And You Can’t Know What You Don’t Have
A site reader inquired:
In John the word was WITH God and WAS God. Doesn’t this imply that Christ is a different part of the same being? It seems from your article that you reject the Godhead. Just curious where you stand.
Thanks for your time.
Justin
Victor’s reply:
Justin, are you made in God’s image? If so, what other person of you is a part of the same being?
Jesus Christ is the Godhead. Many assume “Godhead” means something along the lines of a trinity. Look it up in Strong’s Concordance. As for where we stand, read the section – Jesus Christ Is God.
Victor
Justin answered:
Thanks for the speedy response Mr. Hafichuk. I read your article and disagreed with a few things. Or maybe not. Maybe I just explain it different.
I agree we’re made in God’s image and that God is ONE.
My soul (mind, will, emotions) and Spirit are parts of my same being. I always understood it as my body gives house to my soul and spirit. My spirit gives life (animates) to my body and soul. And my soul gives direction to my body and spirit.
Just like God the father gives direction to the Godhead. Jesus says nothing on his own, only what he hears the Father say. Just like my mouth says nothing on its own; only what my soul (mind) directs it to say. In my body dwells my spirit and soul, just like in Christ the fullness of God dwells. Christ is the image of the invisible God. If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father. And the Holy Spirit gives life to the Godhead. We see this when God acts out his will through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Take prayer for example. We pray to the Father, through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Like when two humans talk. They aren’t talking to each others bodies. But to the personality (soul) that resides in that body. So it’s to the soul through the body by the power of the spirit.
So I do agree that God is ONE as I am one. But humans are a tri-une being. When we get to heaven I believe it will be Christ alone that we see. But the trinity will be wrapped up in his flesh. Like my soul and spirit are wrapped up in my flesh.
What do ya think?
Justin
Paul’s reply:
Hi Justin, Paul here.
We think you’re confused, making things complicated by using carnal (soulish) reasoning, rather than having the spiritual revelation from above that makes things simple.
“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7 KJV).
We don’t have a soul as a separate entity from our essential being, but as men of flesh and blood, we are living souls. When we die and leave these bodies, we’re no longer living souls, but our spirits return to God in the spiritual realm, and we remain the same person:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the Name of the LORD” (Job 1:21 ESV).
Those of this world who are born again by the Spirit become alive to God, and are brought into harmony with His Laws and Ways by fiery trials and purging. Only then is the proper order established, with the believer no longer walking in his fleshly, soulish ways, but according to the Spirit of God, just as Christ did in the days of His flesh.
“Him who overcomes I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will go out no more. And I will write upon him the Name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of Heaven from My God, and My New Name” (Revelation 3:12 MKJV).
Is your theory, which divides God into compartments according to how believers pray, correct? The Scriptures say, “No”:
“And they stoned Stephen, who was calling on God and saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ And kneeling down, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:59-60 MKJV).
The resurrected Lord is our Father in Heaven:
“For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be on His shoulder; and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. There is no end of the increase of His government and peace on the throne of David, and on His Kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from now on, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will do this” (Isaiah 9:6-7 MKJV).
Is the prophet telling us about a triune god or the Lord God Almighty Who has manifested Himself in the flesh?
Here’s what you need to hear, Justin:
“Do not be carried about with different and strange doctrines, for it is good for the heart to be established with grace, not with foods, in which those who have walked in them were not helped” (Hebrews 13:9 MKJV).
Theorizing is getting you nowhere but in trouble. Here’s what you need to hear, know, and do:
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him” (John 14:21 MKJV).
Paul