GOD’S PLAN IN DETAIL – THE STUDY GUIDE

The True God Revealed in Scripture

Just who is God?

Throughout human history almost every culture has worshiped many different gods, each with their own character and reason for being revered or feared. It was a way of explaining the unexplainable. It was also a way of controlling people. In today’s more rational and scientific world, the need for such gods has faded, but certainly hasn’t died. Religion is still a significant feature of our ‘modern’ world.

The early Hebrew people appear to be unique in that they believed that there was only one true God – the Yahweh of the Old Testament.  Moses recorded this in the first five books of the Old Testament after he led the Israelite people out from slavery in Egypt. More was revealed in the centuries that followed by the many chroniclers, prophets and psalmists who contributed to the Old Testament. Modern day derivatives can be found in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions.

From the beginning to the end of the Old Testament writings, there is only one God described. And yet the same writings also talk of the Holy Spirit and there being a Son of God. Genesis 1:1-2 NIVIn the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. , Proverbs 30:4 NIVWho has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and the name of his son? Tell me if you know!. The Hebrew word used for God in Genesis 1 is Elohim – which has a plural sense. After Adam and Eve sinned God described Adam and Eve as becoming “like us” Genesis 3:22 NIVAnd the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.".

The New Testament provides a much more detailed understanding about who God is. Yeshua came to reveal his Father and to announce the coming Kingdom of God. Both Yeshua, and the apostles that followed him, all taught clearly the distinction between God the Father, Yeshua as his only begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit.

So, what is going on here? How can we have only one God and also have a Son of God as well as a Holy Spirit?

Yeshua answered this in the prayer he made aloud to his Father in the presence of his apostles on the night he was led away to be flogged and crucified. Read all of John 17. You will find in this one prayer both the foundational promises of the New Covenant and a real understanding of the nature of the one true God.

The One True God

There is only one true God described in Scripture. He is the ultimate power over everything that exists. He alone can never die and no human has ever seen him or could live in his presence. 1 Timothy 6:15-16 NLTFor at the right time Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and only almighty God, the King of kings and Lord of lords. He alone can never die, and he lives in light so brilliant that no human can approach him. No one has ever seen him, nor ever will. To him be honor and power forever. Amen..

This one true God also has a Son who was begotten rather than created. John 1:18 and Hebrews 1:1-6. This Son was described by John as “the Word” who lived with God and had the very nature of God, and through whom God created all things. John 1:1-4 ESVIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.. This Son became Yeshua the Messiah.

Yeshua is the true mediator between his Father and mankind. 1 Timothy 2:5-6 NIVFor there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men - the testimony given in its proper time..

The Father gave Yeshua the right to use his own name – a name that carries real power and authority. John 17:11 NIVI will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name - the name you gave me - so that they may be one as we are one.. He exercised that power in his role of mediator throughout the Old Testament. 1 Corinthians 10:1-5 NIVFor I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.. Yeshua could speak on behalf of his Father because he carried his Father’s name. No man has ever seen God the Father because he has communicated everything to us through his Son.

There is only one true God – God the Father of Yeshua the Messiah. Yeshua is a member of God’s Family and carries the same name that identifies him as the Son of God. He shares his Father’s nature. He has all the same characteristics and qualities that he received as a result of being begotten as the Son of God. Colossians 1:15 NLTChrist is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation.. But there is only one supreme authority and Yeshua reports to him. 1 Corinthians 11:3 NIVNow I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.. God the Father is also the God of Yeshua. John 20:17 NIVJesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'".

The confusion about whether God the Father, Yeshua and the Holy Spirit are all the same has come from confusing the Father’s title as the supreme ruler over everything, with the family members of the Kingdom of God who carry his name. God the Father has always been, and will always be, the only one true supreme ruler over everything. Yeshua is not that person – he is the only begotten Son of God, and the only true mediator between God the Father and mankind.

The Father and the Son

Now see what Scripture reveals about nature of God.

He created us for the express purpose of becoming part of his own Family and loves us so much that he sent his only begotten Son to suffer and die for us so that we could be saved from our own folly and finally achieve the purpose that he had planned for us from the beginning.  Romans 8:29-30.

He is absolutely just and will punish us for our sins unless we repent of them and trust in Yeshua to be forgiven. He wants everyone to be saved and will give anyone who genuinely asks the power of his Holy Spirit to make that possible. Luke 11:13.

The apostle John described Yeshua as the only begotten Son of God the Father. While he did not always exist, he came into being before the angels and our physical universe were created because the Father created all of these things through Yeshua. John 8:58, John 17:1-5, John 1:1-14.

Yeshua is the exact likeness of God the Father and is the creator and ruler of everything. Colossians 1:15-18, Hebrews 1:1-14. His Father has made him the source of all knowledge and wisdom. Colossians 2:2-3.

We can see what the Father is like by looking at Yeshua. John 14:6-11. His character, the emotions he displayed, and his willingness to forgive are all described in the four gospels and show us what God the Father is really like. Yeshua was approachable and went out of his way to heal others. He wept at what he knew would be the fate of Jerusalem. He felt pity for people who were crippled with illness and was willing to do something about it.

He taught us that his Father is also our Father – not some distant all-powerful god that we can’t relate to, but a loving parent who takes delight in taking care of us and helping us to grow. Romans 8:14-16.

However, Yeshua also feared to disobey his Father. Hebrews 5:7. He knew that his Father was just and didn’t have favourites or make excuses for those who disobey. 1 Peter 1:16-18.  If Yeshua had sinned the consequence for him would have been the same as it is for everyone else. Only he would have died with no hope of forgiveness because there was no-one else able to pay the price if he sinned.

It was Yeshua who appeared to Abraham and Moses and who inspired the prophets. He was the one who pleaded with Israel to stay true to his covenant, and who finally had to punish them terribly because they continued to reject him to follow other false gods.

Yeshua became human like we are, suffered and was tempted by Satan so that he could fully understand everything that we go through and be ‘wonderfully able to help us’. Hebrews 2:16-18. And yet Yeshua never sinned – even once. John 8.46, Hebrews 4:14-16.

The Gospels are full of examples of the love and compassion that Yeshua had for those around Him. But neither did he tolerate fools and hypocrites – especially those who were leading the people astray. Matthew 23:1-28.

Yeshua’ greatest trial was in the garden of Gethsemane just before he was to be tried and executed. He knew fully what he was about to experience, and it was his free choice to steel his mind to go ahead with it. He, the Son of God who had created the universe, who lived in the glorious presence of God the Father, had voluntarily become human in order to do this. But his whole body and mind shrank back from what he knew must be done. Luke 22:42.

If he sinned Yeshua knew that he would be dead forever – along with all the future brothers that Yeshua had put his eternal life on the line to save. He knew that he had to experience the death penalty for our sins. That is why he sweated great drops of blood, experiencing more anguish in those few hours than we can imagine. Matthew 26:36-45, Mark 14:32-42, Luke 22:39-45, Hebrews 5:7-10.

He was to be beaten and ridiculed, cruelly flogged and then crucified – the most painful and ignominious death that the Roman government had been able to devise. While hanging on the cross he was to feel the ultimate result of sin – separation from his Father. Throughout his human life he always had his Father there for support. He had to face death alone. Matthew 27:46, Psalm 22:1-22.

Yeshua is the one who shall raise everyone from the dead. John 11.25-26. He can be both wonderfully kind and terribly severe. Romans 11:22. He is the one who will punish all those who persist in evil. Hebrews 10:30-31.

Yeshua is glorious, powerful and dynamic far beyond the ability of our limited human minds to understand. We get a hint of this in the book of Revelation, which uses some amazing imagery to convey what John was shown in vision. Revelation 1:14-18. And yet the very same person describes how he is looking forward to serving his brothers at the wedding celebration when he finally returns. Luke 12:35-38.

The Holy Spirit

Scripture refers to there being a Spirit of God, or the Holy Spirit, throughout both the Old and New Testaments. The very first reference to God’s Spirit is in Genesis 1:1-2 where he was used by God in the reconstruction of the earth.

There are many instances described in the Old Testament where the Spirit of the Lord filled different men to achieve some purpose that God was working out. Joshua in Deuteronomy 34:9, Gideon in Judges 6:34 and Samson in Judges 14:5-7 and Judges 15:11-16. King David was filled with God’s Holy Spirit. Psalm 51:1-12.

God uses his Spirit both to inspire his prophets as in Ezekiel 11:5, and to cause prophesied events to take place as in Isaiah 34:16-17, Zechariah 4:6, 2 Peter 1:21.

The Israelite people cannot be reunited with God until he gives them a new Spirit to replace their hard-hearted human spirit. Ezekiel 36:26, 39:29, Joel 2:29.

Christians must also receive God’s Holy Spirit so that we can be reunited with God and learn to follow Yeshua. John 16:5-15, Acts 2:1-4, 19:1-6.

In fact the Holy Spirit is absolutely central to living a Christian life.

Yeshua described the Holy Spirit as the Comforter and source of all truth. John 15.26, John 16.12-16. While we should have a healthy fear of God, the Holy Spirit is a source of encouragement and comfort. Acts 9:31.

God the Father wants to give his Spirit to all who genuinely ask him. Luke 11:13. But we must also be willing to obey God. Acts 5:32.

Yeshua had the power of the Holy Spirit without measure or limit. John 3:34.

The Holy Spirit was working with the disciples while Yeshua was with them, and began living within them after Yeshua returned to his Father. John 14:16-17.

The Holy Spirit working within us fills us with God’s love, Romans 5:5, Colossians 1:8, and produces the kind of results from our lives that God is looking for. Galatians 5:16-17,22-23. His presence within us is our guarantee that we will receive everything that God has promised to us. Ephesians 1:13-14.

The Holy Spirit guides us to understand the truth – things that we can’t understand without his help. John 15:26, 16:12-13, 1 Corinthians 2:10-15, 1 John 2:27. Notice also that the Holy Spirit doesn't act independently - he only helps us to understand what Yeshua has instructed him to teach us. John 16:12-13.

We also receive special gifts from the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:1-11. We can ask God for these gifts, but should focus on what will be of greatest benefit for the development of God’s church. 1 Corinthians 14:12.

The Holy Spirit gives us the power and desire to do whatever Yeshua has called us to do. Compare the apostles before and after receiving the Holy Spirit in Acts 1:8, 2:1-4, 4:5-20.

The Holy Spirit helps us to pray, even when we are distressed and cannot do so ourselves. Romans 8:26-27. In fact we cannot pray effectively to our Father without the help of God’s Holy Spirit. John 4:23-24.

The Holy Spirit actively guides the church leaders and leads them to understand whatever needs to be done. Acts 19:21. He will also guide what we say in our defence if we are arrested or persecuted for following Yeshua. Mark 13:10-11.

Normally a Christian should be baptized by the church leaders before he or she can receive the Holy Spirit. However, God is not controlled by rituals, as Peter found out when the Roman army officer and his family were the first of the Gentiles to be converted. Acts 10-11.

The Holy Spirit is the ‘scribe’ that records and maintains our entry in the Book of Life. Ephesians 4:30, Philippians 4:3, Revelation 3:5, 20:12.

The Holy Spirit is not some blind ‘force’. He is a person who is conscious, intelligent and has emotions. Romans 8:5, Ephesians 4:30.

Note that nowhere in the Bible is the Holy Spirit described as having a body. Whereas God the Father and Yeshua both have spirit bodies, and we also will each receive the same kind of spirit body when Yeshua returns. 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, Philippians 3:20-21, 1 Corinthians 15:35-53.

How can Three Persons be One?

The Trinity doctrine, as taught by most of the major churches, claims that there is only one God and that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are only different manifestations of this one God. We should read what Yeshua and his apostles have to say about this in the Bible.

What Scripture has to say about the Father and the Son

The Father is greater in power and authority than Yeshua. John 14:27-28.

Yeshua received all of his power from the Father. Everything he did and said was as he learned from his Father. John 5:19-21,30.

Even after his resurrection, Yeshua regarded the Father as his God. John 20:17.

Yeshua described himself as the vine and his Father as the gardener. It is the Father who tends to the vine to prepare it for producing a good harvest. John 15:1-2.

As a human, Yeshua often prayed to his Father, Mark 6:45-46, and also received acknowledgement from his Father in the presence of his disciples. Matthew 3:16-17, John 12:23-30.

The Father chose those he wanted to save and gave them to Yeshua. John 6:35-40.

The Father had set the time for Yeshua to return and Yeshua did not know when this would be when his disciples asked about this. Matthew 24:36, Mark 13:32-33.

When the mother of James and John asked Yeshua to grant that her two sons could sit next to him in his kingdom, Yeshua made it clear that he didn’t make such decisions. That was his Father’s decision to make. Matthew 20:20-23.

Yeshua didn’t desire to be great – his Father wanted that for him. John 8:50-51. Likewise, Yeshua didn’t elect himself to be our high priest. Hebrews 5:5-6.

Yeshua did whatever his Father wanted regardless of what he might want himself. John 6:38. He had his own preference concerning his impending death, but set that aside to follow his Father’s will. Matthew 26:36-44, Mark 14:32-36, Luke 22:41-45.

Yeshua feared to disobey his Father. Hebrews 5:7. If Yeshua had sinned then he would have had to pay the same penalty as everyone else – death! He prayed fervently to the only person who could save him from death – and it wasn’t himself!

In the moments before he died, Yeshua felt abandoned by his Father. Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34. Even so, his last words before he died were “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands”. Luke 23:46.

The Father raised Yeshua from the dead. Galatians 1:1-2.

On being raised from the dead, Yeshua told Mary Magdalene that he had to go to be with his Father. John 20:17. Now he sits at his Father’s right hand. Hebrews 1:3-4.

That is exactly where Stephen saw Yeshua standing, both the Father and Son together, as he was about to be stoned to death. Act 7:55-56. And, Rev 5:6-7, Yeshua, our sacrificial Lamb, stands before his Father and takes the scroll.

Paul taught that there is a chain of authority from God the Father to the Messiah to every man, and with each man being the head of his family. 1 Corinthians 11:3

After Satan’s rebellion and the sin of Adam and Eve, the Father has delegated to his Son the task of bringing the whole world back to him. Paul made it quite clear that, while the Father delegated all power over everything to Yeshua, that did not include being over the Father himself. And, when the job is done, Yeshua will present everything back to his Father. 1 Corinthians 15:24-28.

All of these Scriptures make it very clear that Yeshua and the Father are distinct persons with different knowledge, understanding, abilities and authority. It hardly seems possible to read these statements and to reach the conclusion that Yeshua and his Father, together with the Holy Spirit, are all the same person.

The leaders of the church made the decision that God is a trinity at the council of Nicea in 325 AD. This council was called by emperor Constantine, who wanted to unify the Christian church as a tool for unifying the Roman empire.  Triune gods were common in pagan religions and this thinking greatly influenced the church leaders. Any Christians who objected were slaughtered.

They got it totally wrong. And, in doing so, they hid the true purpose for which we were created – to become like Yeshua  – new members of God’s expanding Family.

But what about there being only One God?

So how does this fit with the very clear statements in Scripture that there is only one God? In Isaiah 44:6-8, God is quoted as saying: “I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God”, finishing the passage with “Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.” NIV.

Scripture is very clear on this. There is only one true God who has always existed and he is the only one who cannot die. 1 Timothy 6:15-16. At some time, before anything else was created, God begat from himself a Son – the person who was revealed much later as Yeshua the Messiah. Yeshua is not God the Father – he is the only begotten Son of God.

God became a Family with Yeshua becoming the first, and only begotten, member.

God the Father created everything through his Son. Under his Father’s direction, Yeshua created all the angels, the spirit world, and finally the physical universe including the earth and everything living on it. John 1:1-4, 1 Corinthians 8:6. He was quite rightly worshiped because the Father had placed all things under him.

God the Father used his Son to represent him in all his interaction with mankind. Yeshua carried his Father’s name – a name given to him by his Father that gave him supreme authority over everything. He acted as a faithful messenger, passing on whatever his Father wanted him to say and doing whatever his Father wanted him to do. John 14:10, 23-24. Also read John 17.

No one has ever seen God the Father except as revealed to us through his Son.

Yeshua came to reveal his Father to the Jews and to his disciples. Only he could do that. The true relationship between God the Father and the Son of God was not revealed until long after Isaiah recorded that message. Matthew 11:25-27, Luke 10:22, John 1:18, John 5:22, John 14:6.

Also, the context of Isaiah 44 is about the foolishness of Israel worshiping man-made idols instead of the one true God. It wasn’t intended to reveal the structure of God’s Family at that time.

It is also important to understand the relationship between Yeshua and his Father.

Yeshua looked up to his Father as his God. John 14:27-28, John 20:17. Peter reaffirmed this in 1 Peter 1:3.

Yeshua did everything as he was taught by his Father. John 5:19-20,30, John 12:49-51. Yeshua described himself as being at one with the Father. John 10:30-38. Everything he did and said was from the Father, so much so that we can see what the Father is like by looking at how Yeshua lived and what he said. John 12:44-50. Yeshua was so completely in harmony with his Father that knowing one was the equivalent of knowing the other. John 14:6-11.

This unshakeable bond and unity of purpose is one of the defining characteristics of God’s Family.

What does being One really mean?

But what does God mean by being ‘one’?  It is vital to understand this because our only purpose in being here is to learn to use the power of the Holy Spirit to become ‘one’ with Yeshua and our Father exactly as Yeshua is already ‘one’ with his Father.

This is so important that it was the primary focus of Yeshua’s prayer to his Father following the last supper before he was crucified. He described how he and the Father are one and then asked that his Father would protect his disciples through the power of his name so that his disciples would also be one, with Yeshua living in them exactly as his Father lived in Yeshua, all being perfected to live as one. Yeshua then made the same request for all of those who would follow later. John 17.

God places such importance on our marriage vows because a husband and wife become ‘one’ in his eyes. Genesis 2:18-24, Mark 10:2-9.  God gave us marriage as an example of how God’s Family is also ‘one’. But we need to live by this to really understand its importance. Mark 4:23-25. Also Ephesians 5:21-33.

Another example of many persons being one, are all Christians who are united in the body of Christ – each of us with different talents and spiritual gifts, which together make up a single body assembled by Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:4-27.

Being at one with God doesn’t mean that God’s Family will be made up of clones. We are created to be different, with distinct personalities, talents and spiritual gifts. God wants us to become part of an enthusiastic, totally committed and focused team, each making our own unique contribution to his Family.

The role of the Holy Spirit

Paul explains this further when rebuking the Corinthian church for tolerating sexual immorality. 1 Corinthians 6:15-17. True Christians are joined to Yeshua as part of his body because we share the same Holy Spirit. It is the shared Holy Spirit in us that makes us one with God. Ephesians 4:3-4.

That is why the Holy Spirit is such a crucial part of Christian life – we can only become part of the Messiah’s family through sharing God’s Holy Spirit.

Yeshua commands that we love and live within Him as he loves and lives within his Father. We are all to be ‘one’, united in God’s Family relationship through sharing the same Holy Spirit with our Father and Yeshua. John 15:9-15, John 17:11, 20-26.

If God is an unchangeable trinity, then Christians cannot participate because we are clearly different persons. Thankfully, this is not what Yeshua taught.

Conclusion

The Trinity doctrine is the result of asking the wrong question – ‘How can one God be three different persons?’ The right question is to ask ‘How can many different persons be one?’ God makes this very clear in Scripture – many persons can become one through sharing the Holy Spirit of God. Ephesians 4:3-4.

Satan has used the Trinity doctrine to conceal the real purpose for which God created us – to become one with God so that we can finally be born into his Family.