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Does
the Bible teach that Jesus is God? The gospels make it clear
that Yahweh caused Mary to conceive, and that Jesus was the literal son of God,
who is perfect. (Matthew 5:48). Whatever is born of a perfect thing (God), must
likewise be perfect, and therefore equal to the perfect God, and thus God
himself. Essentially, God’s
impregnating Mary is an act of cloning a God incarnate. That’s one way of arguing that Jesus is God,
but by itself it is not going to convince a skeptic.
Other
evidence that the Bible writers wanted us to know that Jesus was God is found
in John 20:28, where Thomas addresses Jesus:
kurious mou kai theos mou, meaning, “my lord and my God.” The writer of John doesn’t have Jesus
admonish Thomas against calling Jesus “my God,” so he seems to be inviting his
audience to accept Jesus as the almighty God.
Some have argued that John was just having Thomas express his opinion—a false one—that Jesus was God, but if that were the case, it would have been easy enough for John to explain that Thomas was under the wrong impression, or was just stating his opinion. The fact that John did neither is strong evidence that he wanted his audience to believe that Jesus was Yahweh.
Other evidence that John meant for us to understand
that Jesus was Yahweh is found in the other seven occurrences of “mou theos” (my God) in the New
Testament. In all of these, the
reference is clearly to the almighty God.
References to “mou theos”:
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Jesus said, …'I am returning
to…my God (mou theos)…” |
John 20:17 |
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First, I thank my God (mou theos) |
Romans 1:8 |
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my God (mou theos) will humble me before you |
2 Cor 12:21 |
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I thank my God (mou theos) |
Philippians 1:3 |
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And my God (mou theos) will meet all your needs |
Philippians 4:19 |
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I always thank my God (mou theos) |
Philemon 1:4 |
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I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my
God (mou theos). |
Rev 3:2 |
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Four references to “mou theou” |
Rev. 3:12 |
If the writer of John 20:28 believed that Jesus was the
God Almighty, it might have been because he thought that Jesus was the messiah
spoken of in the following verse:
"The
days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will raise up [in
David's line]…a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the
land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety…he will be
called: The LORD Our Righteousness (Jehovah tsidqenuw)
(Jeremiah 23:5-6)
One argument against Jesus being God is based on Mark
10:17-18
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and
knelt before him, and asked
him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus
said to
him, "Why do you call me good? No
one is good but God Alone.”
Jesus seems to be denying he is good, and therefore
not God, they say, but this does not necessarily show that Jesus was denying he
was God. Mark could have been having Jesus deflect questions about his divinity
to enable him to travel the countryside and work his miracles before his identity
became known. Recall that Jesus
admonished the demoniac for declaring him to be "Lord," ("Be
quiet!" Mark 1:25) and Jesus warned the leper not to tell anyone of the
miracle of his cure ("See that you don't tell this to anyone." Mark
1:44) Both of these admonishments were
consistent with the behavior of a man who wished to conceal his true identity.
Thus, Mark wanted the readers to understand that Jesus had an appointment with
death that had to be met in the manner Mark thought was foreseen in scripture
("the scriptures must be fulfilled," Mark 14:49-50. Thus, he had
Jesus actively conceal the "fact" of his divinity until after his
arrest, which Mark felt was described in scripture. Mark had Jesus be clever in
his verbal jousting with his questioners about paying taxes to Caesar (Mark
12:13-17), so it should not be surprising that Mark would have Jesus be equally
clever in misleading the man who called him “Good Teacher” about his divinity.
Yet another passage clearly indicates that Jesus could
not possibly have been God, else why would he have been praying to himself
in the passage below—addressing himself as "Father," and
asking himself to remove his burden (take his "cup'')?
They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus
said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." He took Peter, James
and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled.
"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said
to them. "Stay here and keep watch." Going a little farther, he fell to
the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him.
"Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take
this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." (mark 14:32-36)
Thus, John 20:28 ("my lord, my God")
clearly has the Bible teaching that Jesus is Yahweh, the God Almighty, but Mark
14:32-36 clearly has God as Jesus praying to himself, if God is really
Jesus. It's evident that the Mark
author didn't know that Jesus was God, but this contradicts what the John author
evidently believed. This means the
Bible is in error.
Many other examples of verses which seem to indicate
that Jesus was not God are found in the article at http://bismikaallahuma.org/Jesus/deny.htm