The Bible’s God

   The Bible says that God is one “but to us is one God, the Father, to whom are all things, and we are for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him.” (1 Corinthians 8:6), "For God is one, also there is one Mediator of God and of man, the man Jesus Christ." (1 Timothy 2:5) plus, "And this is everlasting life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." (John 17:3). There are many verses in the Old Testament that confirm that God is one, “Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.” (Deuteronomy 6:4), "You alone are He, O Jehovah; You made the heavens and the heavens of the heavens and all their host; the earth..." (Nehemiah 9:6), "And let them know, Your name is Jehovah, that You alone are the most high over all the earth." (Psalm 83:18). There is a verse that many use to promote that God is plural, "And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness..." (Genesis 1:26), but three verses later, "And God said, I have given you every plant seeding..." (Genesis 1:29), in both verses, God is the One speaking (not a Father, Son and Holy Spirit trio), then in verse 29 when He refers to Himself He uses "I", therefore it should be considered that God, in verse 26 was speaking to someone else, but not just anyone, but another divine being because He states "according to Our likeness" and the only other divine being mentioned in the entire Bible is His only-begotten Son. Verse 31 uses "He" as the Creator of earth, "And God saw everything that He had made and behold, it was very good..." (Genesis 1:31) and He, God went on to create man, distinguishing Jehovah as our Father, "And Jehovah God formed the man out of the dust from the ground, and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7). As it is abundantly stated, one Being created man and He gave His name, "Jehovah". Another verse, "And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand to Jehovah, the most high God, the possessor of Heaven and earth." (Genesis 14:22), the term "most high God" can only be understood as being one. These verses should be sufficiently convincing, but there are many more to support a singular God, somewhere around one hundred, but you need to read all of God's word, for yourself.

   If the God you are worshiping is not as the one described in the Bible, are you not worshiping another god? The first Commandment "You shall not have any other gods beside Me." (Exodus 20:3). Despite what one feels or believes, God is the Judge and He knows if you are worshiping Him, Jehovah, or a god that is designed by our imagination or our misguided understanding. The Old Testament shows that man invented many gods by man's imagination and made by his hands, as it is stated in the Second Commandment, which gives an example of an idol, "a graven images". Today, worshiping graven images are not common, but to my understanding, today's worshiped images are from man’s imagination, or created by man's passions, they may not even be visible but they are worshipped and replace the God of the Bible. He warns us in the second Commandment, "...for I am Jehovah your God, a jealous God...". (Exodus 20:5). It is vitally important that we seek to know Jehovah, the God of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, for there is only one Jehovah, as Deuteronomy 6:4 (above) states.

   The God of the Bible has an unchangeable character and a perfect standard, which is found only in its pure state, in the original Hebrew and the New Testament text, authored by the inspiration of His only-begotten Son, and became Christ Jesus is the only man who personally knew or has seen the one and only God (except for Adam). Christ's inspiration to the Bible's writers gave us a clear representation of who this one God is, from the words of Jehovah Himself, "...I am ascending to My Father and your Father and My God and your God." (John 20:17). What someone else says or thinks about the reality of God Jehovah is not valid, even if its exactly correct, according to God's word, one must remember that all men are flawed, contaminated by sin, and this includes women; the only sure way to know God is to read for yourself, the description of our God and Father through the inspired words of Christ, who gave us His Father's messages, presented in the book He gave us, the Bible, just for this purpose.

    The various gods that are worshipped today, even by some in the churches, are the gods that qualify as idols, which exist through those that haven’t read the Bible clearly, possessing an intension of learning God's messages, but tend to add their own desired thoughts to God's pure messages. Many professed Christians read only the parts that they are directed to read or the supporting Bible verses given in a sermon. The most damaging effects to the truth are the books and articles from man, therefore, because man is far from perfect, at least some of what is given will be error and contrary to God's pure word, which was given to man for all to read. Some who look for a reason to not seek the truth in God's word claim that the Bible has been changed and is not trustworthy, so they resort to their own perception of what is right and pure, and they worship that god that is according to their desired design, which, would most likely be not in alignment with the one Almighty God of the Bible. Man is not pure and neither can he think perfectly, so our imagination of a perfect god is at best, flawed, "For as the Heavens are high from the earth, so My ways are high from your ways, and My thoughts from your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9). We should not and cannot trust in our own thoughts and living by them will be a disaster. God gave us this Book of instructions for us to learn and trust in its ways, for life, for peace and for our salvation, only if we choose to seek Jehovah.

   I need to make one important point; All Bibles are not the same, keeping in mind that every English Bible is a translation from the original Hebrew, plus the New Testament Greek text, which I believe is already a translation from the original, which must be in the Hebrew text, since Jews were speaking to Jews, except for some of Paul's writings. In the process of men translating to English, decisions needed to be made for most every word translated. Each Hebrew or Greek word may have from one to fifty English words that can be used to explain what each original word means, depending on many factors, so variation do exist, although most variations are slight. Just as variations occurs in the many Christian denomination and the differences can be much broader apart, the main reason being, again the imperfection of man, more so then from various interpretations and translation of the Bible. This compounds the degree of error and exaggerates the need to stay as close to the originals of God's word as possible. The point I’m trying to cement is, that it is most important for each of us to read the Bible for ourselves, with a sincere intention of learning what God is telling us and this means, reading all of His wonderful Book, from front to back, and inviting His spirit to give us understanding at His pace and timing. Reading only part of it or picking and choosing which verses you want to believe and discarding what you don’t want, is undermining God and missing His intended meanings and instructions. The Ten Commandments are a description of Gods character and He gave us these ten commands so that we may conform to His character, because His character is perfect, and for us to prepare ourselves to be in His presence and in His Son presence in God's Kingdom. Our earthly life is our opportunity to learn, understand and love the perfect character revealed by His laws and His words, displayed by Jesus, the only man who accomplished a perfection of righteousness, during His thirty-three and a half years as the Son of man. This one fact, personally knowing Jehovah as no one else can, made Him the only perfect qualifying candidate to be the Lamb of God, paying the debt for our repented sins on the cross at Calvary.

   The God in the scriptures is one Father and Creator "one God and Father of all, He above all and in you all." (Ephesians 4:6), He had no beginning and He has no end. All things we know in this world are from Him and that includes us "He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has set eternity in their heart, without which man cannot find out the work that God makes from the beginning and to the end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Not only does He have no end but He also is in complete control, guiding everything of this world to the end of this age, according to His divine plans, and then He will bring in the next age, an eternal age without sin. This is where those written in the Book of Life will begin the original designed life, as God intended from the very beginning, but we couldn't have just simply started out at that point, we must first decide to be in His presence, and this takes much preparation, in learning of good and evil, to understand why we should choose good and why this is necessary for each one of us. To love Jehovah God is our choice to make, from the wisdom we receive from reading His word. All these divine concepts are within the pages of God's word, but certainly not revealed at one time, each revelation of truth takes our effort and concentration to bring it to our clear awareness. And the amount of truth is endless, and those who prepared themselves in this life, may be blessed to understand just what some of the blessings of the next age will reveal to us created beings, to those chosen. Praise God Almighty, I know it will be exciting and a blessing, and beyond our limited ability to imagine.