Isaiah 48:1 is very clear, that Yahweh is the Speaker in verse 12. The words "
I am the first, I also am the last." literally means The Eternal God, without beginning and end.
These words are also Spoken by Jesus Christ in Revelation 1:18; 2:8 and 22:13, which makes Jesus Christ the Eternal God, YHWH.
Unitarianism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and anyone else that denies that Great Bible Truth about Jesus Christ, are destroyed by these Scriptures!
You continue to show your ignorance of scripture and the context in which it is used. Your simpleton scriptural assumptions produce grave errs and may mislead many...
------------------------
The expression 'the first and the last' is used 5x in scripture. It is used twice in the OT in the Book of Isaiah 44:6; 48:12, and three times in the NT, in the Book of Revelation 1:17; 2:8; 22:13.
In the OT, in Isaiah, God Almighty can be readily considered 'the first and the last' because it is SPECIFIC to the context being spoken of. The subject is specifically talking about the existence of 'other gods,' rather the NON-existence of other gods or anything that would dare call itself GOD. '...I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.'
Now when we are speaking of Yahshua in Revelation, just because he uses the same particular phrase as his Father, does not mean he is claiming himself to be God, as his Father. In fact Yahshua never ever claims to be God!
Revelation 1:17-18 (KJV)
17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:
I am he that liveth, and WAS DEAD; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and
of death. *(God, his Father is immortal and never died at any time)
Revelation 2:8 (KJV)
8 And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which WAS DEAD,
and is alive; *(Again, God, his Father is immortal and never died at any time)
Revelation 22:13-16 (KJV)
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Blessed are they that do HIS (God, YHWH, Yahweh) commandments, that they may have
right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and
whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
I Jesus (NOT GOD, his Father) have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and
the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
*(God, his Father is not the offspring of David or any man!)
Here is the same term again used in a more personal and practical way. The term indicates the original creator or founder of things or people.
In Isaiah 41:4 we see God Almighty using this term 'the first and last' for himself with a purpose and meaning that will also be applied to his Son in the NT for a SIMILAR purpose.
“Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord—with
the first of them and with
the last—I am he.” Thus, the Bible connects the phrase “the First and the Last” with
calling forth the generations.
While God Almighty was the one who called forth the generations of people, in the OT, He has now conferred that authority on/to His Son for a similar way. And that is why the Lord Jesus is called 'the First and the Last' in the book of Revelation, as his Father, and not being his Father
As his Father brought forth the physical generations of men on earth, it will be now Yahshua who will call forth the generations of people from the grave to enter into everlasting life in the Kingdom that he began with his Father since the Day of Pentecost.
God, his Father gave his Son authority to raise the dead (John 5:25-27). His voice will raise all dead Christians (1 Thess. 4:16 and 17), and he will change our bodies into new glorious bodies (Phil. 3:20 and 21). However, even when Yashua said he had the authority to raise the dead, he never claimed he had that authority inherently because he was God. He always said that his Father had given authority to him.
While teaching about his authority, Christ was very clear about who was the ultimate authority: 'The Son can do nothing by himself…....the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son…...For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in himself. And He has given him authority to judge' (John 5:19,22,26 and 27). If Jesus had the authority to raise the dead because he was in some way God, he never said it or even implied it. He said he had his authority because his Father gave it to him.
With the authority to raise the generations, came the title associated with the existence of the generations, and thus after his resurrection Jesus/Yahshua Christ is called 'the First and the Last.' Christ is the the founder and father of these new generations of the dead and the first of its kind from the dead, to immortality. He is surely 'the first and the last,' in this context.
This is yet another deceptive route or attempt here to force Christ to be the Almighty himself. It is another futile attempt to force a key part of the Roman Catholic pagan-political-religious Trinitarian concept, with all its traditions and trimmings onto the unsuspecting and innocent victim.