The Godhead
Have You STUDIED?
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 personally ever sat down and studied the subject for yourself?
Not surprisingly, the overwhelming (honesty) answer to that last question above is a resounding NO! The vast majority of people have NEVER studied the Godhead and have NEVER heard it taught BY THE WORD.
Men have tried time and again to "prove" their belief and have thrown in their own personal opinions and 'educated guesswork' concerning the nature of God rather than consulting the Word of God to reconcile the scriptures! It is my belief and observation that the Word of God explains itself fully and that extensive knowledge is not required to understand the Godhead or the nature of God.
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 the King James Bible.
I do not believe, as some have declared today, that some other book or some other reference material is necessary or needed to understand the Bible. It is my firm belief that 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! Stay away from some "other testament" of Jesus Christ and similar materials! ALL YOU NEED IS THE WORD OF GOD....THE BIBLE...PERIOD. The Bible explains itself quite well..
Always 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.
In today's culture, there is too much opinion and not enough of the Word of God! When you venture into the study of the Godhead, you will hear statements by even highly educated, 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.
Friend, none of those statemenst are true!
The Word of God tells us plainly that the Godhead CAN be understood. Why then do we hear 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. Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. Not all tradition is bad but if it is not in the Word of God, you should not teach it as scripture, canon or doctrine!
As a quick example, where do you find it taught that men should be clean shaven without a beard or moustache?
Where is it written (as some churches have taught in the past, that women cannot wear an open toed shoe, that men cannot wear a gold watch, that women must always wear dresses (even down to their ankles), that men must wear sleeves to their wrists, that "Christians" must not wear jewelry at all and on and on? Where are those prohibitions written?
Whether you like it or not, my friend, that teaching is the epitome of legalism and is quite often is nothing more than simple tradition. TRADITION WILL KILLS YOUR FAITH!
Tradition 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".
How, then, does one allow the Word of God to explain itself?
It comes by study! Study (not merely read) the scriptures! Stories are great, but a study of the Word of God reveals much more than just stories.
The Bible Wasn't Written to be 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.
Simply put: scripture builds upon scripture and the ideas of the Word of God build upon the ideas in the Word of God.
If one were to sum up the entire bible and the basic message of the bible, it would be 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.
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.
Let's Begin the Study (finally)
Does the Bible say that we CAN understand the Godhead? Yes. It actually does say that we can understand! 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:"
Wait! God commandeth all men every where to do what? 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.
Did God give us more information? Sure he did. 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 my emphasis placed into the verses: "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 at the end of that verse. The thought of 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."
Oh my, wait a moment. "WHEN THEY KNEW GOD?" When do you think "they" "knew God"?
This is a VERY LONG study, and I highly recommend several items which I'll cover on the next page.