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The proclamation of Deuteronomy 6:4 is arguably one of the most misunderstood declarations in all of Scripture. The seemingly simple to understand statement, “YHWH (the Lord) our God, YHWH (the Lord) is one!,” has been misread and misconstrued by theologians representing Judaism, Catholicism, and Trinitarian Christianity for millennia.
DEUTERONOMY 6:4 (NKJV):
“Hear, O Israel: YHWH (The Lord) our God, YHWH (the Lord) is one!”
JUDAISM
Mainstream Judaism teaches that there is one God, one being, who is God. Judaism understands Deuteronomy 6:4 as, “Hear O Israel, YHWH (The Lord) our God, YHWH (the Lord) is one [BEING].
JOSHUA 24:14-15 (NKJV):
“Now therefore, fear YHWH (the Lord), serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve YHWH (the Lord)! And if it seems evil to you to serve YHWH (the Lord), choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve YHWH (the Lord).”
The Hebrew people, after having departed from Egypt in the Exodus, were commanded to serve YHWH (the Lord) God and not the many pagan gods that they were accustomed to while under Egyptian bondage. With this mindset of being against polytheism, the Hebrews, through their teachings and tradition, believed in YHWH (the Lord) God, as one solitary being.
MATTHEW 8:20 (NKJV):
And Yeshua (Jesus) said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Yeshua (Jesus) often referred to Himself as the Son of Man and this was not solely for the purpose of declaring His kinship with mankind. Yeshua (Jesus) was concealing His identity as the Son of God.
MATTHEW 16:15-17 (NKJV):
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Messiah (Christ), the Son of the living God.”
Yeshua (Jesus) answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
MARK 8:29-30 (NKJV):
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Messiah (Christ).”
Then He strictly warned them that they should tell no one about Him.
Yeshua (Jesus) did not initially declare, even to His own apostles, that He was the Son of God. It was Peter who first acknowledged that He was. Then He warned them that they should tell no one that He was the Son of God.
When it became apparent to the Jews that Yeshua (Jesus) was declaring Himself to be the Son of God, and therefore God, declaring God to be more than one being, the Jews thought of this as blasphemy deserving of death.
JOHN 10:30-33 (NKJV):
“I and My Father are one.”
Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Yeshua (Jesus) answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?”
The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, MAKE YOURSELF GOD.
MATTHEW 26:63-66 (NKJV):
And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Messiah (Christ), the Son of God!”
Yeshua (Jesus) said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, “He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy! What do you think?”
They answered and said, “He is deserving of death.”
Throughout His ministry and at His trial, Yeshua (Jesus) explained that He and His Father are one. The Jews wanted to kill Him for declaring that He was the Son of God, and therefore God, just as His Father is God. The Jews believed God to be one being, not two.
Judaism, to this day, erroneously proclaims that there is one being God, and no other being participated in the work of creation.
There are some believers who have taken Yeshua’s (Jesus’) words, “I and My Father are one,” John 10:30, to mean that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Father and that the Father and Son are one being. This is completely ignoring the fact that a reference to a Son and Father, ‘I’ and ‘My Father,” indicate two distinct separate individuals who are united as one.
CHRISTIANITY; CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT TRINITY DOCTRINE
The Catholic Church imposed the idea of God being a co-equal Trinity sometime around the fourth century. Catholicism declares in their Trinity doctrine that there is one God in three persons, that the three persons of the Trinity make up one God.
God the Father has only one begotten Son, not two (John 1:18, 3:16-18; 1 John 4:9). The Son was begotten of the Father in the beginning, long before coming down to earth to be born as a Man through the surrogate birth of a virgin. Since the Holy Spirit is not a begotten Son of the Father, it therefore is not a person or a being, but is a component of God. The Holy Spirit is mentioned throughout Scripture as the Spirit ‘of’ God, the Holy Spirit, and God’s Spirit, but never as the Spirit God. The Spirit of God is God’s Spirit, the divine power and an extension of the Father and Son.
Yeshua (Jesus) declared that the Father is greater than Himself (John 14:28), so God is not a co-equal Trinity. The Father and Son share a different glory and status as God.
YHWH GOD IS FATHER AND SON, UNITED AS ONE!
“There’s a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure
‘Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings”
– Led Zeppelin, “Stairway to Heaven,” 1971.
Much of the confusion over YHWH (the Lord) God stems from two different definitions of the word ‘one.’
one:
1. Being a single entity, unit, object, person, or living being. Single, only, sole, lone, solitary, singular, not two or more.
2. Characterized by unity, undivided, combined, united, allied, unified, leagued, pooled, concerted, affiliated, in partnership, banded together.
Of the same kind or quality.[i]
INCORRECT ONENESS DOCTRINE; JUDAISM, PENTECOSTAL, AND OTHERS UNDERSTANDING OF YHWH (THE LORD) OUR GOD:
DEUTERONOMY 6:4 (NKJV) [WITH INTERPRETATION]:
“Hear, O Israel: YHWH (The Lord) our God, YHWH (the Lord) is one [BEING]!”
INCORRECT TRINITY DOCTRINE; CATHOLIC / PROTESTANT / CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING OF YHWH (THE LORD) OUR GOD:
DEUTERONOMY 6:4 (NKJV) [WITH INTERPRETATION]:
“Hear, O Israel: YHWH (The Lord) our God, YHWH (the Lord) is [A TRINITY OF THREE CO-EQUAL BEINGS WHO COMPRISE] one [GOD]!”
The correct way to understand the proclamation of Deuteronomy 6:4 is to know YHWH God are Father and Son, united as one.
CORRECT UNDERSTANDING OF YHWH (THE LORD) OUR GOD:
DEUTERONOMY 6:4 (NKJV) [WITH INTERPRETATION]:
“Hear, O Israel: YHWH (The Lord) our God, YHWH (the Lord) is one [UNITED]!”
AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH…
When a man and woman marry, they become one flesh through sexual intercourse and they are no longer to be considered two, but one flesh (Mark 10:8). This does not mean that a husband and wife are no longer two distinct individual beings, but means that they have become one family.
THE TRANSLATION ISSUE: YHWH – THE LORD
The Hebrew to Greek to English translation of ‘YHWH’ to ‘the Lord’ confuses the issue over YHWH, as being a singular being God or a plural united as one God. A phrase such as ‘the Lord,’ ‘the King,’ or ‘the Ruler’ indicates a singular being, whereas the Hebraic term ‘Elohim’ or ‘YHWH’ can indicate a plural God – God the Father united with the Son of God. Elohim or YHWH, as the proper Hebraic word for ‘God,’ is sometimes a reference to as a singular being in Scripture, the Father or Son, and sometimes as a plural, Father and Son united as one God.
POLYTHEISM CONCERNS
A major stumbling block of understanding the Father / Son makeup of God is the concern over polytheism. This concern is so strong that many people deny the Father and Son relationship of God, literally disregarding hundreds of verses that declare God to be comprised of Father and Son. The Oneness Doctrine proclaims that the Father is the Son and the Son is the Father, and declares that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are merely titles of a singular God. Oneness belief denies the words of Scripture that declare God the Father has an only begotten Son. Trinitarians refute the Father and Son personhood of God in a similar way, declaring that God is one in three beings or manifestations and these three beings or manifestations comprise one co-equal God..
The overblown concern over polytheism has some sects of Christianity, Jehovah’s Witnesses for example, denying the divinity of Yeshua (Jesus). Jehovah’s Witnesses have even went as far as altering Scripture in order to deny the divinity of Yeshua (Jesus) and uphold their belief in Jesus being an angel who lived as perfect man.
The word ‘polytheism’ does not appear in Scripture. There are no other Gods, but God, yet there are many so-called gods.
1 CORINTHIANS 8:5 (NKJV):
There are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords)…
God is one family consisting of Father and Son, just as Scripture declares, and the Son is the only begotten offspring of the Father. God begets God, just as all created beings / creatures reproduce after their kind. That being said, Yeshua (Jesus) has declared that He of Himself can do nothing supernatural, as the source of all His divine power comes from God the Father, and the Father is greater than He is.
JOHN 5:19,30 (NKJV):
“Most assuredly, I say to you, THE SON CAN DO NOTHING OF HIMSELF, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” …
“I can of Myself do nothing.”
JOHN 14:28 (NKJV):
“My Father is greater than I.”
1 CORINTHIANS 11:3 (NKJV) [WITH INTERPRETATION]:
The head of Messiah (Christ) is God [THE FATHER].
The source of all divinity is the Father. Yeshua (Jesus) is united as one with the Father. Yeshua (Jesus) is not God apart from the Father.
The following Scripture verses confirm that YHWH (the Lord) God consists of two beings – Father and Son, not one being or a trinity of three co-equal beings.
GENESIS 1:26 (NKJV):
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;…”
PSALM 2:7 (NKJV) [WITH INTERPRETATION]:
“I [YESHUA (JESUS)] will declare the decree: YHWH (The Lord) [GOD THE FATHER] has said to Me [YESHUA (JESUS)] ‘You [YESHUA (JESUS)] are My [GOD THE FATHER’S] Son, today I [GOD THE FATHER] have begotten You [YESHUA (JESUS)].’”
PSALM 110:1 (NKJV) [WITH INTERPRETATION]:
YHWH (The Lord) [GOD THE FATHER] said to my Master (Lord) [YESHUA (JESUS)], “Sit at My [GOD THE FATHER’S] right hand, till I [GOD THE FATHER] make Your [YESHUA’S (JESUS’)] enemies Your [YESHUA’S (JESUS’)] footstool.”
MATTHEW 22:41-45 (NKJV) [WITH INTERPRETATION]:
*see also: MARK 12:35-37; LUKE 20:41-44
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Yeshua (Jesus) asked them, saying, “What do you think about the Messiah (Christ)? Whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “The Son of David.”
He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Master’ (Lord,) saying: ‘YHWH (The Lord) said to my Master (Lord),
“Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool’?
If David then calls Him ‘Master (Lord),’ how is He his Son?”
JOHN 1:1-3 (NKJV) [WITH INTERPRETATION]:
In the beginning was the Word [YESHUA (JESUS)], and the Word [YESHUA (JESUS)] was with God [THE FATHER], and the Word [YESHUA (JESUS)] was God [ALSO]. He [YESHUA (JESUS)] was in the beginning with God [THE FATHER]. All things were made through Him [YESHUA (JESUS)], and without Him [YESHUA (JESUS)] nothing was made that was made.
JOHN 10:30 (NKJV) [WITH INTERPRETATION]:
“‘I’ [YESHUA (JESUS)] and ‘My Father’ [GOD] are one [UNITED].”
COLOSSIANS 2:2-3 (NKJV):
The knowledge of the mystery of God, BOTH of the Father and of Messiah (Christ), in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
HEBREWS 1:5-13 [CONDENSED, WITH INTERPRETATION]:
For to which of the angels did He [THE FATHER] ever say: You are My Son, today I have begotten you”?
And again, I will be to Him [YESHUA (JESUS)] a Father and He shall be to Me a Son”?
“Let all the angels of God worship Him [YESHUA (JESUS)].”
To the Son [YESHUA (JESUS)] He [THE FATHER] says:
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;”
And: “You Lord [YESHUA (JESUS)] in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your [YESHUA’S (JESUS’)] hands.
But to which of the angels has He [THE FATHER] ever said:
Sit at My right hand till I make Your [YESHUA’S (JESUS’)] enemies Your footstool”?
There are two beings who are called God: God the Father and Yeshua (Jesus) the only begotten Son of God.
Hear O Israel: YHWH Father and Son, YHWH (the Lord) our God, YHWH (the Lord) is one UNITED!
[i] The Free Dictionary, <https://www.thefreedictionary.com/one>.
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