There is a theological treatise in Isaiah 46:22, 23. It has several themes that we encounter time after time in the Scripture.
"Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. By Myself I have sworn; Truth has gone from My mouth, a word that will not be revoked: Every knee will bow to Me, every tongue will swear allegiance."
Let's examine them point by point. First, this is the Lord speaking and He is the source of salvation–for everyone on earth. Not all will accept, but it is offered to them. Look at
"And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered."
And in Romans 10:13 Paul repeats this. Paul uses Old Testament quotations to point the Jews to salvation. Only he is talking about Jesus. So the Savior is Jesus.
Then The Savior identifies Himself. "I am God, there is no other." The "one and only" God claim occurs 30 times or more in the Scripture. "There is no other God." Point. Period. Exclamation point. Any claim in opposition to that is fraudulent and spurious.
And this God is the source of truth. Again there is no other. This is an attribute of the all knowing God. Since He knows everything, what He knows must be the Truth. He is "aware" of falsehood, but He is not the source of that. He only displays truth in opposition and that refutes error. And this "truth" will never change or alter. ("be revoked.") This is comforting to a world that is suffused with "false news" and shifting standards. The truth is there. It is our responsibility to look to it instead of substitutes.
Next comes an intriguing pronouncement. Remember that the Speaker is One Who has sworn. It will not ever change. "Every knee will bow to Me, every tongue will swear allegiance." This is going to happen some day. This command will never be revoked nor repudiated.
Notice that this command is repeated in Romans 14:11. This further reinforces the permanence of this declaration. At some point, every knee in the world will bow and acknowledge that He is God. And then a curious juxtaposition occurs in Philippians 2:9. Paul is talking about Jesus and proclaims:
For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
To define, "Lord" we look back to Romans 11 and Joel 2.
R-v. 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13 for "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved." J-v. 32 "And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord Will be delivered."
Joel is talking about Jehovah. Romans is talking about Jesus. Both are Lord. The one and only Lord. When discussing the divinity of Jesus I like to quote Hebrews 1. First in verse 6 God the Father commands the angels to worship the Son. Since God is the only One, as we saw in Isaiah and He commands everyone to worship Him alone in the first commandment, this is a conundrum for anyone who argues that Jesus is "less than," or not God.
The conflict is that either God is schizophrenic, demanding people to engage in two, mutually exclusive actions, or Jesus is truly equal with God. He is indeed God as declared by the Father. If there is "no other God," then an "equal" One would be another one. This cannot occur logically, theologically, or in any kind of reasoning format.
And the second statement in Hebrews 1 is totally devastating to the denial of Jesus' divinity. Verse 8: "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever...." God the Father called Jesus, "O God." I have discussed this with cult followers and even used their translation of Hebrews. (I guess their "editors" have not thought to remove it yet.) As we discussed it, he argued that he did not believe that it really said that Jesus was God.
"What does it say?" I asked.
"Well, I don't know, but it does not say that," was his reply. Repeated inquiries yielded the same result. He couldn't produce an alternative meaning without repudiating his translation, but refused to accept what even that translation said. What an uncomfortable situation. He didn't believe his own version of the Bible. (Is that like schizophrenic?) How many "other mistakes" does it have? (Answer: Lots.)
Now Philippians reaffirms that Jesus is truly God. "Every knee will bow" to God the Father, as noted in Isaiah. And Philippians declares that the bowing and confessing will be to Jesus, the Messiah. If our friend Lee Strobel were to write a book on this, which he did, it could be named, "The Case for Christ. He is God."
It is not plagiarism even though it declares that Jesus is God, which is not a new idea. It suffuses the entire Scripture, from the Old Testament through the New. We saw another example of it today.
Jesus is Lord. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+45&version=NASB
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+45:23&version=HCSB
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+14:11&version=NASB
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+2&version=NASB
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews+1&version=NASB
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+3%3A16&version=NASB
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+10%3A9-13&version=NASB
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joel+2:32&version=NASB
Preemptive Addendum. Here this post is not yet published and there is more. Hence the designation, preemptive. My son is preaching on John 1, a very pertinent passage to this discussion, which you noticed I avoided. This whole argument can be supported by John, but some doubters are inured to those Scriptures. So I chose more to show it is not a fluke or misprint or a "mis-translation.". The thoughts here are presented with recognition of and appreciation to Erwin Lutzer and Walter Martin. (For clarity, my responses are not marked by quotation marks. This is slightly abridged with verses cited only.)
Discussion on a Doorstep
"Hi! We are from the Watchtower and would like to talk to you about the Bible."
Great, glad to see you! (Match enthusiasm.) You are a witness for Jehovah and I am a worshiper of Jehovah. I would love to talk to you about that.
You know that Jehovah, in the Old Testament, declared that He is the only God and, in the first commandment, we are to worship Him and Him only. (Nods all around.) Part of "worship" is to obey Him, wouldn't you agree? (Keep them involved.)
Do you know Isaiah 45:22, 23? Do you have a Bible there handy? (Use theirs, not your own.) Look at that. Someday everyone will "bow the knee, and confess Him." (You can discuss the earlier phrases for emphasis.) Imagine that! The entire world will worship Jehovah. What a day!
Did you know that this verse is repeated in the New Testament? Look at Romans 14:11. Same thing, isn't it? Here is something interesting. It is repeated a second time in the New Testament. Look at Philippians 2:11.
Are you confused? Isaiah and Romans say every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jehovah, and here Paul says the same thing about Jesus. How can that be?
Maybe we can find an answer in that first chapter of...(watch them start for John)...the book that talks about God a lot. Hebrews. Look at verse 6 where the Father instructs the angels to worship the Son. That is Jesus, according to verse 5.
That goes along with Philippians, and Isaiah, and Romans, doesn't it? "Bow and confess" are acts of worship. And why? Look at verse 8. Jesus, the Son, is called God, by Jehovah, the Father.
I worship Jehovah and that means to obey Him. Right? So let's obey Jehovah and worship Jesus right now. (Kneel.) Please join me. Everyone will do so sometime. I want to do it willingly, and not under force and compulsion.
(Pray) Dear Jesus, my Heavenly Father, Jehovah, commanded me to worship You. I (gladly) worship You today. Thank you for being my Savior. Amen. (Straight in the eye.) Is Jesus your Savior? He promised that He would be, if you just ask Him.
John 3:16 is Jehovah's promise that "anyone exercising faith in Him" (They forgot to capitalize "Him" but we can look at that later.)"will not be destroyed but have everlasting life." And Jehovah promised to save anyone who believed in Him. Joel 2:32
Since Jehovah called Jesus God, and commanded us to worship Him, and recalling that there is only One God, does our "believing or exercising faith in Him" have to include the acceptance of Jesus as God? Remember back in Isaiah where Jehovah said "Turn to Me and be saved?" And John says that believing in Jesus is how to be saved. And Joel does too.
So if I do not believe in Jesus, will I be saved? No. Will you? Let's pray and believe.
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