VERSE:
[God speaking to Israel]
“But I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me.”
— Hosea 13:4
THOUGHT:
The bible leaves no room for misconceptions of Jesus’ deity (His Godhood). There is “no savior except” the one true God – Jehovah of the Old Testament who brought Israel out of Egypt – yet the New Testament says that Jesus is our savior (Acts 13:23). Either the bible contradicts itself, or Jesus and Jehovah are one in the same.
This is a clear, fundamental truth of Christianity, yet many people within the church are ignorant of the deity of Jesus or don’t understand it’s importance. This is one truth that all cults err on – reducing Jesus to less than God incarnate. Satan is trying to mask Jesus’ glory, hindering mankind from seeing the savior for who He truly is.
Further, our arrogance has caused us to think that if we can’t understand something, we should explain it away. So if we can’t understand how there can be one God who manifests Himself in three people (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit), then we should explain it away. Therefore the doctrine of Jesus’ deity is not only being attacked by the cults, it’s often attacked by our own intellectual arrogance.
APPLICATION:
Exalt the name of Jesus as the one true God. Acknowledge no God or savior except Him. Study the scriptures in order to defend this often attacked doctrine. Don’t be afraid to confront these attacks when they do come, either from the cults or from our own intellectual arrogance.
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, I esteem your Name above all names. I acknowledge no God and no savior except Jesus. Help me learn to scripturally defend the doctrine of the deity of Jesus so I can confront the attacks with boldness. In Jesus’ Name I pray, AMEN!
The two scriptures themselves do not contradict each other.
Looking at the actual Hebrew the word savior simply means deliverer. Which Jehovah is. It is not defining it as a Title. The literal Greek in Acts 13:23 says "This the God from the seed according to promise brought forth to the Israel a savior Jesus,"
In Acts 13:23 it does not put a definite article before the Greek word savior, thus it is not using it as a title but rather a description.
Looking at just the scriptures. As Hosea shows Jehovah is a deliverer, he always was there to deliver his people. By sending his only Begotten Son Jesus Christ he provided deliverance above and beyond what he had ever done before. He allowed His Son to die as a ransom.
I encourage you to research the origin of the trinity doctrine, you may find it interesting as it predates Christianity finding it's roots in pagan philosophy that was adopted to try and explain the scriptures.
Laying aside the issue of "savior" as being either a title or a description (which i made no claim that it was either or – my point remains the same whether "savior" is used simply as a description or as a title), are you saying that Jesus is not Jehovah? There are plenty of other scriptures that plainly teach that Jesus and Jehovah are one in the same – I used this more "obscure" scripture simply because it stood out to me as I was reading it.
Whether or not the trinity doctrine predates Christianity is irrelevant, if in fact the bible actually teaches it (though it doesn't use the word "trinity", the teaching is evident). The word is simply a way the systematizers saw the truth, and wanted to name it (the same thing as "original sin", etc.).