# Why the Father Is Jesus’ God: A Scriptural Defense of Trinitarian Theology Pt. 2

- Link: https://lordjesuschristreigns.blog/2025/08/05/why-the-father-is-jesus-god-a-scriptural-defense-of-trinitarian-theology-pt-2/
- Published: 2025-08-05T06:05:00-07:00
- Author: LordJesusChristReigns

I continue from where I previously**[ left off](https://lordjesuschristreigns.blog/2025/08/05/why-the-father-is-jesus-god-a-scriptural-defense-of-trinitarian-theology-pt-1/).**

In this post, I will demonstrate that the writings these anti-Trinitarians appeal
to, which are very inspiring, explicitly affirm that Jesus is God in an absolute
sense—being one with the Father and Spirit in essence, glory, and majesty.

I begin with the witness of John himself.

###### JOHN

John begins his Gospel by declaring Jesus to be the eternal Word who has existed
with God from before creation and has always been God in nature, whom God then appointed
to create and give life to all of creation. This is the very Word who later became
flesh, meaning who became the Man Christ Jesus:    

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (
kai theos een ho logos). He was in the beginning with God. All things came into 
being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has
come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind…

This was the true Light that, coming into the world, enlightens every person. He
was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, and yet the world did
not know Him… 

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of
the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”** John 1:1-4, 9-10, 14**
_New American Standard Bible (NASB)_  

Here in the prologue, John has attributed to Christ the exclusive functions and 
characteristics that the Hebrew Bible ascribes to Yahweh alone.

For instance, the Old Testament emphatically teaches that Yahweh alone created and
sustains all creation, and that he is the sole source of spiritual light since illumination
comes from him alone:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. And on the seventh
day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from
all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified 
it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created in making it.
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in
the day that Yahweh God made earth and heaven. Now no shrub of the field was yet
in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet grown, for Yahweh God had not caused
it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a stream
would rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. Then Yahweh
God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life; and so the man became a living being…

So Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took
one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. And Yahweh God fashioned 
the rib, which He had taken from the man, into a woman, and He brought her to the
man. Then the man said, ‘This one finally is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh;
This one shall be called Woman, Because this one was taken out of Man.’”** Genesis
1:1; 2:1-7, 21-23**

“And the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah,
and Pethahiah, said, ‘Rise up, bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting!
O may Your glorious name be blessed And exalted above all blessing and praise! You
alone are Yahweh. You have made the heavens, the heaven of heavens with all their
host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give
life to all of them and the heavenly host bows down to You.’” **Nehemiah 9:5-6**

“Who ALONE stretches out the heavens, and tramples down the waves of the sea;” **
Job 9:8**

“Did not He who made me in the womb make him, and the same one fashion us in the
womb?” **Job 31:15**

“For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.” **Psalm 36:9**

“Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, ‘I, 
Yahweh, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself and spreading
out the earth all alone,’” **Isaiah 44:24**

“It is I who made the earth and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens
with My hands, and I commanded all their host…

For thus says Yahweh, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth
and made it; He established it and did not create it a formless place, but formed
it to be inhabited), ‘I am Yahweh, and there is none else.’” **Isaiah 45:12, 18**

In light of the foregoing, the inspired Apostle could not recognize Christ as the
True Light who illuminates all mankind or describe him as the One through whom all
creation was made unless he believed that the Son (together with the Father and 
the Holy Spirit) is YHWH Almighty.

Nor could John claim that Christ has existed as God before creation if he didn’t
believe that Jesus is YHWH, the God who became a Man, since the Old Testament explicitly
states that YHWH is the only God who has existed from all eternity: 

“A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, You have been our dwelling place from 
generation to generation. Before the mountains were born or You brought forth the
earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”** Psalm
90:1-2**

“Yahweh reigns, He is clothed with majesty; Yahweh has clothed and girded Himself
with strength; indeed, the world is established, it will not be shaken. Your throne
is established from of old; You are from everlasting.” **Psalm 93:1-2**

“‘You are My witnesses,’ declares Yahweh, ‘And My servant whom I have chosen, So
that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was
no god formed, and there will be none after Me. I, even I, am Yahweh, and there 
is no savior besides Me. It is I who have declared and saved and caused it to be
heard, and there was no strange god among you; So you are My witnesses,’ declares
Yahweh, ‘And I am God. Even from eternity I am He, and there is none who can deliver
out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?’” **Isaiah 43:10-13**    

###### JOHN HAS MORE TO SAY

According to the Evangelist, God has never been and can never be known apart from
the Son coming to reveal and explain him:

“No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God (monogenes theos) who is
in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” **John 1:18**

The reading adopted here, _monogenes theos_, is based on the two oldest surviving
Greek manuscripts of this verse, namely P66 and P75, which are dated anywhere from
the late second to the third century AD. Note the various ways Bible versions have
rendered this phrase:

“No one has seen God at any time; God the only Son, who is in the arms of the Father,
He has explained Him.”_ New American Standard (NASB)_  

“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made
him known.” _English Standard Version (ESV)_

“No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the
Father’s side—he has revealed him.” _Christian Standard Bible (CSB)_

“No one has ever seen God. God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, has made
God known.” _Common English Bible (CEB)_

“No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is truly God and is closest to the 
Father, has shown us what God is like.”_ Contemporary English Version (CEV)_

“No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father’s
side, he has made him known.” _Good News Translation (GNT)_

“No one has ever seen God. The uniquely existing God, who is close to the Father’s
side, has revealed him.” _International Standard Version (ISV)_

“No one has ever seen God. The only Son, himself God, the one who is in the bosom
of the Father, he has made him known.” _William Mounce Reverse Interlinear New Testament(
MOUNCE)_

“No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed
him.” _New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)_

“No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship
with the Father, has made God known.”_ New English Translation (NET)_

“No one has ever seen God. But the One and Only is God and is at the Father’s side.
The one at the Father’s side has shown us what God is like.” _New International 
Reader’s Version (NIRV)_

“No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in
closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” _New International Version(
NIV)_

“No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the
Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.” _New Living Translation (NLT)_

“No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s 
heart, who has made him known.” _New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (
NRSVCE)_

“No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the 
Father’s heart, who has made him known.” _New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition(
NRSVUE)_

This puts the anti-Trinitarian in a dilemma because John makes it clear that** no
one has ever seen God at any time** except through the Son’s revelation. However,
we are told that many people saw God in visible form and spoke directly with Him
throughout the Old Testament period. Some examples include:

“Now it happened that when Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram
and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; Walk before Me and be blameless, so that I 
may confirm My covenant between Me and you, And that I may multiply you exceedingly.’
Then Abram fell on his face, and God spoke with him, saying… So He finished talking
with him, and God went up from Abraham.” **Genesis 17:1-3, 22**

“Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel,
and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement
of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. Yet He did not stretch out His hand against
the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they beheld God, and they ate and drank.” **
Exodus 24:9-11**

“Then Yahweh came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent,
and He called Aaron and Miriam. And then both came forward, and He said, ‘Hear now
My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, Yahweh, shall make Myself known to
him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so, with My servant Moses,
He is faithful in all My household; With him I speak mouth to mouth, Indeed clearly,
and not in riddles, And he beholds the form of Yahweh. Why then were you not afraid
to speak against My servant, against Moses?’” **Numbers 12:5-8**

“In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and
lifted up, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him,
each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his
feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, ‘Holy, Holy,
Holy, is Yahweh of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory.’ And the foundations
of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called out, while the house of God
was filling with smoke. Then I said, ‘Woe is me, for I am ruined! For I am a man
of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen
the King, Yahweh of hosts.” **Isaiah 6:1-5**

“I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said, ‘Strike the capitals so 
that the thresholds will quake, And break them on the heads of them all! Then I 
will kill the rest of them with the sword; Not one of them who can flee will flee,
and not one of them who can survive will escape.’” **Amos 9:1**

According to the inspired John, the only way these OT figures could have seen YHWH
is if they were beholding the Son in his prehuman existence.

In other words, John is saying that it was none other than Jesus himself who, in
his preincarnate form, had been appearing to the patriarchs and prophets as YHWH
God Almighty to reveal God’s identity to them.

The climax of the Gospel is John’s bookend, where Thomas makes a Christological 
confession after seeing the risen Jesus in his glorified physical body:

 “But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples were saying to him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ But he said 
to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger 
into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’
And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus
came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with
you.’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Bring your finger here, and see My hands; and bring
your hand here and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.’
Thomas answered and said TO HIM, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, “Because
you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are those who did not see, and yet 
believed.” **John 20:24-29**

Thomas unambiguously acknowledges the glorified Jesus to be his very Lord and God!

What makes this so astonishing is that Thomas’ confession is nearly identical to
the description of YHWH in the following Psalm:

“You have seen it, O Yahweh, do not keep silent; O Lord, do not be far from me. 
Stir up Yourself, and awake to my justice and to my cause, my God and my Lord. Judge
me, O Yahweh my God, according to Your righteousness, and do not let them be glad
over me.” **Psalm 35:22-24**

Here’s the Greek rendering of the Psalmist’s confession:

“Awake, O Lord, and attend to my judgment, [even] to my cause, my God and my Lord(
ho theos mou kai ho kyrios mou).” **Psalm 34:23 **_Septuagint (__LXX)_

Now compare this with the Greek of John:

“Thomas replied, ‘You are my Lord and my God (ho kyrios mou kai ho theos mou)!’”**
John 20:28 **_Contemporary English Version (CEV)_

“And Thomas answered and said UTO HIM (eipen auto), My Lord and my God.” _Authorized
King James Version (AV)_

The phrasing of both texts is identical, with the only difference being the word
order, i.e., “my Lord and my God” versus “my God and my Lord.”

The anti-Trinitarian now faces a significant problem because the only way a monotheistic
Jew like Thomas could make such a confession is if he genuinely believed that Jesus
is God Almighty in the flesh. There’s simply no way for the Unitarian/Arian skeptic
to avoid this.  

This point is further reinforced by John describing Jesus as performing what the
OT attributes to YHWH, specifically, breathing out the Holy Spirit upon his disciples.

“So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also
send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive
the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them;
if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.’” **John 20:21-23**  

The risen Christ ultimately fulfills the words of John the Baptist, who stated that
the Son would baptize people with/in the Holy Spirit.

“On the next day, he saw Jesus coming to him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God 
who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, “After me comes 
a man who has been ahead of me, for He existed before me.” I did not know Him, but
so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing with water.’ And John
bore witness saying, ‘I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven,
and He abided on Him. And I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with
water said to me, “The One upon whom you see the Spirit descending and abiding on
Him, this is the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I myself have seen,
and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.’” **John 1:29-34**

Remarkably, the Hebrew Bible is crystal clear that YHWH alone breathes forth the
Holy Spirit and that he is the One who pours out the Spirit upon believers:

“Then Yahweh God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life; and so the man became a living being.” **Genesis 2:7**

“The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”**
Job 33:4**

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse 
you from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you
a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone
from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and
cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to do My judgments.” **
Ezekiel 36:26-27**

This next one is also interesting because Yahweh announces that He will pour out
His Spirit on all those who call upon his name for salvation:

“And it will be afterwards that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your
sons and your daughters shall prophesy; Your old men will dream dreams; Your young
men will see visions. Even on the male slaves and female slaves I will in those 
days pour out My Spirit. And I will put wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood,
fire, and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into
blood before the great and awesome day of Yahweh comes. And it will be that everyone
who calls on the name of Yahweh will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, even among the survivors whom
Yahweh calls.”** Joel 2:28-32**

And yet John is clear that it is Jesus’ name that a person must embrace to be saved!

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God,
even to those who believe in 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**

“Therefore many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of the disciples, which
are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in
His name.” **John 20:30-31**

The Apostle even states that Christ is the Hearer of prayer, being the One who will
personally answer every request made in his name!

“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for the witness
of God is this, that He has borne witness about His Son. The one who believes in
the Son of God has this witness in himself. The one who does not believe God has
made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness which God has borne 
witness about His Son. And the witness is this, that God gave us eternal life, and
this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the
Son of God does not have that life. These things I have written to you who believe
in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. 
And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according
to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we
know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.”** 1 John 5:9-15**

“Whatever you ask in My name, this will I do, so that the Father may be glorified
in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”** John 14:13-14**

Once again, Jesus performs what the OT attributes solely to YHWH:

“To You, there will be silence and praise in Zion, O God, and to You the vow will
be paid. O You who hear prayer, To You all flesh comes.”** Psalm 65:1-2**

In light of the foregoing, could John have been any clearer or more explicit in 
affirming that Jesus is indeed YHWH Almighty, who became Man, being the unique Son
of God who is one with the Father and the Son in essence and glory?

 In the [**next part**](https://lordjesuschristreigns.blog/2025/08/05/why-the-father-is-jesus-god-a-scriptural-defense-of-trinitarian-theology-pt-3/),
I conclude with the witness of the holy and blessed Apostle Paul.

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