JESUS IS GOD ALMIGHTY
If Jesus is not God, then He either lied to us, or was insane. No good or sane person can truly think they are God. One day Jesus asked Peter, who do you say that I am? Peter replied: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God! Jesus walked the earth claiming to be the Son of God (God Almighty). Believing that He is God, is of paramount importance, and necessary for salvation. If we are to worship God, we must worship Him in spirit and in truth. The truth is, Jesus is God. Jesus said in John 8:24 “Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins”. And in 1 John 2:23 “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father”. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God and the Son Man, calling God His own Father. These titles were reserved for God Almighty. Jesus is not merely a good man, a prophet, or Michael the Archangel, as one group believes. He is the one true God, and must be worshiped in accordance with His true identity.
The Watchtower Society of Jehovah’s Witnesses, teach that Jesus was Michael the Archangel, not God. This is a damnable error. In Revelation 19:10 and 22:8-9, the apostle John saw an angel and bowed to worship him. The angel said to him, stop, for you are to worship God alone (this is also the 1st of the 10 commandments). This is why the Watchtower Society will not worship Jesus.
The divinity of Christ is the central theme of the Bible and Christianity. The Old Testament foretold of His virgin birth, His crucifixion, His identity as God, and mentions all three persons of the Godhead actively involved in Creation. All three persons of the Godhead were also present at the baptism of Jesus; and after His resurrection, Jesus commissioned His followers to make disciples of every nation baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These are implicit teachings about the Trinity.
Jesus without doubt, claimed to be God. Every time He called Himself the Son of God; the Jews tried to stone Him. They said that in calling God His own Father, He was making Himself equal with God. They knew the titles Son of Man, and Son of God, were reserved for God alone. The Jews were to only worship, the one true God.
The New Testament has over seventy-five scriptures attesting to the divinity of Christ. The church in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd century taught that Jesus was God, and the doctrine of the Trinity. These early church leaders were disciples of the twelve apostles, and well acquainted with apostolic theology. We have relied on their passing down the apostolic faith, for the canonization of the Bible, and guarding the fundamental doctrines of the faith.
I will present Old Testament and New Testament proof texts, and the writings of the early Church Fathers, to show that they testified to the divinity of Christ, as well as the Trinity. God is one, yet the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God. Each persona is eternal, shares the same substance, and is co-equal. God is not a Trinity per se; rather the Trinity is a doctrine, an attempt of our finite minds to describe the infinite God. It’s the best explanation which honors Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the way God has revealed Himself in the Bible.
THE OLD TESTAMENT
God had revealed Himself as One God to Israelites; opposed to the Gentiles who had hundreds of gods. Cf. Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord”. Interestingly the singular word for Lord is coupled with the plural Elohim in this verse. God had been slowly revealing His nature as a Godhead through history, culminating in the person of Christ. From the very beginning in the Book of Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, let Us make man in Our image“. Here we see a hint of a plurality in the Godhead. Also God the Father was present at creation, the Holy Spirit hovered over the waters of the deep at creation; and Jesus was the creator of the universe as in John 1:3, 10.
We see God the Father, and God the Son being revealed in Proverbs 30:4 “Who has ascended into the heavens and descended? Who has gathered the wind in His Fists? Who has established the ends of the earth? What is His name or His Son’s name?” In Psalm 110:1 “The Lord said to my lord: sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet” Jesus pointed to this scripture in Matthew 22:44-45 to show that He was pre-existent, the Lord, and much greater than David. Again in Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.” Throughout the Old Testament we see the nature of the Godhead, but not fully revealed, but begining to unfold. There were also over 300 prophecies concerning Christ, all of which have been fulfilled.
THE NEW TESTAMENT
In the New Testament, the gospel of Matthew opens with the enunciation of Christ’s birth which was foretold in Isaiah 7:14 “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted means, God with us.” And at the Baptism of Jesus, in Matthew 3:16-17; all three members of the Godhead are present. And at the close of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus gives His disciples the great commission for evangelism. Cf. Matthew 28:19 “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”. Notice He uses one name and three persons, baptizing them in the authority of the Godhead.
Matthew also recounted Jesus getting into the boat with His disciples after walking on water to meet them. Cf. Matthew 14:33 “And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, you are truly God’s Son!”. This is very important because the Jews worshiped God, and God alone. They knew that the title Son of God equated to God Almighty; yet we see people worshiping Jesus throughout the New Testament, and He never stops them!
The gospel of John thoroughly reveals the deity of Christ; opening with the incarnation (God becoming man) of Christ. Cf. John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Further on, we see that Jesus created and sustains the world, Cf. John 1:3, 10 “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” Jesus is of the same substance of God the Father. Cf. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, will not perish but have eternal life.” The term only-begotten in the Greek text is monogenees; a compound word which means of the same substance. Jesus was not a creation of God, He was God!
On at least three separate occasions, the Jews tried to stone Jesus for claiming to be the one true God. On one occasion, Jesus was accused of working on the Sabbath, because He had healed a man. In His defense to the Jews, He called God His own Father. This was a blasphemous statement to the Jews, and worthy of death. Cf. John 5:17-18 “In His defense, Jesus said to them, My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working. For this reason, they tried all the more to kill Him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” Again, in the 8th chapter, Jesus takes for Himself the sacred name of God, viz. I AM (I have always existed). The Jews were familiar with this name, for when Moses met God in the burning bush, he asked God what His name was; and God replied “I AM”. Cf. John 8:58-59: “Jesus said to them, truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM. Therefore, they picked up stones to throw at Him.” The third time He claimed the title of God was in John 10:30-33 “I and the Father are one. The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. Jesus replied to them, I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me? The Jews answered Him, we are not stoning You for a good work, but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself out to be God.”
In John 14:1 Jesus said to His disciples “Let not your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in Me”; here again He is making Himself with God. After Jesus arose from the dead, His disciple Thomas met Jesus but didn’t believe it was Him. But once he was convinced that it was Jesus, he worshiped Him. Cf. John 20:27-28 “Then He said to Thomas, place your finger here, and see My hands; and take your hand and put it into My side; and do not continue in disbelief, but be a believer. Thomas answered and said to Him, My Lord and my God” Again, Jews would never worship anyone but God. Let’s now take a look at the letters of the apostles in the New Testament.
In the Book of Acts 20:28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” This of course was the blood of Jesus. Paul equated the Spirit of God with the Spirit of Christ in Romans 8:9 “however, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” In Colossians 2:9 Paul wrote “For in Him (Jesus) all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.” Paul writes in Titus 2:13 “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.” Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1:1 “Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Paul in his letter to the Hebrews 1:8 “but to the Son He says: Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.” John wrote in 1 John 5:20 “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may 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.” And in the book of Revelation chapter 1:8 Jesus says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God; who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty”. Jesus later repeats this again in verses 22:12-13, this time, with regards to His Second Coming. I believe these proof texts amply demonstrate that Jesus is God. I don’t believe that anyone would doubt that the Father is God, Jesus is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. The Bible explicitly teaches the deity of Christ, and implicitly teaches the doctrine of the Trinity.
The early church believed that Christ was God, as witnessed by their writings. We can learn a lot from their writings with regards to interpreting the Bible; since many of these Church Fathers were either disciples or contemporaries of the apostles. They wrote extensively on the divinity of Christ and the Trinity. The doctrines of the Trinity and Christology were formalized to teach the church about the identity of God; and defend the faith against false teachings. These doctrines were taught during the first three centuries; long before the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. In the next section I have listed just a few of the comments made by the church of the first three centuries.
THE EARLY CHURCH WRITINGS
click here to view a flowchart of the association among these men and the apostles.
POLYCARP 69-155 AD. Bishop of Smyrna and disciple of the Apostle John wrote in his letter to the Philippians: “Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal high priest Himself, the Son of God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth…and to us with you, and to all those under heaven who will yet believe in our Lord and God Jesus Christ and in His Father who raised Him from the dead.”
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH: 50-117 AD. Disciple of the Apostle John and bishop of Antioch, he wrote: “Ignatius, who is also Theophorus, unto her which hath been blessed in greatness through the plenitude of God the Father; which hath been foreordained before the ages to be forever unto abiding and unchangeable glory, united and elect in a true passion, by the will of the Father and of Jesus Christ our God; even unto the church which is in Ephesus, worthy of all felicitation: abundant greeting in Christ Jesus and in blameless joy.”1 “Consequently all magic and every kind of spell were dissolved, the ignorance so characteristic of wickedness vanished, and the ancient kingdom was abolished when God appeared in human form to bring the newness of eternal life.”2 “And God the Word was truly born of a Virgin, having clothed Himself with a body with like passions of our own.”3 “For our God Jesus Christ is more visible now that He is in the Father.”4
FOOT NOTES: 1. Letter to the Ephesians 2. Letter to the Ephesians 3. Letter to the Trallians 4. Letter to the Romans
JUSTIN MARTYR 100-165 AD. The first apologist of the church. “Christ existed as God before the ages”.1 “And that Christ being Lord, and God the Son of God, and appearing formerly in power as Man, and Angel, and in the glory of fire as at the bush, so also was manifested at the judgment executed on Sodom, has been demonstrated fully by what has been said.”2 “Permit me first to recount the prophecies, which I wish to do in order to prove that Christ is called both God and Lord of hosts.”3 “The Father of the universe has a Son; who also, being the first-begotten Word of God, is even God. And of old He appeared in the shape of fire and in the likeness of an angel to Moses and to the other prophets; but now in the times of your reign, having, as we before said, become Man by a virgin.”4
FOOT NOTES: 1. Dialogue with Trypho 2. Dialogue with Trypho 3. Dialogue with Trypho 4. First Apology
IRENAEUS 120-202 AD. Bishop of Lyons, disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of the Apostle John wrote in his treatise Against Heresies: “For I have shown from the Scriptures, that no one of the sons of Adam is as to everything, and absolutely, called God, or named Lord. But that He is Himself in His own right, beyond all men who ever lived, God, and Lord, and King Eternal, and the Incarnate Word, proclaimed by all the prophets, the apostles, and by the Spirit Himself, may be seen by all who have attained to even a small portion of the truth.” “Christ Himself, therefore, together with the Father, is the God of the living, who spoke to Moses, and who was also manifested to the fathers.”
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA 150-215 AD wrote in his Stromata book 5: “I understand nothing else than the Holy Trinity to be meant; for the third is the Holy Spirit, and the Son is the second, by whom all things were made according to the will of the Father.” In his treatise Exhortation to the Heathen, he wrote: “This Word, then, the Christ, the cause of both our being at first (for He was in God) and of our well-being, this very Word has now appeared as man, He alone being both, both God and man—the Author of all blessings to us; by whom we, being taught to live well, are sent on our way to life eternal…. The Word, who in the beginning bestowed on us life as Creator when He formed us, taught us to live well when He appeared as our teacher that as God, He might afterwards conduct us to the life which never ends.”
TERTULLIAN 150-225 AD. Church Apologist wrote exhaustively on the Trinity; here are just a few of his comments from his treatise Against Praxeas: “As if in this way also one were not All, in that All are of One, by unity (that is) of substance; while the mystery of the dispensation is still guarded, which distributes the Unity into a Trinity, placing in their order the three Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in substance, but in form; not in power, but in aspect; yet of one substance, and of one condition, and of one power, inasmuch as He is one God, from whom these degrees and forms and aspects are reckoned, under the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” In his Treatise on the Soul, he writes: “For God alone is without sin; and the only man without sin is Christ, since Christ is also God.”
ORIGEN OF ALEXANDRIA 185-254 AD. Origen was a theologian who wrote extensively on the Trinity. His De Principiis, books 1-4 explains the Trinity in great detail, and the eternal existence of Christ. His works are too voluminous to include in the article, but are a very good read!
SECULAR WRITERS & HISTORIANS
There is no doubt among secular historians that the historical Jesus existed, and that the gospel accounts of His life are accurate. What’s interesting is that even though they weren’t Christians; they attest to Him being a miracle worker, and what the early Christians believed about Christ being God.
FLAVIUS JOSHPHUS 37-100AD. Was a Jewish Historian who wrote extensively and confirmed most of the gospel narratives of the historical life of Jesus. He writes in his Antiquities 18:63-64: “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles.” Josephus also corroborates Christ’s baptism by John, His trial and execution by Pontius Pilate, and that His disciples claimed to see Him alive after His execution.
PLINY THE YOUNGER 62-113 AD. Was the governor of the Roman province of Bithynia wrote to the Emperor Trajan about the Christians. He describes the practice of these criminals: “They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to do any wicked deeds, never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food–but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.” Pliny was antagonistic to Christianity. The Romans considered them traitors because they worshiped only one God, and didn’t partake in the pagan licentiousness of the day. Pliny was raised a pagan and believed in a myriad of gods; this is why he said that Christians worship Christ as ‘a’ god.
SUMMARY
I believe that there can be no dispute that the Bible clearly teaches that Christ is the one true God, and the three persons of the Godhead. The early church leaders also believed and taught that Jesus was the one true God; and developed the doctrine of the Trinity. This is long before Constantine and the council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The only question left is: Were they correct in their teachings; both Bible and Church Fathers? I often wonder why Evangelicals trust the testimony of the Church Fathers regarding the Trinity, Christology, and canonization of the Bible. But categorically dismiss, or unaware of their testimony on baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist)?
0 Comments