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This is a non-WLC article. When using resources from outside authors, we only publish the content that is 100% in harmony with the Bible and WLC current biblical beliefs. So such articles can be treated as if coming directly from WLC. We have been greatly blessed by the ministry of many servants of Yahuwah. But we do not advise our members to explore other works by these authors. Such works, we have excluded from publications because they contain errors. Sadly, we have yet to find a ministry that is error-free. If you are shocked by some non-WLC published content [articles/episodes], keep in mind Proverbs 4:18. Our understanding of His truth is evolving, as more light is shed on our pathway. We cherish truth more than life, and seek it wherever it may be found. |
[A Letter from the Lord Yahushua: About Yahuwah and Me]1
Dear Christian,
I’ve been meaning to talk to you about Yahuwah and me.
I know you mean well; you’re trying to rescue my honor from people who say I’m just one of many “great spiritual teachers.” In truth, I do not wish to be lumped together with the likes of Muhammad, the Buddha, or Gandhi. (I don’t mind being compared to Moses, although my ministry has far surpassed his.2) I do wish, though, that you would pay attention to my teaching, both during my bodily ministry on earth and in my post- resurrection ministry through my hand-picked apostles.
I need you to stop confusing me with Yahuwah, our heavenly Father. You pray to Yahuwah and then call him “Yahushua,” as if that were his name. He has a name, but “Yahushua” is not it!3 Then you pray to my Father and you thank him for dying on the cross for you. But this never happened! Pay attention, my children.
I am Yahuwah’s Son, not him!4 I am a man, and it should go without saying that the Almighty is not a man.5 He, my Father, is the only true God.6 I am his Messiah,7 his Christ, his anointed one, not the anointer. I died, and thanks be to Yahuwah, he raised me and made me immortal.8 But he has always been immortal, and so can’t be killed.9 Notice that my apostles and I never told you that it was because I am Yahuwah that I could be “the Lamb of Yahuwah who takes away the sin of the world.”10 An immortal being can’t die any sort of death, including a sacrificial death! We never told you that only a being with the divine nature could atone for the sins of humanity. In truth, Yahuwah my Father, who was pleased with me,11 considered me to be a worthy sacrifice, yes, a man with flesh and blood like yours.12 He showed how much he loves you by sending me to sacrifice my human life for you,13 something he could not do himself, being immortal. It was certain imaginative men among you, not my apostles or I, who told you that the gospel is that Yahuwah came and died for you. Nor should you listen to peddlers of the nonsense that I died “as human” while remaining alive “as divine,” as if I could have been both dead and not dead, and alive and not alive at the same time! Nor was I composed of a dying man and an immortal “divine Person.” It was only yours truly on that cross. I was there, and I assure you that on that terrible day no one thought that Yahuwah had been crucified.14
It was only yours truly on that cross. I was there, and I assure you that on that terrible day no one thought that Yahuwah had been crucified.14
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Yahuwah was the one I had prayed to earlier in the garden, hoping for a moment that I might be spared. But the whole terrible series of events was his will, and I submitted my will to his.15 As my apostle Paul explained, this is why Yahuwah raised and exalted me.16 I now rule, so to speak, at the right hand of Yahuwah.17 You could say that I share his throne,18 yes, but that doesn’t make me him! Again, as Paul and other early writers clearly explained, even in my exalted position, where as predicted I have been given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world,19 still, I am under Yahuwah. We all are!
The one true God is godless; no one is his god. He’s the only one like that. The rest of us are under him. My God is your God; Yahuwah is Father both of me and of you all. I told you this plainly, right after he raised me.20
I did something that even Yahuwah could not do: I lived as an example for you of a human life lived in faithful submission to Yahuwah, walking out the two most important commandments, to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.”21 You can’t tempt Yahuwah Almighty;22 but I was tempted, and I passed the tests.23 I prayed to Yahuwah both in secret and in public,24 I worshiped him in the temple, and from a young age I studied his revealed words.25 I taught you to pray to him and I showed you how to relate to him.26 As I explained clearly, it was Yahuwah who sent me,27 Yahuwah who empowered me,28 Yahuwah who vindicated my claims by the amazing miracles he did through me,29 and later through my messengers.30
Did I make myself Yahuwah? No, as I explained, that was a false accusation. All I ever claimed to be was Yahuwah’s Son, his Messiah.31 Notice that my messengers and I never once said I am “God the Son.” I did say that the Father and I “are one,”32 yes, even as the one who plants and the one who waters are “one.” That is to say, we’re about the same business.33 Neither I nor my apostles ever told you that the Father and I are the one God; no, he is my God.34 I am your lord, but not your God; Yahuwah is one.35 My disciples wanted to see the Father,36 and I told them to look at me in order to see the Father — not because I am the father, but because I am like him. I am his image,37 and truly he was and is at work in me.38 Eventually even Thomas was given eyes to see the Father at work in me, reconciling the world to himself.39
That life-changing power, it comes from us. And one who truly follows me fellowships with us, with the one true God and also with me, his unique Son, your human lord. Yahuwah and I are, respectively, the one God and the one lord.40 Follow me, and truly, we will dwell with you.41 But don’t confuse us with one another, and let go of speculations to the effect that we are two “Persons” in some imagined “triune” God. I didn’t teach you that, and neither did my messengers. My Father is God, all of God; he is not merely one of three “Persons” in God, whatever that may mean!
Did I say “I am”? Yes! As in, “I am he. ”Or you might say “I am the one.” And I also said which one I am: the Messiah. I explained this clearly to the Samaritan woman.42 Will you listen to me? Does the fact that you must worship me show that I am Yahuwah himself? No! I must be worshiped because Yahuwah has exalted me to his right hand.43 This was done as a reward for my unique service to him, in winning people of all nations to him.44 Will you adopt the scruples of a false prophet about “associating” another with Yahuwah?45 Yahuwah forbid! Obey Yahuwah and honor me; this gives him glory. “Who can forgive sins but Yahuwah alone?” The answer is: someone who Yahuwah has authorized to forgive sins on his behalf, like me,46 and like my followers.47
No one can kill Yahuwah! He leads and does not follow; no one is greater than him.51 While he is eternally all-knowing, I told you there was something I didn’t know.52 If you say I really did know in my “divine nature” or in my “divine mind” then you are calling me a liar. Don’t do it!
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What could possibly convince you that I am not Yahuwah, but rather his unique human Son, when I have already plainly told you that he knows more than me,48 that he is greater than me,49 and that I only do his will and follow his lead,50 and when everyone knows that I was killed? No one can kill Yahuwah! He leads and does not follow; no one is greater than him.51 While he is eternally all-knowing, I told you there was something I didn’t know.52 If you say I really did know in my “divine nature” or in my “divine mind” then you are calling me a liar. Don’t do it!
Notice that at my trials my enemies never accused me of claiming to be more than Yahuwah’s Messiah, the promised King of Israel.53 I tell you the truth: I never said a single thing that it would be blasphemous for a man to say, so long as that man really was Yahuwah’s chosen Messiah. And so I am.
Listen to me, and I will help you to see that the Lord Yahuwah and the Lord Yahushua Christ are not the same “Lord.” Even though I am a unique lord, the Father is my God even as he is yours. Don’t be confused by the fact that I now share some of his titles. He has graciously inspired his servants to call me many things that he has been called: “Lord,”54 “God,”55 “Savior,”56 “Master,”57 “First and Last,”58 “Alpha and Omega,”59 and even “Lord of lords and King of kings.”60 Just remember that the very people who ascribe these titles to me also clearly teach that Yahuwah is my God, the God over me, the God to whom I submit.61 It should be no surprise, since I am like him, his very image, and am still about his business, that he would generously allow me to share some of his wonderful titles. I praise him for it!62
Yes, I know that some sophisticated people among you, noting the differences between Yahuwah and me, will avoid saying that I am Yahuwah himself. They instead proudly discourse on “the deity of Christ,” and argue that I have a “divine nature.” In truth, they have muddied the waters with their rulings requiring people to say that I am “perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man...one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only-begotten, acknowledged in two natures.”63 Neither I nor my apostles taught you these things. If a “human nature” is a man, then I am a human nature. If the “divine nature” is a Yahuwah, you should remember that there is only one God, and he is our Father.64 If “human nature” is instead supposed to be the defining qualities which any human must have, then like any human being, I have human nature. But if “divine nature” is supposed to be the defining qualities, which any God must have, then I do not have divine nature, as I have already explained.
Don’t shrink your idea of Yahuwah down to human size just to save your theory that he is [Yahushua]!
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After hundreds of years of telling people that I was feigning having anything like typical human limitations, which would mean that I was deceiving those around me, more recently some of you, willing to do anything to save your godman theories, have changed your theology, saying that Yahuwah can temporarily give up his perfect knowledge, his immunity to temptation, and his unlimited power. Perish the thought! The Lord Yahuwah Almighty can’t be killed, can’t be tempted, and can’t be ignorant of any fact. Yes, he can appear in human form, even wrestle with a man,65 visit a man and receive his hospitality,66 or be seen by Moses and the elders of Israel67 — nothing is too hard for him. But appearing in human form is not the same as being a man, is it?68 Don’t shrink your idea of Yahuwah down to human size just to save your theory that he is me! Better you should re-examine your teachings about me in light of what I and my apostles actually said, not to mention the prophets before me. They all agree that I am a man, a descendant of David,69 and they do not offer the dark saying that I am “man” but not “a man” or that I am “human” but not a “human person.”70
About this speculation that any “LORD” or “God” seen in the times of the patriarchs was me,71 I never told you that, nor did any of my apostles. Listen to us! It was in these last days that Yahuwah has spoken through me.72 And let me also clear up this matter of my allegedly creating the universe. I never claimed this. I proclaimed what I was taught by my Jewish ancestors, that it was the one God alone who created.73 The universe is the handiwork of our Father in heaven. No, I did not help. He did not need any help.74 He did it all by his mighty word.75 He did not need some intermediary to insulate him from direct contact with the good works of his hands. Even if he had needed that, I wasn’t around back then. I had not yet been conceived!76 Yes, as my friend John wrote, there was something in the beginning which was with Yahuwah and which was Yahuwah, and it was through this that Yahuwah made all things.77 Of course I’m talking about Yahuwah’s word, or in other words, his wisdom.78 It was that wisdom which much later as it were came down to earth and was available in my teaching and in my example.79 Of course, I am a sort of creator, but my handiwork is the new creation, the new order, the new ages.80
To sum up, I am Yahuwah’s unique Son, and I have been raised up to be his right-hand man, a Joseph to his Pharaoh.81 Someday I will be your judge; Yahuwah has appointed me to that role.82 I will rule and reign from a truly Yahuwah-like position which I was given by the one true God.83 I’m a man still, although Yahuwah has raised me up to be “a life-giving spirit” with an immortal body.84
I am Yahuwah’s unique Son, and I have been raised up to be his right-hand man, a Joseph to his Pharaoh.81 Someday I will be your judge; Yahuwah has appointed me to that role.82 I will rule and reign from a truly Yahuwah-like position which I was given by the one true God.83 I’m a man still, although Yahuwah has raised me up to be “a life-giving spirit” with an immortal body.84
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If you think that it would be wrong to worship or pray to “a mere man,” you need to fearfully reconsider what you just called me. Would you stand in front of one of this world’s kings or emperors, point your finger at him and say out loud that “he’s just some guy”? When you stand before me as your judge, you will see how “mere” I am! You will bow your knee to me, “to the glory of Yahuwah the Father.”85 Although I am not your God, I am your lord, and you ought to love and fear me.86
If you think that Yahuwah could not possibly put a human being into this position I now enjoy — well, that’s just the voice of unbelief. I told you that I am “a man who has told you the truth that I heard from Yahuwah.”87 Empowered by Yahuwah, yes a real man can do all that Yahuwah’s Messiah must do. This man is forever your priest who stands between you and Yahuwah.88 This man is the one intermediary between Yahuwah and all of my brothers and sisters.89 This man is “the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades.”90 Now listen closely: I am not the first and last Yahuwah — that position has been taken! I am the first and last exalted human lord, raised to immortality, and exalted until all are subject to me, even as I am subject to Yahuwah.91
I once stumped my own countrymen by asking them how in the prophetic Psalm David could call the Messiah, his own descendant, “lord.”92 They didn’t know, but a reader of the New Testament should understand that Yahuwah has exalted me, the very point of the prediction I quoted to them.93 I am not the Lord Yahuwah Almighty, I am the first son of Mary whom Yahuwah “has made both Lord and Christ.”94 Do not confuse the Lord Yahuwah with the Lord Yahushua, his Christ.95
When you read the accounts of my life, you can see that I am a man and that Yahuwah is someone else, the true God, the God of Israel whom I worship and serve. And yet, in some contexts powerful and impressive people insist that my whole message counts for nothing unless “the deity of Christ” is part of it. But listen carefully, my child: you must prefer me to them, just as some of my first followers had to turn from even the most prestigious and powerful scholars and scribes in order to take me as their teacher. Just come to me, and learn from me, and I will resolve your confusion. My earliest followers faithfully recorded the truths Yahuwah gave me, and even more truths, which Yahuwah’s spirit soon taught them. “Very truly, I tell you, whoever receives one whom I send receives me; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.”96 Do you really think my theology needs some help, some correction? Why do you call me “Lord, Lord” and yet treat my teaching about Yahuwah as something desperately in need of supplementation, using words that I never used, even demanding that my followers use them? You dare not load them down with requirements that my disciples and I did not establish as conditions of the new covenant!97
Listen to me, and plug your ears when people presume to tell you what I really must have been hinting at. Don’t be seduced by alleged deep secrets about my imagined “inclusion in the divine identity,” discernible only by the learned or by the “spiritual.” “I have spoken openly to the world;” truly, “I have said nothing in secret.”98 Yes, for a short time I did have to keep my identity as Messiah quiet so that it would not result in misunderstanding, or even an armed revolt. But I told my messengers the whole truth about me and my mission; “I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father”;99 I have held nothing back from you.
Therefore, you should attend carefully to what my messengers did and did not write. They explained how my life fulfilled prophecies about the Messiah, and also prophecies about Yahuwah. But in citing these last, they did not hint that I am Yahuwah himself. Rather, in some of them, the fulfillment is Yahuwah working through me,100 and in others, my God revealed to them another meaning of the ancient text, another, more recent fulfillment.101 If you think a text from my messengers is hinting at some deep, unexpressed truth about me, look to see if the author or a worthy character in their narrative draws that conclusion. If not, you may be jumping to that conclusion. The chroniclers of my earthly ministry wrote plainly; they did not write esoteric treatises which can be understood only by an elite. Listen to what they actually say. This game must end, of “finding” hidden claims in their writings such as that I am Yahuwah or a “Yahuwahman.” No, that I walked on water was not a hint.102 Nor is my claim that I will return on the clouds.103 Nor are my statements that “I am various things.104 I told you plainly who I am.105 I am a teacher, not a mumbling soothsayer, and my students understood me. But will you? If you think these writings’ clear message that I am Yahuwah’s Messiah is boring, you have not yet understood it. Pray that our Father in heaven will open your eyes to it. Even I will pray for you, if I see that you are trying to humbly receive “the words of eternal life”106 which I have brought you from the Father.107
In conclusion, look at the record of one of the truly great days in this new era. My servant Luke has given you a faithful summary of the first sermon of this new age. In it, my friend and messenger Peter does not preach that I am Yahuwah in human form. He does not say that I am Yahuwah himself or call me a “godman.” He does not theorize that I have a divine nature. He does not credit me with creating the world. He does not credit me with Yahuwah’s deeds in the times of Abraham or Moses. Rather, he quite correctly describes me as “a man attested to you by Yahuwah with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that Yahuwah did through him among you.”108 Is that not good enough for you? That, friends, is the good news of this new era. There is no need for another Yahuwah, a second God, or an additional “true god” who is someone other than the one who I say is the only true God.109 Peter did not fail to preach the good news. Rather, he preached it unencumbered by unnecessary human speculations. Now you go to all nations in my name and do the same.
Sincerely,
Yahushua
(by Dr. Dale Tuggy, Tennessee)
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1 https://trinities.org/blog/letter Released under this Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
2 Acts 3:22, 7:37; Deut. 8:15; John 1:17–18.
3 Ex. 3:15.
4 John 10:33–36.
5 John 8:40; Num. 23:19.
6 John 17:1–3; 1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:6; 1 Tim. 2:5; 1 Thess. 1:9–10; 1 John 5:20.
7 John 4:25–26.
8 1 Cor. 15:3–4, 42–56.
9 1 Tim. 1:17, 6:16; 2 Tim. 1:10; Rom. 1:23.
10 John 1:29.
11 Matt. 3:17, 17:5.
12 Heb. 2:14–18, 1 Tim. 2:5–6.
13 Rom. 5:8.
14 Mark 15:32, 39.
15 Mark 14:36.
16 Phil. 2:8–9.
17 Mark 14:62; Eph. 1:20-21.
18 Rev. 7:17.
19 Dan. 7:14.
20 John 20:17.
21 Matt. 22:37, 39.
22 James 1:13.
23 Luke 4:1–13; Heb. 4:15.
24 Luke 5:16, 22:41.
25 Luke 2:41–42, 47.
26 Matt. 6:5–13.
27 Mark 9:37; John 13:20.
28 Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38.
29 John 5:36, 14:10–11; Acts 2:22.
30 Acts 2:43, 4:30, 5:12, 6:8.
31 John 10:22–39.
32 John 10:30.
33 1 Cor. 3:8.
34 Rev. 3:12.
35 1 Cor. 8:4–6; Mark 12:29; Gal. 3:20.
36 John 14:8–11.
37 Col. 1:15.
38 John 14:10; Heb. 8:1.
39 John 20:28; 2 Cor. 5:19.
40 1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:4–6.
41 1 John 1:3.
42 John 4:25–26. Compare: John 14:24–25.
43 Phil. 2:6–11.
44 Rev. 5:9–10.
45 https://www.thoughtco.com/shirk-2004293
46 Matt. 9:2–8.
47 John 20:23.
48 Mark 13:32.
49 John 14:28.
50 John 5:19–20.
51 Ps. 89:6, Isa. 40:18; Deut. 10:17.
52 Rom. 11:33–35.
53 Matt. 26:59–66, 27:17,22, 29, 37, 42–44; Mark 14:55– 65, 15:2–5, 12, 18, 26, 32; Luke 22:66–71, 23:1–5; John 18:33–38. Some readers infer that Yahushua must have been making some sort of “divine claim” because in Matthew and Mark he is accused of blasphemy. But the careful reader should note that Yahushua there claims only that he will be seated at Yahuwah’s right hand, which assumes that Yahushua is not Yahuwah himself, but rather someone else.
54 Rom. 1:4.
55 Heb. 1:8.
56 Luke 2:11.
57 Jude 1:4.
58 Rev. 2:8.
59 Rev. 22:13.
60 Rev. 17:14.
61 John 20:17; Rom. 15:6; 2 Cor. 1:3; Eph. 1:3, 17; 1 Pet. 1:3; Rev. 1:6, 3:2, 12.
62 Rev. 15:3–4.
63 https://www.theopedia.com/chalcedonian-creed
64 John 17:1–3; 1 John 5:19–20.
65 Gen. 32:22–32. Even if these are done through the
mediation of an angelic being, nonetheless it is Yahuwah who (indirectly) does such things.
66 Gen. 18:1–22.
67 Ex. 24:9–11.
68 New Testament writers, firm in their conviction that Yahushua was a real man, speak loosely of him as “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3), “revealed in flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16), “come in the flesh” (1 John 4:2) and “being born in human likeness” (Phil. 2:7). But they do not thereby mean to suggest that Yahushua only seemed to be human, or that Yahushua transitioned from being a disembodied spirit to being embodied in a human (or humanoid) body. For them, he is the supernaturally conceived but human Son of Mary (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18), a literal descendant of David (Rom. 1:3), “a man” (Acts 2:22; John 8:40) although “from heaven,” that is to say, Yahuwah-sent and Godly (1 Cor. 15:47; John 3:13).
69 Luke 1:32; Rom. 1:3; 2 Tim. 2:8; Rev. 22:16.
70 http://www.ncregister.com/blog/steven-greydanus/is- Yahushua-a-human-person
71 Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho.
72 Heb. 1:1–2; Col. 1:13–20; 2 Cor. 5:17–18.
73 Mark 10:6, 13:19. Compare: Rom. 1:20; Acts 4:24,
14:15, 17:24–31; Heb. 11:3; Eph. 3:9; 1 Tim. 4:3–4; Rev. 4:11, 10:6, 14:7.
74 Isa. 44:24b.
75 Gen. 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26; Ps. 33:6; John 1:1–3.
76 Luke 1:31.
77 John 1:1–3.
78 Ps. 33:6; Prov. 8:22–31.
79 Matt. 11:19, 13:53; 1 Cor. 1:24; Col. 2:2–3.
80 Heb. 1:2.
81 Gen. 41:37–45.
82 Acts 17:31.
83 1 Cor. 15:27.
84 1 Cor. 15:42–46.
85 Phil. 2:11.
86 Rev. 6:16, 17:14.
87 John 8:40.
88 Heb. 2:17, 3:1, 4:14–15, 6:20, 8:1, 9:11.
89 1 Tim. 2:5.
90 Rev. 1:17–18.
91 1 Cor. 15:20–28, 11:3.
92 Mark 12:35–37.
93 Mark 12:36; Psalm 110:1.
94 Acts 2:36.
95 Luke 1:32; Acts 1:21; Rom. 1:7.
96 John 13:20.
97 1 John 4:15.
98 John 18:20.
99 John 15:15.
100 Mark 1:3.
101 Matt. 1:23; Heb. 1:10–12.
102 Matt. 14:33; Mark 6:45–52; John 6:16–21.
103 Matt. 26:64; Mark 14:62.
104 John 6:35, 8:12, 10:7, 10:11, 11:25, 14:6, 15:1.
105 Matt. 16:15–17; Mark 8:29; Luke 9:20; John 20:31.
106 John 6:68.
107 John 8:28, 12:49, 14:10.
108 Acts 2:22.
109 The Nicene Creed from the year 325 mentions one “true God” (the Son) who exists because of another “true God” (the Father). This was a reference to Origen’s doctrine that Yahuwah “eternally generated” his Logos or Word.
