Listen to Nancy answer this question on Moody Radio with Kelli and Steve
What separates Christianity from all other religions and cults is the belief that Jesus is God. The Jews believe in the Father’s sovereignty, who created the Heavens and the Earth, but they reject the idea of Jesus being the Messiah, the Savior. They believe that the scriptures support their belief.
Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
The New Testament appears to support the Jews’ belief in God the Father without the persons of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
“Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one” (1 Corinthians 8:4).
“Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one” (Galatians 3:20).
Can these two different beliefs co-exist?
Absolutely not. Either God is triune: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, or He is not.
The Hebrew word for “one” is “echad,” meaning “unity,” not “singularity.” Genesis 2:24 refers to a husband and wife being “one” flesh. They do not become a singular being, but instead, they are in unity with each other. The Hebrew word “yachid” means “absolute singularity” and is never used in Hebrew Scriptures to reference God.
Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth.” Upon further study of the Hebrew word “Elohim,” the triunity of God is apparent. “Elohim” is masculine but plural in definition.
In Genesis 1:26 confirms this. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.'”
Other scriptures confirm that the God of the scriptures consists of three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 28:19, Jesus commands His followers to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Luke 3:21–22 reads, “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.'”
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:14)
Why is understanding the triunity of God so important?
Many cults, false religions, and corrupted churches teach the prosperity gospel or salvation by works. They may say they are Christians, and use Christian-sounding words, but they are not Christian because they do not believe that Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, are God.
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1,14).
The deity of the Holy Spirit is found in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”
Jesus confirmed His Godhood by fulfilling the hundreds of prophecies in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that prove that He is the Messiah, the Savior. The death and resurrection prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is fully God and fully human. He came to earth to die for our sins, securing our future of forever being with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in Heaven.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (I Corinthians 3:16-18).