Home | FAQ | Message Boards | Site Map | Subject Index | Other Resources | We Believe...
Perilous Times | Unitarian Christology | Logically Speaking | Sacred Names | Faith-Doctrine

Thomas 'Sees' God

by Phil Maxwell 11/25/02

To the question, would I say to Yahshua, as Thomas said, “my Lord and my God?”, I must answer no, at least not without further qualification, which I'll explain.

When Thomas said this, no one would have even imagined that Yahshua was Himself the invisible, Almighty God, who He declared over and over again was His Father.  He even said that His Father was the ONLY true God (Jn 17:3), eliminating from all consideration what has SINCE become a virtual assumption on the part of most Christians.  In other words, there was no reason for Thomas, Yahshua, or John to qualify the meaning of Thomas’ words to NOT mean that Yahshua was God Himself.  People don’t qualify their words without a reason to believe they might be misunderstood. To read theological assumptions into words that didn’t and wouldn’t have been thought at the time is fallacious.  To then argue that those words prove the same theological assumptions is circular reasoning.

The strictly monotheistic Jews of that culture would never have thought the invisible God of Creation was a man, or that a man was the God of Creation.  That Yahshua was a man was assumed, and that necessarily excluded any thought that He was God in the minds of those involved in the conversation recorded in John 20.  There was a lot of confusion over His true identity and relationship with the Father, but not over whether or not He was God (that came quite a while later):

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He began asking His disciples, saying, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Mt 16:14-17

Of course, these are different times. Now, when people are asked the same question, the answer comes back like, ‘God the Son, the God-man, the second person of the triune God, etc.’  (Of course, I still answer, that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and figure that if this knowledge is a blessing from the Father in heaven that the Church would be built upon and stand against the gates of hell, then it’s good enough for both the Father and His Son, whether it’s a good enough answer for men or not.)   The general population is still completely confused over who (and now, what) Yahshua is, but in different ways.  This provides a reason to qualify Thomas’ words that didn’t exist 2,000 years ago, just as the deity of Christ and trinity doctrines didn’t exist then.  Now, my testimony, in contrast to Thomas’, would be more aptly stated ‘My Lord and my God who is in you.’

Knowing that people have a problem with this, let me explain why it is appropriate to address God IN Christ while distinguishing between the two.  It follows a pattern long before established regarding the places where Yahweh had chosen to place His name.

First, consider Yahweh’s instruction to Moses:

Then Yahweh said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven. 'You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves. 'You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. (Ex 20:22-24)

[Obviously, they were to worship at the places that Yahweh chose, and in doing so, they were promised His blessing.]

Then, there was similar commandments and promises given to the next generation:

When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security, then it shall come about that the place in which Yahweh your God shall choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings which you will vow to Yahweh. And you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every cultic place you see, but in the place which Yahweh chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you. (Dt 12:10-14)

[Obviously, the invisible God Almighty has always made a point of the fact that He reserves the right to establish the place He is to be worshipped.]

Then we see the same pattern with regard to Solomon’s temple:

'Since the day that I brought My people from the land of Egypt, I did not choose a city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house that My name might be there, nor did I choose any man for a leader over My people Israel; but I have chosen Jerusalem that My name might be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.' (2 Ch 6:5-6)

For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. (2 Ch 7:16)

[Of course, now we know that Yahshua Himself has been made the King over Yahweh’s people and Chief Cornerstone of Yahweh’s house of living stones.]

"Yet have regard to the prayer of Thy servant and to his supplication, O Yahweh my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Thy servant prays before Thee today; that Thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which Thou hast said, 'My name shall be there,' to listen to the prayer which Thy servant shall pray toward this place. …And the LORD said to him, "I have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built by putting My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. (1 Ki 8:28-29, 9:3)

Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously. (Da 6:10)

[Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den and miraculously delivered for this.]

This clear pattern continued with Yahshua, being testified plainly by His resurrection that He was the “place” Yahweh had chosen to place His name, where His eyes and His Heart would be perpetually.  Just as promised regarding these other places, Yahweh will here prayers and supplications directed TO Him towards Yahshua, and bless those who so direct their worship of Him.

Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews therefore said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" But He was speaking of the temple of His body. When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken. (Jn 2:19-22)

So, getting back to the point, I have no problem turning to Yahshua, my Lord, to offer my prayers and supplications offered to His Father and my Father, His God and my God, just like Thomas did, once he came to believe that Yahshua was, in fact, the temple Yahweh had chosen to dwell in. But I won’t say, “my Lord and my God” without qualifying the difference between the temple and He who dwells within amongst people I know would assume there is no difference.   The Jews of two millennia ago didn't need to be told that God is not, never has been, and never will be a man, as the people of this generation do.   Neither did they have any confusion over the difference between Yahweh and His temple, though they did struggle to grasp the revelation that the man Yahshua was both the one Yahweh had appointed King over His people and the Chief Cornerstone of His temple. 

How we can expect to be joined to the temple as Yahweh intends while refusing to acknowledge the difference between His temple and His person.  The natural conclusion of this error would be to assume ourselves, as living stones in Yahweh's temple, also to be God.  Such a mindset clearly represents the heart, mind, and ambitions of Satan and his children, not the children of the one true God.  In the end, Yahweh will bring upon the head of those who serve the devil exactly what they try to force upon His own children.  Obviously, the blessing of being the temple of the living God was never intended to rest solely upon the man Yahshua:

'Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews, and are not, but lie-- behold, I will make them to come and bow down at your feet, and to know that I have loved you. …'He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. (Rev 3:9,12)

Home | FAQ | Message Boards | Site Map | Subject Index | Other Resources | We Believe...
Perilous Times | Unitarian Christology | Logically Speaking | Sacred Names | Faith-Doctrine