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The Godhead

Trinity, Oneness, Jesus Only, Two?

Regardless of what you believe, can you prove it? Does the Word of God fully support it, or do you believe it because it's what you've heard all your life? Have YOU ever sat down and studied it for yourself?

Not surprisingly, the overwhelming answer to that last question is NO! The vast majority of people have NEVER studied the Godhead and have NEVER heard it taught properly BY THE WORD. In fact, most people don't see a need to understand the Godhead. Men have tried time and again to "prove" their belief and have CONTINUALLY thrown in their own personal opinions and 'educated guesswork' concerning the nature of God RATHER THAN consulting the Word of God. It is my belief and observation that the Word of God explains itself fully and that extensive knowledge is not required to understand it.

It is well documented that the King James Bible is written on less than a 6th grade level averaged over the entire bible. What does this mean? It means that even a child can read and understand it. With this being the case, the point is made that NO OTHER MATERIAL is necessary or needed to understand the Bible. In fact, when anyone offers to give you "another book" to help you explain the Bible, or tells you that you need other resources to understand the Bible, you can be assured that they are FALSE and are teaching things contrary to the Bible, no matter how good it may seem at the time. ALL YOU NEED IS THE WORD OF GOD....THE BIBLE...PERIOD. The Bible explains itself quite well..

Let the Word of God explain itself

When it comes to the Godhead, (and every other basic foundational doctrine of the Bible for that matter), the Word of God should ALWAYS be allowed to explain itself. There is too much opinion and not enough of the Word. When you venture into the study of the Godhead, you will hear statements by even scholarly men, such as "the nature of God CANNOT be understood"; "No man can understand the Godhead"; "It (the Godhead) cannot be understood nor explained"; "It is a great mystery"; "It is beyond our comprehension", etc.

None of those statements are true!

The Word of God tells us plainly that the Godhead CAN be understood.  So why then do we keep hearing statements such as those above? Could it be because we are not dealing with the SPIRITUAL man, but instead are dealing with the CARNAL, TRADITIONAL viewpoints of the mind of man? Despite the continual warnings in the Word of God against holding unfounded traditions, we do exactly the thing that Jesus warned us NOT to do in Matthew 7:7:

WE TEACH THE COMMANDMENTS OF MEN AS DOCTRINE. We twist and pervert and stretch the truth of God's Word and teach our tradition as doctrine. Now, not all tradition is bad, however, if it is not in the Word of God, DON'T TEACH IT.

Just as a quick example, where do you find it taught that men should be clean shaven without a beard or moustache? It has been taught that women CANNOT wear an open toed shoe, that men cannot wear a gold watch, that women must always wear dresses down to their ankles, that men must wear sleeves to their wrists, no jewelry at all and on and on it goes.

Whether you like it or not, my friend, THAT is legalism and is quite often is nothing more than simple tradition. TRADITION will KILL YOU. It will cause you to be forever in bondage and to never experience the joy of freedom that Jesus gave.

Stephen put it very bluntly in Acts 7:51 when he said "...ye do always resist the Holy Ghost".

So, how does one allow the Word of God to explain itself? Firstly, let me state that you personally will NEVER understand many things in the Word of God if you are always dependent upon someone else. 2 Timothy 2:15 is not a request, it is a command to STUDY. STUDY is not merely READING. Stories are great, but a study of the Word of God reveals more than just stories.

The Word of God Was Not Written as a Novel

ISAIAH chapter 28 explains exactly how the Word of God is written and gives un insight into how we should study the Word.

Let's read beginning at verse 9:  

"Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.  But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken."

Line upon Line, Precept (idea) upon Precept, HERE a little and THERE a little. Scripture builds upon scripture and the ideas of the Word of God build upon the ideas in the Word of God. For example, the whole message of the Word of God is that God created the world;, man sinned, a breach was committed and man was subsequently separated from God; God reconciled man through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ; now man has a way back to the fellowship with God. You won't really find all that in one passage, but throughout the entire Word of God, the message is clear by using LINE UPON LINE, PRECEPT UPON PRECEPT and the concept of resolving SCRIPTURE WITH SCRIPTURE (here a little and there a little). This is exactly how the Word of God SHOULD be studied.

LEARN TO RESOLVE SCRIPTURE WITH SCRIPTURE. No further Books are ever needed to explain the Word of God despite what ANY church group or organization tells you.  We are the most book hungry society that has ever been. We want books to tell us how to read books. You need to understand that MANY people lived Godly, Christian, Holy, Spirit Filled lives WAY before the printing press came along. They did it with a heart that was set to fully seek God. You don't need "Another Testament of Jesus Christ", you don't need a "more understandable" translation or any other such work. The Word of God does a fine job of explaining itself.  As we study the Godhead, we are going to let the Word of God EXPLAIN ITSELF.

Back to the Godhead

If the Bible says it, YOU MUST BELIEVE IT. Period. It is not open to discussion concerning your personal feelings or your experiences. If the Bible says it rained for 40 days and nights, guess what? IT RAINED FOR 40 DAYS AND NIGHTS!

If the Bible says that you should stop sinning, guess what? IT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN KEEP SINNING.....IT MEANS EXACTLY WHAT IS SAYS...STOP !

Now, with that said, just what does the Bible say about the Godhead?

Does the Bible say that we CAN understand the Godhead? YES IT DOES. Look at Acts 17:28-30 "For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.  And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:"

Whoa! Repent of what? Your Sin? While it is true that you MUST repent of your sin, that is not what this passage is referring to. Look at verse 30:  "the times of this ignorance"

(Now remember the word ignorant is not really a bad word. It just means that you DON'T know). Ask yourself concerning verse 30 of Acts 17: WHAT IGNORANCE? The answer is just above in verse 29: "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device." How then, or what then, should we think about the Godhead?

Surely if we must repent of the ignorance of our thinking when it comes to the Godhead, God must have given us an explanation somewhere of either:

(1) How we must think about the Godhead

(2) What we must think about the Godhead

or

(3) A good clear explanation of the Godhead

Before we really begin to examine the Godhead and so that you don't think I'm just using ONE SCRIPTURE, look at Romans Chapter 1.

Romans 1:20 reads " For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:"

WHAT is it that is "without excuse"? Is it the "things" that are without excuse or is it the UNDERSTANDING of them that is without excuse?

It is the UNDERSTANDING of them...read it again, this time with emphasis

"For the invisible things  of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:"

...EVEN HIS ETERNAL POWER AND GODHEAD... This section of verse alone tells us that the GODHEAD CAN BE UNDERSTOOD and there is no excuse for not understanding.

NOTE THE COLON ALSO at the end of that verse. The sentence doesn't stop here. Let's continue to verse 21:

"Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."

WHEN THEY KNEW GOD? WHEN Was That? WHEN did 'they' KNOW GOD?

Ask yourself these questions as we begin this study. Lets get into the Word of God a Little Deeper to see just what the Word has to say about the Godhead.

First, let me give you some helpful hints in studying the Godhead.

This is a VERY LONG study, and I highly recommend several items which I'll cover on the next page.

 


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