Genesis 1:26

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."

Many folks have used this verse of scripture to prove the supposed theory of the "triune" nature of God as they believe is revealed in the Old Testament.  What would be the answer to this teaching from a Oneness believer as myself?  How could I defend the Oneness of God with such a verse as this one that seem to being identifying God with a plural pronoun?  Keep in mind that the Old Testament was written by the Hebrew people, and these people strongly believed and were instructed by God that He was the ONLY Creator and ONE God.  Therefore, for someone to come years later and attempt to understand God through philosophy, vain deceit, through the rudiments of the world, and after the traditions of men and use these pronouns to teach contrary to the understanding of the original writers can be descried as nothing more than ignorance.  We will now build a foundation of why the original writers believed in the Oneness of God:

Now after reading these scriptures, we must be extremely careful not to compromise what the LORD has explained to us.  What most theologians and traditional bible scholars do is use the reasoning that God can still be ONE and yet have a "triune" nature.  They do not believe that the doctrine of the trinity, "three persons in One God" compromises these scriptures. Then if you ask about this doctrine, and try to understand how God could be ONE but three persons at the same time, you cannot understand it.  Then you are told that this is a divine mystery that cannot be understood.  HOWEVER. We must be careful that our doctrine be molded by scripture, and NOT mold scripture to fit our doctrine.  I believe that there is a simple answer to the plural pronouns in Genesis 1:26 that do not compromise the scriptures at all, and I believe that God intended for us to understand these matters for the scripture tells us:

Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

 When the apostle Paul writes such words as CLEARLY SEEN and BEING UNDERSTOOD... to me defines that this issue SHOULD NOT BE A MYSTERY.  Believers in a triune nature of God are logically stating the following:

Clearlry Seen + Being Understood = A Divine Mystery

Call me simple minded if you will, but common sense tells me that if God said I could clearly see and understand even his eternal power and Godhead, then that means I should not call it a mystery.  So now we will explain our understanding of these matters by the help of God.

We have taken the original Hebrew from a Strong's Concordance and we will examine the original verse from Hebrew translation:

The "Plural Majestic" of the Hebrew language

ELOHIM - The Hebrew Noun used to designate God.  Notice that this is the noun used in the verse to describe God.  It is true that Elohim is a plural noun in this verse.  But hold on, please do not leave with just that understanding, you must understand why this is so.  In Hebrew tradition, it was always a correct formality to speak of majesty and kings using the plural out of respect for that royalty.  This is why Elohim is used to describe God, out of Majestic respect to God, never was it intended for someone to read the verse with the understanding that the Hebrews were referring to there God as more than One person!!!   The Hebrew language is an elementary language that does not compare to the complexity of the English language.  Understanding this logic, you must also keep in mind that the Hebrew language does not include what we refer to as "pronouns".  As you read the above verse, notice that the English line does not include conjunctions or pronouns, as this is exaclty how it was written in the orginal language.  When the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek, Latin, and English, the translators used pronouns and conjunctions to correctly give understanding in the respective language.  Because ELOHIM is PLURAL, when the translators added pronouns into the scripture, it was necessary for the pronouns added to agree with the tense of the noun that it represented.  Therefore, the translators were absolutely correct with the translation using US and OUR as plural pronouns to describe God, however keep in mind that the plurality of Elohim was merely a custom of respect to majesty.  Also please read verse 27 which says...

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

If there had been a "trinity" I would have to ask the question which person of God was man created in?  The first, second, or third?

Of course this is silly.  The answer is simply that God's image was Jesus Christ (John 1:1,14 2 Cor 5:19, Colossian 1:15)  an image that God created before the foundation of the world, but did not become a reality until the fullness of time came. (Galatians 4:4).  Remember that the Bible says that Jesus was slain before the foundation of the world, and that He was the Word with God from the beginning of time.  This does NOT MEAN that God was talking to His Son from the beginning of time, It means that God had the plan of Salvation, and the plan of manifesting Himself in flesh before the foundation of the world.  It was not until Mary concieved through the power of the Holy Ghost that the Son of God became a physical reality.  Before Bethlehem the Son of God was not manifested, but was simply known to His people as the ONLY GOD.  Isaiah 63:16.. Thou O LORD are our Father and our Redeemer, and thy name is for everlasting....

And His wonderful name is Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending which was and is and is to come.. The Almighty.