The Names of the Promised One

A Son is Given

A Child is Given

His Name Shall Be Called

Wonderful

Counselor

The Mighty God

The Everlasting Father

The Prince of Peace

Wonderful

Counselor

The Mighty God

THE MIGHTY GOD

Isa_9:6. His name shall be called … The Mighty God.

2. Mighty God.—“Unto us a child is born—Mighty God”; what a leap. How did Isaiah make it? Ask rather, How did Thomas make it? Is not this the carpenter? Is not this Jesus of Nazareth, and can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Yet Thomas, who knew all that, answered and said, “My Lord and my God.” How did he know? How do we know still? We know from what He said, from what He did, from what He was, from what He is.

If Jesus Christ is a man—

And only a man—I say

That of all mankind I cleave to him,

And to him will cleave alway.

If Jesus Christ is a God—

And the only God—I swear

I will follow him through heaven and hell,

The earth, the sea, the air.2 [Note: R. W. Gilder.]

Various devices to escape from the force of this declaration have been tried [908] But after a discussion prolonged through centuries, it is now conceded by the foremost Hebrew scholars of our time, that, whether we accept or reject it, Isaiah’s declaration is that the Person concerning whom he wrote should be called “The mighty God;” which is merely the Scriptural way of asserting that He should be “The mighty God,” for names divinely given represent realities. That the Person concerning whom this declaration was made is our Lord Jesus Christ is the conviction of the whole Christian Church. He is the “Child,” the “Son,” the “Mighty God,” concerning whom Isaiah wrote. Let us do more than give our assent to this statement: let us think about it.

[908] The following translations have been given by sceptical scholars, but have all been conclusively rejected by sound scholarship:—

“Mighty Hero.”—Gesenius.

“Counsellor of the Mighty God.”—Grotius.

“Counseller of God, Mighty.”—Carpenter.

“And He who is Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, calls His name the Prince of peace.”—Jarchi and Kimchi.

I. It is essential to soundness of creed, and to any full realisation of the Christian life, to hold firmly to the doctrine of the perfect humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was a man in the same sense that this is true of any man here; whatever was essential to perfectness of manhood existed in Him. Unless we grasp this great truth intelligently and firmly, 1. His example can be of no considerable help to us (H. E. I. 898).

2. His sympathy with men, because of His identity with them in their experience, can never be to us, what it has been to millions, one of the most comforting and strengthening of all thoughts (Heb_2:17-18; Heb_4:15; H. E. I. 872, 954).

II. It is equally necessary that we should hold firmly the doctrine of His Deity. That He is “the mighty God” is the testimony,

1. Of His works (Mat_14:32-33, &c.).

2. Of His words (Joh_6:48; Joh_7:37; Joh_8:12, &c.; H. E. I. 836, 840–842). This doctrine pervades the New Testament (H. E. I. 835, 838.)

The sum of its teaching concerning Him is, that in Him God was manifest, that He is the true God (1Ti_3:16; 1Jn_5:20).

It is not only one of the profoundest of all doctrines, it is the most practical. Let me doubt it, and how can Christ be to me a Saviour? How can He be more to me than any other eminently holy and wise man who died centuries ago, or yesterday?

1. What comfort can I derive from the declaration that He died for me? Could a man atone for the sins of the whole world, for my sins?

2. What comfort can I derive from the declaration that He now lives and is in heaven? If so, as a man, doubtless, He will sympathise with me, but how can I be assured that He hears the cries for help which in times of distress and danger I raise? or that, if He hears me, He is able to help?

1. This complex Christian life of ours can be sustained only by the complex and unfathomably mysterious doctrine of the Divine-human nature of Christ, just as our physical life can be sustained only by the compound yet simple atmosphere we breathe. To simplify the atmosphere by taking away, if it were possible, either of its main constituents would transform the earth into a sepulchre; and to “simplify” Christian doctrine by taking away the doctrine either of our Lord’s humanity or of His Deity is the destruction of spiritual life.

2. Let us, then, accept in all their fulness the declarations of Scripture concerning the Person of our Lord. Those declarations transcend our reason, but they do not contradict it (H. E. I. 851, 4809–4814), and they should be joyfully accepted by our faith.

3. Let us think much of Christ as the Son of man, that by His example we may be incited to strive after a noble manhood, and that by the assurance of His sympathy we may be sustained amid all the struggles and sorrows of life.

4. Let us think much of Him as “the mighty God,” that our faith may rejoice in His ability to accomplish for us a complete redemption; that our reason and conscience may be led to bow to the authority which must therefore belong to all His utterances; that our love for Him, while it is tender and ardent, may be also reverent; and that our soul may feel itself free to give expression to the feelings of adoration that rise up within us when we contemplate His perfections, His purposes, and the work which it is declared He has accomplished on our behalf.

MIGHTY GOD BUT NOT ALMIGHTY GOD

ISAIAH 43:10“You are My witnesses,” says the Lord, “And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me.

The word for “God” here is the simple Hebrew “el.” The most basic word for “god” and the same word used of the Messiah in Isaiah 9:6. If Jesus is the Messiah, He is the “Mighty God” or the “el gibbor,” and He is to be called upon as such. But there is no other true, living God besides Jehovah. There is no “el” but He, and His people are surely not to call on a false god for their deliverance. Thus, even standing on its own, Isaiah 9:6 is rather clear that the Mighty God on whom they are to call is Jehovah and not some lesser god that would by definition be a false god since there is only one true God and never will be another

Still, Isaiah didn’t stop writing at 9:6. In the very next chapter he says:

“Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord [YHWH, or Jehovah], the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God,” (Isaiah 10:20-21).

Jeremiah, for example, pronounces:

“who shows loving kindness to thousands, but repays the iniquity of fathers into the bosom of their children after them, O great and mighty God [el gibbor]. The Lord [YHWH, or Jehovah] of hosts is His name,” (Jeremiah 32:18).

And Zephaniah lauds in similar terms:

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty [gibbor] one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing,” (Zephaniah 3:17).

Jehovah is certainly “almighty,” but He is also rightly called “mighty” by the prophets. He is the living God. He is the true God. He is the only God upon whom we are to call. He is the only savior. Jesus is the “mighty God” upon whom we are to call. He is our eternal Savior. Jesus is Jehovah God.

REVELATION

In Revelation we have an important interchange between John and a “speaker” revealing to him many things. Rev 1:8 shows the speaker saying, “‘I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,’ says the Lord who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty … (John) … hear(d) behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, ‘I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last … ‘” When John “turned to see the voice that spoke to me” he saw “one like the Son of Man …” who continued by saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, I am he who lives, and was dead, and behold I am alive forever more, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”[2]

We know by this description that the speaker is Jesus – He is described as being like “the Son of Man”, a term Jesus used to refer to Himself during His earthly ministry. And only Jesus could say that He had been dead but was alive forever; clearly the Father had never died and only Christ had risen eternally from the dead. Yet, this Speaker identifies Himself as being “the beginning and the end”, “the first and the last”, and John identifies the one who says “I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,” as being the Almighty. Here in chapter one, we have “the Lord … the Almighty” calling Himself “the first and the last” and He “who was dead, and behold, I live forever more …” also declaring Himself to be “the first and the last”.

Again in Rev 2:8, the Speaker’s message to the church in Smyrna begins with, “These things says the first and the last, who was dead and is alive”. Again He who is “first and last” is also He who was dead and is now alive.

Later in chapter 21, verse 6, we have Him who “sat on the throne” in heaven declaring “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to him who is thirsty of the fountain of the water of life freely. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.” So the Alpha and Omega is also the beginning and the end, and is the God of those who come to Him. But in Chapter one, the one who called Himself Alpha and Omega, first and last is also He who was dead, and is now alive forevermore. Clearly the Father was never dead. Only Jesus was dead and resurrected. So He who was dead and resurrected, Jesus, is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, and the God of him who thirsts.

Finally, in Rev 22, we have the speaker saying that He will come quickly, and His reward is with Him, to give to everyone according to his work. He also says of Himself that “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last …. I Jesus have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star …” Here the speaker is clearly identified as Jesus, being also Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last – exactly the same titles claimed by the speaker in chapter one who John says is the Lord, the Almighty. Either John is wrong or the Watchtower Society is wrong. Either Jesus Christ is the Lord God Almighty, as the Book of Revelation and the entire Bible makes very plain, or John along with the other Biblical authors were wrong, and the Bible is of no value to us in understanding anything about God, ourselves, or the world in which we live.

The Everlasting Father

The Prince of Peace