WHO IS GOD, JACOB GEORGE [best ebook reader ubuntu .txt] 📗

and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.’” Again it is talking about the Church being one, as the Father and Christ are one; it is not proving that the Father and Christ are the same Being.

John 17:1-5 shows Him talking to the Father as a separate Being. My New King James Bible has a reference here in verse 5, which says, “Together with Yourself.” The reference says “literally along side” Yourself, again proving the Father and Jesus Christ are two independent Beings.

CHRIST ALWAYS EXISTED

John 17 talks about the glory that He had before the world was, which leads us to our second point. The first

point was that God is a family with two members; the second point is that Christ always existed.

Remember, in John chapter 1 we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” The Word, Christ, was there in the beginning.

Turn to Genesis chapter 14 where a little-known person mentioned here in the Bible. This reference will help us understand further that Jesus Christ has always existed. This was after Lot had been taken captive and Abraham took his personal army and rescued him. Genesis 14:18: “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: ‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.’ and he gave him a tithe of all.” Abraham realized that Melchizedek was one to whom he should be paying tithes. To whom do you pay tithes? You always pay tithes to God. We will learn more in Hebrews chapter 7.

Hebrews chapter 7, verses 1-3 talks about Melchizedek who had no father, no mother, no beginning of days, and no end of life. He was made like the Son of God. Remember, Jesus Christ often referred to Himself in the gospels as the Son of God. This Melchizedek was none other than Jesus Christ, who had no beginning of days. However, at one point He did become human for us.

Ephesians chapter 3, verse 9 tells us that Jesus Christ was around for the creation: “…and to make all people see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ.” The Authorized Version, also known as the King James Version, says “created all things by Jesus Christ.” The Greek Interlinear says “by Jesus Christ.” In other words, Christ did the creating at the will of the Father.

Colossians chapter 1, verses 15-17, says in the King James Version, “All things were created by Him and for Him.” This is further proof that Jesus Christ created all things.

GOD’S COMPOSITION AND SHAPE

My third point regards the composition and shape of God. Man is made of the dust of the ground. God created all things, so He surely cannot be made of the dust of the ground! What is God made of? Turn to John chapter

 

4, verse 24: “’God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’” God’s composition is spirit.

What does God look like? Turn to Genesis chapter 1, verse 26: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’” If man is created in God’s image, then God must look like man. God appears to have two arms, two legs, a head, etc., in the same type of form as man.

Turn to Genesis chapter 5, verse 1: “This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.” Again this is showing that we look like God.

Turn to John 14, back to Jesus Christ’s final instructions to His disciples. John chapter 14, verses 8-9: “Philip said to Him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, “Show us the Father?”’” The Father looks like Christ. Christ was a typical looking human back then; He was able to disappear in a crowd at times when He needed to do so.

Moses knew something about what God looked like. Turn to Exodus 33. God had been talking to Moses for quite some time, but Moses never actually saw God. He wondered, what does God look like, this Eternal One that I have been talking to all this time? Read Exodus chapter 33, verses 18-23. God has a hand, a back, and a face. Again, He looks very much like us humans.

The prophet Ezekiel had a vision of God, too, though it was not a clear vision. Remember, no one could see God clearly and live. Ezekiel chapter 1, verses 26-28 describes what the Lord of the Old Testament looked like. He looked like a man but with fire all around, and that was about as much as Ezekiel could see.

In Revelation chapter 1 there is another vision, this time of Jesus Christ, being One of the God family, as He is now in His glorified state. Revelation chapter 1, verse 13: “…and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man…” (Remember the Son of Man was the term that Jesus Christ used for Himself in the New Testament.) “…clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.”

Here we have Jesus Christ in His glorified condition, and he has a chest, head, and hair that are white like wool, eyes like a flame of fire, feet like fine brass and his countenance (His face) shining like the sun. That is what Jesus Christ looks like right now. The first part of this description is intended to be taken literally, but often the Bible does speak symbolically. The stars in verse 16 are defined in verse 20: “’The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches…’” In other words stars can represent angels.

Back in verse 16 it says, “… out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword…” That is not intended to be taken literally either. The sword is a symbol, as defined in Hebrews 4:12 where the word of God is compared to a sword. The word of God, of course, is the Holy Bible. Ephesians 6:17 also confirms this definition of the sword as the word of God. These portions of the description in Revelation are symbolic, but the rest is a literal description of Christ.

THE HOLY SPIRIT

Our fourth point answers the question: What is the Holy Spirit? We are going to find that the Holy Spirit is

the power of God but not part of any kind of trinity, as many believe believe. The word “trinity” is found

nowhere in the Bible.

Genesis chapter 1, verse 2: “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” The Spirit is something that can hover.

Psalm chapter 104, verse 30: “You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the earth.” These two verses, the one in Psalms and the one in Genesis, show that God’s Spirit renewed the face of the earth, and it is by the power of God’s Spirit that creation occurs.

Turn to Acts chapter 1 verses 4-5: “And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, ‘which,’ He said, ‘you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’” If the Holy Spirit were a being, how could you be baptized with a being? That would not make much sense.

Verse 8: “’But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’” So the Holy Spirit comes “upon” someone as power.

Turn to chapter 2, which is where the Holy Spirit was given on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus Christ in 31 A.D. Acts chapter 2, verse 4: “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” So they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Again, you do not fill a being with another being; that would not make sense.

Peter gave an inspired sermon which caused people to realize they had been responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. Verse 38: “Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” The Holy Spirit is a gift which is given to us upon repentance, belief, and baptism.

In Acts chapter 10, Peter is preaching to Gentiles, and in particular to a Gentile by the name of Cornelius. Acts chapter 10, verse 44: “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.” The Holy Spirit could fall upon people as a gift that had been poured out.

I John 5 is a verse that people often use to try to prove that the Holy Spirit is part of a trinity. Let us look at that verse a little more carefully. I John chapter 5, verse 7: “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.” According to the Companion Bible, Clarke’s Commentary, and other sources, portions of these verses were actually added centuries after they were originally inspired. The way the verse really should read is: “For there are three that bear witness in heaven.” Skip down to the middle of verse 8: “The Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.” The rest in the middle that people use to try to justify a trinity is not even in the original Bible or early manuscripts. Now we can understand better that the Holy Spirit is the power of God.

THE CHARACTER OF GOD

The fifth point is about the character of God. If we wanted to, we could stop at this point where we would have learned the “nuts and bolts” of what God is, but let’s dig deeper into the nature of God and learn about the beautiful mind of God. What about His character? Read I John chapter 4, verses 7 and 8: “Beloved, let us love one another, for