ANSWERS

 

Isn't God a "mystery"?

Not according to the English definition, no. On the other hand, "mystery" in Greek (μυστήριον) means "something that was hidden in the past but is now revealed to certain people." And while it is true that finite creatures cannot conceive the bounds of an infinite God, The Spirit knows the deep things of God [1 Cor 2:10] and is accessible to Christians [1 Cor 2:16].

→ See The Mysterion of God

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Jesus never said, "I am God."

Yes, He did. And in fact, He said something much stronger and more precise than "I am God."

→ See Where Does Jesus Say, "I Am God"?

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You say Jesus is Yahweh. Isn't Yahweh The Father?

Not always, no. "Yahweh" is the proper name for the one, triune God; The Name refers to all His manifestations. Yes, it often denotes The Father. But when Yahweh appeared to Abraham as a "man" in Genesis 18:1 – 19:24, and ate Abraham's food, the "man" was called "Yahweh" 9 times in that story. And in 2 Corinthians 3:17, where Paul wrote ὁ κύριος τὸ πνεῦμά ἐστιν, "The Spirit is The Lord," he didn't mean The Spirit is Jesus. Those first two Greek words are the equivalent of "ha-Adon," one Jewish circumlocution for "Yahweh"; it means "The Spirit is Yahweh."

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So, The Father is Yahweh. The Son is Yahweh. The Spirit is Yahweh. Yahweh is triune.

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Jesus is called "firstborn." This proves Jesus was a created being!

Not only is this incorrect as it stands—Philippians 2:6–7 explicitly details Jesus's pre-existence as God and subsequent taking on of human nature—but "firstborn" isn't even referring to Jesus's birth as a human from the virgin Mary. It is referring to His resurrection! He is called "firstborn from the dead" [Rev 1:5] and "firstborn among many brothers" [Rom 8:29]. Because He became human, He was described as a physical "brother" to the Jews [Deut 18:18] and a spiritual "brother" to all who would believe in Him.

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He shared the divine existence [Phil 2:6], essence [Heb 1:3], and glory before the universe began [John 17:5], but then proceeded from The Father [John 8:42], descended to Earth [John 6:38], took on human nature [Phil 2:7a], and tabernacled among humans [John 1:14] in the substance of flesh [Rom 8:3; Phil 2:7c-d; 1 Tim 3:15-16]. Jesus is uncreated. Even his birth to Mary was an act of movement, not creation.

→ See Born of

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You've got The Kabod YHWH all wrong: in one place, it was bread!

Even if the manna were The Kabod YHWH in Exodus 16:6–15, this would not nullify the other 17 citations in Torah, wherein The Kabod is a visible manifestation of YHWH 100% of the time. But the objection is misplaced.

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This misunderstanding can be caused by insufficient attention to the textual details. It is true that in v.6, evening is in parallel with 'knowing that YHWH brought the Israelites out of Egypt'; that in v.7, morning is in parallel with 'seeing The Kabod YHWH'; and that in v.12 twilight is paired with meat, and morning with bread. At most, the allusion to glory exists within a double entendre: 'you will see the glory of YHWH in your provision, but you will see The Radiant Glory of YHWH literally!'

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However, both v.8 and v.12c unpair the original parallel, putting both meat and bread beside knowing that YHWH is God. Indeed, The Kabod YHWH appears within a cloud (וְהִנֵּה כְבוֹד יהוה נִרְאָה בֶעָנָן) while Moses and Aaron are still speaking! This is before the first evening has come to pass, much less the morning after—the first evening does not occur until v.13. Thus the objection is, most charitably, missing the point of Exodus 16:6–15. The main point in Scripture is The God of Israel, not the things He also provides. YHWH manifested in a new way in Exodus 16:10, a way that would be physically present with the people of Israel for the next several centuries—in The Wilderness, on Mount Sinai, inside The Tabernacle, and inside The Temple. Shunting God off to the side and ignoring this fact is neither wise nor accurate to the text.

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→ See The Kabod YHWH

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John 17:3 proves Jesus isn't God.

Not only is this untrue, but John 17:3 is actually a claim of Jesus's deity. But a person needs intimacy with the Old Testament to know why.

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First, however, the fact that The Father is called "the only true God" does not disprove Jesus is also the only true God. Not only are Father, Son, and Spirit identified as [the one] "God" throughout the Bible, but Jesus holds ascriptions like "The True God" [1 John 5:20d], the "Only Master and Lord" [Jude 1:4], and even The Father directly calls Him "God" [e.g., Heb 1:8]. John 17:3 no more negates The Son's deity than Jude 1:4 negates The Father's deity.

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As for the whole verse of John 17:3, the most critical word is the word "and." It is also the most overlooked. Jesus said Eternal Life was knowing Father-and-Son, together! Moreover, anyone who knows well the Old Testament recognizes the blasphemy of such a statement:

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Jeremiah 31:31-34   

“Behold, days are coming,” declares YHWH, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah [....] I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know YHWH,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares YHWH, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
 

But John 17:3 is not blasphemous, because Jesus is YHWH along with The Father and The Spirit. A fact which Jesus affirms yet again in John 17:5.