I continue from where I left off, providing additional evidence from Hosea that God is a multi-Personal Being and that the Angel of Jehovah is the God of Israel (https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2019/11/09/how-the-prophet-hosea-exposes-muhammad-as-a-false-prophet-pt-1/).
“And she conceived again,
and bare a daughter. And Jehovah said unto him, Call her
name Lo-ruhamah; for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel,
that I should in any wise pardon them. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and
will save them by Jehovah their God, and will not save them by bow, nor
by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.” Hosea 1:6-7
Jehovah is speaking, and he
plainly says that he will save Judah by Jehovah their God. And just as the bow,
sword, battle/warfare, horses and horsemen are all distinct and separate from
Jehovah, this means that the Jehovah God whom Jehovah employs to save the
Judeans must also be distinct from him.
Note v. 7 again:
“But I will
have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them by
Yahweh THEIR God, and will not save them by bow, sword,
battle, horses, or horsemen.” World English Bible (WEB)
“and the house of
Judah I pity, and have saved them by Jehovah
THEIR God, and do not save them by bow, and by
sword, and by battle, by horses,
and by horsemen.” Young’s Literal Translation (YLT)
Now Hosea most likely had
in mind Judah’s deliverance during the reign of Hezekiah when the Assyrian king
Sennacherib threatened to attack Jerusalem and take the Judean king and the
inhabitants captive. Old Testament scholars are virtually unanimous concerning
this point:
But I will have
mercy upon the house of Judah – I
will spare them as a kingdom after Israel has been carried away into captivity
by the Assyrians.
And will save them
by the Lord their God – Remarkably
fulfilled in the supernatural defeat of the army of the Assyrians, see 2 Kings 19:35; and so they were saved not by bow, nor by sword, nor by
battle, nor by horses, nor by horsemen. The former expression may mean, not in
war by horses, i.e., yoked to war chariots, nor by horsemen – nor by cavalry,
however efficient such troops might have then been deemed. (Adam
Clark Commentary https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/acc/hosea-1.html)
And will save them
by the Lord their God, not by bow … – Shortly
after this, God did, in the reign of Hezekiah, save them by Himself from
Sennacherib, when the Angel of the Lord
smote in one night 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. “Neither in that night, nor when they were freed from the
captivity at Babylon, did they bend bow or draw sword against their enemies or
their captors. While they slept, the Angel of the Lord smote the camp of the
Assyrians. At the prayers of David and the prophets and holy men, yea, and of
the angels Zechariah 1:12 too, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of
Persia, to set them free “to go up to Jerusalem, and build the temple of the
Lord God of Israel” Ezra 1:3. But much more, this is the special promise of the Gospel, that
God would deliver, not outwardly, but inwardly; not by human wars, but in
peace; not by man, but by Himself. “By the Lord their God,” by Himself who is
speaking, or, The Father by the Son, (in like way as it is said, “The Lord
rained upon Sodom fire from the Lord” Genesis 19:24). (Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bnb/hosea-1.html; underline emphasis ours)
And, as the foregoing
citations indicate, God delivered the Judeans by the hand of the Angel of
Jehovah:
“Therefore thus saith
Jehovah concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come unto this city, nor
shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with shield, nor cast up
a mound against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return,
and he shall not come unto this city, saith Jehovah. For I will defend
this city to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. And
it came to pass that night, that the angel of Jehovah went
forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five
thousand: and when men arose early
in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. So Sennacherib king of
Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came
to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god,
that Adrammelech and Sharezer smote him with the sword: and they escaped
into the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.” 2 Kings
19:32-37
Now the reason why this is
so interesting, in fact remarkable, is that the Angel whom God employed to
deliver Judah is expressly identified as the God of Judah!
Once again, here is the
verse from Hosea:
“Yet for the
house of Judah I will feel pity; I will save
them by the LORD, THEIR God; but I will
not save them by bow or sword, by warfare, by horses or horsemen.” New American
Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)
This isn’t the only text
where the Angel is expressly said to be the God of the covenant community:
“Now Moses was keeping the
flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock
to the back of the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, unto Horeb. And
THE ANGEL OF JEHOVAH appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a
bush: and he looked, and,
behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I
will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And
when Jehovah saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him
out of the midst of the bush,
and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh
hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for
he was afraid to look upon God…
And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and
shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you;
and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto
Moses, I am that I am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children
of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover
unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Jehovah, the
God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my
memorial unto all generations. Go, and gather the elders of Israel
together, and say unto them, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the
God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, hath appeared unto me, saying,
I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you
in Egypt: and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt
unto the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the
Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, unto a land flowing with milk and
honey.” Exodus 3:1-6, 13-17
The New Testament further
confirms that the God who appeared to and accompanied Moses was none other than
the Angel of Jehovah:
“And when forty years were
fulfilled, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of mount
Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. And when Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew
near to behold, there came a voice of the Lord, I am the God of thy
fathers, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. And Moses trembled,
and durst not behold. And the Lord said unto him, Loose the shoes from thy feet: for
the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt,
and have heard their groaning, and I am come down to deliver them: and now
come, I will send thee into Egypt. This Moses whom they refused, saying,
Who made thee a ruler and a judge? him hath God sent to be both
a ruler and a deliverer with the hand of the angel that appeared
to him in the bush… This is he that was in the church in the
wilderness with the angel that spake to him in the mount Sinai,
and with our fathers: who received living oracles to give unto us:” Acts
7:30-35, 38
What we thus have in Hosea
1:6-7 is Jehovah God clearly speaking of another divine Person that he
dispatched to save the people of Judah. In the words of the late Dr. Robert A.
Morey:
If I as the first person
promise to do something for you as the second person through a third person,
am I not implying that I am not the same as the third person?
If grammar means anything, the answer is, “Yes”.
When Yahweh as the first
person promised to deliver Israel as the second person by a third person called
Yahweh, what other conclusion can we logically come to than that there are two
persons each called Yahweh?
The “classic” commentary on
the Minor Prophets was written by E.B. Pusey. He noted that the “Yahweh
their God” through whom the deliverance came was none other than the Angel of
Yahweh when he “smote in one night 185,000 in the camp of the
Assyrians.”[19] How was the deliverance accomplished?
The Father by the Son (in
like way as it said, Yahweh rained upon Sodom fire from Yahweh.)
They were saved in Christ, Yahweh and God of all, not by carnal weapons of
warfare, but by the might of Him Who saved them, and shook thrones and
dominions, and Who by His Cross triumphed over the hosts of the adversaries,
and overcame the powers of evil.[20]
The “Yahweh their God” was
clearly a different person from the “Yahweh” who was speaking. Yet, they each
were YaHWeH. While this is what Trinitarians expect to find in the
Bible, Unitarians are continually frustrated by such passages.
That the authors of
Scripture believed that God was multi-personal can also be found in passages
concerning the angel of Yahweh and the theophanies. This material is so vast
that we must devote separate chapters to each subject. (Morey, Trinity:
Evidence and Issues, Chapter Seven: A Multi-Personal God https://answering-islam.org/Trinity/morey7.html; bold emphasis ours)
Hosea wasn’t the only
inspired prophet to speak of two divine Persons as Jehovah God:
“Ho Zion, escape, thou that
dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. For thus saith Jehovah of
hosts: [a]After glory hath he sent me
unto the nations which plundered you; for he that toucheth you toucheth the
apple of his eye. For, behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they shall be a
spoil to those that served them; and ye shall know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me. Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith
Jehovah. And many nations
shall join themselves to Jehovah in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that
Jehovah of hosts hath sent me unto
thee. And Jehovah shall
inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. Be silent, all
flesh, before Jehovah; for he is waked up out of his holy habitation.”
Zechariah 2:7-13
In this passage, Jehovah
says that he is coming to dwell in the midst of the people of Judah,
specifically in Jerusalem, and that once he does so then his people will know
that Jehovah has sent him to live among them!
Zechariah elsewhere
confirms that Jehovah will descend upon the mount of olives, which will be
split in half by the impact of his glorious feet, in order to begin ruling in
Jerusalem as the King of all the earth:
“Behold, a day of Jehovah
cometh, when thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. 2 For I will
gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken,
and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go
forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from
the city. Then shall Jehovah go forth, and fight against those
nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And HIS
FEET shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before
Jerusalem on the east; and the mount of Olives shall be cleft in the
midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great
valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and
half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee by the valley of my mountains;
for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel; yea, ye shall flee, like
as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of
Judah; and Jehovah my God shall
come, and all the holy ones with thee… And
Jehovah shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall Jehovah be
one, and his name one… And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left
of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to
worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And
it shall be, that whoso of all the families of the earth goeth not up
unto Jerusalem to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, upon them there
shall be no rain.” Zechariah 14:1-5, 9, 16-17
Remarkably, the NT writings
teach that it is Jesus who will descend upon the mount of olives when he
returns with all his holy ones in order to judge the living and the dead and
reign as King of kings and Lord of lords!
“And when he had said these
things, as they were looking, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of
their sight. And while they were looking stedfastly into heaven as he went,
behold two men stood by them in white apparel; who also said, Ye men of
Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, who was received up from
you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going
into heaven. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the
mount called Olivet, which is nigh unto Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s
journey off.” Acts 1:9-12
“to the end he may
establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at
the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” 1 Thessalonians 3:13
“But we would not have you
ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fall asleep; that ye sorrow not, even
as the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with
him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive,
that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise
precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord himself shall
descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that
are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the
clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1
Thessalonians 4:13-18
“which is a manifest token
of the righteous judgment of God; to the end that ye may be counted worthy of
the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: if so be that it is a righteous
thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you, and to you
that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus
from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering
vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of
our Lord Jesus: who shall suffer punishment, even eternal
destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might,
when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all
them that believed (because our testimony unto you was believed) in that day.”
2 Thessalonians 1:5-10
“And I saw the heaven
opened; and behold, a white horse, and he that sat thereon called Faithful and
True; and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. And his eyes are a flame
of fire, and upon his head are many diadems; and he hath a name written which
no one knoweth but he himself. And he is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with
blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the
armies which are in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine
linen, white and pure. And out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with
it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and
he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty.
And he hath on his garment and on his thigh a name written, King of
Kings, and Lord of Lords.” Revelation 19:11-16
This means that, as far as
the inspired NT writings are concerned, Jesus Christ is the Jehovah God whom
Zechariah stated would descend upon the mount of olives in order to begin
ruling the nations from Jerusalem!
This now brings me to my
final point.
God as a Spiritual
Father to his people
Hosea affirms that
Jehovah’s covenant people are the spiritual sons and daughters of God:
“Yet the number of the
children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured
nor numbered; and it shall come to pass that, in the place where it was
said unto them, Ye are not my people, it shall be said unto them, Ye
are the sons of the living God.” Hosea 1:10
“When Israel was a child,
then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. The
more the prophets called them, the more they went from them:
they sacrificed unto the Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. Yet I taught Ephraim
to walk; [a]I took them on my arms; but
they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love; and I was
to them as they that lift up the yoke on their jaws; and I laid food before
them.” Hosea 11:1-4
The New Testament agrees in
that it expressly teaches that all who put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
become children of the living God:
“But as many as received
him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that
believe on his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12-13
“But ye are not in the
flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But
if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is
in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of
righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead
dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life
also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you. So then,
brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh: for if ye
live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the
deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of
God, these are sons of God. For ye received not the spirit
of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we
cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we
are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs
with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified
with him.” Romans 8:9-17
“For ye are all sons
of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were
baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek,
there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye all
are one man in Christ Jesus. And if ye are Christ’s, then are ye
Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.” Galatians 3:26-29
“but when the fulness of
the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born
under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God sent forth
the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So
that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an
heir through God.” Galatians 4:4-7
“Behold what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children
of God; and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not,
because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we children of God,
and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be
manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is.” 1 John
3:1-2
Muhammad, on the other
hand, contradicted the true prophets and apostles of God by denying that his
deity is a father to anyone, even in a purely spiritual sense:
The Jews and Christians
say: We are sons of Allah and His loved ones. Say: Why then doth He chastise
you for your sins? Nay, ye are but mortals of His creating. He forgiveth whom
He will, and chastiseth whom He will. Allah’s is the Sovereignty of the heavens
and the earth and all that is between them, and unto Him is the journeying. S.
5:18 Pickthall
And the Jews say: Ezra is
the son of Allah, and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah. That
is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the saying of those who
disbelieved of old. Allah (Himself) fighteth against them. How perverse are
they! S. 9:30 Pickthall
Instead, he taught that the
highest relationship a person can have with his god is that of a slave to
master relationship:
Assuredly ye utter a
disastrous thing Whereby almost the heavens are torn, and the earth is split
asunder and the mountains fall in ruins, That ye ascribe unto the Beneficent a
son, When it is not meet for (the Majesty of) the Beneficent that He should
choose a son. There is none in the heavens and the earth but cometh unto the
Beneficent as a slave. S. 19:88-93 Pickthall – Cf. Q. 6:101; 21:26; 39:4; 72:3
The Lord Jesus taught that
if all one happens to be is a slave/servant then s/he has no permanent place in
God’s house. This is why the risen Lord came to make slaves into sons and
daughters of his God and Father:
“Jesus answered them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Every one that committeth sin is the
bondservant of sin. And the bondservant abideth not in the house for ever: the
son abideth for ever. If therefore the Son shall
make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
John 8:34-36
With the foregoing in
perspective, do these Muhammadans really want us to believe that prophets such
as Hosea announced the coming of Muhammad, a false prophet who contradicted the
theology of these truly inspired spokespersons of God?
The fact is that the
unanimous witness of the God-breathed Scriptures is that Muhammad was an
antichrist, one who is now under the glorious feet of the Lord Jesus:
“Then cometh the end, when
he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have
abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign,
till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that
shall be abolished is death. For, He put all things in subjection
under his feet. But when he saith, All things are put in subjection, it
is evident that he is excepted who did subject all things unto him. And when
all things have been subjected unto him, then shall the Son also himself be
subjected to him that did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in
all.” 1 Corinthians 15:24-28
“Who is the liar but he
that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, even
he that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the
same hath not the Father: he that confesseth the Son hath the Father also.” 1
John 2:22-23
The sooner the Muslims come
to terms with this fact the better off they will be since they will save both
themselves and their prophet from being exposed and humiliated for perverting the
sacred Scriptures to their destruction:
“Every word of God is
tried: He is a shield unto them that take refuge in him. Add thou not unto his
words, Lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”
Proverbs 30:5-6
“And account that the
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also,
according to the wisdom given to him, wrote unto you; as also in all his
epistles, speaking in them of these things; wherein are some things hard to be
understood, which the ignorant and unstedfast wrest, as they do also
the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” 2 Peter 3:15-16
Unless noted otherwise, biblical references taken from the
American Standard Version (ASV).
IHS
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