Then the LORD
answered Job out of
the whirlwind, and
said:
“Who is this who
darkens counsel
by words without
knowledge?
Now prepare yourself
like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer Me.
where were you when I
laid the foundations
of the earth? Tell
Me, if you have understanding.”
Job 38:1–4
The word we
translate from the Hebrew, “LORD,” in this verse is the tetragrammaton, that is
the letters that make up the national name of God, which carries with it the
meaning of one who is self–existent, the Eternal One. The exact pronunciation
is in debate as there are no vowel marks for those letters as there are for adonay.
We can say Jehovah, Yahweh, and in any case if you understand each
pronunciation is speaking of the Eternal, Self–Existent God. Jehovah (I will
use that term) and said to have been the One who caused creation, the forming
of the foundations of the earth. John 1:1 reiterates that the word was created and
this by the Word, the Logos; therefore both are speaking of the same creator. The
Word was in the beginning. Where was His locality? Read chapter 38 or Job and
you will find that this creator revealed and we gradually perceive through
those versed by the revelation of the Holy Spirit that His location was: “In
the beginning.” John tells us in verse one of chapter one that; “the
Word was with God.” By those words, we begin to have a glimmer of God, the
Word, and their relationship. It is as if this glimmer is by the light of God’s
arrows, and the shining of His spear: “the sun and moon stood still in their
habitation; at the light of Your arrows they went, at the shining of Your
glittering spear” (Habakkuk 3:11). John hurls a glittering spear and
shining arrow against those heretics who were claiming that Jesus Christ was
someone other than what He was and is. Those blasphemies of malice that denied
Jesus Christ existed before Mary, before His incarnation. There was and is
today, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses that deny the Trinity, that the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Sprit are One. Mormons make each a god separate in person,
and the Jehovah Witnesses not only make Jesus to be another god, they deny that
the Holy Spirit is God. John makes this clear that the Word was with God, there
is no doubt that Jesus who was in the beginning and with God is not some other
creation by God, for there are no Scriptural references that Make Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, the Messiah to have been created. For Jesus to be “with God,”
then He holds the highest of honor, the highest in merit, and as John will
reveal to us in his book, the greatest in Love. We need further clarification.
For the Word to be with God is not as it is with a chain that is hung around a
persons neck, for when a person hangs a necklace, even of great worth, gold,
around his neck, that necklace of gold is not of the man’s substance. The Word
was with God as wisdom is with a wise man, as with a mighty man: “But I have
understanding as well as your; I am not inferior to you. Indeed, who does not
know such things as these” (Job 12:3)? The rich man who has hung around his
neck this necklace of gold is on him or in his pouch, but God’s Word is in His
heart. Is this not what Job stated that in himself is where his understanding,
wisdom lies, not outside of himself?
The Word of
God was truly with God. Is this not what John wrote? Yes! Then John adds: “and
the Word was God’ (John 1:1c). Here John connects the Word Who was in the
beginning, and with God to be God. John has borne witness that in substance lays
two persons, God and the Word. The Sabellians or Modalists as with the
Universal Pentecostal Church of God and the Apostolic Church believe that there
is not a trinity, only God operating in different modes. The Arians, Jehovah
Witnesses struggle with this article of faith as well as they make both God and
the Word to be two separate beings. Jehovah Witnesses teach that the Father
alone is God and creator and that the Son is a creature, albeit, mighty and
surpassing. The truth that presented by John, this testimony in regards to God,
and the Word, booms loudly, and clearly. To ignore that truth so clearly
presented is because those who hold a different theology have departed from the
truth: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart
from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron”
(1Timothy 4:1–2). The consubstantiality of the Persons, the Father and the
Word are acknowledge by John and we have his witness to this fact, and we have
the contexts of Scripture to give witness to this fact: “and the Word was
God” (John 1:1c).
This one
verse so beautifully embraces everything that John has expressed by those three
propositions in verse one of his book: the Word was in the beginning, the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. John did not say that the Word was “in”
God, rather was “with God,” and by doing so John intended a greater matter
concerning the Word. There is importance in John’s words and in this particular
matter: therefore, I will address this in the next blogs.
And without controversy great
Is the
mystery of godliness:
God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified
in the Spirit,
Seen by angels, preached among
The Gentiles,
believed on
In the world, Received up in glory.
1Timothy 3:16
You are to be His image
Richard L. Crumb
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