by Jack Kinsella – Omega Letter Editor
One of the most baffling claims I’ve heard repeated about Jesus is the one that says Jesus Christ never claimed to be God.
Indeed, some will go so far as to say that Jesus Christ didn’t even THINK He was God. I read one critic’s opinion that said if Jesus were alive today, He would be astonished and dismayed to find Himself an object of worship.
If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times, and I’ve seen it in print under the names of some otherwise fairly astute and intelligent authors.
There are as many opinions about Jesus as their are religious worldviews on this planet. Everybody wants to include Him as part of their own religious dogma, provided He doesn’t mind playing second fiddle to their own deity.
There is a Muslim ‘Jesus’ [Isa] but the Muslim Jesus is not God. The Muslim Jesus wasn’t born of a virgin, did not go to the Cross, and certainly never rose again from the dead. The Muslim Jesus was not God, but instead, he was a prophet and a teacher.
Jesus plays some kind of role in most the great pagan religions of the world. But with the exception of Christianity, the pagan Jesus was invariably depicted as a ‘good man’ or as a ‘wise teacher’.
And for THAT reason, those who deny the Deity of Christ do so in order to keep their own religious doctrine from flying apart. If the real Jesus claimed to be God, then He was neither ‘good’ nor ‘wise’.
‘Good’ men don’t lie about who they are. ‘Wise’ men don’t allow themselves to be executed to perpetuate a lie. If Jesus Christ wasn’t God, but claimed He was, then He was a liar and a lunatic.
So whether or not Jesus Christ believed He was God is of critical importance to their doctrine. The Islamic Jesus says of himself,
He [Jesus] said: ‘I am indeed a servant of God. He has given me revelation and made me a prophet; He has made me blessed wheresoever I be; and He has enjoined on me prayer and charity as long as I live. He has made me kind to my mother, and not overbearing or miserable. So peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life (again)!’ Such was Jesus the son of Mary. It is a statement of truth, about which they (vainly) dispute. It is not befitting to (the majesty of) God that He should beget a son. Glory be to Him! When He determines a matter, He only says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.” (Sura 19:30-35).
So Islam’s Jesus is NOT the begotten Son of God — because it does not befit their god to have a son.
“Christ, the son of Mary, was no more than a messenger; many were the messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both to eat their (daily) food. See how God makes His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the truth!” (5:75).
For Islam to recognize that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God would require throwing out the Koran.
The Koran advances the belief that Mohammed was the final prophet of God. But if Jesus had claimed to be the only begotten Son of God, then Mohammed would not only be a liar, he would have been unnecessary.
Or Jesus would have to be exposed as a fraud. Since Mohammed evidently couldn’t credibly deny His existence, the best he could do instead was ‘adopt’ Him as a mascot.
Islamic theology relies on Mohammed being superior to Jesus, but makes no claim that Mohammed was divine. If Jesus therefore simply CLAIMED to be the Son of God, then Mohammed would either be an inferior prophet, or Isa couldn’t be a prophet at all. In either case, Islam’s foundational stone would crumble.
Most cults find a way to reduce Jesus to the status of a created being, for the same reason. If Jesus claimed to be God, then their god can’t be, or they wouldn’t need a Jesus. They’d have their own Jesus and wouldn’t need to steal ours.
To the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jesus Christ isn’t the Eternal God, but rather, a creation OF God.
Charles Taze Russell accomplished this transformation by in including a single letter in the text of John 1:1 in his ‘New World Translation: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was [a] god.”
The Mormons not only deny the Deity of Christ, they deny the Deity of God Himself. The Mormon God was once a man himself, and Jesus Christ was really Satan’s smarter brother.
Mormons believe that God liked the plan for the salvation of mankind that Jesus submitted better than the one that Satan came up with. So Jesus got to be the Savior of Mankind, and Lucifer became Satan out of sibling rivalry.
All the cults who claim Jesus do so on the grounds He was either a good man and a wise teacher or that He was a prophet sent from God.
If at some point, Jesus claimed to be God come in the flesh, then He could be neither.
As I said at the outset, the argument that Jesus never claimed Divinity is among the most baffling of all.
Consider this. There are somewhere between a billion and two billion Muslims on this planet. They not only believe He was just another prophet, their entire religion demands it.
It isn’t that Islam would crumble if Jesus WAS Divine, it would crumble if Jesus simply BELIEVED He was Divine. As previously noted, if He believed He was the Son of God, He could NOT be a prophet of God. He could only be Who He claimed to be, or He would be a liar. There is no logical third option.
If He said He was the Son of God, He cannot be a prophet. And if He thought that He was, and was mistaken, deluded or insane, well, then He cannot be a prophet.
Jesus never said, “I am God” in the English Bible. Instead, the Bible quotes Jesus as saying, “before Abraham was, I am.” “I am” is one of the Hebrew Names for God. When Moses asked God to identify Himself, He replied, “I am that I am. Tell them that I AM sent you.”
To the Jews living under the Mosaic Law, “I AM” could only be a reference to the God Who handed Moses the two tablets.
Jesus knew exactly what He was saying, and so did the assembled Jews. Abraham lived around 2160 BC; about as far removed from Christ’s time as Christ’s time was from our point on the timeline. After He made the claim, the Jews prepared to stone Him for blasphemy, but He slipped away in the crowd.
To somehow see this as a claim of anything other than one of Divinity is an act of desperation. What else could it POSSIBLY mean? If I said to you, “before Jesus was, I am,” how would YOU, a non-Jew living in 21st century, interpret that remark?
If YOU see it that way, how could the religious Jews of the 1st century have interpreted it to mean something different?
Matthew 28:18 records Jesus saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” Who has ALL authority in heaven and earth? Who does Islam think that refers to?
Mohammed? Hardly. Only Allah is all-powerful. Who do the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe has all power in heaven and earth? Or the Mormons? Or any other religion that co-opts Christ in a supporting role?
Jesus claimed to be “Lord of the Sabbath”. Who did the Jews believe was the Lord of the Sabbath? (Answer: the One Who gave Moses the tablets. They knew Him as “I AM”.)
Jesus said that authority was given Him to forgive sins. Remember, He was addressing the most religious Jews of His day — they knew that the authority to forgive sins belongs to God alone.
Jesus claimed to be the “light of the world’ that provides salvation. David identified Jehovah as his “light and salvation.” (Psalms 27:1)
Jesus identified Himself as “the Good Shepherd” who was ’sent to the lost sheep of Israel’ (Matthew 15:24) Ezekiel 34:11 identifies the Good Shepherd; “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out.”
Jesus said He would separate the sheep nations from the goat nations. Ezekiel 34:17 says that this is a function of God: “And as for you, My flock, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I will judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the male goats.”
Jesus said of His sheep: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.” (John 10:27-28 )
Now, is it even POSSIBLE that the observant Jews of Israel circa AD 30 could be confused as to the identity of the One Who gives eternal life? Can you conceive of the possibility that the observant Jews of circa AD 30 were unfamiliar with the identify of the “Great I AM”?
Or that there is any other way for the Jews to have understood Christ’s claim to be anything less than Divinity? What was the charge under which Christ was convicted by the Sanhedrin?
Did Jesus ever directly claim to be the Christ, the Son of God? You tell me.
“Again the high priest asked Him, and said unto Him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I AM:” (Mark 14:61-62)
Is this unclear?
If one requires proof that Jesus Christ is real, and that Jesus Christ IS the only-begotten Son of God, the most convincing evidence is found in the number of religions that co-opted Him into it — to lend themselves legitimacy.
Why do the religions that claim Christ do so? And having done so, why claim a watered-down version of who He is? The reason they cannot deny Him outright is because He is real.
The reason they cannot acknowledge Him for Whom He claims to be is because it would expose their own religion as false.
Even acknowledging that He made the claim of Divinity exposes that religion as false. If He claimed Divinity, but was merely a man, He has no credentials as a prophet of God.
God cannot lie. If He was a liar Who allowed Himself to be executed to perpetuate a myth, then He has no credentials as a wise teacher.
In either case, there would be no reason for any other religion to even WANT Him, let alone kidnap Him as their prophet.
In the final analysis, logic dictates that the Person of Jesus Christ was either the Son of God, truly God and truly Man, Who lived a sinless life and died a sinner’s death as full payment for the sins of mankind, and now sits at the Right Hand of the Father.
Or those religions who have adopted Him as their prophet are following a liar and a lunatic.
In either case, it exposes them as cheap counterfeits. If He is not Lord OF all, then He cannot be Lord AT All.
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
That Name is Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.
Rapture Watch 
Why is Jesus’s teachings such an “either-or” proposition? The church I attend (Unitarian-Universalist) neither claims Jesus was the Son of God nor does it take every word of the Bible literally. But we accept many of Jesus’ teachings as lessons for our own lives — along with teachings from Buddhism, Islam, paganism, etc. If Jesus claimed to be God (which, given the Bible’s origins, is debatable), then so be it — we can still consider him a man while learning from his life.
Many Christian bloggers seem to have an all-or-nothing attitude about their religion — like if one tiny detail about something is questionable, the whole thing’s gotta be dismissed entirely. Why is that? Why can’t we accept much of the good teachings of Christ while rationally dismissed that which is impossible or irrational? Why can’t there be multiple paths to salvation, even if the Bible says there aren’t? Can’t we find wisdom in a book without having to consider the entire book as wise?
You’ve asked many questions Curios! Let me start with this…first you have to believe in God. If you believe in God then you believe the Bible is his written word because he said it was:
2Timothy 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 3:17That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
The writers of Scripture ranged from shepherds to kings to fishermen, but the 66 books that make up the Bible read as a single, harmonious narrative emanating from a Single Author.
God threw down the gauntlet concerning how to know whether His Word is true or not. God said to Moses, “You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?’ If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken.” (Deut. 18:21-22 NIV)
This scripture is why Christians take the Bible literally and if something does not line up with scripture then it is thrown out. The Bible contains all we need to be obedient to Christ and produce the fruit of our salvation.
Every prophecy made in the Bible about specific events, places and times have come true to the letter. Some are not yet fulfilled because it is not yet the time. But the record in history is 100 percent accuracy. This is why we have only the books in the Bible that have been authenticated by fulfilled prophecy. More than 300 prophecies were fulfilled in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.
Also we have the cannonization. In order for a book of the Bible to be a part of the Bible it had to meet the cannon:
1. it must have been written by a prophet or apostle or by one who had a special relationship to one. Only those who had witnessed the events or had recorded eyewitness testimony could have their writings considered.
2. Jesus said that His disciples would give total recall by the Holy Spirit of the things He said and did. Any book that claimed canonical status, yet diverted from the truth of the life of Christ, would have been rejected by Jesus’ own disciples who were, eyewitnesses to the New Testament events.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things Which I said to you (John 14:26).
How do we know the correct books are in the bible?
1. In the Old Testament we have the testimony of Jesus to the existing books. He confirmed the accepted three-fold division of our canonical books.
These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me (Luke 24:44).
2. In the New Testament , we have the promise of Jesus.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you (John 14:26).
In summary you see God literally made all creation, he literally became man in his son Jesus Christ:
John 1:In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
He literally went to the cross and was crucified for our sins. He litterally rose after 3 days and ascended to the right hand of the father. There is a literal Heaven where people will go who accept Jesus as their savior and a literal hell where people will go who don’t accept him. Jesus is literally going to return one day for his bride the Church, and Jesus is literally the only way to the father and to recieve salvation:
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
There aren’t multiple paths to salvation….only one and it’s through Jesus Christ! I pray you open your eyes before it is too late and recive Jesus as your savior. Your not guranteed your next breath and hell is not someplace you want to spend eternity. Run from that church that is teaching false truths and false ways to salvation and turn to the only one who can save you in Jesus Christ! All you have to do is call out to him:
Romans 10::9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10:10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Don’t let this scripture be your description:
First Corinthians 2:11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 2:13Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Thank you for addressing my post, honestly. Sometimes I’ve asked questions of Christians, and get no response which makes me feel like the Christians felt either my questions were annoying or incredibly naive, which perhaps they are but not responding doesn’t answer my questions.
First, you say that if I believe in God, I have to believe the Bible is true because He said it was. Yet then you cite the Bible. It strikes me that you’re actually saying that I have to believe the Bible is true because the Bible says it’s true. To me, God is far larger than the Bible, which was created by man for man’s purposes–and I have strong suspicions, even belief, that God has never interfered in our world. I can’t say She* doesn’t exist, and the beginning of the universe is certainly up to question. But I find little evidence that She* has ever been involved in material matters, the Bible (written by men and assembled by decidedly human scholars for largely material reasons) notwithstanding. If you have evidence beyond the Bible and its claims that the Bible was divinely inspired, please provide it.
Not that I don’t doubt that the people who assembled the Bible were earnest in their belief, but Christian beliefs were fluid until finally assembled (and probably edited and addended) by scholars, were they not? After all, were there not differing opinions as to Jesus’ divinity even in the years immediately following his death? It took a government body assembled by a Roman emperor centuries after Jesus’ death to vote down the Arian heresy, after all — would that the Arian side had better debaters, and Christianity might be walking to a different tune today.
Finally, I find it really, really hard to believe that God’s love is conditional, no matter what the Bible says. Have you never loved a child with the unconditional love of a parent? Can you not imagine a love large enough to remain no matter what that child ever does? And yet you believe God is not big enough to still love His or Her children no matter what they do or don’t do? Really? That seems like kind of a limited view of God’s love, to me. My God’s love is larger than the limitations placed on it by books or men.
But these are just my views, and I respect your opinions — I simply disagree with them. I believe we’ll all find our salvation in this life, eventually, if we seek it. Would that people spent as much time making this world more safe and sane as they do worrying about getting into the next one. Have a glorious day.
* I can’t help but pull your leg a little bit…
Your very welcome! I can’t speak for others, but there are no irrelevant questions when it comes to finding the truth about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as far as I’m concerned. As the Bible says:
Matthew 7:8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
You are right. The Bible was created by man for man’s guidance, but the point you missed is that everything written in it was at the direction of the Holy Spirit. God guided every word. It wasn’t the writters thoughts and opinions. The proof is that it is 100% accurate. No man could have written it and even came close to that, because man is not perfect…only God is! Over a 1/4 of the Bible is prophecy (history written in advance) and there has not been one of those prophecies (excpet those yet to be fullfilled)that have not been fullfilled accurately and to the letter as they were written. Only God could have done that. There is no other book ever written that can come close to making that claim. That is why the Bible is our source when we seek God’s word for guidance. That is also why it must be followed and interpreted litterally, becuase that is the way all things that have already been fullfilled were done. We know with certainty from observing history that it is God’s word. We also know that God never changes:
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
The way he has done things in the past is the way he will do them in the future.
I have to assume since you used She* in addressing God that you are insinuating God could be a woman. If we know the word of God (the Bible)to be true (which is the case since it was guided by the hand of God) then it would make no sense for him to call himself a man when in fact he is a woman. God is not an author of confusion:
1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
There are several scriptures in which he indicates his gender. Here is just one:
John 14:9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
As far as God interfering in our world…there are over 2,000 supporting historical documents outside the Bible that support the claims of the Bible. After Jesus rose from the grave he spent time on earth appearing to different people. One time he appeard to over 500 people at once…a fact that would have been disputed through history if it were not true. There have been many artifacts found that support the miraculous stories of the Bible such as the walls of Jericho, chariot wheels at the bottom of the Red Sea, temple artifacts, etc. all of which just support the accuracy and truth of the Bible and shows that God was and always has been active in the world. All of these things can be found and read about with a little research. It’s a known fact that Jesus is mentioned in other religions such as Islam, etc. and historical documents outside the Bible validate his existance. We know that Jesus is God in man form. For him to come to earth and die for us in order that we might be saved, I would say is the strongest support for the fact he cares and is activly involved in what takes place on earth and in our lives. Here are a few verses that says God is active in material matters:
Isaiah 48:17 This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go
Job 36:32 He fills his hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark.
Luke 12:24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!
After Chist ascended to Heaven to be with the Father the deciples went out as Christ had instructed them to preach the gospel to all the world. As they went from town to town they didn’t setup a Baptist Church in one town and then a Church of Christ in the next, etc. There weren’t denominations…only the word of God as given in the gospel. As time marched on men of corrupt and reprobate minds twisted the word and teachings of Christ to fit their own agendas and thus spawned a variety of false teachings and religions that have continued to this day. That is why it is important to stick to the word of God as given in the Bible. It’s not your church, denomination, or good works that save you. Only Jesus Christ can save you!
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Romans 3:23-24 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 3:24Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 2:9not of works, lest any man should boast.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Romans 10::9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10:10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
You are absolutely right! God loves every one of us more than we could ever concieve of. That is why he sent his son to die for us so that we would have a way to be clensed of our sin and recieve salvation so that we can be with him forever. God is holy and rightous and sin cannot be in his presence and that is why we need Jesus. It is God’s desire that none sould perrish:
Matthew 18:14 Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
God is a loving God and he is also a just God. His judgment is just and rightous. Here on earth when people break the law they must face the consequences of their actions and we have judges who rule justly. If we didn’t we would have murderers, drug dealers, rapist, and every other felon running around free. Just as a judge here won’t tell a convicted murderer “I think you have a good heart and didn’t really mean to kill that person, so I’m just going to let you go…don’t worry about that life sentence” God won’t do it either when he judges us for our actions. Everyone will face God in judgment one day:
Acts 17:30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
Romans 2:12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
Those who have not accepted Christ as their savior will pay for eternity for the sins they commited against the Lord God, but for all of us who have accepted Jesus as our Lord and savior we are covered by the blood of Christ. He paid for our sins on the cross. You see it is not God who sends you to hell for all eternity because of your sin against him….it is you who sends yourself there by not accepting the lifeline he has given you by accepting his Jesus as your savior!
One last note…once you sincerly accept Christ as your savior God seals you with his Holy Spirit:
Ephesians 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
For a Christian who is saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, God is not someone who is somewhere in space never to be heard from. God speaks to us daily in prayer and other ways. Once you accept Christ you will see things happen in your life that will leave no doubt it was God. You feel and experince him in your life everyday and know the guidance of his Holy Spirit that is within you. That is why Christians are so firm and unwilling to waver in their faith. He is in us and we in him!
I highly recommend you read the book or get the movie:
Lee Strobel: Case for Christ
He was an athiest who spent years trying to prove God and the Bible false. He covers much of the stuff you have mentioned and I think you would find it very informative. Thanks for your post and may God bless you!
Thank you for your sincere post, and for taking my questions seriously. I’d like to check out the Lee Strobel book, but “The Case for Christ” is designated “lost” by my local library — I’ve reserved “The Case for Faith” and “Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary” by Lee Strobel instead. I would be interested in knowing if you have other books (besides the Bible itself, I suppose — I have a copy of that) that you might suggest I delve into? (Keep in mind, I’m still a bit skeptical, but I enjoy exploring faith, and I am earnestly looking into views of Christianity.)
Curious…I don’t really know of any other books I could recommend other than “The Case for Christ”. Here is a link however where you can get it. It only cost about $13:
The Case for Christ
I would recommend the “Left Behind” series of books as something you would enjoy. It is a series that is a fictional story based on biblical principals of the rapture of the church and the endtimes (which we are in). A really good read.
Also, I would recomend “The Ransomed Heart” by John Eldridge. It is a book about the Christian walk and defending ourselves against our enemy…satan.
I would like to point out Curious that it’s not just chance that you posted in this forum and we have had these conversations. God is reaching out to you:
John 6:44-45 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
Everytime you turn away from him when he calls, your heart becomes a little harder. Eventually it may become so hard you are unable to come to him and thus will commit the only unforgivable sin…blasphemy of the Holy Spirit:
Matthew 12:31 And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
I pray the Lord will bless you and guide your walk and bring you to recieve Jesus as your Lord and Savior. I hope to sit beside you someday in the Kingdom of Heaven at the marriage supper of the Lamb! May God Bless you!