The following is taken from Dr. James R. White’s book The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief, Revised & Updated, published by Bethany House Publishers, Grand Rapids, MI 2019, Chapter 9. Jehovah of Hosts, pp. 131-139.
When I share the truth about the Trinity and the deity of Christ with Jehovah’s Witnesses, I often begin with something like this:
I believe in the Trinity because the Bible teaches the doctrine. No, the Bible doesn’t use the specific word “Trinity” any more than it uses the specific word “theocratic” or “Bible.” Instead, it teaches the doctrine by teaching the three pillars or foundations that make up the doctrine. The first such pillar is that there is only one true God, Yahweh, the Creator of all things. The second is that there are three divine persons, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father. Three persons who communicate with one another and love one another. Finally, the third pillar is the teaching that these three persons are completely equal in sharing in the divine Being. This would include the deity of Christ and the personality of the Holy Spirit. This is where we directly disagree. May I show you from the Bible how it teaches these truths?
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe the Trinity is nowhere to be found in Scripture, so they are quite confident that you will fail in attempting to support the Trinity from the Bible. So I press on:
I assume you would agree with me that there is only one true God, Yahweh, or as you pronounce it, Jehovah. I believe the name “Jehovah” refers to the very divine Being, the eternal God who created every thing. We can agree, I assume, that the Father is identified as Jehovah.1 But I believe that the Bible identifies Jesus as Yahweh, as well, and the Spirit is the Spirit of Yahweh. Each of these three persons share the one divine name, Yahweh or Jehovah. May I show you a few passages of Scripture that make this identification?
At this point I can go to a large number of passages where the New Testament writers think nothing of applying to the Lord Jesus passages from the Old Testament that were written in reference to Yahweh.2 But I have found two particular passages to carry the most weight in communicating this truth to those who believe that Yahweh is God, believe the Bible is true, but reject the deity of Christ: Hebrews 1:10-12 in comparison with Psalm 102:25-27, and John 12:3741 in comparison with Isaiah 6:1-10.
ETERNAL CREATOR
There can be no confusion about the intended meaning of the psalmist who penned these words in Psalm 102:25-27:
Of old You founded the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. Even they will perish, but You endure; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will not come to an end.
The first thing to establish in fairly and honestly dealing with the passage is what it meant in its original context. The entire psalm is written about Yahweh. Verse 1 indicates it is a prayer to the LORD. The use of the all-caps form LORD is the standard English means of indicating that the underlying Hebrew term is Yahweh, or Jehovah. Some Bibles, such as the Jerusalem Bible, or the New World Translation published by the Watchtower Society, use the term “Jehovah” or “Yahweh.” Throughout Psalm 102 this term is found, indicating plainly that the psalm was originally written in praise of Yahweh. This is important, for it is the context of the words found in verses 25 through 27.
The psalmist speaks in these verses of the unchanging and eternal nature of Yahweh. He does so by contrasting the changing creation with the unchangeable Creator. One of the primary “evidences” God uses to demonstrate His unique nature and sole standing as the one true God is that He is the Creator.3 This is the case here. Yahweh founded the earth (Psalm 24:1; 78:69; 89:11; Proverbs 3:19; Isaiah 48:13), and the heavens are described as a “work” of His hands (Psalm 19:1). On the most basic level, then, the universe itself is a dependent creation, while God is eternal and unchanging. They are temporal and will pass away, but God is eternal, and He will “endure.” They are like an old garment that we throw away when it becomes old and useless. But He does not age. He does not change. His years have no number and will never come to an end. As Moses had said, “from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (Psalm 90:2).
Why is it important to focus on what this passage means? Because it is speaking of characteristics that are unique to the one true God. This will become vitally important when we look at the means some use to avoid the weight of these passages as they are used in the New Testament.
The writer to the Hebrews shows no compunctions in taking this passage from the Psalter–a passage fit only for describing the eternal Creator himself-and applying it to Jesus Christ. Here is how he does it in Hebrews 1:8-12:
But of the Son He says,
“YOUR THRONE, 0 GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM.
YOU HAVE LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATED LAWLESSNESS; THEREFORE GOD, YOUR GOD, HAS ANOINTED YOU WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS ABOVE YOUR COMPANIONS.”
And,
“You, LORD,” IN THE BEGINNING LAID THE FOUNDATION OF THE EARTH,
AND THE HEAVENS ARE THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS;
THEY WILL PERISH, BUT YOU REMAIN;
AND THEY ALL WILL BECOME OLD LIKE A GARMENT,
AND LIKE A MANTLE YOU WILL ROLL THEM UP;
LIKE A GARMENT THEY WILL ALSO BE CHANGED.
BUT YOU ARE THE SAME,
AND YOUR YEARS WILL NOT COME TO AN END.”
An entire string of Old Testament passages are presented, each intended to demonstrate the superiority of Christ. Verse 8 begins by introducing the words of the Father regarding the Son. Verse 10 continues the same theme, again giving us the words of the Father relevant to the Son. It is vital to understand that verses 10 through 12 are, in fact, addressed to the Son. It is Jesus who is addressed as “LORD” in verse 10, and it is His activity in creation, and His unchanging nature, that is revealed in the rest of the passage. The significance of this is clear when one realizes that the writer to the Hebrews is directly applying the passage from Psalm 102:25-275 to the Son. The meaning of the original is beyond dispute. The fact that it is speaking of unique characteristics of the true God is likewise unarguable. Therefore, the fact that Hebrews applies such a passage to the Son tells us what the writer himself believed about the nature of Jesus Christ. One simply could not meaningfully apply such a passage to a mere creature, no matter how highly exalted.
What does it mean that the writer to the Hebrews could take a passage that is only applicable to Yahweh and apply it to the Son of God, Jesus Christ? It means that they saw no problem in making such an identification, because they believed that the Son was, indeed, the very incarnation of Yahweh.
The only way “around” this kind of direct identification of the Son as Yahweh is to point out that using an Old Testament passage of someone in the New Testament does not, of necessity, argue for identity of person. For example, in Hebrews 1:8, the writer applies a passage that was originally about one of Israel’s kings (possibly Solomon) to the Lord Jesus. Does this mean that Jesus is Solomon? Aside from the impossibility of such an identification in the first place, such an argument misses a very important distinction. The connection between the Lord Jesus and Solomon has to do with a shared characteristic: kingship. But kingship is not a unique attribute of Solomon. There have been many kings. So while citing a passage about Solomon of Jesus doesn’t make Jesus Solomon, citing a passage about a unique characteristic (creatorship, immutability, eternality) of Yahweh does make Jesus Yahweh, for no one else shares that characteristic. Being a king didn’t make Solomon who he was, but being eternal and unchangeable does define who Yahweh is.
Allow me to illustrate. If I wanted to identify someone as Solomon by using a citation from the Old Testament, I would not do it by citing a passage that is merely about Solomon as a king, for that would not prove identity but rather position. There were other kings, like David, or Hezekiah. Simply identifying someone as a king wouldn’t tell me which king I had in mind. If I instead applied a unique description of Solomon, that would convey identity. If I, for example, said that such and such a king had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3), who else could I be referring to but Solomon? That would distinguish which king I had in mind and would communicate identity. In the same way, if I were to merely call a person “loving,” I would not, by so doing, be identifying that person as God, even though God is, indeed, loving. God is love, but there are others who express love and are loving. It is not unique to God to love. But if I were to say that someone is eternal, the Creator of all things, and unchanging, that would communicate identity, for there is only one who is eternal, unchanging, and the Creator of all things. And this is what the writer to the Hebrews does in 1:10-12. Hence the error of the attempt to avoid the force of the identification of Jesus as Yahweh here in Hebrews 1.6
WHO DID ISAIAH SEE?
Toward the end of Jesus’ public ministry as recorded by John we find an incident where a group of Greeks seek out the Lord Jesus. The significance of the passage often goes right past us because we are looking more at the encounter than a little comment John tacks on to the end of his citation from Isaiah:
But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?” For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.” These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him. (John 12:37-41)
The struggle with the meaning of the words from Isaiah often causes us to fly right past verse 41. Yet what does John mean when he says that Isaiah “said these things because he saw His glory and spoke of Him”? Who is the “Him” to whom Isaiah refers?
We have to go back a little to see that John cites two passages from the book of Isaiah. In verse 38 he quotes from Isaiah 53:1, the great “Suffering Servant” passage that so plainly describes the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. John says the unbelief of the Jews, despite their seeing signs, was a fulfillment of the word of Isaiah in Isaiah 53. He then goes beyond this to assert their inability to believe and quotes from Isaiah 6 and the “Temple Vision” Isaiah received when he was commissioned as a prophet:
In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. (Isaiah 6:1-4)
In this awesome vision, Isaiah sees Yahweh (the LORD) sitting upon His throne, surrounded by angelic worshipers. The glory of Yahweh fills his sight. Isaiah recognizes his sin and is cleansed by the Lord, then commissioned to go and take a message to the people. But the message is not one of salvation, but of judgment.
He said, “Go, and tell this people: `Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand.’ Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed.” Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered, “Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, houses are without people and the land is utterly desolate” (Isaiah 6:9-11).
John cites the heart of the message of judgment given to Isaiah and sees the hardheartedness of the Jews, who had seen the miracles of the Lord Jesus and heard His words of grace as the fulfillment of these words.
Then John says, “These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.” John has quoted from two passages in Isaiah, Isaiah 53:1 and Isaiah 6:10. Yet the immediate context refers to the words from Isaiah 6, and there are other reasons why we should see the primary reference as the Isaiah 6 passage. John speaks of Isaiah “seeing” “glory.” In Isaiah 6:1 the very same term is used of “seeing” the LORD, and the very term “glory” appears in verse 3.7 Even if we connect both passages together, the fact remains that the only way to define what “glory” Isaiah saw was to refer to the glory of Isaiah 6:3.8 And that glory was the glory of Yahweh. There is none other whose glory we can connect with Isaiah’s words.9
Therefore, if we ask Isaiah, “Whose glory did you see in your vision of the temple?” he would reply, “Yahweh’s.” But if we ask the same question of John, “Whose glory did Isaiah see?” he would answer with the same answer-only in its fullness, “Jesus’.” Who, then, was Jesus to John? None other than the eternal God in human flesh, Yahweh.
If the apostles themselves did not hesitate to apply to the Lord Jesus such unique and distinctive passages that can only meaningfully be applied to deity, to the Lord Jesus, how can we fail to give Him the same honor in recognizing Him for who He truly is?
A Special Text
There is another place where the apostolic identification of Jesus as Yahweh incarnated is found, but is almost never noticed. And for those of us involved in the defense of the faith, it is rather ironic that we have so often missed its clear witness.
Every apologist knows the words of 1 Peter 3:15: “But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to give a defense before anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is within you, yet with gentleness and respect.” But very few have noticed that Peter is quoting from, or at least directly alluding to, a particular passage from Isaiah in these words. The final words of verse 14, “Do not fear them, nor be troubled,” comes directly from Isaiah 8:12. So do not miss the import of the next verse:
It is Yahweh of hosts who you should treat as holy,
And He shall be your fear,
And He shall be your dread.
Peter actually continues the citation of Isaiah right into verse 15, but we almost never see it! The “Lord” of 1 Peter 3:15 is Yahweh from Isaiah 8:13! If I could expand the translation then, “But in your hearts, honor (sanctify, set apart as holy) the Messiah (Christ) as Lord (kurios, in Isaiah 8:13, Yahweh), always being ready to give a defense. …” Here, writing to everyone in the congregation (not just elders), Peter is clearly giving everyday, “normal Christian living” instructions based upon the shared belief and reality that Yahweh had entered human flesh as the Messiah, Jesus! The Christian’s everyday life was to be ordered by that astonishing reality! Few texts show how basic and fundamental this truth was in the early church.
Chapter Nine: Jehovah of Hosts
1. For Mormons who reject this identification (Mormonism identifying the Father as “Elohim” and the Son as “Jehovah”), see such passages as Isaiah 53:6 and Matthew 22:41-45, where the Father is identified as Yahweh. See also James White, Letters to a Mormon Elder (Minneapolis, Minn.: Bethany House Publishers, 1993), 67-75.
2. Here is a partial listing of other passages that can be developed along these lines:
Matthew 1:21; Psalm 130:8; Isaiah 35:4 [God will save His people]
Matthew 3:12; Revelation 6:16; Psalm 2:12; Psalm 76:7 [Fear God]
Matthew 5:18; Mark 13:31 [God’s Word is eternal; Jesus’ Word is eternal]
Matthew 25:31-46; Psalm 50:6; 59:11; 96:13 [God is Judge, Jesus is judge]
John 1:3; Isaiah 44:24 [Yahweh alone created all things]
John 1:7-9; Isaiah 60:9 [God is light] John 7:37-38; Jeremiah 2:13 [Yahweh the fountain of living water]
John 10:11; Psalm 23:1; 100:3 [The Good Shepherd]
John 12:41; Isaiah 6:1 [The vision of Isaiah-Yahweh’s glory]
John 14:6; Psalm 31:5 [God is truth]
John 14:14; 1 Corinthians 1:2 [Prayer to Jesus]
John 14:26; 16:27; Romans 8:9; 1 Peter 1:11; Nehemiah 9:20; 2 Samuel 23: 2-3 [Spirit of YHWH/God/Christ]
John 17:5; Isaiah 48:11 [Will not give His glory to another]
Acts 1:8; Isaiah 43:10 [Witnesses of Whom?]
Acts 4:24; 2 Peter 2:1; Jude 4 [Who is our Master?] Romans 10:13; Joel 2:32 [Call on the name of…]
Ephesians 4:8-9/Psalm 68:18 [God leads the captives …]
Philippians 2:10-11; Isaiah 45:23 [Every knee will bow…]
Colossians 1:16, Ephesians 5:25, 27; Romans 11:36 [All things are to God …]
Colossians 1:17; Acts 17:28 [We exist in God]
Colossians 2:3; 1 Timothy 1:17 [Only wise God … treasure of wisdom]
2 Timothy 1:12; Jeremiah 17:5 [Trust in Yahweh-believe in Jesus]
Hebrews 1:3; 1 Timothy 6:15 [Jesus’ power-God is only sovereign]
Hebrews 1:10; Psalm 102:25 [Jesus is Yahweh] Hebrews 13:8; Malachi 3:6 [God changes not]
James 2:1; Zechariah 2:5 [Lord of glory]
1 Peter 2:3; Psalm 34:8 [Taste that Yahweh is good]
1 Peter 3:15; Isaiah 8:13 [Sanctify Yahweh]
Revelation 1:5-6; Exodus 34:14 [Glorify Jesus]
Revelation 1:13-16; Ezekiel 43:2 [God’s voice is the voice of Jesus]
Revelation 2:23; 1 Kings 8:39 [Jesus searches the hearts]
Revelation 3:7; Revelation 15:4 [God alone is holy]
3. See the discussion of this fact in chapter 3.
4. The New World Translation of Jehovah’s Witnesses inserts the name “Jehovah” 237 times in the text of the New Testament. When the NT cites an OT passage that uses the name Yahweh, the NWT will use “Jehovah,” replacing the Greek term “Lord” or “God” that appears in the text. At other times, the NWT will simply remove the term “Lord” and replace it with “Jehovah.” The translation is inconsistent, however, in when it will insert the divine name. In a number of places, replacing “Lord” with “Jehovah” would teach the deity of Christ. For example, Paul says that no man can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). Even though some of the Hebrew documents the Watchtower Society cites in support of their insertion of Jehovah have “Jesus is Yahweh,” the Society would not, of course, translate it that way. In the same way, if the NWT was consistent, they would have the word “Yahweh” here at Hebrews 1:10, replacing the word “Lord.” But this would teach the deity of Christ, hence, the replacement is not made.
5. The wording is almost identical to that found in the Greek Septuagint translation of Psalm 102:25-27.
6. This argument is put forward by Greg Stafford in Jehovah’s Witnesses Defended (Huntington Beach, Calif.: Elihu Books, 1998), 49-50. The circularity of Stafford’s arguments is illustrated by the comments that precede this discussion. In trying to avoid the plain teaching of Hebrews 1:10-12 that Jesus is the Creator of all things, Stafford notes that God created all things through the Son (Hebrews 1:2), and writes, “Clearly, then, in context Hebrews 1:10-12 could not be teaching that Jesus is the Creator, for here, in the opening words to the Hebrews, it is clearly stated that God made all things “through” His Son” (p. 48). This is circular argumentation, for it assumes the conclusion Stafford wishes to reach. It assumes unitarianism. The fact that the Son is differentiated from the Father is admitted by all. But unless one assumes that the term “God” must always and only refer solely to the Father (unitarianism), the entire argument collapses. The Son is the one through whom the Father made all things (Hebrews 1:2) and He is Yahweh, the eternal Creator, for the Father, Son, and Spirit are all identified as Yahweh. There is no contradiction between allowing both truths to coexist. Only the authority of the Watchtower forces Stafford to downplay the plain meaning of the one passage to uphold his unitarian interpretation of the other.
7. The connection is actually closer than first glance might indicate, for the Greek Septuagint (the LXX) contains both the verb form John uses in verse 1, eidon, and departing from the Hebrew text, it contains at the end of the verse the reading tes doxes autou meaning “the house was full of His glory.” This is the same phraseology used in John 12:41, ten doxan autou, (the accusative for the genitive) meaning “he saw His glory.” The use of the same phraseology makes the connection to the John [sic – Isaiah] 6 passage unbreakable.
8. Or, more likely, the term “glory” used in the LXX in verse 1.
9. Stafford insists that we look only at Isaiah 53 for the reference to John 12:41, but he does not deal with the verbal parallels to the Greek LXX. In fact, one will search in vain in Isaiah 53 for eiden/eidon being used with “glory”; and one will not find the phrase ten doxan autou or anything similar to it. The term “glory” only appears once in Isaiah 53, and that in a completely separate context. (Ibid., pp. 213-214)
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