Jesus was not God.

Jesus was not God.

What some groups teach about Jesus and the Bible's response. Adapted from Rose Publications, Christianity, Cults & Religions, 7^th Edition.

First off, I do not agree with this statement at all.

I will admit some difficulty understanding the assertion that Jesus is God, but I comprehend through scripture that He is God, and therefore have confidence in Jesus being God and accept that as fact.

This brief dive into the cults and their opposing statements was initiated by a co-worker who asked about what the Jehovah's Witnesses believe because he felt that a person at work was trying to convert him. I feel like I did not give him a solid answer.

I have, what many consider, the definitive book, Kingdom of the Cults, by Walter Martin, but I find my self overwhelmed by the amount of information Dr. Martin provides. The Rose chart seems to give me just enough information to satisfy the inquiries of my shallow mind. (My sense of humor)

The Rose chart used John 1:1 as its first definitive answer, so let's examine that.

“IN THE beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. [Isa. 9:6.] (John 1:1 AMP)

Since the Amplified referenced Isaiah's prophetic word let's dive into that momentarily.

“A child will be born for us. A son will be given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. He will be named: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6 GW

Notice that it initializes this foray with this statement

“A child will be born for us, A son will be given to us.”

And that happened.

We call Him Jesus but the scripture goes on to tell us, His name is the Mighty God. John 1:1 is a portrayal of not only Jesus as God, but as the Word of the living God.

These statements are concepts that people, primarily non-believers, struggle with.

One really needs to take the whole scene, in context; therefore I suggest that you spend some time thinking about (meditating upon) about what you see there in John 1:1-5. That way you can see the intricacies of the portrait that the Word paints, much like a painting of a sunny day, where the sun dominates the sky. There are so many other subtle details that enhance the composition.

We, without pursuing the truth in the Bible, not merely accepting what some “Pastor” and the translators (as though they were flawless in their translation efforts,) put in that book you call the Bible. The Greek word used here to describe Jesus is Logos. Its meaning is a spoken word, a thought or concept, and an expression of utterance of that thought. With 325 occurrences of Logos, over half are translated as the Word of God. Virtually every other has to do with some method of communication.

One of the major problems that anyone has to deal with is a lack of belief. You can beat people over the head with scripture all day long, with conviction, and still not get them to change their minds. Sort of like that old saying, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink.

Perhaps a big dose of overwhelming evidence is the way, if presented in love.

John 1:1 is understandable to me, but then I chose to understand; and I have come to know that the Holy Spirit is playing a major role in mine or anyone's ability to grasp and pursue the truth. Jesus made a few other statements concerning himself as the Word.

“Someone told Jesus, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, and they want to see you.” Jesus replied, “My mother and my brothers are all those who hear God’s word and obey it.”
Luke 8:20-21 NLT

As a side note. His family thought he was crazy and had come to restrain him. Ignoring or rejecting them had everything to do with what God had told Him to do. Here he had been teaching. Challenged because of the potential scene his mother and brothers (James) were making outside; he responds with this statement.

Did you notice that He attributed the Word coming out of his mouth to being God's words?

If Jesus had not been God then this statement would be blasphemous.

“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.”
John 5:24 NLT

In this verse lies the key that opens just about anything in scripture that the world perceives as a mystery.

• Jesus pointed out that anyone responding to His Word and having a belief, in God, has eternal life and will not be judged.

• This is the same message that Paul preaches in his letter to the Romans.

Paul never stood before Jesus, (that we know of,) listening intently, allowing the Word of faith to blossom in him. So, where did Paul get this from? You would be correct to say directly from Jesus himself.

John 8:31-37 NASB

31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;

32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

[The caustic response.]

33 They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, 'You will become free'?"

[How quickly they forgot their time in Egypt.]

34 Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.

[We, meaning religion, invite people to Jesus so that they can be free of Sin. The problem with that, and I have experienced it, is that I still struggle to resist sin. Sin, is a part of this body and will, someday, be changed through death. In that way we will finally be free from sin. Our acceptance of Christ eliminated the penalty of death for sin because He paid wholly paid the price that sin demanded.]

35 "The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.

[Yep, we are slaves but in the best way possible.]

36 "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

[Look at John 5:4 once again. “those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.]

37 "I know that you are Abraham's descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.

[What is the difference between them and us? Jesus/God's Word has NO place in them.]

I chuckle as I read these passages for the Pharisees knew exactly what he was saying. It is possible that the common folk did not grasp it. Keep in mind that not everyone had a bible sitting on a table next to the comfortable chair, as many of us now do.

What is dominate to me in this passage is that they had no room for his Word.

How does that happen?

They were the learned ones. They studied “God's Law” with diligence. One might think that all they had room for was God's word, and yet standing before God he tells them they do not. Reacting purely out human emotion their anger and rage must have boiled to the surface. They did not accept Him as the Messiah, they certainly were not going to accept him God, so to kill him was a prescribed recourse, because that is what you do to blasphemous persons.

What I have listed below is a short collection of passages that speak toward Jesus being God. I pretty much operate out of the NIV, so the verse will be from there unless otherwise stated.

Much like many movies these days where there is some humorous gem that follows along with the credits, I suggest you read to the end.

1Corinthians 1:24 Christ is the power and the wisdom of God.

Colossians 2:3 Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom an knowledge.

Colossians 2:9 In Christ, all the fullness of the deity (God) lives in bodily form,

John 1:3 (GW) Everything came into existence through him. Not one thing that exists was made without him.

John 1:14 That Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

Colossians 1:15-19 NASB 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 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 through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. 19 For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,

Whether I made my point or not is somewhat dependent upon the reader. An argument is constructed in such a manner as to convince the opposition of it correctness.

• Jesus needed no proofs and yet God provided them; perhaps that is because He knew how broken and skeptical we were.

• Jesus was described before He came.

• His name was established in the heavens and foretold.

• He walked this earth as a man, fulfilling every prophecy about him.

• He did precisely what He said He would do. He died and rose again.

• He was witnessed by many after he arose, and He ascended into the heavens, sending us His Holy Spirit, just as He said He would do.

This is what Paul tells Timothy in the passage below.

1 Timothy 3:16 (MSG) This Christian life is a great mystery, far exceeding our understanding, but some things are clear enough:

He appeared in a human body,

was proved right by the invisible Spirit,

was seen by angels.

He was proclaimed among all kinds of peoples,

believed in all over the world,

taken up into heavenly glory.

And, He will come back for us (catching us away,) for the time is now upon us. Keep your eyes on the Holy Land, for it is the key.

Ferrets and Hearing Loss

Early one recent A.M. I was watching a program about people and their pets, specifically ferrets. There is something captivating about how animated they are. Attach a wrecking ball and they could destroy anything. They grab and hide everything. Strangely, while watching, I found myself analyzing whether or not I could fit all these quirks and demands into my life.

Suddenly I feel like I am talking about the considerations one might make prior to marriage. Can I, or am I willing to assimilate all these quirks into my life? Ah, who am I kidding, we make well thought out decisions about who we might marry.

What does any of this have to do with hearing loss? I will get to that, just hang on.

Marriage tends to be a short string of quick decisions with either some form of commitment or not. With ferrets you can easily get rid of them. (Not that wise considering they are apparently $1000 a pair). I passed by Dad a short time later and tried to talk with him about. (This was meant to be a funny conversation as I had no intention of getting a ferret.) I already had an idea of what he would say, if he heard me. He did not.

I tried getting louder and even changed the wording, but he still could not hear enough to understand. His mind apparently went to the visit by the great grand daughter the previous day. I know this because when I said, and motioned to indicate how ferrets would get into all this stuff, he said something about 'yeah, that little kid was all into this stuff'.

OK, he is not hearing me, and I refuse to scream. - Now is when it gets worse. -

Side note: I have been noticing a phenomenon that happens with me also. If I only hear a portion of what was said, and the portion may have been critical to the story, the minds tends to create a logical assumption and fills in the blank spot. So in the case of my Dad, a child was the logical assumption for the missing ferret.

I had given up the attempt to communicate this ferret story to him and was past ready to move away, but I now found the correlation between ferrets and children worthy of a chuckle.

Mom, notorious for her interjections, whether called for or not, is standing in the hall. She had already started muttering something about this, as she was also aware of this correlation. She is facing dad, who is frustrated because he could not understand. I quickly mentioned the subject to mom and she starts laughing.

Dad sees mom's laughter, makes a huge assumption, and begins screaming, “go ahead, make fun of me because I cannot hear.”

I suppose in truth that is what we were doing, but I do not think it was intentional, at least on my part. Dad said a few other things in next few seconds, but a deeper source of anger came to the surface, and that was the interruption of his plans with having to watch an eighteen month old child that previous day.

The child has to be entertained, but worse is that at grandpa's house there far to many things within reach of a small child that can harm them. We have lived with it and pay little attention to them. One might equate it to going into the barn, at a farm. You might find pitch forks, axes, hoes, and large animals, that are more than willing to kick you into next week if you annoy them. Dad was raised with a farm mentality and thinks little of it.

This all reminds me of a landscape design project that I worked on for a man that lived in the high desert. Even though he had small children, that would be playing hard, right next to these cactus he wanted, said, “if they get hurt, they will only do it once.”

Obviously hearing loss has been a theme as I have been writing, so here goes.

What can one say about hearing loss? Aside from the disappointment you endure, not much good. I have some, and I have blown up at my girlfriend over it, just as my dad did. It is not a joke to me.

There are several causes, but a couple of things that are common with me are: divided attention; lack of focus, and external noises.

If I am focused on the television or my mind gets involved in some thought, then I probably will not hear or at least register what you said to me. Mind you I probably heard something, it just did not register as intelligible with me. I also find that my hearing is affected quite a bit when I am driving, for now I am competing with all the street noises and other cars that are not paying attention, because of their own personal distractions.

Now, relate all this to the Holy Spirit trying to speak into our lives on a daily basis.
There are times that I cannot hear anything for all the voices in my head. No, I am not losing my mind, but be real for a moment. I stop to get a bite to eat prior to work in the morning. This often feels like the best part of my day, for now I can be alone, get quiet, read the Word, and try to tune out whatever funk they have playing on the overhead radio. So here I sit, thinking about the time, avoiding upcoming traffic, what God may be saying to me, attempting to listen to his voice, tuning out some of my own thoughts, and all this while competing with 80's disco and boy bands that were so popular then.

Get it – voices. All of them competing for my attention, and I have to learn to pick out the most beneficial one. Ideally I want that to be the voice of the Holy Spirit.

In the midst of all this, you need to know that God is not going to yell in order to get your attention.
No doubt he can make a ruckus, we saw that when he was making his point along these lines with Elijah. The end result of that teaching session was that God communicated with a still small voice. 

" Then he said, Go out and take your place on the mountain before the Lord. Then the Lord went by, and mountains were parted by the force of a great wind, and rocks were broken before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind there was an earth-shock, but the Lord was not in the earth-shock. And after the earth-shock a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, the sound of a soft breath. And Elijah, hearing it, went out, covering his face with his robe, and took his place in the opening of the hole. And there a voice came to him saying, What are you doing here, Elijah? " (1 Kings 19:11-13 BBE)

I can tell you from experience that I have to be paying attention to hear a voice like that.

An analogy: My girlfriend and her daughters have learned to communicate with very high frequency, low volume, vocal tones. It seems to me that happens when they do not want me to hear them. In truth, they are just used to each other and do it all the time.
The nice thing about the Holy Spirit is that he speaks to and through our spirits, and that is internal, not subject to physical impairments that prevent a hearing loss. And the Holy Spirit can speak to you whether you belong to Him or not.

Why might that be:

For one, He paid the ransom price for us, and technically owns us. Ponder that!

Why then do we not hear Him?

Having taken grandma to the hearing specialist we learned that arthritis can effect the inner ear, causing the eardrum to toughen, therefore not responding appropriately to the sound it hears. We seem to suffer from a spiritual version of this in which we harden our hearts. God speaks of this when he says “do not harden you hearts..”. You will find references to this in: Psalms 95:8, Heb 3:8, Heb 3:15, Heb 4:7 

This hardening of the heart is a selfish act that desensitizes the heart against God's voice. I might note that grandma, in our opinion, could not hear, and yet he claimed she has no hearing loss as we understand it. If not for the hardening, she would hear.

I suspect that little occurs outside the umbrella of self inflicted hearing loss when it comes to God speaking. Let's suppose that you are not intentionally trying to ignore God, then we have to consider the distraction factors. Scripture tells us that the world and all that is in it are hostile against God. Your mind balks at that because you have to work, and I am sure that God intended for you to relax. Perhaps, but there is little about your life that promotes focused concentration on God's voice.

For me, one of the ways I focus my attention upon Him is through worship. That word means different things depending upon the hearer. Many will tell you that every aspect of being on the property of our religious edifice fills the need for worship. I don't think so! I have run sound boards and had to walk away. I ran the computer interfaced projection screen, and directed the camera people, and I had to walk away. WHY? Because it became a tedious job and ceased to be a part of worship. No doubt for a time it was, and felt like it. I can remember how it felt to be able to dance before the Lord, in a booth that I thought no one could see into. I remember being able to comment to a camera person how what the Pastor had just said spoke into my heart. But it all turned into a stressful, tedious, job, and I have that on a steady basis at work, and do not want that in any form come time for me to go to “church”.

Women, at least in my opinion, seem to think all of us men are shallow because we might go and buy a card and merely sign our name to it. I can tell you that I picked up and read every one of them. The one I signed has been one of those that expressed most clearly what I wanted to convey. I have learned that I must take this card thing a step further by adding some additional emotion. Worship, singing out to the Lord, is the same thing to me. I make many of the songs we sing mine, and I sing them back to God as a prayer, or a plea.

It excites me that so many songs extol God for his greatness or his grace and mercy. There is one that says, “but that is not who you are”. In so many places in scripture there are descriptive words defining who we are in Christ, and how God sees us. I cannot get enough of this. It focuses me, clears out the cobwebs of daily life, and it often causes me to be overwhelmed with waves of joy, and I find myself laughing. Given a more liberal environment I would just let that joy wash over me, for that is a place I love, and long to be enveloped in.

Why is it that you can take a quiet, reserved, confined person, add alcohol and they will do things with little regard for the people around them? Consider that we as believers have been invited to come and drink from the fountain of life. I might add that Jesus turned the water into wine.Ponder the reaction many have to alcohol. It shuts down or mutes many of the brains receptors, and apparently concerns for what people think about you and perceive are one of those. If you are out of control and humiliate yourself, though you may have no concerns at the time, many will remind you later about what you did. 

I spoke to a hypnotist on one occasion and asked him why people do crazy things under hypnosis. He said those people are doing no less than what they would under the influence of alcohol, and they are only doing what their conscience and personal limitations will allow. In other words, you will not do thing that go against your will.

God asks us to step out in faith and speak something that is unknown to us, into someone else' life. His intent, though that is really not our concern, often involves some form of healing or revelation of God's love toward the individual. (I realize that was a simplistic answer, but “God's love” is inclusive of most of what God does, therefore a fair answer.) I have many times seen the recipients tear up as God speaks to them through a willing person. (I am usually overwhelmed by the mercy of God as I give out something like this, and you would typically see me in tears as well.)

If I cannot step outside those things that constrain me internally then how do I respond to God's voice?

If there is really no hearing loss, what then are we dealing with?

1. Lack of focus – upon God, his Word, his voice?
2. Outside distractions – There are so many.
3. No interest – In what, knowing Him?
4. Self conscious issues – you are so concerned about what, how this makes you look? I wanted to much to be cool and accepted. Fortunately I have become old enough to realize how stupid that is, most of the time.
5. A fear of ….
6. Lack of trust – Really this could easily fall under the category of fear. But if you do not trust God then you are showing me that you do not know Him, and that is a situation that you can remedy.
7. You believe that you are lacking the venue in which to deliver your message. - This one is such a trap. I fell into it myself. If God gives you a word for someone, while tact may be in order, the place has nothing to do with some church structure. I watched a group who opted to take the prophetic ministry to the street and integrate it into their street ministry. I watched the tears flow on the street as well, as God showed people who might not have stepped inside a church, how much he loved them. God will invade your dreams and the dreams of others if you ask him.
8. A lack of recognition of God's voice. - That is one you will have practice. It requires that you take risks, and therefore allow your steps to be subtle and small at first. If you use this as a guideline you will probably be relatively safe. God has said all that he needs to say in his word, therefore what you say can easily sound so much like bits of several scriptures and have such a tremendous impact. If you merely told someone, with sincerity, that God was especially fond of them, you would not be wrong.

Be careful. If you deny or attribute God's intent or activity to the Devil then according to Matthew 12 you are in the place of blasphemy, and that cannot be a good place.

How do you make a tree good?

Matthew 12:33, Jesus is speaking to a bunch of pharisees that denied his being God, and attributed his deliverance of a man to the devil. This is an incredible scene and really deserves you looking at the entire chapter. It is one in which Jesus declares to these knotheads that he is God and God's son. In truth they recognized that for they understood that only God could do what they had just witnessed. Blatantly ignoring truth they blasted him publicly, and made plans to kill him. Jesus gives this as part of his response: “make a tree good and it's fruit will be good,...”

The inverse of that question is: what makes a tree bad?

A tree does not know how to be bad, it only knows to do what is inherently in its nature and qualities. A  fruit tree only knows how to produce fruit, or in a sense, be good. That fruit may or may not be suitable for human consumption, but that does not make it bad. An obvious factor is that some trees produce a fruit that is barely noticeable and would be deemed non-fruiting, merely decorative. With minimal help a person can go to a nursery and pick out the type of tree they want based upon particular characteristics, as many of the aspects of that tree are described on a tag to aid in your decision.

The tree does nothing but function according to its nature, so how do you make the tree bad? Mind you Jesus is really not talking about trees but people, and yet you will find that so much of this makes sense when you put it into human perspectives. Sadly, we humans rarely come with information pamphlets that describe our future nature and characteristics. That tends to force us into God's word as there are many passages that define precisely who we are. Some we need to focus on would be who we are in Christ, as he is the rooting stock that we have been grafted into.

What can make a tree "bad."

• A tree, especially a fruit tree, needs adequate water. Yes, there are scientific studies that can tell you how much water that tree will need, dependent upon environmental conditions. Water promotes healthy sap production, which aids in its ability to resist pests, and carries nutrients throughout the tree. So if the tree does not get adequate water the tree will initially wilt. This is called plant stress. Plant stress on a continued basis impacts the fruit production, the foliage (the leaves), and eventually the plant cannot recover from the stress and you lose a perfectly good tree to death.
• In most cases, fruit trees have to be pruned if you want to obtain the maximum and best fruit from them. An orange bears fruit on new growth, while a peach tree produces fruit on mature, second year growth. This need for specific pruning varies with different fruiting trees, but in equating people to trees I see that we respond in similar ways, producing fruit in all stages of growth. Even though we might deem ourselves mature, there is always a time and season for new growth. How many times have you reread something and had it jump out at you as though it was new. By the way, you will find references to us being intentionally pruned by a loving God in order that we bear much fruit.
• Keeping a tree insect and disease free can assist in keeping the tree good. Here in Southern California we recently had a drought that lasted several years. The impact upon the pines in our local mountains was horrendous. Due to a lack of water the pines could not produce enough sap, a natural defense for them, and pine boring beetles were able to undermine the nutrient transport system of the pines, killing and weakening many of them. Add to that the work of an arsonist. Not only did we lose the beauty of a forest, but homes and lives were lost. There was nothing that demonstrated that the trees were trying to kill themselves, but they certainly could not defend themselves against such devastating outside influences.
  
  
  The tree needs, wants, and in a sense demands water, and will do nothing on its own to deny itself water, but we are not talking about a tree here are we. As a matter of fact many trees by "adaptation" have smaller leaves, and in some cases needles that assist in the retention of water. 
  
  
  Unlike a tree, we humans have minds of our own, and are frequently withholding water from our own lives. How? By not investing our time in God's word, and fellowship.