What about John 1:1?

-

A summary of the One God Report podcast, "What about John 1:1?"



Ever since I came to understand from the Bible that God (Yehovah, YHVH) is one, and that Jesus is God’s human Messiah (Christ) whom God raised from the dead, people say to me: “What about John 1:1?”. For my friends who believe in the “deity of Christ”, John 1:1 is biblical evidence that Jesus is God.

But is it?

In this podcast we begin to take a look at the Gospel of John and see that the Trinitarian or "deity of Christ" interpretation of John 1:1 is found wanting.

We show four "broader view" observations about the Gospel of John to see there is something wrong with the Trinitarian interpretation:

1.  The purpose for writing

The author of the Gospel of John tells us the purpose he wrote his book, or at least why he recorded the signs that Jesus did. “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are recorded so that you might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).

The Trinitarian "deity of Christ" interpretation of John 1:1 is contradictory to the author's own purpose statement.

We present what it means to be the "Son of God", describing biblical examples and characteristics, rejecting the definition of the Hellenized "church fathers" of later centuries.

2.  No Trinity in John’s Gospel

In the Gospel of John, “God” is never the Trinity. Trinitarians should at least acknowledge that there is no Trinity described in John 1:1 (or anywhere else in John’s Gospel). Try replacing the word "Trinity" for the word "God" in the Gospel of John, and see if that makes sense. For instance, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the Trinity, and the Word was the Trinity"

How about John 3:16: "For the Trinity so loved the world, that he (it?) sent his (its) unique Son...."

It is strange that for the biblical book that is supposedly the main book that presents Jesus as God and that God is a Trinity, nowhere in the book does "God" mean "the Trinity. More details here: https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2019/10/did-trinity-so-love-world-in-gospel-of.html

3. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is the Messiah, not God

The question that the Gospel of John addresses and answers is: "Is Jesus the Messiah", not "Is Jesus God" or "Is the Messiah God". We see being "the Messiah" is the question from the beginning of the book to the end: John 1:17, 1:20, 1:41, 4:25-26, 7:26, 7:41, 9:22, 10:24, 17:3, 20:31.

4. Jesus in the Gospel of John distinguishes himself from God

In John 8:40 Jesus says he is a "man who heard the truth from God".  Jesus distinguished himself from God, from all of God, not just from "one person of the Godhead".  Likewise Jesus distinguishes himself from God in John 17:1-3 when he says that the Father is the "only true God" and that he, Jesus, is the Messiah sent by God.

5. Finally, we ask the question, and leave open for later examination, what beginning is intended by the words of John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word..." Is this beginning a direct reference to the Genesis creation, or does the author of the Gospel of John have in mind a new beginning? How is "the beginning" used in other places in John's Gospel, in John's Epistles, and in the Book of Revelation?

Comments

Dennis Gannon said…
Amen
May 26, 2021 at 8:55 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Word Became Flesh? Why John 1:14 Does NOT Say that God Became Man

-
Image
For an audio podcast of this post, click here : For many Trinitarians, or for those who believe in the “deity of Christ”, a few words from John 1:1 combined with a few words from John 1:14 forms the , and I mean the #1 evidence that Jesus is God, and that therefor somehow God is a Trinity. John 1:1 says “the Word was God”, and then skip down to John 1:14, “the Word became flesh”. That’s it. Jesus is God, literally.   But wait a second.   In a future podcast I plan to suggest that a better way to understand John 1:14 is that “the Logos, the Word was flesh”. In other words, the Logos, the Word - God’s communication to us - was a human being, the man Christ Jesus from Nazareth.   But the focus of this podcast will be on the problems with the “deity of Christ” interpretation of John 1:14.   Jerusalem, we have a Problem: Problems with the Trinitarian and Deity of Christ Interpretation of John 1:14   The “deity of Christ” interpretation of John 1:14 may sound or look
Read more

Why Did Hamas Attack Israel?

-
Image
I found this analysis called “Why Did They Attack Us?” by Shai Eden, an Israeli digital creator and businessman, to be helpful in understanding the wider picture of what is going on between Israel and Hamas. I don’t necessarily agree with everything Mr. Eden says, and I find him to be inconsistent in several places. However, I think Mr. Eden explains well how the Israel-Hamas situation is related to a wider Russian-Iranian-Chinese alliance as opposed to a Western-Sunni-Israeli alliance. The translation is from Hebrew to English, done by Google translate and polished by me, Bill Schlegel. Original Hebrew Post by Shai Eden, digital creator & businessman. Oct/27/2023 (with additional links and maps) https://www.facebook.com/631503054/posts/pfbid02mZNeKtu28eUcs3VtBeqfa7BDuDAx6bPY8VusRmFdZP14FuJ7ZKdcoLFCjtu2YHdNl/?mibextid=cr9u03 Translation begins: _ _ _ _ _  Why did they attack us? Despite the hatred, and love of death of Hamas, the reason for the timing and size of their a
Read more

Hebrews 1:8-14, Is the Son called God? Did Jesus create the heavens?

-
Image
Below are summary notes for Part 2 of our study of chapter 1 of the Book of Hebrews. In the first episode we examined Hebrews 1:1-7. In this episode we examine Hebrews 1:8-14. To hear the podcast, click here , or find One God Report on your podcast platform. We note that the word “saying”, or “he says” which appears in English translations in Hebrews 1:8 is not in the Greek text.  The Greek is only "of the Son".  The speaker of the words quoted from Psalm 45 is not God, but the Psalmist. Adding “he says” or “saying” to Hebrews 1:8 makes it sound, incorrectly, that God is calling the Son, “God”. But the speaker at this point is not God. The speaker is the Psalmist who shows honor to the Israelite/Judean king. Hebrews 1:8-9 is a quote from Psalm 45, which is a marriage hymn addressed to a king descended from David (perhaps Solomon, or Hezekiah?). The Davidic king has a God who has blessed him (45:2) and anointed him (45:7). The Davidic king is lauded for his stre
Read more