You have said a lot ...but I think I can connect some ideas. Some people don't like my ideas here on TOL, but here goes.
There is ONE God. He is spirit and invisible to created natural beings. He is described in Genesis 1: 2
"... there was darkness upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. "
What I get out of verse 2: Darkness refers to invisible-ness.
The symbolism which relates waters to life ... causes me to perceive that The Spirit of the one God was alive moving within this state or realm of invisible-ness.
Yet we know that people claimed to have SEEN God Almighty. Moses was the first to call him The LORD God/YHWH. When he wrote the first five books he inserted that special name whenever it was appropriate.
Adam and Woman heard the WORD of God WALKING and they hid from his PRESENCE. Abraham walked and talked with him and fed him a meal. Jacob literally wrestled with him. 24 leaders of Israel saw him, ate a meal in his presence and was not harmed. Other prophets saw him in dreams and visions. Example Ezekiel.
QUESTION: Now how did an invisible God accomplish this appearing within his own creation?
He gives us a hint in Genesis 1:26-27: God admitted he had an image and that he created Adam a body after the likeness of that image. Sort of a walking talking facsimile of His Own walking talking image. God created a walking talking image for himself and used it to make his presence known to created beings.
This image created by and belonging to God was of a super-natural essence and he seems to have revealed it in any manner he wished. A dangerous fiery one or sometimes of the essence from which dreams are made. Sometimes out right and not dangerous, but yet able to ascend in the smoke of an offering fire and disappear. This is the presence which was representing the invisible God that was seen before anyone ever saw Jesus. God told Moses his name was The LORD, The LORD God / YHWH. At some point he became known as the Father of Israel. I've never found the moment that this happened in the OT ... but I have heard that people became afraid to say God's name outright so they began to substitute names.
QUESTION: Now does the reality that the ONE God created an image to represent him mean that there are TWO God's? I say NO.
They [God the Spirit and the super-natural visible LORD] are the One God; yet, humans only knew God as the ONE they saw appearing to their eyes.
Here is an example to ponder: To you I am invisible ... like a body-less spirit communicating with you. To others I am a walking talking presence. Does that mean there are two me s? No, I'm one me but manifested differently. To you with ideas and words, To others as a walking talking individual with ideas and lots of words. LOL.
Now, regarding our Lord Jesus. We know he was the WORD of God, who was God and yet was with God. What???
Well, if you consider for a moment the God is life and every aspect of his spiritual essence is alive ... then his WORD was just as alive as was his power, his creative intellect, his love and so forth... How did God use his living WORD? Ans.: He made a way to speak audibly in the ears of men and angels. Regarding the Garden of Eden, God sent his WORD into the Garden. How? By the use of his image. This is why Adam and Eve could HEAR the WORD of God walking and why they thought they could hide from HIS literal PRESENCE! With a bodily form the lips of the LORD Father spoke to them audibly in the Garden and walked among them. The WORD of God took part in creation and was [did exist] before the world was.
Now, does this mean that there are three Gods? The Spirit, the LORD Father, the WORD? NO. There is one God, but Adam only knew him as the unique visible FORM of God who walked and talked to them.
Well, John the Baptist taught that
Jesus was that WORD of God. He also taught that Jesus was
that LIGHT who had come into the world, but the world knew him not.
QUESTION: Why didn't the world know him as he WORD and THAT LIGHT? Ans.: Because he looked and spoke like a son of man [one of them.] NOT like the super-natural Father LORD God. The Jews knew that
their ONE God who appeared in the past did not look like a mere man! There was nothing about Jesus's appearance to make him desirable... as their super-natural God.
John 1:18 describes the first time people had seen God as the Messiah. Here is a diagram I did of the KJV sentence with my suggested insights inside [...]
Sorry adding an image here is new for me. I don't know how to get rid of the extra content I was writing to someone else.
View attachment 12568
ANYWAY:
The appositive for
God is
- the only begotten Son. IOW, God and Son are one. In diagramming it is like saying Martha my mother, Mr. Causey the principle
. God the Son.
The verse tells us that no one had ever seen God as the Son until that day, but John the Baptist identified him for people.
People had seen God the LORD Father but never before seen God the Son.
QUESTION: Does this mean by the time of Jesus there were three Gods? Spirit, LORD, Savior? Ans. No. However even though they are the one God and the One God is them, people knew them as three individual"persons". Why? Because the works they did among men made them unique individuals. I consider myself a person who believes in the trinity ... for I see them as unique individuals. God in three persons holy trinity. Something God can accomplish for himself ... but humans cannot accomplish nor conceive of the miracle. Don't limit God.
Isaiah 43:11 tops off the truth:
I [The ONE invisible Spirit who is God],
even I, AM the LORD [the visible YHWH the Father of the patriarchs];
beside ME [as God and LORD]
there is no Savior.
IOW, the ONE God is the Father and is the Savior ... this is why Jesus could say: The Father and I are one ... in spirit and appearance. Flesh just hid the glorious presence of the Father.
Praise our Savior, for he has made the way to impart unto us an additional measure of LIFE from God to secure our salvation for eternal life.
The ONE God plainly known to mankind as three unique individuals.
You need to read I Timothy 6:14-16 where you will see a future day when our risen Lord introduces the saints to the Father LORD who lives in unapproachable fire... and they will not be harmed. They are eternal.
Also read a prayer Jesus spoke, within John 17:4-5, where Jesus asks to get back the glory he once had [or shared] with the Father before the world was. I believe God honored that prayer and this is why Jesus will be there to introduce the saints to the Father ... and why he and the Father will be THE LIGHT of the new kingdom. They will be equally honored and glorified in the manner in which the invisible God worked through them among men.
