“Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” (John 5:18).

Now when a man has a son there are obvious differences - the son is very small, not as strong, hasn’t had a job, doesn’t have money, hasn’t been to school to learn anything and so on. But the scriptures are NOT referring to any of that when it talks about what a son is.

 A son is a called an ‘issue’.

A son in the Bible is simply something that has come out of the father (an issue) with the woman as the vessel into which the seed (sperm) is placed. When the prophet Isaiah talks to King Hezekiah, he calls the king’s sons by the term “issue”. “And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; …” (2 Kings 20:18).

 Indeed when a man dies without having had any children, it is said that he died without an issue. That means he died without having had children. An everyday example of an “issue” is the lava that comes out of a volcano. When you turn on a tap, the water issues out of the pipe. It flows from or comes out of.

 Like gives birth to like

Now the Bible principle is that everything produces its offspring after its own kind. The elephant produces (issues or what comes out of) the elephant not a tiger. No-one expects an apple tree to produce oranges. The issue of a cow is a cow. Like produces like. As the Bible says “And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:25).

 Jesus as the Son of God is God

We know that “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24) and so to call Jesus the Son of God, he must also be a Spirit in heaven, as like produces like. So the male offspring out of God is God. This is the reason Jesus could say “I and my Father are one.” (John 10:30) and this is why “… the Jews sought the more to kill him (Jesus), because he … said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” (John 5:18).

God produces God. God issues out of himself God. Out of God comes God. This is why God the Father can say to God the Son “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: ...” (Hebrews 1:8).

 Jesus as a man is the Son of man

Just as Jesus was born of a woman, he is called the Son of man. Jesus was also in the same form as God (Philippians 2:6) as a Spirit in heaven (called the Word 1John 5:7). He is both God and man at the same time. And yes, the Bible says, it is a mystery (something hard to understand by the human mind) - “… great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh …” (1 Timothy 3:16).

The Godhead has three persons

God is also called the Godhead who consists of three persons – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. The Bible says these three are one “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” (1 John 5:7). Some Bibles leave this verse out.

One God but three persons. Like an apple with three parts – the core is the apple, the flesh is the apple and the skin is the apple. Three parts but one apple.

Another example is the sun in the sky which has three parts – the sun we can see, the light and the heat. Three parts but one sun.

Similarly, God has three parts (persons) but there is only one God. It’s like God has three aspects or three ‘personalities’.

Some people think the Holy Ghost is just a Spirit, but when we get saved, God’s Holy Spirit comes to live in us permanently and is then called the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost thinks like God, convicts us of sin and does not come to speak of himself (John 16:13) but points us to Jesus. You can now see the Holy Ghost is also a person. When a person is filled with the Holy Ghost they love to read the Bible, they cannot continue to live in sin and they speak only of Jesus and what he has done for them.

 How do we know that God was Jesus’ Father?

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together (physically as husband and wife), she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.” (Matthew 1:18). Can you see that? Joseph was not the father of Jesus? In heaven Jesus is called the Word and what happened was the Holy Ghost took the Word out of heaven and placed it in Mary’s womb, and when born, he became known as Jesus.  
Jesus grew in wisdom and stature

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” (Luke 2:52). Of course he did. He learnt many things – how to be a carpenter, how to earn a living and so on but this was the end product of growing up to be a man. But he was always God. He came out from the Godhead. His source was God. He was issued out of God.  “In the beginning was the Word … and the Word was God.” (John 1:1).

 IN SUMMARY: If we come to the holy scriptures with our own fixed ideas and definitions, we will be sadly disappointed. Our beliefs destroy the meanings of God’s words. Misunderstanding what ‘a son’ is in the Bible allows people to ignore what the holy scriptures actually say. People are too ready to say “This is what it means” rather than “This is what the scriptures actually say”.

People destroy the true meaning of the phrase “the Son of God” by looking at the end result rather than the source. The Jews knew that Jesus, calling himself the Son of God, meant that he was actually calling himself God, a Spirit, come out of heaven to be made man in the flesh. The holy Bible says “And without controversy (argument) great is the mystery of godliness: God was MAN-ifest in the flesh (‘mani - flesh’) …” (1 Timothy 3:16).

In addition, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: … and his name shall be called …The mighty God, The everlasting Father ...” (Isaiah 9:6). Truly you can believe that “In the beginning was the Word … and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt (lived) among us …” (John 1:1,14).

YOUR PLACE OF ORIGIN DETERMINES WHO YOU ARE – not what you end up being. If Jesus was issued out of a man he has no right to be God, but Jesus being issued out of God is God.

By Harley Hitchcock.

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