''Yahushua is Worshipped, so He Must Be Yahuwah.'' Really?
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The claim "Yahushua must be Yahuwah because he is worshipped" is:
1. biblically misinformed or biblically ignorant. What are the Hebrew and Greek words translated as “worship”? Who is appropriately worshipped? Is it correct to say, “Only Yahuwah can be worshipped”?
2. Ironically, the claim that “Yahushua is worshipped, he must be Yahuwah” is anti-Christ since it denies that Yahushua Christ is a man. Those making a claim insist they will only worship Yahuwah. They won’t worship a man. They refuse to bow before Yahuwah's appointed human Messiah.
“Deity of Christ” believers contradict themselves. They want to insist that Yahushua is “fully man.” If Yahushua is “fully man,” as Trinitarians claim, they worship a man. But then they turn around and deny that they are worshipping a man. Deity of Christ believer: are you worshipping someone who is fully man, or not? Make up your mind.
Let’s look at these two points a bit closer.
Biblically Ignorant
How is the word “worship” used in the Bible, and who is worshipped?
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First, the claim "Yahushua must be Yahuwah because he is worshipped" is biblically ignorant. A lot depends on how we interpret the term "worship." How is the word “worship” used in the Bible, and who is worshipped? And here is an important question: Why are they worshipped? Can they be rightly worshipped and not as Yahuwah? Can Yahuwah’s Messiah, for example, be worshipped not because he is Yahuwah but because he is Yahuwah’s Messiah? Is it correct biblically to claim: “Only Yahuwah can be worshipped”?
I have to say, this claim that “Yahushua is Yahuwah because he is worshipped” frustrates me a bit because the claim is so obviously, biblically, wrong. OK, because of the ambiguity of the term “worship” in English and the presuppositions of English Bible translations, we have to give some slack to the average person who has heard this claim and is just repeating what they have heard.
But to claim “Yahushua is Yahuwah because he is worshipped” is inexcusable for a pastor or Bible teacher who knows a little bit of Greek or Hebrew. And unfortunately, I’ve had seminary students and pastors who have finished seminary tell me, "If Yahushua is worshipped, he must be Yahuwah.” My reaction is a head-scratching, “Really? Just do a little Bible study. Find out what Hebrew and Greek words are translated as “worship” in the Bible, and see to whom those words are applied. Is there anyone else in the Bible who is rightly worshipped and is not Yahuwah?”
The answer to that question is “YES, MANY people.” There are many people, human beings, that are rightly bowed down to, yes, “worshipped” in the Bible. So, it is patently false to claim that “Yahushua is worshiped, so he must be Yahuwah.”
It doesn’t take much Bible study to see that the words in Hebrew and Greek for “worship” are rightly applied to human beings in many contexts.
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It doesn’t take much Bible study to see that the words in Hebrew and Greek for “worship” are rightly applied to human beings in many contexts.
The main word involved in the claim “Yahushua is Yahuwah because he is worshipped" is the Hebrew word shahah הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה and its Greek counterpart, proskyneō προσκυνέω.
shahah שחה הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה
(BDB): “bow down, prostrate oneself, before a monarch or superior, in homage.”
proskyneō προσκυνέω
(Gingrich New Testament Lexicon) (fall down and) worship, do obeisance to, prostrate oneself before, do reverence to, welcome respectfully
These Hebrew and Greek terms generally mean "to bow down" and “pay homage” to a superior, whether the superior is human or divine.
Here are a few examples:
Genesis 22:5 Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you." (Gen 22:5 ESV)
נִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֖ה προσκυνέω
Genesis 23:7 Abraham got up and bowed down to the local people, the sons of Heth. (Gen 23:7, 12) וַיִּשְׁתַּ֥חוּ προσκυνέω
Abraham is performing the same act both before Yahuwah and before the sons of Heth. Now, of course, the sons of Heth and Yahuwah are worshipped for different reasons. Abraham worshipped the sons of Heth because of who they were. Abraham worshipped YAHUWAH because YAHUWAH is God. But the same verb applies.
This is one reason I was a bit surprised when friends wrote me and said, “Yahushua is Yahuwah because he is worshipped.” I had been reading the Bible in Hebrew for over 30 years by then, and that kind of claim was bizarre, even foreign to me because I could see that the word often translated as “worship” was rightly applied to others, not just Yahuwah.
There are many other examples of people rightly worshipped in the Bible (Joseph’s brothers worshipped him, e.g.), but I’m going to jump to David. Do you know that David worshipped Saul?
1 Samuel 24:8 Afterward David also arose and went out of the cave, and called after Saul, "My lord the king!" And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage.”
The “paid homage” is וַיִּשְׁתָּֽחוּ. Of course, the Bible isn’t saying that David worshipped Saul as Yahuwah. Instead, David is honoring Saul because Saul is Yahuwah’s Messiah.
The word often translated as “worship” was rightly applied to others, not just Yahuwah.
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Many people worshipped David in the Bible. They better have since David was Yahuwah’s appointed Messiah King.
Abigail is one example. 1 Samuel 25:23: “When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground.”
The phrase translated “bowed to the ground” is our word shahah, proskyneō. Also, I would like to note that Abigail called David “Lord” 13 times in that chapter. She was a wise woman. She called King David “Lord,” and she worshipped him.
Here is a kicker. King David was worshipped along with YAHUWAH in 1 Chronicle 29:20.
“Then David said to all the assembly, "Bless YAHUWAH your God." And all the assembly blessed YAHUWAH, the God of their fathers, and bowed their heads and worshipped YAHUWAH and the king.”
The Hebrew word, וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲווּ applies to both YAHUWAH and King David.
Then how about Psalm 72, a coronation Psalm for King Solomon? In Psalm 72:11, the Psalmist says of Solomon, “Yea, all kings will bow down before him: all nations will serve him.” The Hebrew word for “bow down” is the same word שחה that is translated as “worship.”
Speaking about the people of Israel, Isaiah 45:14 says, “This is what Yahuwah says "The profit of Egypt and the revenue of Ethiopia, along with the Sabeans, those tall men, will be brought to you and become yours. They will walk behind you, coming along in chains. They will יִשְׁתַּחֲווּ bow down to you and יִתְפַּלָּלוּ pray to you: 'Truly Yahuwah is with you; there is no other, there is no other God!'"
King David was worshipped along with YAHUWAH in 1 Chronicle 29:20.
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There are hundreds of examples of people rightly worshipped in the Old Testament. How about the New Testament? Is the Greek word proskyneō confined only to the worship of Yahuwah?
The answer is no.
Matthew 2:8 ‘And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him."
Matthew 8:2 And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean."
Matthew 9:18 While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live."
Matthew 18:25-26 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.'
In the Book of Revelation, believers in Yahushua are worshipped.
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In the Book of Revelation, believers in Yahushua are worshipped. To the Church in Philadelphia, Yahushua said: " Revelation 3:8-9 "I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door that no one can shut. I know you have little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who says that they are Jews and are not, but lie- behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you."
KJV: “I will make them come and worship before thy feet.”
But don’t the Old Testament and Yahushua say, “only worship Yahuwah”?
Deut. 8:19 (cf. Exo. 20:2-5): “If you forget Yahuwah your God and go after other Gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.”
Yahushua: “…it is written, "' You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve" (Matt. 4:10)
This commandment always occurs in contexts where the worship of other gods as Yahuwah is in focus. The point is only to worship or honor Yahuwah as God—no one else.
Ironically, to worship Yahushua, or the Trinity, as God is idolatry. Yahuwah said to worship none other than him as God. How many persons are in the pronoun “him”? If the Trinity is not God, and you worship the Trinity as God, you decide - are you committing idolatry?
There is a different Greek word translated as worship or serve, λατρεύω latreuo, which is reserved for Yahuwah in the New Testament. It is not applied to Yahushua. This is the word Yahushua used when he said of Yahuwah“ him only shall you serve” (Matt. 4:10). Again, this is in the context of serving Yahuwah as God, and no one else.
To worship a master, a lord, or the king does not break this commandment because these are not being worshipped as God.
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To worship a master, a lord, or the king does not break this commandment because these are not being worshipped as God. The reason I am bowing down before someone makes all the difference. If I bow down before, yes, worship the king because he is king, I am not breaking the commandment to worship only Yahuwah as God.
Yahushua is honored and worshipped, not as Yahuwah, which would break the commandment, but as the one designated by Yahuwah as the King and Priest Messiah. Yahushua is honored and worshipped as the one who died for us and to whom all authority in heaven and earth is given.
The paradigm of honor/worship given to Yahuwah's Messiah is clear from verses like 1 Chron. 29:20 (of Yahuwah and David) and Psalm 72:11 (of Solomon). We honor Yahuwah by honoring Yahuwah's Son, Yahuwah's appointed King (1 Sam. 25:24-25, 30 and Phil. 2:9). If people worshipped Yahuwah’s anointed kings, David and Solomon, all the more so, the more fantastic Son of David (Psa. 110:1) “who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father.
The man Yahushua is not only honored and worshipped as Lord Messiah before his death and resurrection, but primarily because of the exalted position that Yahuwah the Father has given the raised, exalted Yahushua. Philippians 2:9-11: Therefore Yahuwah has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Yahushua every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Yahushua Christ is Lord, to the glory of Yahuwah the Father.
All humanity will bow the knee and proclaim that the human Yahushua is Lord (not Yahuwah), to the glory of Yahuwah the Father (the only God).
Denying the Humanity of Yahushua
To say that if Yahushua is worshiped, he must be Yahuwah is to deny that Yahushua is a human being. This is the spirit of anti-Christ.
Will we bow down before Yahuwah’s human Messiah, King, or are we ashamed of Yahuwah’s human Messiah?
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Will we bow down before Yahuwah’s human Messiah, King, or are we ashamed of Yahuwah’s human Messiah? Do we refuse to bow down before Yahuwah’s Anointed human King, saying in our heart, “No Yahuwah, we don’t accept this human Messiah, this man Yahushua of Nazareth. You need to provide a different Messiah. Yahuwah, you die”?
If what the Trinitarians claim is correct, that “only Yahuwah can be worshipped’, and Yahushua is worshipped, then Yahushua is not a human being.
Yahushua is worshipped, so according to the deity of Christ's claim, he can’t be a man. He can’t be a human person, nor could he even have the abstract “human nature.” If a human person should not be worshipped, indeed, non-personal human nature shouldn’t be worshipped. The deity of Christ's claim denies that Yahushua the Messiah, came as flesh and that Yahushua, the Messiah is flesh since neither a human person nor abstract human flesh would be worthy of worship.
Said in another way, if you claim that no one should bow down or worship a human, you are saying that Yahushua is not a human.
As much as Trinitarians want to insist that Yahushua is fully man and fully God, this claim that “Yahushua must be Yahuwah because he is worshipped” denies the humanity of Yahushua.
It’s pretty simple. If Trinitarians say they cannot and are not bowing down to a human, they deny the humanity of Yahushua. Once again, the deity of Christ believers speaks from both sides of their mouths. They want to say that Yahushua is “fully man,” but then they turn around and say that you can’t bow down and worship a man. Make up your mind. Is Yahushua fully man? If he is, you are worshipping a man.
Not a Biblical Claim, but rather a claim of Tradition
Neither Yahushua nor any New Testament author makes this “argument,” saying, “Yahushua must be Yahuwah since he is worshipped.”
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It must be emphasized that this claim, “Yahushua is Yahuwah because he is worshipped,” is only an inference. This idea is not a claim the Bible makes for Yahushua. Neither Yahushua nor any New Testament author makes this “argument,” saying, “Yahushua must be Yahuwah since he is worshipped.” It is a claim from after New Testament times made by later commentators. It is a claim based on a false philosophical premise and ambiguity of language. The claim is this: “Worshipping Yahushua breaks my false unbiblical theological premise.”
What about the two times in the Book of Revelation that John bows down before his angel guide, and the angel says, “Don’t do that, I am a fellow servant”? If John the Revelator thought like modern Trinitarians, he must have thought that the angel who guided him was Yahuwah since "only Yahuwah can be worshipped." The truth is that John the Revelator bowed down to pay the angel homage.
But the angel tells John that now, with the exalted man Yahushua at Yahuwah’s right hand, the authority has been restructured. Yahushua, a human and as humankind’s representative, has authority over all angels. “Let all Yahuwah’s angels worship (bow down) before him.”
A Better Way
So here is a better biblical understanding of worship:
There is only one God, יהוה, The Father.
We worship Yahuwah as God. We worship no one else as God other than Yahuwah, The Father.
We worship Yahushua as the Messiah who gave his life for us and the one to whom Yahuwah has given all authority in heaven and on earth, not only in this age but also in the age to come.
This is a non-WLC article by Bill Schlegel.
We have taken out from the original article all pagan names and titles of the Father and Son, and have replaced them with the original given names. Furthermore, we have restored in the Scriptures quoted the names of the Father and Son, as they were originally written by the inspired authors of the Bible. -WLC Team