Stop Rejecting the Messiah: Calling Yeshua, aka Jesus, “God” or “Yahweh” rejects Him as the Messiah and is playing with fire.
There’s a fear that if people reject Yeshua as God, or see God and Jesus as two beings not one being, that they are likely to reject the New Testament. This is the opposite of my experience. People that I’ve seen reject Jesus have been the ones who think Yeshua and Yahweh are the same being. These often also call it the “renewed” covenant. This slippery slope often results in trying to recreate the wilderness experience and live like it’s the days of Moses. We do not live in the days of Moses, we live in the days of Yeshua and the New Covenant inaugurated in His blood.
The people who see Yeshua as just a man who was born of Mary but is still the Son of God call themselves Biblical Unitarians. These folks see a complete distinction between God and Jesus with Jesus have a starting point about 2K years ago. I’ve NEVER seen one of these folks reject the New Testament. In fact, they seem more attached to the New Testament than most.
To explain why believing Yeshua and Yahweh are the same being leads to rejection of the Messiah, we just have to look at John 3:16
Slide 2 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (Joh 3:16 NAS95)
If you believe that Jesus is God, then this sentence makes no sense at all. It would be a different gospel entirely, that God came down here and pretended to be His own Son or something. Even Trinitarians, who we are the hardest on, understand there’s a separation. When you cross the divide to them not being “them” but just one being, then hundreds of verses no longer make any sense.
Slide 3 Jesus (Yeshua) said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'” (Joh 20:17 NAS95)
This is just one of the starkest examples out of innumerable verses that is incomprehensible if Yahweh and Yeshua are the same being. Beyond this, there’s a handy proof text in the OT for us to know exactly who the Father is:
Slide 4 But now, O LORD (YHVH), You are our Father, we are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand. (Isa 64:8 NAS95)
My preferred bible puts YHVH as LORD in all caps. This clearly states who the Father is and it’s Yahweh.
Beyond the hundreds of verses in the NT where Jesus and God are different, we also need to have prophecy identifying the Messiah. This is how the bible works. God tells us what’s going to happen, sometimes cryptically sometimes not, then it happens. Most often when the prophecy happens nobody realizes it until after the fact, which was clearly the case with Yeshua. He had to explain who He was to them after His resurrection, hence my citing of John 20:17. The prophecies of Yeshua also have Him as not being YHVH. Psalm 2, Psalm 22, and Isaiah 53 all speak of someone other than YHVH being the Messiah. The one I want to focus on, though, is the one in Micah:
Stop Rejecting the Messiah
Slide 5 “Now muster yourselves in troops, daughter of troops; They have laid siege against us; With a rod they will smite the judge of Israel on the cheek. But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.” Therefore He will give them up until the time When she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren Will return to the sons of Israel. And He will arise and shepherd His flock In the strength of the LORD (YHVH), In the majesty of the name of the LORD (YHVH) His God. And they will remain, Because at that time He will be great To the ends of the earth. (Mic 5:1-4 NAS95)
This plainly says One will go forth from YHVH, One who existed from eternity, who will be a ruler in Israel. And He will come in the Name of YHVH, whom we know to be the Father. Brothers and sisters this IS the gospel, that God sent His Son into the world so that whoever believes in the Son will have eternal life. We know those who have the Son have life, those who do not have the Son do not have life. Any doctrine that teaches Yeshua is not the Son of Yahweh must be discarded, not even considered, otherwise you will have lost your Messiah, the Mediator between God and man. Stop rejecting the Messiah.
For more teachings on this subject, please visit https://firstcenturychristianity.net/problems-with-the-trinity/