Subject: [ETI Informal All 1AD.05.07.06] Can The Deity Be Anointed?
From: "James R @ ETIMin" <[email-masked]>
To: "Lists @ ETI Min" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 22:41:37 +0200

Restoration RecordsGreetings

This is an extremely important message and sets out the reality that Yahooshua is the ANOINTED OF THE ALMIGHTY and a man in a very solid manner.

Warm regards and blessings

James

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Restoration Records 
To: [email-masked] 
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2005 5:46 AM
Subject: Can The Deity Be Anointed?

       

      * Hear Oh Yisrael Yahweh Our Mighty One Yahweh Is One 

      * *And You Shall Love Your Neighbor As Yourself

          Can The Deity Be Anointed?

      PREFACE: The word "Deity" is not our preferred way of describing the sovereign YHWH.  For it is a "loaded" expression that has no comparable word in the Hebrew Scriptures and indeed even has pagan ramifications.  The closest word to it in the Hebrew may be Elohim (Mighty One or Subjector) and Scripture says that ultimately, there is but One true mighty One, YHWH alone. (Debarim [Deut] 6:4; Yeshayahu [Isa] 43:11; 44:6; 45:5-6,18; Yermiyahu  [Jer] 32:27; Hoshea 13:4; Mattithyahu 4:10; Luke 4:8; Yochanan [John] 5:44; 6:29; 17:3; Romans 3:29; Ephesians 4:4-6; 1 Cor 8:4,6 etc., etc.) We use it herein however given its wide acceptance as a means to describe YHWH and also to prove that even when used, its application by some to others, including Yahshua The Messiah is misguided.  Yahshua reflects the power of YHWH as that power is delegated to Him, but that does not make Yahshua intrinsically "The Deity".  We hope this article convinces you that if "Deity" is to be used at all, it should be reserved solely for YHWH, The Father.

      THE DEITY OF YHWH is the basic truth of His revelation. The permanent apostasy consists in the fact that mankind, knowing YHWH in nature, does not glorify and thank Him as YHWH. Sad to say, many of us who have tasted of His grace and know Him by revelation, do not glorify Him as YHWH, but have become vain in our reasonings, and our hearts are darkened, not because we turn to images and idols like the world, but we put ourselves in His place, and usurp the glory that is His alone. His deity is denied, either in the past, the present, or the future, by the great majority of His own elect. They claim some of His attributes for themselves, and lower Him to the level of a mortal man in other respects, because they follow their fallacious reason instead of His flawless revelation.

      The flesh of mankind is infirm, unable to carry on the service of YHWH, unless reinforced by a special portion of His spirit. Only so can they serve acceptably in His work, and please Him in carrying out His will. If men were perfect and all-powerful as the Deity, there would be no need of anointing anyone. It is because of their weakness and lack of ability to do as He desires that He imparts to His representatives the necessary power and authority which anointing brings, to enable them to perform their functions as mediators between Him and the balance of His creatures. The mere fact of being anointed shows that the one so honored is intrinsically lacking in the power to fulfill his office. His ability is not his own. It is derived from YHWH, through His spirit.

      Anointing is always connected with service. The spirit of YHWH makes its home in us for fellowship with Him, but, if we wish to serve men or YHWH, we should be anointed. It is the vital badge of office under YHWH. This is clearly exhibited in the three official classes who were anointed in Yisrael, the prophets, priests and kings. Although YHWH is spirit, and imparts His spirit to these, His officials, He Himself never takes this subordinate place. 

      He is not the spokesman for Himself. He need not act as a priest to Himself. He does not delegate rule to Himself. The power for all these originates in Him, but it is only as a portion is imparted to those who mediate between Him and mankind, that anointing is necessary. He is the great and only Anointer, Who never needs to be anointed. In Him the spirit is immanent, not imparted. Who can present Him with spirit? He is spirit.

      There is no reason to believe that Aharon was more set apart in himself than others, so that he and his sons should be chosen to be priests in Yisrael. In fact, when Moshe was in the mount with YHWH, Aharon was persuaded by the people to make the golden calf and lead them in its worship (Ex.32). Yet, once they were anointed (Ex.28:41), Aharon and his sons occupied a very special place in Yisrael. Korah, Dathan and Abiram claimed that all the congregation were set apart, that Aharon had no right to lift himself above them. 

      Yet these rebels were swallowed up by the earth for their sin (Num.16). And so throughout the history of Yisrael. The Aharonic line alone could officiate as priests. Even Uzziyah, the king, who was anointed for his royal office, and did what was right in the sight of YHWH, trespassed grievously when he sought to offer incense on the golden altar. He was stricken with leprosy (2 Chron.26). Aharon's anointing was only part of the foreshadowing of things to come in Messiah Yahshua.

      Shaul certainly was not such a one as YHWH would choose to be king over Yisrael. He was the peoples' choice. Nevertheless YHWH had him anointed, in order to show that the flesh, even with the outward symbol of the spirit's power, cannot please Him (1 Sam.9:16). David, YHWH's choice, recognized this official position and refused to stretch forth his hand against Shaul, because he was YHWH's anointed (1 Sam.26:9). In the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew, David calls Shaul the Messiah (Messiahoo) of YHWH.

      It was with David that YHWH made a covenant that he and his house, or dynasty, were to have the office of king in Yisrael, so long as the kingdom was to last. Even Messiah Himself was to come from the line of David, just as the priesthood remained in the house of Aharon until the Anointed Himself had come. This is a key to Yisrael's kingdom history. Loyalty to the house of David meant faithfulness to YHWH, for this dynasty was of divine appointment, and had the symbol of YHWH's spirit in its anointing. The fact is that no one in Yisrael, after the flesh, was equipped to reign over the chosen people. Only in the power of YHWH's spirit could anyone rule them for Him.

      David, however, foreshadowed the coming Messiah. Shemuel, the prophet, anointed him even while Shaul was still reigning. Then we are told the notable fact that the spirit of YHWH prospered David from that day and onward, while it withdrew from Shaul, and an evil spirit from YHWH frightened him (1 Sam.16:13,14). This is the key to David's remarkable career. Without the power of YHWH's spirit David would not have been the David we know. It was YHWH's spirit, as signified by his anointing, which made him the ideal king and the type of Him Who was to come.

      There could be no prophet apart from YHWH's anointing by His spirit. Eliyahu anointed Elisha to be prophet in his stead. Elisha asked for "a mouth of two of him" - in the Hebrew this also can mean to give him a "double-edged spirit" (2 Kings 2:9; see also Shemot [Ex] 17:13), and received it, for he did twice as much as his master in the long period of his prophetic activity in Yisrael. This should show conclusively that it is the anointing, the imparted spirit, not the man, which actually accomplishes the deeds.

      THE ANOINTED, OR MESSIAH, OR "CHRIST"

      But we must by no means reason from these foreshadows that the reality had all their disabilities, or needed the anointing as they did. Messiah was anointed by YHWH, with the oil of exultation beyond His partners (Heb.1:9). He had no human father. Even before His anointing He was generated by the set apart spirit of YHWH, the power of the Most High. Therefore He was called Ben Elohim, the Son of The Mighty One, or the Son of YHWH (Luke 1:35). 

      One would at first be inclined to reason from this that He needed no anointing, for His very conception was due to YHWH's spirit. Moreover, as He grew up, He was staunch in spirit, and filled with wisdom, and the grace of YHWH was on Him (Luke 2:40). Even then He was among the things of His Father (Luke 2:49). Nevertheless, He did not enter upon His public ministry until after His ritual mikveh (baptism) by Yochanan, when the set apart spirit descended upon Him as if a dove, and YHWH acknowledged Him as His Beloved Son (Luke 3:22).

      At His first public utterance, in the synagogue at Nazareth, He declared that the spirit of YHWH was on Him, on account of which He was anointed to bring the glad tidings (Grk: Euaggelion also meaning good news) (Luke 4:18). From this it is evident that His generation by YHWH's spirit made Him YHWH's Son, but it did not fully prepare and equip Him for His office. For that He waited until He was about thirty years of age, and until the spirit which had generated Him came upon Him and thus anointed Him for His marvelous ministry. 

      He did not assume the office of Messiah, in this case of Prophet, during the years before He was anointed. The same thought is clearly stated by Peter (a.k.a. Kefah) to Cornelius, when he said, "After the ritual mikveh (baptism) which Yochanan heralded came Yahshua from Nazareth, and YHWH anointed Him with the set apart spirit and power "(Acts 10:37,38). As His was the real, the genuine anointing, no literal oil was used. It was replaced by the empowering spirit. His office as Messiah was not due to His divine conception but to His spiritual anointing from YHWH. Does YHWH need to be empowered?  No, but clearly Messiah does.

      When we come to consider our Master Yahshua, the great and final fulfillment of anointing to Whom all other anointed men pointed, we are apt to overlook this truth, and ascribe His mighty miracles and marvelous deeds to His own innate power, due to His generation by YHWH's set apart spirit, rather than to His anointing. One should not accept any testimony to the contrary, except it come from His own lips. But then again, one cannot make Him a liar. He insisted that both His words and His works were not His, but His Father's. 

      He Himself said, "...the word which you are hearing is not Mine, but the Father's, Who sends Me" (Yochanan 14:24). Again, "...The declarations which I am speaking to you I am not speaking from Myself. Now the Father remaining in Me, He is doing His works" (Yochanan 14:10). 

      There is much more evidence to this effect, for He did not come to reveal Himself, but the Father Who had sent Him.  In light of these scriptures, which record the very words of Yahshua Himself, those who use the gospel of Yochanan 1:1, 14 or 10:30 to argue that Yahshua is being described to actually be YHWH are sorely misled.  The D'var (Word) of Yochanan 1:1 is just what scripture says, the foreordained plan and promise of His Word - the eternal life force, the creative Word and thus spirit breath of YHWH.  Yochanan himself in his own letter at 1 Yochanan 1:2 tells us that the word he was speaking about is eternal life. He is declaring to us that the foreordained promise of YHWH to restore fallen Adam unto eternal life was brought to pass before our very eyes ("in the flesh').  This was a plan which YHWH promised to fulfill through the resurrection of Yahshua - the Second Adam - unto eternal life.  Moreover, it is through this restorative process that "the light" of YHWH was again be brought into the world (v. 5).  A simple word study reveals that the word "light" (Heb: or)  refers to YHWH's Torah (His Will and Instruction for mankind) which clearly Yahshua showed us and teach us thereby "showing us The Father."  

      The reader should also take careful note that at 1 Yochanan 1:3 YHWH and Yahshua are still being distinguished from one another. They are not one and the same.  That resolves the alleged claim made by some that at Yochanan  10:30 Yahshua was somehow claiming to be equal to YHWH. Yes, they are equal in mind, purpose, goals, and plan, but not literally one and the same.  For had Yahshua claimed to be one and the same it would contradict what is said about him and what he says about himself in numerous other passages.

      The expression at Yochanan  1:14 "made flesh and dwelled (tabernacled) among us" describes a Hebraic figure of speech meaning to see the foreordained plan of YHWH come to fruition in the life of Messiah Yahshua.  And "echad" as used in Hebrew scripture means more often than not "one" or "first" as in an ordinal number, or as the union of TWO things or persons who are yet distinct.  It thus means a unity of purpose, not a literal oneness of being.   An example being in the echad nature of Adom and Chavah - yes they are "as if they were one" but no one would ever say that they are literally one and the same person.  Yet this fallacy is committed by many Christians, Messianics and Nazarenes to this day.  

      The very writer of Yochanan tells us what his glad tiding was written to demonstrate at Yochanan 20:31, "But these are written, that ye might believe that Yahshua is the Messiah, the Son of Elohim; and that believing ye might have life through his name."  Did you notice that the very writer that everyone claims is telling us that Yahshua IS YHWH Himself just concluded his most powerful work by telling us that Yahshua is the Messiah (meaning: the promised Anointed One of YHWH) and thus using the poetic parallel Son of Elohim to further describe Him (just as Daniel the prophet does)?  

      As Yochanan's account of our Master's life is usually supposed to set Him forth as YHWH's Son, and to contain the most convincing proof of what some claim to be His absolute deity, let us run through it briefly and see what Yahshua Himself has to say there as to His relationship to YHWH His Elohim and Father. 

      At various times such as when the Jews sought to kill Him because they understood him to say that His own Father is YHWH and they reasoned that by this He made Himself equal to YHWH, Yahshua responded by showing clear distinction between himself and YHWH The Father.  Here are just a handful of examples, ALL OF WHICH come from the gospel of Yochanan (John), the single, most often (mis)quoted book used by Christians, Messianics, and Nazarenes to allege that Yahshua is literally YHWH: 

      "...the Son cannot be doing anything of Himself" (5:19). 

      "I cannot do anything of Myself" (5:30). 

      "No one can come to Me if ever the Father Who sends Me should not be drawing Him" (6:44). 

      "...no one can be coming to Me if it should not be given Him of the Father" (6:65). 

      "My teaching is not Mine, but His Who sends Me" (7:16). 

      "I have not come from Myself, but He Who sends Me" (7:28). 

      "...from Myself I am doing nothing, but, according as My Father teaches Me, these things I am speaking" (8:28). 

      "I came out and am arriving out of YHWH. For neither have I come of Myself, but He commissions Me" (8:42). 

      "If I should ever be glorifying Myself, My glory is nothing" (8:54). 

      "...the Father Who sends Me, He has given Me the precept, what I may be saying and what I should be speaking" (12:49).

      The greatest glory of Messiah lies in His utter subordination to His Father, not in establishing Himself as a rival deity. His life is the ideal for man, not YHWH. If we follow His lead we will submerge our wills and our ways in that of the Deity. Even after all the wonderful works and powerful deeds of His career, He does not claim a place beside the Deity, but places Himself beneath Him. 

      His conquest, over all the powers of evil should, according to the human standpoint, entitle Him to eternal supremacy in the realm of priesthood and kingship. Instead, He is so successful that no priest is present in the new creation (after the Millenial reign) and no ruler but YHWH Himself is needed at the consummation. For at that point in time Yahshua turns all these glories back to YHWH, His Father; He finishes the work which He undertakes, so that YHWH becomes all in every one of His creatures.

      Although YHWH's exclusive deity is essentially rejected by orthodox Christianity, and by some Messianics and Nazarenes (insofar as they must create either three or two deities), they seek to inject the "deity of Messiah" into the Bible, though the phrase is nowhere to be found and is a contradiction in terms. "Messiah" means Anointed. YHWH cannot be anointed by another. He anoints others. The place and power and prestige which anointing gives are His intrinsically. Messiah receives these from His Elohim and Father. It is imparted to kings and priests in order to prepare them to fulfill the functions of their office. YHWH needs no preparation or empowering, for He is the single source of everything. Who is able to anoint Him? Messiah would need no anointing if He were the Supreme.

      His anointing (literally, His becoming Messiah), is by definition that which makes Him the Messiah or "the Christ".  It is what equips Him to be a priest, a mediator between Man and YHWH. He offered Himself to YHWH. YHWH did not offer Himself to Himself. The Offering was for us, to bring us to YHWH. He did not offer Himself to bring us to Himself.  While it is true that we cannot approach YHWH apart from Yahshua and His sacrifice, shall we reduce this to vain words and say that we cannot approach YHWH except through a different YHWH? When He suffered for us He was forsaken by YHWH. Did one of the YHWH's forsake another YHWH?

      Anointing is also needed to make Him King. Only a Messiah, or anointed one, can be King in Yisrael. Yet YHWH had already filled this office. Before Shaul, He had ruled the nation through His anointed prophets, yet the nation rejected Him. But YHWH had never been anointed! It is preposterous to demand that the Deity be anointed in order to reign. All political power is His inherently, and any impartation of spirit or authority by anointing would be absurd. 

      The kingdom of Messiah is a temporary delegation of political power by YHWH to His Anointed, Yahshua, and is limited to the Millennium. When Messiah has subjected all to YHWH, then the Son Himself also shall be subject to Him Who has subjected all to Him, that YHWH may be All in all (1 Cor.15:28). Then Yahshua gives up the kingdom to YHWH, even the Father, Who will need no anointing to prepare Him for His inherent honor. Messiah will not be All. He will be subject.

      It is a fatal fault in our language that we use "Messiah" for the noun of the verb anoint. For technically speaking, Yahshua is not the only one who is anointed, or literally "messiah". Besides prophets and priests and kings in Yisrael, all who receive the spirit of YHWH (not the "third Person" of the "Trinity," a heathen invention)-all who have YHWH's spirit are anointed  - "little Messiahs." Paul told the Corinthians, "He Who...anoints us is YHWH" (2 Cor.1:21). They were "anointed" (Heb: Mashiak), as well as those to whom Yochanan wrote when he said, "you have an anointing" (or Mashiak, not "unction" AV, 1 Yochanan 2:20). 

      The possession of the anointing by no means involves Deity, but rather the opposite. No one who had any intelligent idea of the scriptural function of anointing would ever accept the absurd thought that it was compatible with Deity. A Messiah, or anointed one, cannot literally be YHWH, although, as YHWH's "image" or "reflection" (of purpose and of character, not of physicality since YHWH is Spirit), the term deity may be, AT MOST, AND ONLY figuratively applied to His Son.  Meaning that Yahshua reflects the One Who Is indeed The One and Only True Deity, YHWH, but that does not mean Yahshua IS that One.  

      So the term deity CANNOT be accurately or scripturally used of Yahshua in some literal sense as to mean that Yahshua is either another YHWH, or that he is YHWH Himself.  A reflection is NOT the thing being reflected - though of course it can APPEAR to be.  

      The phrase "the deity of Messiah" is a clumsy concoction due to ignorance of YHWH's Word, and profane arrogance that does not hesitate to add to YHWH's revelation a phrase of man's invention, and palms it off as if it were inspired, in order to uphold a heresy, which is often denounced in the pages of Set apart Writ. 

      Yisrael had only one Elohim (God): YHWH. The nations had many "deities" or gods.  And Christendom, Messianism, and alleged-Nazarenism still has two, three or four, among whom they dissipate and dilute the SOLE deity of YHWH, The Father of our Master Yahshua Messiah. First, there is the "devil," who seems to have the most power, since he seems to win the great majority. Then there is YHWH's spirit, the "third Person" (YHWH never said that!) of the Trinity. To these they add Messiah, the Son, as we have already shown. Four YHWHs, unequal in power and glory, they palm off for the only wise YHWH Elohim, to Whom be glory for eternity and beyond!

      We have been repeatedly assured that Christians, Messianics and Nazarenes do not worship two or three deities or YHWHs, but three "Persons" in one "Godhead." But if we isolate this from the hocus-pocus of theological legerdemain and apply it elsewhere, who would believe it for a moment? Two or three persons with one head! What a monstrosity! We could easily make an idol of this shape, but what shall we use to make the true YHWH? He has revealed Himself without using either of these terms. Man has concealed Him by insisting on words and thoughts entirely foreign to His vocabulary. 

      And, like the idol-worshipers, historical orthodoxy of the Christian, Messianic and latter-day Nazarene flavor still demands that we bow down to this unnatural monster or pay the penalty of ostracism and dire defamation. Messiah has glories far greater and grander than orthodoxy ever dreamed, yet they are due to His subjection to the will of His YHWH Elohim and Father, not to competition with the Deity for the place supreme.

      Having been an honest and conscientious, but unintelligent defender of the "fundamental" doctrine of the deity of Messiah for many years myself, I can understand and sympathize with those who think it is taught in the Scriptures, and is absolutely essential to salvation. We imagined that the only alternative was to degrade Messiah to "a mere man", like ourselves. We reasoned that He must be Deity, or He could not do all that He did and will do. Therefore He must be equal to His Father . That our reasoning was illogical did not disturb us. But we did not believe His own words concerning Himself! We were so determined to honor Him that we denied the Scriptures which define His place as YHWH's Anointed, the Mediator between YHWH and man.

      Had we been as logical as a child, we would never have fought for more than one YHWH, or sought to coerce our minds by blurring the distinct idea of the Deity into a "Godhead with three Persons", or a "Greater and Lesser YHWH", a specious form of sophistry which is utterly unscriptural. YHWH's spirit and His Anointed are closely associated with Him, and their relationship to each other is simple and clear in His revelation. The change to "Godhead" or "trinity" or "twinity is not of faith. It is a philosophical absurdity, and the injection of "Persons" is an impudent and ignorant mystification, designed to bludgeon the credulous saint to forsake faith in YHWH's Word for the false philosophies of human religion. It is a pious fraud masquerading as the highest form of truth.

      All of this evidence and reasoning should be unnecessary, since the apostle Paul has clearly and conclusively defined the relation between YHWH and Messiah. We need never descend to such futilities, for we believe that: 

      "there is one Elohim, the Father, out of Whom all is,...and one Master, Yahshua Messiah, through Whom all is" (1 Cor.8:6). 

      Corresponding to this we believe :

      "there is one Elohim, and one Mediator of Elohim and mankind, a man, Messiah Yahshua" (1 Tim.2:5). 

      Paul emphasizes this, by adding: 

      "(I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the nations in knowledge and truth." 

      But Christianity, certain Messianics, and certain alleged-Nazarenes in effect, gives him the lie. Who is worthy of our trust? The inspired apostle Shaul (Paul), or the various Catholic, Protestant, Messianic, and would-be Nazarene popes of the 1700 year old apostasy from the true faith once handed down to the set apart ones (saints)? 

      Honest and honorable men are mesmerized at the mention of these human incantations. They fear to deny "the deity of Messiah," but brazenly reject YHWH's Word to the contrary. They tremble at the "Trinity" and the "Three or Two Persons of the Godhead," or the "Greater and Lesser YHWH" but have no compunction about openly flouting the plain scriptures on the subject, or distorting them to conform to human speculations. They gladly burn those who believe YHWH's straightforward declarations about Himself and about His Son Yahshua at the stake of popular opinion, convinced that they are doing YHWH a good service. 

      May the One and Only YHWH be gracious to those of His saints who persecute and revile the few who seek to call them back to His Word and His ways and His worship!

      ______________

      Authors:  James Coram (Concordant Publishing Concern) and Yochanan Mascaro (Restoration Records)

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