And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form (John 5:37).
No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. (John 6:46)What amazing statements for those to ponder who are aware of the Old Testament (OT). The reason is because people did hear God's voice and saw his form! How then could Jesus say it was NOT the Father who they heard or have seen! Was Jesus mistaken at John 5:37 and John 6:46 or could there be another explanation regarding who was heard and seen as God in OT times?
Then the LORD came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders; and it happened, when the Spirit rested upon them, that they prophesied, although they never did so again (Num. 11:25).Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? (Dt. 4:33)
And you said: Surely the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he still lives. Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the LORD our God anymore, then we shall die. For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? (Dt. 5:24-26)
According to all you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die (Dt. 18:16).
And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" (Gen. 32:30).God was both seen and heard in OT times, yet by Jesus' authority it was not the Father! Who then was it? Consider also John 1:18:Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank (Ex. 24:9).
And Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God!" (Judges 13:22).
So the LORD became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the LORD God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice (1 Kings 11:9).
So I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts" (Isa. 6:5).
I speak with him face to face, Even plainly, and not in dark sayings; And he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses? (Num. 12:8).
No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.
Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"Jesus revealed his identity, as he stated that he himself spoke to Moses at John 8:58:
"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"Then later, the Apostle Paul stated the following:
They [the Israelites] were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. (1 Cor 10:2-4)If you would read through the OT, YHWH is shown to be the rock:
I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. (Deut. 32:3,4)
The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God (Isa. 40:3).According to Matthew, the prophet Isaiah wrote about John the Baptist, who was to prepare the way for the Lord, or as Isaiah wrote the LORD (YHWH). Yet, it was John who prepared the way for Jesus:In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: 'A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him'" (Mt. 3:1-3).
I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Mt. 3:11).John prepared the way for Jesus, according to Matthew, but Isaiah says John, whom he called the voice, prepared the way for YHWH!
For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes (Dt. 10:17).Note: according to the OT Scripture, YHWH is not only God, but also Lord of lords. Yet in the NT we clearly read that Jesus is Lord of lords:
They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings--and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers (Rev. 17:14).Furthermore, the NT reveals that the King of kings and Lord of lords is God:
which God will bring about in his own time--God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Tim. 6:15).Who then is the Lord of lords? The OT says YHWH is Lord of lords, but the NT claims the same for Jesus! Can there be two who are Lord of lords?
Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: 'Not one of his bones will be broken,' and, as another scripture says, 'They will look on the one they have pierced' (John 19:34-37).The only Scripture that John could have been referring to when he wrote, "... as another scripture says, 'They will look on the one they have pierced'" is the following one:
And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son (Zech 12:10).YHWH spoke those words through the prophet Zechariah, as is apparent if we would read from Zech. 12:1 down through verse 10. Note: YHWH is speaking and uses the word me in conjunction to being the one that gets pierced. Yet the Apostle John referred to the same Scripture (Zech 12:10) and says that it was fulfilled when Jesus was pierced on the cross by the Roman soldier's spear! Who was pierced, YHWH or Jesus? Since Jesus is YHWH (the God of the Old Testament) this puzzle is solved, along with John 5:37.
The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary; but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare (8:13,14).Question: Did Isaiah the prophet say that YHWH will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall? Clearly he did. Why then do we read the following about Jesus?
Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, 'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,' and, 'A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.' They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for (1 Pet. 2:7,8).Is YHWH or Jesus a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall? Or why did the Apostle Peter refer to a Scripture that was written about YHWH Almighty and make it apply to Jesus? Are all these contradictions or is Jesus YHWH?
The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil (Prov. 16:4).But the Apostle Paul wrote the following about Jesus:
For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him (Col. 1:16).Then we have this passage:
So I said: 'Do not take me away, O my God, in the midst of my days; your years go on through all generations. In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end' (Psa. 102:24-27).That, too, is a problem for some when it is compared to the following passage written about Jesus:
But about the Son he says, Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom .... He also says, In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end (Heb. 1:8,10-12).Psa. 102:24-27 is written about the eternal God, but the same Scripture is applied to Jesus in the NT! How can this be unless Jesus is YHWH?
This is what the LORD says--Israel's King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God (Isa. 44:6).Yet Jesus called himself the same in the NT:Listen to me, O Jacob, Israel, whom I have called: I am he; I am the first and I am the last (Isa. 48:12).
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last (Rev. 1:17).To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again (Rev. 2:8).
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End (Rev. 22:13).
Declare what is to be, present it--let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me (Isa. 45:21).YHWH, the righteous God, is the Savior, according to Isaiah. But the NT reveals the Savior to be Jesus, for He alone has the name in which salvation is found:
He is 'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.' Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:11,12).And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world (1 John 4:14).
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him (Psa. 2:12).Notice: one is blessed and not cursed to take refuge in the Son. Yet the following Scripture declares another problem for all who reject the deity of Christ:
This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him" (Jer. 17:5-7).Moreover, the Bible is clear to say YHWH is our Refuge:
You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the LORD is their refuge (Psa. 14:6).The Bible is hopelessly filled with these types of contradictions for all who reject the Trinity and deity of Christ, but for those of us who accept the Scriptures and what they teach about the Lord's identity there are no problems! Jesus is not the Father, but he is YHWH by nature.
"Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." (Acts 7:56)
And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." (Mat 3:17)
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. (Mat 17:5,6)Stephen the Martyr saw the Father, and John the Baptist and the inner circle of the apostles heard the Father's voice!
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:12)The key to the mystery is the timing, but there is more. When Jesus spoke John 5:37 and John 6:46, he referred to Old Testament times, but now in New Testament times, since Jesus' baptism, a select few have heard the Father's voice. 1 John 4:12 must be referring to seeing God, unlike some do in a vision. Even John himself saw God the Father in a vision:
At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. (Rev 4:2,3)
Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. (Rev 5:1)What Stephen saw (Acts 7:56) is similar to what John saw. Such is in complete harmony with all of the aforementioned scriptures showing Jesus is the God -- YHWH -- of the OT! This is SHOCKING truth for all who have been taught that the Lord Jesus is anything less than deity.
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