God or god?

 

Cody Watters

John 1:1 does not prove the Trinity. The verse says, “the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. If the Word was with God, then He cannot be the same person as the God He was with. Trinitarians often respond by saying Jesus and the Father are not the same person but the same being, yet the Bible never defines God that way. Scripture consistently identifies the Father Himself as the one true God, not a shared divine essence among three persons. Jesus said, “the Father..is the only true God” (John 17:3), and Paul wrote, “to us there is but one God, the Father” (1 Corinthians 8:6). John 1 distinguishes between God and the Word while showing that the Word perfectly represents God’s authority, nature, and power as His divine Son and agent. In Scripture, others can also be called “god” without being the Almighty Himself. Moses was called “a god” to Pharaoh (Exodus 7:1), judges were called “gods” (Psalm 82:6), and Satan is called “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Jesus Himself appealed to this principle in John 10:33-36 when the Jews accused Him of making Himself God. Instead of claiming to be the Almighty God, Jesus pointed to Psalm 82 and showed that Scripture could call others “gods” without making them the one true God. This shows that the title “god” can be used representatively for one who acts with God’s authority. Jesus is called God because He uniquely reveals and represents the Father, not because He is literally the same being as the Father. The “capital G God” argument is also weak because the Greek manuscripts had no uppercase or lowercase letters. The consistent teaching of Scripture is that the Father alone is the only true God, while Jesus is His begotten Son through whom He works and reveals Himself.