One of the main religious issues that causes disruption, as well as distraction, is the idea of the Trinity: is God separate from Yeshua or are they the same entity, in different forms.
As far as salvation is concerned, the question of Trinity or Unity is irrelevant because Yeshua MUST be the Messiah, and not God, for the plan of salvation to work.
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The plan from the start was that God would send a Messiah to make it possible for us to overcome our sins and be able to commune with God, which is only possible after we have been cleansed of sin. Now, with the destruction of the temple in 73 AD, because the Torah required a sin sacrifice at that temple, and no where else, without a Messiah we could never be forgiven.
When Yeshua sacrificed himself, it was the means for us to be forgiven in that his sacrifice- as the Messiah- replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem. That is why he said the only way to the father is through him ( John 14:6) because the temple was no longer available.
The Messiah serves as a substitution for the sacrificial animal, and only God can forgive sins. Oh, yeah, I know what you’re going to say, “Yeshua said he can forgive sins”, and you’re right, he did say that. BUT… that was only while on the earth (look it up in Matthew 9:6). Once his role as the substitutionary sacrifice was completed, and he was raised into heaven to sit at the right hand of God, sin forgiveness reverted back to God, and God, alone.
Yeshua, as Messiah, is an intercessor, not an interceptor. We worship God, we pray to God, and we thank God for forgiving us because only God can forgive sins.
Yeshua provides the way to come before God so we can ask for forgiveness, by means of the blood sacrifice performed on our behalf by God’s Messiah.
If Yeshua is God, then why refer to him? Why pray in his name? Why have anything at all to do with him? If he is God, what sense is there in going to God to ask God to refer to himself when we ask God for forgiveness?
Yeshua always referred to God as his father, and never made the literal claim stating that he is God in the flesh (that was what some guy wrote in the beginning of the Gospel of John, and Yeshua never said that about himself).
Here’s something else to consider… how do we know Yeshua is the Messiah? The answer is that he fulfilled nearly every prophecy about him, all of which are in the Tanakh (the Old Covenant, aka the “Jewish” Bible). Some of those prophecies are still to be fulfilled, and that will happen when he returns- not as God, but as the Messiah. So, if Yeshua is God, then the prophecies about the Messiah would indicate that he will be God, but here’s the kicker- not one prophecy about the Messiah in the entire Tanakh indicates that he will be God.
Aright, here we go again: I know, I know, you are going to say, “What about Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 9:6, where it says he will be called “Mighty God”? That verse doesn’t say he IS God, only that he will be called “Mighty God”. That is more of a warning about the creation of the Trinity than it is about confirming the Messiah is God.
(In the description is a link to a message I just did about this misleading verse).
The fact is that there is not one, single reference to the Messiah in the Tanakh, which is the definitive source for knowing how to identify the Messiah, that indicates he is actually God.
Not one.
A man whose name was Tertullian, sometime around the middle of the second century, is the first one to use the term “trinity” when referring to Yeshua, and that is where this whole idea came from. The Gospel of John is the most often quoted source for any validation of Yeshua’s divinity, and that gospel is recognized to be so very different from the other three that it is suspect.
Personally, I totally reject the entire gospel of John, and even more than that, not only do I believe it is not a valid gospel, but I don’t even think it was written by a Jew! But, I digress…
God’s plan of salvation is simple: if you are stained with sin, you cannot enter into God’s presence. The way to be “saved”, i.e., to be in God’s presence, is to be cleansed of sin. This was done through the sacrificial system, with the blood of an innocent thing (lamb or goat) being spilled to atone for the sin of a person; the animal’s life served as a substitution for the person’s life (the life of a thing is in its blood-Leviticus 17:11) .
In Deuteronomy 12:11, God states that the only place a sacrifice can be made is where he places his name. Initially, this was at the Tent of Meeting (where the Ark was kept), and later at the temple in Jerusalem. That place has never changed.
With the destruction of the temple in 73 AD, there was no way that, in accordance with the Torah, anyone could be saved. Ah, but, that is where the plan for a Messiah now comes into play. The Messiah is a human being born from the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), making him the Son of God (literally, not just spiritually), who would be the only human being able to live in complete accord with the Torah, 100% of the time, and as such be an acceptable sacrifice for sin.
This is essential! The Messiah has to be human to be an acceptable sin sacrifice! He has to be able to sin, otherwise his sinless life is just a cheat. There is no value in being sinless if you can’t sin, to begin with, which would be true if Yeshua was God. That is why Isaiah, in Isaiah 53, tells us that the Messiah was 100% human, that he knew illnesses and was as susceptible to sin as anyone else.
You’ve got to understand this: lambs are born sinless, but not humans, so for a human being to be sinless takes self-discipline, humility, and faithful obedience to God. An animal can’t be faithful but a human can, so for a human being, i.e., the Messiah, to be an acceptable sacrifice, he must have the ability to sin.
God can’t sin. That’s right, Folks- if you believe Yeshua is God, then your salvation can’t be real because God can’t sin, he can’t die, he can’t be a sacrifice, and God can’t forgive himself because he can’t sin, in the first place.
If Yeshua is God, that turns the entire sacrificial system upside down, and renders it impotent!
Faithful acceptance of Yeshua as the Messiah is the only way we can be saved- we are not saved by believing Yeshua is God, but by believing he is the Messiah God created and sent to the earth to provide a means for us to receive forgiveness of sin.
Like it or not, Yeshua HAS to be the 100% human Messiah, created by God through Miryam and not God in the flesh, in order to fulfill the prophecies about the Messiah and to be an acceptable sacrifice; otherwise, God’s plan of salvation can’t work.
Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!