I can answer directly, but sometimes it's better to hold up a mirror and let you discover the problem on your own. A lot of times I just want you guys to reflect first. I don't want to have to answer you directly if you can find your own answers on your own. In this case, the question that was asked me is not valid and doesn't merit the dignity of an answer. I am not rejecting Scripture.
Is Jesus really God? There are many cults and false religions today that deny it. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, believe Jesus was created by the Father billions of years ago as the Archangel Michael and is hence a “lesser god” than the Father. The Mormons say Jesus was born as the first and greatest spirit child of the Heavenly Father and heavenly mother, and was the spirit-brother of Lucifer. New Agers claim Jesus was an enlightened master. Unitarian Universalists say Jesus was just a good moral teacher. What is the truth about Jesus Christ? We turn to the Scriptures for the answer.
There are numerous evidences for the absolute deity of Jesus Christ in the Bible. The following is a summary of the more important evidences.
Jesus Christ possesses divine names—names that can
only be used of God. For example:
Jesus is Yahweh.
Yahweh is a very common Hebrew name for God in the Old Testament, occurring over 5,300 times. It is translated
Lord (all capitals) in many English translations of the Bible.
We first learn of this name in Exodus 3, where Moses asked God by what name He should be called. God replied to him, “I AM WHO I AM. . . .Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you’ ” (verse 14).
Yahweh is basically a shortened form of “I AM WHO I AM” (verse 15). The name conveys the idea of eternal self-existence. Yahweh never came into being at a point in time for He has always existed.
Jesus implicitly ascribed this divine name to himself during a confrontation He had with a group of hostile Jews. He said, “I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM” (
John 8:58). Jesus deliberately contrasted the created origin of Abraham—whom the Jews venerated—with His own eternal, uncreated nature as God.
Jesus is Kurios. The New Testament Greek equivalent of the Old Testament Hebrew name Yahweh is
Kurios. Used of God,
Kurios carries the idea of a sovereign being who exercises absolute authority. The word is translated
Lord in English translations of the Bible.
To an early Christian accustomed to reading the Old Testament, the word
Lord, when used of Jesus, would point to His identification with the God of the Old Testament (
Yahweh). Hence, the affirmation that “Jesus is Lord” (
Kurios) in the New Testament constitutes a clear affirmation that Jesus is Yahweh, as is the case in passages like
Romans 10:9,
1 Corinthians 12:3, and
Philippians 2:5–11.
Jesus is Elohim.
Elohim is a Hebrew name that is used of God 2,570 times in the Old Testament. The name literally means “strong one,” and its plural ending (
im in Hebrew) indicates fullness of power. Elohim is portrayed in the Old Testament as the powerful and sovereign governor of the universe, ruling over the affairs of humankind.
Jesus is recognized as both Yahweh
and Elohim in the prophecy in
Isaiah 40:3: “Prepare the way of the Lord [
Yahweh]; make straight in the desert a highway for our God [
Elohim].” This verse was written in reference to John the Baptist preparing for the coming of Christ (as confirmed in
John 1:23) and represents one of the strongest affirmations of Christ’s deity in the Old Testament. In
Isaiah 9:6, we likewise read a prophecy of Christ: “And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God [
Elohim], Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Jesus is Theos. The New Testament Greek word for God,
Theos, is the corresponding parallel to the Old Testament Hebrew term
Elohim. A well-known example of Christ being addressed as God (
Theos) is found in the story of “doubting Thomas” in
John 20. In this passage, Thomas witnesses the resurrected Christ and worshipfully responds: “My Lord and my God [
Theos]” (
John 20:28).
Jesus is called
Theos throughout the rest of the New Testament. For example, when a jailer asked Paul and Silas how to be saved, they responded: “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (
Acts 16:31). After the jailer believed and became saved, he “rejoiced, having believed in God [
Theos] with all his household” (verse 34). Believing
in Christ and believing
in God are seen as identical acts.
Jesus possesses attributes that belong only to God.
Jesus is eternal.
John 1:1 affirms: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The word
was in this verse is an imperfect tense, indicating continuous, ongoing existence. When the timespace universe came into being, Christ already existed (
Hebrews 1:8–11).
Jesus is self-existent. As the Creator of all things (
John 1:3;
Colossians 1:16;
Hebrews 1:2), Christ himself must be
uncreated.
Colossians 1:17 tells us that Christ is “before all things, and in Him all things consist.”
Jesus is everywhere-present. Christ promised His disciples, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (
Matthew 18:20). Since people all over the world gather in Christ’s name, the only way He could be present with them all is if He is truly omnipresent (see
Matthew 28:20;
Ephesians 1:23,
4:10;
Colossians 3:11).
Jesus is all-knowing. Jesus knew where the fish were in the water (
Luke 5:4,
6;
John 21:6–11), and He knew just which fish contained the coin (
Matthew 17:27). He knew the future (
John 11:11,
18:4), specific details that would be encountered (
Matthew 21:2–4), and knew from a distance that Lazarus had died (
John 11:14). He also knows the Father as the Father knows Him (
Matthew 11:27;
John 7:29,
8:55,
10:15,
17:25).
Jesus is all-powerful. Christ created the entire universe (
John 1:3;
Colossians 1:16;
Hebrews 1:2) and sustains the universe by His own power (
Colossians 1:17;
Hebrews 1:3). During His earthly ministry, He exercised power over nature (
Luke 8:25), physical diseases (
Mark 1:29–31), demonic spirits (
Mark 1:32–34), and even death (
John 11:1–44).
Jesus is sovereign. Christ presently sits at the right hand of God the Father, “angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him” (
1 Peter 3:22). When Christ comes again in glory, He will be adorned with a majestic robe, and on the thigh section of the robe will be the words, “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (
Revelation 19:16).
Jesus is sinless. Jesus challenged Jewish leaders: “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” (
John 8:46). The apostle Paul referred to Jesus as “Him who knew no sin” (
2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus is one who “loved righteousness and hated lawlessness” (
Hebrews 1:9), was “without sin” (
Hebrews 4:15), and was “holy, harmless, [and] undefiled” (
Hebrews 7:26).
Jesus always spoke in His own divine authority. He never said, “Thus saith the Lord” as did the prophets; He always said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you. . . .” He never retracted anything He said, never guessed or spoke with uncertainty, never made revisions, never contradicted himself, and never apologized for what He said. He even asserted, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (
Mark 13:31), hence elevating His words directly to the realm of heaven.
Jesus’ deity is also proved by His miracles. His miracles are often called “signs” in the New Testament. Signs always
signify something—in this case, that
Jesus is the divine Messiah.
Some of Jesus’ more notable miracles include turning water into wine (
John 2:7–8); walking on the sea (
Matthew 14:25;
Mark 6:48;
John 6:19); calming a stormy sea (
Matthew 8:26;
Mark 4:39;
Luke 8:24); feeding 5,000 men and their families (
Matthew 14:19;
Mark 6:41;
Luke 9:16;
John 6:11); raising Lazarus from the dead (
John 11:43–44); and causing the disciples to catch a great number of fish (
Luke 5:5–6).
Jesus was worshiped on many occasions in the New Testament. He accepted worship from Thomas (
John 20:28), the angels (
Hebrews 1:6), some wise men (
Matthew 2:11), a leper (
Matthew 8:2), a ruler (
Matthew 9:18), a blind man (
John 9:38), an anonymous woman (
Matthew 15:25), Mary Magdalene (
Matthew 28:9), and the disciples (
Matthew 28:17).
Scripture is emphatic that only God can be worshiped (
Exodus 34:14;
Deuteronomy 6:13;
Matthew 4:10). In view of this, the fact that both humans and angels worshiped Jesus on numerous occasions shows He is God.
A comparison of the Old and New Testaments provides powerful testimony to Jesus’s identity as God. For example, a study of the Old Testament indicates that it is
only God who saves. In
Isaiah 43:11, God asserts: “I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no savior.” This verse indicates that (1) a claim to be Savior is, in itself, a claim to deity; and (2) there is only one Savior—the Lord God. It is thus highly revealing of Christ’s divine nature that the New Testament refers to Jesus as “our great God and Savior” (
Titus 2:13).
Likewise, God asserted in
Isaiah 44:24: “I am the Lord, who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, who spreads abroad the earth by Myself” (emphasis added). The fact that God alone “makes all things” (
Isaiah 44:24)—and the accompanying fact that Christ is claimed to be the Creator of “all things” (
John 1:3;
Colossians 1:16;
Hebrews 1:2)—proves that Christ is truly God.
Many theologians believe that appearances of the “angel of the Lord” (or, more literally, “angel of Yahweh”) in Old Testament times were preincarnate appearances of Jesus Christ. (The word
preincarnate means “before becoming a human being.”) There are a number of evidences for this view:
- The angel of Yahweh appeared to Moses in the burning bush and claimed to be God (Exodus 3:6).
- Yet, the angel of Yahweh was sent into the world by Yahweh (Judges 13:8–9), just as Jesus was sent into the world in New Testament times by the Father (John 3:17).
- The angel of Yahweh prayed to Yahweh on behalf of the people of God (Zechariah 1:12), just as Jesus prays to the Father for the people of God today (Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:1–2).
- It would seem that appearances of this “angel” could not be the Father or the Holy Spirit. After all, the Father is One “whom no one has seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6:16, NIV; see also John 1:18, 5:37). Moreover, the Holy Spirit cannot be physically seen (John 14:17). That leaves only Jesus.
- The angel of Yahweh and Jesus engaged in amazingly similar ministries—such as delivering the enslaved (Exodus 3; Galatians 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 2 Timothy 4:18; Hebrews 2:14–15) and comforting the downcast (Genesis 16:7–13; 1 Kings 19:4–8; Matthew 14:14, 15:32–39).
These evidences suggest that appearances of the angel of Yahweh in Old Testament times were preincarnate appearances of Christ. Assuming this is correct, the word “angel” is used of Christ in these verses in accordance with its Hebrew root, which means “messenger, one who is sent, envoy.” Christ, as the angel of Yahweh, was acting on behalf of the Father, just as He did in New Testament times.rhodes
hope this helps !!!
Why do you desecrate the Father that way?
