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WHATGoo is. Many if not most seem
to believe the God of the Old Testa–
ment was the one Jesus prayed to as
His FATHER. But many New Testa–
ment passages quoting from the Old
Testament prove that the one of the
Godhead who was born in human
fiesh as Jesus Christ was the
Yahweh
of the Old Testament and the Word
of John
1: l.
That knowledge is a por–
tian of PROOF
#
1
identifying the true
original Church today.
Jesus carne, among other purposes,
to REVEAL the Father. Ancient Old
Testament Israel knew of only ONE
PERSONAGE in the Godhead-al–
though their Scriptures contained the
Hebrew
Elohim.
But to them, pri–
marily, God was conceived of as not
only ONE God, but only ONE Person!
The truth is, Israelites generally
knew nothing of God- the Person to
whom Jesus prayed and the Father
Jesus carne to REVEAL.
However, another technical point
is: God only
became
the FATHER of
the Goo FAMILY when Jesus Christ
was begotten and born as a human.
Yet He may become
our
Father in
heaven when we are begotten by His
Holy Spirit. More of that later .
Now notice that God
(Eiohim)
is
more than one Person, even though
only ONE Goo.
In Genesis 1:26,
Elohim
said, "Let
us
make man in
our
image, after
our
likeness.. .. " Notice! Not "Let
me,"
but " Let us"- plural, or uniplural.
Then, in Genesis 2:2-3, "On the
seventh day God
[Eiohim]
ended bis
work which he had made. . . . And
God
[E/ohim]
blessed the seventh
day.... "
Then, verse 4: "These are the gen–
erations of the heavens and of the
earth when they were created, in the
day that the LORD God
[Yahweh El–
ohim]
made the earth and the heav–
ens." Again it was through the
Word, in the Hebrew named
Yah–
weh,
that the earth and heavens were
made-as Goo created all things by
Jesus Christ (Eph. 3:9).
Does God Have Form and
Shape?
God reveals that He JS spirit-com–
posed (John 4:24). Unless supernatu–
rally manifested, spirit is invisible to
human eyes.
42
Jesus said to His disciples, "Ye
have neither heard his voice at any
time, nor seen his shape" (John
5:37).
Later " Philip saith unto him,
Lord, shew us the Father, and it
sufficeth us." Jesus answered,
"Have
1
been so long time with you,
and yet hast thou not known me,
Philip? He that hath seen me hath
seen the Fatber" (John 14:8-9).
WHY? Because God the Father- if
human eyes could see- looks like
Jesus. And what did Jesus look
like?
Certainly NOT like artists' render–
ings you have seen which are sup–
posed to picture Him. For one
thi ng, HE DIO NOT HAVE LONG
HAIR
(1
Cor. 11:14). He looked like
other Jews then in J udea, else the
chief priests would not have paid
Judas Iscariot 40 pieces of silver to
identify Him.
Now notice once again Genesis
1:26: "God
[Eiohim]
said, Let us
make man in our image, after our
likeness [form and shape] .... " God
is described in the Bible as having
eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hair, arms,
legs, fingers, toes. Jesus was "the ex–
press image of bis [the Father's] per–
son" (Heb. 1:3).
What ls the Holy Splrlt?
If the Holy Spirit is not a Person- a
"Ghost"-then what does the Bible
reveal about the Holy Spirit?
Tbe natural carnal mind of man
simply cannot grasp an understand–
ing of spirit.
lt
is not matter. The He–
brew word for spirit,
ruach,
and the
Greek
pneuma
both are often trans–
lated into the English "wind," "air,"
or "breath"- because these
physica/
words perhaps most closely explain
spirit
to the human mind- yet spirit
is not physical or material.
The Holy Spirit is the spirit (not
Ghost) that emanates out from both
God and Christ everywhere in the
universe. Through His Holy Spirit,
God projects Himself, in spirit,
everywhere in the universe- yet both
God and Christ have form and shape,
even as man.
The Holy Spirit is many things.
lt
is the very LJFE of tbe immortal God,
which, entering into a human, begets
him with God-life.
It
is the POWER of God by which,
when Christ "spake," it was done.
lt
is the POWER by which God stretched
out the heavens--<:reated the vast
endless universe.
The Holy Spirit, entering into man
as God's gift, opens the mind to UN–
DERSTANDING of spi r itual knowl–
edge, unknown to the human mind
otherwise. It is the LOVE of God
"shed abroad in our hearts." l t is the
FAITH of Christ which may be given
to God's begotten children.
It
is the
POWER of God, begotten within hu–
mans, enabling us to overcome Satan
and sin.
"How Great Thou Art"
We have covered t he nature of God.
Now consider HOW GREAT He is.
King David was meditating on
this, and man's insignificance by
comparison. He wrote: "When
1
con–
sider thy heavens, the work of thy
fingers, the moon and the stars,
which thou hast ordained; what is
man, that thou art mindful of him?"
(Ps. 8:3-4.)
Isaiah was inspired to write :
" Who hath measured the waters
[oceans] in the hollow of bis hand,
and meted out heaven with the
span, and comprehended the dust of
the earth in a measure, and weighed
the mountains in scales, and the
bilis in a balance? ... Behold, the
nations are as a drop of a bucket,
and are counted as the small dust of
the balance.... All nations before
him are as nothing ... " (Jsa.
40: 12-17). Then God is quoted: "To
whom then will ye liken me, or shall
1 be equal? ... Lift up your eyes on
high, and behold who hath created
these things, that bringeth out their
host by number: he calleth them al!
by names by the greatness of bis
might, for that he is strong in pow–
er ... " (verses 25-26).
Yet , there is much more to come,
in relation to David's comparison of
God to man, and why God should be
concerned about us, in a later install–
ment-and fantastically thrilling it
is!
NONE but the Worldwide Church
of God today possesses the REVEALED
TRUTH and knowledge of WHO and
WHAT God is!
o
(To Be Continued)
The
PLAIN TRUTH February 1979