"Humanity," "a government" or "a family" are all singular expressions denoting a unity of a number of persons. Could the inspired Bible also reveal that the word "God" is used in a similar manner for a unity of Divine personalities?
From the last two chapters on the subject of God, we have discovered that the Bible teaches:
In view of the above clear Bible teachings, we now ask the question:
1. Can God be more than one Person?
Genesis 1:26 (NWT)
Answer: "And God went on to say: 'Let _______ make man in ________ _______________, according to __________ __________________......" Genesis 1:26
Here the Bible, in its very first chapter, introduces us to the fact that "God" is more than one person. Since John 1:3, and Colossians 1:15-17, state plainly that everything that was created was "made by Jesus Christ," then Jesus was also included in this conversation. This "Us" cannot refer to the Father talking to angels, because angels can not create. "Let Us make man...." must be limited to the persons of the Father and the Son, and earlier in Genesis 1:2, we have the Spirit of God present at creation.
It is interesting that the word used here, and the one usually used in the Hebrew for "God," is "Elohim." Words in Hebrew ending in "im" are plural. So the text reads : "And Elohim went on to say, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness...."
Watchtower publications such as United in Worship of the Only True God (1983), pages 17-18, argue that this word "Elohim" is only used to convey an idea of excellence or majesty, when "Elohim" is followed by a singular verb. However, in this verse, "Elohim" is followed by the verb for "make" which is also plural.
2. Can Jehovah God be more than one Person?
Genesis 3:22 and 11:6, 7
Answer: "And ________________ God went on to say: 'Here the man has become like ________ ______ ________ in knowing good and bad,....'" Genesis 3:22.
"After that _________________ said: '....Come now! Let _________ go down and confuse their language...." Genesis 11:6, 7
3. How can more than one person be one God?
It is strange how that our Witness friends do not have any difficulty in accepting that their Government is made up of a number of persons. Likewise their own family unit is made up of at least themselves and two parents, yet they are one family. However, when it comes to the subject of "God," the Watchtower Society makes it a real stumbling to them, to even suggest that "God" or the "Godhead," (this expression is found in some translations) consists of more than God the Father!
Throughout this study we have been keeping strictly to what the Bible says , and we can begin to understand how the Divine Persons of the Heavenly Family or Government are One, when we see how God speaks of the unity of a married couple . What is this unity like?
Genesis 2:24
Answer: "That is why a man will leave his father and his mother and he must stick to his wife and they must become _________ _______________." Genesis 2:24
One flesh! We could understand it if God said they were to become "one in spirit," but not one flesh!
The amazing thing is that although man cannot understand this language of God, everyone seems to have accepted it without question. So far even in the pictures of the Dark Ages, I have never seen a representation of Adam and Eve represented with one body and a man and woman's head. Yet when the unity of the Godhead is presented as One , instead of accepting it as "God's way of describing things," weird threeheaded monster representations are made of God! Reacting against this type of "Trinity," the Watchtower Society and some other Unitarian groups, reject the central truth of the Scripture concerning the Deity of Christ, that in essence Jesus, like the Father, is God!
4. But isn't the Father greater than the Son?
John 14:28
Answer: While on earth Jesus said, "....the Father ____ _____________ than I am." John 14:28.
Jesus did not say the Father was better than He was. While in rank when Jesus was on earth, the Father was greater , in "essence" they were both equally Divine or God!
This is easily understood with the married couple which God says is one flesh. Both are equally human yet the Bible says that the husband is greater than the wife. While he is greater than her, he is not better than her, for they are both human. Likewise, the Father in rank was greater than the Son, but both are equally Divine or God!
5. Was the Father and Jesus the Same Person?
Answer: No! What is more I have never met a person who believed this! Just because the Bible reveals that Father and Son are both God , this does not make them the same person any more than an earthly father and son are the same person because they are both human. This argument is considered a "straw man" put up by the Watchtower Society, to be knocked down.
Jesus prayed to His Father, and always taught that His Father was another person, but that He was the very image of His Father. (See for instance, John 14:6-11, 15-16 and John 15:23-25.) So the Bible teaches that Jesus and the Father were two separate persons , but they were in "essence" both God .
6. "No man hath seen God at any time," but Jesus was seen; therefore, how then could He be God?
Answer: In the very text that says "no man hath seen God at any time (John 1:18), in the original Greek, Jesus is called the only-begotten "Theos" or God. Unfortunately the Watchtower Society chose to translate this word as "god" to hide this truth about Jesus. (see both K.I.T. and NWT) However, one does not have to be a Greek student to see this inconsistency. Note in John 3:16 (in the K.I.T.), where this word "Theos" is translated "God."
Who was Jesus referring to when He said "No man hath seen God at any time (John 1:18)? The context of the text shows very clearly He was referring to God the Father , not to Himself. John 6:46 also clarifies this statement. "Not that any man has seen _______ ______________, except He who is from God; this One has seen ________ ________________."
If both the Father and the Son are equally God, yet separate Persons, what about the personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit? That will be our next study.