Shalom! My name is Adam Pastor

Welcome to ADONI MESSIAH which means
"My Lord Messiah" -
a fitting epithet to who Jesus (or Yeshua) is!

Here, I attempt to present the Apostolic Truths according to the Scriptures, that there is
One GOD, the Father, namely, YAHWEH,
and One Lord, GOD's only begotten Son,
Yeshua the Messiah.

And that one day YAHWEH will send His Son back to Earth to inaugurate the Everlasting Kingdom of GOD



Enjoy!


Monday, January 06, 2020

Is the Bible’s Definition of God So Difficult? by Anthony Buzzard

Is the Bible’s Definition of God So Difficult?

From Focus on the Kingdom, October, 2012


After these decades of pondering and reading about how believers have struggled to define God in the Bible, I am left wondering: Was this really meant to be such a torturously difficult brainbreaking subject? The history of this subject is littered with contentious church councils and often a cruel dogmatism which banished or even killed those who did not submit to ecclesiastical authority.

Have theology and Christology — who is God and who is Jesus — really warranted anathemas, excommunications and even murders in the name of “right doctrine”? Yes, I know that conventional systems of belief warn you never, on pain of the loss of your salvation, to veer from “orthodoxy.”
The fear factor is very great! But the fact remains that the average churchgoer cannot defend the doctrine of the Trinity!

Here is what I propose as an easy way to approach the subject of defining God biblically. When Jews and Jesus and Paul made definitive and decisive statements about their creed, which is nothing less than a declaration of the constitution of the universe, they model a refreshing simplicity. When asked by a fellow Jew about the greatest of all the commandments, Jesus replied by citing what was really Judaism’s only “creed”: “Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord” (Deut. 6:4 cited by Jesus in Mark 12:29). That God, and no other, was to be understood and loved. All else meant an inevitable lapse into idolatry, the most awful sin — the sin to be avoided at all costs.

When Jesus replied to the inquiring scribe (professional scholar) that “the Lord our God is one Lord” (Mark 12:29) the scribe responded warmly and enthusiastically:
“You have spoken well, rabbi, that God is one and that there is no other than He.

Will you, reader, now face this question? Is this creed of Jesus and the Jewish scholar your creed, or have you been taught a creed of a different sort? Are the words of Jesus, the Savior, your prime concern?

What about the Jewish Christian Paul, minister in Christ to the Gentiles? What was his creed? Was it complex, requiring pages of technical language for its expression? Definitely not. In 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 Paul tackles our issue by discussing the many gods and lords of the pagan world. Then by contrast he states the Christian creed: “To us [Christians] there is ONE God, the FATHER, and no other God but He.

There are 1300 similar verses in the NT in which the Greek word theos (GOD) means the Father! Each of these is a unitarian proof text! Not once when the Bible says GOD, in either Testament, does it mean a triune, Trinitarian God! How can we conclude otherwise than that the God of the Bible and of Jesus is not a Trinity!

Does this require the help of an army of learned theologians to grasp that “To us there is one God, the Father”? Did not Paul obviously declare the same creed as uttered by Jesus and the Jewish scribe? God is one and there is no other. That one God is the Father and there is no other God but He. This is the essence of simplicity and clarity.

Now think about this: What does a Trinitarian creed sound like? The proposition is “There is one God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Such a creed is never stated in Scripture. Could that be because the Bible writers had never heard of such a creed?

Do we realize that Jesus is not once called the LORD GOD? He is called the lord Messiah in Luke 2:11, and this title for the Messiah ought to be trumpeted everywhere. Luke recorded a splendid fact of human history when he announced the birth not of GOD (God cannot be born) but of the lord Messiah (Luke 2:11).

The blind men seeking to regain sight hailed Jesus and appealed to him as “lord, son of David.” [Matthew 20:30-31] “Lord” here obviously and plainly did not mean LORD God!

Add now the simplicity of Malachi 2:10. “Do we not all have one Father? Has not one God created us?”

You probably know that one of the basic features of the Hebrew Bible (the OT) is that two statements like this reinforce each other. Two propositions repeat the same idea for clarity and emphasis. Malachi summarized the whole OT (indeed the whole Bible) in one beautifully non-complex idea. “There is One God who is the Creator and Father of the nation of Israel and of the whole universe.” Why not let your mind rest in that glorious health-giving truth?

This same God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was of course the God of Israel, and of the prophets, and the “God and Father of our lord Jesus Christ.” Is this difficult? That One God, the Father, had revealed Himself as a single Divine Person by means of thousands of singular personal pronouns. You know, I am sure, that a singular personal pronoun defines a single person. God is called one Person, too, when the Bible speaks
(21 times) of God’s soul, His self. He is a single, individual divine Self.

How complicated was Paul’s later and final declaration about God? Not so hard. “There is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Messiah Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). Paul could have so easily written, “There is one God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” But he did not!

How frequently the Bible says that he who believes that Jesus is the Christ, or the Son of God, is pleasing to God. Never once does it say that he who believes that Jesus IS GOD is doing well. It is amazingly significant that John wrote his whole gospel with the express intention of conveying to us all that “Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God” (John 20:31). It was in that great truth and nothing else that we are to find rest, peace and spiritual security. (But you may find a considerable hostility to that easy creed in many church circles!)

If we turn to Trinitarian attempts to describe and define a belief in one God, we have moved from biblical simplicity to frightening complexity. Dr. James White’s Forgotten Trinity contains a chapter titled “What Is the Trinity?” Dr. White rightly complains that many a discussion of the Godhead becomes mired in confusion, because terms are not defined. He then leads with this heading: “Can You Define the Undefinable?” He asks us to consider that in trying to define God “we have real difficulty right at the start: language itself. Christians have struggled for centuries to express within the limitations of human language the unique revelation that God makes of His mode of existence. We struggle because language is a finite means of communication. Finite minds are trying to express in finite language infinite truths” (p. 24).

Has it not occurred to Dr. White that God’s revelation in Scripture about how many He is given us in normal grammatical language? Otherwise it would not be a revelation at all.

I note right away that Dr. White cites some 250 Bible verses but he has not mentioned Malachi 2:10 nor the creed of Jesus in Mark 12:29, nor Paul’s summary description of God in 1 Timothy 2:5. When he gets to 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 he cites Paul’s reference to “one God, the Father.” This is a typical Jewish Christian unitarian assertion, echoed by Jesus in Mark 12:29, that God is a single Person, the Father. Yes, indeed the Lord Jesus Christ is immediately associated with the Father, but Dr. White assumes that “one Lord” for Jesus is equivalent to one God. Some, he recognizes, say that because Paul restricts the Father to the category One God this means that Jesus is not also the One God.

After all, Jesus is called the “one Lord Jesus Christ.” If, so the argument goes, Jesus is the one Lord, then the Father must be excluded from Lordship. The argument is fallacious. Dr. White’s assumption is that Lord when used of Jesus and God has the same meaning. That is not so. As early as Luke 2:11 Jesus is defined as the lord Messiah and in 2:26 he is the LORD’s [YHVH's] Messiah. Both Jesus and God are “lord” but in quite different senses.

Elizabeth knew this when she recognized Mary as “the mother of my lord” — not the mother of YHVH. All this goes back to the centrally important Psalm 110:1 where there are two lords.
The one Lord God, YHVH, utters a solemn oracle in favor of David’s lord, “my lord.”

The word in the Hebrew for the second lord is adoni, which in all of its 195 occurrences never means GOD or Deity. Adoni, my lord, is the supremely important royal title for the king of Israel and other leading personalities, but adoni, my lord, never means God. The word for God is Adonai, the supreme Lord God. The distinction in the Hebrew and the Greek is fundamental, lest we fall into the trap of believing in two Lords who are both Lord God!

The distinction between Lord God (Adonai) and a human superior, my lord, is essential to good understanding. The famous International Bible Encyclopedia stated the truth: “It is essential to distinguish carefully between the divine and non-divine title adonai and adoni.”

The whole of the NT is built on the scheme proposed by the oracle in Psalm 110:1. Jesus knew this well when he stumped his antagonistic audience by citing Psalm 110:1. He told us that it was the Son of man at the right hand of God (Mark 14:62), and Stephen at his death saw Psalm 110:1 in action and defined the second lord as the Son of man (Acts 7:56). That demonstrates that adoni (my lord) is a human being. Psalm 80:17 had also defined the Messiah as the “man of Your right hand.” 

No one ought to imagine that the second lord was God! The whole picture of God and man was distorted when Jesus was defined as a second God in a triune Godhead. This unfortunate theological development from the second century removed the creed of Jesus (Mark 12:29) from the foundation of the faith. It led to endless squabbles and centuries of unnecessary argument, dividing and confusing.
The end product was an imperial-ecclesiastical decision to anathematize anyone who dared say the Son of God began to exist in history! Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts of the coming into existence of the Son of God were ruled out of bounds. They are in fact simple statements about the origin of the Son in Mary, by miracle (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18, 20).

Equally confusing was the loss of the Hebrew Bible’s long preparation and fore-announcing of the Messiah (Christ) to come. David had already referred to the Israelite King Saul as the Lord’s [YHVH's] anointed. The Hebrew reads “the Lord’s [YHVH's] Messiah” (1 Sam. 24:6). The people were looking forward to the ultimate righteous human king, not a visitor from a complex Triune Godhead. Israel knew nothing of such a God, and still does not.

It is really amazing to imagine Jesus believing in a Trinitarian God! If he did, how could he possibly have kept a straight face while agreeing with a learned Jew about the “Hear, O Israel”? About the One True God?

Christians should be encouraged to engage a gentle conversation with all-comers on this point:
Is Christianity the only world religion which begins by discarding its own founder’s creed?
I ask this seriously; it is a really interesting question.

Jesus in multiple passages makes obedience to his teachings the absolute key (John 12:44ff; 3:36; Heb. 5:9, etc.) and criterion for a successful relationship with him and his Father. Is anyone going to argue that Jesus in Mark 12:29 was proposing a Triune God?

Luke knew well that the promised Savior was to be born, and he brilliantly introduces us to the ultimate Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One. Using the same language as the 16 references to the OT “anointed one,” Luke presents Jesus to us as “the Lord’s [YHVH's] Anointed,” i.e. Christ, “the Lord’s [YHVH's] Christ” (Luke 2:26). Here then is the final David, the final perfect king in the line of earlier flawed kings. Yes, Jesus was the sinless king, as well as the King Messiah of ancient expectation.

When he arrived, supernaturally begotten in Mary (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35; 1 John 5:18, not KJV), his people were so drugged by the religious establishment of the day that they were unable to recognize him! They killed him as a false Messiah. They thought he ought to have freed them from Rome and inaugurated the promised worldwide Messianic Kingdom there and then. Jesus instructed his inner circle, those who recognized him as indeed the long-promised King Messiah of Israel, that after a period undetermined (left in the counsels of God, Acts 1:7) he would reappear, this time from heaven, to commence his royal rule in Jerusalem. And to involve his true followers of all the ages to assist him in managing the world (Matt. 19:28; Rev. 2:26; 3:21; 5:10: “on the earth”; 1 Cor. 6:2, Dan. 7:18, 22, 27).

It was not long before even some of his followers, beginning late in the first century, abandoned this hope and substituted a vague promise of heaven for individuals at death! Added to this, they transformed the man Messiah Jesus of Paul’s easy creed in 1 Timothy 2:5
(exactly echoing Ps. 110:1!) into a second God. Of course they loudly proclaimed that they believed in one God! But they conveniently left out the NT definition of that One God. The NT, echoing thousands of OT verses, and based on the unitarian creed of Moses and Jesus (Deut. 6:4; Mk. 12:29), was that “there is one God, the Father.” You will look in vain for any reference to “one God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit”! That is not the belief of the early Christians. There are 1300 verses in the NT which make the same unitarian proposition. That is, the word GOD means the Father 1300 times. Each of these statements, ranging across the whole NT, signals the easy fact that God is one Person.

Psalm 110:1, with its unique oracle from YHVH, penned as Jesus said under inspiration and given to David, places a human Messiah, Son of God and of David, “at My right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” Astonishingly today you can walk into the average Christian bookstore, pick up one of several commentaries on the Psalms, and find that the second lord in Psalm 110:1 is Adonai, the Lord God! How is the protest against this unwarranted piece of misinformation going to begin? It is time for the public to be warned that its traditions are not solidly biblical. A mindless, uncritical approach seems to lull churchgoers into a cheerful acceptance of the status quo! But all is not well when Scripture is being misrepresented at its heart.

Psalm 110:1 has yet to have its day! The LORD gave an utterance to “my lord” (adoni). Adoni is the standard royal protocol address to the king and other superiors. No one calls GOD adoni in the Bible. The Lord God is Adonai and the distinction has been long understood — but not to the Bible-reading public.

The 6,828 occurrences of YHVH never appear as kurios mou (my lord) in the LXX, the Greek version of the NT which is very frequently cited by the NT.

In desperation to maintain the notion that God speaks to God in Psalm 110:1, some have tried to argue that the vowel points in the Hebrew text of today have been corrupted. Happily the NT provides inspired evidence for this very false allegation. Adoni (my lord) in Hebrew is properly rendered as kurios mou (my lord) in Greek. Scores of verses show the standard contrast between a human leader (adoni, my lord) and Adonai or YHVH = the Lord God.

It is a grand fallacy to think that in the times before the vowel points were added to the written text, no one read the text aloud! It was read week by week in the synagogue and the difference between YHVH (Lord God) and adoni (my [human] lord) was well understood, and it is reflected in the Greek OT Bible (the LXX) in BC times. That difference is confirmed by the NT when it translates adoni (my lord) into the Greek words kurios (lord) mou (my). Scores of times this distinction is found in the LXX, the Greek Bible quoted often and thus affirmed as true by the NT writers.

In complete desperation some have ventured to challenge the word adoni appearing in the standard Hebrew text, faithfully transmitted over the centuries. Some have found three exceptions to the rule that Adonai is kurios (the Lord) and not kurios mou (my lord)! What they did not notice is that the 3 exceptions (exceptions do not make the rule!) occur when GOD, one Person (unlike Ps. 110:1 where God speaks to another), is given a double address as Lord and God. In these unusual and exceptional cases the Greek adds a mou (my) to Lord to address God. The two main examples are found in Psalm 16:2 and 35:23. You will see at a glance that neither is in any way parallel to Psalm 110:1 and the scores of examples like it. One must not compare apples with oranges.

In the scores of verses in which kurios (Lord God, Yahweh) is contrasted with a non-Deity superior, that non-Deity superior is called adoni, kurios mou, my lord. The system of distinction is secure and obvious. Two exceptions in which God is called “my Lord” are readily explicable because of a single addressee.

Your Bible is not corrupted in its original Hebrew in Psalm 110:1 (except for the translators’ false capital on the second lord.
[That is, a capital L was added when translated into English]).
The Hebrew word is entirely secure. It is adoni, a word which needs to come out of hiding worldwide and shine as the beacon light defining the human Messiah Jesus. Paul said it all well in 1 Timothy 2:5: “There is one God [obviously the Father here, as in 1300 other NT verses!] and one mediator between God and man, the man Messiah Jesus.” God has planned to judge the world by a MAN whom he has appointed. He raised that man from the dead, and God cannot raise God from death since God cannot die! (For all this read Acts 17:30-31.)


The above article was taken from here.

Wednesday, January 01, 2020

Who is Jesus? God, Christ or Both?



Who is Jesus? God, Christ or Both?




Just who is Jesus? A Barna study conducted in 2014, revealed that 93 percent of Americans[1] believe that Jesus Christ “was a real person who actually lived.”[2] Sixty-three percent said they have made a commitment to Jesus that is still important in their lives today. However, less than half (43 percent) believe “Jesus was God living among humans.” But before someone cries Heretic!, let’s examine the Scriptures and consider why they may believe this.
An attentive reader will observe that Scripture consistently places Jesus in a category outside that of God. For example:
Acts 2:22 (NASB) “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—
Ephesians 1:2 (NASB) Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Revelation 12:10 (NASB)  Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.
Revelation 20:6 (NASB) Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Bible with eyeglassesHim for a thousand years.
God is the Father, while Jesus, a man, is the Christ.  Notice also that Jesus is not only the Christ, he is God’s Christ, thus further emphasizing their distinction.  In addition, we are told at least twenty times in Scripture that Jesus has a God.[3]  For instance:
1 Peter 1:3 (NASB) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
Romans 15:6 (NASB) so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1:17 (NASB) that the God of our Lord Jesus Christthe Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Revelation 1:6 (NASB) and He [Jesus] has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 3:2 (NASB) ‘Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for [Jesus] have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God.
Of course, these passages and others like them, beg the question, If Jesus is God, how can he have a God and still be God?  Confusing and contradictory, isn’t it?  On the other hand, Scripture offers clarity on the matter.  Whenever a determination is made, the Father is the only one specifically classified as God, while Jesus is repeatedly said to be the Christ.  This finding affirms Jesus’ own statement that the Father is the “only true God” while he is the Christ whom God sent (John 17:1, 3). 
Contrary to what many Christians believe, the term Christ and its Hebrew equivalent, Messiah, are not designations for deity.  The synonymous terms literally mean anointed one, and they refer to someone who has been consecrated for service unto Jesus' baptism - stained glassGod.  Professor of religion and philosophyDouglas McCready, writes:
In biblical Judaism the term “messiah” did not necessarily carry any connotation of divine status, and Jews of Jesus’ day were not expecting their messiah to be other than human.[4]  (emphasis added)
The word Christ is used over 500 times[5] in the New Testament to refer to Jesus, and is indicative of his role as God’s anointed king.  This royal position, however, was not inherently his. Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost that it was God who made Jesus both Lord and Christ:
Acts 2:36 (NASB) “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christthis Jesus whom you crucified.” (emphasis added)
One would think that if Scripture put so much emphasis on identifying Jesus as the Christ–several hundred times–it would emphasize that he is deity all the more.  However, we are never specifically told in Scripture that Jesus is God, God the Son, God-incarnate, or the second member of the Trinity.  Those who hold to the supremacy of Scripture should find it troubling that the sacred texts clearly and repeatedly identity Jesus as the Christ, but not as God.   Scholars agree that any kind of identification of Jesus as God is absent from Scripture.  Bible professor and prolific author, William Barclay, states,
Time and time again the Fourth Gospel speaks of God sending Jesus into the world. Time and time again we see Jesus praying to God. Time and time again we see Jesus unhesitatingly and unquestioningly and unconditionally accepting the will of God for himself. Nowhere does the New Testament identify Jesus and God.[6]  He said: “He who has seen me has seen God.” There are attributes of God I do not see in Jesus. I do not see God’s omniscience in Jesus, for there are things which Jesus did not know.[7] (emphasis added)
And, according to Biblical scholar and popular author, N.T. Wright:
“Messiah”, or “Christ’, does not mean ‘the/a divine one”. It is very misleading to use the words as shorthands [sic] for the divine name or being of Jesus. It is comparatively easy to argue that Jesus…believed he was the Messiah. It is much harder, and a very different thing, to argue that he thought he was in some sense identified with Israel’s God[8]  (emphasis added)


James D.G. Dunn
James D.G. Dunn

It’s also significant that acclaimed Biblical scholar and author, James Dunn, writes in his exhaustive work, Christology in the Making, “We cannot claim that Jesus believed himself to be the incarnate Son of God[9]  (emphasis added)

Is Jesus Both God and Christ?

To call Jesus both God and Christ creates quite the conundrum.  As already mentioned, if Jesus is God, how can he have a God?  Furthermore, if Jesus is deity, it makes no sense for him to be anointed and empowered by God.  On the contrary, it is God who empowers his servants.  As author and professor, Bill Schlegel explains:
“Christ” (Hebrew, “Messiah”) means “anointed”. Grammatically, the word is an adjective with a passive sense. One who is anointed has been acted upon by someone else. The one doing the anointing is not the anointed. In the Bible, God is the Anointer, and the one whom God has anointed is the Christ (the Messiah). The Anointer is not the Anointed… To believe that Jesus is the Christ means to believe that Jesus is the one anointed by God. The Christ/Messiah in the Bible can’t be God, because it is God who chose and anointed the Christ.[10] (emphasis added)
In addition, how can Jesus be exalted to the position of Christ-King and given authority if he is already God?  Isn’t God a higher position than that of even the highest king?  Moreover, how can God be exalted to God’s right hand, a seat of delegated authority?  If Jesus is God he would already the occupy the highest place and receive the greatest honor as deity.  To be made Lord and Christ would be a demotion.
On the other hand, it makes sense that Jesus of Nazareth needed the anointing of God to do the work God had called him to do.  Moreover, for Jesus to be exalted to God’s right hand as a reward for his obedience would be a true exaltation and great honor indeed (Philippians 2).
Some might contend that only Jesus’ human nature has a God, experienced exaltation and was granted authority to reign.  However, this theory is nowhere to be found in Scripture.  Rather, it was developed over time amidst fierce, protracted debates by the Hellenized Church Fathers.  Professor of Theology, A.T. Hanson, states:
No responsible New Testament scholar would claim that the doctrine of the Trinity was taught by Jesus, or preached by the earliest Christians, or consciously held by any writer of the New Testament. It was in fact slowly worked out in the course of the first few centuries in an attempt to give an intelligible doctrine of God.[11] (emphasis added)
Indeed, the theory of Jesus’ dual natures did not become official Church dogma until the Council of Chalcedon in the 5th century. 

The True Debate

Unlike the post-Biblical councils, the debate during Jesus’ ministry was not whether or not he was God, but whether or not he was the Christ:
DebatersJohn 7:40-44 (NASB)  Some of the people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, “This certainly is the Prophet.” 41  Others were saying, “This is the Christ.” Still others were saying, “Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? 42  “Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43  So a division occurred in the crowd because of Him44  Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him. (emphasis added)
There were many who believed Jesus to be the promised Messiah sent by God, and they freely confessed it.  For example, Martha, sister of Mary and Lazarus, acknowledged Jesus was the Christ:
John 11:27 (NASB) She *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.” (emphasis added)
Some confusedly interpret the title, Son of Godto be a reference to some preexistent divine nature.  However, a survey of the Bible reveals that, while there are many sons of God, it is ultimately a designation for the Messiah.  Again, McCready clarifies the term for us:
While some have used the title Son of God to denote Jesus’ deity, neither the Judaism nor the paganism of Jesus’ day understood the title in this way. Neither did the early church.[12]
Wright agrees with McCready’s assessment:
…the phrase ‘son of God’ is systematically misleading because in pre- and non-Christian Judaism its primary referent is either Israel or the Messiah, and it retains these meanings in early Christianity…[13]

What did Jesus say?

Jesus’ own testimony was that he was the Christ: 
John 4:25-26 (NASB) 25  The woman *said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” 26  Jesus *said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” (emphasis added)
John 10:24-25 (NASB) The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25  Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. (emphasis added)
Despite certain so called proof texts, Jesus never claimed to be God. Millard Erickson, Baptist seminary professor and author, concedes the point:
It is true that Jesus did not make an explicit and overt claim to be deity.  He did not say in so many words, “I am God.”[14] (emphasis added)

John’s Gospel

Ironically, we’ve been told that John’s gospel is unlike the Synoptic Gospels because, in it, he reveals the deity of Christ.  However, John plainly states that the purpose for which he wrote his account was so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, not that we might believe he is God:
The Gospel of JohnJohn 20:30-31 (NASB) Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31  but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. (emphasis added)
Surely, the revelation of Jesus’ deity would have served as the greater motivation for writing his gospel than that of Jesus being the Christ.  Yet, John’s stated purpose for writing is that we might believe Jesus is the chosen and anointed king.

What Others Believed

While there were some who did not accept that Jesus was the Christ, the demons knew exactly who he was:
Luke 4:41 (NASB) Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But rebuking them, He would not allow them to speak, because they knew Him to be the Christ. (emphasis added)
Without question, the demonic spirits would have known if Jesus was the Almighty.  But in every encounter Jesus had with demons, they never declared him to be God.  On the contrary, they understood him to be the Nazarene, and the “holy one of God,” not God, the holy one.[15]
One of the most powerful and memorable declarations made regarding Jesus’ identity came from Peter via a revelation given to him by God the Father:
Matthew 16:15-17 and 20 (NASB) He [Jesus] *said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answeredYou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven… 20 Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ. (emphasis added)
God said that Jesus was the Christ.  God never identified Jesus as co-deity.  In fact, in Luke’s rendering of the same event, Peter says that Jesus is the “Christ of God,” not God the Christ.[16]  This divinely given revelation was to be kept private for the time being. The “secret,” however, was not that Jesus was God, but that he was the promised king. 

Jesus’ Trial

But what about when Jesus was arrested and tried by Pilate.  Wasn’t the charge brought against him that he claimed to be God?  Not according to the Bible: 
Matthew 26:63 (NASB) But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest said to Him, “I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.”  (emphasis added)
sign - Jesus king of the JewsLuke 23:1-3 (NASB) Then the whole body of them got up and brought Him before Pilate.  And they began to accuse Him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.”  So Pilate asked Him, saying, “Are You the King of the Jews?” And He answered him and said, “It is as you say.” (emphasis added)
John 19:21 (NASB) So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’; but that He said, ‘I am King of the Jews.'” (emphasis added)
What’s more, as Jesus hung on the cross, he was mocked and taunted for claiming to be the Christ, the king of Israel, not for claiming to be deity:
Mark 15:29-32 (NASB) Those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads, and saying…30  save Yourself, and come down from the cross!” 31  In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes, were mocking Him among themselves and saying, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. 32  “Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!” Those who were crucified with Him were also insulting Him. (emphasis added)
Luke 23:39 (NASB) One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” (emphasis added)
Without a doubt, claiming to be God would have been the more serious offense, yet the charge brought against Jesus was that he and his followers said he was the Messiah. 

The Post-Resurrection Message

Even after God exalted Jesus to His right hand, the message continued to be that he was the Christ, not that he was God incarnate.  Every sermon preached or gospel message shared, whether it was to Jews or Greeks was not about Jesus being the God who died for the sins of the world.  Rather it was always about Jesus being the Christ:
Acts 5:42 (NASB) And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. (emphasis added)


fresco of St. Paul
Fresco of Paul, Cave of St. Paul in Ephesus, c. 6th century

Paul never taught or attempted to prove that Jesus was God or God-incarnate.  Rather, his ministry was consistently focused on proclaiming Jesus to be the Christ:
Acts 9:22 (NASB) But Saul [Paul] kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ. (emphasis added)
Acts 17:2-3 (NASB) And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,  explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.”  (emphasis added)
Acts 18:5 (NASB) But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. (emphasis added)
The reason God exalted Jesus to His right hand was because of his obedience, even in the face of a horrific death.  What will Jesus’ reward be for his costly obedience?  At the end of the age, will every knee will bow and declare once and for all that Jesus is God?  No!  Rather, that he is the Christ:
Philippians 2:9-11 (NASB)  For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10  so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11  and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lordto the glory of God the Father. (emphasis added)
Not surprisingly, Apollos, a powerful, but lesser known preacher in the Bible, presented the same gospel message as that of Paul:
Acts 18:28 (NASB) 28  for he [Apollos] powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. (emphasis added)
What was it that the Scriptures demonstrated?  That Jesus is God?  No, rather that he is the Christ.  
The disciples performed miracles and cast out demons by the name of Jesus the Christ and never by Jesus who is God:
Acts 3:6 (NASB) But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!” (emphasis added)
Acts 16:18 (NASB) She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out at that very moment. (emphasis added)
Who do you say that I am?Who is this man from Nazareth?   God incarnate? The second member of a triune deity?  Or the Christ, sent by God?  It depends on whether you answer according to fourth century orthodoxy or Scripture.  The post-Biblical tradition says that we must believe Jesus is God in order to be saved.  But according to Scripture, we are born again if we believe that Jesus is the Christ
1 John 5:1 (NASB) Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.  (emphasis added)
Who do you say he is?



[1] Barna used a representative sample of adults over the age of 18 in each of the 50 United States.
[2] “What Do Americans Think of Jesus: Man, Myth, or God?” The Christian Post, April 15, 2017, accessed 10-02-19.
[3] Messiah has a God: Micah 5:4; Psalm 45:6-7; Psalm 22;1; Psalm 89:26.  Jesus has a God: Matthew 27:46 (2x); Mark 15:34 (2x); John 20:16-17; Romans 15:5-6; 2 Corinthians 1:2-3; 11:30-31; Ephesians 1:15-17; Hebrews 1:8-9; 1 Peter 1:3; Revelation 1:4-6; 3:2; 3:12 (4x). 
[3] Mark 15:34
[4] Douglass McCready, He Came Down from HeavenThe Preexistence of Christ and the Christian Faith, (IVP Academinc, 2005), p. 55.
[5] Christ (Jesus Christ, Christ the Lord, etc) is used of Jesus 503 times in the New Testament. Messiah is used two times (messias in Greek).  Herbert Lockyer, All the Divine Names and Titles in the Bible, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House), 1975, p. 101-102; 104-105, and 206.
[6] Professor Barclay: “But we shall find that on almost every occasion in the New Testament on which Jesus seems to be called God there is a problem either of textual criticism or of translation.”  William, Barclay, Jesus As They Saw Him: New Testament Interpretations of Jesus. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdman’s Publishing, 1983), p. 21
[7] William Barclay, The Mind of Jesus, (Harper & Rowe, 1961),  p. 56.
[8] N.T. Wright, “Jesus’ Self-Understanding” NTWrightPage – blog post accessed on 4-15-19  http://ntwrightpage.com/2016/04/05/jesus-self-understanding/
[9] James Dunn, Christology in the Making,  (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1996 ), p. 254.
[10] Bill Schlegel, “Do You Love God’s Child, The Person Who Believes Jesus is the Christ? Comments on 1 John 5:1,” Land and Bible, 9-27-91; accessed 9-27-91.
[11]  Anthony Tyrrell Hanson, The Image of the Invisible God,  (London: SCM Press, 1982), p.87. 
[12] McCready, p. 56
[13] N.T. Wright, “Jesus’ Self-Understanding” NTWrightPage – blog post accessed on 4-15-19  http://ntwrightpage.com/2016/04/05/jesus-self-understanding/
[14] Millard J. Erickson, Introducing Christian Doctrine, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1992, 2001)
[15] Luke 4:34.
[16] Luke 9:20.

The above article was taken from:
One God Worship: Who is Jesus? God, Christ or Both?
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