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What Must I Do To Be Saved?

  

FROM: 5/5/02 Radio Program

Question:

Are there three personalities in the Godhead (i.e., Father, Son and Holy Spirit), or just one (i.e., Jesus only)?

Answer:

That there is a plurality in the Godhead is seen in the very beginning of the Bible. In Genesis 1, God said, "Let US make man in OUR image after OUR likeness..." (Gen. 1:26). This makes it clear that there is more than one in the Godhead. For further evidence, you can look to Daniel. There, we read about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being cast into the fiery furnace. Once inside, Nebuchadnezzar saw not three, but four figures in there; the fourth being "like the Son of God" (Dan. 3:24-25). In Daniel 7:13, Daniel, in the "night visions" saw the "Son of Man" come to "the Ancient of Days." The "Ancient of Days" is God the Father.

David said: "The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." (Ps. 110:1). In connection with this, Jesus asked the Pharisees: "What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?" (Matt. 22:42-44). In this same spirit, we ask the question, if there is only one in the Godhead, how can David say, "The Lord said to my Lord ..."? Who was He talking to, if there is only one in the Godhead?

Further evidence of a plurality in the Godhead is seen in the New Testament. John 1:18 says: "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." Read John 3:16 and you'll read about the Father and the Son. The sender cannot be that which is sent, can he? When I write a letter send it off, am I the letter? No, of course, not! I and the letter are separate things just as God the Father and God the Son (the Word, John 1:1, 14) are separate personalities. When Christ died on the cross, He said: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Lk. 23:46). Did Christ "commend" His spirit to Himself? At the end of time, "he (Christ) shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father" (I Cor. 15:24). Will Christ give the kingdom to Himself?

Further, Christ said He was sending "the Comforter," i.e., the Holy Spirit (Jn. 14:26). Notice the listing of those in the Godhead. In John 14:26: "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost (Holy Spirit), whom the Father will send in my name....", Again He said, "when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father ...." (Jn. 15:26). John 16:13-14 records Christ speaking of the Holy Spirit, and speaking of Him as "he." The Holy Spirit is a separate personality to the Son, and the Father, and One who was sent to the apostles after Christ ascended to His Father (Acts 1:9-11, 2:1-4). These passages in John make clear that there are three in the Godhead.

To see that there are three in the Godhead, consider the fact that Jesus said that baptism is to be done by the authority of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost (Matt. 28:19). In Matthew 3:16-17, after Jesus' baptism, we have Jesus in the water, the Holy Spirit like a dove descending upon Him, and a voice from Heaven saying, "this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." There are three in the Godhead!! A parallel account is found in Luke 3:21-22.

II Corinthians 13:14 discusses the "grace of the Lord Jesus Christ ... the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost." Peter wrote, "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied." (I Pet. 1:1-2). In the book of Ephesians, we read about "One Spirit", "One Lord," and "One God and Father" (Eph. 4:4-6). We all understand that 1+1+1=3! These Bible passages ought to prove beyond a doubt the number of persons in the Godhead.

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