Another Clue that Jesus is YHWH

Cousin,

I noticed something interesting about the passage from Hebrews chapter 1 that I quoted earlier regarding the earth's eventual destruction. I think it contains another "clue" to the divinity of Jesus.:

⁸ But of the Son he says,

   "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
   the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
⁹ You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;therefore God, your God, has anointed you
   with the oil of gladness beyond your companions."
¹⁰ And,

   "You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
¹¹ they will perish, but you remain;
   they will all wear out like a garment,
¹² like a robe you will roll them up,
   like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same,
   and your years will have no end."

For in verse 8 it says that these passages are speaking of the Son. Yet verses 10 through 12 are a direct quotation of Psalm 102:

²⁵ Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
   and the heavens are the work of your hands.
²⁶ They will perish, but you will remain;
   they will all wear out like a garment.
You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
 ²⁷ but you are the same, and your years have no end.

If you go read Psalm 102, from verse 12 on, you'll see it's unquestionably about YHWH. The author of Hebrews obviously believed that the Son was in some respect YHWH.

Mike

YHWH Speaking to Himself

Hi Cousin!

I've got another couple of "Trinity clues" to share with you. These ones can be found in Genesis 1 and Genesis 11. Both passages appear to refer to God speaking to Himself, as if He were in some manner comprised of multiple persons.

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; (Genesis 1:26)

And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech." So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:5-9)

Point #1:
One may speculate that God was referring to some other heavenly beings who were present. However, the passages themselves make no reference to anyone else being present.

Point #2:
In both cases it is implied that the parties communicating share miraculous/supernatural/divine powers in that YHWH proposes that "they," not He, take miraculous action.

Point #3:
In Genesis 1:26, YHWH proposes that man be created in "our likeness." So whatever parties are communicating in 1:26, they have a likeness in common.

Point #4:
Whoever YHWH is speaking to in 11:7, he proposes that "they" confuse the languages of the people, implying that it will be a team effort. And then the next two verses goes on to explicitly say that YHWH confused their languages, not YHWH and some other party.

Christians believe that these two passages allude to the idea that God's nature involves a plurality in some manner. And, like I said earlier, the doctrine on the Trinity was formulated as a means of making sense of passages like these, and all the other ones I've been sharing with you.

Mike

Jesus Is Glorified

Hi Cousin!

I thought of our Trinity conversation when I heard [my son's] memory verse for school this week:

"I am the LORD, that is My name;
I will not give My glory to another,
Nor My praise to graven images. (Isaiah 42:8)

I am reminded of passages like these:

This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. (John 2:11)

Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, 'He is our God'; (John 8:54)

But when Jesus heard this, He said, "This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it." (John 11:4)

What strikes me is, in Isaiah, YHWH says He will not give his glory to "another." Yet Jesus tells us YHWH glorifies Him. It logically follows that the Son must then not actually be "another"... that the Son, like the Father, must also be YHWH.

On the topic of glorification, I'm reminded of Philippians 2:9-11 where it says...

For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This Philippians passage is a allusion to Isaiah 45:

18 For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), . . .
22 Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth;
For I am God, and there is no other.
23 "I have sworn by Myself,
The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness
And will not turn back,
That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.

Bowing down to someone other than YHWH is idolatry. Every knee will bow to YHWH.

Again, it logically follows that Jesus, like the Father, must also be YHWH.

Also in this passage we see YHWH saying He is the one who saves. Yet we know, from other passages, that Jesus is the Savior.

...just more clues that came to mind.

Mike