Thursday, January 21, 2016

Genesis 3:22 - One of Us

Genesis 3:22 - Jehovah God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he put forth his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever..."
This scripture is often referred to as an alleged proof that God is more than one person, and thus is offered as proof of the trinity. Evidently what is being imagined and assumed here is that “one of us” refers to three persons of the presumed triune God.

Instead of calling upon an idea that has to be assumed in the realm of human imagination, we can reasonably reach the conclusion scriptures themselves regarding who God is speaking to. Before man sinned, he only knew of good, not bad. Having sinned, he came to know of bad. We know from other scriptures that it was the one who was later called Satan the Devil (John 8:44; Revelation 12:9) that led Adam and Eve to sin. His sinful ambition was surely known to God and and the Son of God, and even to the angels.

 The “king of Babylon” is used to picture Satan as saying: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit on the mountain of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” (Isaiah 14:13,14) “Stars”, in the Bible, is sometimes figuratively referring to the spirit sons of God. Jesus himself is called the “bright and morning star”. (Revelation 22:16) These sons of God were indeed also present at the creation of the world of mankind, as we can see from Job 38:7; see also Job 1:6; 2:1. Thus all of these had come to have knowledge of both good and bad, although we are not to think that either Jesus, or his God, or the faithful angels, had sinned. They had, however, witnessed sin in the first angel that sinned, and thus they knowledge of sin. Now that man had sinned, God could say that man had become as “one of us, knowing good and bad.” It is possible that God, in saying "one" of us, was referring to Satan only, as he was there at that time, and the instigator in getting Eve to sin.

What we do not find in Genesis 3:22 is any statement that God is more than one person. There is definitely nothing in the statement "one of us" that would mean that God is more than one person, any more than if a group of people are stranded, and there is only means for one them to go get help; thus, one of them says, "One of us needs to go for help."



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