ECT The Plurality of God

Jerry Shugart

Jerry Shugart

Well-known member
Here we see a plurality in the Godhead:

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness... So God created man in his own image" (Gen1:26,27).​

Here God is spoken of as being a plurality. This is a case of a "compound unity," a concept which is spoken of here:

"For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery" (Eph.5:31-32).​

This concept is above the reasoning of our finite minds and that is why Paul calls it a "mystery." Nevertheless, the concept of "compound unity" is found in the Bible and that same concept applies to the Godhead.

The Bible reveals that there is One God in three Divine Persons. That is why we read of the "name" (singular) of God here:

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt.28:19).​

Now let us look at this verse again:

"And God('elohiym) said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness... So God ('elohiym) created man in his own image" (Gen.1:26,27).​

Andrew Jakes writes the following about the name 'elohiym :

"This name then, (in Hebrew, 'elohiym,) is a plural noun, which, though first and primarily used in Holy Scriptures to describe the One true God, our Creator and Redeemer...First then this name, though a plural noun, when used of the one true God is constantly joined with verbs and adjectives in the singular. We are thus prepared, even from the beginning, for the mystery of a plurality in God, who, though He says, 'There is no God besides me,'and 'I am God, and there is none else,' says also, 'Let us make man in our image,after our likeness;' and again, 'The man has become like one of us;' and again at Babel,'Go to, let us go down and confound their language;' and again, in the vision granted to the prophet Isaiah, 'Whom shall we send, and who will go for us.' And this mystery, though hidden from an English reader, comes out again and again in the many other texts of the Holy Scripture.

"For 'Remember thy Creator in the days of they youth,' is literally, 'Remember thy Creators.' Again, 'None saith, Where is God my Maker?' is in the Hebrew, 'God my Makers,' " (Andrew Jakes, The Names of God [Grand Rapids, 1967], 16-17).​
 
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I

Interplanner

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The various members of the trinity have one purpose and effect. That is why 2P2P is not Christian. If it was Christian it would not try to save or sanctify one race just because it is a race. This ends in disunified purposes and effects.
 
Jerry Shugart

Jerry Shugart

Well-known member
Interplanner said:
The various members of the trinity have one purpose and effect. That is why 2P2P is not Christian. If it was Christian it would not try to save or sanctify one race just because it is a race. This ends in disunified purposes and effects.
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Do you never tire of misrepresenting what dispensationalists teach? Do you deny that the LORD Himself sanctified one race above another race in the past?

Does that make Him a racist?
 
I

Interplanner

Well-known member
Jerry Shugart said:
Do you never tire of misrepresenting what dispensationalists teach? Do you deny that the LORD Himself sanctified one race above another race in the past?

Does that make Him a racist?
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Do you ever tire of not knowing the NT? "There is no favoritism" is just about everywhere, and favoritism is what ruined Israel in the 1st century.
 
I

Interplanner

Well-known member
Jerry Shugart said:
Do you never tire of perverting the prophecies of God and His promises found in the OT?

Do you deny that in OT times the LORD Himself sanctified one race above the others?
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That was the child-trainer phase Jerry, Gal 4. Everyone is supposed to be sanctified now. You missed the whole point.
 
Jerry Shugart

Jerry Shugart

Well-known member
Interplanner said:
That was the child-trainer phase Jerry, Gal 4. Everyone is supposed to be sanctified now. You missed the whole point.
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No, I missed no point. In the past the nation of Israel was a special people to the LORD. In the present dispensation he has no special people except the members of the Body of christ and there the Jews and Gentiles are on the same level. But in the future the nation of Israel will once again His special people:

"For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins" (Ro.11:25-27).​
 
I

Interplanner

Well-known member
Jerry Shugart said:
No, I missed no point. In the past the nation of Israel was a special people to the LORD. In the present dispensation he has no special people except the members of the Body of christ and there the Jews and Gentiles are on the same level. But in the future the nation of Israel will once again His special people:

"For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins" (Ro.11:25-27).​
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That is clearly NOT what that verse means and the things quoted from isaiah are already true in Christ/Paul's time.

You have just used a proof-text that is hollow, and you have used the worst one out there.

There is no paragraph, clear statement, in the NT that there is any need at all for putting Israel above others or being in the land. It flies across all that the NT is trying to accomplish. It is not going to matter in the NHNE, which is next.
 
I

Interplanner

Well-known member
Jerry Shugart said:
No, I missed no point. In the past the nation of Israel was a special people to the LORD. In the present dispensation he has no special people except the members of the Body of christ and there the Jews and Gentiles are on the same level. But in the future the nation of Israel will once again His special people:

"For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins" (Ro.11:25-27).​
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What was the purpose of the child-trainer phase of Judaism?
 
I

Interplanner

Well-known member
What was the purpose of the child-trainer phase?

They weren't separated to be superior. They were separated to be distinct from Philistinian paganism. Because eventually a message to save/redeem the whole world was going to come through them. It is easy to lose the sight of the mission in the OT, but it is there. Check, for ex., the day of the temple dedication or the story of Jonah. It is there. israel is hardly ever on the right page.

But then in the prophets, it really becomes clear that it is going this direction, leading with Isaiah. Thus the name 'exilic dispensationalism' for the whole package. They were ruined in the exile, and their future lay in being part of the mission to the nations. The veil of Judaism made many of them think they were to fight for the liberation of Judea. It made them miss the mission. It set up the conflicts between Christ and Judaism (which 2P2P all but dissolves, synthesizes). Oddly enough, the 2nd time Israel was ruined and Jerusalem burned was the anniversary week of the 1st time it happened; 'two witnesses' are enough to show them their error.
 
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