YESHUA: GOD the SON


by Avram Yehoshua

(Endnotes in red. Click on the number to go to endnote. Click the BACK button on your browser to return to the article)

Our God is mystery in the most Glorious sense of Reality: Awesome and Incomprehensible. Yet, we can glimpse this Mystery from different angles or perspectives to gain some insights. We don't have to understand the physics of the Milky Way galaxy, to appreciate the stars of the heavens.

The problem that some have with Jesus 'being God' is that most confuse the noun-title 'God' with a name, like John or Ted. So, in Heaven, there can only be one John (God).1 But God is not a name. It is a designation,2 the One having it being deity. In a sense, 'God' could be the last name of the Deity; the family name: Papa God, Yeshua the Son (God), and the Holy Spirit (God). All share God-ness or Deity. We have no problem with an earthly family having all its members with the same last name; i.e. John Smith, Mary Smith, and child Smith. They too share the same nature (human), and are one (family).

In the Picture of Creation we see God creating Adam. From Adam, God creates or brings forth Hava (Eve). Their union brings forth a child. (The child has the same nature as the parents; human nature. For example, the child is not a fish or a monkey or a dog or a cat.) God says in Gen. 1:26; 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...' and in the next verse it states:
'God created Man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.' (Genesis 1:27)
I've heard many 'explanations' for what it is to be made in the image and likeness of God, but none of them have struck the cord of Truth with me.3 To be made in His Image and Likeness means that we must take a look at how Man was made. Adam, Eve and Kain (their first born son), are a picture or reflection of the Godhead or the God Family. This is what God is telling us when we read, 'Let Us make Man in our Image...' To see how God made Man is to see the inner Reality of the God Family. This is also the starting point for us to understand the Nature of Yeshua, that it is deity, and how the Three are truly One (God).

Adam and Eve were one, Eve literally coming forth from Adam. And the child, coming forth from the parents, is one with them, having their nature (human), the product of their union or oneness. Yahveh, the Name of the God of Israel (Exodus 3:15, and used about 7,000 times in the Hebrew Bible)4 confirms this oneness in marriage in Genesis 2:24:
'She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.'
The oneness that we see God speaking of here, between a man and his wife, reflects the Oneness of the God Family. The Rabbis say that the Spirit of the Holy One is both One with God AND separate and distinct from God. Perhaps they get this from Isaiah 48:16 which has the Messiah saying:
'Come near to Me, listen to this: From the first I have not spoken in secret. From the time it took place, I was there. And now the Lord Yahveh has sent Me, and His Spirit.'
Just as Eve came forth from Adam, I believe the Spirit came forth from Papa God. We don't see anything about the Spirit 'coming forth' from God the Father in the Creation account.5 It opens abruptly with the Spirit of God already present, moving upon the surface of the Waters. The Waters... are Papa God. Nothing has been created yet, so these Waters in Genesis 1:2, cannot be the waters of the Earth, which is not created until day three.6 From this activity, union or interaction of the Holy Spirit and the Waters, comes Yeshua, not created, but begotten in the Image of His Father. Just as Kain and Abel were within Adam, and so too Eve, so Yeshua was always within Papa God. For Yeshua is the Word of Yahveh or the Word of God. Gen. 1:1-3 records:
'In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. The Earth was formless and void,7 and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the Waters. Then God said, 'Let there be Light' and there was Light.'
The very first words of God recorded in Scripture are, 'Light, be!' (from the Hebrew of Gen. 1:3), and Yeshua, the Only Begotten of the Father comes forth in all His Glory:
'And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.' (John 1:14)
Most today know Yeshua as the Word of God. But when John wrote that, he was declaring the Word of God known to the Jewish People as being pictured or symbolized in the Stone Tables (the Ten Commandments), coming to Life. That was the Word of God in John's day before Yeshua came on the scene. The Ten Commandments carved into the Stone by the Finger of God,8 was now alive and walking among His People Israel. And this Word, of God, literally, God's first words recorded in Scripture (Gen. 1:3: Light, be!), give us the begetting of the Son. Yeshua is at one and the same time, One with the Father, and separate from the Father, just as a boy is one with his father and yet separate and distinct from him. Yeshua is His own Person. He is not the Father. Just as your words, when spoken, leave you and go into the air, but are still 'you' in the ears of anyone that hears you speak, so it is with God. If those words you speak could come alive, it would be a picture of God speaking forth His Son Yeshua, as the Light of the World.9 It's also a picture of Kain 'always' being within Adam.

It also means that the Son is the Image of the Father.10 What it means for human beings, that a son is the image of his father, so too it is meant to show us the deity of Yeshua. He shares the same Nature (God-ness or deity), with the Father. Just as an earthly son shares the same nature of his father; human. Most people get confused in this because Scripture states that there is only one God. It's not that Scripture is wrong, but the perception of the Scripture that many misunderstand. If we can realize that 'God' is the Nature of the Father, and the Nature of the Son, and the Nature of the Spirit, then it will be easier to see. They are One in their Nature, just as Adam and Eve were one, and then Adam and Eve and Kain and Abel and Seth. There is only one human race, but many humans. All humans share the same nature. In that sense, we are one (human family, sharing the same nature).

Yeshua is always spoken of as being begotten, not created.11 The Son has the Nature of the Father, just as Kain had the nature of his father, Adam. Adam was created. Kain was begotten, in the image of his father. Kain was a sinful human being, just like his father and mother. After the Creation of Adam and Eve everyone is begotten. They are in the same image and likeness as the original parents. They all share human nature. They share or have the same nature as the ones that begot them. Yeshua, begotten of God, has the same Nature as His Father, divine. Hebrews 1:5 states:
'For to which of the angels did He ever say, 'You are My Son. Today I have begotten You'? And again, 'I will be a Father to Him and He shall be a Son to Me'?
The account in Hebrews is taken from the Psalms:
'I will tell of the decree: The LORD said unto me: 'Thou art My son, This day have I begotten thee. '12
The Hebrew word for 'begotten' means, 'to bear, bring forth...to beget, as a father.'13 Many religions, including Christianity and Judaism, tell us that God is our Father, and that we are sons of God. In the text of John 1:14 and Hebrews 1:5 above, there is a special distinction made though, between our sonship and the Son of God, Yeshua. A better translation of John would have it saying,
'And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His Glory as of the only Unique One (Son), from the Father,...'
This marks a delineation between human beings who have been begotten from Adam and Eve, and God's Son Yeshua, who was begotten by the Father and the Spirit. Adam and Eve were not begotten, they were created. Yeshua was not created, but begotten in the Image and Likeness of His Father.

Jehovah's Witnesses and other cults miss the Deity of Yeshua because they don't understand the concept of the first human family being created in the Image of God. Also, they try to understand the Hebraic oneness of Israel's God, in Greek terms. What I mean by this is that the Greek sense of the concept of 'one' leaves no room whatsoever for anyone else to be 'God' except the Father. And that's why Jehovah's Witnesses say that Jesus is a created angel.14 But the concept of oneness in Hebrew can give us one vine, but many grapes. One God, but three distinct Persons who are One (share the same Nature). In this understanding both the Holy Spirit and Yeshua can be 'God,' sharing the same Nature as the Father.15 That's what the Creation account is telling us in relation to the deity of Messiah Yeshua.

Also interesting to note, the Hebrew word for 'one,' used in the Shema, means something that is one conceptually. The Shema forms the central belief of Judaism (that Yahveh is the God of Israel and that He is One), and Yeshua says that it is the greatest Commandment:
'Hear, O Israel! Yahveh is our God, Yahveh is one!16 You shall love Yahveh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deut. 6:4-5)

'One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, 'What Commandment is the foremost of all?' Jesus answered, 'The foremost is, 'Hear, O Israel! Yahveh is our God, Yahveh is one' and you shall love Yahveh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul (and with all your mind)17 and with all your strength.' (Mark 12:28-30)
The understanding that the word for 'one' in Hebrew can mean a group of things that are the same, would allow for both the Father and the Son, to share deity, as well as the Holy Spirit. The Hebrew word, eh-had means, 'one' and also, 'as one, together'.18 From this word comes the noun (that can also be used as a name),19 ae-houd which means, 'union.' This I believe is what God is speaking of when He declares that He is 'One.' It is not as though He were saying 'one pencil', but one family or corporate unity. When spoken of the God Family, it means that they are 'one' or in union, or together. The Theological Wordbook says that the word for one, in the Shema, is closely identified with another Hebrew word that means, 'to be united...and stresses unity while recognizing diversity within that oneness.'20

It goes on to state that there are many places in the Scriptures that 'many' are seen as 'one':

'Likewise in Exodus 24:3, 'with one voice' expresses that all Israel was involved in entering into the Covenant with Yahweh (sic). The concept of unity is related to the Tabernacle, whose curtains are fastened together to form one unit (Ex. 26:6, 11; 36:13). Adam and Eve are described as 'one flesh' (Gen. 2:24), which includes more than sexual unity. In Gen 34:16 the men of Shechem suggest intermarriage with Jacob's children in order to become 'one people.'

'Later, Ezekiel predicted that the fragmented nation of Israel would someday be reunited, as he symbolically joined two sticks (37:17). Once again Judah and Ephraim would be one nation with one King (37:22).'21

From this we can see that the Hebrew word is used conceptually to denote oneness in unity, and not necessarily something that is one in the sense of 'one car.' With Adam and Eve being one, we see the reflection of the Father and the Spirit. This is a unity or union; a oneness. Adam and Eve share human nature and the Father and the Spirit share divine Nature or deity, along with the Son.

The Creation account also shows us how you and I are born into the Kingdom of God and offers us a different way of seeing the Holy Spirit. In John 3:5, Yeshua says this:
Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of Water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.'
Here we see Yeshua referring to both Water and Spirit. I think this is a direct reference to Genesis when it states that the Spirit of God was hovering over the Waters And then we read that Light came forth, by the Word of God. That is how we are birthed into the Kingdom. Both the Father and the Spirit, the Water and the Spirit, 'produce' within us, the Son, Yeshua. It parallels how Yeshua became the Light of the World and how we now have that Light 'birthed' within us. This is the Born from Above experience. That Light that was seen on Day One of Creation is now within us. And now, we are being made into Yeshua's Image.22

Also, when we are Born from Above, the Spirit comes to live within us, and brings the Father and the Son.23 What God has ordained from before Creation is the His Son would have a Bride: all the Jews and Gentiles who love the Messiah. Isn't it interesting that the Spirit of God is making us into a Woman? Rev. 21:9 reads,
'Then one of the seven angels, who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me saying, 'Come here, I will show you the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb.'
This is the compliment in the spiritual, of what we read in the natural of Adam, and then of Eve, being created by 'God.' This is a reflection of what the Father is doing for His Son, Yeshua. He is taking a Wife out of the Son, that the Son might have a Bride, just as He took a wife out of Adam, so he could have a bride. Genesis 2:21-24 gives us the account in the natural:
'So Yahveh God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept. Then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. Yahveh God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.'

'She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.'
Can it get any more 'one' than that? Woman being taken out of Man? Can it be any clearer what Yahveh is showing us when He says that Man was made in His Image and Likeness? The Son of God proceeded from the union or oneness of the Spirit of God and God the Father. And if this is accurate, then the Spirit came forth from the Father, just as Eve came forth from Adam. Eve was within Adam as the apple is within the seed, that will bring forth the tree. And we, the Bride that has been bought or created with the Blood of the Son, have been taken out of His Side, just as Eve came from the side of Adam. Perhaps this account is meant to tell us that:
'But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.' (John 19:34)
From that Blood and Water, we have been created in the Image of the Son, to be His Wife; to be One with Him, and the Father and the Spirit. To share their deity. Just as Adam and Eve were created in the Image of God, so too now we are being made into the Image of Yeshua, coming forth from His Side:
Gen. 4:1: 'Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, 'I have gotten a man child with the help of Yahveh.'

Gen. 3:20: 'Now the man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.'

John 16:27-28: 'for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.'

John 17:8: 'for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them, and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.'

John 15:26: 'When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,'
From the Picture of Creation we have come to see that just as Eve literally came forth from Adam, and their union brought forth or begot a son in their image, so too the Son came forth from God (the Waters and the Spirit).

That Jesus is the Son of God is well attested to in the New Testament. That Jesus is neither the same Person as the Father, or a created being, is also well documented in the New Testament. It is only those who fail to understand what the New Testament is saying about the Son, that consign Him to being the same Person as the Father, or a created being.

There has been a recent swing in Jewish Bible publications to translate the Shema and add to it, '...the Lord is one God' or, 'one Lord.' This interprets the text as a polemic against the God of Israel not having a Son. They have no basis either in grammar of the text, or how it has been translated in the past, as recently as 1982:

'HEAR, O ISRAEL: THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE.24

That Jewish people present the Shema ('Hear Oh Israel...') with its statement that 'Yahveh is One' as a proof that 'God can't have a son' does not take into account that the word for 'one' can mean the union of two or more beings. It also doesn't deal with the fact that God made Adam and Eve and their offspring as a picture for us to understand the Reality of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit all sharing deity and being the One True God.
END NOTES

  1. That's why some say, 'If the Father is God, how can Jesus be God?'
  2. Literally, it's a title, not a name, like lord or general or captain, etc.
  3. For instance, 'Humans have a spirit which animals don't have,' or 'Humans have an intellect' although I wonder about that sometimes, or 'Humans are able to worship God, whereas animals don't' etc.
  4. Yahveh is usually translated as 'the LORD' due to a Christian tradition that followed a perverse Jewish tradition. Yeshua did speak of the blind leading the blind...
  5. Yeshua does say that the Spirit proceeds from God the Father in John 15:26: 'When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,'
  6. Genesis 1:10, 13.
  7. Some would say that the Earth was already created, but all this phrase gives us is that there was no form to the Earth, and that it was void. Picture in your mind something that has no form and you will see absolutely nothing. What the verse is saying is that the Earth was not yet in existence.
  8. Exodus 31:18; 32:16; Deuteronomy 9:10; Exodus 34:1, 28.
  9. Yeshua is the Light, as He states in Yohanan 8:12: 'Then Yeshua again spoke to them, saying, 'I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.'
  10. John 14:9: Yeshua said to him, 'Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Colossians 1:15: 'He is the Image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.' Col. 1:19: 'For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,'
  11. Psalm 2:7: 'I will surely tell of the decree of Yahveh. He said to Me, 'You are My Son. Today I have begotten You.' John 1:14: 'And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.' John 3:16: 'For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.' Etc.
  12. The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, thirteenth printing, 1982), p. 1546. Psalm 2:7-8.
  13. Wesley J. Perschbacher, Editor, The New Analytical Greek Lexicon (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publications, 1990), p. 316.
  14. Others, trying to squeeze the Word of God into their own understanding, have the Father and the Son, being the same Person. But this is absurd for Yeshua never says that He is the Father, but that the Father has sent Him and that all who honor the Father must honor the Son (about 30 times in John, Yeshua refers to Himself as the Sent One; John 4:34; 5:24, 30, 36; 6:38, 44, 57; 7:16, etc. Also: John 5:23: 'so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.'
  15. This is not the Catholic Trinity that I am presenting here. The Catholics have taken their view of the God of Israel from Babylon. Please realize that everything that the God of Israel created, Satan has counterfeited with his pagan religious system.
  16. The King James Version, not understanding the conceptual reality that the Scriptures are presenting about Yahveh, mistranslates the Hebrew and says that Yahveh, 'the LORD' is 'one Lord:' Deut. 6:4: 'Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:' Substituting Yahveh for the title Lord (for the title Lord is not found in this verse), the verse would read, 'Hear O Israel, Yahveh our God is one Yahveh.' Doesn't make much sense. The current Jewish translations follow suit, by putting in 'one Lord' or 'one God,' but this is not how the ancients understood it.
  17. I doubt whether Yeshua would have added to the Shema (Deut. 6:4-5) as He was asked which Commandment was the greatest, not to make another Commandment up or to modify the existing one.
  18. Benjamin Davidson, The Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979), p. 17.
  19. The Prime Minister of the State of Israel in the year 2000 has that as his first name. It is usually written in English as Ehud.
  20. R. L. Harris, Editor; Gleason Archer, Jr. and Bruce Waltke, Associate Editors, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, vol. 2 (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), p. 30.
  21. Ibid.
  22. 1st Corinthians 15:49: 'Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.' 2nd Cor. 3:18: 'But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the Glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same Image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.'
  23. John 14:23: 'Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.'
  24. The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text, vol. 1, p. 437. 13th printing: 1982, © 1955.
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