Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
God Family
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Genesis 1:26
The actual creation of Adam and Eve and the placing of them in the Garden of Eden was not an end in itself but only a necessary step at the beginning of a process that continues right down to today. God is creating a community. From the very beginning, God implies the expansion of His own community. He says, "Let Us," indicating a community already exists. Man was made, physically, in God's image, and he begins with characteristics of shape and form in common with his Maker. The rest of the Bible fills in the details of how mankind is being brought from having not only form and shape in common with his Maker, but also character, so that he fits perfectly into the community that the Maker is expanding. When the Son of God came, He came with a message from His Father. Jesus gave as the title to the message that He brought, "the good news of the Kingdom of God" (Mark 1:14-15). This is the Boss Himself, and this is the title He Himself gave. It was the good news of the Kingdom of God. Is there any doubt in our minds that God is forming a community? Is there any doubt that Jesus Christ will rule this community, first, and that afterward, He will turn everything over to the Father? (I Corinthians 15:28)? There is nothing ambiguous here. Is God forming a community? The important thing for us is what ramifications the good news of the Kingdom of God has on the way we live our lives. In the course of the unfolding of Christ's ministry, and the apostles' afterward, we find some interesting things that have a direct impact on the way we live our lives. First, Christ was the Son of God. Does not a son indicate a family relationship? “Son” is used in the Bible in at least two different ways. One means "a direct descendant of." The other is used in the sense of "characteristics of, but not necessarily direct descendant of." The Bible says plainly that Jesus was the Son of God, a direct relationship. Since He was of the same Family, there is a family relationship. He was not only a literal Son born of Mary of the Holy Spirit, but He also showed the characteristics of God. He was God. Is Christ indicating a family relationship with us in Mark 3:34-35? We have already seen that the community that He is creating is a kingdom. This kingdom is also a Family. Everybody is related, all being sons of the Creator. Everybody has the same characteristics. Do not the descendants of parents look like their parents? Sure they do. Everything fits together beautifully, and logically. God is reproducing Himself. Consider Romans 8:14-15. Is that a family? Thus, if we have the Spirit of God, we are part of a family. We are Jesus' brothers. We are Jesus' sisters. We are Jesus' mothers (see Matthew 12:50). We have the same Father as He did.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part One)
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Obadiah 1:21
Notice the last phrase: "and the kingdom shall be the LORD'S." Along with verse 17 ["But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions"], it is clear that Obadiah is speaking of a millennial circumstance. God's Kingdom will be on earth, and "saviors," plural, will be on Mount Zion judging. That ought to open some eyes. We know that a ruler judges, but "saviors" will be judging as well. Micah 4:5 talks about each person worshipping or operating "in the name of his god," indicating not the Father or the Son, but others who are also God. There is a principle here.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Preparing to Be a Priest
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John 1:1-3
As this passage patently declares, the Word is Jesus Christ. He is God and is the Creator God of Genesis. “All things were made through Him.” “Word” here is translated from the Greek logos. Strong's Concordance begins its definition as “something said.” In his Key Word Study Bible, Spiros Zodhiates begins his entry with “to speak.” Recall the method the Creator God used to create: He used words; He spoke. The Logos, the One who speaks, spoke this world and everything in it into existence (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, and 26). Paul also testifies in Colossians 1:16 that Christ was the Creator: For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. Paul repeats John's idea in John 1:1 of the world being created “through Him,” indicating that Another authorized the works carried out by the Word. In the same verse, John affirms that another God Being was present: “the Word was with God.” Genesis 1:26 begins, “Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image.'” The “Us” is the Word and the other God, the One we now know as the Father (John 17:5). In His last message to His disciples, Jesus confirms that He continued to follow the creation pattern. He spoke the words given to Him by the other God, God the Father: “For I have given to them the words which You have given Me . . .” (John 17:8). In Genesis 1, the Creator God is called “God,” translated from the Hebrew word elohim. While this Hebrew word is plural in form, it often appears in combination with singular verbs and adjectives, indicating a body, group, class, or family that contains more than one member. John's description agrees. Both were God, both with the surname Elohim, of the Family called God, which is currently composed of the Father and the Son, as revealed in the New Testament.
Pat Higgins
The God of the Old Testament
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John 14:23
Here Jesus shows the relationship of the Father and the Son with one who loves Them and is obedient to Them. They are all part of the same home! They have a warm and loving family relationship.
John W. Ritenbaugh
All in All
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Colossians 1:12-13
The word “conveyed” gives a good sense of the Greek word methistēmi (Strong's #3179). Other translations, like the English Standard Version, use “transferred,” while the King James Version renders it as “translated,” which is a bit archaic in today's English. It means “to cause a change of position,” “to transfer,” “to cause to change sides,” or literally, “to cause a change in standing.” A handful of translations use “brought” or even “put.” This verse says something that many of us read over without realizing what it implies. God the Father has transferred, brought, or put us in the Kingdom of God, in His Family! If God is calling us sons and daughters right now (see Romans 8:14-17; II Corinthians 6:17-18; Galatians 4:6-7; Philippians 2:15; etc.)—and we are calling Him Father and even more intimately, “Abba”—we are right now part of the God Family. Certainly, we are not spirit beings yet (that will not happen until the resurrection), but we are already His children. He has changed our position or standing from spiritually dead human beings to active members of His Son's Kingdom. So, in considering how many members are in the God Family right now, we may not have realized that there are more than just two. Only the Father and the Son know the true count, but it is likely a number in the many thousands from the time of Abel. Perhaps several thousand people alive today are already considered sons and daughters of the Father! It is easy to see ourselves as citizens of an earthly nation because that is where we have been born and lived our lives. But God's calling and the knowledge of our new loyalties should point us away from identifying ourselves with this world's citizens, events, and organizations. Paul starkly reminds us in Colossians 1:13 that this world, which many of us still keep one foot in, is part of “the power of darkness” from which the Father has removed us. We simply cannot afford to lean back into it. We have God's DNA, as it were, in us now via His Holy Spirit. Jesus says in John 14:23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” We are part of Them, and They, of us. Is this how we see ourselves? Is this how we think of ourselves on a daily basis while living in this world? We may remember this fact occasionally, but all too often, not often enough. Sometimes, we find ourselves identifying with an aspect of what this world promotes. Doing so usually involves us in party spirit; we take sides in the world's concerns.
Austin Del Castillo
Our Heavenly Citizenship
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James 1:1
Adherents of the Trinity doctrine assert that the Holy Spirit is a personality alongside the Father and the Son. Yet, when the apostles—especially Paul—referred to the God Family in their epistles, why is mention of the Holy Spirit almost totally absent (James 1:1; II Peter 1:2; I John 1:3; Romans 1:7; I Corinthians 1:3; II Corinthians 1:2; Galatians 1:3; Ephesians 1:2; Philippians 1:2; Colossians 1:2; I Thessalonians 1:1; II Thessalonians 1:2; I Timothy 1:1-2; II Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:4; Philemon 1:3)? Where is the Holy Spirit? Is James not a servant of the Holy Spirit (James 1:1)? Is he a servant only of God and of Jesus Christ? What about "knowledge of the Holy Spirit" in II Peter 1:2? Is there no "fellowship with the Holy Spirit" in I John 1:3? Why do the apostles ignore it? They include a greeting from the Father and the Son in each of these letters, but there is no greeting from the Holy Spirit. This was inspired by God! Is it possible that this is evidence that there is no other personality? Little by little, it keeps adding up. We need to see this with our own eyes—the Holy Spirit is ignored every time the God Family is mentioned. Father and Son—yes. Holy Spirit—no. With a few variations in words, every apostle ignores the Holy Spirit. Would it not be gross insubordination for them to recognize two in the highest offices in the universe and totally ignore the third? They did this because they did not know the Holy Spirit as a personality within the God Family because Jesus taught them no such thing. The Holy Spirit is the power God uses to direct and carry out His purposes within His creation.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Holy Spirit
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1 John 2:22-23
The denial "that Jesus is the Christ" does not imply that the Docetists thought Jesus was not the Messiah. Rather, the Docetists claimed that Jesus—the Man whom John had heard, seen and touched—was not truly God in the flesh and that the true Christ was an ethereal being in heaven. John argues that such a teaching denies the family relationship of the Father and the Son, obscuring the true nature of God. Furthermore, John writes, anyone who denies that Jesus was God in the flesh, subject to temptation just like all human beings, "does not have the Father either." Such a person simply does not understand the gospel message that we have the opportunity to become members of the God Family (I John 3:1-2). Jesus says, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). If we distort the image of Jesus Christ and who He was, we end up altering our concept of the Father also.
Earl L. Henn
For the Perfecting of the Saints
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