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NASB | James 2:19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | James 2:19 You believe that God is one; you do well [to believe that]. The demons also believe [that], and shudder and bristle [in awe-filled terror--they have seen His wrath]! [Deut 6:4; 11:13-21; Mark 12:29] |
Subject: Is God ONE or is God THREE? |
Bible Note: Greetings, Jesusman. I appreciate your candor and zeal. I regret that we are not able to sync on this subject. I wrote a quite lengthy post to believer57 previously that addresses some of the points you raise. Perhaps it may help you at least see my position clearer. My purpose for asking this question was not to try to convince everybody to "see things my way", but that through this discussion we could at least reexamine the dogmas and traditions that we hold. I do not feel badly toward you because you do not agree with me. I simply have a different attitude towards the Bible and its teachings than do you (and apparently many others, for that matter). If I am going to believe, preach and teach a doctrine, then it MUST bear the stamp of Apostolic Certification. That is, the Apostles themselves had to be the ones to describe and define the great doctrines of the church. Now we're not talking about some minor side issue here; we're talking about the grandest subject of the Bible--the very nature of the Deity. God did not leave such an important matter loose and flapping in the wind, to be secured by future generations. "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!" [Gal. 1:8-9 NASB] To add to or take away from the Word of God is a very dangerous thing. The whole must equal the sum of its parts. If someone "summed up" the doctrine of the nature of the Deity, that's OK. But the sum of the parts may not be greater than the whole. In other words, don't add ideas and terminologies that the Apostles did not use. You wrote: "Tell me, how do you rectify the passages where Jesus speaks not only about God the Father, but to God the Father as well. Here you have God talking to God." If we take the trinitarian stance, we have "God the Son" talking to "God the Father". Now that's what I would call "God talking to God." I have said this in several of the posts, but it bears repeating. Jesus Christ had a "dual" nature. He was both fully God and fully Man. So when the Son prayed to the Father, the Man was praying to God. Every time a reference is made to Jesus speaking, the reader/student must determine (by studying the context) whether Jesus is speaking as "man" or as "God". As "man", Jesus wept; as "God" He called Lazarus out of the tomb. As "man", Jesus was weary and sat beside Jacob's well and asked for a drink of water; as "God" he told the Samaritan woman about her past. Always remember this when studying this subject: the Bible alone is our authority for doctrine. And the Bible says this about Jesus Christ: "For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;" [Col. 2:9-10 NASB] Kind regards, Tim D. Cormier Tennessee Preacher |