Let me digress a moment from answering your question to offer something to consider. A passage in the Gospel of John which perplexed me for many years is: "When Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples over the Brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which He and His disciples entered . . . Then Judas, having received a detachment of troops, and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, "Whom are you seeking?" "They answered Him, "Jesus of Nazareth." "Jesus said to them, "I am He." . . . Now when He said to them, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the ground." (John 18:1, 3-6, NKJV)
I asked myself, and many others, what made the soldiers go BACKWARDS and fall "to the ground?" No one could answer. Then, after I bought a somewhat more expensive King James Version Bible translation, I noticed that "he" was in italics, which means that it was ADDED by the translators to make the passage more understandable! I believe such an addition OBSCURES the fact that when Jesus said "I AM" His speaking of His own name was so powerful it knocked the soldiers to the ground!! How else can this passage be explained? John 18:6 should be translated: "Jesus said to them, "I AM." . . . Now when He said to them, "I AM," they drew back and fell to the ground."
How many BEINGS are God?From the scriptures mentioned at the beginning of this answer and from many others we learn that the doctrine of monotheism (the belief there is literally only ONE God Being) normally associated with Judaism and the vast majority of Christianity is FLAWED. There are TWO beings Who are God: God, the Father and God, the Son. While it is true that God is "one" (Deuteronomy 6:4), the Hebrew word translated as "one" is echad, which is the same Hebrew word translated as "one" in Genesis 2:24, saying that a man and his wife shall become "one" flesh. God, the Son (Jesus/Yashua) was born and lived on this earth as a man, prayed to God, the Father and obeyed the will of God, the Father. Jesus / Yashua was cruelly murdered for no good reason, was resurrected and returned to His former station at the right hand of God, the Father and was given all authority in heaven and the earth. (Matthew 28:18, John 8) There only SEEMS to be an apparent contradiction in the scriptures you mentioned because most people do not understand that there are two Beings who are God. Has anyone seen God the FATHER? The below scriptures tells us that no one has seen God, the Father: "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, [the Father] but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, [Jesus/Yashua] has made him known. " (John 1:17-18, NIV) "No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. " (John 6:46, NIV) "This is love: not that we loved God, [the Father] but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God [the Father]; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit." (1 John 4:10-13, NIV) [The speaker is God who was born as Jesus/Yashua.] "And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But, "he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. "Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen." " (Exodus 33:19-23, NIV) WHO has seen God the SON? The second group of scriptures describes instances of people seeing God, the Son. In His original state, before He was born as a man, the face of YHWH, or I AM, could not be seen by a human being because it would kill that person. Why that is true the Bible does not specify, although the Apostle Paul later commented on the radiance coming from Moses' face after this encounter in 2Corinthians 3:7-13, which refers to the incident cited in Exodus 34:29-35. The exposure that Moses had to seeing God's back caused his face to glow so brilliantly that it scared the Israelites. Moses had to resort to wearing a veil so they would not be too frightened to listen to what he was saying. In the below passage the "man" who wrestled with Jacob was the God who was born as Jesus / Yashua: "So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
"The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."
"Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."" (Genesis 32:24-30, NIV) This following passage also refers — not to God, the Father — but to "I AM": "So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle." (Exodus 33:11, NKJV) Job also talked to the "I AM," the God of the Old Testament Who became Jesus / Yashua in the New Testament: "Then Job answered the Lord and said: "I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You." "You asked, 'Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know . . . I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You." (Job 42:1-3, 5, NKJV) |
