This is part 12 of a series; 
The Selves is part 1.

John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.

People get very confused by this passage, but it’s actually really simple if you take it slow. In the beginning, a being existed called here “the Word” – which is translated from the Greek logos meaning “spokesman.” And John goes on to say in verse 14 that “The Word became flesh, and lived among us.”

Thus, this being called the Word is another name for Jesus, before He entered the womb of Mary and became a human. And in the beginning – before the Earth, before the angels, before the heavens – the Logos, the pre-existent Jesus, already existed.

John also says that this Logos was WITH God which means there was ANOTHER God whom Jesus was WITH. Not the same God! But a separate, distinct God with whom Jesus, the Logos, existed. The God for whom Jesus was a spokesman!

John 12:49-50 For I spoke not from myself, but the Father who sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. I know that his commandment is eternal life. The things therefore which I speak, even as the Father has said to me, so I speak.

This is Jesus continuing His role as the Logos of the Father – the Logos, therefore, of God! Which means the “God” who was “with” the “Logos” in John 1 was the Father!

So far, so good; nothing incomprehensible here. But then, just after saying the Logos was WITH God, John 1:2 says that the Logos WAS God. Wait, what?? Was the Logos WITH God or WAS He God? Which is it?

Is this a contradiction? Or is this some incomprehensible thing beyond our grasp? Many preachers would tell you it is. But I say… it’s not. In fact, you already know the answer, you just don’t realize it!

ELOHIM

The answer is really very, very simple and doesn’t take any brain-stretching at all. There are two main words translated as “God” in the Old Testament; El and Elohim. You may notice those sound similar, which is because El is the word “God” and Elohim is the plural of that word!

To understand what that word means, just use the golden rule and ask yourself… why do you turn a name into a plural? What does it mean if a name goes from being Johnson to the Johnsons? It means it’s broadened to include Johnson’s family!

But think about the first John, the original John, from whom all Johnsons are named; his full name was simply John. His son was called “Bill, John’s son”; which contracts to Bill Johnson. Collectively, all his children and their children are called “the Johnsons” which is a plural of John!

But the original John doesn’t need a last name because he was absolutely unique! In the same way, there is only one of the Father – in Hebrew, He is called El. There is no reason to have a last name, because He is the Most High El (Genesis 14:18). Everyone knows who that is.

But when He has a SON, the Son has His own unique name followed by the name of His Father! In the OT, the son’s name was Yahweh (opinions vary about spelling and pronunciation); and to show what family He belongs to, He carries a LAST NAME too! Which is why the OT usually refers to Him as Yahweh Elohim!

In English we might call Him “Yahweh, of the Els”, or “Yahweh Elson.” But more clearly, we could simply call Him “Yahweh of the family of El”!

Thus, El is the proper name of the Father; and Elohim is the surname everyone who serves the Father bears! Which, if you’d only listened, is exactly what the Bible said all along!

Ephesians 3:14-15 This is the reason I kneel in the presence of the Father from whom all the family in heaven and on earth receives its name.

Armed with this knowledge, John 1:1-3 becomes very easy to explain with no brain wrinkling required! For in the beginning, El and His spokesman, the Logos, existed. And the Logos was with El, and the Logos – since He served El – was Elohim!

This distinction is lost in translation when you translate both El and Elohim into the same word “God”; and unfortunately the Greek word theos, used in John 1, also fails to distinguish between God and the family of God which bears His name – Elohim! Which is why we are meant to use the whole Bible to understand verses like these!

Thus to paraphrase John 1:1-3 so it can be understood easily, it simply says “in the beginning Jesus already existed, and Jesus was with the Father, and Jesus was an Elohim, and Jesus made all things.” See? Not complicated at all!

We know the Logos is the same being as Jesus because Ephesians 3:9 says that Jesus created all things; and since Genesis 2:4 said “Yahweh Elohim made the earth and the heavens”, it means Jesus must be Yahweh Elohim as well!

YAHWEH ELOHIM

Let me be excruciatingly clear here – this in no way contradicts the Bible’s repeated statements that there is one God. There absolutely only one. But there are also many members in His family who bear His name of Elohim, badly translated as “God”, when really it should be translated as “of the family of God.”

1 Corinthians 8: 4-6 (BBE) …there is no God but one. For though there are those who have the name of gods, in heaven or on earth, as there are a number of gods and a number of lords, There is for us only one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we are for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we have our being through him.

The angels are referred to as sons of God because they carry His last name! (Job 38:7). Thus, they too are Elohim, “Gods”, just as the Logos was! Which is why when Moses, after Israel had been some centuries in Egypt, met with Yahweh Elohim at the burning bush, he asked “which Elohim should I say sent me?”

Because he, being from Egypt, knew there were “Gods many, and Lords many!”; so asking which one was speaking to him made sense! To set Himself apart from the other Elohim, the angels, Yahweh Elohim told Moses “I am the I am; tell them the I am sent you” (Exodus 3:14).

Which sounds tautological until you realize the name Yahweh is derived from the Hebrew word hayah, meaning “to be”, thus Yahweh is usually translated as “the existing one”, or the “eternal.” So He was just saying “I am the only Elohim who has always existed.”

Which is why we find Him there, before the beginning, with God – for He has always been there, HENCE THE NAME!

This makes Him unique among the Elohim since He’s the only one of the family who bears the name of the Father who was also “in the beginning with El, and was Elohim!” Everyone else was created later and thus cannot be called “the I Am”!

MELCHIZEDEK

Now I don’t believe we have to address God using a particular Hebrew name – God speaks all languages, and He has gone by many names, even in the Bible! (Check out Must You Use GOD’S SACRED NAME? for more info.) But it is important to know that El refers to the Father, and Yahweh refers to the Word, the being who became Jesus.

Genesis 14:18-20 Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine: and he was priest of God Most High. He blessed him, and said, “Blessed be Abram of God [El] Most High, possessor of heaven and earth: and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” Abram gave him a tenth of all.

This is the first time the word “El” is used in the Bible, in reference to Melchizedek, His high priest. In the NTPaul, drawing on sources we don’t have today, added a lot of details to this person that were obviously familiar to his Hebrew audience, saying…

Hebrews 7:1-3 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem… (being first, by interpretation, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace; without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God), remains a priest continually.

This is a remarkable individual, for he had neither father nor mother – and there are only two immortal beings who were existing before the beginning – the Logos and God. Jesus and the Father. Yahweh Elohim and El. And Melchizedek was priest of the most high El and therefore, must have been Yahweh Elohim!

And we can prove this in many ways. Notice that Melchizedek was made (later, in the womb of Mary), “like the son of God.” And that He remains – to this day – a priest continually. Paul adds later in the chapter…

Hebrews 7:14-24 …after the likeness of Melchizedek there arises another priest, who has been made, not after the law of a fleshly commandment, but after the power of an endless life: for it is testified, “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” …By so much, Jesus has become the collateral of a better covenant. …he, because he lives forever, has his priesthood unchangeable.

In the interests of getting to the point, I’ve cut out a lot of that passage but the bottom line is, Jesus is now the high priest of God, in the exact same office Melchizedek once held – because Jesus is the being who was once Melchizedek.

Interestingly the name Melchizedek in Hebrew literally means “My King is the Righteous One”. Which is why, when Jesus was on the Earth, He said “Why do you call me good? No one is good except one—God” (Mark 10:18). See? 2000 years later, the same Being said the same thing! That His king was the righteous one!

BE ONE IN US

Speaking of “one”, in John 10:30, Jesus said “I and my Father are one.” People like to get all mystical about this, but if they’d just use their brains for a second it doesn’t need to be complicated all. Simply ask “one… what?”

John 17:21-22 that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one;

This can’t be some unknowable divine mystery, because in precisely the same way Jesus and His Father are one, we can ALSO be one – both with each other, and with them!

If anyone ever stopped to ask the Bible, they’d never have had the first problem understanding this. Do a man and woman become one literal being when they, as God said “become one flesh”? Genesis 2:24. So neither do Jesus and the Father become one literal being just because They are one!

1 Corinthians 12:12-14 For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all given to drink into one Spirit.

Your body has ten toes, ten fingers, two eyes, hundreds of thousands of strands of hair. And yet ALL THESE PARTS ARE ONE. They all go where the others go, they all agree with one another, they all are united in purpose and attitude!

1 Corinthians 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.

There is ONE true church; it is spread around the world, and its members may not even know one another, but there is ONE CHURCH, and that church has MANY MEMBERS. But these members all have one thing in common: they all serve God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love their neighbors as themselves.

And so they are ALL ONE in purpose, all part of ONE divine organization (Philippians 1:27). And what organization is that? The organization of the ELOHIM! They are all a part of ONE FAMILY, the FAMILY OF GOD!

Remember in Ephesians 3:14-15, it said the whole family in heaven AND ON EARTH are named after the Father! Meaning that right now, PART of God’s family is in heaven... but PART of the family is on Earth!

John 10:34-36 Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods?’ If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture can’t be broken), do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’”

Get that! He called those to whom the word of God came… GODS! Why? Because that made them into ELOHIM! Which is why part of the Elohim is HERE today – part of that family is YOU AND ME, those “to whom the word of God came”!

Hebrews 2:10-11 (BBE) For he who makes holy and those who are made holy are all of one family; and for this reason it is no shame for him to give them the name of brothers.

This was the ONENESS Jesus had with the Father, the oneness He asked the Father to give us! The belonging to the same family, the right to bear His name! There are at this time only two adult members of this family – Jesus and the Father. And they have both always existed!

Isaiah 43:10 “You are my witnesses” says Yahweh, “With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God [El] formed, neither will there be after me.”

El was not formed before Yahweh; They both were there “in the beginning.” Nor will there ever be another El formed. We are not ever going to be El, any more than Fred Johnson can ever be the ORIGINAL John whose surname he carries.

But Fred is John’s son. Fred can inherit John’s land, Fred can look like John, Fred can have the same blood John has – Fred can be part of John’s family, but Fred will never REPLACE the original John, who will always hold the unique title of head of the family.

You will never be El, for El will always exist. Neither will you be Jesus, for Jesus will always exist. Nor will you be me, nor will I be you. But we can all be part of the same family! We can all have the same last name, and the right to call Him “Abba”, Father! (Romans 8:15).

SUMMARY

For now, we are merely Elohim-fetuses. We are in the proper shape, we have the proper organs and the potential to become like God, but we lack the power. Imagine if a 4 month old fetus were taken from the womb… would it survive? Not without massive medical intervention to create an artificial womb.

So likewise, if we were to be placed in the Kingdom of God right now, we would die instantly, for He dwells in light that no man can approach (1 Timothy 6:16). We could not even look at God and live (Exodus 33:20).

Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God because flesh and blood cannot SURVIVE in the Kingdom of God! First you have to have a new body, one designed to live in that Kingdom! And that is precisely what God is going to give you, when you are born as an Elohim – as a God!

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet revealed what we will be. But we know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is.

So is it blasphemy to think of yourself as the literal child of God? Not as some spiritual metaphor, but a LITERAL fetus that can one day grow to be EXACTLY like God Himself? As always, just use the golden rule and answer is obvious!

Does a father look at the bulging stomach of the mother and say, this is my child? Of course he does! But is this child BORN yet? Of course NOT! Is it as strong as he is? Is it as intelligent? If plucked prematurely from the womb, could it hope to survive in the world his father calls home?

Has it a fraction of his experience, his character, his wisdom, or his beauty? Of course not! But does he think of it as his child nonetheless? Does he work tirelessly to provide for the unborn baby, its mother and its future? So that it can one day grow up to be JUST LIKE HIM in EVERY SIGNIFICANT WAY?

God created man with the words “let us make man in our image, after our likeness” – because God’s plan is to make man be LIKE HIM! Both in appearance, and in character! To make us, quite literally, “like the Most High”.

The world who doesn’t know God are unfertilized eggs of God; waiting only the spirit of God to make them spiritually alive. Those of us who are in God’s true church are members of the Elohim – in the most basic sense possible, we are Gods.

To be sure, we are weak, fetal, unborn Gods, but nonetheless we have the germ of a new life growing within us, which if nurtured will become a new life when we are born again with a spirit body just like the one our Father has.

Impossible? Don’t you know that with God all things are possible?

Think about that.

Continue to Part 13: What Are Angels?