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God, Jesus, and the holy spirit

...there is no God but one. For though there are those that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, yet to us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him.—1 Corinthians 8:4-6

What Jesus and the Bible say about God.

Jesus Christ is the only begotten son of God. That means he is the only one directly created by God. All others in the universe, and all things in the universe, were created by and through Jesus Christ. (John 1:14; John 3:16; John 1:3; Colossians 1:15-17)

in the beginning was the word and the word was with the god and a god was the word—John 1:1 a literal translation of the Greek text of the Bible seen below:

In the account by John he is called the Word, the Logos, in his prehuman existence. Jesus was born in late 1 BCE, not in 4 BCE or earlier. When he was about 30 years old, in 29 CE (AD), he began his ministry. It lasted about 3½ years and he was put to death in the spring of 33 CE (AD). If you are interested in how we know these dates and times, please click on "the dates of Jesus birth at his ministry."

At the end of his earthly ministry he told his disciples that God would send his holy spirit to remind them of the things that he taught. (John 15:26) In addition, on at least two locations his disciples John and Paul received direct revelations. (2 Corinthians 12:1-4; Revelation 1:1-3, 9-11) While Jesus was on earth he taught his disciples many things, not all of which would be written down, as the aged Apostle John comments at John 21:25. The important things they did not recall would be brought back to mind by God's holy spirit. (John 14:25,26; John 15:26; John 16:12,13) Therefore both the counsel spoken directly by Jesus Christ and the things brought to mind by God's holy spirit form a whole, a complete body of teaching.

Since Christ guides the congregation, then all counsel found in the New Testament, the Greek Holy Scriptures, is in essence from Christ. (Matthew 16:24, 23:10; John 13:15; 1 Peter 2:21)

What Jesus teaches about God

We must only worship one God. (Exodus 20:3; 1 Corinthians 8:4-6) There are many gods both on earth and in heaven but we only worship one God and that is the Father. The Ten Commandments tell us we must worship only one God. These other gods that people worship take various forms. Some are idols of stone, wood, and metal. Some are humans alive or dead. And some are spirit creatures such as Satan and the fallen angels.

On an appointed day Herod clothed himself in royal apparel, and sat on the throne, and made a speech to them. And the people cried out: The voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms, and he breathed his last.—Acts 12:22

...in whom the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that the light of the good news of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine forth upon them.—2 Corinthians 4:4

Let no man rob you of your prize by taking delight in a false humility and the worship of the angels, “taking his stand on the things he has seen,” vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind...— Colossians 2:18

And the rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of copper, and of stone, and of wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk.—Revelation 9:20

We must obey God and do his will. We must emulate his quality of love. Since he made all things through his son, our Lord Jesus Christ, we must acknowledge God as Creator. He is the one who chooses us and grants to us his holy spirit. We must worship God and God alone. When we pray, we pray to God. We must pray to no other. God, and only God, is who answers our prayers. (Acts 5:29; 1 John 2:17, 4:7, 8; Ephesians 1:3-5; John 14:26; Acts 2:1-4; 1 Peter 1:12; Matthew 6:6-9)

God is eternal. God is all powerful. God sees all and knows all things. And it is God who will reward us for our faithfulness. God is our Father and we must hold no other as equal to God—to our Father. He is the only truly eternal one. He was alone until he created the Word who became our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Timothy 1:17; Genesis 17:1; 1 John 3:20; Matthew 5:11, 12; Isaiah 45:5, 6)

Christ Jesus our Savior

Sometime in the year 1 BCE, God by means of his holy spirit implanted the life force of his only-begotten son, the Word, into the womb of a betrothed Jewish virgin by the name of Mary. (Luke 1:26-38; Matthew 1:20; John 1:14,-18)

Near the end of the first century BCE, Mary and her husband Joseph, both of whom were descendants of King David, himself a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, welcomed the birth of a baby boy whom they named Jesus. (Matthew 1:20, 21, 25; Matthew 1:6-16 the genealogy of Joseph; Luke 3:23-31 the genealogy of Mary; Matthew 1:2-6; Luke 3:31-34)

God did this, obviously with the willing agreement of the Word, because four thousand years earlier, Adam, the first man on earth was unfaithful and brought about the sentence of death on all mankind. The only way this could be corrected is by the sacrifice of an equal. Adam was perfect until he sinned. Only a perfect man, but one without sin, could redeem mankind from the sentence of death. Jesus was that one. He not only redeemed us from the sentence of death that the first man Adam brought upon mankind, but since we are imperfect and sinful, he redeemed us from our own sins as well. (Romans 5:12-14, 18; Romans 4:25; Matthew 20:28; Hebrews 4:15; 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22, 45; Romans 5:13)

To be a redeemer for mankind, Jesus had to be exactly the same as Adam, that is wholly and completely a man. He could not be an incarnation, because if he was, he would not be completely a human in every sense. No incarnation or God-man would qualify as a ransom—as a Redeemer. Likewise, for his redeeming of us from our sins, he had to be completely what we are without reservation. Jesus was fully and completely human. To claim that Jesus was an incarnation, to claim that Jesus is God, is not only a denial of the Bible, but it is the denial of the Christ. (John 1:14)

To claim that Jesus is God is to claim that Jesus is equal to God and that is not only a denial of what the Holy Bible teaches us, it is also a gross blasphemy. (John 14:28; 1 Corinthians 11:3)

The Bible tells us that while Jesus in his prehuman existence as the word was a mighty spirit he gave absolutely no consideration to try to make himself equal to God. To do as some have done, including some translators, and twist that scripture to appear to mean the very opposite is a vile and God accursed blasphemy. (Philippians 2:5-11)

Jesus never claimed equality with God. Jesus never claimed to be God. Only men, who are in truth enemies of God and enemies of Christ Jesus, make that claim.

Jesus always showed himself as subject to God who is his Father and our Father. He made this plain on his last day on earth as a mortal man when he told Mary Magdalene to give this message to the Apostles: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.—John 20:17

Jesus always acknowledged the headship of his Father, God. While he was here on Earth, he said, If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. (John 14:28) And some twenty or so years after his being put to death, and being resurrected and ascending to sit at the right hand of his Father in the heavens, he acknowledged that God is head of the Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:3)

At his baptism, it was most clearly demonstrated that he was not God. This event is described in this way in the Bible: And Jesus when he was baptized, went up immediately from the water, and look, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove, and coming upon him, and look, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:16, 17) So the Father of Jesus, who is also our Father, spoke from the heavens, while Jesus was on Earth, and God’s holy spirit descended from heaven, and came upon Jesus. Let us repeat that. God was in heaven, Jesus was on Earth, and the holy spirit traveled from God to Jesus. To all who can see, they were each shown in a different location, evidencing that God and Jesus are not the same. Over and over, while on Earth, Jesus emphasized that it was not his will, but his Father’s will that prevailed. Even in heaven, years later, it was his Father’s will and not his. (Matthew 26:39; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42; John 5:30; 6:38)

God’s Holy Spirit

Some make the gross error of claiming that the holy spirit is a person of equal power, and authority, and eternity, as God. This is an evil and outrageous lie. The scripture you just read in Matthew, Chapter 3, clearly shows that is not true, as do all other references to the holy spirit in the Bible. The fact that the holy spirit was used to guide and direct Christians does not make it a person. When a person in charge or command gives an order or instructions in a letter or in some other form of communication, that letter or method of communication does not become a person. Such an idea is totally absurd. Likewise, the suggestion that the holy spirit, sent forth by God, is not just a force from God, but is a person in itself is outrageous and absurd. (Acts 13:2, 4)

God is the Creator and ruler of all. Our Lord Jesus Christ is his only-begotten Son, the only one directly created by God. The spirit of God, his holy spirit, is what God uses to carry out his will.

But there are other things the Bible teaches that the Churches disagree with, and some of those involve our future. Let us take a look at what the Bible says about Death and Resurrection.

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