The demons that Jesus confronted knew the Messiah as the Son of God, not as God.  "And he cried out with a loud voice and said, "What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?…" (Lk.8:28b).  Jesus is the son of God; he cannot also be God.

Although Mathew Henry believed that Jesus is God in the Trinitarian sense, in his Commentary on the Whole Bible, he gives some interesting insights into the Greek word logos: "Of whom he speaks—the word--ho logos [Greek].  This is an idiom peculiar to John's writings. See 1 Jn.1:1; 5:7; Rev.19:13. Yet, some think that Christ is meant by the Word in Acts 20:32; Heb. 4:12; Lk.1:2.  The Chaldee paraphrase very frequently calls the Messiah Memra—the word of Jehovah, and speaks of many things in the Old Testament, said to be done by the Lord, as done by that Word of the Lord.  Even the vulgar Jews were taught that the word of God was the same with God.  The evangelist, in the close of his discourse (v.18), plainly tells us why he calls Christ the word—because he is the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, and has declared him.  Word is two-fold: logos endiathetos—word conceived; and logos prophorikos—word uttered.  The logos, ho esoµ and ho exoµ, ratio and oratio—intelligence and utterance.

1. There is the word conceived, that is, thought, which is the first and only immediate product and conception of the soul (all the operations of which are performed by thought), and it is one with the soul.  And thus the second person in the Trinity is fitly called the word; for he is the first-begotten of the Father, that eternal essential Wisdom which the Lord possessed, as the soul does its thought, in the beginning of his way, Prov.8:22. There is nothing we are more sure of than that we think, yet nothing we are more in the dark about than how we think; who can declare the generation of thought in the soul?  Surely then the generations and births of the eternal mind may well be allowed to be great mysteries of godliness, the bottom of which we cannot fathom, while yet we adore the depth.

2. There is the word uttered, and this is speech, the chief and most natural indication of the mind.  And thus Christ is the word, for by him God has in these last days spoken to us (Heb.1:2), and has directed us to hear him, Matt.17:5. He has made known God's mind to us, as a man's word or speech makes known his thoughts, as far as he pleases, and no further.  Christ is called that wonderful speaker (see notes on Dan.8:13), the speaker of things hidden and strange. He is the word speaking from God to us and to God for us.  John Baptist was the voice, but Christ the word: being the word, he is the truth, the Amen, the faithful witness of the mind of God."

In all this, it has been abundantly shown, I think, that God is most definitely not a "family" or a conglomerate of infinite and finite beings.  To turn God into a family unit is to diffuse his power, authority, and glory, and to dull His brilliance.  It is to turn his unique being into something common and manageable by man.  We can handle a family of gods wherein we take part, but we cannot handle or deal with a truly sovereign Almighty Yahweh God.  And the root of the binitarian polytheistic scheme is the carving up of God's sovereignty.  It has been said time and again that our doctrines should be held lightly.  This is a wise saying.  Those who stand upon doctrine or distinctive teachings to identify themselves in the world or within the religious community are destined to stumble.  Those who stand upon these distinctive teachings for salvation will indeed fall.  Those who wish to stand steady in salvation must be standing upon Jesus the Messiah, the son of the Most High God, and not upon the shifting sands of church teachings and tradition.  We should be willing to reexamine our doctrinal positions in the light of additional or new revelation and change positions on doctrine if it is warranted.  What we should never change, however, is our position on Christ.  (END)

JESUS THE CHRIST IS THE DIVINELY EXALTED MAN, the ONLY begotten son of God, by whom we are saved.  He is Lord, he lived in the flesh, and he is worthy of praise and worship.  It is through no other name—Yashua ha Massiach, Jesus the Messiah, the Christ--that we are drawn to accept as believers in the one true God.  Although the name of Jesus is important, does salvation come through (or as a result of) the verbalization of a series of vowel and consonant sounds, or is salvation through the person and actually coming from God Almighty?  Because, if salvation comes through the verbalization of a name, then most of us are lost, indeed, possibly all of us are lost, since no one living today has heard the name of Jesus (in his language) pronounced in the first century AD. There are no recordings of the "correct" pronunciation of Yahshua or of the name of his father, Yahweh (YHWH) for that matter that were made in the first century.  This is a problem for those who suggest that the "correct" name must be uttered for salvation to be effective.  God's revealed religion is a heart religion; it is not a language religion!  Jesus Christ is the historical biblical figure called Jesus of Nazareth, miraculously born of a virgin, Mary, in the first century AD, through the agency of the spirit of Yahweh.  According to the Bible, Jesus came from the tribe of Judah, lived for about 33 years and was murdered by crucifixion. God raised Jesus from the dead after three days and three nights, according to the sign of Jonah.  He now rules from heaven as King of kings, having been given all power over flesh, heaven and earth, by his Father.  Jesus is Lord but he is not God. (END)

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WHO IS JESUS CHRIST?