The Godhead
Introduction
The word Godhead conjures up ideas of the unimaginable, the unthinkable; of a mystery hard to be to be understood. It hints of something we could never possibly understand, yet we, as men, have tried fervently to grasp the concept of nature of God and to understand it.
Such controversy has brewed for centuries with one belief calling another names such as "cultists", "heretics", etc. simply because the divine concept of the nature of God is somewhat difficult to understand.
The fact is that every denomination has its dogma and its own particular beliefs when it comes to the Godhead. Most of the explanation attempts are not biblical and cannot be explained from the bible alone, but rather require imagination, pretense, or exclusion and rejection of clearly written bible verses in order to fit their particular beliefs.
For the ones that are able to explain most of the texts, there are still texts for them that remain a mystery and when confronted with seemingly contradictory scriptures, their confusion sets in all over again.
I want to present a comprehensive bible stud regarding The Godhead (what is commonly referred to as "The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost". I must warn you, however, that this is NOT "MILK"!! This is VERY strong meat which requires exacting and extensive study and a willingness to tackle scriptres which seemingly contradict themselves!
The Challenge
I fully and completely welcome disputes concerning any of the teaching on this site. In fact, I encourage you to dispute the teaching by presenting YOUR OWN comprehensive teaching!
After all, it is the duty of every Christian to question what they are being taught and to determine it's authenticity and truth by the Word of God alone!
If you wish to send an email, please feel free to do so, however, if your email contains only a brief handful of favorite "pet" scriptures, please DON'T waste your time or mine. Yes, this sound brash and for that I somewhat apologize, but the fact is that such emails which contain only one or two scriptures are NOT sufficient to dispute ANY teaching on ANY site.
I have received many somewhat humorous emails in which people will attempt to quote and scriptures they barely comprehend then a few sentences later, in quoting and explaining additional scripture, coompletely contradict themselves!
Please, dear friend, if you wish to dispute the teaching, at least do it this way:
Start with what I have, copy it into your own document if you wish, then LINE BY LINE, PRECEPT BY PRECEPT, dispute it with your own comments, scripture, etc.
THAT is the proper way to dispute, correct, and teach someone else! You'll never gain much in attempting to teach someone by exclaming: "Well you're wrong and I've got 3 scriptures to prove it! (especially when attempting to dispute literally hundreds of other scriptures provide to you. A small handfull of scriptures don't negate hundreds of others! In fact, if you have just ONE scripture which seems to contradict you, then you need to stop, re-examine your belief and reconcile that scripture before you attempt to teach your belief!
Ok, so enough of my rambling. Please, Please, Please, feel free to contact me at any time with questions, comments, disputes but please don't feel free to rebuke, chastise or correct unless you have MUCH proof. Once again, submit your own thesis, line by line according to the teaching you find on The Elijah Project if necessary, and dispute the teaching page by page.
Again, I apologize for the rambling and also for my words if they seem somewhat harsh. Thanks for your understanding in this!
Strong Meat!
I mentioned this earlier but it's worth repeating: The study of the Godhead is STRONG meat! Without a firm grasp of your own core beliefs, it is likely that you may stumble! As with all teaching found on The Elijah Project, Pray, Study, and PROVE all things!
Before I begin, may I ask you a few questions?
Do you want to understand if your particular beliefs actually confirm what the Word of God has to say, or would you rather cling to your beliefs because it's what you've been taught?
When it comes to the Godhead, Have you HONESTLY, ever studied the Godhead ... reconciling EVERY SINGLE passage that has to do with the Godhead? Have You? Most people have not. Can you teach it? Can you explain it using even the most controversial of scriptures? Can you understand the scriptures you are using? Do you believe the way you do because you have personally studied it for yourself or because everyone else around you believes the same way?
If the answer is the latter, you are walking on dangerous ground. If you take your godly convictions and beliefs from everyone else around you, then you have NO foundation stable enough to base your faith upon.
Come on now, be honest. Do you know what it means to study the Word of God? STUDY does NOT mean reading a few verses and reaching a conclusion. STUDY means to get ALL the facts, ALL the verses, ALL the scripture and then reconcile them together. Have you done that? Let me give you an example of what I am referring to: Below is the simple subject of one of the Bible's most prominent prophets:
Elijah the Prophet
We all know the story of Elijah, right? Elijah was take to heaven by a Chariot of Fire. Right?
You've heard the story, you've probably seen the pictures in a bible somewhere, and (hopefully) have read it in the bible. Maybe it was one of your favorites as a young child. I know it certainly was one of mine. I remember seeing those pictures and thinking...wow...that is cool. Riding in a Chariot of Fire through the sky going to heaven! Awesome!
Well, what if I were to tell you that the version of the story listed above was incorrect? What if I told you that you didn't read all the facts or that perhaps you had misinterpreted the story? Many of you would argue with me and go running for your bibles and (hopefully), you'd be ready for a fight. Well...maybe not a fight, but you'd be ready to dispute everything I had to say. After all the whole Christian World, especially all the scholars, Seminarians and Theologians can't be wrong with such a simple story as this. Right?
Wrong!
If you believe the bible states that Elijah went to heaven "in" a chariot of fire, you are mistaken. It does not say that! It "almost" says that but mankind has corrupted this story!
Don't trust me! Read it for yourself.
2 Kings 2:11 "And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven".
What was that? He went up by WHAT? A Whirlwind? YES, a Whirlwind ... Read it again.
The Bible says nothing about him being in that chariot of fire. We assume that he was and it was likely that our assumptions are correct, but the Bible doesn't say so. Do you think that's wrong? Look also in 2 Kings 6:17 and you'll find also that the chariots once again served to do exactly what we see in the previous instance! They were used to PART and to protect!
THAT, my dear friend, is what the Word of God has to say about Elijah's translation into heaven. It does NOT say he went to heaven by a Chariot of Fire. Although it sounds good and we like to think that is exactly the way God works (and he very likely did in this case), the fact is that the Bible doesn't support that theory.
The entire point is this: If you were wrong about something you were so sure of; something you were absolutely sure that you knew from the Bible; something perhaps you've even read for yourself and was confident in your knowledge; I ask you this: Could you possibly be wrong about other things? The honest answer to that is yes, it is possible. Jesus told the Pharisees "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." (John 5:39).
When it comes to the Godhead What Do You Really Believe?