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IS JESUS GOD?
by Eric V.
Snow
Was Jesus
God? Was Jesus the Eternal? If so, how are He and the Father still one
God? Was Herbert Armstrong right when
writing this? "Christ and the Father are one God, not two Gods--one
Elohim"? (his emphasis, "Is Jesus God?," reprint article,
1955, p. 2). Recently, our traditional
teaching has been questioned by a former UCG pastor in Australia, Orest Solyma,
and by recent letters to The Journal by Anthony Buzzard and Duane
Giles. So let's review briefly some of
the Scriptural evidence bearing on this question. Below, it shall be shown that Jesus was God and had existed from
all eternity with the Father.
DOES IT MATTER WHETHER JESUS WAS GOD?
But before
turning to the evidence favoring Jesus being God, let's examine why this issue
even matters. Especially in the UCG,
many seem to believe the nature of God question is irrelevant to practical,
everyday Christian living, unlike (say) the Sabbath, Holy Days, tithing, and
other matters the Worldwide Church of God changed its doctrines on in late
1994. Here, I suspect, the
predominantly Anglo-Saxon cultural heritage of most church members comes home
to roost, especially among us pragmatic Americans: We are especially apt to dismiss philosophy and high theology as
having no practical effect on our lives.
But having a mistaken and/or vague notion of the God we serve inevitably
affects our spiritual lives. In reply
to the Samaritan woman, Jesus remarked, "You worship that which you do not
know; we worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews" (John
4:22, NASB throughout, unless otherwise stated). If we have mistaken ideas of who and what God is, it inevitably
causes us to worship Him equally incorrectly.
Jesus noted that "those who worship Him must worship in spirit and
truth" (v. 24).
PROBLEMS WITH THE UNITARIAN THEORY OF REDEMPTION
For example,
consider the fundamental problem with Unitarian (Socinian) theology for the
theory of redemption. Suppose Jesus was
not the Creator of humanity or the world, and had no preexistence. How can the death of a mere man, a man who
(despite being virgin born and sinless) was no greater than (say) the prophets
Isaiah or Jeremiah, save us from our sins?
Herbert Armstrong's theory of the atonement (Mystery of the Ages,
pp. 210-11) maintains that since Jesus was God and the actual Creator of all
humans, His life was worth far more than all human lives combined. God, being a consistent enforcer of His law,
had condemned all humans to death for their sins, and couldn't arbitrarily
cancel them without putting His sense of justice in question. Consequently, to rescue mankind from its
sins, only the life of Someone worth more than all our lives put together could
pay the penalty of our sins while keeping His law intact. But that price couldn't be paid, unless the
Creator in all respects became also like the part of the Creation to be
redeemed. Jesus had to die, because
only human death could pay the penalties for human sin. Yet, He also had to be the Creator of
humanity, since only then would His life would be worth more than all the other
human beings who had ever lived.
Importantly, Jesus' sinlessness is a necessary but not sufficient
condition for saving humanity, for that isn't enough by itself to do the
job. Ultimately, Unitarian theology
undermines our appreciation for what Jesus did because the level of sacrifice
He engaged in is almost infinitely lessened (cf. Rom. 5:7): No longer does the Almighty Jehovah who
lived from all eternity and created the universe die for us, but rather just
(perhaps) a virgin-born, sinless man who is just like ourselves otherwise.
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN PROVES JESUS IS GOD
The Gospel of
John poses more problems for Unitarian theology than any other book of the
Bible. Indeed, its theme can be
summarized as describing Jesus Christ, the One who was fully God and fully man,
and His teachings for those already converted.
In order to refute Gnostic teachings that denied Jesus came in the
flesh, but just appeared to have a body of flesh and blood (II John 7; I John
4:2-3), John also emphasized Jesus' humanity.
Its opening verse affirms the Deity of Christ: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God." Since in
verse 14 "the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us," the Word
undeniably was Jesus. To evade this
verse, Unitarians have argued that the "Word" merely was a thought in
the Father's mind, since verses 2-3 refer to the "Word"
impersonally. (For verse 2, the NASB
literal marginal rendering is "This one.") This argument is simply unpersuasive, since this
"thought" is called "God," and because this
"thought" was the Creator "itself" in verse 2: "All things came into being by Him, and
apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being." Could a mere "thought" alone in
the Father's mind create the universe by itself?
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ON JOHN 1:1
Jehovah's
Witnesses tackle John 1:1 differently.
Importantly, they are Arians who deny Jesus was God but who (unlike
Unitarians) do affirm His preexistence before the Holy Spirit impregnated the
Virgin Mary. They assert the last
clause should be translated "and the Word was a god" (New World
Translation). To really prove this
translation's dishonesty by examining the Greek grammar would consume much more
space than is available here. Such
complicated issues like Colwell's rule appear, which states a "definite
predicate nominative" never acquires an article ("the" or
"a") when preceding the verb.
Interested readers should turn to John M. Bowman's Jehovah's
Witnesses, Jesus Christ, and the Gospel of John (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1989) for a thorough
refutation. But consider this intuitive
point: Since John mentions the
"Word" was in the beginning in the first clause before referring to
the Father ("God") in the second, this by itself strongly implies His
eternal preexistence. Furthermore, John
deliberately wrote a seemingly self-contradictory, equivocal, paradoxical
statement, since the "Word" was with "God," yet the
"Word" also was "God."
To say the Word was merely "a god," robs this poetic verse of
its power. Using a small "g,"
this translation makes a distinction possible only in few languages besides
English. (Ironically, many of the
earliest Greek manuscripts are in all capitals!) Furthermore, this mistranslation leads to polytheism, since Jesus
is a "little god," the Father is a "big God," making
1 + 1 = 2! Tersely
yet poetically, John uses the word "God" in two different ways, first
to refer to the Father, second to the Godhead or Divine Family generally, which
includes Jesus as well as the Father.
JESUS' UNIQUELY CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE FATHER
Another key
verse showing Jesus is God is John 5:18:
"For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to
kill [Jesus], because He not only was breaking the Sabbath [as they defined
it], but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with
God." Jesus referred to the Father
in such a familiar way (v. 17), unlike other Jews, they thought He was
committing blasphemy. Similarly, Jesus
stated in John 10:30, "I and the Father are one." For this remark, the Jews immediately (v.
31) picked "up stones again to stone Him." Why? "'For a good
work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make
Yourself out to be God" (v. 33).
At this point, if Jesus wasn't God, immediately He could have clarified
His identity by issuing a simply plain denial right then. Instead, side-stepping the accusation by
quoting Psalms 82:6, He affirms He is the Son of God (v. 34).
As the Jews
understood Jesus when He used this title, "the Son of God"
implied divinity and not just Messiahship.
(Theoretically, one could claim to be the Messiah yet deny being
God). Taking on this title cost Jesus
His life. His crucifixion followed the
supposed blasphemy of saying He was the Son of God (John 19:7; Luke 22:67-71;
Matt. 26:63-66; Mark 14:61-64). After
all, in John 10:30-34 and elsewhere, He got into trouble for calling God His
Father, and for saying He had a special, close relationship with Him that all
other humans didn't have, i.e., He was a special son of God, the
"only begotten" (John 3:16; cf. His avoidance of "our
Father" in John 20:17).
JESUS IDENTIFIES HIMSELF AS YAHWEH
Then consider
John 8:58: "Jesus said to them,
'Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.'" Implying He was Jehovah, Jesus alluded to
the burning bush incident, in which God stated "I am who I am" (Ex.
3:14). To evade this verse's
implications, Unitarians and Arians attempt to retranslate one or more words in
it. One option is to turn "was
born" (NASB, lit. margin, "came into being") into a reference to
the resurrection ("came to be") of Abraham. Another claims "I am" should be translated "I
was" or "I have been," in order to say Jesus merely asserted He
lived before Abraham did. Again, the
technicalisms of Greek grammar can't be pursued here, but the reader is
referred to Bowman's work mentioned above.
But both of these alternate strategies totally fail before the
implications of verse 59: "Therefore
they picked up stones to throw at Him."
Why did they want to stone Him?
For blasphemy! If Jesus merely
was announcing He lived or would be resurrected before Abraham did or would be,
unbelieving Jews might have marked Him down as eccentric (re: verse 56).
But certainly this was no offense worthy of death.
The context
of John 8:58-59 concerns issues about Jesus' identity (see verses 12, 19, 24,
25, 28, 53). The chapter ends by Jesus
asserting that He is the Eternal, the uncreated Creator, by contrasting
Abraham's coming into being with His eternal existence (cf. Ps. 90:2). Later, during His arrest (John 18:5-8),
Jesus' saying "I am" (the "He," is italicized, showing the
translators added it) caused the crowd to draw back and fall to the ground. Their response strongly implies Jesus was
making a divine claim, not merely stating when He lived compared to
Abraham. By these statements, Jesus was
likely also alluding to where the Eternal says "I am (He)" in Isaiah
41:4; 43:10, 46:4; 52:6.
THE APOSTLE THOMAS' AFFIRMATION OF JESUS' DEITY
After His
resurrection, Jesus confronted doubting Thomas, who replied in total
astonishment, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28). Again, if Jesus wasn't God, this exclamation
presented Him with the golden opportunity to correct Thomas' would-be
misimpression. But, of course, He did
no such thing. Thomas wasn't using a
irreverent euphemism, something which may be common today but was virtually
unknown in his culture. Instead,
remembering that Thomas' earlier devotion and service to Jesus shows he
wouldn't casually throw around God's name in vain, in context his previous
unbelief was overwhelmed, dazzled, and rebuked by the personal proof of Jesus'
Deity by His resurrection from the dead.
The Gospel of
John is full of statements by Jesus which no Old Testament prophet would dare
make about himself, but which came naturally to Him. "'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to
the Father, but through Me'" (John 14:6).
"'I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall
live even if he dies'" (John 11:25).
"'I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in
darkness, but shall have the light of life'" (John 8:12). "'I said therefore to you, that you
shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in
your sins'" (John 8:24). "'He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood
has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day'" (John
6:54). "'I am the vine, you are
the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart
from Me you can do nothing. If anyone
does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they
gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned'" (John
15:5-6). "'I am the bread of life;
he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never
thirst'" (John 6:35). "'All
may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent
him'" (John 8:23). Would have
Daniel or Ezekiel even dream of uttering such thoughts in reference to
themselves?
JESUS COULD FORGIVE SINS BY HIS OWN AUTHORITY
Turning to
further proofs of Jesus' Deity found in the other Gospels, consider Jesus'
ability to forgive sins by His own authority.
While healing the paralytic, Jesus told him "your sins are forgiven"
(Mark 2:5; cf. Luke 5:19). Immediately,
some of the scribes hearing Him questioned His apparent presumption: "Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but
God alone?" (Mark 2:7). Despite
knowing their thinking, Jesus proceeded to assert His authority to forgive sins
(v. 10), without doing anything to correct their interpretation of His
statement. Remember, He wasn't
forgiving sins committed against Himself, i.e., as an individual who had been
wronged or offended, but was forgiving sins generically.
JESUS WAS WORSHIPED
Since only
God is worthy of worship (Matt. 4:10), if Jesus was worshiped by anyone without
Him rebuking him (cf. Rev. 22:8-9; Acts 10:25-26; 14:12-15), that would prove
His Deity. The Magi from the east
"came into the house and saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell
down and worshiped Him" (Matt. 2:11).
Now, the standard Unitarian/Arian reply states that the Greek word
translated "worshiped" here is ambiguous. It can refer to people paying their respects to a king or high
authority figure by bowing down to them.
Hence, Jehovah's Witnesses, in their New World Translation, have
"falling down, they did obeisance to it." But is this alternative translation always persuasive, given the
context of the situation in which Jesus was "worshiped"? Consider when Jesus miraculously walked on
water and controlled the weather by making the wind stop the moment He and
Peter (who ran out on the water towards Him, only to sink) got back into their boat
(Matt. 14:33): "And those who were
in the boat worshiped Him, saying, 'You are certainly God's Son!'" Having just so overawed them by
demonstrating His powers over nature, as God has, was this mere
"obeisance"? That hardly
seems likely. Similarly, when the
disciples first met Jesus after His resurrection (Matt. 28:9; cf. v. 17): "They came up and took hold of His feet
and worshiped Him." Considering
Thomas' exclamation when he first met the risen Christ, is it plausible to
think after Jesus' stunning victory of life over death that the disciples
merely bowed down to Him as if he were a human king, as if He were Henry VIII? Hebrews 1:6 states the angels worshiped
Christ: "And when He again brings
the first-born into the world, He says:
'And let all the angels of God worship Him.'" Since Jesus in the immediate context is
being deliberately contrasted with the angels (v. 4-5, 7), is this mere
"obeisance" to a Being that Jehovah's Witnesses identify also as
Michael the Archangel? Is Jesus then
just a superior, but fellow, angel?
Notice then Heb. 1:8: "But
of the son He says, 'Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever'" Jehovah's Witnesses attempt to elude this
verse by this alternative translation:
"God is your throne forever and ever" (NWT). Although grammatically possible, is this
sensible? How does God Himself become a
"throne"? If this (somehow)
means Jesus derives His authority from God, then He is no different from the
angels that this verse is supposed to be contrasting Him with. Verse 10 cites from Ps. 102:25: "And, 'Thou, Lord, in the beginning
didst lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy
hands.'" Identifying Jesus as the
Creator, the author of Hebrews plainly applies to Jesus the Psalmist's words
about Yahweh (notice Ps. 102:18, 20, 22).
Since Jesus is Yahweh, He is surely worthy of the angels' worship!
One
interesting reference about Jesus receiving worship as God obliquely occurs in
Revelation 7:10-11, 17: "And they
cry out with a loud voice, saying, 'Salvation to our God who sits on the
throne, and to the Lamb.' And all
the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four
living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and
worshiped God. . . . for the Lamb in the center of the throne
shall be their shepherd." Notice
how God sits on the throne in v. 10, and receives worship, but v. 17 affirms
Jesus sits on that throne Himself! The
worship that these great spirit beings gave to God on His throne can't possibly
be downgraded to the kind of respect humans show when bowing to a king. Although it's affirmed indirectly, these
verses still remain strong evidence for Jesus receiving worship.
JESUS WAS THE CREATOR
Further
evidence that Jesus is God comes from statements stating He was the Creator, a
major defining attribute of God. If
Jesus was the Creator, it also proves His preexistence, which refutes
Unitarianism if not Arianism.
"From the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created
all things through Jesus Christ" (Eph. 3:9, NKJV). "Jesus Christ, by whom are all things,
and we exist through Him" (I Cor. 8:6).
"All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made
that was made" (John 1:3, NKJV).
"For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on
earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or
authorities--all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all
things hold together" (Col. 1:16-17).
Logically, if Jesus made "ALL things," then He Himself
couldn't be one of the "things" made!
THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA
At the
beginning of Revelation appears a most intriguing text for the Deity of
Christ. "'I am the Alpha and the
Omega, the Beginning and the End,' says the Lord, 'who is and who was and who
is to come, the Almighty'" (Rev. 1:8, NKJV). "Alpha" is the first letter of the
Greek alphabet, while "omega" is the last. In red letter Bibles, these words will properly appear in red,
since Rev. 22:12-13 shows Jesus spoke them:
"Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render
to every man according to what he has done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and
the end." (See also Rev. 1:17-18;
2:8 for further evidence). Could
someone else besides Jehovah be "the first and the last"? Note Isa. 44:6: "Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer,
the Lord of hosts: 'I am the first and
I am the last, and there is no God besides Me.'" (See also Isa. 41:4). If
the Eternal is the only God, could anyone besides Him be "the first and
the last"? The following text
plainly identifies "God" and "the Alpha and the Omega" as
one and the same (Rev. 21:6-7): "I
am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. . . . He who overcomes shall inherit these things,
and I will be his God and he will be My son."
PAUL AFFIRMS JESUS IS GOD
Paul affirmed
the Deity of Christ in Col. 2:9:
"For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily
form." Trying to dodge this verse,
Jehovah's Witnesses mistranslate it as "all the fullness of the divine
quality dwells bodily" (NWT). But
the word translated "Deity" here is "theotetos," not
"theiot." Despite Thayer was
a Unitarian himself, his Greek-English Lexicon (p. 288) denied this
interpretation of "theot" (his emphasis): "deity i.e. the state of being God, Godhead
. . . theot [in Greek letters]. deity differs from theiot
[in Greek letters]. divinity, as essence differs from quality or
attribute." Since the verse
mentions Christ as possessing "all the fullness of Deity," its
immediate context completely destroys any attempt to translate this word as
weakly affirming Jesus's divinity anyway.
Expectantly
awaiting Christ's return, Paul wrote (Titus 2:13): "Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory
of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus." A similar expression appears in II Peter 1:1: "by the righteousness of our God and
Savior, Jesus Christ." These
translations are disputed--Jehovah's Witnesses are not alone with such
renderings as "the great God and of [the] Savior of us, Christ Jesus"
(NWT) and "of our God and [the] Savior Jesus Christ" (NWT). The latter translations assert
"God" and the "Savior" separately refer to the Father and
Son, instead of combining the two expressions together to refer to the Son
alone. Does ambiguity reign? In fact, a major problem arises against the
New World Translation's rendering. In
the Greek, this grammatical construction connects the two nouns with the word
"and" (kai) in between, while placing a definite article
"the" before the first noun but not the second. Bowman maintains that every time this
construction appears when using singular nouns and common ones denoting persons
(brother, Savior, Lord, Son, Father, etc.), both nouns refer to just one
person. Josh McDowell and Bart Larson (Jesus: A Biblical Defense of His Deity (San
Bernardino, CA: Here's Life Publishers,
1983), p. 26) call this a "Granville Sharpe construction" because one
article refers to both nouns inseparably.
Furthermore, at least for Titus 2:13, note that the context points to Christ's
second coming--Paul can't be referring to the Father's appearance!
While
describing God's dealings with Israel, Paul identifies Jesus as Jehovah in I
Cor. 10:4, 9 (NKJV): "For they
drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. . .
. nor let us tempt Christ, as some of
them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents." Jehovah's Witnesses attempt to evade the
first text by translating the word for "was" as "meant"
(NWT). But the straightforward normal
meaning of the Greek is "was," not "meant." Only while laboring under the theological
view that Jesus couldn't possibly be Yahweh could someone insist on
translating/interpreting the Greek so unconventionally. Similarly, Paul in Rom. 14:9-12 (NKJV) calls
Christ "Lord of both the dead and the living," states, "We shall
all stand before the judgment seat of Christ," applies an Old Testament
text about "the Lord" (the Eternal) to Him, and finishes, "So
then each of us shall give account of himself to God." While discussing humans giving an account of
themselves to God as their judge, Paul plainly equates Jesus, God, and Yahweh
as one and the same!
MESSIANIC TEXTS AND JESUS' DEITY
Does Matthew 1:23 show Jesus is God?
"'Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they
shall call His name Immanuel,' which translated means, 'God with us.'" The name Jesus received strongly implies His
Deity, because God and the Jewish culture in Scripture often name people for
what they are. Hence, Moses was drawn
out of the water as a baby, Abraham became the father of many nations, Jacob
did supplant his brother for the birthright, Esau was hairy, Israel did strive
with both God and men, Eve was the mother of all living, and Adam was the
(first) man. Although today in our
culture parents rarely name their children to describe who and/or what their
offspring are, the Bible reveals God and patriarchal culture operated
differently. Since Jesus was the
God-Man who lived among humanity as a man while being God as well,
"Immanuel" as a name fits perfectly.
Since the Old
Testament portrays the Messiah as being God, this means Jesus must be God (Isa.
9:6-7): "For a child will be born
to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His
shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal
Father [or "Father of Eternity"], Prince of Peace." If the Unitarian replies the title
"Mighty God" shouldn't be taken literally, then neither can the other
three titles, which is unacceptable.
Does Jesus being "Mighty God" make Him into an inferior
semi-divine being compared to the "Almighty God" who is the
Father? Isaiah's next chapter (verses
21-22) refutes this claim, for Yahweh is called "the mighty
God." The Old Testament also
describes the Messiah as preexisting before the Virgin Mary became pregnant,
even as eternally existing by one meaning of "olam"
("forever") (Micah 5:2; cf. Heb. 7:3): "From you [Bethlehem] One will go forth for Me to be ruler
in Israel. His goings forth are from long
ago, from the days of eternity."
Furthermore, "They will look on Me [Yahweh] whom they have pierced"
(Zech. 12:10).
OTHER TEXTS THAT POTENTIALLY AFFIRM JESUS' DEITY
Although
perhaps more disputable, other texts given a standard translation or
interpretation say Jesus is God. For
example, I John 5:20 reads: "And
we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order
that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son
Jesus Christ. This is the true God and
eternal life." The most natural
reference for "This is the true God" is "His Son Jesus
Christ." Remember that John began
his letter referring to Jesus as someone who could be touched "and the
life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the
eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us" (I
John 1:2). If Jesus was "the
eternal life" at the beginning of John's letter, presumably He still is
the "eternal life" at its end!
Consider now
Romans 9:5 (NKJV): "of whom are
the fathers and from who, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all,
the eternally blessed God.
Amen." Of course, this
verse can easily be translated to avoid the reference to Jesus being God. But the mere fact that's a perfectly
possible meaning indicates how Paul, at least here, didn't strive to avoid
grammatical constructions that could point to multiplicity within the Godhead--a
thought once unthinkable to any true Jew.
Acts 20:28 presents another example:
"The Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of
God which He purchased with His own blood." True, "Son" in brackets can be inserted to complete the
thought after the word "blood."
But again, since the first translation is the simplest, it indicates
Paul (who was speaking here) didn't strive to avoid language at all costs that
potentially referred to Jesus as God, as possibly compromising monotheism
(belief in one God).
One
controversial text is I Timothy 3:16 (NKJV):
"And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: 'God was manifested in the flesh, justified
in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up in glory.'" The
alternative reading places "He who" for "God." The dispute here concerns not translation as
such, but the long-running debate between the Received/Byzantine text that underlies
the KJV and NKJV, and the Critical/Alexandrine text that underlies most modern
Bible translations. "Theos,"
"God" appears in the Received text, while "os," "(He)
who," surfaces in the Critical text (i.e., Westcott-Hort,
Nestle-Aland). Excepting for the
spurious Trinitarian interpolation inserted into I John 5:7-8, the WCG
traditionally maintained the Received text was normally the better of the
two. The space isn't available to
explain the reasons why it's better to follow the vast majority (but later)
manuscripts representing the Received text instead of the older (but many
fewer) manuscripts upholding the Critical.
Skeptics questioning the reading of "God" for I Timothy 3:16
would find it worthwhile tracking down the English textual critic John Burgon's
76-page defense of it in The Revision Revised. (A good general defense of the Received text can be found in
David Otis Fuller, ed., Which Bible? (Grand Rapids, MI: Grand Rapids International Publications,
1975)).
DOES THE ONENESS OF GOD RULE OUT JESUS BEING GOD?
Having
presented above briefly the positive case for Jesus' Deity, it's necessary now
to examine some of the objections raised against it. The leading objection goes like this: Since Scripture repeatedly says God is one or that only one God
exists (Deut. 6:4; Gal. 3:20; James 2:19; I Cor. 8:4; Rom. 3:30; Isa. 44:6,8;
Jude 25; II Sam. 7:22, I Kings 8:60; Deut. 4:35, 39; Mark 12:32), calling both Jesus
and the Father "God" contradicts the rest of the Bible. If Jesus is one God, and the Father another,
that makes for two Gods--which is absurd, and a total denial of
traditional Jewish monotheism. In
reply, it's necessary to recall Gary Fakhoury's brilliant insight that we
should define the word "one" as the Bible does, not as our a
priori (before experience) human reasoning and speculations indicate (cf.
"The Nature of God: A Biblical
Review," pp. 10-17). As Herbert
Armstrong always stated, let the Bible interpret itself.
Now the word
translated "one" in the Shema of Deut. 6:4 is "echod." This word can mean composite unity,
not an indivisible, solitary unity.
Genesis 2:24 uses the word "echod" thus: "For this cause a man shall leave his
father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one
flesh." Here two separate
individuals become "one."
Similarly, the giant cluster of grapes carried on a branch between two
of the spies scouting out the Holy Land for Israel was "echod" (Num.
13:23). Despite apparently having
hundreds of grapes, the cluster still was called "one" or
"single." The Greek word for
one, "heis," merely repeats the same story, since it can refer to
composite unity as well. For example,
the analogy between the human body and the church makes "one" out of
many (I Cor. 12:12): "For even as
the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the
body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ." Similarly, many can be "one" in
Phil. 2:2 (NKJV): "fulfill my joy
by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one
mind." The non-spurious part of I
John 5:7 (ASV) makes three into one:
"For there are three who bear witness, the Spirit, and the water,
and the blood: and the three agree in one." In light of this Scriptural evidence, it's
wrong to insist the texts that affirm God's oneness must mean God is one
single Person (center of consciousness).
GENESIS 1:26 AND THE PLURAL OF MAJESTY
Does the Old
Testament ever attribute to God a plurality of Persons? Although Hebrew term for God,
"elohim," is in the plural, it almost always takes singular verbs or
pronouns. But a few exceptions do arise
(Isa. 6:8; Gen. 11:7), most notoriously Gen. 1:26: "Then God said, 'Let US make man in OUR image, according to
OUR likeness.'" Those asserting
monotheism requires God to be a single Person commonly employ two interpretive
strategies to evade this text's implications.
One asserts that God spoke to the angels here. But since Scripture never says the angels are creators, even
assistant creators, this claim is totally unpersuasive. Another approach maintains God here used the
"plural of majesty," as Queen Victoria did in this statement
attributed to her, "We are not amused." Of course, the question then becomes why God almost never uses
the plural of majesty, even when in Isaiah He is affirming His greatness
compared to His creation and mankind, except in a very few, isolated
cases. (A serious scholarly
investigation should be launched to see how and whether Israelite and other
kings of a Semitic culture commonly used the plural of majesty, or whether it
appeared in myths about false gods of the ancient Middle East). But must ambiguity reign? Notice Gen. 3:22: "Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like
one of Us, knowing good and evil.'"
This construction can't be explained as a "plural of majesty"
because "one" is set against "Us." Despite being not the most straightforward
interpretation, the claim God used the "plural of majesty" in Gen.
1:26 may not be able to be decisively refuted at the present state of
knowledge. But in light of Gen. 3:22,
the view "Elohim" can't refer to a plurality of Persons in the
Godhead wears exceedingly thin.
HOW THE WORD "GOD" HAS MORE THAN ONE MEANING
Arians and
Unitarians like to trot out texts such as I Cor. 8:6 to prove Jesus is Lord but
not God: "Yet for us there is but
one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one
Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him." So if there's only "one God, the
Father," does this exclude Jesus?
But inverting this question is easy:
If Jesus is the only "Lord," does that mean the Father is
never the "Lord"? Yet Jesus
Himself calls the Father "Lord" in Matt. 11:25: "'I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of
heaven and Earth." Similarly,
Jesus' citation of Ps. 110:1 plainly applies the name "Yahweh" to the
Father, although He used the standard Jewish terminology of "the
Lord" for the Tetragammaton (YHWH):
"For David himself says in the book of Psalms, 'The Lord said to my
Lord . . . David therefore calls Him 'Lord,' and how is He his
son?'" (Luke 20:42, 44). Plainly, as Vance Stinson observes in the CGI
booklet Who, What Is God?, pp. 36-37, the word "God" has more
than one meaning. Often the word
"God" refers to the Father in particular, as distinct from
Jesus. But other times, "God"
refers to the divine Family or Godhead, to all Persons who are of the same
eternal substance and essence, so it includes Jesus and the Father
together. In this light, the use of
both meanings of "God" in the one verse of John 1:1 is especially
noteworthy, since the Word (Jesus) was with God and the Word was
God.
DOES REVELATION 3:14 PROVE JESUS WAS CREATED?
Another verse
Arians seize upon to "prove" Christ was created appears in one of the
letters to the churches, where Jesus is speaking (Rev. 3:14): "And to the angel of the church in
Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful
and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God." On its face, this verse is unclear: Was Jesus "the Beginning of the creation
of God," i.e., the first being made by the Father, or was Jesus "the
Beginning of the creation of God" by starting the making of the
universe? The word translated
"Beginning," arche, has more than one meaning. First of all, it can mean
"ruler." The NIV translates
the key part of this verse as "the ruler of God's creation." Second, arche can simply mean
"origin," which merely confirms again Jesus as the Creator, as
Moffatt brings out: "the origin
of God's creation." The TEV
(GNB) has "the faithful and true witness, who is the origin of all that
God has created." Third, it's true--this
verse can mean Jesus was created first.
But this verse's very
ambiguity leads us to state a basic principle of interpreting Scripture: It's illegitimate to take one or a few
verses to contradict the great weight of evidence going in the opposite
direction. It's much easier to take the
relatively few verses that purportedly deny Jesus' Deity, and reconcile them
with the many that affirm it directly or indirectly, clearly or somewhat
arguably, than to exalt the few verses that supposedly deny it, then engage in
all the great sweat and effort of constantly having to explain this,
that, and more away. Fundamentally,
Jehovah's Witnesses and all Unitarians opted for the latter choice, which
simply becomes unpersuasive since they're inevitably, almost constantly, on the
defensive when facing knowledgeable opposition. Their defenses take on the feel of scientists propping up an old
paradigm under attack by constantly devising ad hoc
"explanations" for numerous anomalous facts that contradict it.
HOW WAS THE FATHER GREATER THAN JESUS?
In order to
deny Jesus is God, Arians and Unitarians commonly turn to John 14:28 as
proof: "Because I go to the
Father; for the Father is greater than I." But since Jesus was in the flesh when saying this, it's
fundamentally unconvincing. So long as
Jesus was a human, He voluntarily limited His Divine prerogatives. In a text that proves Jesus' preexistence,
He asked the Father to restore "the glory which I had with Thee before the
world was" (John 17:5). Notice He
had it "with" the Father--this can't be a reference to
Jesus' existence being a mere thought in the Father's mind that He willed to
do. If the Unitarian interpretation was
correct, that unactualized thought would have to have the same glory
Jesus possessed when really existing--which is absurd. Instead, He is asking to have back
what He used to have, when He had in unlimited measure all the attributes of
the Almighty Yahweh. The pouring or
emptying out (kenosis) of Jesus meant He choose to limit His divine
prerogatives (Phil. 2:6-8). For
example, Jesus was not omniscient while He walked the earth, since He didn't
know the day of His return (Matt. 24:36).
(Although here we (and HWA in the past) run into the theoretical
theological problem of asserting Jesus was God when He lacked some of the
defining attributes of God such as omnipotence while in the flesh, we should
still call Jesus "God" then as well as "man" because
Scripture does). As for John 14:28
itself, consider what your reaction would be to someone you know telling you,
"Well, God is greater than me."
You'd consider him or her unbearably pompous for stating the stunningly
obvious. Such a statement by Jesus
implies the highness of His earlier claims about His relationship with the
Father.
Other texts
about Jesus' relationship with the Father plainly show He was subordinate to
Him: "But I want you to understand
that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and
God is the head of Christ" (I Cor. 11:3).
"And when all things are subject to Him, then the Son Himself also
will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, that God may be
all in all" (I Cor. 15:28). In
light of the other texts affirming Jesus' Deity, these Scriptures merely show
Jesus had less authority than the Father--that the Father was
Jesus' "boss." But just as
men and women are both intrinsically equal in their ultimate spiritual
destinies, despite within marriage husbands have authority over their wives (I
Cor. 11:3), these texts don't prove Jesus' essence or substance differed from
the Father's.
JESUS WAS "THE FIRST-BORN OF ALL CREATION"
Another text
Arians and Unitarians appeal to is Col. 1:15, which calls Jesus "the
first-born of all creation." Does
this mean Jesus was the first being created?
First, it's important to examine this term in its Old Testament, Jewish
cultural context, not in light of our modern presuppositions. Receiving a double portion as an
inheritance, the firstborn son of a Jewish family was considered preeminent
over his siblings (cf. Reuben in Gen. 49:3).
He, not his younger brothers, became the head of the family after his
father's death. Hence, the term
"firstborn" took on a connotation of authority and position of
favor. Job uses it metaphorically to
refer to death (Job 18:13), and Isaiah to the poorest of the poor (Isa.
14:30). Although Manasseh was the
firstborn of Joseph's sons (Gen. 48:14-20), Ephraim gained the greater blessing
from God through Jacob, so he is referred as the firstborn in Jer. 31:9: "For I am a father to Israel, and
Ephraim is My first-born."
Similarly, God calls the nation of Israel His "firstborn" (Ex.
4:22). Furthermore, there's the
possibility for an alternative translation for the Greek word translated
"first-born," "prototokos," can mean "original bringer
forth," according to the Roman Catholic scholar Erasmus (1466?-1536),
although admittedly neither Thayer's nor Baur-Arndt-Gingrich
confirms this meaning.
Second, we in
the Church of God should remember that Jesus was the first to be "born
again" by eventually becoming a spirit being after His resurrection (I
Cor. 15:44-45). Jesus was the
"first-born from the dead" which gave Him "first place in everything"
(Col. 1:18). But we Christians at the
resurrection are to be "born again" just as He was (Rom. 8:29): "For whom He foreknew, He also
predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the
first-born among many brethren." Although Jesus became the Son of God once the Virgin Mary became
pregnant (not before, nor from all eternity--Heb. 1:5), He "was
declared the Son of God with power by ['as a result of,' NASB margin] the
resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:4).
John 3:6, 8 should be given a plain interpretation, not a metaphorical
one: "'That which is born of the
flesh IS flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit IS spirit.
. . . The wind blows where it
wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and
where it is going; so IS everyone who is born of the Spirit.'" As the GCG minister Dave Pack has so ably
shown in his book "Except There Come a Falling Away", Herbert
W. Armstrong's teaching on the subject of being begotten by the Spirit at baptism,
but born again at the resurrection, is fundamentally sound. HWA's insights on this matter show Arians
and Unitarians are grasping at straws when using this text to prove Jesus was a
created being.
ON THIS SUBJECT, THE COUNCIL OF NICEA WAS RIGHT!
Much more
Scriptural evidence in favor of Jesus being Jehovah, the Almighty God, could be
presented. Although a number of the
texts discussed above can be evaded to one degree to another, and alternatively
retranslated, reinterpreted, and/or dismissed as textual errors, still so often
the main weight of the semi-ambiguous texts point to the Deity of Christ, over
and above the clear ones. The great
insight of Herbert W. Armstrong on the nature of God was to deny the Trinity
while still affirming the Deity of Christ and plurality in the Godhead, since
most non-Trinitarians reject the latter teachings as well. Although the Trinitarians are wrong overall,
their affirmation that Jesus is God is thoroughly correct. Given the two basic choices the Council of
Nicea faced in 325 A.D., the bishops who voted for Athanasius and against Arius
were right. (The original Nicene
declaration merely asserted they believed "in the Holy Spirit,"
saying nothing about its nature.
Arguably, so far as it goes, HWA could have affirmed it!) For this article, I lifted arguments in
favor of the Divinity of Christ from such deeply flawed works as Walter Martin
and Norman Klann's Jehovah of the Watchtower, Robert M. Bowman Jr.'s Why
You Should Believe in the Trinity: An
Answer to Jehovah's Witnesses, and Josh McDowell and Don Stewart's Handbook
of Today's Religions: Understanding the
Cults. Although full of doctrinal
error, these books by defenders of traditional Christian doctrines are
undeniably right on this one doctrine.
It seems 80% or more of the emotional energy of Trinitarians is eaten up
defending Jesus is God--denials that the Holy Spirit is a Person
and/or God simply arouse their visceral reactions far less. Despite Herbert W. Armstrong went against so
much traditional Protestant and Catholic theology, in this regard he sided with
them, for good reason. We should avoid
the knee-jerk reaction that "because they teach it, it must be
wrong," but instead concern ourselves with what the Bible teaches. Ultimately, it's much more persuasive to fit
the Bible's jigsaw pieces together to declare "Jesus is God," rather
than to twist and pound them into place to proclaim "Jesus isn't
God."
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