Ask Re’uben
Is the Trinity
Jewish?
S H A L O M !
______ A MESSIANIC JEWISH SCRIPTURAL
VIEW ______ Biblical Question:
Is
the Trinity Jewish?
Our Question:
Moshe from New York asks: Dear Pastor Reuben, Please know that I
do not agree with your understanding of Jesus being the Jewish Messiah.
But, you have a right to believe so. Could you tell me why you and
others believe in the so called Christian Trinity.
Someone here even said to me that it is a Jewish concept????? Your input
is appreciated, Moshe E. Pastor Reuben's Answer:
Dear Moshe, shalom, I am happy to
respond. First, yes I do believe that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah on
the basis of Jewish Scripture (Tanakh) and historical fact. Second, yes
I do believe in the Trinity with Jesus being the second member (as God, not
one of three Gods). To answer your
question I will use the ready help of friends at the Messianic Literature
Outreach and give their well written article on such. If you would like
more information please write them or us. THE TRINITY IS
JEWISH By Rachmiel
Frydland Most modern Jewish
people seem to have made their "peace" with Jesus of
Nazareth. Some consider Him to be a great, Jew, or even the greatest
Jew who ever lived. Some of our Jewish leaders, as Dr.Heinrich
Graetz and Dr. Joseph Klausner,
compliment Him on His teaching. Some admire His parables and purity. as Moses Montefiore; and Some as Sholem
Asch and others, even consider Him to be the Messiah of the Gentiles. Today
we often meet Jewish people who acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah for Jew
and Gentile alike; and some are even willing to share these convictions with
other Jewish people. What then holds such Jewish people back from joining
with us and accepting Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior? The hindrance some
have expressed to the writer of this article is the reluctance to accept the
fact that Jesus is supernatural. Moreover, from childhood we have been inculcated
with Maimonides' Thirteen Principles one of which is: I firmly believe
that the Creator, blessed be his name, is One: that there is no oneness in
any form like his; & that he alone was, is, & ever will be our God. We have been thus
brought up to think that if we believe that God is One, then this idea
excludes any idea of God manifesting Himself through Jesus the Messiah. This
Christian concept of God's triunity seemed to us to be a Gentile and pagan
idea. NOT SO! Christians, as well as Jewish people, must believe in One God.
There is no other. The God of Abraham. Isaac, and Jacob is the God of the
Jewish people and of the Christians. The Hebrew Scriptures of the Old
Testament are authoritative for the Jew and for the Christian. In them is
found the confession that is authoritative for all of us. Hear. O
Israel. the LORD our God, the LORD IS ONE
. (Deu. 6:4) TRIUNITY IN TANAKH While it is
universally admitted by both Jews and Christians that God is One and that
there is no one beside Him, we are also compelled to acknowledge that the
triunity of God is clearly taught in the Torah, the Prophets. and in the Writings --- that is in the whole Tanakh, the
Hebrew Scriptures of the Old Testament, & the New Testament. Not only in
the Tenach but also in the Talmudical &
Rabbinical writings this concept is well known. Space does not permit us to
present proofs from all the sources in this short article. Here we present
just a few challenging proofs: THE TORAH: When God (Elohim) create the
world He wanted to make absolutely clear to His creation that He is not some
abstract mathematical Unitarian principle with no analogy in all creation, as
some of our philosophers tried to present Him under Aristotelian influence.
Instead we read in the holy Torah these words: And
(Elohim) said. Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: Elohim made man, a
being composed of a triunity --- body, soul and spirit, in the image of God;
and to make this more clear God reveals Himself in
His plural form of Elohim and says, "Let us make man." Even those of our
rabbis who do not accept as yet the triunity of God, realize that this verse
is clear support for such teaching. Thus in Midrash Rabbah
on Genesis we find the following comments on the verse: Rabbi Samuel bar Nahman in the name of Rabbi Jonathan said, that at the
time when Moses wrote the Torah; writing a portion of it daily, when he came
to this Verse which says, "And Elohim said let us make man in our image
after our likeness," Moses said, Master of the Universe why do you give
herewith an excuse to the sectarians (who believe in the triunity of God).
God answered Moses, You write and whoever wants to err let him err. But surely God did
not make Moses to write the whole Scriptures in order to make people err. but rather to show them the right way and the right
revelation, namely that the One God is a triune God who calls Himself Elohim
and who says. Let us make man.
THE PROPHETS: There are many Scripture verses which
show clearly that God manifested Himself also as the Word by which He created
heaven and earth and by which He leads and directs creation. He also
manifested Himself as the Ruakh Hakodesh,
the Holy Spirit, who inspired the prophets of God and who did mighty miracles
through the great judges of Israel, Gideon, Samson, and David. We want to
point out one Scripture which compels us to admit the triunity of God. Isaiah
the prophet speaks in the name of God and says: Come near unto me. hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning:
from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit,
hath sent me. (Isaiah 48:16) Here God calls the
people to come to Him, but He is sent by the Lord GOD and His Spirit. Exactly
the same teaching as we have found in the Torah. we
find also in the teachings of God's prophets. How else can it be? The same
God who commanded Moses to manifest His Trinitarian nature commands also the
Hebrew Prophets to do the same. THE WRITINGS:
Very clearly we find the same teaching about God in the Psalms and in the
other writings of the Hebrew Scriptures. We read in Psalm 2 where the Holy
Spirit, the Ruakh Hakodesh,
speaks through David and says: I will declare the decree: The LORD
hath said unto me, Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten thee. (Psalm
2:7) Here is the Holy
Spirit speaking through David and instructing David, that the LORD, which is
in Hebrew the ineffable name of Jehovah (which we pronounce as Adonai, has a
Son who is begotten of God in a most supernatural way. Maybe King David
himself did not well understand the words that he was commanded to write by
the Holy Spirit; but as Moses and Isaiah. he obeyed.
Be wrote this down for us so that there be no misunderstanding. God who is
almighty manifests Himself as a triunity, leaving us no doubt as to His
nature. IS TRINITY
JEWISH? If, according to
our rabbis', God has made everything and arranged everything in a Trinitarian
way. then it must also be Jewish and biblical to
know that God, Himself is a Trinity. This He is and has manifested Himself as
the Savior, Messiah, and Son of God in the person of the Lord Jesus, the
Messiah. He then sent down the Holy Spirit, the Ruakh
Hakodesh, on the Disciples in the third month, of
the Feast of Shavuoth, the feast of perfection,
celebrated after counting seven times seven. TRINITY AND
COMMON SENSE In Romans 1:20 Paul
uses the creation of the kosmos as demonstrating
this Godhead (theiotes). The universe ... is an
absolute triunity of space, time, and matter. Each of these in turn is an
absolute triunity. Space consists of length, breadth, and depth or
height: time is future, present, and past; matter is energy, motion, and
phenomena. Here we have not merely an illustration of three in one --- as in
the case of light, heat, and ultra-violet rays of the sunbeam, or the
manifestation of H2O as liquid, ice, and steam --- but an absolute trinity
composed of three absolute triunities. WHAT IS THE
MEANING TO YOU ? * Reprinted by permission
of The Messianic Literature Outreach 6161 Busch Boulevard #70, Columbus, OH
43229 Shalom in the
Messiah! Questions are welcome from ALL readers at ALL levels and
Forums, from everyone. Questions of general interest will be considered for
inclusions in this column. Those of a more personal nature will be keep
confidential and we will answer via e-mail; always state your name, To submit a question,
etc. please address it to reuben@menorah.org
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