If Christianity teaches that JESUS is GOD and the Jewish Shema in the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 6:4) teaches that God is ONE, how can these two seemingly opposing views be true at once?
Starting from the Law of Moses, there is a stunning PROGRESSIVE REVELATION of the ONE God as a UNITY (‘ECHAD’) of THREE persons. This is looong before the Greeks, Romans, Paul, the Church, Nicea or Tertullian). If you are looking for logic in this very unique nature of God you will be disappointed because, to begin with, a being who is eternal with no beginning IS illogical to our rational minds!
Progressive revelation means that the sections of the scriptures that were written later contain a fuller revelation of God than the earlier sections.
Jesus confirmed (Mark12:29) the Shema/central belief of Judaism in the Law of Moses (Torah) that God is ONE:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)
‘Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Mark 12:29).
[“ONE” in Deuteronomy 6:4 in the Hebrew language is “ECHAD” /אֶחָד which means a single entity but made up of more than one part (UNITY/COMPOUND).
Even the Arabic equivalent, AHAD (from which the Islamic Tawhid is derived) means “one of” and is usually used to indicate part of a whole. AHAD does not mean absolute singularity. All attributes of Allah of the Kaaba, as is the claim, are united with his essence and also united with each other.
[There is a Hebrew word that means “absolute singularity,” (YACHID), but it is never used in the Hebrew Scriptures in reference to God! The Hebrew scriptures never says “God is YACHID”]
“ECHAD” is also used in Genesis 2:24 in referring to a husband and wife (who are TWO) leaving their parents and becoming united into “ONE” (ECHAD) flesh:
“That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is UNITED to his wife, and they become one (אֶחָד/ECHAD) flesh. (Genesis 2:24).
What did Jesus really mean when he said “I and the Father are ONE.”? (John 10:30).
[ONE (ἕν) in the Greek Lexicon is numerical/refers to number/as opposed to many or as opposed to one in purpose].
Jesus was claiming to be in the same nature with YAHWEH because in the Old Testament, it is YAHWEH who is the shepherd and we are the sheep in his hand:
“For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His HAND. Today, if you will hear His VOICE” (Psalms 95:7).
AMAZINGLY, Like YAHWEH, Jesus said: “My sheep listen to my VOICE; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my HAND. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are ONE.” (John 10:27-30)
Clearly the context is that the nature of YAHWEH and Jesus is the same. They are ONE.
Jesus said “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?” (John 14:10)
No prophet or angel can be IN God!
YAHWEH says:
“I AM THE FIRST AND I AM THE LAST; besides me there is no god. (Isaiah 44:6)
Jesus says:
“I AM THE FIRST AND THE LAST: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”
(Revelation 1:17-18).
In the first book of the Torah (Genesis), Moses was the first to write about the supernatural occurrence of the ONE God being on earth and being in heaven at the same time, when God had visited Abraham and Lot on earth, in the form of the angel of the lord, to turn the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah from their wickedness:
“Then the LORD caused to rain upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;”
Tanakh Jewish Bible Genesis 19:24
WOW!
Jesus instructs the disciples to baptize “in the NAME (not names) of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
In fact, at Jesus’s baptism the three persons of the unity of God are mentioned in the same event:
‘And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the SPIRIT OF GOD descending like a dove and coming to REST on him; and behold, A VOICE FROM HEAVEN said, “This is my BELOVED SON, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17)
Of course the word ‘Trinity‘ does not appear anywhere in scripture but originated later from the early Christian writer, Tertullian, to describe the beautiful unity of the ONE God which was already found in the scriptures long before the word Trinity was used. Just because some one invented the term ‘oxygen’, it doesn’t mean that people were not breathing oxygen from the beginning!
Originally, the word means something like ‘the tripleness’. It is used to refer collectively to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus, Moses, the Prophets of old and the apostles spoke of these three persons long before Tertullian.
So how do we understand the beautiful unity of the 3 PERSONS in the ONE Godhead: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus said the Father is greater than I. The title ‘Son of God’ simply means that the Word (who in essence is God, spirit and eternal) was revealed or manifested (INCARNATED) in human form at a point in history by conception through the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is not God’s Son in the sense of a human father and a son. God did not get married and have a son!
God did not mate with Mary and, together with her, produce a son. “Only Begotten” in the Greek is “monogenes” which means “unique” or “of a special kind”. The Son exists ETERNALLY (Micah 5:2) as SPIRIT. Jesus is God’s Son in the sense that He is God revealed in human form (Isaiah 40:3-5, Malachi 3:1 and John 1:1, 14)]
Pagan religions like that of Greek mythology (Zues worship) believed that Zues had to engage in sex with his wives in order to have children. Although in the Qur’an Mary had a son without a husband, Allah of the Qur’an also thinks, like the pagan gods, that it is impossible for him to have children (QS 6:101) unless he has genitals and a partner/consort:
QS 6:101. “He is Wonderful and Primary Originator of the heavens and the earth! How (and whence) can there be a son for Him, when He has no consort? He has created all things and He has perfect knowledge of everything.”
During the INCARNATION, Jesus was temporarily “made lower than the angels” (Hebrews 2:9) However, Jesus is fully divine. By taking on human nature, Jesus did not give up His divine nature—God cannot stop being God.
Although the Father is greater in ROLE, the three persons share the same NATURE/ESSENCE of God—exist in eternity as spirit. They are unified together as God (ONE GOD) and function in harmony in the universe as well as in the lives of mankind. While the members of the Godhead have common goals and purpose, as well as shared attributes and functions, each person of the Trinity also has unique roles and responsibilities. In the relational nature of God, The Father directs and delegates the activities of the other two persons. The Father directs and has authority over the Son. The Son obeys and is responsive to the directives of the Father. The Son is SENT. The Holy Spirit is obedient to the directives of both the father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is SENT.