Sabbath Message 23/4/34/120

Dear Friends,

This week I was struck by an unusually unreceptive chap to what the Bible so clearly said and I thought that I would record it and send it out so that our people can print it for others who may have serious difficulties in coming to grips with the texts. The Bible is clear that Christ is the son of God and he always was the son of God as were the entire heavenly Host all sons of God. He claimed that nowhere in the Bible did it say that Christ was the son of God. Now that appears extraordinary to the average Bible student but he appeared to actually believe it. Given that point there may well be others out there equally deceived. The real problem with WCG Ditheism is that they can’t explain the Scriptures that deal with the heavenly Host as the sons of God. That is the point at which we will start: the Beginning of the Earth’s creations and the existence of the sons of God and the Morning Stars present at that creation. Contrary to the assertions of Ditheist and Binitarians there is only One True God and He created all the sons of God. He alone is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light. No man has seen Him or ever can see Him (1Tim 6:16)

In the Book of Job we are told that there are a Host of heaven that are called the sons of God. These sons of God existed before the foundation of the earth and included Satan (Job 1:6; 2:1).

These sons of God were in ranks and were led by beings called Morning Stars. These beings who were all elohim as sons of God were all gathered together at the creation of the world by God (Job 38:4-7). The Bible records that Satan was a son of God, and also a Morning Star (Job 1:6; 38:4-7; Isa. 14:12). Satan was also the anointed covering cherub as Morning Star (Ezek. 28:14-15).

In John 10:34-36 Christ declares himself to be the son of God. That was the accusation of Blasphemy for which he was killed.

We should all be aware that the text in Deuteronomy 32:8 was altered after the fall of the Temple by the Sopherim to disguise the fact that the nations of the world had been allocated according to the number of the sons of God and altered to read "sons of Israel". This was a forgery to the MT after the Jews had been dispersed from Jerusalem. We know this for an absolute fact from the texts found in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the LXX. We need to realise that the Yahovah of Israel was one of these elohim or sons of God and Israel was identified as his inheritance. It is thus that Christ was the specific son of God mentioned in the text in Deuteronomy 32:8 and he stated that fact in John 10:34-36 that he was the son of God and they killed him for it. Then after the Temple fell in 70 CE they forged the text in the MT to hide the fact that he was the son of God. Most Bible scholars know that to be a fact and the RSV was translated to reflect that fact. Thus the Bible does say that Christ was the son of God and Yahovah of Israel and they forged the MT to disguise that fact. Christ himself declared it before the High Priest.

‎Matthew 2:15 also declares he was the son of God quoting the prophecy in Hosea 11:1. Most Armstrongites then try to claim that Christ only became the son of God from the conception of Mariam’s womb. That is not true and is a biblical heresy. Radical Unitarians claim that Christ did not exist at all before this conception and Ditheists claim  that Christ did exist but he was a God that existed alongside the One True God before he became a human. This bizarre and non-biblical reasoning has been exposed in the paper Ditheism (No. 076b).

There are multiple sons of God referred to in the Bible and they are the heavenly Host and include the Yahovah of Israel who is the elohim of Israel referred to in Psalm 45:6-7.

The Malak or bene elohim referred to in Job 33:23-24 can only be Jesus Christ as mankind can be redeemed by no other name or being.

Jesus Christ was the Yahovah of Israel and he is mentioned in numerous places in the texts. He was sent by Yahovah of Hosts as we see from Zechariah 2:8-9.

Yahovah of Hosts is Eloah the One True God who sent Jesus Christ (Jn. 17:3). Eloah is the name of God given in Proverbs 30:5 in answer to the question that is asked in the preceding verse 4. He is the Most High God, the Elyon or Yahovih. The sons of God are all referred to as Yahovah when they appear for Yahovih or Yahovah of Hosts.

When the Jews read the two words Yahovah and Yahovih they read SHD 3069 Yahovih as Elohim and SHD 3068 Yahovah as Adonai so as not to confuse the two beings or names. Read the notes in Strong’s Concordance and refer people to those notes where necessary.

It was Christ that gave the Law of God to Moses and Israel at Sinai (1Cor. 10:4). As we have seen above: no man has seen God at any time or heard His voice, He alone is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light (1Tim. 6:16).

Christ is the image of the invisible God the firstborn of every creature (Col. 1:15). He was the beginning of the creation of God (Rev. 3:14). These texts refer to Christ as the Malak or Messenger of God. He was the Yahovah of Israel and the son of God and Christ himself declared he was the son of God and the texts refer to him as the Yahovah of Israel and the elohim of Israel appointed as elohim by His God Ha Elohim or Yahovah of Hosts who sent him to Israel (Ps. 45:6-7; Heb. 1:8-9; Zech. 2:8-9).

The actual declaration by Christ as the son of God is from John 10:34-36. The verse in Deuteronomy 32:8 regarding the sons of God and the identification of the son of God with the Yahovah of Israel was a critical text that the Jews could not allow to remain in the Bible and so they forged it to read “sons of Israel.” They changed the word Yahovah to Adonai in 134 places in the Bible and also altered the name elohim in a number of places for the same reasons.

The word Yahovah is a third person form of the verb which means "He causes to be" derived from the term 'eyeh 'asher 'eyeh (Ex. 3:14) meaning “I will be what I will become” which was the extension from Eloah to Elohim through the sons of God by means of the Holy Spirit which is not a person but the means by which God enables the sons of God to become elohim as an extended being and God to become all in all (Eph. 4:6). The term Yahovah was used by the sons of God including Jesus Christ and in the instance where the three sons of God went to Abraham and Lot at Sodom (Gen. chs 18-19) all three were referred to as Yahovah and one remained with Abraham and the other two Yahovahs went to Lot and they called fire down from another Yahovah in Heaven who we must assume was Yahovah of Hosts.

All sons of God, the elohim Host, or bene elohim were referred to as malak (Heb) or angellos (Grk) meaning "messenger." They were referred to as Yahovah and were all sons of God and when sent as a messenger they were referred to as such in the third person, which is from where the term "malak" derives. The number of the elders of Israel who made up the Sanhedrin were seventy in number because of the plan shown to Moses and it was always understood that the sons of God were seventy plus two in number and that is why the Israelites always understood there were seventy nations and why the seventy were always referred to as Hebdomekonta[duo] which was also represented by the two in the camp of Israel and the seventy on the mountain with Christ and Moses.

Zechariah 12:8 states that we shall all become as Elohim as the Angel of the Lord at our head. That being can only be Christ who is our head as the High Priest of the order of Melchisedek.

It is obvious that the Bible does refer to Christ as the Son of God and there are many sons of God referred to in the Bible texts as we have seen. The Psalms refer to the council of the Host as elohim and it is a plural word referred to by many Bible scholars as the sons of God and understood to be the angelic Host. That Host is listed in the texts in Revelation chapters 4, 5 and 6. These are the sons of God that surround the throne of God and are the council of the elohim of which Christ is one. The Lamb was the only one found fit to redeem mankind and he made them a kingdom of priests and kings and they shall rule upon the earth as it is plainly stated in those texts. The Bible is clear that there is only One True God and He alone is immortal and He confers eternal life on Christ and then in succession on all of the elect. The Bible is clear in the texts. To declare Christ as a God on a level with God is Ditheist idolatry. To declare that he had no pre-existence is a Radical Unitarian error that did not enter the Churches of God until the twentieth century along with Armstrong’s Ditheist heresy. The Churches of God were Biblical Unitarians for 1900 years until these two errors were introduced by the US based groups who were very badly trained and did not understand the Bible and make silly unfounded comments such as we have seen that declare that the Bible does not say that Christ is a son of God.

Ad hominem arguments do not change the facts of the matter. The Bible says it or it does not and to suggest that Christ was not a son of God is contrary to his own testimony. To assert he had no pre-existence is contrary to the Bible texts listed and the doctrines of the Churches of God for two millennia. To assert that he was part of God as a second element or being is the Binitarianism of the God Attis of the sun and mystery cults and is pagan heresy. It was asserted doctrinally from Nicaea in 325 and was removed and refuted as heresy in 327 and the Canons of Nicaea were destroyed. They were reconstructed in 381 by the Trinitarian heretics after the Council of Constantinople.

The assertion that the angelic Host are never referred to as elohim is an argument from ignorance. The sons of God of the fallen Host are referred to as elohim in numerous places of the Bible texts and the instances of the use of elohim to them are in Strong’s Concordance on pages 423f under the section Gods.

The usage of the terms Elohim as Elohim of the Host and the sons of the God when Christ takes his place among them or where Ha Elohim The God is above them all are in Psalm 82:1,6; 86:8; 95:3; 96:4,5; 97:7,9; 135:5; 136:2; 138:1. So also in the Greek the term theoi is plural and Paul tells us there are many theoi.

Make sure that you use the simple texts to deal with these Ditheists and Binitarians and their misuse of Scripture as detailed in the paper Binitarian and Trinitarian Misrepresentation of the Early Theology of the Godhead (No. 127b) or Radical Unitarians and refute them with the details of the Pre-existence of Jesus Christ (No. 243) and do not let them plead false doctrine or hide behind ad hominem arguments or arguments from ignorance. Take their ministry on and expose them for the false teachers they are.

Wade Cox
Coordinator General