Hi Michael,
At the Nashville Conference last year Ray talked about who is Jesus and who is His Father, all that he taught there will explain to you a great deal about Elohim and who the 'Us' was in Gen. 1:26.
Here is an excerpt from the transcript, and you will find the whole transcript at this link.
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,4472.msg38212.html#msg38212 ----
"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God,”
Actually & literally this verse says, "God was the Word" (Concordant).
“…and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by HIM(the Word) and without Him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:1-3).
V. 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us. the only begotten of the Father?"
The Word of God, that is the Word - Logos - Spokesman, ok. Jesus Christ has a name on His side (Revelation 19) and that name is, “the Word of God.” Jesus Christ is the Word - Spokesman - Logos - representative - messenger of God. Because nobody has ever heard God or seen Him. So if God wants to convey something to the human race, He does it through His Word - His Spokesman - His Messenger - His Logos - Jesus Christ. Now in Genesis how do we know that it’s not God the Father speaking? Because no one has ever heard His voice or seen His shape for that matter. So when ever you hear a voice, it’s not God, well….not exactly.
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The Bible starts “In the beginning…” In Gen. 1:1, Right? No, wrong pale face. It just says “In beginning…” or if anything “In a beginning…”
In a beginning God--Elohim. That Elohim is plural of Elyon or El, which is the singular for God. So Elohim is plural, it’s more than one. But there is only one God. There is only one Elohim and Elohim is plural?? Alright we are going to be talking about this.
“… created the heavens and the earth”
Ok, now we know that this word Elohim is plural, not only from the entomology of the word and how it’s used in other religions anciently and so on. But we know when it says for example, verse 27, “God created man in His image” and God said in verse 26, “let US create in OUR image,” They did create, that word Us and Our, because the word Elohim is plural, it’s in the Hebrew. The Us and Our is in the Hebrew, it’s there, ok. So it must mean Us rather than Me. It’s in the Hebrew, it’s there.
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If you would rather listen to the audio here are the links to them.
Nashville 2007
http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_1.mp3http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_2.mp3http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_3.mp3http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_4.mp3http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_5.mp3http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_6.mp3http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_7A.mp3http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_7B.mp3http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_8.mp3mercy, peace and love
Kat