Friday, January 9, 2009

Is Jesus God - results of the recent poll

92 people responded to the poll Question: Is Jesus God?

Here are the results -

ANSWER 1: No. Jesus was a great man. (3 votes)
ANSWER 2: No. Jesus was only a good prophet. (3 votes)
ANSWER 3: No Jesus was married to Mary Magdelene. (1 vote)
ANSWER 4: Yes, Jesus was a God, but not a man. (1 vote)
ANSWER 5: No, Jesus was not a great man or a great prophet, He was just like us. (1 vote)
ANSWER 6: Yes, Jesus is God the Father. (14 votes)
ANSWER 7: Yes, Jesus is God and He is a man too. A child born of a virgin like no other. (69 votes)

Of course, we don't determine who Jesus is based on a poll, but rather on the Holy Scriptures, the Bible - the most reliable documents of all time.

That Jesus of Nazareth is a real historical person is beyond dispute, but what people believe about Jesus being God in the flesh is a different matter. From shortly after the era of the apostles and disciples there were some people who were writing books that said that Jesus was a man but not God. There were some who said that Jesus was God and not a man.

But what does the New Testament – the most reliable historical documents, especially on this subject, say about Jesus of Nazareth. This is where we need to look for the truth, and the New Testament speaks undeniably and clearly – Jesus is God AND Jesus is man!

The world today is able to verify these claims and to see from the history of the true Church that it has always believed that Jesus Christ is God and man.

Following is my input on each of the answers to the poll questions:

ANSWERS 1 & 2: The responses to these answers are similar: Jesus could not have been a good man. Good men do not claim to be God when they are not, and Jesus did claim to be God. Likewise, Jesus could not have been a good prophet. Good prophets cannot lie, and Jesus would fall into the category of a liar since He claimed to be God.

For those who say that Jesus was only a good man; let me propose a scenario for you:

You are sitting on your porch watching your children play in the yard when a man comes down the street. You know who the man is and you have seen him in your town before. This man comes up to your children and tells them that he is God, and unless they follow him, they will spend eternity in hell. You know that this man is not God and that he is lying to your children.

Question: would you get off your porch and go tell the man how good he is, or would you be running to protect your children from this liar? Obviously, you would do what you could to protect your children because this is certainly not a "good" man. Why would you look at Jesus any differently?

So you know, this is exactly what Mark Duke and the House of God are preaching - Jesus is not God, merely a good man, who was “on” and could overcome sin, and we can be just like him and be totally sin free. This is error. Through a proper relationship with Jesus Christ, we can be free of the sins we commit, we cannot however be free from our sin nature.

Get off the porch to protect your community from false teachers.

ANSWER 3: There is no reliable evidence that Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalene, or any other woman for that matter.

ANSWER 4: Scripture is very clear about this. Jesus was God and man. While Christianity is the only religion that has as its main theme the humiliation and torture and death of its God, it is the only religion who's God truly understands the struggles of humanity. Christianity is truly God’s religion.

As I said above, that Jesus of Nazareth was a real, historical person is beyond dispute. For those who believe that Jesus was only God, I offer these verses of Scripture that are clear and straight forward.

1 John 4:1-21: Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: (KJV)

John 1:14: And the Word was made 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. (KJV)


II Jn 1:7: For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. (KJV)

ANSWER 5: The testimony of the early Church and other reliable sources outside of the Church verify that the fact that Jesus was different than any other man who had come into the world.

ANSWER 6: Jesus is not God the Father. Following is a brief teaching about this issue from Robert M. Bowman’s 8-part outline study series on the Biblical Basis for the Trinity. Rob is the Executive Director of the Institute for Religious Research, and has been ministry friend of mine for many years. No one has helped me understand the important and core Christian doctrine of the Trinity better than Rob. I am currently using his book (co-authored by Ed Komoszewski) Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ, in 7-week course I am teaching in Birmingham, AL. This is a book that you should buy, read and pass on to others.

Jesus is not God the Father *
1. Is. 9:6: “Father of eternity” means eternal; compare other names formed with word “father”: Abialbon, “father of strength” = strong (2 Sam. 23:31); Abiasaph, “father of gathering” = gatherer (Ex. 6:24); Abigail, a woman’s name (!), “father of exultation” = exulting (1 Chron. 2:16).
2. John 10:30
a. Jesus did not say, “I am the Father,” nor did he say, “the Son and the Father are one person.”
b. The first person plural esmen (“we are”) implies two persons.
c. The neuter word for “one” (hen) is used, implying essential unity but not personal unity.
d. John 10:30 in context is a strong affirmation of Christ’s deity, but does not mean that he is the Father.
3. John 5:43: Jesus’ coming in his Father’s name means not that he was the Father because he had the Father’s name, but that, while others come in their own name (or their own authority), Jesus does not; he comes in his Father’s name (on his Father’s authority).
4. John 8:19; 16:3: Ignorance of Jesus is indeed ignorance of the Father, but that does not prove that Jesus is the one he calls “My Father.”
5. John 14:6-11
a. Jesus and the Father are one being, not one person.
b. Jesus said, “I am in the Father,” not “I am the Father.”
c. The statement, “the Father is in me,” does not mean Jesus is the Father; compare John 14:20; 17:21-23.
6. John 14:18: An older adult brother can care for his younger siblings, thus preventing them from being “orphans,” without being their father.
7. Colossians 2:9: Does not mean that Jesus is the Father, or that Jesus is an incarnation of the Father; rather, since “Godhead” (theotês) means Deity, the state of being God, the nature of God, Jesus is fully God, but not the only person who is God. “The Godhead” here does not = the Father (note that Jesus is in the Father, John 10:38; 14:10, 11; 17:21), but the nature of the Father. See II.B.3.(see link below
8. The Father and the Son are both involved in various activities: raising Jesus (Gal. 1:1; John 2:19-22), raising the dead (John 5:21); 6:39-40, 44, 54, 1 Cor. 6:14), answering prayer (John 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:23), sending the Holy Spirit (John 14:16; 15:26; 16:7), drawing people to Jesus (John 6:44; 12:32), etc. These common works do prove that the two persons are both God, but not that Jesus is the Father.

To view the full 8-part series, The Biblical Basis of the Doctrine of the Trinity by Rob Bowman, CLICK HERE

ANSWER 7: You got it right!


*© Copyright 2008 by the Institute for Religious Research, all rights reserved.

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Thanks again, Allan McConnell