"And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"(Matthew 3:16-17).
According to this passage, the Son of God was baptized, the Spirit descended like a dove, and a voice spoke from heaven. Luke 3:22 adds the further information that "the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him."
To understand this scene correctly, we must remember that God is omnipresent. Jesus is God and was God manifested in flesh while on earth. He could not and did not sacrifice His omnipresence while on earth because that is one of God's basic attributes, and God does not change. Of course, the physical body of Jesus was not omnipresent, but His Spirit was. Furthermore, although the fulness of God's character was resident in the body of Jesus, the omnipresent Spirit of Jesus could not be so confined. Thus, Jesus could be on earth and in heaven at the same time (John 3:13) and with two or three of His disciples at any time (Matthew 18:20).
With the omnipresence of God in mind we can understand the baptism of Christ very easily. It was not at all difficult for the Spirit of Jesus to speak from heaven and to send a manifestation of His Spirit in the form of a dove even while His human body was in the Jordan River. The voice and the dove do not represent separate persons any more than the voice of God from Sinai indicates that the mountain was a separate intelligent person in the Godhead.
Since the voice and the dove were symbolic manifestations of the one omnipresent God, we may ask what they represented. What was their purpose? First, we must ask what was the purpose of Jesus' baptism. Certainly He was not baptized for remission of sin as we are, because He was sinless (IPeter 2:22). Instead, the Bible says He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15). He is our example and He was baptized to leave us an example to follow (IPeter 2:21).
Moreover, Jesus was baptized as a means of manifesting Himself, or making Himself known, to Israel (John 1:26-27, 31). In other words, Jesus used the baptism as the starting point in His ministry. It was a public declaration of who He was and what He came to do. For example, at Christ's baptism, John the Baptist learned who Jesus was. He did not know that Jesus really was the Messiah until the baptism, and after the baptism he was able to declare to the people that Jesus was the Son of God and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29-34).
Having established the purposes of Christ's baptism, let's see how the dove and voice furthered those purposes. John 1:32-34 clearly states that the dove was a sign for the benefit of John the Baptist. Since John was the forerunner of Jehovah (Isaiah 40:3), he needed to know that Jesus was really Jehovah come in flesh. God had told John that the One who would baptize with the Holy Ghost would be identified by the Spirit descending upon Him. Of course, John was incapable of seeing the Spirit of God anointing Christ, so God chose a dove as the visible sign of His Spirit. So the dove was a special sign for John to let him know that Jesus was Jehovah and the Messiah.
The dove also was a type of anointing to signify the beginning of Christ's ministry. In the Old Testament, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed with oil to indicate that God had chosen them (Exodus 28:41; IKings 19:16). Priests in particular were both washed in water and anointed with oil (Exodus 29:4, 7). The oil symbolized God's Spirit. The Old Testament foretold that Jesus would be similarly anointed (Psalm 2:2; 45:7; Isaiah 61:1). In fact, the Hebrew word Messiah (Christ in Greek) means "the Anointed One." Jesus came to fulfill the roles of prophet, priest, and king (Acts 3:20-23; Hebrews 3:1; Revelation 1:5). He also came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17-18), and to keep His own law He needed to be anointed as prophet, priest, and king.
Since Jesus was God Himself and a sinless man, an anointing by a sinful human and anointing with symbolic oil was not enough. Instead, Jesus was anointed directly by the Spirit of God. Thus, at His baptism in water, Jesus was officially anointed for the beginning of His earthly ministry, not by symbolic oil but by the Spirit of God in the form of a dove.
The voice came from heaven for the benefit of the people. John 12:28-30 records a similar incident in which a voice came from heaven and confirmed the deity of Jesus to the people. Jesus said it came not for His benefit but for the people's sake. The voice was God's way of formally introducing Jesus to Israel as the Son of God. Many people were present at the baptism of Jesus and many were being baptized (Luke 3:21), so the Spirit singled out the man Jesus and identified Him to all as the Son of God by a miraculous voice from heaven. This was much more effective and convincing than an announcement coming from Jesus as a man. In fact, it appears that this miraculous manifestation effectively accomplished Jesus' purpose at His baptism.
The baptism of Jesus does not teach us that God is three persons but only reveals the omnipresence of God and the humanity of the Son of God. When God speaks to four different people on four different continents at the same time, we do not think of four persons of God, but of God's omnipresence. God did not intend for the baptism to reveal to the monotheistic Jewish onlookers a radically new revelation of a plurality in the Godhead, and there is no indication that the Jews interpreted it as such. Even many modern scholars do not see the baptism of Christ as an indication of a trinity but as a reference to "the authoritative anointing of Jesus as the Messiah."
__________________ And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
Mac that is simply one whale of a spin job your trying to pull off. The scripture speaks for itself, but you sure are working hard here to convince people there is no trinity. IMHO you have an impossible task.
I have seen Bro Mac give many, many, scriptures that state plainly that God is one and gave chapter, verse, and line. How about just one scripture that says God is a trinity. Bro bo you said it right with this qoute from your post:
The scripture speaks for itself,
That is your stand, so where is the scripture that says God is more than one? Let the scripture speak for itself.
I have seen Bro Mac give many, many, scriptures that state plainly that God is one and gave chapter, verse, and line. How about just one scripture that says God is a trinity. Bro bo you said it right with this qoute from your post:
The scripture speaks for itself,
That is your stand, so where is the scripture that says God is more than one? Let the scripture speak for itself.
Snooky, Mac is the one that has to nearly write a book to try and twist the scripture he quoted to fit the oneness doctrine. I don't claim to have all the answers about the trinity but recognize a snow job when I see one. You say let the scripture speak for itself to me. Why don't you tell that to your pal Mac. Snooky I will indulge you with one scripture per your request.
[blockquote]John 8:15 Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man.
16 And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: FOR I AM NOTALONE, but I and the Father that sent me.
17 It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. 18 I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. (KJV) [/blockquote]
If Jesus and the Father are one and the same being, then Jesus was a fraud and a charlitan. Did you see the statement that "I am not alone?" If Jesus was a "manifestation" of God, then He just told a real whopper! The Law required two independent witnesses, not the same witness wearing two masks. John refers to the Father's "witness" of the Son again in his first Epistle.
[blockquote]1 John 5:9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.
10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (KJV)
[/blockquote]
The bottom line is, if Jesus and the Father are one and the same being, then the testimony that God gave of His Son, and Jesus' use of the Father as an independant witness, are lies. God is a liar. There is no alternative! When Jesus said "I am not alone," He would have lied if He was alone, and the sole "witness!"
John 8:15 Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man.
16 And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: FOR I AM NOT ALONE, but I and the Father that sent me.
17 It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true.
18 I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. (KJV)
Jesus said, "I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me"(John 8:16-18). Just before these verses, Jesus had said, "I am the light of the world" (verse 12). This was an assertion of His Messianic role (Isaiah 9:2; 49:6). The Pharisees replied, "Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true" (John 8:13). In response to their accusation, Jesus explained that He was not the only witness, but that there were two witnesses to the fact that He was the Messiah, the Son of God. These two witnesses were the Father (the divine Spirit) and the man Jesus. In other words, both God the Father and the man Jesus could testify that the Father was manifested in flesh, in Jesus. Jesus was both God and man and both natures could testify to that fact. No separation of persons in the Godhead was necessary for this. Indeed, if a person holds that the two witnesses were separate persons in a trinity, he would need to explain why Jesus did not say there were three witnesses. After all, the law required two witnesses but asked for three if possible (Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15). When Jesus referred to His Father, the Pharisees questioned Jesus about the Father, no doubt wondering when the Father had witnessed to them. Instead of saying the Father was another person in the Godhead, Jesus proceeded to identify Himself with the Father- the "I am" of the Old Testament (John 8:19-27). The two witnesses were the Spirit of God and the man Christ, and both testified that Jesus was God in the flesh.
__________________ And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
If Jesus and the Father are one and the same being, then Jesus was a fraud and a charlitan.
John 10:30 I and my Father are one.
bo
I am glad it wasn't me that made such a statement about him. I only pray that God has mercy on the unlearned that cannot control their tongue.
Christ's Baptism
