Topical Studies
Logos
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Exodus 20:1-2 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
The Hebrew word for "LORD" in Exodus 20 is YHWH. So here again it was the Logos, the "Spokesman"—who later became Christ—who actually spoke the Ten Commandments! But what difference does this revelation make? It makes all the difference. Understanding the true identity of the God of the Old Testament is vital to becoming reborn with the spiritual nature of God. For the God of the Old Testament, commonly assumed to have been harsh and stern, was really our Savior—loving, kind, merciful, and just (Exodus 34:5-7).
What It Means to Be Born Again
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Matthew 27:46 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Jesus quoted His own words, which He had inspired His servant David to put into writing a thousand years before this day, when He cried, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Psalm 22:1). By repeating it as He hung on the stake, He declared this prophecy to be fulfilled at that very moment; the absolute peak of the agony that He and His Father had planned and foreknew had arrived. Even in His delirium, the utterances of the Logos were solidly based upon His own Word!
John Plunkett
Jesus' Final Human Thoughts (Part Two)
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John 1:1-4 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
"The Word" in this passage is translated from the Greek logos, which means "spokesman," "word," or "revelatory thought." It is a name there used for an individual Personage. But who or what is this Logos? Notice the explanation in verse 14: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." When he was born as Jesus Christ, he was flesh and blood, materialistic, and could be seen, touched, and felt. But what was he? As God—as the Logos? That is answered in John 4:24, "God is a Spirit," and spirit is invisible. We know what was his form and shape as the human Jesus. But of what form and shape was He as the Word? The Word, then, is a Personage who was made flesh—begotten by God, who through this later begettal became his Father. Yet at that prehistoric time of the first verse of John 1, the Word was not (yet) the Son of God. He divested himself of his glory as a Spirit divinity to be begotten as a human person. He was made God's Son, through being begotten or sired by God and born of the virgin Mary. So here we find revealed originally two Personages. One is God. And with God in that prehistoric time was another Personage who also was God—one who later was begotten and born as Jesus Christ. But these two Personages were spirit, which is invisible to human eyes unless supernaturally manifested. Yet, at the time described in verse one, Jesus was not the Son of God, and God was not His Father.
Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986)
Fully Man and Fully God? (2001)
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John 1:1-3 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
John 1:1 and Genesis 1:1 are two accounts of the same event—the original creation of the universe. They both reveal that these two Supreme Beings of the God Family created all things. The Greek word translated into English as "Word" in John 1:1 is Logos. It can also mean spokesman, or one who speaks. It was actually the Logos, the "Spokesman"—the "Word" of the God Family—who said, "Let us make man in Our image" (Genesis 1:26), thus executing His awesome office as the executive of the God Kingdom. Everything was created and made by the divine Being who later became the human Jesus Christ!
What It Means to Be Born Again
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John 1:1-4 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
In the very beginning, before all else, there existed two living Beings composed of Spirit, possessing supreme mind, intelligence, and power, and of perfect, righteous character. They are revealed in the biblical book of John, chapter one. One was named the Word (the Spokesman—the revelatory thought). The other was named God. The Word ultimately—almost 2,000 years ago—was born as Jesus. The Word also was God—the second personage of the God Family. As a human, Jesus was "God with us"—or God in human flesh, born of a virgin woman, but sired by God. "All things" were made by Him. In Ephesians 3:9, it is revealed that God created all things by Jesus Christ. The Word and God lived. What did they do? They created. How did they live—what was their "lifestyle"? They lived the way of their perfect character—the way of outflowing love. When Christ was baptized, God the Father said, "You are my beloved Son." God loved the Word. And the Word loved God—obeyed Him completely. Two cannot walk together except they be agreed (Amos 3:3). They were in total agreement and cooperation. Also two cannot walk together in continuous peace except one be the head, or leader, in control. God was leader. Their way of life produced perfect peace, cooperation, happiness, accomplishment. This way of life became a law. Law is a code of conduct, or relationship, between two or more. One might call the rules of a sports contest the "law" of the game. The presence of law requires a penalty for infraction. There can be no law without a penalty for its violation. The very fact of law presupposes government. Government is the administration and enforcement of law by one in authority over the law. This necessitates authoritative leadership—one in command. When the only conscious life-Beings existed, God was leader—in authoritative command. Thus, even when the only conscious life-Beings were God and the Word, there was government, with God in supreme command. Since they created other conscious thinking life-beings, this very fact of necessity put the government of God over all creation, with God supreme Ruler. Bear in mind the government of God is based on the law of God, which is the way of life of outflowing love, cooperation, concern for the good of the governed. And this law of God produces peace, happiness, cooperation through obedience.
Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986)
A World Held Captive
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John 1:3 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Paul adds in Colossians 1:16, "For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him." These verses reveal the Word, who became Jesus Christ, as the agent of creation, performing the work necessary to carry it out. He is not only God but with Another who is also God. "Through Him" implies that this other Being authorized the works of creation carried out by the Word. Does this not indicate two distinct Personalities, both called God by inspiration, working in harmony to accomplish a work?
John W. Ritenbaugh
God Is . . . What?
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John 17:5 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
The first thing Christ does in this prayer is establish that He was with the Father. In this case, the word with means "beside" or "alongside of." This agrees with John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word [Christ], and the Word was with [along side of] God, and the Word was God."
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Nature of God: Elohim
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Romans 3:1-2 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Paul extends the meaning of oracles here in two ways—in content and audience: The content of the message includes the entire Law. Since the general context is circumcision (see chapter 2), we can conclude that the oracles given to the fathers included the covenants and hence the promises that attended them. The context does not limit the oracles to the revelation of God in the Pentateuch, but can include the Writings and Prophets as well. The audience of the message includes those outside national Israel. Just before he writes of the oracles being committed to the Jews, Paul informs us that "he is not a Jew, who is one outwardly; . . . but he is a Jew, who is one inwardly" (Romans 2:28-29). Paul is speaking of the "Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16). In this regard, Peter makes an instructive statement in his conversation with the gentile Cornelius: The word [logos] which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all—that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John [the Baptist] preached. (Acts 10:36-37) Peter came to recognize that the oracles of God are for all men, God showing "no partiality" (verse 34).
Charles Whitaker
The Oracles of God
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Revelation 14:1-2 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Although it does not specifically say so, the wording strongly indicates that the voice mentioned here is that of the Father speaking at another pivotal time in world history: the day His Firstborn stands upon Mount Zion to meet His newly born brothers and sisters. At the time this voice from heaven is heard, Jesus Christ—the Word of God and the Lord or Yahweh of the Old Testament—is on earth on Mount Zion. Other biblical passages describe the voice of God in remarkably similar language to verse 2. Notice this verse in comparison to Ezekiel 43:2 and Revelation 1:15: u And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters. . . .
u His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters. . . . Now consider Job 40:9; Psalm 29:3; 77:18; and 104:7: u Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His?
u The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders. . . .
u The voice of Your thunder was in the whirlwind. . . .
u At Your rebuke they fled; at the voice of Your thunder they hastened away. Finally, note Isaiah 30:31-32: u For through the voice of the LORD Assyria will be beaten down. . . . It will be with tambourines and harps. . . . These proofs seem fairly conclusive that it is the Father's voice described in Revelation 14:2.
John Plunkett
The Voice of God
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