Hear,O Israel; The Name, our God is one Name
and you love the Name, your God, with all your heart,
and with all your soul and all your vehemence. |
In Jerusalem, as I was entering my pension, a companion noticed a small, metallic tube,
fastened to the door frame, containing some Hebrew printing. He inquired what it was. So I
directed his attention to Deuteronomy 6:45, which is quoted above. The Jews do not
pronounce the incommunicable name (Ieue in Hebrew). They used to say Adonai. Now, I was
told by a Rabbi, they say shem which means Name. The Jews must repeat these words and
fasten them on their hand and on their eyes and write them on the door jambs of your
house, and in your gate.
It is this custom which has ingrained into the Jewish mind the great truth of the one God.
And it is this which keeps many of them from accepting Christianity, for they cannot help
thinking that it is radically different, for it insists on three gods, disguised as a
trinity.
Strange as it may seem, neither the word trinity, nor even the idea, is found in the
so-called "New Testament." Only one passage, acknowledged by all to be false,
and omitted from all later translations, gives any color to the thought. On the contrary,
we have the strong assertion that "to us there is one God, the Father, out of Whom
all is" (1 Cor 8:6). We are told that there is "one God, the Father of all, Who
is over all, and through all, and in all" (Eph 4:6). "God is One" (Gal
3:20).
Never is the Messiah set forth as the Deity. He is God's Image, His Word, the Mediator
between God and mankind. He does not set Himself before our eyes, but His God. He does not
speak His own words, but His Father's. He is the Way to God, not the end of the path.
Nothing comes out of Him. God is the only Source, and all flows through the Messiah of the
"Christian" scriptures. God always does His own will. He carries out His
intention. But Christ never did His own will. "Not My will, but Thine" was His
motto. This fact alone shows that He is not the Deity absolute, nor a member of a mythical
"Trinity."
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