Mystery of Godliness in the Old Testament

 

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory.” (1 Tim. 3:16)

 

In the New Testament there are clear irrefutable scriptural evidences of the One True God who manifested Himself in the flesh as the Lord Jesus Christ, and also references to the divinity of the Holy Spirit.  God’s manifestation as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is called the “mystery of godliness” (1 Tim. 3:16).  However, such clear evidences and references are lacking in the Old Testament, but some Christian theologians have used four verses of Scripture with first person plural pronouns to claim they exist.  We shall examine each verse carefully and see whether or not their claims are valid.

 

1.  “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; . . ” (Gen. 1:26)  

 

All the three major religions in Israel - Judaism, Christianity and Islam believe there is only one God.  From the Jewish perspective the plural terminologies “Our image” and “Our likeness” do not mean a plurality of gods.  From the time when Moses wrote the Torah the Jews have never, ever believed in more than one God.  Amongst the Christians there are several groups of believers that also believe there is only one God but they differ in their understanding of this verse.  The strict Trinitarians believe this verse points to the Trinity – three distinct, coequal Persons in the Godhead.  However, it is very difficult for them to explain how three, distinct and coequal Persons are not three gods.  The term “three Persons” gives the wrong impression of Tritheism that is the religion of three gods.   Tri-unitarians have a variation in their explanation.  They say “God is one, but at the same time consists of three distinct Persons.”  Again, they encounter the same problem as the Trinitarians.  When the word “Persons” is used it creates the wrong impression to the Jews and Moslems who accuse the Christians of polytheism - the belief and worship of plural or multiple gods.  Oneness believers call their belief Christian Monotheism.  They believe there is one God with no essential divisions in His nature. He is not a plurality of persons, but He does have a plurality of manifestations, roles, titles, attributes, or relationships to man.  Furthermore, these are not limited to three.  Trinitarians call the Oneness belief as “modalism”.

 

Some theologians try to explain “Our image” and “Our likeness” refer to God’s Kingdom that includes the angels who were with Him during the Creation.  There are problems with this explanation.   I would like to point out that there is only One Creator and not multiple creators. 

 

“Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb;

 I am the LORD, who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, who spreads abroad the earth by Myself.” (Isa. 44:24)

 

Notice that God said He created the heavens and the earth “all alone” and “by Myself”.  There was no one assisting God when He created the heavens and the earth and man.

 

The second point is that God originally created one person – Adam, and not three persons, so “Our image” and “Our likeness” cannot refer to the Trinity but to God’s multiple attributes and nature.  Let us see how God created Adam.

 

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. (Gen. 2:7)

 

The first thing that God did was to form “man of the dust of the ground“.  This gives man the body which is the physical and visible part of the image of God. 

 

“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Rom. 8:29) 

 

Adam was created in the physical and visible image of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Although the Lord Jesus Christ had not been born at the time of Creation but He has pre-existed as the “Logos” – the Word of God. (Jn. 1:1-2).  In the beginning the “Logos” is a concept in the mind of God until about two thousand years ago when “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, . . .” (Jn. 1:14)  “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,” (Gal. 4:4). 

 

Here is how God created Adam in His own image.  God in His foreknowledge already had a concept or image of how He would look when He would manifest Himself in the flesh.  It is like the architect who builds a model of his dream house before it is actually built.  God is Spirit and is invisible (Jn. 4:24; 1 Tim. 1:17).  “No one has seen God at any time.  The only begotten Son, who is the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” (Jn. 1:18)   The following passages refer to the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firsborn over all creation.” (Col. 1:15)

 

“God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Heb. 1:1-3)

 

The second thing in creating Adam that God did was “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life “.  The Hebrew word for “breathed” and “breath” is “neshamah or nishma”.  This is the same Hebrew word used for “spirit” (Job 26:4; Pro. 20:27).  After God breathed into the nostrils of Adam he possessed the spirit of man.  It is like after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ “He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.” (Jn. 20:22)  When God created the animals, birds and fish He did not breath on them but only on man, therefore only man is a spiritual being who knows how to worship the One True God.

 

When God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.“  The King James Bible calls it “a living soul”.   The Hebrew word for “soul” – “nephesh” means the inner person, but it is also used to mean the “life” or “self”  (Lev. 17:11; Ezek. 18:4,20)

 

When God said: “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; . . . .” (Gen. 1:26) it means that God would create man having a body, spirit and soul (1 Thes. 5:23).

 

When we read a verse in the Bible we must not read it in isolation and out of context.  Usually the preceding and following verses will explain it.  Let us read the next verse.

 

“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Gen. 1:27)

 

From verse 27 we can see that “Our image” does not refer to the Godhead at all but to the multiple nature and attributes of the created man and woman.  God did not say “Let us make man in Our images, according to Our likenesses,”  “So God created man in His own image.”  There is only one image and likeness of God.  Both male and female share this same identical image of God.  Certainly this one image of God cannot be the Trinity otherwise the “three Persons in the Godhead” would have two sexes – male and female.  The only reasonable explanation of “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” is that both male and female have the same nature and elements of having a body, spirit and soul.

 

2.  “Then the LORD God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. . . .” (Gen. 3:22)

 

Some Christian theologians explain “one of Us” refer to “one of the three Persons in the Godhead”.  This explanation has problems.  How could Adam who had disobeyed God, committed sin and received punishment, be like the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit who are absolutely pure and holy?  Besides, the Son of God had not been born yet (Isa. 7:14; 9:6; Gal. 4:4).  The correct answer is that God was talking to the cherubim (angel) who was present at the time when Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:22-24).  One of the attributes of the angels of God is the ability of “discerning good and evil” (2 Sam. 14:17).  Angels of God have wisdom and they also “know all things that are in the earth.” (2 Sam. 14:20)

 

3.  “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language,” (Gen. 11:7)

 

In order to have a proper understanding let us read the whole passage. 

 

“But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.  And the LORD    said, ‘Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.  Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language that they may not understand one another’s speech.’  So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.” (Gen. 11:5-8)

 

It is very likely that God appeared in a visible human form when “the LORD came down to see the city and the tower.”  The visible appearance of God in a human form is called Theophany.  In the early days of humanity, before people had the written Word, before the Incarnation (of the Son), and before the Holy Spirit indwells believers, God sometimes appeared and have close encounters with special people.  Enoch and Noah “walked with God” (Gen. 5:24; 6:9).  God appeared to Abraham and they had lengthy conversations together (Gen. 18:1-33).  “So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” (Ex. 33:11)

 

The narrative “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language” is a proposal or suggestion by a Superior Being like God the Father speaking to His subordinates like the angels to execute the task of confusing the language of the people. The statement could not have come from God the Father talking to the Son who is not born yet, or the Holy Spirit who is God’s own Spirit and is everywhere. 

 

The ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ is “to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Lk. 19:10).  The Holy Spirit is sent by God to “convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” (Jn. 16:8)  There is no biblical support that the Son and the Holy Spirit were ever sent by God to confuse the language of people. Angels, on the other hand, are powerful and obedient ministers of God (Psm. 103:20-21; Heb. 1:14).   They were sent by God to destroy cities with wicked people and also to punish Israel with a plague (Gen. 19:1, 13; 2 Sam. 24:15-16).  It is very reasonable and credible that God would speak to the angels: “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language”, and they executed their assignment exactly and successfully according to God’s instructions (Gen. 11:7-9).

 

4.       “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” . . . (Isa. 6:8)  

 

Here is the full verse:  “Also I heard the voice of the LORD, saying:  ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’  Then I said, ‘Here am I!  Send me.”  (Isa. 6:8)  This is the last passage in the Old Testament that has a portion of the LORD’s statement with the first person plural pronoun “Us”.   Some theologians claim it refers to the “Trinity”.  Again, we have the same theological problem that when this statement was spoken the Son has yet to be born. 

 

Who was God talking to?  Here is the clear answer.  “Seraphim” were present at the time when Isaiah heard that statement from God (Isa. 6:2-8).  The Hebrew word “Seraphim” means “Burning Ones”, and is the plural word for “Seraph”, a celestial being or angel with six wings (Isa. 6:2). The “Seraphim” attend to the throne of God (Isa. 6:1-2). 

 

The designation “Burning Ones” matches the context.  Its focus on God’s holiness makes the emphasis on fire a suitable one, as does also the fact that a “Seraph” performed a burning ministry toward Isaiah himself (Isa. 6:6-7).  The “Seraphim” are in a particular sense, therefore, the guardians of the holiness of the LORD and the ministers of His holy purposes.”  -  The New International Dictionary of the Bible.

 

The answer to the question who was God referring to when He said: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ is very clear.  The “Us” refer to the One True God and the “Seraphim”.

 

 

May God bless you

 

 

A Bible Study based on this article was conducted by Paul Wong

to a Congregation in Houston, Texas on April 23, 2004

 

For comments please write first to: [email protected]

 

Paul Wong is a Christian minister and the President of ARK International. His ministry also serves as an architectural service company in Houston. The ARK Forum on the Internet is international and non-denominational.