THE TRUE GOD OF THE BIBLE (Knowing the True God, part 2)

KNOWING THE TRUE GOD

Part 2

                    

Who is the true God? It is very important to make sure that we worship the true God taught by the Bible because the Holy Scripture explicitly proclaimed the following:

II Thessalonians 1:8-9 NKJV

“In flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power”

Through the guidance of the Holy Scripture, let us know who the true God is. Who is the true God according to the Bible?

  

THE GOD OF THE BIBLE

The One True God taught by the Bible said, “I, and I alone, am God; no other god is real” (Dt. 32:39 TEV). He also said, “There is no God besides me” (Is. 45:5 NKJV). He further said, “There is no other God besides Me, A just God and a Savior; there is none besides Me”  (Is. 45:21 NKJV). The One True God of the Bible also explicitly said, “There is none like Me” (Is. 46:9 NKJV), “Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me” (Is. 43:10 NKJV), and “I know not one” (Is. 44:8 NKJV).

These words of the One True God are contradicted by the belief in the “Triune God” (that God is a Trinity – besides the Father, the Son is also God, and the Holy Spirit is also God).

How does the Bible introduce the One True God? Who is the One true God of the Bible?

THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND JACOB

The One True God according to the Old Testament is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob:

Exodus 3:15 NKJV

“Moreover God said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.'”

Thus, the God of the Bible is not the Lord Jesus Christ, because He is not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but the SERVANT of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob:

Acts 3:13 NKJV

“The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go.”

THE GOD OF ISRAEL, THE LIVING GOD

The One True God taught by the Old Testament is the God of Israel:

II Chronicles 33:16 NIV

“Then he restored the altar of the LORD and sacrificed fellowship offerings and thank offerings on it, and told Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel.”

The God of Israel is the Living God:

Isaiah 37:15-17 NIV

“And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: 16 "O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17 Give ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.”

         

Jesus us not the Living God but the “Son of the Living God”:

Matthew 16:16 NIV

“Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’”

THE ONE TRUE GOD IS THE CREATOR

The Old t Testament explicitly proclaimed that the One true God is the Creator of heavens and earth and everything therein:

Nehemiah 9:6 NKJV

“You alone are the LORD; You have made heaven, The heaven of heavens, with all their host, The earth and everything on it, The seas and all that is in them, And You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You.”

He alone created the heavens and the earth:

Isaiah 44:24 NKJV

“Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: "I am the LORD, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself.”

There is no other God who created the heavens and formed the earth:

Isaiah 45:18 NKJV

“For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: "I am the LORD, and there is no other.”

It is clearly written in the Old Testament that only One God created us and this One God is the Father:

Malachi 2:10 NKJV

“Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another By profaning the covenant of the fathers?”

However, the Lord Jesus is not the Creator, but the “firstborn of all creation”:

Collossians 1:15 NKJV

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”

He is not the Father, the One God who created all things. He Himself proves that He is different from the Father:

John 14:28 NKJV

“You have heard Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming back to you.' If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I.”

THE ONE TRUE GOD IS THE EVERLASTING GOD

The one True God who created everything is also the Everlasting God:

Isaiah 40:28 NIV

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.”

“Everlasting” means “without beginning or end”:

Psalms 90:2 TLB

“Before the mountains were created, before the earth was formed, you are God without beginning or end.”

However, the Lord Jesus came from God:

                             

John 8:42 TLB

“Jesus told them, "If that were so, then you would love me, for I have come to you from God. I am not here on my own, but he sent me.”

According to the Bible, the Everlasting God, the Creator of all things, “will not grow tired or weary” which an attribute of the One True God not found in the Lord Jesus Christ:

John 4:6 NIV

“Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.”

THE ONE TRUE GOD IS “OMNIPOTENT”

The One True God of the Old Testament is the “Almighty God”:

Genesis 17:1 NKJV

“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.”

He created the earth by His power, established the world by His wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by His discretion:

Jeremiah 10:12 NKJV

“He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, And has stretched out the heavens at His discretion.”

Because our God is the Almighty God, hence, nothing is impossible with Him:

Luke 1:37 NKJV

“For with God nothing will be impossible.”

Being Almighty, He owes His power to no one:

    

Job 12:13 NCV

“But only God has wisdom and power,

good advice and understanding.”

The Lord Jesus never claimed being omnipotent, but explicitly proclaimed otherwise:

John 5:30 NIV

“By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”

His “authority” was given to Him by the Father:

Matthew 28:18 NIV

“Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

Jesus was a man whose divine authority was clearly proven by all the miracles and wonders which God performed through Him:

Acts 2:22-24 TEV

“Listen to these words, fellow Israelites! Jesus of Nazareth was a man whose divine authority was clearly proven to you by all the miracles and wonders which God performed through him. You yourselves know this, for it happened here among you. In accordance with his own plan God had already decided that Jesus would be handed over to you; and you killed him by letting sinful men crucify him. But God raised him from death, setting him free from its power, because it was impossible that death should hold him prisoner.”

THE ONE TRUE GOD IS “OMNIPRESENT”

The One True God is “omnipresent” – God who is everywhere:

Jeremiah 23:23-24 TEV

“I am a God who is everywhere and not in one place only. No one can hide where I cannot see him. Do you not know that I am everywhere in heaven and on earth?”

Surely, these verses prove that the Lord Jesus is not “omnipresent”:

John 11:28-34 TEV

“After Martha said this, she went back and called her sister Mary privately. "The Teacher is here," she told her, "and is asking for you." en Mary heard this, she got up and hurried out to meet him. 30(Jesus had not yet arrived in the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.) The people who were in the house with Mary comforting her followed her when they saw her get up and hurry out. They thought that she was going to the grave to weep there. Mary arrived where Jesus was, and as soon as she saw him, she fell at his feet. "Lord," she said, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died!" Jesus saw her weeping, and he saw how the people with her were weeping also; his heart was touched, and he was deeply moved. "Where have you buried him?" he asked them. "Come and see, Lord," they answered.”

THE ONE TRUE GOD IS “OMINISCIENT”

The New testament explicitly says that the One True God knows everything:

I John 3:20 NKJV

“For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.”

Surely, the Lord Jesus is not “omniscient” as the One true God:

Matthew 24:36 NIV

“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

                                     

THE ONE TRUE GOD IS ABOVE ALL

The One true God is greater and above all:

Ephesians 4:6 NIV

“One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

             

The Lord Jesus will submit to the Father, the One True God:

I Corinthians 15:27-28 NIV

“For he ‘has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.  When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.”

                                          

The Father is greater than all, even to the Lord Jesus:

John 14:28 NIV

“You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”