228 – I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE – 2

Jesus declared in John 10:30, “I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE.” What does that mean? Was Jesus’ intention to reveal that He, the Father, and the Spirit are only one person manifested in three different forms? This absurd doctrine was invented by a heretic of the third century by the name of Sabelius, who did not accept the doctrine of the trinity, that is, that there are three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, according the teaching of Jesus himself in Matt. 28:19. Sabelius declined because he did not have biblical support. The Father cannot be tempted, (James 1:13), and Jesus was tempted (Heb. 4:15; Luke 22:28). There are many texts that prove that the Father and Jesus are two distinct persons(John 11:40-42; Acts 7:56; John 20:17; Acts 2:36; 5:30-31; 13:27-33). These are a few texts among hundreds.

What did Jesus teach, though, when he said: “I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE”? Jesus taught that the love with which He loved is just like the Father’s love (1 John 4:8). Jesus taught that, He and the Father, from eternity, have always agreed. They both want to save, and never to kill. Both want to help and never to oppress. Both want to absolve and never to condemn, or to accuse. Their eternal purpose is the same. The goodness and mercy of them both is eternal and unchangeable. In face of this reality expounded in the New Testament, we register here contradictory aspects between Jehovah, the god of Israel in the Old Testament, and that which Jesus taught:

1. Considering that one can only go to God the Father through Jesus Christ, according to John 14:6,why could Jehovah be found without Jesus? “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13; 1 Chr. 28:9; 2 Chr. 15:15; Ezra 8:22, etc).
2. If only Jesus knows the Father, and only Jesus reveals the Father God to men, why did Jehovah reveal himself through Moses, and that before Jesus? No one knows the Son, except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matt 11:27; Ex. 3:7-15; Ezek. 20:5).
3. If we accept Jehovah as the God and Father of Jesus, and Jehovah gave the law at Sinai, why did Jesus change the law? In Ex. 20:1-7 we read that Jehovah gave the Ten Commandments, and inHeb. 7:12 we read that the law was modified. And in the same chapter we read that the law was weak and useless (Heb. 7:18-19). The Son and the god of the Old Testament were not one, according to these texts.
4. If only Jesus can save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), and this salvation is linked to the resurrection, for Paul taught that, if Christ had not been raised all men would be eternally lost, (1 Cor. 15:12-18),why did Jehovah save without the mediation of Christ? Jehovah said, “I, even I, am Jehovah; and there is no Savior besides Me” (Is. 43:11).
5. Jesus declared that the eternal life resided in knowing the only true God, and also in knowing him, Jesus, whom God had sent (John 17:3). The Jews and the priests were faithful to Jehovah and to the Torah, and they did not accept Jesus. For this reason they killed Him on the cross by the hands of the Roman soldiers. They remain loyal to the law of Jehovah till today, and they do not accept Jesus. The question is, “Are they, who know Jehovah and reject Jesus, saved?” If they are, how do we understand Acts 4:10-12?
6. If God the Father is love, according to 1John 4:8, why was Jehovah so vengeful, according toNahum 1:2, seeing that love suffers everything, believes everything, hopes everything, bears everything, according to 1 Cor. 13:7?
7. If Jehovah confesses that he did not know any other people besides Israel, according to Deut. 14:2 and Amos 3:2, why did he call Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon his servant and one pleasing in his eyes, if Nebuchadnezzar was cruel, prideful and tyrannical? (Jer. 27:1-8; 25:9; 43:10).
8. If Jesus, sent by the Father, came to destroy the works of the devil, according to 1 John 3:8, why did Jehovah support them? Did Jehovah oppose Satan when he doubted Job’s faithfulness? He on the contrary agreed with the malignant plans of Satan (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7). Jesus opposed Satan in Luke 22:31-32.
9. If Jehovah established in the law and in the prophets that life consisted of the observation and obedience to the law (Lev. 18:5; Ezek. 20:11,13,21), why is it written in the New Testament that whoever keeps the Law falls from grace and loses their life? Paul spoke by the Holy Spirit, saying,“And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace” (Gal. 5:3,4).
10. If the Father’s righteousness in the New Testament is Jesus Christ crucified for us (Rom. 10:4; 2 Cor. 5:21), why did Jehovah establish the law as a basis for righteousness? “But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works” (Rom. 9:31-32). And Paul says that Israel, knowing the standard of Jehovah’s righteousness, did not know the righteousness of God. Christ and Jehovah are not one (Rom. 10:3; Acts 13:39).
11. Jehovah allowed divorce for whatever reason. “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house” (Deut. 24:1). Another instance is in Deut. 21:10-14. Jesus forbade divorce for any reason at all. Therefore he is not one with Jehovah (Matt. 19:3-6).
12. Jehovah declares himself the god of the silver and the gold in Haggai 2:8. He is, for this reason, the god who makes rich or poor (1 Sam. 2:7; Eccl. 5:19). If Jehovah is the one who gives wealth, why did Jesus tell his disciples not to seek it? (Matt. 6:19-21).
13. Jehovah made Solomon very rich (1 Kings 3:13). He gave Jehoshaphat many riches (2 Chr. 17:5). He made Hezekiah rich (2 Chr. 32:27). Why does Jesus say to relinquish one’s wealth? “So, therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his possessions” (Luke 14:33). A rich man wished to follow Jesus, and he told him, “go and sell your possessions and give to the poor…and come, follow Me” (Matt. 16:22). Another very rich man wanted to build larger storing places, but Jesus said to him, “You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?” (Luke 12:16-21).
14. The concept of riches of Jehovah was totally material, for it was made of the silver and gold we use here on this world. This was the treasure belonging to Jehovah that was stored in Solomon’s temple (Josh. 6:18-19; 1 Kings 7:51; etc.). Why does Jesus make void this concept of riches and establishes another one in Matt. 6:19-21? Jesus and Jehovah are not one.
15. Jehovah gave his measure for love in the Law: “And you shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5). “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). Jesus established another standard saying, “A New commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you” (John 13:34). The love with which Jesus loves men is so vast, divine, and glorious, that it places the commandment to love the neighbor as oneself in the dust, so inferior it is. The standard of Jehovah is carnal and human, but the standard of Jesus is spiritual and divine. Jesus and Jehovah have different concepts.
16. Jehovah loved himself better than he loved men, and he said, because Israel had not been faithful, that he had poured his wrath on them in Egypt. And he did this because he loved himself(Ezek. 20:8-9). This is the measure of the love of Jehovah. The measure of the love of Jesus is another, for loving lost men better then Himself, he gave His life on the cross to save them. Which is the greater love? There is one sure thing. Jehovah cannot be Jesus, nor can he be God the Father.

 By PASTOR OLAVO SILVEIRA PEREIRA