All-important Context

It is crucial to understand that the context of Deuteronomy 6:4 was not the nature of God. Rather, just as in chapter 5, the focus of chapter 6 was obedience to God by living, submitting to, loving and cleaving to Him, and teaching one’s children the Ten Commandments.

Given the true meaning of the Hebrew words in Deuteronomy 6:4 and the overall context in which it is found, it is now possible to understand its real intent. This passage should read as follows:

“HEAR AND OBEY, O ISRAEL, THE ETERNAL GOD AND [HIM] ALONE.”

The meaning as seen here is very different than what most have supposed—or been willing to carefully examine.

The overall intent and purpose of the passage is that God did not want His people, Israel, to listen to other gods. He wanted them solely focused on hearing and obeying HIM! Recall from earlier in the book that Israel went on to have a long, checkered history of involvement with, and worship of, other gods. They continually deviated from the first four commandments and roller-coaster in and out of idolatry and worship of the gods of surrounding nations in place of the true God.

Let’s state plainly for emphasis one more time the purpose of the Shama: The true God of the Bible wanted His followers to hear Him and Him alone, and to obey Him and Him alone. As “a jealous God,” He did not want them listening to or obeying the customs and traditions of other gods under any circumstances.

Final Irony

Something else emerges from what we have just learned, and we must make this point most clear before continuing. It has a direct bearing on the doctrine of the trinity and the thinking of trinitarians.

The trinity has been shown to be an entirely different god than the God of the Bible. The very Shama itself condemns the adherence to and worship of the false god of the trinity by, in effect, reinforcing the First Commandment—“You shall have no other gods before Me”—in the strongest possible way.

Plainly stated, through this verse, God directly commands rejection of the trinity!

How ironic that trinitarian scholars and theologians actually turn to a passage that directly condemns adherence to their god, and use it as support for worship of that god by twisting its meaning. But such is the confusion of minds unwilling to “hear” the God of the Bible—the very purpose of the Shama. Like ancient Israel itself, modern trinitarian theologians refuse to listen to and obey the true God, and have rejected Him in favour of a “mystery” that even they cannot explain. In the end, they have fulfilled Hosea 4:6, rejecting vital spiritual knowledge that they could have known if they had simply believed the Shama for what it really states!

Another scripture that is used by those who believe God is only one Being is Isaiah 44:6, which states, “…beside me there is no God.” The Hebrew word translated “God” is elohim. Again, this means one God Family—not one God Being! This will be covered in more detail in Chapter Ten.

Father Not Yet Revealed

Besides their skewed interpretation of Deuteronomy 6:4, there is another reason that the followers of Judaism embraced monotheism. They were only remotely acquainted with the identity of the God of the Old Testament. The overwhelming majority had never heard of the Father, because it was always Christ Who interacted with the patriarchs, prophets and Israel herself.

The Bible teaches that no man had any knowledge of the Father prior to the time of Christ’s ministry. John 5:37 showed, “And the Father Himself, which has sent Me, has borne witness of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape.” John 1:18 states, “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Next, Luke 10:22 states, “All things are delivered to Me of My Father: and no man knows who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him.”

Two distinct God Beings are also identified in the prologue of the gospel of John 1:1-2), just as is the case in the conversation between these two God Beings in Genesis 1:26: “Let Us make man in Our image…” Here, recall that the term “God” derives from the Hebrew Elohim(seen to be a plural term, a collective noun, similar to kingdom, family, or church).

The Father was the All-Supreme Being and the other Personage, the Word, was the Spokesman who created all things (John 1:3; Col. 1:13-17) and later appeared in the flesh as Jesus Christ (John 1:14). He was the God of the Old Testament (I Cor. 10:1-4). It is possible, however, that some of the patriarchs such as Abraham or Moses knew of the Father as distinct from the Lord or Eternal who dealt with Israel and thundered the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. We have seen that King David knew of this duality (Psa. 110:1), as well as did the prophet Daniel (Dan. 7:13).

Recognize that the picture of the God Family was not fully clear until Jesus Christ revealed the Father. Since the proponents of Judaism rejected Christ and His message, they remain ignorant of this understanding to this day.

One final point must be clarified regarding the definition of polytheism, and whether the idea of two Beings in the Godhead is an equation with two Gods. Understand that the plain teaching of the Bible is that there is one God, comprised of two Persons or Beings. Just as a human family is one family that can be comprised of three, four, five or more people, Scripture reveals that God is a Family now comprised of two Beings. This hard-to-miss fact has been lost for millennia on the minds of people who have been taught to believe that it is blasphemy to think that there could be more than one Being in the Godhead.

The Jews of the time of Christ thought it was blasphemy for Christ to assert His divinity and that he had been in the presence of God (the Father). Tragically, most professing Christians today, including some who once knew otherwise, claim that it is equally blasphemous to accept the ultimate destiny for which human beings are born—what will be seen to be the true salvation revealed in the Bible.

The Bible makes clear that there is one God Family, currently composed of two Beings, and that this Family will expand dramatically in the near future, as will be explained.

But first we must understand more clearly what is the Holy Spirit.