God, Who is Spirit, has two great all-embracive attributes. He is `Light' and He is `Love'. These two attributes

are associated with the two great names under which God has made Himself known, `Elohim' and `Jehovah'. Both

the attributes and the names are gathered up once more in the lower realm of the flesh, and are found in Emmanuel,

God with us, God manifest in the flesh.

*

In other writings we have demonstrated that every attribute ascribed to God in the Scriptures is also ascribed to

the Lord Jesus Christ, with the one obvious exception, that of invisibility. We now propose to examine the two great

titles under which the invisible God has made Himself known to man through the Word, Elohim and Jehovah.

The reader will recognize in the word Elohim the plural form `im' occurring in other well-known words as

`Cherubim', etc. Although the word is plural, and should naturally take a plural verb, we nevertheless find in a

number of occurrences that the verb used is in the singular. This is the case in Genesis 1:1, where `created' (bara) is

the third person, masculine singular perfect of the verb `to create'. To leave the matter here however, would be to

state but half the truth, and consequently to state a falsehood. Elohim is also followed by verbs in the plural as may

be seen in Genesis 1:26:

`And Elohim said' (vay-yo-mer, the third person, masculine singular). `Let us make' (na-seh, first person plural).

In this selfsame chapter we have, in such a fundamental matter as the nature of God, a most remarkable use of

the singular and the plural verb. Quite apart from the fact of inspiration, we should expect that Moses would not use

any words that were misleading on such a vital subject. He evidently seeks to express the fact that Elohim stands for

a unity. This unity therefore, may be sometimes said to act in the singular number or in the plural, a feature of

divine revelation that meets us on the very threshold, and warns us that there is no possible way of understanding the

nature of God by human means. We must believe what He says of Himself, and all that He says of Himself, even

though (as in the case of the use of both singular and plural verbs, pronouns and adjectives) the matter does not

come within our experience nor can be made to conform to our reasonings. The Elohim Who created in such a way

that it demanded a singular verb to explain the truth, nevertheless can be said to take counsel at the creation of man:

`And Elohim said (singular), Let US (or WE will) make (plural) man in OUR image, according to OUR likeness'.

Moreover, while the Old Testament teaches that God is One, we have the remarkable passage in Ecclesiastes

12:1, which reads: `Remember now thy Creators' not `Creator'.

The idea that God took counsel with angels, or received assistance from any creature is repudiated by Isaiah

44:24. There is no alternative therefore, but to bow before the revelation of truth, and confess that the title Elohim is

taken by God to reveal to man a Unity, and not a Being of solitary and absolute one-ness.

If the reader will glance at the diagram on page 12 once more, he will see that both the names Elohim and

Jehovah are not in the realm of pure Being (that is expressed in the words `God is Spirit'), but are in the realm of

manifestation, creation, redemption or relation. All that we know of God is relative, not absolute, and it is a fallacy

to attempt to reason back from either the word Elohim or Jehovah into that realm where neither time nor space have

any place.

Now, instead of this fact causing the simple believer to shrink back from such a theme, the very fact that God,

Whom no man hath seen nor can see, Who recognises not the limits of time nor space, Who cannot be found out

unto perfection by searching: the very fact that He has revealed to us, His creatures, as much as can be grasped, by

minds like ours, of His Person and attributes so far as they relate to the ages and their purpose, should fill us with

abounding thanksgiving.

With this introduction we pass on to examine in our next chapter the meaning that Scripture attaches to these two

great titles:

*

The Deity of Christ, by Charles H. Welch.