April 05, 2019

Theology 10 — Challenging God’s Oneness

1 hour 2 minutes

How many is God? Although the ancient Shema (recorded in Deuteronomy 6) teaches that God is one, Christian theologians have put forward a number of reasons arguing for a plurality within God. We will examine a number of these words, texts, and reasonings in an effort to agree with Jesus who wholeheartedly affirmed the Jewish Shema as his own greatest commandment.

—— Notes ——

State the Doctrine Simply

God is one.

Texts that Support This Teaching

The Shema!

שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה׀ אֶחָֽד׃

וְאָ֣הַבְתָּ֔ אֵ֖ת יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ֥ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ֖ וּבְכָל־מְאֹדֶֽךָ׃

Deuteronomy 6.4-9

4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

story of Akiva

Roman commander, Turnus Rufus: “Have you no feeling of pain? Are you a sorcerer?”

Akiva: “I am no sorcerer; but I rejoice at the opportunity now given to me to love my God ‘with all my life,’ seeing that I have hitherto been able to love him only ‘with all my means’ and ‘with all my might,’” and with the word “one” he expired”[1]

Akiva set a precedent for dying, especially in persecution

from the persecution of the Romans that Akiva faced

to the forced conversions and subsequent burning at the stake by the Spanish Inquisition of the middle ages

to the murmur of Jewish voices in the Nazi gas chambers

to the victims of Hamas today

this people repeats the words of the Shema in the manner of Akiva over and over and die with it on their lips

what a legacy!

Isaac Peretz:

“The Hebrew language… is the only glue which holds together our scattered bones. It also holds together the rings in the chain of time…. It binds us to those who built pyramids, to those who shed their blood on the ramparts of Jerusalem, and to those who, at the burning stakes, cried Shema Yisrael!”[2]

Rabbi Shraga Simmons:

“Seth Mandel, the father of 13-year-old Koby Mandel who was bludgeoned to death in a cave by Arab terrorists, spoke at the massive pro-Israel rally in Washington DC in April 2002. He told the following story:

In the Sbarro Pizza bombing which killed 15 people in Jerusalem, five members of a Dutch family were killed. One was a 4-year-old boy named Avraham Yitzhak. As he was lying on the ground – bleeding, burning and dying – he said to his father, “Abba, please help me. Save me.”

His father reached over and held his hand. Together they said the words of the Shema.

Seth Mandel told the DC crowd:

“My son Koby died alone. I didn’t have the chance to say the Shema with him. So now I want you to help me say the Shema for the hundreds of Jews who have been killed in Mideast violence. Say the Shema with me in the merit of the boy in Sbarro’s. And say the Shema with me in the merit of my son Koby.” He then led the crowd of 250,000 in reciting the Shema together. [3]

Talmud:

“Jerusalem was only destroyed because its inhabitants desecrated the Shabbat, they refrained from reciting the Morning and Evening Shema…” (Talmud, Shabbat 119b)

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By Sean P Finnegan

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