“The thought presented in this chapter regarding Yahveh Elohim will meet with the strongest prejudice arising in the preconceived ideas of long standing in the mind of the Christian world; ideas which existed, as Professor Proctor says, among the early Semitic tribes. Because of constant touch with lower races who worshipped the sun, moon, and stars, and the various forces of nature as so many gods, the earliest Semitic thinkers were necessarily driven to the opposite extreme, and in order to preserve their people from leaving the worship of Yahveh Elohim and uniting with the heathen around them in their worship of many gods, they were forced to keep ever before the minds of the people that their God was not divided into many gods, one warring against another as were those of the heathen, but that he was a Unity, One God. Therefore, as far back as we have any knowledge of it, there have been repeated in the Israelitish ritual the words, “Hear, O Israel: Yahveh our God is one Yahveh”; and also the words of the Covenant, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
Now that the great truth of the multiplicity in unity of the Godhead was known to the writers of the Bible is shown in every utterance in reference to the great Name and in reference to the Elohim; and even in this most emphatic utterance, Shema Yisrael Yahveh Elohim Yahveh echad (“Hear, O Israel: Yahveh thy God is one Yahveh”), it will be seen that the noun Elohim (God) retains a plural form, and that also a plurality in unity is “expressed by the word echad.”
But it may be argued that this is not alone a Jewish doctrine, that it was also the doctrine of Christ; for, according to Mark’s Gospel, when asked which was the first commandment, he quoted the same words in reply. It is remarkable, however, that, with the exception of Mark, none of the apostles give this form to his reply to the question. Not to question Mark’s memory in regard to this matter, the Christ well knew that for many centuries it would be necessary to guard the people against the many gods of the heathen. And did he not well know the dark period through which his revelation must pass before the dawn of the eternal morning?
Were this not true, he would not have told them that he had many things to tell them but that they were not ready to receive them then. Consequently, he made but little effort to reveal to his disciples the great mystery of the bringing together of a body of people and harmonizing them so that they become one body, “many members, and all the members of that one body”, all members essential to the constitution of that body. But he laid the foundation for this doctrine in the parable wherein he said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” Now, you that think, can readily discern the governing law manifest here: Through the vine flows the same life-giving sap that nourishes all the branches.
Being a member of the body of Yahveh Elohim, he frequently emphasized the thought, “I can of mine own self do nothing”, which was equivalent to saying, Severed from the body of the Elohim, I have no power. In his last great prayer (John 27) he prayed for those who should believe on him, that they might be one, as he and the Father were one: “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.” Here in most unmistakable terms is expressed multiplicity in unity, not only in the body of his believers, but also in the body of the Elohim, which he called his Father.
Bear in mind the words, “that they may be one, even as we are one”, in the same way. This is unmistakable language, but we will not extend the argument. While a multitude of texts might be quoted from the Scripture to show that what has been said is indubitably a truth, we know how futile argument is, and realizing the force of the words of the Christ, we rest these truths upon them: “He that is of God, heareth God’s words.””
Hiram Butler
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 