John
the Revelator on the Godhead
The Two-edged Sword is
Sharpening!
Rev
22:16 I
Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I
am the root and the offspring of David, [and] the bright and morning star.
Ellen
White on BEGOTTEN: “The Eternal Father, the unchangeable one, gave his only
begotten Son, tore from his bosom Him who
was made in the express image of his person, and sent him down to earth to
reveal how greatly he loved mankind.” (Advent
Review and Sabbath Herald, July 9, 1895)
John
the Revelator points out some astounding facts
regarding the Godhead, that are totally countermanded
by many SDA Independent ministries. It is the objective of this manuscript to
reveal some of the most powerful documentation on the Godhead issue that you
will ever read, and that “should” clear up any division on this issue, but that
will never happen.
I
submit to you that what you are about to discover will totally disprove the
teachings of Smyrna Ministries of Virginia; Maranatha
Media Ministries, and many others on the Godhead. Many individuals are teaching
antichrist error on this all important doctrine which is so fundamental to all
truth concerning God and our responsibility to Him.
First
of all, I want to establish exactly who is delivering the messages to John in
all his messages. Revelation 22:16 makes this as clear as it could be. Jesus sent His angel to testify unto John. Jesus is the root
and the offspring of David. So in the following verses of Revelation, an angel
is quoting Jesus as the speaker. It is crucial to remember this while reading
these poignant and powerful verses. I will
intersperse my commentary under some of the verses.
Rev 22:16 I Jesus
have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the
root and the offspring of David, [and] the bright and morning star.
Rev 15:1 And I saw
another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven
last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
Rev
15:2 And I saw as it were a sea of
glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast,
and over his image, and over his mark, [and] over the number of his name, stand
on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
Rev 15:3
And they sing the song of Moses the servant of
God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous [are] thy works, Lord God Almighty;
just and true [are] thy ways, thou King of
saints.
Ron’s
commentary: I fully realize that Ellen White says that Jesus is not the Lord
God Almighty, but if we interpret her words so as to not contradict Scripture,
as she said we should do in her weight of evidence formula statement, her
meaning must have been to point out that the Father and Jesus were not the same
person; that they are two distinct persons.
Some
independent ministries are saying the God is God and Jesus is Lord. But what
shall they say when they discover that the Bible has scores of references to
“LORD GOD.” What then? Who is Lord God? We will discover that in this
manuscript.
·
The song is to the
Lamb, Jesus.
·
The Lamb, in
context, is referred to as Lord God Almighty.
·
Jesus is the King of
saints.
Rev 15:4 Who shall not fear
thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for [thou] only
[art] holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.
Ron’s Commentary:
·
The context is
speaking of Jesus, King of saints.
·
All nations shall worship
Jesus.
·
According to the
Word, Jesus is the only Judge.
Rev 15:5
And after that I looked, and, behold, the
temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:
Rev 15:6
And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues,
clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden
girdles.
Rev 15:7
And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven
angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8
And the temple was filled with smoke from the
glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple,
till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.
Rev 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water
of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the
throne of God and of the Lamb.
Ron’s
Commentary: The throne of God and of the Lamb are the
same.
Rev 22:2
In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, [was
there] the tree of life, which bare twelve [manner of] fruits, [and] yielded
her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree [were] for the healing of the
nations.
Rev 22:3
And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and
his servants shall serve him:
Ron’s
Commentary:
·
It is important to
recognize that the throne of God is shared by the Lamb.
·
Whose servants shall
serve who? Who is “him?” when the verse mentions the throne of God and of the
Lamb?
Rev 22:4
And they shall see his face; and his name
[shall be] in their foreheads.
Ron’s
Commentary:
·
See whose face? The
verse mentions the throne of God and of the Lamb.
·
Why does it say “see
his face” when the verse these words refer to, Rev. 22:3, mention the throne of
God and the Lamb?
·
Whose name shall be
in their foreheads when the verse referred to mentions both the throne of God
and the Lamb? So which name do we get?
·
The point is that
you should see the equality between God and the Lamb—the ONENESS, the ONE GODness!
Rev 22:5
And there shall be no night there; and they
need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them
light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
Ron’s
Commentary: Who is the Lord God that gives them light? Could it be the light of
the world, Jesus?
·
Some of the
ministries mentioned teach that God is God, and only Jesus is Lord. So who is
“LORD GOD?”
·
If you will search
the words “Lord God,” in parenthesis, in any Bible program, you will get scores
of references to “Lord God.” This fully dispels the errant notion that God is
God and Jesus is the only Lord.
Rev 22:6 And he said unto me, These sayings
[are] faithful and true: and the Lord God
of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew
unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
Ron’s
Commentary: What?! Jesus is calling Himself LORD GOD!!!!!!! Smyrna and Maranatha Ministries declare that there is only ONE GOD—THE
FATHER!!!!!!! Their teaching is antichrist because they are directly
contradicting Jesus’ own words in calling Himself LORD GOD.
·
We established at
the beginning of this manuscript that the Lord GOD, JESUS, is speaking through
His angel to John, to wit:
Rev
22:16 I
Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I
am the root and the offspring of David, [and] the bright and morning star.
Rev 22:7
Behold, I come quickly: blessed [is] he that keepeth the sayings of the
prophecy of this book.
Ron’s
Commentary: We know who is coming quickly—the speaker, through His angel, is
Jesus Christ.
Rev 22:8 And I John saw these things, and
heard [them]. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to
worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
Rev 22:9
Then saith he unto me, See [thou do it] not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of
them which keep the sayings of this book: worship
God.
Ron’s
Commentary:
·
John falls at the
angel’s feet to worship him, but the angel instructs John to worship God. The context
is the new heaven and the new earth.
·
In Revelation 15:4,
we found that the Lord’s name is glorified and all nations will come to WORSHIP
before Him.
·
Rev 15:4 Who shall not fear
thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for [thou] only
[art] holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.
Rev 22:10
And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of
the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.
Rev 22:11
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which
is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be
righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
Rev 22:12 ¶ And, behold, I come quickly;
and my reward [is] with me, to give every man according as his work shall
be.
Rev 22:13
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the
last.
Ron’s
Commentary:
·
What? Who is coming
quickly? Jesus!
·
What? What? What?
Jesus is calling Himself the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the
FIRST and the LAST. Does GOD get any more GOD than that?
Rev 22:14
Blessed [are] they that do his commandments,
that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the
gates into the city.
Ron’s
Commentary:
·
Do whose commandments?
God the Father’s or God the Son? Ellen White said they both delivered the Law
to Moses on Mt. Sinai!
Rev 22:15
For without [are] dogs, and sorcerers, and
whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a
lie.
Rev 22:16
I Jesus have sent mine angel to
testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring
of David, [and] the bright and morning star.
·
Again for important
emphasis, Jesus, through His angel, is speaking to John.
Rev 22:17
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let
him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever
will, let him take the water of life freely.
Rev 22:18
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of
this book, If any man shall add unto these
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19
And if any man shall take away from
the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the
book of life, and out of the holy city, and
[from] the things which are written in this book.
Ron’s
Commentary:
·
Has Maranatha Media Ministries and Smyrna Ministries added and
taken away unto these things by
saying there is only ONE GOD, and ONE LORD?
·
Have those
ministries added to these things by saying that we should worship only GOD?
·
Is the ministry you
are supporting adding to and taking away from these things?
Rev 22:20 He which
testifieth these things saith, Surely I come
quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Rev 22:21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with you all. Amen.
I believe I have established my objective, but if you don’t, just study the following references on the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. If these facts won’t convince those who are teaching antichrist doctrine on the Godhead, NOTHING WILL, and sadly, NOTHING WILL:
Rev 1:8
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,
saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
Rev
1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send [it] unto the
seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto
Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
Rev
21:6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the
fountain of the water of life freely.
Rev
22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
What
John the Revelator proves is that the SDA Bible Commentary is correct on the
meaning of “begotten” and “brought forth.”
What
John the Revelator proves is that Ellen White is correct
on the eternal Godhead of Jesus Christ, and the meaning of “came/brought
forth/torn from the bosom of the Father.”
Ellen
White on BEGOTTEN: “The Eternal Father, the unchangeable one, gave his only
begotten Son, tore from his bosom Him who
was made in the express image of his person, and sent him down to earth to
reveal how greatly he loved mankind.” (Advent
Review and Sabbath Herald, July 9, 1895)
Here is what the SDA Bible Commentary says
on the meaning of “only begotten” and “brought forth,/come
forth.”
The only begotten. Gr.
monogenēs, from two words meaning “only” and “kind,” and thus properly
translated “unique,” “only,” “only one of a kind.” As with the title Logos (see on v. 1), only John uses the word monogenēs of Christ (see John 1:18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9).
Absence of the definite article in the Greek either makes monogenēs indefinite, “an only one,” or makes it an expression of quality, in which case John would be saying, “glory as of an only one [who had
come] from beside the Father.” This seems evidently the sense here. See on Luke
7:12; 8:42, where monogenēs is translated “only.”
In Heb. 11:17 monogenēs is used of Isaac, who was by no means Abraham’s “only
begotten,” or even his first-born. But
he was the son of the promise, and as such, the one destined to succeed
his father as heir to the birthright (Gen. 25:1–6; Gal. 4:22, 23).
“Similarly in respect to the five texts in John’s writings of Christ, the
translation should be one of the following: ‘unique,’ ‘precious,’ ‘only,’
‘sole,’ ‘the only one of his kind,’ but not ‘only begotten’” (Problems in
Bible Translation, p. 198).
The translation “only begotten,” here and elsewhere,
apparently originated with the early Fathers of the Catholic Church, and entered early English translations of the Bible
under the influence of the Latin Vulgate, the official Bible of the Catholic
Church. Accurately reflecting the Greek, various
Old Latin manuscripts which antedate the Vulgate read “only” rather than
“only begotten.” The idea that Christ
“was born of the Father before all creation” appears first in the
writings of Origen, about a.d.
230. Arius, nearly a century later, is the first to use gegennemenon, the correct Greek word for “begotten,” when speaking
of Christ, and to affirm that He was “begotten of God before all ages” (see
Additional Note at end of chapter). This Greek word is
never used in the Bible concerning the preincarnate
Christ. The idea that Christ was
“begotten” by the Father at some time in eternity past is altogether foreign to
the Scriptures. For a detailed
discussion of this subject see Problems in Bible Translation, pp.
197–204.
Properly understood of Christ’s unique status as the Son of God,
the word monogenēs distinguishes between Him and all others who, through
faith in Him, are given “power to become the sons of God” (v. 12), and who are specifically declared to be
“born … of God” (v. 13). Christ is, and always has been, very “God” (see on v.
1), and by virtue of this fact we “become the sons of God” when we
receive Christ and believe on His name.
The statement of v. 14 obviously deals with the
incarnation, and its purpose is to emphasize the fact that the incarnate Word
retained the divine nature, as evidenced by the manifestation of the preincarnate divine glory (see ch. 17:5). Although the word monogenēs means strictly “unique,” or “only,” rather
than “only begotten,” John nevertheless here applies it to Christ
at His incarnation, to the time when “the Word was made flesh” in order to
dwell among us. Paul confirms this application in Heb. 1:5, 6, where
he links the words gegenneka, “have I begotten” (from gennaō, “to beget”), and prōtotoktos, “first-born” (from pro, “before,” and tiktō, “to beget”), to the
time “when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the
world.” It seems therefore wholly unwarranted to
understand monogenēs as referring to a
mysterious begetting of “the Word” at some point of time in eternity past. For a discussion of Christ as the Son of God see on
Luke 1:35; and as the Son of man, see on Matt. 1:1; Mark 2:10; see also EGW
Supplementary Material on Phil. 2:6–8; Col. 2:9.
Of the Father. Gr. para theou, literally “with
the Father,” or “beside the Father,” here probably with the force of “from beside the
Father.” The Greek preposition para sometimes has the
force of ek, “out of,” “from,” which here agrees best with the
context. The incarnate Logos had come forth from the presence of the Father when
He entered this world. See on ch. 6:46.
Full of. This clearly applies to the Word incarnate. Dwelling on earth as a man
among men, the Word was “full of grace and truth.”[1][1] SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 5, pp. 902, 903.
If anyone can read
this and conclude that Jesus is not God, and co-equal with God, AS GOD
ALMIGHTY, he/she has no spiritual discernment, and has been given a delusion so
strong he/she believes an antichrist lie imbued by the spirit of Satan. Why are
some given such a delusion by God? Because somewhere along the line they have
rejected clear and present truth and God’s agencies that have delivered that truth, and that is an affront to the Holy Spirit; that is a
rejection of the Holy Spirit.
2Th 2:10 And with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11
And for this cause God shall send them strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12
That they all might be damned who believed not
the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
2Th 2:13
But we are bound to give thanks alway to God
for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth:
2Th 2:14
Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the
obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Since Jesus calls
Himself God Almighty in these verses, when Ellen White said Jesus is not God
Almighty, she had to mean that Jesus was a distinct person from God Almighty
while being in fact God Almighty. The persons of the heavenly Trio are not
THREE PERSONS IN ONE PERSON. They are three distinct persons. We were
admonished by Ellen White to interpret so that nothing contradicts, and that is
exactly what I have done wi the aid of the Holy
Spirit Divine Nature of Jesus Christ.
—rwb