The Jerusalem Council

To hold God to a man-made definition of “trinity” is to fit God into a man-made box defined by man-made terms and philosophical arguments that may have no bearing on who truly God is.

I have come to understand that we as a fallen race are often not satisfied with what scripture says concerning who God is. It is a philosophical, yet fallen, (traditionally Western, though no one is exempt) mindset that demands a definition of God…in order to control Him. It is a Hebrew mindset that allows for contradictions…and allows for mysteries to be kept mysteries.

God is beyond definition apart from the very scriptures that describe Him, but certainly God can be apprehended in such clear statements from scripture such as the Shema and other verses. For example, we know from scripture that:

1. HaShem Eloheinu HaShem are one. (Deuteronomy 6:4)

2. God (El) is not a man, nor a son of Adam. (Numbers 23:19)

3. HaShem is a man. (Exodus 15:3)

4. HaShem, speaking to Moses, says the Spirit of God (Ruach Eloheim) fills a person up with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge (Exodus 31:1-5)

5. We have have no other King, Savior, or Redeemer than HaShem. (1 Samuel 8:7, Exodus 15:2, Exodus 6:6)

6. Yehoshua is the name of HaShem. (Exodus 33:11,12)

These scriptures alone should be sufficient to cause anyone holding to any view contrary to this, to either choose to submit to God’s Word, or to cling to the traditions and doctrines of men. We at JerusalemCouncil.org prefer to submit to God’s Word and not hold anyone accountable to anything outside of it.

Who and What is God? To answer these questions, we only have what scripture reveals to us through the various clothing of glory in the scriptures (the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings). Just as it would be rude to peer under someone’s clothing so as to expose their nakedness, we should prefer to only look at the clothing of scripture in learning who and what God is. Scripture, after all, is sufficient in that regard. It amazing that for many people wishing to pass a litmus test on fellow believers, agreeing with scripture alone isn’t sufficient, especially when it comes to recognizing a fellow believer and covenant member in Messiah Yeshua. It’s sad that the sufficiency of scripture has lost its value in this regard. See also the article called Is Yeshua God?

To go further than scripture, especially when refusing to fellowship with another believer because of it, is to declare something that scripture itself does not go out of its way to declare explicitly – that is, it is to expose an imagined nakedness of God which can only be from either a fabrication of our own yetzer hara (evil inclination), or from a very human attempt to grasp that which an eternal God sees perfectly fit as something to hide for whatever reason that suits Him and us best. When we declare that “Yeshua is God” we have entered into a form of idolatry whereby we are making a statement that God himself never said. In essence, by our declaration we make ourselves out to be God and add to scripture something that isn’t there. To go beyond the scriptures alone, and start making declarative statements formed from our own imagination, and thus limit God to our own box, whether it be a “trinity” or some other statement of “fact,” would be a bit pompous on our part.

Yes I do believe in the Father, and yes I do believe in the Spirit of God, and yes I do believe Yeshua is the Son of God, and that he is the Word of God, and has the name of HaShem in him; and that he is the House of God, for these things are what is written concerning God and of the Messiah in the Torah, and the Prophets, and the Writings. Yet, to most zealous trinitarians wishing to stop there in a definition for God, I should ask, “Who filled the temple at its dedication? As we read on, we clearly read that it was the Glory that filled the tabernacle, the temple, etc. So what or who is the Glory? Where does the Glory fit into the trinitarian model? Is it Messiah, who the apostles describe as the glory of the invisible God? Could Messiah fill the Temple? So then, as a Chasid, I simply just agree with scripture and with what scripture says concerning the matter and leave it at that and thank HaShem!

Do I believe Messiah is divine? If divine means God in the sense that that is who I am interacting with when I meet Messiah, then I can affirm the idea in my mind (as the Angel of HaShem is seen and heard from so many times in the Torah, and thus Torah teaches us how God interacts with us through his righteous agent that has his Name), but to make the declaration that “Jesus is God” is to go beyond scripture. That’d be like limiting entire fullness of God and who he is to the box of a man, and no scripture says so. Scriptures do say that Messiah “emptied himself” and made himself nothing, taking upon the nature of a servant, as was prophesied in the Torah (read about Joseph). I can say Messiah is more than any man that ever lived or will live, as he is the perfectly righteous agent of HaShem on the earth. He is righteous. He is perfect. He’s born of a woman, and not of a man. He he clothed in the Torah that descends from Heaven into the corporeal form of actual commandments – mitzvot (Tanya chapter 4). The Torah is absolutely clear on this, even without a declarative. We also know we have no Redeemer than HaShem – a statement repeated over and over in the scriptures and in our siddurim. Is the Word of HaShem called HaShem? Yes, for HaShem is what he does. And the rabbis agree, HaShem’s mission is the redemption of Israel. The Torah is clear on this absolutely in many many places. And the Torah is also clear that the Word of HaShem is the Messiah – that very agent of HaShem who we can interact with and not die! The very one Moses spoke to face to face, and it was “God” who he spoke with!

Yet I’m sorry I can’t give you a more emphatic statement. To give a definition that does not match the words of scripture, is to go beyond scripture, and is a transgression equal to adding to or taking away from the Word of God, and a detraction from our focus in obeying Him – who would want to do that? I certainly don’t, and I hope you wouldn’t either. I find it simply more important to obey HaShem, than to seek to add to or take away from what He says he is. As it is written:

Deuteronomy 4:2
Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.

May our response as disciples of Messiah Yeshua, to this question “do you believe in the Trinity?” be answered with one voice, that of scripture: God is one, God is not a man, the Spirit of God fills a man with wisdom, insight, and knowledge, our Redeemer is HaShem and there is none other; and may the Messiah, our redeemer, HaShem our only redeemer, come soon, quickly and in our days. Amein. Until then, may the grace of Master Yeshua Messiah, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.