ChristadelphianBooksOnline
Rick O'Connor
The Things Of The Kingdom And The Things Of The Name
God In Manifestation

GOD

How to Keep God Foremost in Our Life

The Most High, Most Holy God

Isaiah 40:21-22 “... He sits on the circle of the earth... the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers... He stretches out the heavens as a curtain... as a tent to dwell in”.

1 Timothy 6:16 “... dwelling in light which no man can approach ... whom no man hath seen, nor can see”.

Isaiah 57:15 “... the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit”.

Leviticus 10:3 “... I will be sanctified in those who come nigh me”.

Are We Forgetful Hearers?

“But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” James 1:25

“I declare unto you the gospel... by which also ye are saved if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you” 1 Corinthians 15:1-2

“Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as to sons” - Hebrews 12:5

“He that lacketh these (virtues) is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins” - 2 Peter 1:9

Who God is

God expounds himself in a name in Exodus 3:15 -

“... Y A H W E H - E L O H I M

he who will become - mighty ones - of your fathers, mighty ones of Abraham, mighty ones of Isaac, and mighty ones of Jacob... this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations”.

It is His name so that whenever we address Him we must for courtesy’s sake use it.

As a memorial He intends it to be a constant reminder of Him.

By making it His name He has ensured it will be an unfailing and effective reminder.

But a reminder of what?

His Name and Exposition of Himself


He
God, the Father - source and centre of all (Romans 11:33-36)


will become
 to indicate a God of purpose (Isaiah 55:10-11), bringing forth a family (Galatians 3:26)


mighty ones
 a multitude of children of God made strong by faith (Romans 1:16; 1 John 5:1-5)


of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
 (Romans 4:11-12), selected according to God’s grace (Romans 9:6-8)

The Real Meaning of Yahweh

Yahweh is third person, singular, future time of “Havah”.

“Havah” is used in Genesis 27:29; Exodus 3:15; Job 37:6; Isaiah 16:4; Ecclesiastes 11:3; Nehemiah 6:6; Ecclesiastes 2:22.

“Havah” is the ancient form of “Hayah” meaning “to become” and so, “to be”. It is used thousands of times with these meanings throughout the Old Testament.

As Yahweh is third person, singular, future time of “havah”, so “EYEH” is first person, singular, future of “Hawah” and “Hayah”.

“EYEH” - I will become, I will be note 2 Samuel 7:14 and compare with Hebrews 1:5.

The sense in which Yahweh will become is established in Genesis 18:18; 32:10; 48:19; Isaiah 60:22 - and note Exodus 2:10.

Yahweh the Eternal Memorial

“Thou Yahweh shalt endure for ever and thy memorial unto all generations” (Psalm 102:12; 135:13)

“Yahweh is His memorial” (Hosea 12:5)

“Many generations abundantly utter the memorial of thy great goodness” (Psalm 145:7)

“The desire of our soul is to thy name and to thy memorial” (Isaiah 26:8)

“Rejoice in Yahweh ye righteous; and give thanks for the memorial of His holiness” (Psalm 97:12)

“He has made His wonderful works a memorial” (Psalm 111:4)

“The righteous shall be an everlasting memorial” (Psalm 112:6)

The Name of God as a Way of Life for Us


What God Do You Worship?

All we learn of the Truth of the Bible, all we learn of Jesus Christ, is intended to lead us to God, to show us what sort of person He is and how we can be brought into fellowship with Him, as members of His family.

This session is designed therefore to explain what the Bible reveals of God and of how we can become related to Him.

One God, The Father

God has always existed, and will always exist. Although we cannot understand how this can be, because our minds are finite so we can only understand finite things, we are nonetheless surrounded by infinity. We do not understand the infinity of space, but the fact of it is obvious and undeniable, so we all accept it despite our lack of understanding.

So with God, the evidence of His existence is all around us, and can be accepted by anyone who accepts facts, even though we do not understand how He exists eternally.

The Infinite Creator

Our God is revealed as the infinite creator in Isaiah 40:

“It is he... that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in” (verse 22)

This shows God not only as infinite, completely without limits, but greater than that, beyond infinity so He can, as it were, look at infinity from the outside. God numbers the illimitable stars and has named each, and sustains each orb in its existence by His great power:

“To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth” (verses 25-26)

And God himself is beyond weariness and weakness. Like His existence, His power is limitless:

“Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding” (verse 28)

This is the limitless, eternal God who reveals Himself to us in the Bible. He wishes to bring us close to Himself, to give us the power to become His children, so that first of all we can be morally strengthened to please Him, then physically transformed to life for ever with Him:

“He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength... they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength” (verses 29,31)

Source of Life

God has life in Himself (John 5:26) as an inherent property of His nature. So He alone has underived immortality:

“The blest and only Potentate (sovereign of all), the King of Kings and Lord of Lords; who only hath immortality” (1 Timothy 6:15-16)

The Bible describes God’s physical nature as “spirit”:

“God is spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24)

By spirit, the Bible means the substance of God’s personal being, as distinct from flesh (the physical substance of mankind and animals - Isaiah 31:3).

Boundless Wisdom, Righteousness and Love

Spread through the whole breadth of the Bible is continuous exposition of the mental and moral “nature” of God. The great variety of narrative, history, doctrine, prophecy, warning and exhortation all display to us how God thinks and acts.

In two splendid epitomes God has summarised the two great facets of His mental and moral nature.

The first shows Him to be wise, and pure and righteous without the shadow of any foolishness or impurity:

“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5)

Light is a constant Bible metaphor for wisdom, purity and righteousness. It is used in contrast to the “darkness” of mankind’s ways, foolishness, sin, injustice. Compare the exposition of God’s wisdom and goodness in Romans 11:33-36.

By contrast to us, God’s mental nature is unalloyed wisdom and justice. The second of these summaries shows God’s moral nature dominated by love:

“We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him” (1 John 4:16)

The emotion which has impelled God to offer to become a “Father” to us is love, which this passage shows to define His moral nature. By His love, He seeks to spark in us a response, so that we become drawn to Him by mutual affinity.

Since “light” and “love” define God’s mental and moral nature they also define the qualities of mind essential in us to become His children.

The first essential in seeking the wisdom and love that unite us to God is to get to know Him - and to know Him as He really is.

The Father Alone is God

The truth about God has been lost to most of Christendom by the introduction of the doctrine of the Trinity into “Christianity” in the fourth century A.D. The Trinity is not a Bible doctrine. In fact it originated in Babylon some 2,000 years before Christ, and was grafted onto “Christianity” by the Catholic Church. Jesus Christ himself teaches that the Father is the only God and that neither Christ himself nor any other is part of the Godhead. In John 17 Jesus says:

“This is life eternal, that they (my disciples) might know thee (Father) the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (verse 3)

Jesus’ words are emphatic and clear - though godhead may be claimed for others, even for himself, such claims are false - the Father is the only true God.

Consequently the Bible frequently shows the Father to be the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, just as to us. For example:

“I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God and your God” (John 20:17)

“Blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:3)

Again, the Father is distinguished from Jesus and all others as the only God in 1 Corinthians 8:

“We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth (as there be gods many, and lords many),

“But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him”
(verses 4-6)

The force of this statement is that it is made as a refutation of assertions that there are other gods than the Father. It is therefore a deliberate exclusion of all others (including Jesus Christ and the holy spirit) from a part in the Godhead. We will consider Jesus Christ as a manifestation of God in the next section. The relationship of Christ to God is explained in 1 Timothy 2:

“There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus” verse 5)

Even now, in his position of highest exaltation in heaven, Jesus Christ is man and acts between God and man as mediator to God most holy.

What makes mediatorship between God and man essential is the fact that the most holy and pure God cannot and will not allow sinful, unholy man into His presence. Consequently, if Jesus were himself part of the Godhead, he would be invalidated from being mediator. It is only because he is man and at the same time, sinless and holy, that he can be our mediator to God most holy.

We conclude that the Father is the only true God, the infinite creator and source of all existing things.

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