“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in
time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his
glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels,
as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which
of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten
thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? And
again, when he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. And
of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a
flame of fire. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore, God, even
thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And, thou,
Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens
are the works of thine hands: they shall perish; but thou remainest; and they
all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up,
and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
But to which of the angels said he at any time, sit on my right hand, until I
make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent
forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” Hebrews 1:1-14
If nothing else, we can see that established here in
the Scripture there is a distinct difference between the Deity of God and the angels
of Heaven. It was God alone that created the heavens and the universe. Angels
are very strong and powerful as far as their God given abilities allow, but they
do not possess the power of creative abilities, such as bringing into existence
living forms of air breathing life. Angels are not Deity. They are created
beings, ministering spirits according to the Scripture, just one-step above
humankind. The Bible admonishes us not to worship Angels, but rather instructs
and encourages us to worship only the true and living Jehovah God and His
adorned Son; one in the same, Jesus is this person.
“I am
the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me:
I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: That they may know from the
rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is
none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create
evil: I the LORD do all these things. Drop down, ye heavens, from above,
and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them
bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD
have created it. 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?” Isaiah 45:5-9
God’s Christ Jesus set forth a discourse explaining
just who He was when the Disciple Phillip asked to see the Father of Glory.
“Jesus saith unto him, I am
the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
If ye had known
me, ye should have known my Father also: and
from henceforth ye know him, and have seen
him.’
Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus
saith unto him, ‘have I been so long time with you, and
yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest
thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the
Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of
myself: but the Father that dwelleth in
me, he doeth the works. Believe me
that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me
for the very works' sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on
me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these
shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my
name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall
ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my
commandments.” John
14:6-15
“For there
is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” 1Timothy 2:5-6
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus: Who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted
him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth,
and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, my
beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much
more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to
will and to do of his good pleasure.” Philippians 2:5-13
In this Scripture, we can identify Christ as being one
in the same with God the Father who is altogether omniscient, all knowing of
all things. God is also omnipresent, which means He has the ability to place
Himself in many different places at the same time. Angels on the other hand
cannot perform in this manner and this includes Lucifer. It can be said that
God wears three hats at His choosing. This takes a lot of power, much more than
our sun can display at one time, but our God is more than capable. For example,
I have the power of the Holy Spirit inside of me and at the same time, so do
many others that believe Christ is the Son of God. There is nothing in the
entire universe that God cannot do based on His will.
“And Jesus came and spake unto them, {after the
Resurrection and upon His ascension} saying, ‘All power is
given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you: and, lo, I am with you
alway, even unto the end of the world.’ Amen.” Matthew
28:18-20
Therefore, Christ is the express image of God the
Father and is an extension of Himself in a bodily form as stated in Hebrews chapter one. God’s purpose
was not to expose Himself as Almighty God Himself. He did that with Moses and although
He tucked Moses safely away in the rock, His presence almost killed Moses. No
one but the Angels can physically approach the true and living God Jehovah. Our
God is a God of fire, a consuming fire according to Hebrews 12:29. Holy and righteous
altogether and nothing that defiles can come into His presence. Thus, the
purpose for His Christ; He approaches the Father of Lights on our behalf. You
and I, as born-again believers in Christ Jesus now have access to the Throne of
Glory. However, to put forth Himself to humankind as what appears to us as a
separate entity is Christ or the Saviour. God is merciful to us. He gave us
Himself in a bodily form known in the Scriptures as the Logos or the Word.
Before Christ was born to Mary and the world, He was known to Heaven’s entire
host as the WORD.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with
God. All things were made by him; and
without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life
was the light of men.” John 1:1-4
This is the wonderful grace of the Father giving us an
opportunity to approach Him, believe in Him, and above all, worship Him. We
cannot approach God the Father without approaching His extension of Christ
first, a living breathing person we can touch, feel, and one glorious day, see
with our own eyes. The Scripture assures us as born-again children of God that
we who know Him will see Him face to face in the very near future. By faith, we
must accept God’s Christ first in order to have access to the Father.
As for the statement of the Mormons’ claim that Lucifer is
the brother of God’s Christ is to say that Christ is equal to the Angels. Lucifer,
the Light Bearer, was the anointed cherubim that served at the fiery altar, which
is at the base of God’s Throne in Heaven. This is most definitely a false
statement of the Mormons because this statement takes away the Deity of the Son
of God. It is altogether blasphemy and truly the statement of an unbeliever. A
false statement because through the knowledge of the Scripture, we know that
Christ is the Son of God, the Father’s express image and the very likeness of
His glory. Not a duplicate mind you, but an express image; there is a
difference…think about that for a moment.God the Father is a Spirit, a consuming fire and He purposed
himself to have a body to walk among men. We have further witness of
the Apostles in the Scripture according to the Disciple Luke when he wrote about
the entrance of the Son of God. I feel the Scripture best describes the Trinity
with the works performed at the First Advent of Christ, the Lord’s conception at
Nazareth.
“And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent
from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man
whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was
Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art
highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among
women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in
her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her,
‘fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt
conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He
shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God
shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the
house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.’ Then said
Mary unto the angel, ‘how shall this be, seeing I know not a man?’ And the
angel answered and said unto her, ‘the
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow
thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be
called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also
conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was
called barren. For with God nothing
shall be impossible.” Luke 1:26-37
This Scripture alone gives us the account of the three
offices and purposes of God the Father by showing us the inner workings of the
Triune God. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, all three are
one in the same with Christ Jesus. Puzzling no doubt, but God the Father
chooses to give the name of Jesus to us so we can better understand our God and
give us a feel for closeness and intimate relationship with God the Father. He
gives us what seems like another individual but in the real spiritual sense, is
still the same person. We must keep in mind what God said about Himself; “I am the LORD, and there is
none else, there is no God beside me.”
I am sure at times that many feel the Scripture might
seem to contradict itself; sometimes it does to me too, but I know this is only
because of my human inabilities. I have to remind myself this is my God that
loves me and gives me the ability to understand His ways. Many things, such as
our maturity and how long we have known the LORD, depends on whether or not we
receive this valuable information. His ways of Holiness and Righteousness are so
much higher than our ways and sometimes foreign to me. I know from experience
that writing about this subject can be, and probably is, very difficult to comprehend,
let alone understand it. In our walk of faith we must realize that even as
adults we are alike unto babies who know that someone is taking time to pay
attention to them yet they do not have a clue as to who or what this person is.
Christians are similar because by faith we accept that a higher power wants to
give us time and space to grow gracefully in the knowledge He gives us, spoon-fed
so to speak, a little at a time as not to discourage us. I am not going to sit
here and tell you that I fully understand all things, how arrogant that would
be of me. The LORD gives knowledge or withholds knowledge from me just as He
gives to you what we can digest at the time. We have to keep in mind that our
walk with God is a walk of faith. Whether or not we understand it is irrelevant,
simply believing is enough for the LORD at this time. Understanding will come
from the LORD as we mature into adults and stay close to the Word of God.
“Believe me that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.” John 14:11
