One God. The Father. The God of Israel.
Deuteronomy 6:4 · Mark 12:29 · John 17:3
"Hear, O Israel: YHWH our God is one Lord."Deuteronomy 6:4 / Mark 12:29
This is the foundational creed of the Bible. Spoken through Moses to Israel. Affirmed by Yeshua himself as the greatest commandment. Preserved by the apostles in their letters and salutations across the entire New Testament.
There is one God. He is the Father. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God Yeshua worshiped and called his own God.
"Hear, O Israel: YHWH our God is one Lord."
"The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; YHWH our God is one Lord." — Yeshua himself, quoting the Shema as the greatest commandment.
"This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
"To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ."
"One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."
"There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."
"Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well."
"Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?"
The Trinity as formally defined — one God in three co-equal, co-eternal Persons sharing one substance — was hammered into shape across the fourth and fifth centuries. The key councils:
None of these categories are in the New Testament. Not homoousios. Not hypostasis. Not eternal generation. Not dual nature. These are Greek philosophical terms grafted onto a Hebrew Messiah by Roman councils centuries after the apostles were dead.
The Shema does not need them. Yeshua did not teach them. The apostles did not preach them. Scripture is sufficient.
If the Father is not the one true God, none of these sentences could be spoken honestly.
"The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; YHWH our God is one Lord." Mark 12:29
"This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God." John 17:3
"I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." John 20:17
"The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him." John 4:23
"Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." Mark 13:32
"Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." Mark 10:18
Yeshua had a God. Yeshua worshiped the Father. Yeshua quoted the Shema as the greatest commandment and never edited it.
These two resources demonstrate the differentiation between the Father and Yeshua throughout scripture, which is the load-bearing evidence for Pillar I.
Scripture's Constant Differentiation Between YHWH and Yeshua
Over a hundred verses across the whole canon distinguishing the Father from the Son. The Father acts. Yeshua is acted upon. The pattern is everywhere.
Read A Shaliach ResourceThe Shaliach Principle and the Real Identity of Yeshua
The Hebrew legal category that explains how Yeshua relates to the one God — as the Sent One, never the Sender. The framework before the creeds.
Read