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PLURAL PASSAGES When God is referred to in the singular such as I, it is showing the being of God as the only God. When it is in the plural he is revealing something personal of his nature. What cults do is concentrate only on the single passages that describe God as I, me, myself and ignore all the plural passages such as us, we, our. They also ignore how they are used. Because of their preconceived notions that God has to be numerically one they have tunnel vision. If we look carefully we find God is usually revealing his persons when speaking of himself in the plural context. Trinitarians realize that God is described in both ways and take the whole of the Bible instead of a cut and paste theology that makes the scriptures conform to our own interpretation. God is clearly presented as a united one not only through the language but through the descriptions themselves. "In the light of the facts of the New Testament we cannot refrain from asking whether there may not have been some adumbrations of it in the Old Testament. As the doctrine arises directly out of the facts of the New Testament, we do not look for any full discovery of it in the Old Testament. We must not expect too much, because, as Israel's function was to emphasize the unity of God (Deut.6:4), any premature revelation might have been. But if the doctrine be true, we might expect that Christian Jews, at any rate, would seek for some anticipation of it in the Old Testament. We believe we find it there. (a) The use of the plural "Elohim,," with the singular verb, "bara," is at least noteworthy, and seems to call for some recognition, especially as the same grammatical solecism is found used by St. Paul (1 Thess.3:11). Then, too, the use of the plurals "our" (Gen. 1. 26), "us" (3:22), "us" (11:7), seems to indicate some self-converse in God. It is not satisfactory to refer this to angels because they were not associated with God in creation. Whatever may be the meaning of this usage, it seems, at any rate, to imply that Hebrew Monotheism was an intensely living reality". ( Dr. W. H. Griffith Thomas Principles of Theology The Doctrine Anticipated" pp. 25, 26), God has unfolded his revelation throughout history and many times we had to wait to understand it. This is especially true for prophecy. When we take all the information the Bible has on a certain subject such as the nature of God we can understand what was said in the past. What was given in Genesis, needed to have future revelation to explain its meaning. In the same way, there are only two scriptures relating to a virgin conceiving Gen.3:15, Isa 7:14 and needed the future revelation to understand their meaning. The example of this is Gen. 1:26 : " And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" Let us make man in our image-Naase=let us make, adam bitzalmanu- adam bitzalmanu- nu=our, tselem= image in our likeness- keedmutenu- keedmutenu- nu=our, demuth=likeness. (dashes found in Hebrew mean 2 words in a relationship to one another) the words our and us are interconnected with other words and cannot be separated.Anti Trinitarians like Jehovah Witnesses and others entertain the only reasonable explanation from human wisdom. Trying to avoid the issue saying God talked with the angels, The Bible once again refute this logic in Isa.40:12-15 when speaking of God creating the world it asked, "With whom did he take counsel." Can anyone find this statement of his conferring with angels in the Bible. I'm sure when they do it will be right next to God is strictly one person. The speaker of Gen.1:26 is God, the other he is speaking to is of the same nature and essence because he includes him in being equal, as the source of creating. The words image and likeness are attached to the plural pronoun our and us. So the speaker and the ones addressed are of the same image. While the J.W. and other anti Trinitarians will say he speaking to the angels the very next verse settles the matter. Vs.27 verifies all this by saying "so God created man in his own image ; in the image of God he created him." There were no angels involved in making man in his image. Isa.45:11: "Thus says the holy One of Israel and his maker "I have made the earth, and created man on it. I-- My hands-- stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded." Gen. 3:22:" And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us," us is indicative of number; the word one is also the word echad meaning to unite. Gen.11:7: ..." let us go down, and there confound their language,"' the us is found in this text and is the same word for us in vs.4 when the people said "come let us build ourselves a city". If one is going to say us can't be plural, then they will have to be consistent and change this to, come let myself build a city. Gen.19:24: "Then Yahweh rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and brimstone from Yahweh out of heaven Yahweh who was on earth talking to Abraham in form rained it from another who is Yahweh in heaven. ISA.48:16: "from the beginning from the time that it was, I was there: ( 1st person) and now the Lord GOD (2nd person) and his Spirit, (3rd person) hath sent me(1st person)." here we have three individuals existing together, the one speaking states that he was there from before time (Jn. 1:1 ) he refers to the Lord and states that both Yahweh and his Spirit have sent me, (the speaker.) This goes perfectly in line with Isa. 6:8 God speaking to Isaiah "Who shall I send, who will go for us". Both the singular and the plural are used in the same verse. Zech.2: 8-11: Here we have an account of someone being sent from the Lord yet as the description goes on in the passages we find this person to be God himself. In vs.10 " sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst says the Lord. In vs11 ..." And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you" Here are two persons mentioned the Lord said he is coming he then says the Lord of hosts is sending him, who is identified as Yahweh. It is this one who will dwell with man. Isa.41:21-26: God asks the people to present their case in vs.22 he uses the plural us, and we for himself . In vs.23 we vs.26 we . Since this is God speaking the conclusion is that he refers to himself in the plural. Isa.45:11:" Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, I have made the earth and created man on it, I my hands stretched out the heavens." two persons Yahweh and his maker who is God also. Singular as God, plural in persons (Isa. 45:18, ) How does this mesh with Isaiah 44:24 ? It states that the Lord made all things who stretched out the heavens all alone, who spreads out the earth by myself." There is no conflict, because the Father, Son and the Spirit are all God. As the one God alone, he made everything! In the N.T. we find this maker is Christ the Son (Col.1:16, Jn.1:3,Heb.1:2) God the Father is the source, Christ is the means and the Spirit is the power that created all things. Since all three are involved in creating they are the one God. Genesis 1:1 says that in the beginning God (Elohim) created. The word Elohim is a compound unity. It describes more than one person as a unified one as in this description of God. If all three are attributed to this event then they are Elohim. Zech.13:7: " Awake, O sword against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, says the Lord of hosts." the Hebrew word for fellow means equal, so it reads against the man who is my equal (deity). Jer.23:5-6: " Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise to David a branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. in his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; now this is his name by which he will be called THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." Here is described a descendant of David a man who will reign on David’s throne and is called the Lord, yet there is another who is Lord who raised him up. This is echoed by Isaiah 9:6 about the Son who is given, "of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom. To order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward even forever." What other man could deserve the title "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS? Except the sinless God/man. The mighty God of Isa.9:6.The ancient rabbis also believed that this verse was a reference the Messiah? This verse is applied to the Messiah in a number of rabbinical writings. Regarding Jeremiah 23:6, the ancient' of the Prophets states: 'And I will raise up for David the Messiah the Just. Rabbi Kimchi (I160-1235 C.E.), a highly respected Rabbi in his time, wrote of this prophecy: 'By the Righteous branch is meant Messiah ". In the Midrash on Psalm 23, it is interesting to note the Messiah is given a divine designation. He is called, "Jehovah is a man of war' and "Jehovah our righteousness., Also in the Midrash on Lamentations 1: 16, the name Jehovah is expressly attributed to the Messiah. If the ancient rabbis are correct, then the obvious and startling conclusion is that the Messiah (the righteous shoot) will be born into the world as a literal physical human being. Isa.11:1-5 "There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots." Here we have the Branch mentioned which indicates the lineage of Jesus coming from King David’s Father Jesse. (Lk.22:42) We also see him having the fullness of the Spirit even beyond what Solomon had. The Spirit is mentioned 7 times a number indicating completeness or fullness. "The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. His delight is in the fear of the LORD, …" Zech.3:8-9 'Hear, O Joshua, the high priest, you and your companions who sit before you, for they are a wondrous sign; for behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH. For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua: upon the stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription,' says the LORD of hosts, 'And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day". This identifies him as the branch. He is Gods servant, Jesus said he did not come to be served but to serve. He also says he will remove the sin in one day, which is exactly what happened when Jesus died. Continuing in his revelation he is told by the Lord in Zech.4:7 that he will bring forth the capstone with shouts of grace, grace to it. The day iniquity was removed was because of grace, the New Covenant. Zech.12:10:"and they will look upon me (the word "me" is given two letters the Aleph and the Tov in Hebrew which is equal to the alpha and omega in the Greek) whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only Son." There is the 1st person speaking who is God, he addresses the subject pierced as himself and then addresses himself in the 3rd person as the Son. This is a clear indication of God becoming man and dying for the sins of the world.
These are excerpts from the book (binder form) The Trinity Defining and defending the Trinity among the Defining and defending the Trinity among the cults
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