An Examination of God's Identity

From Salt Lake City, this is HOTM long, and I’m your host, Shawn McCraney.

Let’s have a prayer.

Show 39L: You can’t see because you won’t open your eyes
Recorded June 27th, 2021
Aired June 29th, 2021
The name of the show tonight is, You can’t see because you won’t open your eyes. Once again, my gratitude to Brother Kel online for his studies in the area from which I borrow.

Understanding God’s Words

I am going to present to you a very simple, straightforward teaching tonight for you to consider. I will use the scripture to explain it. Specifically, I will appeal to the very words of God himself cited therein. Now when I say, from God Himself, who or what do you think of? What do you see in your minds heart when I say I am going to quote from God himself. Do you see a single person whom scripture calls the Father or do you see three persons that all make up one God? Answer honestly before we move on?

And then how do you see and understand Paul’s words in 1st Corinthians 8:5-6 where he says:

5 “For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)
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.”

The Problem of Trinitarian Interpretation

Fortunately, there are quite a few passages in the Old Testament where the One God (whom Paul says is the Father and who I agree with) says things like “I am God there is no other.” “I am God I know of no other.” “The Lord our God is One” in other words, God himself says, “I’m it. No other.”

Who is speaking when we read such passages – again, in your mind? What “mouth” (so to speak) is uttering the words we are reading? Our Trinitarian friends automatically, when talking about God (who we all agree is unchangeable and forever three persons in one being) say the mouthpiece is the mouth of… Father Son and Holy Spirit – because the way men have created the One God, these are his persons so they HAVE to say this. Did you know that? That every time the Old Testament speaks of YHWH a Trinitarian must, to be consistent, identify the speaker as a TRINITY?

But we have a problem. If the one speaking is a member of the Trinity and claims that He is God and that there is no other, we have to ask, what about the other persons? In other words, the “Son-person of the Trinity” can’t say, “I am God. There is none else,” because if he did, then he would be making himself superior to the Father-Person of the Trinity and the Spirit person of the same! So Trinitarians must say that when YHWH speaks in the Old Testament it is three persons of the one being talking and that is who they say is… “GOD.”

Identifying the Speaker in Scripture

Because Jesus said to Know the Only true God and His Son is life eternal, it’s important that we do all we can to discover Him. His real identity. Now, if you have eyes to see and ears to hear, or at least you are willing and seeking to see and hear, know this: the Bible CLEARLY tells us who is speaking in the Old Testament when God says, “I am God and there is none else.”

Let’s just look at one of these passages now – Joel 2:27 – where God says: “I am the YHWH your God, and no one else.”

Here, the speaker says, I AM YHWH your GOD and he excludes all others. Again – Trinitarians say this is the Trinity. But I want to show you, prove to you, that the one speaking is the Father. You see, what God says here is His own personal witness or testimony where he tells them who He is and who He is not. “I am GOD and there is no other.”

And if the one to speak this was God the Father, we should be able to prove it somehow. How do we know that this is the only true and living God, the Father, who is speaking here and not a man-made Trinity harmonizing the message? If I can prove to you that the speaker is God the Father (alone) at Joel 2:27, would you open your mind and heart to see and receive what he says?

(beat)

In Luke 24:49

The Promise of the Father

Jesus has been raised from the dead and he gives this instruction to his disciples:

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endowed with power from on high.

We know that he is talking about the Holy Spirit here which is coming to them at Pentecost. Very plain.

The key words are when Jesus says, “I send the PROMISE OF MY FATHER upon you.”

The Father – His Father, made a promise – and Jesus says He will send it upon them. In other words, “stay in Jerusalem until you receive the promise of my father which I will send and empower you from on high.”

The Role of the Holy Spirit

This was written at the end of Luke’s gospel. And then at the opening of Luke’s Acts we read essentially the same thing where he writes in chapter 1:4-5 and 8:

Acts 1:4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

So, again, we are told that what was received (as the PROMISE OF THE FATHER) was His Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:33 tells us that Jesus himself also received this Promise of the Father. Listen as Peter says, speaking of Jesus:

Acts 2:33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this (meaning holy Spirit), which ye now see and hear.

So, what we learn here is Jesus is pouring out the promise of the Father because HE has received the Promise of the Father (which again, was the Holy Spirit).

The Promise of Baptism

The Father, YHWH, made the promise and Jesus having overcome sin and death, is the one who baptizes people with the Holy Spirit! This is why John the Baptist said in Luke 3:16

I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

And this is the baptism all people seek. Not of water, but rather “the Promise of the Father” which is made when His victorious Son also giving of His Holy Spirit to others.

Bottom line: The PROMISE of the FATHER is the Holy Spirit. Again, the Promise of the Father is the Holy Spirit, Jesus received this Promise of the Father (Acts 2:33) and then rising victoriously from the dead Jesus poured the Promise of the Father out upon his disciples and others.

Listen again to Acts 2:33 where Peter said:

Acts 2:33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, (promise upon us now) which ye now see and hear.

So the question is WHERE do we ever find God the Father (remember it is a promise of God the Father) where do we find God the Father making this promise?

Well, Peter tells us where we can find God the Father, the one true and living God, making this promise. Remember?

He is standing before three thousand Jews on the day of Pentecost and this is what Peter says:

Acts 2:16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
17 And it shall come to pass in the last days,(!) saith God,(!) I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh (there’s the promise YHWH made): and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; (! There’s the promise God made) and they shall prophesy:
19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into

The Promise of the Father

21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

We know that the Promise of the Father was that He would pour out his spirit, therefore we know that when Peter says, (that GOD SAID), “I will pour out my Spirit,” that this means the Father alone was the Speaker of the Promise, not a Trinity – the Father, who is the One God, the Only God, or as Paul wrote:

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.” The Father made this promise through Joel. Pentecost is the fulfillment of God the Father’s promise.

The Prophecy in Joel

So now we know THAT it was God the Father who made their promise and now we know WHERE God the Father made the promise – in Joel. Now, relisten to what Joel says as we wrap this up:

Joel 2:27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am YHWH your God, and there is none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. 28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. 30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

Peter cites the Father saying this. Luke tells us that the Father’s promise was being fulfilled on that day! And Joel reports the Father’s witness of Himself, saying, I am YHWH your God and there is none else.

The Oneness of God

The Father said these words, not God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The One God, the Father from WHOM the Son came as His Word made flesh and from whom the Spirit came as His living breath!

And this one God the Father excluded EVERYONE else, saying: “I am YHWH your God and there is no other.”

Do you believe Him? Will you trust Him and what He proclaimed, or the imaginations of men and what they created and now demand? If you can’t see this, it’s because you are too afraid to open your eyes. Don’t fear. Seek the straits of His mysteries. He can be found. But it won’t be in the annuals of group think or religious traditions. Only in His Word, by His Spirit.