Know Whom You Worship

Christianity is a monotheistic religion. That means that there is one God. Pantheists have many Gods. Examples are Hindi gods and the gods of the Roman Empire. One religion has no gods. That is Buddhism. It is obvious that religions have different gods, and Unitarian-Universalism is just as fantasy religion, actually one of self-worship. Theirs is an Unknown God, the one of philosophy.

Acts 17:33 ... as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you...

Like the Athenians, many people still worship an Unknown God! They fail to know whom they worship. They many even claim Christ, but fail to know the true identity of Christ. More on that shortly.

Paul taught the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers. He challenged them to know their Unknown God. He proclaimed the one whom they "worship without knowing." To you, I proclaim your Unknown God. Bear with me as I do!

Judeo-Christians as well as Islam and many cults are monotheistic. They have one God. Since all three are "people of the book", as we are called in Islam, we all claim to worship the One True God:

Ephesians 4:5 ... one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

However, since God has three identities we must make sure we worship God intact with all three of them! This passage is Christian doctrine.

James 2:19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!  

 Therefore, belief in God is not enough. We must believe He is who He says He is, and can do what He says He can do, and then we must be like Him.  The first two are easy but the last is more difficult. We can never be as He is, but we can be like Him:

1 Peter 2:21 "For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps..."

We are not to be as gods, but like God. Therefore, we must know who God Is before we can be like Him.  As I showed before, God is One, but then I speak of Jesus whom we worship. Since Jesus ascended, we now, if we are Christians, depend on the Holy Ghost. Are we confused or what?

Christians speak as if we're pantheists, having multiple gods. I hear people say, "I love God and Jesus!" Sometimes they add as if forgetting, "and the Holy Ghost!" That makes them very religious because they mention three Gods. They just know not whom they worship. Theirs is an Unknown God, with them believing they have three!

Theologians refer to the nature of God.  To believe in God is to believe that He is not of nature. God is supernatural!

Colossians 1:14 ... (Jesus) in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16  For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

This is where the supernatural comes to be the natural. Jesus is the image of the invisible God.  Jesus is referred to as God Incarnate - God in the flesh. There is no need to say, "Jesus and God". Either One will suffice.

John 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

According to Jesus, when we look toward Jesus who can be seen, we see the Father! Why is that? Because Jesus is Emmanuel - God with us! In other words, God allowed Himself to taste death, but to do so, He had to have the same flesh that we have. To appreciate God's crucifixion and self-sacrifice, we must realize what He went through for us. For us to empathize with Him, and Him to us, flesh was necessary. To be a Christian, we must accept God's sacrifice of Himself in our place. To do that, we must know that it was Our God who died for each one of us!

Furthermore, any of the patriarchs who met God were with Jesus -  before he became incarnate:

John 5:37 And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. 

When those in the Old Testament heard God or saw Him, it was the spiritual Jesus (the Word) whom they saw because Jesus Is God!

Who, then, is the Holy Ghost?

Matthew 10:20... for it is not you (the apostles) who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.

Now it is necessary to distinguish the difference between the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost. First off, only the King James Version (KJV) renders pneuma "Holy Ghost".   The other versions use "Holy Spirit" in all instances. David was filled with the same Holy Spirit as were those on Pentecost, but there was a difference! The translators of the KJV used "Ghost" in context of the time. The others did not! We need not say, "Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit" - either will suffice.

Jesus died, then after a while he ascended. Immediately the KJV says, the Holy Ghost descended. I believe that the translators used pneuma in context here, and that he was the "Ghost of Jesus" who returned. After, all we claim to have Jesus in our hearts!

Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith...

For Jesus to live in our hearts, he lives because he Comforts us with his Holy Ghost! Hence, since His death, the Spirit of God experienced death on the cross with Jesus, and experience something new. Before, the Holy Spirit emanated from God, but after Jesus's death, the Holy Spirit was indeed the Ghost of Jesus! That is not to say that the Holy Spirit and Holy Ghost are different, but that with time, the Holy Spirit took on a new significance. I believe that the translators used "Ghost" as a means to amplify that God is still with us!

For whatever reason, Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit are the same, and one need not say "or", or be confused!

We have now examined the One True God and his three separate identities. The usage of "three persons of the Trinity" is not accurate! There is one person in the Trinity, and He is Jesus, and hence, God - supernatural before, is now One Person who Is Jesus! God, called the Godhead, which I find impersonal, is still One. He doesn't have three personalities either. He has one because only one identity of Him is a person to have personality. The best description for God in His three forms are "substances" - called homostasis in the Greek - equilibrium between different elements in the whole. God is Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit - all equal -  all God, because all are identities of the same God.

If we look at Jesus - God in the flesh, some remove the equilibrium and separate God into elements: rather than being fully God, and fully Man, heresy is to identify Jesus as half God and half man. That heresy is "Nestorianism". It split the church in its early days, but still lives on when preachers fail to distinguish correctly between the nature and the supra-nature of  Jesus. He is fully man and fully God. Hence, scripture refers to him as the Son of Man (through Mary), and the Son of God (by the Holy Spirit). It is essential to believe that Jesus is God in human form, and not a hybrid made up of God and man!

Today, people still fall for Nestorianism. They say, "God and Jesus". That is totally incorrect since Jesus is one identity of God.

When Jesus said "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father", he acknowledges that the Father (God) and He (God) are the One and the same! With Jesus now unseen, His Holy Ghost is "God With Us", just as Jesus was.

Jesus sits on the throne right now at the right hand of God. Guess what? The Holy Ghost is there too, and in the world as well! That's possible because God is omnipresent. He's not limited to the boundaries of mankind. Satan can only be one place at a time but God exists where he wills, and as many places as he desires. That's why He is God!

Imagine, if you will, standing in front of God right now. He is not three separate Gods which sit on the throne. If you look toward the throne and think of the Creator, He is the Father you see. If you look toward God for the Savior, He is Jesus you see! If you look for the Comforter, He is the Holy Spirit you see. All these homostases of God are all God, and they sit all on the throne. All are One!

What does it take to see God face-to-face, when we will finally understand Him?

Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

You must believe that God died on the cross that day for each of us, that he was raised from the dead, and it Is Him who sits on the throne of God since Jesus Is God! ( I capitalize "is" because that is God's identity - I Am That I Am, JHVH - pronounced Jehovah!)