If God and Jesus are one and the same, then why does Jesus refer to God as "My Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 16

Jesus addressed His prayers to the "Father." At Jesus' baptism, an angel spoke from heaven calling Jesus the "Son." How could these passages be true if Jesus and the Father are the same being? The logical answer is that they are not the same. They are two separate beings in the family of God. Ephesians 3:14-15 mentions the Father of Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family is named.

Much to the surprise of many people, the Bible actually teaches that God is in the process of adding more members to His family. Notice that Hebrews 2:10 talks about God "bringing many sons to glory."

We read in Romans 8:14-17, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption [sonship, NIV] by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father. 'The Spirit Himself [itself, KJV] bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ."Those are incredibly important words and point out that God is expanding His family through human beings.

God the Father and God the Word (who later became the Son) have existed for all eternity. John 1:1-3 explains that the Word was with God the Father from the beginning. For someone to be with someone else requires there to be two individuals—not just one.

If you're interested in learning more, request or download a copy of our free booklet Who Is God? from our literature request page,www.ucg.org/booklets. The question, "Is God a Trinity?" is answered in greater detail on pages 47-52 of this booklet.