finding evidence for the deity of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is an activity which began in the centuries after the New Testament was written. Such efforts are foreign to the New Testament. Based on Jesus’s own post-resurrection appeals to the Old Testament as described in Luke 24:25-27, and 24:44-47, in this episode we see if Jesus appealed to the Torah of Moses, the Prophets or the Writings (the Old Testament) to declare his "deity".  - One God believers can and should challenge those who appeal to the Old Testament for evidence of the deity of Christ: Jesus never appealed to the Old Testament in an effort to prove the deity of Christ. Why are you? Jesus never appealed to the Old Testament in an effort to prove that God is triune. Why are you? Do you know better than Jesus and the New Testament authors? What is your source, since it is not the Bible?

We continue our discussion with Troy Salinger concerning the "Pre-incarnate Appearances of the Son of God in the Old Testament". In this episode we examine Genesis 18-19, where Yahweh appeared to Abraham via three messengers.   No one in the Bible claims that these visitors were a literal pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus, but ever since the mid-second century AD, beginning with Justin Martyr, most of traditional Christianity has held that Abraham was literally visited by the pre-incarnate Christ.  Salinger leads the discussion examining the pre-incarnate claim and like other Old Testament passages, explains that likewise this appearance of Yahweh is most simply understood as agency. That is, Yahweh God is represented by his agent messengers. When the messengers speaks or act it is Yahweh speaking or acting. And those to whom Yahweh appears via messengers can speak to Yahweh through His messengers. Schlegel gives biblical evidence that the messengers in Genesis 18-19 were actually human beings, specifically, that one of the messengers was Melchizedek. Resources: Troy Salinger "Let the Truth Come Out" blog: https://letthetruthcomeoutblog.wordpress.com/author/troysal/ Articles on supposed pre-incarnate appearances of the Son of God in the OT: https://letthetruthcomeoutblog.wordpress.com/?s=pre-incarnate

We continue our discussion with Troy Salinger on the “Pre-incarnate Appearances of the Son of God in the OT: Truth or Myth”. In this episode Salinger leads us in a discussion about the “Commander of the LORD’s Armies” who appeared with a drawn sword in Joshua 5:13-15, just before the Israelites attacked and conquered Jericho. The Trinitarian world strongly suggests, sometimes insists, that this Commander of the LORD’s Army was a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus. But was it? Salinger gives good reasons why the answer is no, and suggests who this person really may have been. See more in this article by Troy Salinger https://letthetruthcomeoutblog.wordpress.com/2019/03/03/pre-incarnate-appearances-of-the-son-of-god-in-the-ot-truth-or-myth-part-3/ Troy Salinger’s blog https://letthetruthcomeoutblog.wordpress.com/

We continue our discussion with Troy Salinger on the supposed pre-incarnate appearances of the Son of God in the Old Testament. In this episode we look at three events which Trinitarians have claimed to be a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament. 1. The burning bush incident in Exodus 3 (did Jesus claim in John 8:58 to be the God that appeared there?). 2. Melchizedek – was he a pre-incarnate Jesus? 3. Did Jesus appear “like one of the sons of God” in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? The podcast is based on Salinger’s article: Pre-incarnate Appearances of the Son of God in the OT: Truth or Myth, Part 3 https://letthetruthcomeoutblog.wordpress.com/2019/03/03/pre-incarnate-appearances-of-the-son-of-god-in-the-ot-truth-or-myth-part-3/

In this episode we ask the dual-natured, “100% God 100% man” Jesus some questions and find him to be at best a double-minded person, at worst a schizophrenic liar. Traditional Christianity has maintained for centuries that Jesus is one person but has two natures, that Jesus is a God-man.  The claim that “Jesus is God” or that Jesus is a “God-man” is thought to honor and exalt Jesus Christ, but actually denigrates him. The unbiblical “God-man” claim tries to turn the Jewish Jesus Christ into a two-faced liar.