The manifestation of the “Angel of the Lord” is I think another strong piece of Scriptural evidence one can use to utterly demolish this idea of the trinity the gentile church has promoted.
Why?
Because the Trinity doctrine asserts that God can only manifest Himself in three different ways: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
If that’s the case, then yeah, it makes sense the only logical conclusion the Christian can arrive at is that this “Angel of the Lord” appearing here in the first verse of Judges Chapter 2 is indeed Yeshua.
Never mind the fact that Yeshua himself declared he was subordinate to the Father in so many verses in the New Testament.
Never mind the fact that if this is indeed Yeshua, that means his virgin birth from Mary was not his “first coming”.
It was more like his 23rd coming or something.
All you have to do is count how many times the Angel of the Lord appears before Yeshua was born as a baby.
And never mind the fact that the Father’s Name Yehoveh is NEVER applied to Yeshua himself.
Anyways, I don’t wanna go down the rabbit hole of whether Yeshua was literally the Father or not.
My point is if you hold to a Trinity doctrine, you are severely limiting God.
You’re literally saying the only ways He can manifest Himself is as either the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit.
And I’m saying it’s ridiculous as heck to limit all the possible manifestations of God to just these three entities.
‘Cause here’s something all you trinitarian folks have got to come to terms with.
There is nothing, and I mean absolutely NOTHING in Scripture that dogmatically asserts that God is only 3 in 1.
For instance, what would you say about the Shekinah?
That doesn’t fit into any trinitarian box now, does it?
And I believe this Angel of the Lord is another manifestation of God that you just can’t shove into your dogmatic Trinitarian theology.
The Lord is much bigger than that.
So yeah, I don’t think the human apparition that Abraham ate and spoke with was Yeshua.
And I don’t think the spiritual being Jacob wrestled with was Yeshua either.
No doubt, these manifestations of God are in some mystifying ways attached to the Lord and said to be God.
But I think it’s a huge mistake to just off the cuff assume any other manifestation of God is Yeshua just because you’re handcuffed by some trinitarian theology.
Anyways, I think the safe conclusion we can reach concerning this “Angel of the Lord” appearing here in the beginning of Judges Chapter 2 is that it is indeed a spiritual being as opposed to being a flesh-and-blood human messenger.
And for those of you who aren’t handcuffed by some Trinity doctrine, it’s best to just accept the fact that we’ve got a direct manifestation of God here and just leave it at that.
Don’t try to rationalize it by trying to make it fit into some manmade doctrine whether of Jewish or Christian origin.
Especially if it doesn’t appear anywhere in Scripture.
I think a good dose of humbleness is in order here because when it comes to comprehending the spirit world, let’s face it homies, our capacities are very limited.
At the end of the day, taking the words we use to describe the physical world and attempting to apply those same words to the spiritual world is I think a futile task in many ways.
The “Messenger OF YHWH” is just that…OF YHWH. The messenger cannot be YHWH and also OF YHWH.
Just as the “Host of YHWH” isn’t YHWH either. YHWH is YHWH alone.
You misunderstand the doctrine of the Trinity. There is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They can manifest however they chose (ie The Angel of the Lord). And this is NOT a gentile teaching alone. It is a Jewish teaching. It is a Scriptural teaching. While the word “Trinity” is not in Scripture, The Father is God, Jesus is God, and God’s Spirit is God too. There are plenty of passages of Scripture both in the Hebrew and New Testament to thoroughly support this.
Thank you for educating me.
Greetings!
I really appreciate your perspective and insight. I too agree with your assessment of this topic regarding the doctrine of the “Trinity” !
Not only is the word nowhere to be found in scripture neither is the divinity of the Holy Spirit ! The concept of the Holy Spirit being a “Person” is a litmus test for the majority of Christianity…the Holy Spirit can be poured out like water or oil…(Acts 2:18) quoting Joel, and again in( Acts 10:45) on the Gentiles also was “Poured Out” the gift of the Holy Spirit ! Can you pour out a “person” from one into another? God manifested himself as “tongues of fire”, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…a person? Joseph was told not to be afraid to take Mary as your wife because that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit…if The Holy Spirit is a “person” that would make “Him” the father of Yeshua…yet Yeshua never prayed to anyone but the Father!
Did Paul believe God was a “Trinity”? Based on his letters, whether it be to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, etc…his salutation to every group was always the same. “Greetings to you and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ”…never once mentioning the Holy Spirit in any of his salutations to any of the “churches”. Now if he believed the Holy Spirit was a “person” equal to the Father and Son…that would be quite an egregious oversight, don’t you agree?
As you are well aware, these are just a very small sample of the many scriptures that demonstrate the same concept…the creator God is not limited in any way to manifesting himself to just 3 entities.
The sad commentary on all religions, whether it be Judaism, or Christianity…is “Orthodoxy”! The ruling elite dictate what “truth” is according to their understanding and any attempt to question, discuss, think freely, regardless if it is in scripture or not, makes one a “heretic” or outside the acceptable “right way to think” and “WE” rabbinic council. or “church fathers”, the hierarchy determines what that is…closes down free discussion of ideas. Thus continued growth in understanding is frozen .
Amen Edward. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.