God, Angels, Jesus Christ, and the Crucifixion, continued

To begin with "The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph. 3v 14), as God is apostolically described, who was made known to Israel by the angels, revealed through the prophets, and manifested in Jesus. The first thing revealed about Him is His absolute unity. He is declared to be ONE. This is one of the most conspicuous features of what is revealed on the subject. We submit a few illustrations of the testimony:-- Moses to Israel (Deut. 6v 4).-

"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is ONE Lord."

Jesus to one of the Scribes (Mark 12v 29): --

"Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments, is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is ONE Lord."

Paul to the Corinthian believers (I Cor. 8v 6):--

"To us there is but ONE GOD, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him."

Paul to the Ephesians (Eph. 4v 6):--

"There is ONE GOD and Father of ALL, who is ABOVE ALL, and through all, and in you all."

Paul to Timothy (I Tim. 2v 5) :--

"There is ONE GOD, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

With these statements agree the Almighty's declarations of Himself, of which the following are examples :--

"I am God, and THERE IS NONE ELSE... and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done" (Isa. 46v 9, 10).

"I am the Lord, and there is none else: THERE IS NO GOD BESIDE ME" (Isa. 45v 5).

"Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and His Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts: I. am the first and I am the last, AND BESIDE ME THERE IS NO GOD... Is there a God beside Me.9 Yea, there is no God; I know not any" (Isa. 44v 6, 8).

The only statement in the New Testament that amounts to a plain inculcation of the Trinitarian view, is unanimously renounced by Bible critics as a spurious interpolation upon the original text. On this ground is has been omitted altogether from the Revised Version of the New Testament. It is in the 7th verse of the 5th chapter of I John:-- "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one: and there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three agree in one." The interpolation is enclosed in brackets. The verse reads intelligibly without the interpolation, and affirms a fact patent to the early believers. The interpolation bears its condemnation on its face; for it would confine the presence of "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit "--that is, God in every form according to Trinitarianism--to heaven, and thus upset the Scriptural and obvious fact that the Spirit is everywhere, and that God's presence, by it, fills the universe.

"This text is not contained in any Greek MS. which was written earlier than the fifth century. It is not cited by any of the Greek ecclesiastical writers, not by any of the earlier Latin fathers, even when the subjects upon which they treat would naturally have led them to appeal to its authority. It is, therefore, evidently spurious, and was first cited, though not as it now reads, by Virgilius Tapsensis, a Latin writer of no credit, in the latter end of the fifth century; but by whom forged is of no great moment, as its design must be obvious to all." Such is a statement of the grounds upon which the passage has been omitted from the Revised Version.

The revelation of the Deity's unity, set forth in the testimonies quoted, agrees with the one great induction of modern science. Nature is seen to be under one law and one control throughout its immeasurable fields. There is no jar, no conflict; the power that constitutes, sustains, and regulates all is seen to be ONE. Cold freezes and heat dissolves in all countries alike. The light that discloses the face of the earth, irradiates the moon and illuminates the distant planets. The power that draws the moon in circular journey round the earth, impels the earth around the sun, and drags even that stupendous and glorious body, with all its attendant planets, in a vast cycle, with the rest of starry creation, around AN UNKNOWN CENTRE; that is, a centre distinctly indicated in the motion of the stellar universe, but whose locality cannot even approximately be determined on account of the vastness of the motion, and the impossibility of obtaining data for calculation in the compass of a human lifetime.