Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to make it quite clear that I tried to explain in my first speech that, as Jesus said, he came in his Father’s name: “I am come (John 5:43) in my Father’s name”. John 17 “I have manifested thy name” he said. In Philippians 2, which we will probably talk about later we are told that because of Christ’s humility and his perfect sacrifice he was “exalted to the Father’s right-hand side and given the name the name of Yahweh that is above every name. So then, Jesus carried the name of God. That is why we read in Isaiah 9:6 about Jesus “He shall be called the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father…” all these other titles of God. That name was called upon him and so that is why he could receive worship.
Now as Leslie has dealt with at some length with that subject, I will also give some attention to it.
Jesus then carried the name of God and therefore he could receive worship on behalf of God. The fact that he receives worship doesn’t imply either co-equality or co-eternity with the Father. You may like to notice in Hebrews 1: 5 & 6, God says to Jesus “Let all the angels of God worship him”. So then God commanded the angels to worship Jesus. So therefore the worship that Jesus had, in this case by the angels, was commanded, was directed by God.
Then consider John 5:22 & 23. “The Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son that (in order that) all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father”. So because the Father committed all judgment to the Son, as I said in my first talk, therefore all men can honour the Son even as they honour the Father. Philippians 2:11 we read that because God gave Jesus “the name above every name”, the name of Yahweh that was in order that Jesus should be worshipped by every tongue to the glory of God the Father. So the worship that Jesus was to be given was to the glory of God the Father and that surely is a fundamental point that all things are to the glory of Almighty God who as I said before, knows no equal.
Now as Leslie has pointed out, Jesus was worshipped. People paid Jesus reverence. Now it isn’t altogether true that men have always declined worship. You may like to look up at your convenience 1 Chronicles 29:20 where David was worshipped. If you want a New Testament example, Matthew 18:26 the servant in the parable worshipped his master. Revelations 3:9 the Philadelphians, it says, were to be worshipped. False teachers would come and worship before their feet. In the R.V. of the New Testament there is a note which says that the word “worship” denotes an act of reverence whether paid to man or God. An act of reverence whether paid to man or God. So the fact that somebody is worshipped doesn’t automatically make them God. Those notes were written by Trinitarians.
So then, we will move on from there to John chapter 1. Now many people read those verses there “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God” as if to say, well there you are, there is all the proof you need – Jesus was God. But it doesn’t say that, does it? That Jesus was God. It says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God”. Now we must notice that carefully. If John meant to say that Jesus was God, Jesus was in the beginning, well he would have said that. But it says the word was there in the beginning. Now, that phrase “Word”, in the Greek, is the word “Logos”. I quote from a Lexicon saying what that phrase means “the outward form by which the inward thought or reason is expressed”. So in some way, my words express my purpose; they express the essential me, if you like, and so it is with God, with the logos. It implies the essential purpose that was with God in the beginning. It says, John 1:3, “all things were made by him”, by the logos. Now that agrees with what we read in Psalm 33:6 “by the word of the Lord were the heavens made”; 2 Peter 3:5 “by the word (the logos of God) the heavens were of old”. God commanded, Genesis 1, “God said, Let there be light”. “God said, Let the earth bring forth cattle” and that is obviously what is being alluded to here in John chapter 1. It is clearly alluding back to the language of Genesis 1.
So then, the Word, the logos, is more than mere words as we understand them. It expresses the essential purpose, power, of God. Now, in verse 14 we read that “the Word was made flesh, and we beheld his glory as of the glory of the only begotten of the Father”. So then, the Word, this purpose that God has been working out throughout history, which He had with Him in the beginning, was brought together in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word was made flesh; it was turned into a flesh-and-blood form in the person of Jesus Christ. So then Jesus was “the Word made flesh” and that is why in revelation 19 we read of Jesus described as “the word of God” the logos of God because he was made the logos, the logos was made him, when he was born of Mary. In the other three gospels we read of the virgin birth of Jesus. We have looked at those passages already where the Holy Spirit would come upon Mary and therefore what would be born of her would be called the “Son of God” and in the exalted language of John’s gospel that becomes “the Word (the spirit, the power, the purpose, of God) was made flesh and dwelt amongst us”. So then, that is the meaning, I believe, of this phrase “logos”, that it was the essential purpose that was with God from the beginning of the world and that Word became Jesus. That light, that Word, that purpose that was with God from the beginning, became Jesus.
So we go on to think about “my Lord and my God”. Now that’s in John chapter 20. If you want to look at the chapter you see in verse 17 of John 20, Jesus said “I ascend unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God”. Now it sounds very strange for Jesus to say something like that and then to be called God Himself in person. Now one way of looking at that is that the word “God”, “my God”, “my Lord and my God” as Thomas used, it is the word “theos” which basically means “a mighty one”. It doesn’t necessarily mean God Himself in person. In the Greek New Testament incidentally there is only one word translated God. That is this word “theos” and it is used to translate the Hebrew word “elohim” which means “mighty ones”, and which is referred to angels, to men such as Moses and to other people apart from God Himself. So, it can be merely a title of ascription of honour unto Jesus or unto anybody.
Even if Thomas by saying “my Lord and my God” was implying that Jesus was his God the fact still remains as I have explained earlier that Jesus was the true manifestation of that one God. He came in God’s name, he spoke God’s words, he performed God’s works. He was God manifested in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16).
So then, the point is perhaps tidied up a little about the use of this word “God” if you go to John chapter 10 where, I believe, the Jews made the same mistake as Trinitarians do today. They thought that Jesus was making himself God. Now notice how Jesus answers that: John 10:34, Jesus answered them “Is it not written in your Law (then he quotes from Psalm 82) I said, Ye are gods (if you look at that Psalm, we haven’t got time to do it now, but you will see that it is talking about the judges of Israel, those men who were called gods). Christ says, verse 35 “if he called them gods (just men being called gods) unto whom the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken (i.e. you cannot deny this) say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world thou blasphemest because I said I am the Son of God”. So Jesus was saying, ‘In the Old Testament men are called God, why are you stoning me? I’m only saying I’m the Son of God?’.
So then, Jesus came in his Father’s name, he did his father’s work and he has been given that name at his ascension to heaven. I rest my Bible evidence against the trinity
Thank you.