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New
Covenant Faith is Jewish!
One of the great misconceptions about the faith of New Covenant believers
is that “they believe in three gods”.
Of
course this is untrue from the clear teachings in the New Covenant: “And
Jesus answered him and said ‘The first of all the commandments is: Hear O
Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.’” (Mark
12:29, Deut. 6:4; see also 1 Cor. 8:4; James 2:19, etc.)
Thus, New Covenant faith is biblically
Jewish. Because of the ignorance of
the Scriptural teaching of the “tri-unity” of God (the word “trinity” is
a contraction of “tri-unity”) there is
confusion on the subject. The Testimony of The Jewish Scriptures
As we look into the Jewish Scriptures we see the mystery nature of God
presented: “Hear
O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord”
(Deut. 6:4). As
one Jewish man commented to me, “God is mentioned three times right there in the verse that speaks of His
oneness!” “But,”
one might object, “it does say one
in the verse. True, but the word
“one” (“echad”, in the original Hebrew) can be a one
of a “complex unity”. For
example, when God established the marriage relationship the Scripture states: “For this
cause a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife; and the
two shall be one flesh.”
(Gen. 2:24) Here
we see that “one” is used not in the absolute singular sense, but “one”
as a complex unity. In
another text of scripture this complex unity is explained further: “And
they came to the brook of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with one
cluster of grapes.” (Numbers
13:23). Here again one is used to refer to a cluster,
which is a complex unity.
There is another word for one in
the Hebrew: “yachid”. Yachid is
used in Gen. 22:2 when God is speaking to Abraham about Isaac.
“Take now your son, your only son.” Though Abraham had another son, Ishmael, God refers to
Isaac as a one-of-a-kind son, the son of the covenant. This word is used for an absolute one, and never for God in the Bible! This
complex nature of God is assumed in
the Scripture, rather than explained.
That’s why a portion like the following in Genesis can only make sense in
light of this assumption: “The Lord
(who was on earth conferring with Abraham)
rained upon Sodom brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.”
(Gen. 19:24) When God created man, we are brought into the counsels of God’s own heart when we read: “And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.’” (Gen. 1:26).
Please notice the plural possessive pronoun, our.
God reveals His own complex nature. The Scripture goes on to say, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of
God He created them” (v.27). Therefore, God’s complex
nature alone is the reason for the use of our. Isaiah
the Prophet as well assumes this complex nature of God in several places. In
a vision of his own commission as a prophet of Israel, he writes of God saying: “Who will go
for us whom shall we send?”
(Isaiah 6:8). Once
more in God’s own counsel, God refers to Himself with a plural pronoun.
Isaiah again assumes this complex unity of God’s Nature when he refers
to the practical activity of God in regards to our redemption. “Come near to
me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time it
was, there am I; now the Lord God and His Spirit has sent Me.”
(Isa.48:16) Who
is the one “from the beginning” and the one who is always “there”? Only
God alone (cp. Isaiah 48:3, 5). Thus it is the Lord Himself in that verse, who
is sent by The Lord God and
His Spirit! Many
more portions of the Jewish Scriptures could be presented to reiterate the same
truth: There is only one God, who is complex in nature. This complexity is
revealed in three persons: as ‘Father’ (Isa. 63:16;
64:8), as ‘Son’
(Isa. 9:5/6; Psalm 2; Prov. 30:4), and as the ‘Holy Spirit’ (Isa.48:16; 63:10, etc. or the Spirit of God, Isa.63:14), but
always there is only one God. The
reason the Scriptures teach the complex nature of God In
light of the many polytheistic religions around Israel, the Older Covenant
emphasized the oneness of God, while, as we’ve read, still staying faithful to
the subtle teaching of His complex and triune nature. With this truth firmly
established, the New Covenant now progressively reveals more of this complex,
triune nature (“…immersing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit…” Matt. 28:19, etc.) while still being faithful to the truth
that there is only one God.
So, the New Covenant reveals the truth of God’s
complex, triune nature not to imply that there is more than one God, but to be
faithful to the revelation of God’s complex nature as seen in the older
covenant. God’s Truth is difficult for 'The Natural Mind'
A famous New
Covenant scholar, Augustine of Hippo, was walking along a beach trying to
understand the Tri-unity of God. As
he struggled in thought, he saw a young boy digging a hole in the seashore and
then run back to the water over and over taking water from the ocean and putting
it in the hole. Augustine asked him, “Child what are you doing?”
The boy responded “I’m trying to put the whole
ocean in this hole!”
Augustine laughed and said to himself “that’s
what I was trying to do, too!”
These are certainly truths hard to understand in our natural minds. Though Scripture alone reveals the true nature of God, God acknowledges that these truths are not easy to comprehend: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts…for as the heaven is higher than the earth, so…my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
We are to trust the testimony of scripture as the true revelation of God
regarding both His nature, and His manner of reconciling sinful people to
Himself: by forgiving their sins through His atonement in Messiah Yeshua (the
Jewish way of saying Jesus). Trust
Him for who He is and for what He has done for you in Yeshua, and you will have
eternal life as the gift of God!
For
more information please call or write:
Sam
Nadler
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