God

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Does Isaiah 45:11 say we can command God?

In the King James Version (KJV) of the English Bible, Isaiah 45:11 is rendered as:

“Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.”

The way the verse is rendered in the KJV has created the notion in the minds of many believers that man is permitted by God to give Him commands. But is this what the verse is really saying? From the immediate context of Isaiah 45:9-13 and from the broader context of the Bible, this rendering appears not to be what God said in verse 11.

Immediate Context

Verses 9-13 of the chapter reads as follows:

[9] Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? [10] Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth? [11] Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. [12] I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. [13] I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah 45:9-13 KJV).

In these verses, God was rebuking some individual(s) for their audacity in objecting to His decision to use Cyrus, the Persian king, as the means of setting His people free from the Babylonian captivity, and to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple in it. These individuals seemed to be finding fault with why God decided to use a heathen instead of an Israelite, like King David, to set the Babylonian exiles free. God therefore warned them of the danger of questioning the Sovereign decision of the Most High. In verses 5-6, He made His objectors know that He is the LORD, and there is no other God besides Him. In verses 7-8 and 12, He declared that He is the Creator of all things. In verses 9 and 10, God told the ones questioning His decision that woe will be to anyone who quarrels with his Maker. God reminded those finding faults with His decision that the clay does not quarrel with the potter (verse 9). The y, as clay in His hand (Isa. 64:8), therefore, have no right to question what He does with His children.

Putting these verses together, one can see that it is very unlikely that God was making a promise in verse 11 that human beings can give Him orders. God was rather asking the fault-finders what makes them think they can command Him. God seemed to be saying, using the words of the NIV, “Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?” (Isa. 45:11b).

The Broader Context

Besides the immediate context, there are other Bible passages that plainly reveal the sovereignty, perfect wisdom, and total independence of God from all of His creation. He does not need anyone to tell Him what to do because all of His actions are built on righteousness, perfect foreknowledge, and ineffable love. Much less, God does not need anyone to give Him orders. A few of such passages are:

[13] “Who is able to advise the Spirit of the LORD? Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him? [14] Has the LORD ever needed anyone’s advice? Does he need instruction about what is good? Did someone teach him what is right or show him the path of justice? [15] No, for all the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket. They are nothing more than dust on the scales. He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand. [16] All the wood in Lebanon’s forests and all Lebanon’s animals would not be enough to make a burnt offering worthy of our God. [17] The nations of the world are worth nothing to him. In his eyes they count for less than nothing— mere emptiness and froth. [18] To whom can you compare God? What image can you find to resemble him?” (Isa. 40:13-18 NLT).

[1] “The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, [2] ‘Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.’ [3] So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. [4] But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over. [5] Then the LORD gave me this message: [6] ‘O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.’” (Jer. 18:1-6 NLT).

[4] “For God is so wise and so mighty. Who has ever challenged him successfully?” [10] “He does great things too marvellous to understand. He performs countless miracles.” [11] “Yet when he comes near, I cannot see him. When he moves by, I do not see him go. [12] If he snatches someone in death, who can stop him? Who dares to ask, ‘What are you doing?’” (Job 9:4, 10-12 NLT).

[4] “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. [5] Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line? [6] What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone [7] as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7 NLT).

[15] What sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their evil deeds in the dark! “The LORD can’t see us,” they say. “He doesn’t know what’s going on!” [16] How foolish can you be? He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay! Should the created thing say of the one who made it, “He didn’t make me”? Does a jar ever say, “The potter who made me is stupid”? (Isa. 29:15-16 NLT).

[20] “But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? ‘Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” ’ [21] Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?” (Rom. 9:20-21 NIVUK).

“For who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice?” (Rom. 11:34 NLT).

What these Bible passages are saying is that as the literal clay cannot advise, question, or object to whatever the potter does, so are we humans. We do not have the capacity to contend with our Maker. Metaphorically, God is the Potter, and we, humankind, are the clay. If, therefore, God gave anyone a promise in Isaiah 45:11 to give Him orders, that will stand in direct contradiction to all these and many other passages of the Bible.

It can be seen very clearly that both the immediate context of Isaiah 45 and the wider context of the Bible do not support the translation in the KJV, ASV, NKJV, CSB, HCSB, etc. which makes God out as saying that we can command Him. It is clear that God was rebuking those who found fault with His decision to use Cyrus for the liberation of His people from the Babylonian captivity. God has the Sovereign right to use anything or anyone to do His work. No one can question His decision or give Him orders. Therefore, the translation of the verse in the RSV, NRSV, NIV, NLT, NET, MSB, NAB, BSB, etc. have appeared to be the better translation of the original Hebrew text.

Did Joshua Command God?

Some people have tried to support the KJV rendering of Isaiah 45:11b by giving what Joshua did in Joshua 10:12-14 as an instance when man commanded God. But they are wrong. The passage says:

[12] “On the day the LORD gave the Israelites victory over the Amorites, Joshua prayed to the LORD in front of all the people of Israel. He said, “Let the sun stand still over Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Aijalon.” [13] So the sun stood still, and the moon stayed in place until the nation of Israel had defeated its enemies. Is this event not recorded in The Book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the middle of the sky, and it did not set as on a normal day. [14] There has never been a day like this one before or since, when the LORD answered such a prayer. Surely, the LORD fought for Israel that day!” (Josh. 10:12-14 NLT).

Here, Joshua prayed to God before he gave a command to the sun and the moon. The sun and the moon are the creation of God. They are not the Creator. Two examples of this can be seen in the New Testament. Our Lord Jesus Christ prayed to God before he commanded dead Lazarus to come out of the grave (John 11:41-44). Apostle Peter did the same thing. He prayed to God before he commanded dead Tabitha back to life (Acts 9:36-41). None of these people, including our Lord Jesus Christ, ever gave a command to God. They only commanded God’s creation after they had the assurance that the Creator had heard their prayers.

Pray to God, don’t command Him

What God has promised us in the Bible is that we can ask what we need of Him in our prayers. There are numerous promises given us in the Bible that if we are doing the will of God, He will give answers to our prayers. See Matt. 7:7-11; John 9:31; Eph. 6:18; Phil. 4:6.

The prayers that were made in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, were with supplications. The synonyms for this word include pleadings, earnest requests, petitions, entreaties, pleas. The prayers were not made with any command. See also 1 Tim. 2:1; 5:5. An example of this was recorded about our Lord Jesus Christ during his first time on the earth. The Bible says, “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” (Heb. 5:7 NIV bold emphasis added).

The NLT renders it in these words: “While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God.” (Hebrews 5:7 NLT bold emphasis added).

The very son of God, the only one that came directly from God’s own being, the monogenes son, prayed with pleadings. There is no single record found in the Bible where Jesus Christ or any of his apostles issued commands while they prayed to God.

It behaves on me to let my uninformed Pentecostal friends know that it is a gross error when they issue commands while they are praying. They might have intended to issue the commands to Satan. But the truth is that one cannot be praying to God and issuing orders to Satan at the same time. When praying, all our attention must be on God. So, it is erroneous for anyone to direct his or her attention to Satan, even for a split second, while praying to God. A prayer made that way is wasted. You cannot be talking to Satan while you are standing or kneeling in your prayers to God.

Conclusion

The immediate and wider contexts of Isaiah 45:11 do not support the translation in the KJV and some other English versions that God put Himself in a position where He can be ordered to do a thing by any of His creation. There is no single instance found in the Bible where any human being has commanded God to do a thing. It is therefore evident that the English versions of the Bible which say we can give orders to God were incorrectly translated.

Is Jesus the “Only Begotten” or “One of a Kind” Son of God?

Articles God, jesus, Only begotten, son

The word “only begotten” is translated from the Greek μονογενής (monogenés). The word was used nine times in the New Testament – three times by Luke for a child who have no siblings (Luke 7:12; 8:42; 9:38), five times by Apostle John in relation to our Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9), and once by Apostle Paul in relation to Isaac (Heb. 11:17).

In most of the English versions of the Bible, the word used by the translators is “only begotten.” But in some modern versions like the NIV, NLT, BSB, NASB, GNT, ESV, ISV, NET, monogenés is translated as “one and only son,” “only son,” “unique son,” or “one and only.” The NASB still had “only begotten Son” in John 3:16 in its 1995 edition. But in its 2020 edition, it was changed to “only Son.” The problem posed to any Christian is the determining which of these versions he should accept as the one having the correct English interpretation of monogenés.

Ever since the King James Bible became the notable version used by most English readers, especially among Protestant churches, including Evangelicals and Pentecostals, the orthodox belief is that Jesus Christ is the only begotten son of God, the only one He generated or brought forth out of Himself directly. We have known that the “begettal” of the Son was different from the procreation of humans through the sexual union of a male and female. But modern Bible scholars are now saying that the word “begotten” was an erroneous translation of the word monogenésused by John.

According to them, the word μονογενής (monogenés) is a Greek adjective having two parts, μονο (mono), meaning “only” and γενής (genés). The scholars argue that the second part is derived from the root word γένος (genos), meaning “class,” “kind,” “one of a kind,” or “unique,” which does not have the notion of begetting or derivation by birth. The word γεννάω (gennaō), meaning “beget,” or “bear,” is said not to be a correct root for μονογενής (monogenés). They said that, whereas genos has one v (pronounced nu), gennaō has two vv (two nu’s). It is instructive to note that the Nicene Fathers used γεννάω (gennaō) twice in the Nicene Creed of AD 325. Did these men, who read and wrote Greek not know the correct meaning of monogenés? That question is beyond the scope of this article. But it need be said that the fourth century church fathers did much havoc to the doctrine of the Bible. There are many false theories they can be charged with. But here is one, for example. They said that while Jesus was on the earth, he was both God and man dwelling in one body simultaneously (Athanasian Creed, Lines 30-37). They went on to teach that as touching Christ’s Godhead [Godhood], he was equal to the Father, but inferior to the Father, having respect to his manhood (Line 33). How could Jesus Christ have been equal to the Father and be inferior to Him at the same time? This is a teaching of absurdity, not an explanation of the Bible.

Here are other findings I made on the subject under discussion:

In the first Latin translations of the Greek New Testament, the word unicus meaning “sole,” “single,” or “unique” is used in all the nine places where monogenés is found. It was Jerome who changed unicus to unigenitus (only begotten) in his Biblia Vulgata published in AD 405. He did it perhaps to counter what Trinitarians term the Arian heresy.
The scholarly argument against “only begotten” as an interpretation of monogenés did not start today. It has been found that as far back as 1883, Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901), an Anglican, who became the Bishop of the Diocese of Durham (1890-1901), published his Commentary on the Epistles of St. John in which he wrote that “unique,” rather than “only begotten” should be the interpretation of monogenés. Other publications which disagreed with the “only begotten” interpretation followed Westcott’s until, eventually, the Revised Standard Version (RSV) in 1946 changed “only begotten” to ”only” in the five Johannine verses. Other modern English versions followed. The translators of the New American Standard Bible (NASB), the version held as having the most accurate interpretation of the Bible, has recently done the same in their 2020 edition.
The translators of the New English Translation (NET) Bible made a footnote to John 3:16, which includes the following: “Although this word is often translated “only begotten,” such a translation is misleading, since in English it appears to express a metaphysical relationship. The word in Greek was used of an only child (a son [Luke 7:12, 9:38] or a daughter [Luke 8:42]). It was also used of something unique (only one of its kind) such as the mythological Phoenix (1 Clement 25:2). From here it passes easily to a description of Isaac (Heb 11:17 and Josephus, Ant. 1.13.1 [1.222]) who was not Abraham’s only son, but was one-of-a-kind because he was the child of the promise. Thus the word means “one-of-a-kind” and is reserved for Jesus in the Johannine literature of the NT. While all Christians are children of God (τέκνα θεοῦ, tekna qeou), Jesus is God’s Son in a unique, one-of-a-kind sense. The word is used in this way in all its uses in the Gospel of John (1:14, 1:18, 3:16, and 3:18).”
Monogenés also occurs a few times in the Septuagint (or LXX), the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, written from the third through the first centuries BCE. In Judges 11:34 it is used for Jephthah’s daughter, an only child. And it occurs in Tobit 3:15 which says, “… I am my father’s only child; he has no other child to be his heir …” It is also used three times in the Psalms, obviously with the senses of “only” and “alone”: “only life” in Psa. 22:20 (LXX 21:21), “alone” in Psa. 25:16 (LXX 24:16), and “only life” in Psa. 35:17 (LXX 34:17).
In the five places where the word us used of a child’s relationship with the father or mother (Judg. 11:34; Tobit 3:15; Luke 7:12; 9:38; 8:42), the sense has been that of being an only child, having no siblings. The sense of being produced by birth, which is normal for all humans, is not in focus in all of them. This might have been the same sense in which Apostle John called Jesus the “monogenés huios,” the only son of God, who has no siblings. However, the fact that God has other sons – angels and humans – who are His sons by creation, Jesus’s sonship must be of a different type.(cf. John 20:17). What makes his own sonship unique is not expressly spelt out in the Bible. The Byzantine fathers who formulated the Trinitarian dogma only surmised that it was the fact that God begot him. They could be right. But there is no explicit biblical warrant for this. The uniqueness of Christ might have been due to the fact that he is the only one that God granted His own divinity (cf. John 5:26; Col. 2:9). If this is true, the begetting of the Son by the Father cannot be ruled out as what John had in mind when he wrote monogenés; Christ’s divinity will point in only one direction, that of the Son being brought out of the very person of God Himself. The divine law of God is that everything produce their own kind (Gen. 1:11, 12, 21, 24, 25, etc.). Spirit begets spirit (John 3:6). The Godhood of the Son of God means no more than the fact that God brought him forth out of Himself. This begettal is not the same as human procreation that requires a sexual union of a male and a female. Therefore, it should never be thought of as a sexual union between God and the virgin named Myriam. The Son was begotten before the creation of the universe (John 1:1-3; Heb.1:2; Col. 1:16). His begettal took place long before his incarnation, when his divinity was temporarily suspended by God and was born as a human being. He pre-existed his supernatural conception and birth by Myriam.
The Bible has revealed that the angels of God also called “sons of God” (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7). The first human, Adam, has also been called the “son of God” (Luke 3:38). The phrase “sons of God” is used six times in the New Testament in relation to believers in Christ (John 1:12; Rom. 8:14, 19; Phil. 2:15; 1 John 3:1-2). Angels and Adam are sons of God because they derived their lives directly from God. We, the believers in Christ, are adopted into God’s family through His Son Jesus Christ. That’s what entitled us to be called the sons of God. It is biblically clear that our Lord Jesus Christ is not the only Son of God. The use of “only Son” by some translators is misleading. They need to immediately revisit their use of that phrase.

Was Jesus Not Birthed By God?

Besides the verses in which the Lord Jesus Christ is called the monogenés, is there a single biblical text in which Jesus is called the begotten son of God? Yes, there is. It is found in the Messianic Psalm 2. Verses 1-7 reads:

Psalms 2:1-7 NKJV

[1] “Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? [2] The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, [3] “Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us.” [4] He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. [5] Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure: [6] “Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.” [7] “I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.”

Some scholars and commentators have said the anointed king (v. 2) is a reference to David(1 Sam.16:12-13) or Solomon (2 Sam. 7:12-15). But the apostles have clearly stated that Psalm 2 refers exclusively to the Messiah Jesus. See Acts 4:25-27.

In the original Hebrew text, the word translated “begotten” is יָלַד (yalad). In the Septuagint (or LXX), the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, the Greek word used is γεγέννηκά (gegennēka). Both the Hebrew and Greek words mean the same thing. They mean to bear, bring forth, bear (of child birth), beget, gender, travail, procreate. See Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon #3205 and Greek #1080, as well as Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Definitions #3542. There in Psalm 2 lies the clear proof that our Lord Jesus Christ was begotten by God. God brought him forth out of Himself, not through any carnal union with any other person, but supernaturally out of Himself. Apostle Paul made reference to the begettal of Jesus Christ three times (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5; 5:5). In the three places, he used the Greek word γεγέννηκά (gegennēka) which was exactly the same word used in Psa. 2:7 (LXX). The idea that our Lord Jesus Christ was the begotten Son of God was not strange to the apostles. With this in mind, the argument that the etymology of μονογενής (monogenés) forbids the notion of begottenness is inconsequential as far as the five Johannine verses, in which Jesus is called the begotten Son of God, are concerned.

A Few Dissenting Voices

There are still some scholars who have disagreed with the “one and only Son” or the “one-of -a-kind Son” definition of monogenés by the modern translators. One of them is Charles Lee Irons (PhD in New Testament Studies) who published in 2017 an essay captioned ‘A Lexical Defense of the Johannine “Only Begotten.”’ In it, Irons wrote that he found “at least 145” words in ancient Greek that are built on the genés suffix of monogenés. He wrotethat the largest number of them have the idea of being born or produced.

In an online article with the title ‘Monogenés: “Only Begotten” or “One of a Kind,”?’ written by Larry G. Brigden, and published by Christian Study Library, he took the same position as Charles Lee Irons. In his argument, which was evidently in defence of Trinitarianism, he advanced a number of points against the “one and only Son” or “only Son” renderings in our modern versions. Two of the points raised by him are quoted here:

“Secondly, the claim that the γενης ending of μονογενης is to be derived from γενος, with the meaning ‘class’, ‘sort’, ‘kind’, may be tested by examining the meaning of the γενης ending in similar Greek adjectives which also have the same two-part structure. The following is a list of such adjectives:”

He then gave the list, with my additions in square brackets:

Αγεηνς [agenḗs]: not of noble birth; low born

Αγεννης [agennḗs]: low born

δῠσγενής [dusgenḗs]: lowborn, lowly born

ευγενης [eugenḗs]: well born, high born

ομογενης [omogenes]: related, of the same race or family, akin.

πολυγενης [paliggenesia]: to be born again, generated anew

πολυγενης [paliggenesia]: of many families

προγενης [progenes]: born before

πρωτογενης [prōtogenēs]: firstborn.

συγγενης [syngeneís] related, akin.

Having supplied the sample words, Brigden then drove the point home by writing: “It may be observed that in all these words the concept of ‘begetting’ or ‘derivation by birth’ is clearly present. So how may it be confidently asserted that μονογενης does not contain the concept of ‘begetting’? The assertion does not appear to be confirmed by objective evidence. On the contrary, the evidence indicates that the concept of ‘begetting’ or ‘derivation by birth’ certainly can be conveyed by the γενης ending. It is therefore entirely possible that μονογενης means ‘only begotten’.”

He made another point by writing, “From this examination of the two etymologies for μονογενης, it may be concluded that the meaning ‘only begotten’ is entirely possible. Certainly there are no grounds for summarily dismissing that meaning as is often done. On the other hand, the etymology of μονογενης which insists on deriving the γενης ending from γενος and then arbitrarily restricts the possible meanings of γενος within a narrow range, though those same meanings are not applied to other similar Greek words, cannot be considered an impartial or scientific etymology.”

Abraham’s Son, Isaac

The author of the Book of Hebrews wrote:

Hebrews 11:17-19 NKJV

[17] “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, [18] of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” [19] concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.”

Some Bible scholars and commentators have argued that since Isaac was not the only biological son of Abraham, the word μονογενής (monogenés) cannot be rightly interpreted as “only begotten.” They conclude that the better interpretation should be “one and only,” that is, of a different class, or “unique.” But it seems that all those who argue against the begottenness of the Son are driven more by some theological preference than an honest desire to know and teach biblical truth.

Why did Paul use the word μονογενής (monogenés) for Isaac when he knew that he was not the only begotten son of Abraham? The truth is not farfetched. As at the time God tested Abraham (Gen. 22), Ishmael and his mother had been sent away with God’s approval (Gen. 21:8-14). All that were left in Abraham’s house were his only begotten son, Isaac, and the sons of his bought slaves. According to the law, these sons were Abraham’s sons. But they were not his biological or begotten sons. See Exod. 21:2-6; Gen. 17:23-27; 14:14-16; 15:1-4. That was why God had to be specific as to which of these sons Abraham was to offer up as sacrifice. Not to create any doubt in the mind of Abraham, God said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Gen. 22:2 NKJV).

So, as at the time Abraham was tested by God, Abraham had only one son, Isaac, whom he gave birth to. All the other sons in his house were, technically, his sons. But they were not his begotten sons. Apostle Paul was perfectly right when he wrote in Heb. 11:17 that Isaac was the only begotten son of Abraham. In this instance, the sons of Abraham’s slaves, who were legally his sons, were in view when Paul was writing Heb. 11:17-18. Ishmael had been sent away, making Isaac the only begotten son that Abraham would have offered up as sacrifice. Paul couldn’t have written that Isaac was the “one and only” son of Abraham. After Sarah’s death, Abraham married another woman named Keturah, through whom he had other sons (Gen. 25:1-2). All these were born after Abraham had been tested by God. In summary, the only begotten son Abraham had with him as at the time he was tested by God was Isaac.

Conclusion

Even if all Christians should believe this moment that μονογενής (monogenés) does not have the notion of begottenness, it still does not obliterate the fact that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. We cannot fault the scriptures which say he was begotten, as written in Psa. 2:7 (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5; 5:5). God Himself is the one who said He gave birth to His Son. In Psa. 2:1-7, the Son is no other person than the Messiah. Acts 4:25-27 removes all doubt that Jesus Christ is the one. His begottenness makes him an offspring of God – someone that has a beginning. But his beginning was before the creation of the universe. It is apparent from Job 38:4-7 that even the angels, also known as “morning stars” and “sons of God,” were also already in existence when the universe was created. That Jesus is called God in some places does not make him ”the only God,” as rendered by the ESV in John 1:18. Would the ESV say the Devil and humans are also “the one God” by the mere fact that they are also called Gods in the Bible? It is instructive to note that in Psa. 45:6-7 where the Psalmist called the Son God is the very place where he said that YHWH, the one and only Supreme, self-existent Being called God, is his God. The Psalmist therefore meant that the Godhood of the Son is derived from YHWH, the one God. So, we can confidently say that the Son is a begotten God. The one God is not any other being than the Almighty YHWH (LORD in the Englush versions). He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (John 20:17; 2 Cor. 11:31; Eph. 1:3, 17; Col. 1:3; 1 Pet. 1:3; Rev. 3:12). Our Lord Jesus Christ has never been coequal or coeternal with his God and Father, as theorised in the Trinitarian Creeds.

One problem that has plagued theology is that we have dissipated so much time in arguing about particular words, phrases or verses while we remain oblivious to other parts of the Bible that teach and, probably, sheds the light we need on the same subject. So I ask, if μονογενής (monogenés) does not prove that Jesus was begotten by God, has the use of γεγέννηκά (gegennēka) in relation to him not shown that he was indeed begotten of God? The Trinitarians try to escape the truth by saying that Psalm 2 is a reference to King David by citing 1 Sam. 16:12-13. Others say it is a reference to Solomon because God said “I will be a Father to him and he will be my son” (2 Sam. 7:14). But God also said concerning Solomon, “when he does wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and with strokes of sons of mankind…” This could not have been said of the Anointed (Messiah or Christ), the one to whom it was said, ”you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions” (Psa. 45:7 ESV). More specifically, the apostles understood Psalm 2 as a prophecy about our Lord Jesus Christ. They declared this in Acts 4:25-27.

The debate about the etymology of μονογενής (monogenés) is totally insignificant because it does not obliterate the biblical fact that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God. When he was begotten of the Father is another discussion for another time.

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What Does the Bible Mean When Jesus Is Called the Son of God?

Articles Bible, God, jesus

To many Christians, the reason Jesus is called the Son of God is because he is God. The problem with this conclusion is that the angels, Adam, Israel, Solomon, and believers in Christ, have been called sons of God (Job 1:6; 2:1; Dan. 3:25, 28; Luke 3:38; Exod. 4:22; 2 Sam. 7:14; John 1:12; 1 John 3:1, 2; Luke 20:34-36). We do not expect anyone to view the title “son of God” used for the angels and humans as connoting their Godhood. We all understand that the title derives from the fact that God created them, making them members of God’s family in heaven and on earth (Eph. 3:16). All the sons of God derived their existence from God. It is in this sense that all beings created by God are sons (and daughters) of God (Eph. 4:6). Figuratively, the choice God made of Israel and their privileged relationship with Him also earned them the title “son of God” and “firstborn” (Exod. 4:22).

It is evident from these texts that our Lord Jesus Christ is not the only one who has been called the Son of God in the Bible. The question that readily comes to mind is how the title “son of God” means Godhood in the case of Jesus but means a different thing in the case of all the others? I have a strong opinion that the Trinitarian dogma is the reason people are not objective in their study of the Scriptures. The idea of the title meaning Godhood in the case of Jesus is what the Trinitarian dogma has made people read into the Bible. For example, the following is an excerpt from on online article:

“Jesus Christ is called the Son of God more than 40 times in the Bible. What does that title mean exactly, and what significance does it have for people today? First, the term does not mean Jesus was the literal offspring of God the Father, as each of us is the child of our human father. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity says the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are co-equal and co-eternal, meaning the three Persons of the one God always existed together and each has the same importance… Third, the term Son of God as applied to Jesus is unique. It does not mean he was a child of God, as Christians are when they’re adopted into God’s family. Rather, it points out his divinity, meaning he is God.” – Online article, “Son of God” by Jack Zavada, published by Learn Religions.

This is what most Christians have been made to believe in. But there is a whole lot of difference between the Trinity doctrine and the true teachings of the Bible. For example, the Trinity dogma says the one God is made up of three coequal and coeternal beings – the Father the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. Each of them is called God. But the Bible says the Father alone is the one God (1 Cor. 8:6; 1 Tim. 2:5; John 17:3; 20:17; Eph. 1:3, 17; Rev. 3:12; etc.). The Trinitarian dogma defined coequality and coeternity of the three persons of the so-called Trinity in these words: “And in this Trinity none is afore [before] or after another; none is greater or less than another.” (Athanasian Creed, Line 25).In other words, all the “three persons” are self-existed Gods. If we accept this to be true we have denied the teaching of the Bible which says the Father, whose name is YHWH, or Yahweh (יהוה) is the one God. He is called the Father because Adam (man) was the original creation of God; the woman was formed out of the man to be his helper. That is why families take their names from the father. God is called the Father not because He is of the male biological gender, but because He has made families to derive their names from the father. God is a Spirit (John 4:24). It is therefore believed that He possesses, as it were, neither male nor female genitals. People should therefore understand that Jesus was not a product of God having sexual intercourse with a virgin named Miryam.

Before Jesus became flesh, he had been with God in heaven and bears the name “word of the LORD.” (Gen. 15:1, 4; 2 Sam. 7:4; 24:11; 1 King 6:11; 18:1; etc.). He was that called because he was the one who spoke to mankind on God’s behalf. He was also the one referred to as “the angel of the LORD,” inmany places in the Hebrew Bible.

The concept of three coequal and coeternal Gods making up the one God of the Bible is a Trinitarian forgery. It is nowhere found in the Bible that the one God is made up of three persons or three coequal and coeternal Gods. What has been written, upon which all true Christians should place their faith is God who is neither a Duality nor a Trinity. God had clearly declared many times that He alone is God and there is no other God beside Him. See Deut. 4:35; 32:39; Isa. 43:6-10-12; 44:6-8; 45:5; Joel 2:27. But the Trinitarian Creed created three Supreme Gods and three Almighties. It then went on to fool people by saying the three Supreme Gods make up one Supreme God. The Bible does not teach that absurd theory. Thank God that many Christians have seen the falseness of the Trinitarian “Trojan horse,” meant to corrupt the true deism of the Christian religion, and have distanced themselves from it.

God had declared through Moses that He is one Being. He said: Deuteronomy 6:4 NASB2020

[4] “Hear, Israel! The LORD [YHWH or Yahweh] is our God, the LORD [YHWH or Yahweh] is one! (words in square brackets added by me). Apostle Paul identified the one God in these words: 1 Corinthians 8:6 NET

[6] yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we live, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live.

The apostle made it explicitly clear that only the Father is the one God. He is the one who made Jesus Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36; Phil. 2:9-11).

The teaching of the Bible is that Yahweh, also known as the Father of all beings, is the only self-existed Being. He is the only one who was not created. He created Jesus before all other beings and things were created. The Bible has revealed this fact, but the human doctrine of the Trinity is making people not to accept the clear revelation of the Bible. Here are two verses which say that our Lord Jesus was created by God:

Colossians 1:15 NASB2020

[15] “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”

Here Paul says that he is the one God chose as His firstborn, the preeminent one, among all of His creation. In other words, he is one of God’s creation.

Revelation 3:14 ESV

[14] “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.”

Here, our Lord Jesus introduced himself to the church in Laodicea as the beginning of God’s creation, the first one among God’s creation.

In summary, it is very wrong to interpret the sonship of our Lord Jesus to be in a different sense from those of angels and humans. There is no tangible basis upon which we can say that Christ’s sonship means he is God. Perhaps, the only difference in his sonship, when compared with the sonship of angels and humankind, is that he is the μονογενης (monogenes), the only begotten son of God (John 1:14). It is instructive to note that Apostle John did not say that our Lord Jesus is the only son of God. He said that he is the only begotten son of God – the only one that God brought forth out of Himself (Prov. 8:22-31). But we should understand that being brought forth out of God’s own being is synonymous to being created. The Trinitarian creed which says the Son was not created but begotten is rather ridiculous. If he was begotten, it means he was brought to life by the begetter. Until he was brought forth, he was non-existent. And he couldn’t be coeternal with the one who brought him forth out of Himself.

Is Jesus God?

Does the Bible say Jesus is God? The answer is YES. Does the Bible say he is the One God, the Almighty YHWH, or LORD in many English versions? The answer is NO. I will explain what I mean shortly. But here are two passages which say our Lord Jesus is God.

Psalms 45:6-7 NKJV

[6] “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Your kingdom. [7] You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions [fellows in KJV].”

John 1:1-3 NKJV

[1] “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”

See Heb. 1:8-9 where the author informs us that the King addressed as God in Psa. 45:6 is the Son of God, Jesus Christ. It is instructive to note that in verse 7, God is said to be the God of the one who is said to be King/God in verse 6. Therefore, the King/God in verse 6 is not coequal with God who is his God. May I refer you to Eph. 1:3 where Apostle Paul wrote that God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then in verse 17, the apostle wrote that God is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, thus affirming Psa. 45:7 and what Jesus Christ himself said with his own mouth in Matt. 27:46 (Mark 15:34), John 20:17 and Rev. 3:12. YHWH (or LORD) is his God because YHWH alone is the self-existent God who is worshipped by our Lord (Master) Jesus Christ. YHWH is the Father of our Lord Jesus because Jesus, like the angels and humans, derived his life or existence from YHWH. No single verse in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament says Jesus self-existed. No single verse in the entire Scriptures says our Lord Jesus is coequal with God.

The Godhood Of The Son Explained

There are about four basic definitions of “god,” three of which are applicable in the Bible:

In monotheistic religions, the creator and ruler of the universe, regarded as eternal, infinite, all-powerful, and all-knowing; Supreme Being; the Almighty. As revealed in the Bible, this definition applies to only YHWH or Yahweh, who is rendered LORD (all capital letters) in many English Bibles. Only Him is called the Almighty forty eight times in the Hebrew Bible and nine times in the Christian New Testament.
A male spirit or being who is believed by some religions to control the world or part of it, or who represents a particular quality. Satan the Devil falls into this class (2 Cor. 4:4).
An image that is worshiped; idol. Examples are the calf moulded by Aaron (Exod. 32:4) and the silver shrines of the goddess Artemis which Demetrius and others were making for the Ephesians (Acts 19:23-27).

What then do we say of the Godhood of our Lord Jesus Christ? Is he the one called YHWH (LORD) in the Bible? Is he the one called the Almighty? The answer to these questions is NO! The following points should be noted:

Psa. 45:7 says God is his God. This means that he is not the Supreme God. Neither is he a coequal God with the Supreme God, also called God the Father. God is called “God the Father,” not in the sense that there are a “God the Son” and a “God the Holy Spirit.” He is called “God the Father” because He is the Father of all beings (Eph. 4:6). He brought all beings into existence.
Our Lord Jesus is not the only one, besides God, who is called God. Satan the Devil is called the God of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). Human beings have been called Gods (Psa. 82:6; John 10:34-36).
Apostle Paul wrote that there are many Gods, yet for us who know the truth, there is only one God, the Father (1 Cor. 8:5-6). The Father of all creation is the only self-existent Being, the Almighty God. Our Lord Jesus did not create himself. He was created by God before God created all other things through him. The Bible admits henotheism, the existence of many Gods, yet teaches the existence one supreme, self-existent, Being whose name is YHWH or Yahweh, the Almighty. We, Christians, worship only one supreme, self-existent God. He is a single spirit being. He is not a two-in-one or a three-in-one God. The Bible does not teach Ditheism or Tritheism. It teaches strict Monotheism, and that is what we believe in.
Some people have argued that Jesus is the Almighty in Rev. 1:8, but they are wrong. The words “saith the Lord” (KJV) in the verse means Jesus was quoting what the Almighty had said. He is not the Almighty in that verse. The NASB renders the remark as “says the Lord God” thereby removing every doubt that God is the referent.

The Godhood of our Lord Jesus Christ is not of the same category as that of his God and Father. He is called God because he is powerful. But the power he has and uses was given him by God, the Almighty (John 5:25-26; 3:34; Matt. 28:18; Acts 10:38). His Godhood also cannot be divorced from the fact that God created all things through him. He has also been the representative of the invisible God in the affairs of humanity. In all the theophanies recorded in the Hebrew Bible, he was the one seen (cf. John 1:18; 1 John 4:12; 1 Tim. 6:16). We should never lose sight of what Jesus said in John 5:30, “I can of myself do nothing,” and “the Father is greater than I” (John 14:28).A coequal, Almighty, God will not talk like that.

In summary, I dare to say that the Godhood of the Son is derived from, subordinate to, and subsumed in the Godhood of the Father. Christ’s Godhood does not make him the Supreme God, the Almighty.

Conclusion

As the only begotten Son of God, our Lord Jesus was derived by birth. He was brought forth by God before the creation of the universe (Prov. 8:22-31). The fact that God brought him forth out of Himself makes Jesus a creation of God. His begettal by God was not by carnal means of a man having sexual intercourse with a woman. His begettal was supernatural. Before his incarnation as a human being, he was existing with God as a spirit being. His Sonhood should not be equated or conflated with his Godhood. The reason he is called the son of God is because he derived his life from God. He is neither coequal nor coeternal with God, the Father of all beings. God was already existing before God created him.

Has Satan Been Thrown Out Of Heaven? If Yes, When?

Articles God, Heaven, satan

The Bible has said a lot about Satan, also known as the Devil. But not much is revealed about his origin. Not much is also revealed about the time he was hurled out of heaven alongside his minions called demons, if indeed he has been thrown out of the heavenly realm. This has led to a number of speculative teachings on the subject. The most widely held belief is that Satan was the entity called Lucifer (“light bringer” or “light bearer”) in Isaiah 14:12 (KJV). But the truth is that Prophet Isaiah neither used the word Lucifer in Isaiah 14:12 nor did he refer to the Devil in the passage. My article on it is captioned “Is the Devil the one called Lucifer in Isaiah 14:12?”

It is a common teaching that Satan was thrown out of heaven sometimes before the creation of the earth as recorded in Genesis 1 (Job 38:4-7), and therefore before the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3).

Some other scholars teach that the words of Jesus Christ in Luke 10:18 revealed that Satan fell out of heaven during the ministry of Jesus Christ while he was on the earth. The verse reads, “And he said unto them [the 72 disciples who had gone out preaching, healing and casting out demons with the power in Jesus’ name], I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” (Luke 10:18 KJV). Christ’s words in this place has been misunderstood. Our Lord didn’t say Satan literally fell from heaven. What he meant was that he saw Satan losing his power so quickly and rapidly the way lightning falls from heaven. He used the rapid speed at which lightning falls from heaven or the clouds to describe the dramatic speed at which Satan and his demons were departing from their hosts at the command of the 72 disciples in the name of Jesus. The phrase “from heaven” is to be referred rightly to lightning, not to Satan. We do not see Jesus talk of Satan’s literal fall from heaven in this verse.

The God’s Kingdom Society (GKS) teach that Satan was cast out of heaven in 1914. They teach that it was his wrath, mentioned in Rev. 12:12, that made him plunge the world into World War I of 1914-1918. The problem with this timing is that it is purely conjectural; it is totally lacking in contextual evidence.

Has Satan been thrown out of Heaven?

The Bible passage which explicitly state that Satan was hurled out of heaven is Rev. 12:7-10. But the time this happened remains unclear. What is certain is that it did not take place before the creation as erroneously espoused by many Bible scholars. The Bible clearly faults this timing. First, after the creation Satan still had access to God in heaven in the days of Job (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6). Job is believed to live at the same time as Abraham who was born around 1947 BCE, about 2,938 years after the creation. If Satan was still able to access God in heaven at the time of Job, he couldn’t have been exiled from heaven before the creation. Secondly, Rev. 12:10 calls him “the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night.” Satan could not be accusing the brethren at a time when they have not been created or born. Thirdly, Satan was said to be cast out heaven after “a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre” (Jesus Christ) has been “snatched up to God and to his throne” (his ascension and glorification in heaven) and after “the woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days” (Rev. 12:5-6 NIVUK). Her flight to the wilderness will be at the beginning of the tribulation of the “last day” ( Rev. 12:5-7; Dan. 7:25; 12:7-9).

We can see from the context that the war in heaven will break out immediately after the woman, symbolising Israel, takes her flight to the wilderness where she’ll be protected and cared for by God for 1,260 days. (These 1,260 days divided by 30 days which make up the Jewish month equals 42 months or three and a half years. Consider Rev. 11:2 and 13:5. In Rev. 12:14, the period the woman will be cared for in the wilderness is given as “a time, times, and half a time” which in verse 6 is given as “1260 days.” See also Rev. 11:3. This means that “a time, times, and half a time” (Dan. 7:25; 12:7; Rev, 12:14) means three and a half years, the same as 42 months or 1,260 days.) Daniel was told that the matters this period of “a time, times, and half a time” (Dan. 12:7) “are closed and sealed until the time of the end” (Dan. 12:9). This means they will take place at the time of the end of this age.

The word “then” (Greek: “kai”) which starts verse 7 suggests that the war in heaven will take place after the woman has taken her flight into the wilderness to be protected by God for 1,260 days. It also means that Satan will be cast out of heaven immediately after the commencement of the 1,260 days. The 1,260 days has been set by God to be the span of the great tribulation. It is clear from verse 7 that Satan will be hurled out of heaven at the beginning of the great tribulation.

If the great tribulation is still in the future, the only logical and tenable conclusion we have is that Satan is yet to be exiled from heaven. He will be kicked out of heaven at the start of the great tribulation.

Right now he is still prowling the earth like a roaring lion seeking whom to devour (Job 1:7; 2:2; 1 Pet. 5:8) and still having access to God and accusing the believers before God day and night (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6; Zech. 3:1-4; Rev. 12:10).

Was Jesus Christ Not Created by God?

God God, jesus, Jesus Christ

One of the earliest articles written by me was an 8-page article captioned “Is Jesus Christ a created being?” In it, I contended that our Lord Jesus Christ is not one of the creation of God. I argued that if all things, with no one excepted, were created by him, as written in John 1:3 and Col. 1:16, he couldn’t have been one of such creations of God. I had also engaged in a debate on the subject with my Jehovah’s Witness (JW) friend who said the Trinitarian creed which agrees that Jesus was the “only begotten Son of God” has implicitly admitted that he was created. He argued that the Trinitarian concept of Christ being “begotten but not made or created” is clearly self-contradictory because the Son’s begotten-ness simply means he derived his life or existence from God. He also argued that in life and in the Scriptures the concept of sonship and fatherhood always connote the one called the son deriving his existence from the one called the father. He concluded that if Christ was begotten by God, that simply means he was created by God before God used him as the creative agent of all things.

My polemical article was consequently written to fault this stand of my JW friend. But after I had published my article in my website (Jude1v3.com), it began to dawn on me that I had unwittingly made myself one of the apologists of Trinitarianism through the article. Having become fully convinced that my JW friend had a biblically- supported argument, I had to remove it. This article is therefore written to correct the error in the first one. This should however not be taken as my wholesale endorsement of whatever the JWs espouse.

Now, the question is whether or not Jesus was created by God. If he was not created, that will mean he self-existed. It then means that he came into existence by and of himself, independently of God the Father. Does the Bible teach this? Let us reason from the Scriptures.

The Oneness and Fatherhood of God

Both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament teach very clearly that there is one God. What does this one-ness of God mean? It simply means that there is only one being who possesses aseity – the quality of existing of and from oneself, independent of any other being. Only one being, not two, not three, possesses this attribute and His name is YHWH (Yahweh). The Bible does not teach that this one God is made up of two or three self-existed, coequal and coeternal Gods. He is a singular spirit Being who created all things in heaven and on earth. The true Christian belief is built on the true teachings of the Bible which says there is one God (Deut. 6:4; Mal. 2:10; Mark 12:32; 1 Cor. 8:6; 1 Tim. 2:5; Jam. 2:19).

This one God is called the Father of all (Eph. 4:6). He is called the Father of all because He is the one who brought all beings and all things into existence. He gave life to all things that has ever existed, both visible and invisible, whether in the heavens or on the earth. And this include our Lord Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah. There is no single Bible verse that teaches the self-existence of any other being other than YHWH.

The sons of God

The angels in heaven are called the sons of God (Gen. 6:2-4; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7). The human being (Adam) created by God is also called the son of God (Luke 3:38). The entire human race, as descendants of Adam, are therefore offspring of God (Acts 17:29). Our Lord Jesus is also called the Son of God (Mark 1:1; Luke 1:35; John 1:34; 9:35-38; 10:36; 20:31; Acts 8:37; 9:20; Rom. 1:4; etc). The primary reason he, like the angels and Adam, is called the Son of God is because he derived his life or existence from God. He did not self-exist as erroneously believed by Trinitarians. Before creating the universe in the beginning, God had brought forth His only begotten Son into existence out of Himself. John called Yeshua the Word (John 1:1; Rev. 19:13) because in his pre-human existence he was the mouthpiece of God.

John 5:26 Misunderstood

In John 5:25-26 Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given tothe Son to have life in himself” (John 5:25-26 KJV, emphasis added).

Many have erroneously interpreted the phrase “life in Himself” as self-existence. But that is not what Christ meant. What our Lord meant is “source of life.” He said the Father has the life-source in Himself and that the Father has given this power to give life to the Son. It is from this life-source given the Son by the Father that Jesus created all things in the beginning at the behest of God the Father of all. It is also from this life-source already given the Son that Jesus will resurrect all that have died and are in their graves (vv. 25, 28, 29). The context clearly speaks about the power to give life; it does not speak of self-existence.

The only begotten Son

Jesus is the “only begotten Son” (Greek: “monogenes huios”) of God. This means God brought him (the Son) forth out of Himself (God). In other words, God gave birth to him. The begettal of the Son by God took place before the creation of the universe. We must bear in mind that God the Father must have been existing before he begot the Son. The fact that the Son was begotten by God means he did not self-exist. This is what John had written down for us by his use of the words “monogenes huios” (“only begotten son”). The summary of this is that the Son was brought into existence by the Father. Another way of saying it is that he was created by the Father.

Why is Yeshua (Jesus) called the only begotten son? I suppose His sonship is unique. Whereas the other sons of God were called forth out of things which were previously non-existent, that is, out of nothing (Rom. 4:17), Jesus was brought forth out of God Himself. God simply brought out one who is of His own kind (Heb. 1:3; Phil. 2:6). This means that all the sons of God derived their existence from God, although not in the same way. The derivation of Jesus was of a unique type – from God Himself. The fact however still remains that Jesus was begotten by God prior to the creation of all other things by the Son at the behest of God, the Father of all. Jesus himself had, at various times, affirmed this truth. He called himself the Son of God (John 9:35-37; 10:36; Rev. 2:18). He has also told us that he is the beginning of God’s creation (Rev. 3:14). In other words, he was the first being created by God.

The debate about “arche” in Rev. 3:14

The words “the beginning” used by Jesus in Rev. 3:14is translated from the Greek word “arche” or “arkhe.” Strong’s Greek Lexicon #746 gives five different definitions of arche (or arkhe):

1. beginning, origin

2. the person or thing that commences, the first person or thing in a series, the leader

3. that by which anything begins to be, the origin, the active cause

4. the extremity of a thing a) of the corners of a sail

5. the first place, principality, rule, magistracy a) of angels and demons.

Some Bible scholars have interpreted “arche” here as “source” or “originator.” Their conclusion may have been influenced more by the Trinitarian motive of denying the creation of Jesus Christ by God than by meticulous, honest, and objective hermeneutics. The following points should be noted:

The word “arche” (or “arkhe”)is used 56 times in the New Testament. It was translated “the beginning” in 40 of the places. John used the word 20 times. In all the places where he used the word, including Rev. 3:14 it was translated “the beginning.” If “the beginning” was rightly meant by John in 19 places, why not here in Rev. 3:14? In fact, God, not Christ, is the originator of the creation of all things. Our Lord Jesus Christ was only an agent employed by God to create all things otherthanhimself.
In the places where arche is followed by a noun, the word “beginning” fitly takes the meaning of “the first of” or “the start of” the noun. A typical example of this is found in Matt. 24:8 where Jesus said, “All these are the beginning (arkhe) of birth pains.” In other words, wars, rumours of wars, famines, earthquakes (vv. 6-7) will be “the first of” or “the start of” the foretold sufferings, also known as tribulations. Other examples are in Mark 1:1, Phil. 4:15, and here in Rev. 3:14 where John wrote unambiguously that Jesus is “the first of” the creation of God. The inability of many scholars to arrive at the right conclusion is not due to the lack of internal evidence, such as the usage of arkhe in the scriptures; it is due more to the Trinitarian bias of the scholars.
Strong’s Greek Lexicon #746 gives five definitions of arkhe. The decision of the scholars to ignore the first two definitions is suggestive of dishonest or biased hermeneutics. Many of the scholars simply cherry picked the option that suited their theological preference.

If anyone should put aside what they have been taught by men and carefully consider the following passage, he or she will agree that it was talking about the creation of our Lord Jesus Christ by God. As seen in the context, the event took place before the beginning when the universe was created by God through His Son.

“The Lord created me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old. From eternity I was established, from the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth. When there were no ocean depths, I was born, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was born; while He had not yet made the earth and the fields, nor the first dust of the world. When He established the heavens, I was there; when He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, when He made firm the skies above, when the springs of the deep became fixed, when He set a boundary for the sea so that the water would not violate His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth; then I was beside Him, as a master workman; and I was His delight daily, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in the world, His earth, and having my delight in the sons of mankind.” (Prov. 8:22-31 NASB2020).

This was not written as a reference to wisdom which is one of the attributes of God; wisdom has ever been in God. Therefore wisdom as an attribute is not the entity created at the beginning of His (God’s) way. But the only begotten Son of God whom Paul called the power and wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24) is the one alluded to here. And John’s use of arkhe in Rev. 3:14 affirms what has been written here in Prov. 8:22-31. The two passages say the Son was brought forth by God before God created all things through the Son.

Debate about Monogenes

Apologists of Trinitarianism in recent times say the word monogenes used in the original Greek textsdoes not mean “only begotten” as found in the KJV and some other versions. They say the meaning is “one of a kind” or “unique.” While they have no argument about the prefix “monos” as meaning “only,” or “one,” they say the suffix “genes” is derived from the root word “genos” and not from “gennao” as previously thought. They say that whereas “gennao” means to beget, “genos” means “kind,” “sort,” “class,” so that “monogenes” can only be interpreted as “one of a kind” or “unique.” They say this makes the interpretation of “monogenes” as “only begotten” erroneous.

Good as the argument may seem, the Trinitarian apologists have either deliberately or ignorantly forgotten that “genos” hasa range of meanings including “offspring” which has the same meaning of begotten. Therefore, the argument that monogenes was erroneously interpreted as only begotten is itself an error and should be rejected.

Conclusion

If we accept that YHWH (Yahweh) is the one God and that only Him is self-existent, then we should be honest enough to accept the fact that no other being is self-existent. The implication of this is that all other beings, including our Lord Jesus Christ, were created by God. If, on the other hand, we believe that Jesus and the Holy Spirit self-existed like the Father, that belief make us polytheists in our faith. Graciously, the Bible nowhere teaches that Jesus is a self-existed, coequal and coeternal God. Why the Bible calls him God has been explained in my article captioned The Godhood of Jesus Christ Explained. He is not God the Son; he is the Son of God, the only begotten Son of God. Neither does the Bible teach us of a third God called God the Holy Spirit. The holy spirit of God, according to the Bible, is the divine power of God which He divinely transmits into the universe through His breath to do His work in His creation. The holy spirit is neither a literal person nor is it God.

Graciously too, Prov. 8:22-31 and Rev. 3:14 have made it clearly known that the only begotten Son of God, who is our Lord and Saviour, was the first of God’s creation. Indeed Trinitarianism is a Greek gift given to Christendom by the fourth century philosophers who speculated about God and His Son and spirit. The Trinity dogma has caused so much havoc to the teachings of the Bible.

The modern scholars who advanced the debate against Christ being the “only begotten” son of God simply want to rubbish the fact that he was begotten by God since that will be an admittance that he derived his life or existence from God. But what do we gain by denying the fact that there is only one God and the one God is the Father (1 Cor. 8:6)? He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Psa. 45:7; John 20:17; Eph. 1:3, 17; Rev. 3:12; etc). Jesus Christ is not coequal with Him (John 14:28). The Bible has also made it known that Jesus was created by the Father in the sense that the Father begot him (Prov. 8:22-31; Rev. 3:14). Refusal to admit these truths about our Lord Jesus Christ in order to conform with the manmade doctrine of the Trinity is not faith at all. It is delusion and unbelief.

ARE ALL KINGS OR RULERS APPOINTED BY GOD?

Articles God, KINGS, RULERS

There are some Bible verses which, if understood in their strict literal sense, tend to say that every person that ever becomes a king or ruler was appointed into that position by God. And this has been the belief of many people, including Christians. The following are some of such scriptures:

“Daniel said, ‘May the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times and the periods; He removes kings and appoints kings; He gives wisdom to wise men, and knowledge to people of understanding.’” (Daniel 2:20-21 NASB2020, bold emphases added throughout).

“This sentence [vv.13-16] is by the decree of [or announced by] the angelic watchers, and the decision is a command of the holy ones, in order that the living may know that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and He grants it to whomever He wishes and sets over it the lowliest of people.” (Daniel 4:17 NASB2020). See also Daniel 4:25; 5:18-21.

“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.” (Romans 13:1-5 NIV). See also 1 Peter 2:13-16.

If we conclude from these passages that every king or ruler is installed by God, we are wrong. One message that is clear from them is that the Most High God is the Sovereign One who has the supreme authority over all of His creation. He has the power to enthrone anyone He wishes. He can also remove anyone from office through any means, including death. He chose the Israelites as His firstborn and intended to use them to show the human race how to govern the people with equity and righteousness. He appointed judges for them beginning with Samuel. But Samuel’s two sons did not follow the godly example of their father when they were playing the role of assistant judges. This made the Israelites ask to be ruled by a king just like all the other nations have done (1 Samuel 8:5). What was God’s response to their demand? God granted their request even though it meant their rejection of God as their King (1 Samuel 8:6-9).

Although God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, as their first king, His action was based on what is known in some theological circles as God’s permissive will. The enthronement of Saul as their king at that time did not get God’s perfect approval. And it was not God who installed the kings of the other nations for them. These nations were pagans. They therefore did many things which cannot be said to have been dictated by God.

Right from the time of creation God has given mankind the free will to choose between good and evil. This free will is given mankind to enable him have dominion over the earth (Gen.1:26-30). The first exercise of this free will was the naming of all the creatures by Adam. Even after the first persons fell into sin God did not remove from them the exercise of the free will. We see God, throughout the pages of the Bible, pleading with His people to obey Him and earn for themselves blessings and life. God told them in clear terms that if they choose to disobey Him, the result of their disobedience will be curses, pain and death. See, for example, Deut. 11:26-28; 28:1-68. Throughout human history, it is the exercise of the free will by humans that have too often caused the difference between the people who are prospering and those who are backward, disgraced and hated. The difference is summed up in these words:

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34 NASB2020).

God’s Nature/Character

God has set up many kings on earth to show the world that He is Sovereign over all of His creation. But to believe that every king or ruler is put in office by God is to make the good God an unjust and a partial God. This is totally opposed to God’s character. He is an impartial God (Deuteronomy 32:4; Romans 2:11; 1 Peter 1:17). Why would God give many countries in Europe, Asia, North America, et al, good, responsible, competent and progressive leaders but continues to give almost all the countries in Africa corrupt, wicked, good-for-nothing leaders, some of whom import terrorism into their own countries? Why would God be so unkind as to give us leaders who grind the faces of the people (Isaiah 3:15), feed on their flesh, strip off their skins and break their bones (Micah 3:3) in order to make these rulers live in extreme wealth and affluence? Is it God who, with one hand, is installing these evil men as leaders in Africa, while with the other hand, is giving responsible, patriotic and good leaders to the developed countries? Is God responsible for this unfairness? No. It is the people themselves who install the kind of leadership they want. It is Africans who, like the hen stripped of all its feathers by Joseph Stalin, still followed him because of the few grains he threw on the ground, after it had suffered such a monstrous cruelty from him. It is we, Africans, who are always ignoring to apply the best standards of choosing leaders who rule over us. We, not God, are the ones giving the corrupt and wicked political class the opportunity to subvert our lives and future every four or five years. It will be very wrong for us to say that God is the One who hates us so much that He is always giving us uneducated and incompetent men as leaders. We are the ones who have allowed our enemies to continue to rule over us.These sons of the Devil, who we carelessly choose as leaders, have mastered the art of weaponizing poverty and are always using it against us. The result is that those who have brazenly and shamelessly looted the public treasury become so powerful that they cannot be brought under any law of their countries. It is the innocent, law-abiding ones that are made to bear the burden which the bad rulers heap on them. What we have allowed to thrive in our electoral processes are the things that have made life so harrowing for us. It is not because God loves the Europeans, Americans, Singaporeans, Malaysians, Chinese, Japanese, Canadians, or the or Middle Easterners more than He loves Nigerians Zimbabweans, Cameroonians, Gabonese, or other African nationals.

Where Is the Proof?

God is omniscient. He knows all things before they take place. But His foreknowledge should not be taken to mean His approval of all things. Only those things which conform to His will gets His approval (John 8:29; Matthew 26:42; 1 John 5:14-15). Therefore, it is not all the people who ascend the thrones that got God’s approval to sit on them, no natter how long it took them to sit on such thrones. A typical example is Saul, the first king of Israel. God anointed him as the king. But God later said this about him and some other kings:

“You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your helper. Where is your king, that he may save you? Where are your rulers in all your towns, of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes’? So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away.” (Hosea 13:9-11 NIV).

Here, God is saying He was unhappy when He gave the Israelites their kings, with the exception of some, especially David. This agrees with what He told Samuel in 1 Samuel 8:7. Unfortunately, it didn’t take Saul long before he began to do his own will instead of that of God. God regretted that He made Saul king over Israel (1 Samuel 15:35).

God Himself said that there are people who became kings but He played no role in their ascension to the thrones. Hear what God said:

“Put the trumpet to your lips! Like an eagle the enemy comes against the house of the Lord, because they have violated My covenant and rebelled against My Law. They cry out to Me, “My God, we of Israel know You!” Israel has rejected the good; the enemy will pursue him. They have set up kings, but not by Me; they have appointed officials, but I did not know it. With their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves, so that they will be eliminated.” (Hosea 8:1-4 NASB2020).

The New Living Translation (NLT) renders the four verses thus:

“Sound the alarm! The enemy descends like an eagle on the people of the Lord, for they have broken my covenant and revolted against my law. Now Israel pleads with me, ‘Help us, for you are our God!’ But it is too late. The people of Israel have rejected what is good, and now their enemies will chase after them. The people have appointed kings without my consent, and princes without my approval. By making idols for themselves from their silver and gold, they have brought about their own destruction. (Hosea 8:1-4 NLT).

If this was true of Israel, it was truer of the other nations. In today’s so-called democracies which, in Africa, are arrant kleptocracies, we have seen unbridled show of fraud and brigandage over and over again. The situation has degenerated to the point that powerful individuals boast that whether they are accepted by the people or not, they must rule over the people. And the state institutions which are supposed to ensure that rules are followed and that the Constitution is upheld display their regrettable helplessness in upholding and enforcing the laws. In Nigeria, what we practice today is not democracy at all. I therefore find it hard to understand how a rational person will ever imagine that the holy and just God, whose eyes are too pure to look at evil things, will dare look at these heinous crimes against the people let alone be an accomplice in the crimes. The Almighty God has no hand in these evils. He is Supreme. But He has put a lot into the hands of men who were created in His image and likeness. Those nations that uphold equity, justice and meritocracy are reaping the good blessings of what they have sown. But in countries where wanton corruption, fraud, and all sorts of criminality are allowed to have a stranglehold on the electoral process, life will continue to get worse for the people. What we allow is what enslaves us. What we sow is what we harvest. Let no Christian misinterpret the Bible and fool himself or herself by thinking that God is the one giving us corrupt and wicked leaders.

Paul’s Charge to Christians

All Paul was saying in Romans 13:1-7 is that whichever king is in power, whether appointed by God or by the people or got to power by any other means, must be obeyed as long as he is giving rules to maintain law and order. This is because every good and just rule comes from God. Christians must never be found on the wrong side of the law. Therefore, even if the ruler is a tyrant, that does not give us any freedom to act unlawfully. That will bring the way of truth into disrepute.

When Jesus told the Jews to pay their taxes as levied by the Roman Emperor through the Governors, He did not tell them to do so because the rulers were good men. They had to do it so that they’d live in peace. Same way, any ruler in power must be obeyed as long as he is giving rules that promotes law and order.

All authority comes from God. But it is not all those in authority that have been appointed or approved by God. They are called servants of God because they are being used to ensure orderliness in society. To disobey them means to be lawless and enthrone anarchy. And there can be no peace where anarchy is unleashed.

Conclusion

There are many passages of the Bible that have been misunderstood by men (2 Peter 3:15-16). The Sovereignty of God mentioned by Daniel and Paul have been given narrow interpretations without considering other factors which are adjuncts to it. The free will which God has given mankind from the beginning is one of such factors. Although God is Supreme over His creation, He does not impede upon man’s exercise of the free will. The free will entails great responsibly on the part of man – to take rational, righteous, sober and godly decisions like God who gave mankind the privilege. That is why God will reward everyone at the end of time for whatever they did with the will.

Mankind has so much failed God in the administration of the Earth. That is why God has decided that He will eventually take the rulership of this world from human kings and give it to His only begotten Son who will rule over it with utmost justice and righteousness for ever and ever when He returns to the Earth, at God’s own appointed time. Right now we are witnessing a steady deterioration in the moral and spiritual standards of the nations and their leaders. It is not God who made it so. We are the ones who allowed the stakes to be lowered to such an extent that many of our rulers in Africa have become petty or notorious criminals. We are the ones who made these unworthy people have a chokehold on our lives. We should stop accusing God for the evils we allowed to plague our social, economic and political lives.

God allows human governments to exist because peaceful and orderly coexistence is assured where governments are in place within national boundaries. It is therefore important for Christians to obey the rulers. The other alternative to governments is anarchy that has nothing good for anyone (Judges 17:6; 21:25). But the writings about the Supremacy of God over all kingdoms of men cannot and should not be interpreted to mean that every king or ruler who gets into power, by whatever means, was put there by God. God guides humans by His word and spirit. But many people refuse God’s guidance. Being the gentlest of beings, God does not force His will on mankind. All the people and nations who neglect to follow high ethical standards in choosing their rulers usually reap backwardness, disgrace, pain and death as natural consequences of their actions. The seriousness or otherwise with which we choose our rulers play important roles in what we get out of life. If we join hands to ensure that only the best are put in positions of rulership, we are the ones that’ll reap the dividends of good leadership. We suffer when we allow corrupt and incompetent men gain power in our countries.

Has the Kingdom of God Already Come?

God God, Kingdom

There are some churches and theologians who teach that the Kingdom of God has already come in a spiritual, invisible form. They say that the Kingdom is now running, in a limited form, in the hearts of true believers in Christ. There are some verses of the Bible which they use as proof texts to support their theology. In this article, we will look at the passages they use as proof texts as well as bring forth scriptures that make us know that the Kingdom of God is yet to come.

The Kingdom Has Not Come

There are at least eight strong points which make us believe that the Kingdom of God is not a present reality. Here, we examine them.

1. No King, No Kingdom

He [Jesus] said therefore, “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.” (Luke 19:12 WEB, words in square brackets are mine throughout).

Our Lord Jesus Christ here made an allusion to Himself. He is the “nobleman” who has gone to a far country, heaven, to be made a king. He told Pontius Pilate that He was born to be a king (John 18:37). But until He is crowned a king, His kingdom could not have started. Otherwise, it will be a kingdom without a king. While He was on the earth the first time, in His humiliation, His Kingdom was yet to begin because He was yet to be crowned a king. Observe in the verse what the Lord said. He said after the “nobleman” must have been appointed a king in the far country, He will return to establish His Kingdom. This plainly reveals that He will return to the earth to rule as the King of a Kingdom which will be an everlasting one. He has gone to heaven, which He figuratively called a far country, to be appointed the King of the universe by God. And until He returns, we cannot rightly talk of His Kingdom as having begun. At the time He was on the earth, the whole world was being ruled by men whose kingdoms were under the control or rulership of Satan (Matt.4:8-11; Luke 4:5-7; 2 Cor. 4:4; 1 John 5:19). Israel was under the imperial rule of Rome. The word “far” suggests that His return may take a longer time than His servants might have imagined.

It is very pertinent to note the reason He gave the parable. This is found in verse 11. It reads, “The crowd was listening to everything Jesus said. And because he was nearing Jerusalem, he told them a story to correct the impression that the Kingdom of God would begin right away.” (Luke 19:11 NLT).

They had thought that on entering Jerusalem, Jesus would ask God to send Him twelve legions of angels with whom He would forcefully drive out the Romans and declare Himself the king of Israel, thereby making Himself a powerful king among the kings of the earth. They thought His kingdom was going to be a national one, limited to the nation of Israel. See Luke 1:68-71; 24:21. Israel will then be free from foreign rule and be restored to a sovereign state like in the days of kings Saul, David and Solomon. Knowing their misunderstanding of God’s promise of restoring the Kingdom to Israel, He had to tell them the parable to correct the impression they had that He was going to forcefully overthrow the Romans, liberate Israel and restore their own Kingdom to them that time. They didn’t know that Jesus Christ was going to be the King of a universal Kingdom here on earth. So, we see here that the Kingdom of God was yet to come.

2. There Will Be Definite Events Precedent to the Coming of the Kingdom of God

“So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near” (Luke 21:31 ESV).

The teachings of the Lord in Luke 21:8-36 was in response to the questions posed to Him in verse 7 by His disciples. Matthew’s account made it clear that they asked about three things, namely, the time of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, the signs of His coming, and the end of the age (Matt. 24:3). When answering their question Jesus did not say which of His answer relate to any of the three points raised by His disciples. But the part which is relevant to each of the questions can be deduced from His answer. His words in Luke 21:20-24 related to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. This was fulfilled in 70 CE when the Roman General, Titus, entered Jerusalem and destroyed it along with the temple. In verses 25 to 31, the Lord spoke of the signs that will precede His coming, such as signs in the sun, moon and the stars and the powers of the heavens that will be shaken (vv.25 & 26, compare Matt. 24:29; Mark 13:24-25; Rev. 6:12-14). Jesus said in Luke 21:31 that these events should make us know that the Kingdom of God is NEAR (italics and caps emphases added throughout).

Being near is not a synonym for a present reality of any event. And in God’s reckoning, there is no difference between a day, a week, a month, a year, a decade, a century, or even thousands of years. They are all a short span in His sight (Psa. 90:4; 2 Pet. 3:8). Therefore, Jesus Christ’s words that the Kingdom of God is near could mean it could come in a few days, months, years, or even thousands of years away. By the time these events seen in Luke 21:25-31 take place in the unknown future, they’ll still be a sign that the Kingdom of God is near. It stands to reason that the kingdom which Jesus Christ said will be regarded as near at a future, indeterminate time from now, cannot be said to have become a reality when the events which will be precedent to the commencement of the kingdom have not taken place.

3. Cessation of Human Kingdoms

“And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.” (Dan. 2:44-45 ESV).

The four kingdoms (vv. 37-43) are Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome which was reigning as at the first century AD when Jesus Christ was here on earth. The revelation given to Daniel is that the Kingdom of God will be set up in the days of those four Kingdoms and when it comes, it will overthrow the kingdoms of men. The striking of the huge image by the stone, cut out of a mountain without human hands, such that the image was crushed into pieces like chaff in a summer threshing floor, is symbolic of a sudden and violent overthrow. The Kingdoms of men will cease to exist as they will be taken over by God and His Messiah. John the Apocalyptic said, “The seventh angel blew his trumpet. Then there were loud voices in heaven. The voices said, ‘The kingdom of the world has now become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah. And he will rule forever and ever.’” (Rev. 11:15 ERV, bold emphases added throughout).

On the day the King returns from heaven, the Kings of the earth and their subjects will be struck with trepidation and panic. Jesus said they will mourn when they see Him coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory (Matt. 24:30). John later caught a vision of this verse and wrote it down for us:

“And I saw the Lamb break open the sixth seal. There was a violent earthquake, and the sun became black like coarse black cloth, and the moon turned completely red like blood. The stars fell down to the earth, like unripe figs falling from the tree when a strong wind shakes it. The sky disappeared like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the rulers and the military chiefs, the rich and the powerful, and all other people, slave and free, hid themselves in caves and under rocks on the mountains. They called out to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the eyes of the one who sits on the throne and from the anger of the Lamb! The terrible day of their anger is here, and who can stand up against it?” (Rev. 6:12-17 GNT).

As long as God is still ruling the world through the agency of human kings, governors, presidents, emperors, generals, et alia (Dan. 4:17, 25, 32; Rom. 13:1-7), the Kingdom of God is yet to come. It is pertinent to know that one of the reasons God will take over the kingdoms of the earth from men is because men have failed to rule according to God’s standard of justice, righteousness, holiness and love. That’s why He will take the kingdoms from them and make His holy and righteous Son rule over all of God’s creation in the new heavens and the new earth.

4. The Ascension Day Discourse

“Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time [of His first coming] going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:6-8 NIV).

Verse 9 of this chapter reveals that this discussion between the Lord Jesus and His apostles took place on the day He ascended to heaven. It is evident from the discourse that the kingdom was not restored to Israel before His ascension. Is there a difference between the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel and the commencement of the Kingdom of God? There is none. The promise given to Abraham was, “through your offspring [Jesus Christ in His humanity] all the nations of the earth will be blessed” (Gen 22:18; 26:4; 28:14; Acts 3:25). And when Christ came to the world, He removed the dichotomy that originally existed between Israel and the rest of mankind, through His death, making all who believe in Him God’s own people (Eph. 2:13-18; Rom. 3:22; 10:12-13). Those who in the past were not Israelites have, through Christ, become the Israel of God. Therefore, the promise of restoring the Kingdom to Israel will be fulfilled in the future for the saints of the Most High. And this will be after the great tribulation foretold by the Lord Jesus Christ (Dan. 7:13-27; Matt.24:29-31; Mark 13:24-27). It will be at the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is going to be a universal kingdom.

It is clearly evident from the Ascension Day’s last discourse that the Kingdom of God did not come or begin while the Lord Jesus Christ was on earth the first time.

The New Testament has revealed that God’s plan is that all of God’s faithful people from the beginning of creation will inherit His promise of eternal life in His Kingdom here on earth at the same time. This is clearly seen in this scripture, “All these people were known for their faith, but none of them received what God had promised. God planned to give us something very special so that we would gain eternal life with them. (Heb. 11:39-40 GW).

The Kingdom of God is not going to come in a serial or piecemeal manner. It is going to come once and for all time at the second coming of God’s anointed Messiah, our Lord Jesus. That is why God has put in place a plan to resurrect all His dead saints on the day of Christ’s second coming (John 5:28-29; 6:40, 44, 54; 1 Cor. 15:23, 52; 1 Thes. 4:16).

5. Mortal Beings Cannot Inherit the Kingdom of God

“What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever. But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.” (1 Cor. 15:50-53 NLT).

“But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control. (Phil. 3:20-21 NLT).

Both the dead in Christ and living saints will enter God’s Kingdom at the same time (1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thes. 4:16-17; Heb. 11:39-40). This means that the Kingdom of God will not come until the first resurrection has taken place. We cannot be said to be in the kingdom of God while we still possess our dying bodies. At His second coming, our Lord Jesus Christ will give us immortal bodies before ushering us into the Kingdom of God. The change from mortality to immortality will occur with a speed Paul described as a “blink of the eye,” or like a flash of light.

6. Complete and Total Obedience to God’s Will

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10 ESV).

How is God’s will done in heaven? In Psalm 103:20, the Bible says, “Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word” (Psa. 103:20 NIV). Our Lord Jesus Christ said the Father loves Him because He always do the will of the Father (John 5:30; 6:38; 8:29). What we know from the Bible is that Jesus Christ and the angels are the ones in heaven with God and they do God’s will with perfect obedience.

The Lord made it known that when the Kingdom of God comes, there will be complete and total obedience to the will of God here on earth as it is in heaven. Prophet Isaiah said, “They will no longer injure or destroy on my entire royal mountain. For there will be universal submission to the Lord’s sovereignty, just as the waters completely cover the sea. (Isa. 11:9 NET). As part of their note on this verse, the NET translators wrote, “If the Lord’s universal kingdom is in view in this context… then the phrase [“in all my holy mountain”] would probably be metonymic here, standing for God’s worldwide dominion.” To this I affirm that it refers to the universal kingdom of God because Isaiah went further to say, “He will treat the poor fairly, and make right decisions for the downtrodden of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and order the wicked to be executed. Justice will be like a belt around his waist, integrity will be like a belt around his hips. (Isa. 11:4-5 NET). Compare the emphasized words with what the Master said will take place after His return from a far country where He has gone to be made a King. He said, “But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and slaughter them in front of me!’ ”(Luke 19:27 NET; cf. Rev. 19:11-21).

There will be no disobedience or feigned obedience here on earth when the Kingdom of God comes to the earth. There will be perfect submission to God’s will. This fact was prophesied by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk, among others (Isa. 19:21-25; Jer. 31:34; Hab. 2:14). Apostle Paul also made a veiled reference to this perfect and total obedience to God’s will when he wrote, “We, however, are citizens of heaven, and we eagerly wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven. He will change our weak mortal bodies and make them like his own glorious body, using that power by which he is able to bring all things under his rule” (Phil. 3:20-21 GNT).

Is He going to use brutal, physical, force to subdue everyone to His rule in His kingdom? No. When Jesus Christ revealed Himself to Apostle John, John saw a sharp two-edged sword come out of Jesus’ mouth (Rev. 1:16; 2:11,16). We all know that sword is a weapon of war. What John saw symbolize the fact that the Lord will subdue all things by spiritual power – His spoken word which is sharper than any physical two-edged sword. This sword of His mouth which Prophet Isaiah called “the rod of His mouth, the breath of His lips” (Isa. 11:4) is the living and active word of God in the mouth of the Son of God (Heb. 4:12). With the word of His mouth, He will subdue everything under His control by that power which has been given Him by God, the Father (Matt. 28:18).

The disobedient ones will not be in His Kingdom. They’ll all be destroyed. (Matt. 13:30, 41-43; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Rev. 22:14-15). But those who’ll inherit the Kingdom will obey Him with complete submission because they’ll all be filled with the holy spirit of God (Joel 2:28-29). The spirit of God will take perfect control of all the inhabitants of the Kingdom when it comes into existence (Rom. 8:14). The words “all things” is not limited to humans alone. The Scriptures have shown that the nature of fierce, flesh-eating, animals and venomous reptiles will be changed by the same divine power so that they will no longer be dangerous creations of God.

7. No Violence In The Kingdom

No form of violence is going to be seen or experienced when the Kingdom comes. Prophet Isaiah said, “No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there,” (Isa. 35:9 NIV). He had earlier written, “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isa. 11:6-9 NIV). In this passage, the prophet said the ferocious beasts like wolves, leopards, lions, bears, as well as venomous snakes like cobras and vipers will cohabit with domestic animals and humans peacefully. The prophet repeated this prophecy again in Isa. 65:25.

We understand that “lion” is used in Isa. 35:9 in a metaphorical sense of it representing the violence of lions and other ferocious, predatory animals and the danger they pose to the herbivorous, defenseless animals and to humans. The other passages which seem contradictory are not. What we see from these passages is that the animals in the present age will still be found in the Kingdom but with their ferocious nature changed by the Messiah, making them tame, peaceful and harmless. The poison in the venomous reptiles and insects will also be removed from them. So we see that there is going to be a change in the nature of animals and creeping things which will result in a state of peace, harmony and security in the Kingdom. What is not known is whether the animals, snakes and insects in the Kingdom will also be given immortal bodies.

Some Bible scholars have said that the writings of Isaiah in Isa. 11:6-9 and Isa. 65:25 should not be understood literally. But whether they are taken literally or figuratively, the one conclusion that can be derived from the passages is that the Kingdom of God will be devoid of violence, pillage and all forms of threat to life. The fact that these things are still part of our experiences in this present age is clear proof that the Kingdom of God is yet to come.

8. No preaching in the Kingdom

There will be no preaching when the Kingdom comes. How do I know this? The Bible says so. Let’s look at a few scriptures that make this known:

“This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” (Heb. 8:10-11 NIV, quoted from Jer. 31:33-34).

At times, some prophecies about the nation of Israel, which represent God’s chosen people, are made with the universal Kingdom of God in view. This prophecy by Jeremiah is one of such. We see therefore that this prophecy is yet to be fulfilled for the nation of Israel. It has also not been fulfilled in the church because we have in the church some who are always studying but not able to know the truth (2 Tim. 3:7). Not everyone in the church knows the truth (1 Cor. 8:7). That is why the ministers of Christ must continue to preach the word of God and must patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage the believers (2 Tim. 4:2). The instruction given us is that we must teach and exhort one another daily with all wisdom, using psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God, so that none of us will be deceived by sin and become hardened against God. This is especially necessary now that we see the day of Christ’s return is drawing near (Col. 3:16; Heb. 3:13; 10:25).

In the church, there are all manners of people. Some are not known by the Lord, which means they are not born again (Matt. 25:11-12). Some remain infants who must be fed with milk instead of solid food (1 Cor. 3:1-3). In other words, they are always in need of people who must teach them the elementary truths of God’s word, over and over again (Heb. 5:12). On many subjects of the Christian faith, many church leaders have indoctrinated their followers with fallacious or outrightly false teachings. These leaders and their followers have become so deluded that they don’t listen to corrections. All these go to show that the prophecy of everyone knowing God’s word and obeying them from their hearts will be fulfilled when the heavenly kingdom starts at the second coming of Christ. In Israel and in the Church the prophecy that no one will need to be told to know God has not been fulfilled. That’s why we know the Kingdom of God is yet to come.

The Kingdom Has Come

There are some people who teach that the Kingdom of God has already come. A review of their writings has shown that they drew that conclusion from their understanding, should we say misunderstanding, of some passages of the Bible. It is therefore necessary for us to examine the passages that led them into making such conclusions.

1. The Kingdom is Within You

“Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21 NKJV).

The Lord Jesus Christ made this statement in answer to a question posed to Him by the Pharisees (v. 20). These words were addressed directly to them.

What was the spiritual state of the Pharisees? John the Baptist and Jesus Christ called them “brood of vipers,” metaphorically saying that they were dangerous, unconverted, people (Matt. 3:7; 12:34; 23:33). The Lord called them hypocrites (Matt. 15:7; 16:3); children of the Devil (John 8:44); children of Gehenna or hell, that is, people who cannot escape being sentenced to hell (Matt. 23:15, 33). Matthew called them “wicked” (Matt. 22:18). They plundered widows of the possessions their husbands left behind (Matt. 23:14). They were greedy and self-indulgent, full of hypocrisy and lawlessness (Luke 16:14; Matt. 23:25, 28). He likened them to whitewashed tombs which appear beautiful outwardly but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness (Matt. 23:27).

These damning descriptions of the Pharisees showed that they were not citizens of the kingdom of God. Yet they were the ones addressed in Luke 17:20-21. The English interpretation of the Greek “basileia” (meaning “kingdom,” “reign,” or “kingship”) as being “within” (Greek: “entos”) the Pharisees cannot be correct. Jesus might have told them that He, the King of the Kingdom, was in their midst. Therefore, they needed not apply their own signs of knowing when the kingdom will come or begin.

Some Bible scholars have interpreted Luke 17:20-21 to mean that the Kingdom has started in a spiritual form in the hearts of men. But in this place and Matt. 12:28 (Luke 11:20) where the Kingdom is said to have “come to you,” those addressed were the unbelieving Pharisees. There is therefore a problem accepting the interpretation of the Kingdom having started in a spiritual form in the hearts of the Pharisees who were always doing the will of the devil. This is why some English versions like the NIV, ESV, BSB, BLB, NASB, CSB, NET, have rendered a part of verse 21 as “the Kingdom of God is in your midst.” We therefore understand the Lord Jesus Christ telling them that the Kingdom of God, in the person of the King Himself, is “in your midst” (Luke 17:21) or “has come to you” (Matt. 12:28; Luke 11:20). There is no way we can accept that the Kingdom of God has come in a spiritual form in the hearts of the Pharisees during Christ’s first advent. The fact that the Lord Jesus Christ was addressing the unbelieving Pharisees have completely rubbished the interpretation that the Kingdom of God started in a spiritual manner within the hearts of some people.

It should be observed that the Bible talks of people entering into the Kingdom of God. The Bible never talks of the Kingdom entering into people or being within them. See, for example, Matt. 5:20; 7:21; 18:3; 19:23, 24; 21:31; 23:13; John 3:5.

In addition to the point just made, the discussion Jesus Christ had with His apostles on the day He ascended to heaven (Acts 1:6-9) shows very clearly that God’s Kingdom was yet to come while Jesus Christ was on the earth the first time. He will bring the Kingdom of God to the earth at His second advent (Luke 19:12).

2. Did Some Apostles See the Kingdom Come?

“And he said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.’” (Mark 9:1 NIV).

This is one of the passages of the Bible that has proved enigmatic. Hence, different interpretations have been given by people. Some say the Lord Jesus Christ made an allusion to the transfiguration as the day the Kingdom came. Others say it came on the day of Christ’s resurrection while some others say it came on the day of Pentecost reported by Luke in Acts chapter 2. Still, some say the Kingdom came in AD 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Romans. Which of these interpretations is correct? Biblically, none of them is correct.

Cognate verses to Mark 9:1 are Matt. 16:28 and Luke 9:27. Matthew’s account reads, “For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. I tell you the truth,there are some standing here who will not experience death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Matt. 16:27-28 NET).

This account by Matthew as well as Mark 8:38-9:1 and Luke 9:26-27 make it clear that our Lord Jesus Christ had the time of His second coming in mind when He made the statement recorded in Mark 9:1. Clauses like “Son of Man will come with His angels in the glory of His Father” (Matt. 16:27) and “they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom” (v 28) are clearly indicative of His second coming. This effectively faults the teaching that the Kingdom came on the day of the Transfiguration which took place six or eight days later (Matt. 17:1; Mark 9:2; Luke 9:28).

Did Jesus mean that some of His followers will be alive at the time of His second coming? Well, we know that all His immediate followers are dead and He is yet to come. Therefore, I will not pretend to know the answer to this enigmatic statement. What is clear, however, is that Jesus Christ referred to the time of His second coming. That is the time when His Kingdom will come. No one now has a perfect understanding of the mysteries of God. But when the Lord returns every confusion and inadequacy of insight will be cleared out. Apostle Paul said, “For our knowledge is partial, and our prophecy partial; but when the perfect [Jesus Christ] comes, the partial will pass. For now we see obscurely in a mirror, but then it will be face to face [with Jesus Christ]. Now I know partly; then I will know fully, just as God has fully known me.” (1 Cor. 13:9, 10, 12 CJB)

My Kingdom Is Not of This World

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” (John 18:36 NKJV).

This is another Bible verse that has been interpreted to mean that the Kingdom has started in an invisible or spiritual manner with the Lord Jesus Christ reigning in the hearts of men from His throne over there in heaven. Some other people take this as saying the Kingdom will be in heaven and, therefore, is the reason we will ultimately go to heaven to live with God and Christ forever. But these interpretations do not harmonize with so many Bible passages. There is therefore good grounds to reject these interpretations.

Here, Jesus told Pilate that He was born to be a King (vv. 36-37). He made Pilate know that the accusation brought against Him by His fellow Jews (Luke 23:2) was false. He made the Governor see that if the accusation were true he would have seen His followers fighting, force for force, on the streets of Jerusalem. What did He mean when He said, “My Kingdom is not of this world?” He was not implying that His Kingdom was a spiritual and/or invisible kingdom ruled in the hearts of believers, and therefore not going to be a literal, physical and visible one here on the earth. What He meant is that His Kingdom is different from earthly kingdoms which rise with the carnal power of men. These human Kingdoms originate from the earth but His own Kingdom is from God in heaven. But it is going to be a literal, physical, and visible Kingdom here on the renewed earth, ruled by the Lord Jesus Christ and His saints, with the New Jerusalem as its capital (Rev. 21, 22). It is worthy of note that Pilate understood Him perfectly. That was why, subsequent to His statement, Pilate told the Jews, “I find no basis for a charge against Him” (v. 38, NIV). By this, he implied that their accusations against Him were false. He was not guilty of insurrection against the Roman government which Pilate represented in Judea at that time. (See Matt. 22:15-22.)

In Daniel 2:44, we read, “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.” (Dan. 2:44 NIV, emphases added throughout). We read also, “I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me [the Messiah], “You are my son; today I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.” Psa. 2:7-9 NIV).

These verses reveal very clearly that the Kingdom of the Son of God will crush and bring to a perpetual end all the Kingdoms of men on the earth. It is not going to be a coexisting Kingdom with those of men. It will overthrow all the kingdoms of men (Dan. 2:44; Psa. 2:9; Rev. 11:15). The phrases “the nations” and “the ends of the earth” mean that the Kingdom is going to be a visible, physical, earthly one. See also Zech. 14:9 which says, “The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.” (Zech. 14:9 NIV) It is also said of the King that He will sit on the throne of David and rule from Zion, God’s holy hill (Psa. 2:6). Prophet Isaiah also said of Him, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” (Isa. 9:6-7 NIV).

The angel Gabriel said a similar thing about Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. He told Mary, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:30-33 NIV).

To reign on David’s throne means that His kingship is going to be the Davidic type – a literal, physical, righteous kingship over God’s people here on the renewed earth. Conclusively, we can see that Jesus Christ’s words “My Kingdom is not of this world,” did not, and still does not, mean that the Kingdom will be an invisible one ruled from heaven. Neither did He mean that the Kingdom will be a spiritual, invisible reign of Christ in the hearts of some people in the present world. What He meant was that His Kingdom does not have its origin in the world nor does it derive its authority from the world’s order of things.

It is evident from the Scriptures that the Kingdom of God will not run side by side with the kingdoms of men. The fact that men, most of whom are controlled by the power of Satan the Devil (2 Cor. 4:4; 1 John 5:19), are still ruling on the earth is enough proof that the Kingdom of God has not come. Until the rulership of the world is taken from men, Satan will continue to be the god [ruler] of this world. That is why the kingdoms or governments of this present world are unjust and iniquitous. They are under the control of Satan (1 John 5:19). The Devil himself told our Lord Jesus Christ that the world was, and is still, under his control. He told our Lord that he would give him all the kingdoms of the world and their grandeur if our Lord would bow down and worship him (Matt. 4:8-9; Luke 4:5-7). This shows that the kingdoms of the world were, and still are, under his control. He couldn’t have tempted Christ, the creator and rightful owner of the kingdoms, with his words if Adam had not handed the rulership of the world to the Devil in the Garden of Eden. However, it should be noted that the Devil is not equal to, or a competitor with, God. Therefore, God and Satan cannot be engaged in a competition over the rulership of the world. At God’s appointed time, He will overthrow the Kingdoms of this world which are under the control of the Devil and hand it over to our Lord Jesus Christ to be the holy, loving, and righteous King forever. That Kingdom will come at the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has gone to heaven to be made a King after which He will return to establish the Kingdom ( Luke 19:12). He said in one place that it will take Him a long time before He returns (Luke 20:9).

Conclusion

The Bible has clearly revealed that Jesus Christ will come a second time to the earth. He will establish the Kingdom of God here on a renewed earth at His second advent. There are also many Bible passages which have unequivocally revealed that the Lord will be visibly seen by people at His second coming. A few of such passages are given here for the sake of emphasis:

“They were staring into the sky as he departed. Suddenly, two men [angels] in white clothes stood near them. They asked, ‘Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking at the sky? Jesus, who was taken from you to heaven, will come back in the same way that you saw him go to heaven.’” (Acts 1:10-11 GW). The phrase, “the same way that you saw Him,” implies that He will return in a bodily form and you will see Him with your physical eyes.

“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.” (Matt. 24:30 NIV). A vision of this verse was later shown to John in Revelation 6:15-17.

“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3 NIV). The verb “appears” is translated from the Greek “phanerothe” which means to make clear, visible, manifest. (Strong’s Greek Lexicon #5319.)

“Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So shall it be! Amen” (Rev. 1:7 NIV).

“No longer will there be any curse [on the earth]. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city [New Jerusalem], and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night [on the earth]. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.” (Rev. 22:3-5 NIV).

“In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing [Greek: epiphaneia meaning manifestation, glorious display] of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords,” (1 Tim. 6:13-15 NIV).

To ignore these clear passages, among many others, and begin to teach or believe otherwise will be nothing more than sheer delusion or hermeneutical dishonesty.

If the Kingdom of God has come, our Lord Jesus Christ will be physically and visibly present here on the earth ruling over the Kingdom.

Finally, the Kingdom of God is going to overthrow and permanently replace the kingdoms of men. It will not run as a parallel government with those of human rulers. And it is not going to be an invisible kingdom ruled by Christ from His throne over there in heaven.

DOES GOD FORBID POLYGAMY?

Articles God, POLYGAMY

Polygamy (Greek: polugamia) is the practice or custom in which a man is married to more than one wife at a time.

The mainstream teaching in today’s Christendom is that although God accommodated polygamy in the Old Testament, it is abolished by Jesus Christ and Paul in the New Testament, making “one man, one wife” the only form of marriage approved for New Testament believers. They say that when Jesus Christ referred the Pharisees to the beginning in Matt. 19:1-12 (Mark 10:1-12), He used the word “wife,” not “wives.” They go on to say that Apostle Paul’s insistence that a bishop or deacon “must be the husband of one wife” drives the point home that polygamy is condemned in the New Testament. This is why one Nigerian pastor has been teaching people since 1973 that any polygamous man who becomes “born again” must divorce his other wife/wives apart from the first one. Does the New Testament support their claim? This article brings out the biblical answer to this question.

The So-called Adam and Eve Standard

Advocates of monogamy tell us that the fact that God made only one woman for Adam is because monogamy is intended to be the only form of marriage relationship. That is their opinion. The Bible makes us know that God made one man, Adam, the progenitor of the entire human race: “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.” (Acts 17:26 NIV). That God made only one woman for Adam does not automatically connote He had no plan for polygamy as another form of marriage. God’s words and actions subsequent to the creation serve as reliable guide as to whether or not He intended monogamy to be the only form of marriage. Here, we cite three passages of what God said or did after the creation of Adam and Eve:

“If a man has two wives [e.g Leah and Rachel], and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love, when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love. He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him” (Deut. 21:15-17 NIV, words in square brackets added by me).

Attention is drawn to the use of phrases such as “if he marries another wife” (Exod. 21:10); “if a man has two wives” (Deut. 21:15). These phrases clearly suggest that neither monogamy nor polygamy was mandatory for anyone. It was a matter of individual choice. And it remains so even in the New Testament.

“If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.” Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,” his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, “This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s family line.” That man’s line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.” (Deut. 25:5-10 NIV).

In the first passage God made a law to regulate the practice of polygamy. I must quickly let you know that God does not regulate anything that He does not give approval to. In the second passage, He made provision for the brother of a dead man to raise a son for his late brother if the brother did not have a child before his death. It should be noted that God did not say the brother of the dead Israelite must be single. The inheritor of the widow could even be the elder brother of the deceased Israelite who already have his own wife or wives.

“Then Nathan said to David, You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I appointed you king of Israel and saved you from Saul. I gave you his kingdom and his wives. And I made you king of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you even more. So why did you ignore the Lord’s command? Why did you do what he says is wrong? You killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and took his wife to be your wife!” (2 Sam. 12:7-9 NCV).

God is the one who gave Saul’s kingdom and wives to David in addition to the ones David already had. God told David that if these things He gave David, including wives, were not enough He (God) would have given him more. But the moment David went to bed with another man’s wife, God rose up in His anger and judgment against David. God did not allow the child that was born as a result of that sinful act to live. Some learning points in this episode are: (i) polygamy is not adultery; therefore it is not a sin; (ii) unmarried, monogamous, or polygamous men will be guilty of the sin of adultery when they go to bed with another man’s wife; (iii) the fact that God Himself gave wives to David means that polygamy is as good in His sight as monogamy is. Polygamy is not sin as men who are ignorant of the truth want us to believe. God does not give evil things to mankind whom He has created in His own image (Matt. 7:11; cf. 1 Tim. 4:1-3).

We know that Adam is the seed of the human race. He is therefore similar to the seed a farmer plants. He plants one grain of corn but he looks forward to a harvest of hundreds or even thousands of grains from that one seed. Moreover, all of God’s plans were not unfolded at one fell swoop. Many things were allowed by the Sovereign God to unfold at their proper timing. It must be noted from the beginning of creation that whenever anything which is against the will of God is committed, the Most High raises His “red flag”. If polygamy had not been in His plan for mankind, He would have spoken against it right from the time Lamech, the first known polygamous man in the Bible, married his two wives (Gen. 4:19). Neither did God do so in subsequent polygamies.

A man like Abraham who is called the friend of God (Jam. 2:23) and David, a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14), were polygamists. There were many other faithful men of God who were polygamists. Their status as polygamists did not affect their relationship with God. Therefore we know that what makes a man acceptable to God is not whether he is a monogamist or a polygamist. A man who walks with God in faith, humility, righteousness and obedience to His words is acceptable to Him.

Did God Condemn Solomon Because of His Many Wives?

The Bible says Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3). By his brazen and notorious self-indulgence, Solomon clearly violated two commandments of God: (i) that an Israelite king must not multiply wives for himself (Deut. 17:17); (ii) that no Israelite should intermarry with the idol-worshipping nations (Deut. 7:1-5). Solomon’s disregard for these related laws of God did bring God’s anger on him. But while the Bible does not explicitly say that his disobedience to the command that kings should not take many wives was what made him incur the anger of God, it expressly says his marriage of many foreign princesses, perhaps for political reasons, brought condemnation on him (1 Kings 11:1-13; Neh. 13:26). Just as has been forewarned by God in Deut. 7:1-5, these idolatrous foreign wives turned him away from the living and true God into an idol worshipper in his old age.

The Hebrew words “rabah nashim” (“many wives”) used in Deut. 17:17 may find their true meaning in Deut. 7:1-5. The fact that worthies like Abraham, Jacob (Israel), Moses, Gideon, David, and many more, had many wives but did not incur the wrath of God implies that having more than one or two wives may not necessarily amount to multiplying wives. It is on record that David had eight wives and at least ten concubines that he inherited from Saul. Gideon is said to have “70 sons born to him for he had many wives “(Judg. 8:30). If, therefore, their having many wives was not viewed as multiplication of wives, Solomon’s case couldn’t be different, except for the fact that the women he married were not fellow Israelites who believed in and worshipped the one God called YHWH (Yahweh). Conclusively, multiplication of wives may have all to do with marrying wives from foreign idolatrous nations. But if we should think that Deut. 17:17 has all to do with the number of wives, where do we start to equate “many wives” with multiplication of wives? We may also ask if the All-wise God will act against the law He has made? This is impossible!

Did Jesus Abolish Polygamy in the New Testament?

There is nowhere in the four Gospels Jesus is seen or heard abolishing polygamy. People simply misinterpret His words in Matt. 19:1-12 (Mark 10:1-12) either ignorantly or willfully to make them conform to the dogmas they’ve uncritically accepted from men. What Jesus Christ was discussing in these passages was divorce. It is instructive to note that Jesus Christ said that the only ground in which God allows divorce is adultery committed by a married woman (Matt. 5:32; 19:9). But these men who teach errors and falsehoods say there is no ground at all for divorce. They therefore argue against the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 6:3). Some ignorantly argue that a married woman cannot commit the sin of fornication, a word used in the KJV for the Greek “porneia”which is an encompassing word for adultery, fornication, whoredom, incest, etc. and, metaphorically, idolatry. This example, though not related to the subject under discussion, is given to show you that many people are not teaching the true contents of the Bible. They always pick a phrase or verse out of context and eisegetically make their own theology out of it.

In the pages of the four Gospels, especially in Matthew 5 to 7, Jesus is seen revising, reenacting and correcting the distortions that have been brought to the moral law by the Jewish religious leaders. The laws relating to marriage form part of the moral law. Nowhere is Jesus seen condemning polygamy. We have seen earlier that neither monogamy nor polygamy was made mandatory for anyone. Therefore Jesus Christ couldn’t have used the word “wives” in Matt. 19:9 (Mark 10:7). The use of “wife” applies in both monogamous and polygamous marriages. In a polygamy, the term “wife” applies to each of the wives whose marriage to the man is a separate marital contract on its own. Her marriage contract with the man is not dependent on the man’s contract with the other wife/wives. But for the purpose of harmony, peace and mutual coexistence, she has a moral and religious duty to relate with the other wife/wives in peace and love.

Many people have misunderstood what Jesus Christ said in Matt. 19:9 (Mark 10:11). Mark’s account reads, inter alia, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. (Mark 10:11 NKJV).

Contrary to what many people suppose, Jesus did not mean here that a man cannot marry more than one wife. What he spoke against in this place is a man who divorces his wife so that he can bring in another woman. The purpose of divorcing his wife is nothing more than to create a space for the one outside to come in. The man may be a polygamist who, according to the tenets of his religion, has already got four wives. But he now wants another one to come in. This hypocrite divorces one of his four wives and brings in the new wife so that the number of his wives remains four. And the divorced wife goes for no other reason than the fact that another woman is waiting to come and be the husband’s new wife. He may also be a monogamist who must divorce his one wife to bring in another one so that he remains a monogamist, a damned culture common in the Western world and nowadays in Africa. It is this style of divorce to make room for another woman waiting to come in that Jesus spoke against. He did not say here that polygamy is adultery.

This verse is not the only one that men have misunderstood. Men have misunderstood and distorted many scriptures (2 Pet. 3:16).

The clause “the two will become one flesh” (NIV) is an emphasis on the inviolate relationship between husband and wife, which makes it impossible for a man to divorce his wife for any reason other than marrital unfaithfulness on the part of the woman (Matt. 5:32; 19:9). That the two will become one flesh has equal effect on both monogamous and polygamous marriages. Its bearing on polygamy is explained by the fact that the marriage contract is entered into by the husband on the one part, and each of the wives, separately, on the other part at a time. The marriage contract is never between the man on the one part and the two or more wives, collectively, on the other part at a time. Therefore a polygamy in God’s sight is a twin or multiple monogamies. What the Holy God has not condemned should not be regarded as sin by any self-righteous man.

Did Paul Abolish Polygamy in the New Testament?

In his first letter to Timothy, Paul wrote:

“This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence.” (I Tim. 3:1-4 NKJV).

Apostle Paul prescribed the same criteria for the selection of deacons (1 Tim. 3:12) and gave a similar instruction to Titus (Tit. 1:5-9).

Why did Paul say that each church leader “must be the husband of one wife?” If it is a must for each church leader to have one wife, why did Paul himself not have a wife (1 Cor. 7:8,9)? Did he in the two letters say or insinuate that polygamy is sin? Not at all!

Paul’s words in 1 Tim. 3:2,12 and Titus 1:6 that those to be selected as leaders must each be the husband of one wife clearly suggests that there were some people in the churches at Ephesus and Crete, and probably in all the churches as at then, who were polygamous. But why exactly did Paul insist on selecting monogamists as leaders?

Let’s consider what Paul wrote to the Corinthians who were also Gentiles like the Ephesians and the Cretans:

“I want you to be free from the concerns of this life. An unmarried man can spend his time doing the Lord’s work and thinking how to please him. But a married man has to think about his earthly responsibilities and how to please his wife. His interests are divided. In the same way, a woman who is no longer married or has never been married can be devoted to the Lord and holy in body and in spirit. But a married woman has to think about her earthly responsibilities and how to please her husband. I am saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions on you. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible.” (1 Cor. 7:32-35 NLT).

In the same chapter Paul said:

“Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am; but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” (I Cor. 7:1-2, 7-9 NKJV).

Putting the words of Paul together, a man or woman who is single or a widow who does not remarry devotes more time to the service of God and has least distractions. So it would have all been well if everyone were to remain single as Paul (vv. 7 & 8). But not everyone has the grace to remain celibate like Paul. The temptation to sexual immorality elicits the necessity for everyone to get married (v. 2). The problem of lust makes singles who should have been most qualified for God’s service the least suited. And since the Bible, on account of lust and sexual immorality, forbids the imposition of celibacy on anyone (1 Cor. 7:2; 1 Tim. 4:3), making it necessary for everyone to get married, the next best qualified, after the willing celibate like Paul, is the man with only one wife. He has lesser earthly responsibilities towards his family, lesser distractions, and consequently, more time to use for the service of God in the church. This, I believe, is the reason Paul insisted that monogamy should be one of the criteria Timothy and Titus should use in the selection of church leaders at Ephesus and Crete.

Neither Jesus Christ nor Paul gave any suggestion that polygamy was allowed by God only in the Old Testament.

There is nowhere it is said in the Bible that God frowns at polygamy. God neither promotes it nor condemns it. He allows man to choose the one which best meets his physical, material and spiritual needs. What God hates is all forms of sexual immorality, including adultery. Polygamy is NOT sin in the sight of God. It is very wrong to condemn what God has not condemned.

Polygamy Allowed Only in the Old Testament?

Our preachers often say that polygamy was allowed by God only in the Old Testament They regard the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh as the Old Testament. But the truth is that the “Old” is not the 24 books of the Hebrew Tanakh which is the same as the 36 books Christians erroneously call the Old Testament. These books contain what is called “the scriptures” in the 27 books which they call the New Testament. And the Bible says “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17 GNT).

What the Bible regards as the Old Covenant are the ritualistic (religious) laws guiding the individual and national worship of YHWH (Yahweh) in the Theocratic nation of Israel. They are especially the cultic rules of sacrifices which have now been rendered “old” by the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The moral law in what they call the Old Testament were revised and/or reenacted by Jesus Christ, NOT Paul, during His first advent. These revisions are found mostly in chapters 5 to 7 of Matthew. But they are strewn over the pages of the four Gospels. Therefore the moral law, of which the laws guiding marriage is a part, subject to Christ’s revision and/or reenactment, should never be regarded as part of the Old Testament. And with regard to polygamy, there is nowhere our Lord Jesus Christ reversed the regulations God had put in place about its practice.

Monogamy is the culture of the White man. But it is not the only form of marriage approved by God . God approves of polygamy just as He approves of monogamy.

What apostle Peter said is true of many of today’s teachers. He said, “And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him— speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction. (2 Pet. 3:15-16 NLT).

Let our pastors and teachers go and learn the principles of Bible Hermeneutics and stop teaching us what they think rather than what the scriptures actually teach. The shallow knowledge of the scriptures, especially in our African churches, is majorly responsible for the crisis in today’s Christianity. God’s people have for too long been taught by men who neither know the scriptures nor the power of God.

Conclusion

The fact that God Himself made rules to guide polygamy coupled with the fact that He personally gave many wives to David rules out the erroneous opinion of men that polygamy is adultery.
In Mark 10:1-12 (Matt. 19:1-12), all that the Lord Jesus Christ said in the text was about divorce. He was not talking about monogamy vis-a-vis polygamy. All through the ages men have been known to twist scriptures to make them conform with their biases or the erroneous/false ideas they have been brought up with. Jesus Christ in the text did not say polygamy is now forbidden by God.
Paul’s words that a bishop or deacon “must be the husband of one wife” is made because it is impracticable to say that church leaders must be celibates. Chapter 7 of 1 Corinthians give the underlying reasons why Paul gave such an instruction to Timothy and Titus.
The instruction Paul gave the junior ministers for the selection of church leaders clearly suggests that there were men in the churches who had more than one wife. Nowhere were they called adulterers or sinners.
In all the four Gospels, there is no single place where God through His Word (Jesus Christ) revised the law guiding polygamy. Therefore the law remains extant (unrepealed) to this day. Those who teach against polygamy are simply teaching manmade ideas or preferences.
Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke against self-willed men who divorce their wives so as to bring in another one. This is the condemnable act Jesus mentioned in Matt. 19:9 (Mark 10:11). It is not adultery for a man to marry another woman and live with her without divorcing the one he earlier married.
Monogamy is the culture of the White man. But that does not make it a doctrine of the Bible. God never condemns nor promotes polygamy. What God has not condemned, let no misguided, self-righteous man call adultery or sin. The adulterers are those who have one wife at home but they are sleeping with other women who are not their wives. They are hypocrites. The same are those who divorce their wives so that other ones can take their place. Not only are they serial adulterers, they turn their unjustly divorced wives into adulteresses if those unjustly divorced wives should remarry while their husbands who unjustly divorced them are still alive.
Contrary to what many deceived teachers have taught, Apostle Paul has never given any new law to anyone. He was never given such authority and he never told anyone that he had such authority. Whatever he taught were totally in tandem with the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. But those who don’t know the truth have often interpreted the words of the Lord Jesus Christ on the basis of what Paul said or taught. But the reverse should be the case for anyone who knows that Paul and all the other apostles were messengers or servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ Himself never taught anything other than what God instructed Him to teach (John 7:16; 12:48-50). But false teachers have taught their own opinions and biases other than the truth that is exegetically drawn out of God’s word.

IS THE GREAT TRIBULATION THE WRATH OF GOD?

Articles God, tribulation

The word “tribulation”is defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary as suffering resulting from oppression or persecution; a trying experience.

Cambridge Dictionary defines it as difficult situations and unpleasant experiences.

The Easton’s Bible Dictionary defines it as trouble or affliction of any kind.

Another definition is “an experience that tests one’s endurance, patience, or faith; great affliction, trial, or distress; suffering.”

In the New Testament, the word “tribulation” is translated from the Greek word “thlipsis” which is used

45 times. Thlipsis is translated 21 times in the KJV as “tribulation,” 18 times as “affliction,” 3 times as

“trouble” and once each as “burdened,” “anguish,” and “persecution.”

Other words used by different English versions are “distress,” “suffering,” “misery,” “oppression.”

When Jesus Christ foretold of “great tribulation” in Matt. 24:21 (Mark 13:19), He was telling of great sufferings that will attend the world in the last days of this age.

It is the belief of some Bible scholars that the great sufferings Jesus foretold is not limited to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Romans in 70AD or the persecution of the world by the Antichrist as revealed in the Books of Daniel and Revelation. Neither are the words “great tribulation” anything different from “much tribulation” used by Apostle Paul in Acts 14:22. It should also be noted that the definite article “the” was not used by Jesus Christ. It was also not used in Rev. 7:14. This means that the tribulation of the last days is not limited to a particular one. The persecution of the world by the Antichrist, although will be climactic and possibly most baleful, is only a part of the great tribulation.

The Seven Seals Briefly Explained

God gave the details of the end-time events to Jesus Christ who sent it to John through an angel in the form of a series of visions. John wrote in Rev. 5 of when the package was handed to the Lamb (Jesus Christ) by God in the form of a scroll (book). The scroll was sealed with seven seals. In chapter 6, John wrote on when the first six seals were broken by the Lamb:

Seal 1 – the emergence of a horse rider who was determined to gain control of all the people and everything on the Earth (Rev. 6:1,2). This rider is not Jesus Christ. He is probably the Antichrist or a group of people who want to control the world.

Seal 2 – wars and mayhem. Red is the colour of blood and itsymbolises bloodshed, mutual slaughter of one another to such an extent that peace will be absent in the world (Rev. 6:3,4). This is also a part of the great tribulation.

Seal 3 – As a direct consequence of the wars and killings on the earth, as unveiled by the breaking of the second seal, food scarcity will hit the world. This will lead to food rationing. The prices of essential food items will become extremely high (Rev. 6:5,6). This also is a part of the great tribulation.

Seal 4 – the rider of the horse which came out when this seal was opened is named Death. Grave is said to follow him, both names symbolising a great number of deaths. Large-scale starvation, pestilence, killings by humans and by savage animals will take place in many parts of the world such that a quarter of the world’s population will be killed (Rev. 6:7,8). Based on the world population of 7.753 billion (2020), the death toll will be close to two billion. This is staggering and capable of making blood curdle in one’s veins. Yet it is still part of the great tribulation.

Seal 5 – John saw under the altar (cf. Exod. 29:12) the souls of people who were martyred, during the tribulation, because of their faith in Christ. They were crying for vengeance but they were given white robes and told to endure a little longer until the tribulation has run its full course (Rev.6:9-11). We see them later in Rev. 7:9-14 rejoicing and praising God and the Lamb after they have been resurrected to inherit eternal life in the Paradise of God.

Seal 6 – The vision of the phenomenal changes in the universe which Jesus Christ foretold in Matt. 24:29,30 (Mark 13:24-26) is seen taking place here. This is followed by the visible appearing of the Lord accompanied by His holy angels as He returns to the earth (Rev. 6:12-17). As clearly revealed by the Lord, the events unveiled by the breaking of this sixth seal are immediately after the tribulation of those [foretold] days. This means that by the time the sixth seal is broken the foretoldgreat tribulation had ended.

Seal 7 – This is the last seal broken by the Lamb (Rev. 8ff.). The breaking of this seal unveils the pouring of God’s wrath on the unrepentant people of the world as at that time. Before God’s bowls of plagues are poured on the earth, all His saints still on the earth, represented by the symbolic figure of 144,000 had to be marked on their foreheads to keep them safe from the plagues.

As has been revealed by the breaking of the seven seals, it is indisputably clear that the “great tribulation” foretold by Jesus Christ is not the same thing as the “wrath of God” which is to come at the end of the age. The distinction is found in their origin, content, timing and target. The great tribulation will originate from men empowered by Satan (2 Tim.3:1-4; 2 Thes. 2:7-9; Rev. 2:10,11; 13:1,2). It is targeted on all the people of the world, including Christians. God’s wrath will be poured out undiluted only on “the children of disobedience” also known as “the children of wrath.” The “great tribulation” will take place before Christ’s second coming but God’s wrath will be poured on the earth after His second coming. Any careful student of the Bible need not strain himself or herself before he or she sees the difference.

In Matthew 24:21 Jesus said, “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matt. 24:21 NKJV). In verses 29 and 30 the Lord said, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (NKJV).

Here, the Lord Jesus Christ said the phenomenal changes in the universe – the darkening of the sun, the moon turning red, the stars falling from the sky, the powerful earthquakes, et al, will take place immediately after the tribulation (v. 29).

The word “then” used twice in verse 30 should be noted. It implies the sequence of events within the narrative. This means that the sign of the second coming of the Lord will be seen in the sky after the phenomenal changes in the universe had taken place. This will then be followed by the mourning of the people of the earth when they see the Lord coming with unprecedented glory and power. While the sinners and unprepared folk are mourning, the angels will be gathering the saints to the sky to welcome their Lord and King with fanfare and jubilation.

The reason for the “mourning” was later shown to John in Rev. 6:15-17:

“Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?” (Rev. 6:15-17, NIV). They were praying to the hills and mountains to shield them from the face of God and the wrath of the Lamb.

They mourn because the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ brings with it the onset of “the great day of the wrath of the one who sits on the throne and of the Lamb and who can withstand it?” The “day of the wrath of God” will start after the Lord Jesus Christ returns to the earth (Rev. 6:17) and continues right up to the final day of judgment.

It is very evident from the Bible that the “great tribulation” will have ended before the “wrath of God” will be poured out on the unbelieving, unrepentant and careless people of the world. This is the timing difference between these two end-time events.

The following except from the Bible study manual of one of the leading Evangelical/Pentecostal churches in Nigeria is typical of the confusion many churches have about the subject.

“This event [the Rapture] will take place in the twinkling of an ‘eye’ before the great and terrible day of the Lord when the wrath of God will be poured down from His cup of indignation without measure – an event fitly called the Great Tribulation (1 Corinthians 15:52).” – Search The Scriptures, Vol 75, Lesson 975, page 88.

The above quote makes us know that some teachers have confused the great tribulation with the wrath of God. Now, let me show you some of the many Bible passages which clearly distinguish the “great tribulation” from the “wrath of God.”

The Bible says the chosen people of God “have been destined for tribulations” (1 Thes. 3:3). But they are “not destined for the wrath of God” (1 Thes 5:9). This is why believers are commanded to endure tribulations (Rom. 12:12). The Lord sent a message to His faithful saints in Smyrna wherein He said, inter alia, “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil [through the Antichrist who is a human being] will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten [symbolic] days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown” (Rev 2:10 NIV, emphasis and word in square brackets added by me). The devil is identified here as the one who brings the tribulation through the agency of the Antichrist. With this knowledge, the apostles and the first century believers not only endured tribulations (2 Thes. 1:4; 2 Tim. 3:11; 4:5; Heb. 10:32), they gloried in their tribulations (Rom. 5:3).

One of the things Christ and His apostles did very often was to prepare the believers’ minds for the worst outcomes of tribulations. Jesus said, “they will kill you ” (Matt. 24:9) but they should not be afraid because He will raise them up on the last day to inherit eternal life in the Kingdom of God (Matt. 10:28; Luke 12:4; John 6:38-40; 16:33). The apostles did the same thing. They encouraged the believers not to regard tribulations as something to be dreaded or that must be avoided at all cost. They told believers that “we MUST go through tribulations to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:21-22); “all true believers will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). All persecutions of believers bring about different degrees of suffering, some leading to death (Acts 12:1-5; Rev. 2:10-11).

Putting these scriptures together, we see that tribulations are brought upon men by humans and Satan, the Devil. Tribulations, like temptations, although allowed by God, are not from Him. “God cannot be tempted to do evil and He does not tempt anyone” (James 1:13).

Daniel in Babylon was given the vision of the persecution of the saints of God by the Antichrist around 553 BCE. The Antichrist was seen as the “little horn” (Dan. 7:8). One off the things he will do during his persecution of the world is to “speak against the Most High God” (Dan. 7:25; Rev. 13:4-8) and “oppose the Prince of princes” (Dan. 8:25). If the tribulation of God’s people by the Antichrist is the wrath of God, can we say that God is angry with Himself and the Prince of princes, the Lord Jesus Christ? The obvious answer is NO! This simply brings the point home that the tribulation by the Antichrist is not the same thing as the wrath of God. God will never be an ally of Satan and his agents in fighting against any people.

Job had tribulation brought on him by Satan Joseph had tribulations caused by his bothers and his master’s wife. David’s tribulation was brought on him by King Saul. Israel had tribulations from the Egyptians and many other nations, including the Babylonians. The prophets, Christ and His apostles had tribulations brought on them by the Israelites and Romans. They are the outcomes of the wrath of men and Satan.

When our Lord Jesus Christ foretold of “great tribulation” or “great suffering” in Matt. 24:21 (Mark 13:19), He did not limit it to the persecution of the world by the Antichrist which is likely going to be the climax of the “great sufferings”. In the past centuries the world has been going through increasing sufferings caused by men themselves. We cannot call these miseries the wrath of God. They are not the direct consequences of God’s anger or punishment.
The Bible makes it very clear that God’s wrath is for the “children of disobedience” also known as “children of wrath” (Eph. 2:2-3; 5:3-6). These are people who spurn the love, compassion, patient endurance, mercy and grace of God and refuse to turn to Him through repentance from sin and placing faith in His Son. In the end they will face the wrath of God which they deserve. Those who refuse to accept the free forgiveness of God which is available to the whole world because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ will drink from God’s cup of indignation when the time of God’s fiery retribution comes. The period of God’s anger will start when Christ returns to the earth (Matt. 24:30; Rev. 6:15-17).

Until that day comes, every sinner and unbeliever still has the chance to “flee from the coming wrath of God” (Matt. 3:7; Luke 3:7). All the people who reject the mercy of God cannot escape the coming wrath of God (Rom. 2:5; Heb. 2:2-3). Those who embrace the free gift of God’s mercy by believing in Christ as the Son of God and in His death and resurrection will escape God’s coming wrath (Rom. 5:9). Christ has delivered believers from the coming wrath of God (1 Thes. 1:10). But God’s people are destined for tribulations, including the end-time persecution of the world by the Antichrist. This is what the Bible has clearly revealed.

WHY IS GOD’S SPIRIT CALLED HIS HOLY SPIRIT?

God God, Holy Spirit

The subject of God’s spirit has long been a subject of unending controversy. So many theories have been contrived by men about the spirit of God. Two major schools of thought however remain predominant. While some believe that the spirit of God is the power of God, most Christians have been made to believe that God’s holy spirit is a person and the third God of a trinity who is self-existed as well as coequal and coeternal with God and His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

The important thing, however, is to know what the Bible says about the spirit of God. What does the Bible really say about the spirit of God? In my study of the Bible, I have found out that whenever the spirit of God is used in the Bible, it means either of two things: (I) the essence of God, or (ii) His power which He transmits into His creation by means of His invisible breath to do all His works in them.

In this article, I will show you why God’s essence which includes His feelings, intellect, will/desire and moral consciousness is called His holy spirit. Now let’s look at the Bible.

God is a holy Being by nature (Lev. 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:26; Psa. 99:9; Isa. 6:3; John 17:11; Rev. 4:8; 6:10). The Bible uses the word “holy” for everything dedicated or consecrated for the service or worship of the holy God even if the things are inanimate objects. Some of them are:

holy vessels (1 King 8:4; 1 Chron. 22:19; 2 Chron. 5:5);
holy instruments (Num. 31:6);
holy garments (Exod. 28:2,4; 29:29);
holy day (Exod. 35:2; Neh. 10:31; Isa. 58:13; Col. 2:16);
holy ground (Exod. 3:5; Acts 7:33);
holy hill or mountain (Psa. 2:6; 99:9; Isa. 11:9; 27:13; 56:7; 65:25; 66:20; Dan. 9:16,20; etc.);
holy temple/place (Exod. 26:33,34; 28:35,43; Psa. 5:7; 65:4; 79:1; Mic. 1:2; Acts 6:13; 21:28; Hab. 2:20);
holy Sabbath (Exod. 16:23; 20:8; Neh. 9:14);
holy commandment (2 Pet. 2:21);

These things are called “holy” not because they are sinless. As inanimate things, they are incapable of being sinful or sinless. They are said to be “holy” because they have been set apart for the worship or service of the Holy One. Therefore, in the places where the word “holy” is used in the cited texts, one can safely use the words “consecrated” or “dedicated” and still not offend the meaning.

In the same sense, people or spirits who have dedicated themselves to the service of the Holy One are called “holy” not necessarily because they are sinless but because they have been set apart for the service and worship of God. Examples include:

holy men or people (Exod. 22:31; Deut. 7:6; 14:2,21; 26:19; 28:9; Isa. 62:12; etc.);
holy prophets and apostles (Luke 1:70; Acts 3:21; Eph. 3:5; 2 Pet. 3:2; Rev. 18:20; 22:6);
holy children (1 Cor. 7:14);
holy angels (Matt. 25:31; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; Acts 10:22; Rev. 14:10).

When Apostle Paul said the children born into a family where one of the partners is a believer are “holy” (1 Cor.7:14), he didn’t mean that they are sinless. He simply meant that they have become acceptable to God by the fact that one of the parents belong to God.

In the same vein, and more importantly, anything connected with the Holy God is called “holy” because it is a part of God. Examples are:

God’s ”holy arm” (Psa. 98:1; Isa. 52:10);
God’s holy or “pure eyes” (Hab. 1:13);
God’s “holy name” (Lev. 20:3; 22:2,32; 1 Chron. 16:10,35; 29:16; Psa. 33:21; 99:3; 103:1; 105:3; 106:47; Isa. 57:15; Ezek. 20:39; etc.);
God’s “holy promise” (Psa. 105:42);
God’s “holy covenant” (Luke 1:72);
God’s “holy spirit” (Psa. 51:11; Isa. 63:10,11).

It is evident from the above that God’s spirit is called His “holy spirit” because it is a part of Him. It is the spirit of the Holy One. The Hebrew Bible, also known by Christians as the Old Testament, which were the scriptures read by the apostles, never viewed the holy spirit of God as anything different from the spirit of God. Neither the holy prophets nor the holy apostles ever viewed the spirit of God either as a distinct person or a third God in a so-called Trinity. The holy spirit of God was, and remains, the spirit of God. It is depicted in the Hebrew scriptures either as the sentient part of God or His power at work in His creation. That is why Apostle Paul said in 1 Cor. 2:11 that the holy spirit of God is similar to the human spirit. As the human spirit is not another person from the man, so too is God’s holy spirit not a different person from the Holy God. Just as the Israelites annoyed the spirit of Moses which provoked him to speak rashly with his lips, in the wilderness (Num. 20:3-10; Psa. 106:33), so too they angered the holy spirit of God and caused Him to fight against them (Psa. 78:40; Isa. 63:10). It is undeniable that the spirit of Moses is not another person from Moses. The same way, God’s holy spirit is not another person from the Holy God. It is a part of Him.

Neither the Lord Jesus Christ nor any of the New Testament writers changed this basic concept of God’s holy spirit. It was the religious speculators of the fourth century CE who, due to their lack of scriptural insight and the influence the philosophy of Plato and his followers had on them, made the holy spirit of God another distinct person from God. Their theology does not agree with biblical fact and, therefore, remains a false teaching.

For a deeper understanding of the subject, please read parts 1 and 2 of my article titled “Is the Holy Spirit A Person?”

God

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What Does the Bible Mean When Jesus Is Called the Son of God?

Has Satan Been Thrown Out Of Heaven? If Yes, When?

Was Jesus Christ Not Created by God?

ARE ALL KINGS OR RULERS APPOINTED BY GOD?

Has the Kingdom of God Already Come?

DOES GOD FORBID POLYGAMY?

IS THE GREAT TRIBULATION THE WRATH OF GOD?

WHY IS GOD’S SPIRIT CALLED HIS HOLY SPIRIT?

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