the next chapter, 'but Abraham stood yet before the Lord (Jehovah)' (Gen.

18:22).  It is to Jehovah that Abraham prayed, and it is Jehovah Who said,

'If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare it for

their sakes'.  At the conclusion of this prayer 'The Lord (Jehovah) went His

way' (Gen. 18:33).  In Genesis 19:1 -23 we have the intervention of the two

angels, and the escape of Lot.  Then we read these strange words:

'Then the Lord (Jehovah) rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone

and fire from the Lord (Jehovah) out of heaven' (Gen. 19:24).

This is revealed for our faith, but does not attempt an explanation.

Many who oppose the testimony of passages we have brought forward, subscribe

to the inspiration of all Scripture.  To such this appeal is made:

'Do you believe that Genesis, chapters 18 and 19, are a part of

inspired Scripture revealing to man knowledge that otherwise he could

never attain?'

If the answer be 'yes' then we must acknowledge that in this twenty -

fourth verse we have a revelation that reflects upon the nature of the Lord,

and brings to light a constitution and an order of Being entirely foreign to

our experience.  But it is nevertheless True.  Jehovah, in all appearances, a

man, is here represented as standing on the earth raining down fire and

brimstone from Jehovah out of heaven, 'and He (not they) overthrew those

In the presence of these passages, would it not be wise, humbly to

acknowledge that we do not know and cannot comprehend the essential nature of

God, and that any attempt to construct a system of Divinity that ignores this

limitation is necessarily doomed to failure?

'It is not God Himself, but the knowledge He has revealed to us

concerning Himself which constitutes the material for theological

investigation' (Dr. A. Kuyherr, Encylopaedia of Sacred Theology).

We turn now to the great text already introduced in

this study that speaks of the unity of God, namely Deuteronomy 6:4:

In the first place let us notice that it is not God Who is said to be

one, but the Lord, and before we go further with this great verse, let us

remember that over and over again the God of Israel is called 'The Lord our

God' (Deut. 1:6) or 'The Lord your God' (Deut. 1:10) or 'The Lord God of your

fathers' (Deut. 1:11).  This title comes so many times that it is impossible

to ignore it.  Now in chapter 4, it is twice asserted that 'there is none

else' (Deut. 4:35,39), so the idea that God could tolerate 'a God' beside

Himself, as some ignorantly and blasphemously imagine John 1:1 teaches, is

proved to be unscriptural and untenable.  Jehovah is God, and there is none

beside Him.  We are not yet ready to consider proofs that the 'Jehovah' of

the Old Testament  is the 'Jesus' of the New Testament; we have first to

examine Deuteronomy 6:4.  Here we have the title already referred to, 'The

Lord our God', Jehovah our Elohim 'is one Lord (Jehovah)'.  The word echad