About This Video
Shawn McCraney emphasizes the importance of Jesus' role in revealing the nature and character of the true and living God, highlighting how Jesus, as an Israelite, adhered to the Law and identified the greatest commandment as loving God with all one's heart and soul, as stated in the Great Shema. By affirming these commandments, Jesus not only declared the singularity of God but also endorsed love as fundamental, highlighting its supremacy over all offerings and sacrifices, resonating with the scribe in the Gospel of Mark and underscoring His mission to teach eternal life through understanding God.
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus and a scribe discuss the foremost commandment known as the Great Shema, emphasizing the singular identity of God by stating, "The Lord our God, the Lord is one," which both agree means God is a single 'He' rather than a 'what'. This dialogue challenges the Trinitarian view, as it reflects that Jesus, as an observant Israelite, affirms and obeys the Shema by recognizing God as one person, highlighting a monotheistic understanding of God rather than a triune interpretation.
Jesus upheld the Great Shema by recognizing and worshiping only His Father as the one true God, demonstrating His obedience to the Law by loving Him with all His heart, soul, and strength. This teaching challenges the Trinitarian interpretation by emphasizing Jesus' clear understanding and living demonstration of this commandment, showing that He did not secretly perceive God as a trinity but rather as the singular "He" described in the Shema.
In this teaching, Shawn emphasizes that Jesus viewed and obeyed God as the One True God, consistent with the singular entity described in the Great Shema, rather than as a complex unity of multiple persons. He challenges Trinitarian interpretations by highlighting that Jesus' recorded life reflects a devotion to a singular, unified God, rather than a triune deity.
Understanding the True God
From the Mecca of Mormonism, Salt Lake City, Utah
This is HEART OF THE MATTERTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology.
And I’m your host, Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion.
27s Jesus The Deceiver
April 18th 2021
I want to cite an online brother (Kel) and his many astute insights into the makeup of the true and living God. His original biblical thinking has done much to help me articulate what I also see in scripture. When it comes to understanding the make-up of God there is nothing more decisive than what Jesus and did in His life. I suggest that we can trust that we can trust what He said and not what men say he said. He is the most reliable trustworthy witness. The very reason Jesus came to give us understanding is so we might know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Why? This is life eternal. He did this by declaring and/or expressing the only true God that nobody has ever seen.
The Role of Jesus in Revealing God
1st John 5:20 says “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” And remember this:
Joh 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
With Him being the Word of God made flesh, we can readily see that this is what Jesus came to do – to declare and/or express, the only True God and Him whom the Only true God had sent.
Additionally, Jesus was a Jew born under the Law. It’s important because Jesus having been born under the Law means that Jesus had to obey the Law. Perfectly. He was an Israelite. And God gave the Law to them. He was required to observe the Law – to know what the Law meant AND to obey it – honestly, from the heart, and out of love for God and Man. We can trust that Jesus understood the commands he followed and obeyed, can’t we?
Jesus and the Law
So, two facts thus far – Jesus came to reveal God to us and Jesus, as an Israelite, obeyed the law. Is there a believer who disagrees? In the Gospel of Mark we read about Yeshua testifying about a specific element of the Law. There, in chapter 12, He told us what the primary, foremost commandment of the Law was as an Israelite who obeyed the Law? And here he cited the Great Shema which says:
“Hear o Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall LOVE the Lord thy God with all your heart and soul and strength.” That is the first commandment of the Law, which Jesus kept as a Jew – the Great Shema. And in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus actually has a conversation with a Jewish scribe where He appeals to it.
What is really interesting about this conversation is that unlike many other interactions Yeshua has with scribes and pharisees, this one is peaceful and wholly agreeable. And what were they in agreement about?
Mark 12:28:
Mark 12:28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. 32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: you have truly said that there is one God; and there is none other but him: 33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
The Scribe's Agreement
Jesus response to this is very important. Listen:
34 And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, wisely, intelligently, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom.
Jesus and the Great Shema
of God.
And so here in Mark we have the most agreeable discussion between Jesus and a scribe about the foremost commandment in the Law – the Great Shema – which again, says:
“Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”
So again,
ONE Jesus came to reveal the Invisible God to the world
TWO As an Israelite who came to save the Nation He was to obey all of the Law under which He was born, and
THREE, Jesus himself said is the foremost commandment of the Law He came to keep was the Great Shema.
Still with me?
When Jesus tells the scribe what He considered to be the primary and foremost commandment under the Law, listen to what the scribe says:
32 Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: you have truly said that He is one (God); and there is none other but . . . “him.”
And Jesus response to the scribe was that he had responded wisely – that He was right! Now think about what the scribe says here. “You are right, teacher, He is one and there is no other but He, Him, ONE.
This is a description from both Jesus and the Scribe agreeing with each other what the Great Shema means, meaning how to see and interpret it.
Agreement on the Great Shema
Notice that neither of them say, “The Lord our God is One what.” They say the Lord our God the Lord is one “He.” Not a one what, but a one He.
Together they both qualify and agree on what the Great Shema means! And it means, from their own words that “the Lord our God, the Lord is one HE!” NOT the Lord is One WHAT – One He, one who.
This is clear from both the Shema AND from what the Lord and the Scribe both say!
The Trinitarian claim that this conversation means (or should be seen and understood as “one unity of a divine nature in three) is entirely man-made because a divine nature would have to be a WHAT, and not a He in this scenario. But its not.
And now, from His own testimony, our most reliable witness Yeshua clearly agrees that the Shema refers to one identity and the words, “the Lord our God, the Lord is One, mean the Lord is one HE.” The implication should be obvious to anyone – right off the bat – that the purpose of singular personal pronouns is to signify that a single person is being described! This is the POINT of personal pronouns, folks.
The Lord our God is One, He . . . This is one person and it tells us this right here!
But Trinitarians cannot read this plainly, cannot receive it plainly, and must default to man-made concepts that neither Jesus nor the scribe mention. Instead, they stay true to the words of the Great Shema.
Jesus' Interpretation of the Shema
Jesus testifies to the specific identity of that “one person,” the “one who,” the “One he” here in this talk with the scribe.
And remember now, that Jesus obeyed the Law, and he said that the Greatest of all the Law was the Great Shema, and the Great Shema directly states that He, as the Messiah, was to love the One He, the One Lord God, with all of His heart soul and strength.
Are you convinced that when Jesus is having this conversation with the scribe that He was talking about a tri-une, three in one God of which He is supposed to compose a part? Do you think that the scribe was understanding this the same way? If not, why doesn’t Jesus use this time to correct Him?
Instead, Jesus views slide right in with the scribes! Because that is what was true.
Listen – in order for Jesus to perfectly obey the Law he had to perfectly understand it – that includes the primary foremost Law called the Great Shema?
Here in Mark Jesus testifies to how He interprets the words of the Shema in and the scripture describes HOW HE OBEYED IT!
Do we see Jesus obeying the first Great commandment of the Law by worshipping “a three in one God” (again, of which he was apart) or do we see Jesus…
Jesus and the Great Shema
Giving His total heart, soul and strength to a singular He (called His Father)?
If the Great Shema was speaking of a “what” (trinity) and not a “He” (Jesus' Father), then for Jesus to obey the Law, he would have to worship and equally love (with all of His heart, soul, and strength) the Father, Himself the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That’s the ONLY way He could have obeyed the Law!
But Jesus ONLY recognized His Father as His God, as the One God, as the He God. This is the same Father that Paul speaks to when he says in 1st Corinthians 8:6:
But to us, there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
This is who the Great Shema describes – Jesus’ Father – the Lord our God is One. And Jesus obeyed the first Great Commandment by loving HIS FATHER with all of His heart, soul, and strength. Not LOVING A TRIUNE MAN-MADE GOD with all of His heart, soul, and strength, as the Trinitarians interpret the Shema, but His Father!
Jesus' Loyalty to One God
The FACT that Jesus only recognized His Father as the one He worships throughout His life proves, in addition to this conversation with the Scribe, that He interpreted the One Lord God as His Father. Period. Because that is what He did. He only loved His Father as His God with all of His heart, soul, and strength. In this way, we can clearly see how Jesus interpreted the Shema. Not men. Not tradition. Jesus. That’s who I trust. What HE said, what He did. And from His mouth and conversation with this Scribe, there is no other God but HE.
The Jews, like this scribe, knew who that one God is, and the scribe and Jesus agree on His identity completely! Completely! Jesus did not sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace.. He was obedient to the Law. More than anything else, He was obedient to the first and foremost Law – the Great Shema without qualification, deviation, alteration, or man-made reconfiguration.
Trinitarians play games with this so they can keep the man-made myth alive. They say that Jesus secretly, in His head, knew the real meaning of the Shema (which was a three-personed WHAT, and not a One-person He) and that he pretended to obey this primary law the way the Jews around Him did. But that He knew better.
The True Meaning of the Shema
See, if Jesus did NOT love the One God (his Father) with all of His heart, soul, and strength, then he disobeyed the Shema. The Shema instructed Him to recognized His God and to love Him with all his being! He did this by serving and worshipping only His Father as the Only One He. He didn’t secretly believe the Shema meant one thing but then act in another way – His actions proved that His interpretation of the Shema was One He, not Three What’s!
If he did anything else, He would have been a deceiver, a liar, and a disobedient one at that. Jesus was not a disobedient liar. He was the most trusted witness of the One God and the best interpreter of the Shema to have ever lived. See, the Trinitarian doctrine, in the end, makes Jesus a disobedient liar. How? Because it suggests that Jesus interpreted the Shema one way, but taught and acted in another.
In other words, He doesn’t obey what he thinks God is (a Trinity) he does something else. This is the implication of the Trinity doctrine. But Jesus did not sin, so we can be absolutely certain that what Jesus did to interpret, understand, obey, and observe this commandment is how it was meant to be. Nothing more.
Jesus' life and obedience to the Shema have to match with the interpretation of it, or He was a liar and was disobedient to the Law. But His life was in harmony with the Shema and it is the Trinitarian doctrine that makes his life, words, prayers, and actions . . . a lie. Who do you trust – traditions created by Men or the Son of Man?
In the Revelation (God gave Jesus to share with John) we read in chapter 1 verse 6:
“He has made us priests and kings to the Triune
Jesus and the Nature of God
Understanding Revelation
God.”
No? No what it says, speaking of Jesus: Is, “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father.” The God here in Revelation is the same One God, the single “He” that is mentioned in the Great Shema.
The Trinitarian Perspective
The Trinitarians suggest that Jesus secretly knew that the One Lord is was “one unity of three uncreated co equal persons,” and that He knew that he would somehow have to love such a triune God (of which He was a part) with all of His heart, soul and mind, but unfortunately for them, the record of His life shows He never saw God His Father that way, but instead obeyed the One God as the One True God of which there is no other.
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