Question 20

 

Question 20: Do you understand that it is not at all inappropriate for us to clearly distinguish three persons in the one God, and that God is not divided (separated) in spite of this?

Answer: Yes.

In today's church community, believers call God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, based on the doctrine of the Trinity. However, nowhere in the Bible does it say God the Son or God the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ calls God the Father and is the Son of God. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Jehovah in the Old Testament and the Spirit of Jesus (or the Spirit of Christ) in the New Testament.

Jesus was born both as the Son of Man and as the Son of God. Although he was in very nature God, he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. Philippians 2:6 says, "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped."

Why must Jesus be the Son of God, not God Himself? First, because God is revealed through His Son, Jesus, and because God cannot be known without Jesus Christ.

Second, because Jesus is the Son of God, He can save those who enter into Christ. This is because God desires to make reconciled sinners into His children through Jesus Christ, His Son. Therefore, when sinners repent and enter into Christ, God recognizes them as united with Christ and following the same path Jesus walked.

First, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Matthew 3:13-15, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to stop him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ Jesus answered, ‘Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.’ So John gave him permission.”

Jesus did not need to be baptized, but it was a measure taken for the sake of his disciples and believers, and for all who would be baptized by someone authorized by God. After Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended upon him.

Matthew 3:16-17 “When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water. The heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” Today’s believers also go into the water in this way, their sinful bodies die (the death of the cross), and when they come out of the water, they receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, being born again by the Holy Spirit.

Just as Jesus ascended into heaven, the saints also ascended into heaven in Christ. Ephesians 2:6, "And raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Heaven, ton uranon, signifies the kingdom of God within the soul. A new temple is established within the souls of the saints. This is expressed as the new heaven and new earth, and Jesus' presence in this new temple is the restoration of God's image.

Most churchgoers today equate Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with God the Son, equating faith in Jesus with faith in God. When they say, "Believe in Jesus and you will be saved," they see Jesus already occupying the position of Jehovah God. And they see a double standard in demanding the blood of Jesus the Son for forgiveness of sins. While churchgoers claim there is one God, they obscure the relationship between the Father and the Son by using the term "God the Son."

Although Jesus was God in the Kingdom of God, the reason He predestined Christ and made him the Son of God was to lead sinners on earth to repentance and make them sons of God. If Jesus were to become God, those who abide in Christ would no longer be sons of God. This is because those who enter into Christ are in the same vein as Christ.

The unity of the Father, the Son, and the saints in the Holy Spirit is to enable the saints to become sons of God through Jesus. Therefore, applying the doctrine of the Trinity means that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the saints become one in the Holy Spirit.

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