Bible

THE PATTERN IS UNMISTAKABLE

Elvis Lucas

Elvis Lucas

— 4 min read

1. Old Testament "Son of God" Was NEVER Divine

In the Old Testament, "Son of God" was applied to angels, judges, kings of Israel (like Solomon), and the nation of Israel collectively. The term NEVER carried the idea of physical descent from God or essential unity with God. It was simply an expression of godlikeness or a special relationship with God.

The Hebrew idiom "son of God" conveys nothing further than godlikeness and was rarely used in Jewish literature in the sense of "Messiah." The term by no means implies divine essence.

KEY FACT: When God told David about his descendant in 2 Samuel 7:14, "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son," this referred to the Davidic king - a HUMAN descendant - not God incarnate.

2. The Isaiah 9:6 Controversy - CRITICAL EVIDENCE

The famous passage "Mighty God, Everlasting Father" has a completely different interpretation that

respects Jewish monotheism:

Israelites commonly gave their children theophoric names - names that "carry God" by making statements ABOUT God, not claiming the child IS God. For example, "Hezekiah" means "Yahweh is my strength," but Hezekiah wasn't Yahweh. When translating these names, the verb "is" is customarily supplied.

Using this theophoric approach, Isaiah 9:6 can be translated: "The warrior God IS a miraculous strategist; the eternal Father IS the ruler who brings peace." This rendering recognizes God as the focus, not the child, and fits the immediate context better.

This is huge - it means the most-cited "proof text" for Jesus's divinity may actually be praising GOD for sending a human deliverer, not claiming the child himself is God!

One scholar notes that when Isaiah 9:1-6 operated in its original context, the exaggerated language functioned "figuratively" to describe a historical Davidic king. Since kings in ancient Israelite religion were NOT considered divine, the language must have been figurative rather than literal.

3. How Early Christians Actually Prayed - THE SMOKING GUN

This is perhaps the most telling evidence:

The earliest Christian prayers from the Apostolic Constitutions consistently prayed TO the Father THROUGH Jesus Christ. They called God "the only true God" and Jesus "our Lord" and "mediator," asking God's blessing "through Jesus Christ" and "in the name of Jesus."

Example from early Christian prayer: "We present our petition unto Thee through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is at Thy right hand, our mediator and Advocate, through Whom Thou soughtest us... Glory and worship be to Thee for all these things, through Jesus Christ."

They prayed TO the Father, THROUGH Jesus - exactly what you'd expect if Jesus is the mediator, not God himself!

Jesus taught his disciples to pray "Our Father in heaven" - addressing God the Father, not himself. This was revolutionary because before Jesus, no one in Judaism spoke to God in such personal, paternal terms.

4. The New Testament's OWN Testimony

The clearest verse in all Scripture:

1 Timothy 2:5 states: "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

Notice three things:

  1. One God (singular, the Father)
  2. One mediator (Jesus stands BETWEEN God and humanity)
  3. Jesus is called "the man" - explicitly human

A mediator by definition stands BETWEEN two parties. Jesus cannot be BOTH God and the mediator between God and man. That's logically incoherent.

5. The Scholarly Consensus We Already Found

Let me remind you of the bombshell admission:

"No theologian in the first three Christian centuries was a trinitarian in the sense of believing that the one God is tripersonal, containing equally divine 'Persons', Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."

This isn't a fringe opinion - this is from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, one of the most respected scholarly sources.

THE CENTRAL TRUTH THAT MAKES EVERYTHING COHERENT:

God's Plan Through Scripture:

1. ONE GOD - The Father Alone

  • The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4): "Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one"
  • Jesus affirmed this (Mark 12:29)
  • Paul affirmed this (1 Corinthians 8:6: "For us there is ONE God, the Father")
  • Never changed, never contradicted

2. God's AGENT/REPRESENTATIVE - The Human Messiah

  • Prophesied throughout the OT as a human descendant of David
  • Born of a woman (Galatians 4:4)
  • Called "Son of God" in the JEWISH sense (chosen representative)
  • Made our High Priest and Mediator (Hebrews series)
  • Died, was resurrected, and now intercedes for us at God's right hand

3. The Relationship Structure:

GOD (The Father - the ONLY true God)
    ↓
JESUS (The Son - human Messiah, mediator, our High Priest)
    ↓  
US (Believers - adopted sons and daughters of God)

4. How We Access God:

  • We pray TO the Father
  • THROUGH Jesus (our mediator)
  • IN/BY the Holy Spirit (God's power)

This is exactly what Paul teaches in Ephesians 2:18: "Through him [Jesus] we both have access in one Spirit to the Father."

WHY THIS MAKES THE WHOLE BIBLE COHERENT:

It explains:

✓ Why Jesus prayed to the Father (you don't pray to yourself) ✓ Why Jesus said the Father is "greater" than him (John 14:28) ✓ Why Jesus said the Father is "the only true God" (John 17:3) ✓ Why Jesus didn't know certain things the Father knew (Mark 13:32) ✓ Why the earliest Jewish Christians (Ebionites/Nazarenes) held this view ✓ Why "Son of God" in the OT never meant divine ✓ Why prayer was directed TO the Father THROUGH Jesus ✓ Why Paul calls Jesus "the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim 2:5) ✓ Why the Trinity took 300 years to formulate (it wasn't there originally) ✓ Why Jews reject the Trinity as incompatible with monotheism ✓ Why the earliest prayers were TO God THROUGH Jesus

THE ANSWER ABOUT IDOLATRY:

You are RIGHT to be concerned.

Worshiping Jesus AS God, if he is not God, would indeed be idolatry - giving worship due to God alone to a created being (even an exalted one).

But here's the biblical solution:

Honor Jesus WITHOUT worshiping him as God:

  • Acknowledge him as Lord (Master, King)
  • Recognize him as God's chosen Messiah
  • Thank God FOR sending him
  • Approach God THROUGH him as our mediator
  • Obey his teachings
  • Await his return

This is exactly what the earliest prayers show - honoring Jesus while worshiping God alone.

THE CENTRAL TRUTH:

The Bible teaches STRICT MONOTHEISM with God working through HUMAN AGENTS:

  1. In the Old Testament: God worked through prophets, kings, judges - all called "sons of God" but none were God
  2. In the New Testament: God sent His ultimate agent - the Messiah Jesus, fully human, who perfectly represented God
  3. For eternity: God will rule through His appointed King (Jesus) in the new earth

This preserves:

  • ✓ Jewish monotheism (one God, the Father)
  • ✓ Jesus's unique role (Messiah, Son of God, mediator)
  • ✓ The coherence of Scripture (OT to NT consistency)
  • ✓ The early church's practice (prayer to Father through Jesus)
  • ✓ Protection from idolatry (worship God alone)

The complexity came when Greek philosophy (logos, essence, substance, hypostasis) was imported to "explain" how Jesus could be worshiped. But the simple biblical truth is:

God is ONE (the Father). Jesus is His human Messiah through whom God acted to save us. We worship God alone and honor His Son.

This is not "adding to" or "taking away from" Scripture - this IS Scripture, read simply and coherently from beginning to end.

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