Go to Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6, here's another verse that people will take out of context
in order to teach false doctrine.
Now when it comes to the subject of the Trinity, we have a lot of clear scripture in the New
Testament on the Trinity.
And there are lots of scriptures that specifically delve into the relationship between the Father
and the Son, or the relationship between the Son and the Holy Ghost, right?
And they really go into detail, and that's what those chapters are even about, where
Jesus in the book of John is just expounding how the Father loves the Son and the Father
sent the Son to be the Savior of the world and how the Son obeys the Father and submits
to the Father and is subject unto the Father.
And there are all these scriptures explaining the three persons of the Godhead and explaining
their relationship with one another, but those scriptures are found in the New Testament,
not in the Old Testament.
Why?
Because in the Old Testament, the Trinity is not a big subject in the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament, the message that God is hammering is that there's only one God.
And He's contrasting with all the gods of the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Philistines.
He's saying those are all false gods, I'm the true God.
Now once we know about the Trinity from the New Testament, once we understand that, then
of course if we go back to the Old Testament, we'll find it all over the pages of the Old
Testament.
It's all over the place.
But it's not explained in the Old Testament.
It's not in focus in the Old Testament.
It's not something that God is really teaching in the Old Testament.
It's there once you know about it.
You'll see it all over the place.
But there's not clear scripture in the Old Testament explaining the Father, the Son and
the Holy Ghost and how the three interact with one another and their relationship with
one another.
There's plenty of that in the New Testament.
I don't have time to go into it.
But in Isaiah 9-6, this is a verse that people will use to teach a false doctrine called
"modalism" or "oneness" where they deny the Trinity and say that Jesus is God the
Father.
Now out of 31,000 verses in the Bible, hundreds and hundreds of times talking about the Father
and the Son, this is the only verse out of 31,000 plus verses that appears to be saying
that Jesus is the Father, okay?
So they'll take this verse and just say, "Well see, it says it right there."
Okay let's read the verse and then let's get it in context.
It says in Isaiah 9 verse 6, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and
the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."
And then it goes on to explain more about Christ and his kingdom.
Now first of all let's ask ourselves this question, what's the purpose of this chapter?
What's the point that God's trying to make?
What's he trying to teach in this verse?
Is he trying to explain to us in this verse the nuances of the trinity and explain to
us the relationship between father and son?
No.
That's nowhere in view in this chapter or even in this whole book or even in the entire
Old Testament.
The thing that this verse is trying to teach, the point that's being made there is that
when the Messiah comes, when Christ comes, that he will be God in the flesh.
This verse is teaching the deity of Jesus Christ.
That's what's actually being taught.
It's not trying to teach something about the relationship between the fathers.
There's plenty of clear scripture in the New Testament that does that in context.
If we actually look at this verse and think about the context in which it's being written,
God in general is the everlasting Father.
Father, Son, Holy Ghost, all wrapped up into one God, right?
We could call God in general the everlasting Father, because notice what this verse does
not say.
It doesn't say God the Father.
It says the everlasting Father, which is a term that's only used one time in scripture.
And obviously we could look at God in general as the everlasting Father.
And the Old Testament is usually just referring to God in general, because the Trinity is
not even in view in the Old Testament.
It's just referring to God in general.
We don't get into the specifics of the Trinity very much until we get into the New Testament.
So they're taking an Old Testament scripture to negate hundreds of clear New Testament
scriptures.
See the New Testament is clearer than the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament they saw through a glass darkly.
We see much more clearly in the New Testament.
We understand the nature of God way more than Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ever thought of.
Now they understand it now because they're up in heaven and they know about the New Testament.
And there was a lot that they did understand, but there was a lot that they did not understand
as well.
We understand more.
I mean look, many prophets and righteous men have desired to hear the things that you've
heard and have not heard them, Jesus said.
He was telling the disciples how privileged they were that they were learning things that
the Old Testament prophets had no clue about.
So again, this is a verse that's being ripped out of context, imported into the New Testament
as, "Oh, well this will tell us that Jesus is actually God the Father."
He's not God the Father, He's God the Son.
There's God the Father, and then there's our Lord Jesus Christ.
And they're not the same person.
They collectively make up one God in three persons.
Jesus Christ is the express image of His person.
Whose person is He the express image of?
God the Father.
That means God the Father has a person distinct from Jesus.
Jesus is the image of His person.
Three persons, one God.