Also See Irrefutable Evidence For The Deity Of Christ From Scripture [Below] And Did Jesus Not Know the Hour of His Second Coming?
Visit any part of the world today. Talk to people of any religion. No matter how committed they are to their particular religion, if they know anything about history, they will have to admit that there has never been a man like Jesus of Nazareth... the most unique personality of all time. But many will not admit His Deity. PART 1 - THE QUESTION CONSIDERED
PART 2 - THE QUESTION CLARIFIED
PART 3 - THE SON OF MAN & THE SON OF GOD
PART 4 - GOD'S O.T. NAMES, TITLES, AND IMAGES
PART 5 - THE CONDUCT OF GOD Did Jesus Not Know the Hour of His Second Coming? PART 1 - THE QUESTION CONSIDERED The Church rests upon the person and work of a man called Jesus who is worshipped by untold millions throughout the world. Yet, controversy follows this man even today. What is the dispute surrounding Jesus Christ all about? How critical an issue is it? Never in history was there a time when the actual existence of Jesus Christ fell into serious doubt. The most common disagreement found in contemporary circles concerns not whether a person named Jesus actually lived, but rather who this Jesus really was. Jesus was the kind of a person who took people out of their comfort zones and constantly challenged their thinking - especially when He spoke about Himself and His mission. And while most people readily affirm the humanity of Jesus Christ, many are reluctant to admit His deity. Consider what some groups have to say about him. Members of such assemblies as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society; The Unification Church; and The Way International, explicitly deny that Jesus is truly God. Various New Age and occultic groups regard Jesus merely as an enlightened mystic. Still others revere Him as a prophet of God, but only one who stands in a long line of peers. And, of course, there are those who see Jesus as simply a great moral teacher. Over against all of these views is the orthodox Christian position that Jesus Christ was God in human form. And if you as a Christian can demonstrate that Jesus Christ is God, the followers of these other views would be forced to choose either their group's teachings or the very Word of Jesus Christ Himself - one or the other, but certainly not both. During the upcoming CRI Perspectives, I intend to prove that Jesus did, in fact, claim to be God. In doing so, we hope to steer people from counterfeit Christs so that they may direct their devotion to the real Jesus (2 Cor. 11:3-4). {TOP OF PAGE} PART 2 - THE QUESTION CLARIFIED Someone may ask, can't someone just cite a passage in the Bible where Jesus declared "I am God," thereby resolving this whole issue one way or the other for all time? When people challenge Christians to prove that Jesus said He was God, they typically expect to be shown a "customized" passage from the Bible, quickly rejecting any passage cited that isn't phrased exactly the way they want it to be. Approaching the question with this kind of an attitude can only lead to erroneous conclusions. What needs to be determined is whether Jesus did, in fact, claim to be God in terms understandable to that particular era and to that particular geographical region, and not necessarily to ours. Besides, to expect Jesus to boldly and brazenly proclaim that He was God is to misunderstand altogether His very character and His mission as the Messiah. After all, would a man of perfect humility and servitude, a man who came to glorify His Father in heaven, be true to this task if He focused attention on Himself rather than pointing to the Father? Of course not! Such an unqualified declaration might also have led the Jewish people to conclude falsely that Jesus was claiming to be God the Father. Jesus avoided this type of confusion by revealing His identity in a very precise, concise, and careful manner. It has often been said that actions speak much louder than words. And in the following three Perspectives, we're going to see just how Jesus Christ of Nazareth attested to His own deity. Let us, however, remember Christ's own words when He said, "I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it" (John 8:28). {TOP OF PAGE} PART 3 - THE SON OF MAN & THE SON OF GOD Looking at the Bible, we find that Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Man no less than 82 times. This title comes from Daniel 7, which speaks of the coming Messiah who will rule over the nations of the earth for all time. In that passage, we read that the Son of Man "was given authority, glory and even sovereign power" - things which God alone can hold and exercise - the One who said, "I will not give my glory to another" (Isa. 42:8; 48:11). Furthermore, we find that "all peoples, and all nations and men of every language will worship" the Son of Man, which would only make sense if the Son of Man is none other than God Himself. God sternly forbids the worship of anyone or anything other than Himself. We can thereby conclude that Jesus, in calling Himself the Son of Man, was indeed claiming to be God. Jesus reinforces this conclusion each time He claims to be utterly unique, the Son of God, the only One Who knows God the Father. Consider this: if God's depth of knowledge and understanding is infinite, who but God alone can fully grasp it? Yet Jesus says He knows. The Jews tried to stone Him because in "calling God His own Father, Jesus was making Himself equal with God" (John 5:18). To this charge, Jesus merely replied, "All are to honor the Son just as they honor the Father." In other words, Jesus claimed the honor due Him is equivalent to the honor due God. Such a statement is sheer blasphemy unless Jesus was, in fact, God. {TOP OF PAGE} PART 4 - GOD'S O.T. NAMES, TITLES, AND IMAGES Besides using the titles Son of Man and the Son of God Jesus applied to Himself in a very unique way - the names and images referring exclusively to God. How does Jesus' special usage relate to His claim to deity? In the ancient times, a name had great significance and was deemed "virtually equivalent to whoever or whatever it bore." Thus, when Jesus paralleled His own name with that of God's, or when He applied to Himself the names and images associated with God, we can reasonably conclude that Jesus was, in fact, claiming to be God. We find, for example, in the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), that Jesus placed His name as the Son on equal footing with the Father, who is God (v. 19). This passage also reveals certain attributes of the Son like omnipotence (v. 18; cf. Jer. 32:17, 27), and omnipresence, which can apply only to someone who is God. (v. 20; cf. Matt. 18:20; Ps. 139:7-12; Jer. 23:24). Furthermore, in claiming to be the only one who knows God (Matt. 11:27), Jesus implicitly admitted to being omniscient since the Father, of course, is Himself omniscient. Jesus also took for Himself several Old Testament metaphors reserved solely for God. He sometimes applied them directly to Himself, as in the case of the title, the Good Shepherd (John 10:11, 14; cf. Gen. 49:24; Ps. 23). Now in other times, Jesus took an indirect approach, referring to Himself in the parables as the Sower, the Bridegroom, the Vineyard Owner, and, in fact, the King - each of which can be traced back to Old Testament references to God. But of these titles, none angered the religious officials of His day as when Jesus said of Himself, "I AM," thus asserting to be eternal in words echoing those of YHWH (John 8:58; cf. Ex. 3:14). Jesus' claim to be God in this instance was so clear and unmistakable that those who considered His assertion false, in fact blasphemous, tried to stone Him to death immediately (John 8:59; cf. Lev. 24:13-16). By His own admission, Jesus undeniably claimed to be God. And He bolstered His pronouncements with actions, which we'll look at...in the next CRI Perspective. {TOP OF PAGE} PART 5 - THE CONDUCT OF GOD We've seen how Jesus revealed Himself to be God by His verbal claims. Let's now look at His actions, which clearly prove that He truly was Who He claimed to be. Though Jesus spoke with the authority of God, His actions hammered home this truth with even greater impact. Turning to John, chapter five, we find Jesus being criticized for healing an invalid during the Sabbath (John 5:16-18), a sacred day set aside from all work to commemorate God's act of creation. Now Jesus justified His actions, reasoning that God the Father was also at work - even on the Sabbath day, thereby claiming for Himself a prerogative reserved solely for God. Only if Jesus is God can we say that He in no wise violated God's law regarding the Sabbath. In another instance where He healed a paralytic (Mark 2:1-12; cf. Matt. 9:1-8); Luke 5:17-26), Jesus went on to forgive the man's sins as well - to which the "teachers of the law" rightly asked, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Jesus answered by reemphasizing His authority to forgive sins, and then proved it by healing the man. Jesus again claimed for Himself a prerogative reserved solely for God. Only if Jesus is God could He have actually forgiven sins the way He did. Moreover, numerous individuals worshipped Jesus Christ (Matt. 2:11; 14:33; Luke 24:52). Considering the stern commands given by God to worship Him alone, we might conclude that Jesus attempted to correct such "misdirected" worship. But, no! We find, instead, Jesus openly welcoming people's praises - praises belonging exclusively to God. Where do we go to from here? Well, as one Christian scholar put it: "You can shut [Jesus] up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God," (John 20: 28-29). You can't, however, deny that Jesus claimed to be God. He has not left that option open to us. The real question is, "Whose words are you going to trust - Jesus' or the cults?" Decide wisely, your destiny depends on it. {TOP OF PAGE}
Irrefutable Evidence For The Deity Of Christ From Scripture
The Scriptural proof for the Deity of Christ lies in John 1:1... “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God”. However the latter part of this verse has been changed by the Jehovah’s Witnesses to “..the Word was a God”. Any discussion centered around the intricacies of Greek grammar is not very productive since few of us understand it anyway. On the other hand John 3:3 is a simpler and much overlooked verse which offers unequivocal evidence that Christ is God. “All things came into being by Him (the Word) and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being”
All translations including The Jehovah’s Witness Bible read almost exactly the same. (“..and apart from Him not even one thing came into existence”). Every single thing that exists was either created or it wasn’t created.. There being no third option. And since a thing cannot be both created and not created the categories are mutually exclusive. (The only thing that has never been created is God who has always existed). But read the wording of John 3:3 carefully. It says “apart from Him nothing came into being” (Emphasis added). Therefore.... If Jesus caused all created things to come into existence then He must have existed before all created things came into existence.
If, as some claim, Jesus is a lesser God created by the Father, and “apart from Him nothing came into being” He had to have existed as Creator before He existed as a created thing. In other words He had to have created Himself, which is absurd. Incidentally the Greek word for ‘by’ is dia (“All things came into being by Him”). This word can also be translated ‘through’, which makes no difference to the meaning of the text. All things were created ‘by’ Jesus or ‘through’ Him. Two Rebuttals. 1) It has been argued that when John wrote “apart from Him” he excluded Jesus from the count. In other words every created thing was created by Jesus with the exception of Jesus Himself. God created Jesus first, then Jesus created everything else. However this argument is based on being able to replace the verse “apart from Him” with the phrase ‘excluding Jesus’.
So let’s try it... “All things came into being by Him (the Word) and excluding Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
The text now tells us that Jesus is the only created thing that exists, which is nonsense. Therefore the two phrases are not synonymous. “apart from Him” simple means apart from His agency and is the same as saying.. “Apart from me you wont get in the house.. I have the only key”. 2) The second argunment goes back to the opening phrase.. “In the beginning”. Since the original Greek has no article John could have meant “in a beginning”. In other words God ceated Jesus at some indeterminate time in the past and there was a second ‘beginning’ when He created everything else through Jesus, and verse three only applies to this second beinning. However this argument is focused on what John could have meant and totally ignores the phrases “all things” and “nothing” in verse three... John language is unambiguous. This makes it very clear that John’s intent in the opening verse of his book was “...the Word was God”{TOP OF PAGE} | 
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