The Person of God

Copyright 2007

By Steven M. McCalip

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Not for sale or profit by any user.

Website: www.kingjamesman.com

If God is three persons, he sure didn’t tell us that in the scriptures. The Trinity doctrine is called the central, most important doctrine in Christianity. Because of that emphasis, you would think that this doctrine of three persons could be easily demonstrated from the Bible. The fact of the matter is that the word “persons” or “beings” or “individuals” or any other such like terms are never used of God, not once. Not ever.

On the contrary, it is the word “person,” not “persons,” that is used by scripture in reference to God. That fact alone gives considerably more credence to my doctrine. If the fact that the Trinity consists of three persons is true, don’t you think God would have recorded that immensely important fact and would have used the word “persons” instead of omitting it? Surely this doctrine, being the most important one in the scriptures, would have used clear and convincing vocabulary like “persons” wouldn’t it? Either he should have used it or we should stop using it. Come now and let us reason together. This most important of words for Trinitarians is missing, and though I know that fact alone is not reason for denying the Trinity, it certainly is reason for serious concern.

As to the teaching that God is one person; however, there is direct evidence for that teaching and that particular term in the word of God. First off, the word “person” is used explicitly to refer to God twice in scripture: once in Hebrews chapter one and once in Job chapter 13. Let’s look at both sets of scriptures to see the context and prove that God is one person from the scriptures. This is not my creed or tradition, yet almost all the creeds have the word “persons” in them. You should drop the creeds like filthy rags. Jesus never quoted from any. Paul never did. Are we smarter than they? Let’s begin:

“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” (Heb. 1:1-3)

Hebrews chapter one says that the Son is the “express image of” God’s “person.” This scripture says directly, emphatically, and unmistakably that God is, and consists of, a singular “person.” God is A PERSON. ONE PERSON. Where any place in that verse is there even a hint at multiple persons? His words say that there is an image of that “person,” not persons. Hebrews says Jesus is the image of that person. By the way, you might have guessed that that verse also had to be changed by the Trinitarians to eliminate the possibility that someone might see the truth of this doctrine. The New American Substandard perversion says Christ is “the exact representation of his nature.” Isn’t that sweet? The word “person” is completely missing. All those “godly” translators have to do is take the other reference out in Job and the word person would be altogether missing in reference to God. Well, friends, that’s exactly what they did. It’s also missing in Job 13:8. See the paragraph below. See how it works?

Now please notice something else. If the Trinitarian argues that scripture says Jesus is the image of the Father’s person, that verse in Hebrews did not say that. The word “Father” is not used (even though Jesus is the image of the Father anyway-stay with the point, however). It says Jesus is the image of God’s person. God, then, is a singular person, and Jesus is the image of that singular person. Jesus is that person’s image that we can see. Jesus is God’s person in flesh.

Now, consider the second example of this word “person” used of God:

“Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him? Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God? Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him? He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.” Job 13:7-10.

As I stated above, the New American Perversion takes the King James’ words “Will ye accept his person?” and changes it to “Will you show partiality for Him?” The word “person” is gone forever, and with it, the only remaining direct reference to God being one person.

Back to the real Bible. The subject in Job 13 is the word “God,” and scripture asks us, “Will ye accept his person?” Accept his what? Answer: “his person.” Person singular. Not persons. It does not say, “Will ye accept that he is three persons?” Rather, will ye accept his PERSON?” Will we accept his one person, and that God is one person? Will you?

Look at the second part of this verse that goes unnoticed in this argument: It also makes the same point. “…as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?” Did you notice that? It asked us if we we want to mock God “as one man mocketh another”(man). Scripture is asking if we mock God as one person does to another person (man to man). That shows that God is one person also by giving us an analogy that we mock God man to man as we mock others man to man. That is one person mocking another person who happens to be God, and that is teaching, by direct implication and analogy, that God is one person.

Now most Trinitarian scholars will try and be evasive as usual and say the word “person” here is referring to accepting God’s character, not his one person. But God has set a trap for them that use this aversion. Notice that the next part of this scripture says that God will reprove you “if you do secretly accept persons.” To begin with, the passage started off talking about accepting God’s “person,” not other people. Other people are not being talked about at all. That is not the context. So to say that the phrase,“If you do secretly accept persons” is talking about other people, you are not reading the context or the sense of the passage. It is not about other people, so that argument falls to the ground. Since the passage is talking about God’s one person, if you do “secretly accept persons,” you are in danger of the eternal reproof of God. This, then, is a clear example of God saying he is NOT classified as “persons.” We are not to accept that he is “persons,” or we will be reproved, and that reproval is not a slap on the wrist. Look up in the word of God who gets reproved by God and what happens to them. It is not the same as reproval by man. It is frightful.

Jesus is the image of God’s person because he is God’s one and only person. Abraham was the “Friend of God,” and the last time I checked, a friend is one person. Thank God that there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Remember that God is our husband, and the same analogy applies. We are married to a person, not a Trinitarian committee of three. Our husband’s name is Jesus Christ, God’s person. Amen and Amen.