[First posted in 2012; contains our views at the beginning of our journey to rediscover the revelation of the One True God on Sinai; we haven’t changed our position, so this is as relevant to day as it was 6 years ago.—Admin1]
In the book of beginnings, the Creation account is probably the most challenging “beginning” to discuss; we were in a quandary as to how to approach its complexities amidst the seeming simplicity of the narrative. A child probably understands and accepts it far better than adults do and more easily relates to the God introduced there simply as “the Creator.” In a child’s mind, if something exists, surely someone made it; there is no creation without a Creator. Try that argument on agnostics and atheists!
Christian translators have rendered the first 4 words as “In the beginning God . . . .” The Hebrew rendering is more specific as to what was beginning in timeless eternity: [AST] “In the beginning of God’s creating the heavens and the earth . . . .”
Sinaites have learned to read Genesis/Bere’shiyth 1 and 2 with only a Creator-character speaking “let there be” or “become” and it was so. Who that Creator is, progressively reveals Himself in the next 48 chapters. We read and add to the Creator’s profile only what He says about Himself as well as how His observable acts in the affairs of humankind reveal His attributes and His Nature. That is how we get to know flesh and blood fellow-humans whom we can observe, get to know, etc. But an invisible God has to make Himself known to clueless humanity.
All the way to the conclusion of this book of beginnings, we have not encountered what is suggested in the title of this article, although we can understand how that might be misconstrued from a lack of understanding of Hebrew words and their implications/applications in the plural form.
“God is a fellowship” comes from the book we are featuring here, if only to show the Christian approach to Genesis which incorporates progressive revelation. There is a saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover.’ In this day of downloadable ebooks, one doesn’t look at a book cover; one reads the reviews if any, or the introduction. We were convinced to get a copy because of its title: Seven Days that Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science, and the following book description, :
Author: John C. Lennox
“Scientifically-savvy,” “theologically-astute,” “scripturally faithful” — sounds like our kind of resource book! Viewing the table of contents, Chapter 5 outlines what Genesis reveals about God:
- God Exists
- God is the Eternal Creator
- God is distinct from His creation
- God is personal
- God is a Fellowship
- God has a goal in creation
- God creates by His Word
- God is the source of Light
- The Goodness of Creation
- The Sabbath
Here’s what Lennox wrote about GOD IS A FELLOWSHIP:
[Reformatting ours.]
Genesis I talks about the Spirit of God “hovering over the waters” (v. 2) and records God as saying, “Let us make man in our image” (Gen 1:26; emphasis added).
No explanation is given at this point, but these statements surely anticipate New Testament teaching on the Trinity. This impression is heightened by the repeated use of the phrase: “And God said . . .”
Creation involves the word of God. Concentrating on that fact, the apostle John begins his Gospel with the magnificent statement,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him” (John 1:1-3a).
John immediately identifies the Word with Jesus Christ:
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Thus, God is revealed to us as a tri-unity, a fellowship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul says of Christ,
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:15-17).
These are staggering claims to make about anyone in any age, let alone in the twenty-first century. They clearly imply that Jesus Christ created space-time. It was he who conceived and, with unimaginable energy and power, spoke into being a material universe, governed by intricate laws that he himself designed. It was his mind that was the mind of God that thought into existence the blueprint for matter, life, and consciousness. Nothing makes sense about Jesus Christ unless he is precisely who he claimed to be—the Word of God incarnate.
Science has often been said, cannot rule God out. Jesus Christ has ruled him in.
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S6K comment: For any reader to see “Holy Spirit” and “Jesus” in Genesis 1 is possible only when he has read backward instead of forward, starting with the New Testament then backtracking to the Old. We used to do the same because like most Christians, we were taught to start with the Gospel of John. That is where we meet Jesus as the WORD, and the Gospel of John connects him with Genesis 1; in fact John 1:1 not only echoes its opening line but immediately settles the issue of WHO JESUS IS, was?
There are actually ‘NT-only’ bibles, as well as ‘John-only’ bibles. That is where a Christian’s orientation begins, not with Genesis. As we have repeatedly suggested in all articles here, reading the Christian version of the TNK, retitled “Old Testament” does not introduce anyone to the True God YHWH of the TNK because He has already been reinvented and redefined into the Christian God according to the Council of Nicea doctrinal decisions, 4th century C.E. The Christian OT differs from TNK in many ways but you would not notice unless you have the Hebrew Bible to compare significant verses mistranslated or slightly changed and claimed to be “messianic prooftexts” (please follow “Lost in Translation” series).
Speaking of judging a book by its cover, here is a peculiar bible which we purchased, thinking it was the TNK. At first glance, wouldn’t you think so? The cover is misleading visually because it is designed exactly like the Hebrew Bible where the Title is on the back cover and you read from back to front, just like Hebrew Scripture formatting.
The cover design has all the symbols that Jews would identify with, from the Hebrew alphabet, star of David, 12 tribal emblems.
Open this bible and on the right page is the New Testament in Hebrew alphabet and on the left, its English translation.
On the cover only the title betrays its content: THE HEBREW ENGLISH NEW COVENANT(whaaaat ???? missed reading that!!!). Inside the back cover, this letter explains the camouflage:
Dear Jewish Friend,
The LORD raised up the nation of Israel and through the Jewish people, gave the world these three great blessings:
1. The Holy Scriptures,
2. The Way of Salvation,
3. The Messiah, our Saviour.
Therefore, it is with great joy that we present to you this historic edition of the New Covenant, which God promised to Israel, through Jeremiah the prophet, in the Holy Scriptures. Then it quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34, and concludes
“With much gratitude, Dr. K. Daniel Fried.”
[In this website, part of our visual alerts is to color code NT in red (beware) and Hebrew Scriptures in Israel blue (original).]
On the last page is a partial list of OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY (OT verses) corresponding with NEW TESTAMENT FULFILLMENT with the caption:
“These are only a few of many prophecies;
yet the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled them all!”
——————
This bible was evidently designed to evangelize the Jews, distributed by Hope of Israel Publications [www.hopeofisrael.net].
Admittedly, Christians mean well; they are fully convinced who their God is and therefore are sincerely concerned that everyone else, like the Jews, who have not embraced the key figure for salvation, 2nd person of the Trinitarian Godhead, are not “saved” and therefore hell-bound. So their evangelization efforts extend beyond the gentile world, penetrating the Jewish population who, as Paul in the Book of Romans characterize, have blinders, been left ignorant by the very God Who chose them!
It would be interesting to know how many Jews have come to believe in Jesus Christ as their long-awaited “messiah” (christ!) through this disguised, if not outwardly deceiving book!
Seriously, dear Christian brethren, if you reread the Jeremiah verse CAREFULLY, you will notice that the supposed “new” covenant is not really “new”. Messianics are correct in teaching the “old” covenant as simply “renewed” . . . except they go along with a totally new and different package since they are still, after all, Christ-worshippers with a Christian agenda even if they try to look and sound Jewish. We consider them as the real “Jew-wannabe’s”.
Now, please reflect on this:
The original covenant on Sinai—
- was between YHWH
- and Israel
- about the TORAH, 10 words written on tablets of stone.
The “new covenant” in Jeremiah is defined by the following “very words of YHWH”—-
- I will place My Torah within them
- and I will write it onto their heart;
- I will be a God for them
- and they will be a people for Me.
- They will no longer teach—each man his fellow, each man his brother–saying, ‘Know YHWH!”
- For all of them will know Me, from their smallest to their greatest—the word of YHWH—
- when I will forgive their iniquity and will no longer recall their sin.”
- [vs. 35] If these laws could be removed before Me—the word of YHWH— so could the seed of Israel cease from being a people before Me forever.
So the “new” covenant is still between whom and about what?—-
- between Israel,
- and the God of Israel YHWH,
- and it is still about the TORAH, no longer written on tablets of stone
- but internalized by Israel after learning their lessons from the exile
- (to model to the nations, since Israel is YHWH’s “light to the gentiles”)
Honestly, how could these verses be re-interpreted and misinterpreted—-
- to create a whole new religion,
- with a different God,
- with a new name
- and a different nature
- no longer really ONE but 3-in-1,
- and a new Way and—lest we’ve forgotten what this article is about, a new identity for the Creator?
- declaring the TORAH passe, obsolete, no longer applicable.
To quote another major prophet, Isaiah 8:20:
To the law and to the testimony!
If they do not speak according to this word,
it is because they have no dawn.
AMEN!
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