Fluttering Carefully

Many today deny the deity of Christ from the Scriptures, “Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Mormons, many Liberal Christians (as in the Jesus Seminar, with notable fellow Bishop Shelby Spong, DD). Why would they say that he is not the Son of God? Maybe a more appropriate question would be, why would anyone say he is the son of God?

Consider John 9, where the man born blind saw Christ after being interrogated by the Pharisees:

³⁵ Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?

³⁶ He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?

³⁷ And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.

³⁸ And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.

³⁹ And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.

⁴⁰ And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?

⁴¹ Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Note here that Jesus does not rebuke the man born blind for his worshiping him. That is not the only example. Consider also the example of Thomas’ worship of him after his seeing him following the resurrection. He worshipped him calling him, “Lord” and “God.”

²⁷ Then saith he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

²⁸ And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

²⁹ Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

If he was not God, he would have been a liar, and a blasphemer as the Pharisees said often of him. More than that, the fact that he called himself the Son of God all the time was making himself like unto God, as the Pharisees often affirmed.

Consider also the following (from John 1), where Jesus is called God—“In the beginning was the Word,…,and the Word was God,” etc.:

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

² The same was in the beginning with God.

³ All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

⁴ In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

⁵ And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

And Hebrews 1, where God calls the Son, God, and commands the Angels to worship Him, etc.:

⁶ And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.

⁷ And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.

⁸ But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

⁹ Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

¹⁰ in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:

Consider that no one is to be worshipped in this manner but God. John, when he received the vision was in the presence of an angel, and John worshipped him. Then the angel corrected John, calling himself a fellow servant, Rev. 22.8,9, and again, consider Peter, who when Cornelius worshiped him, corrected him (Ac 10.25,26). In the Old Testament (OT), Jesus is often foreshadowed, and known by David to be God, a member of the Godhead, as with the aforementioned passage in Hebrews, And the Lord said to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand (Psalm 110.1). Consider from the OT: Isaiah 9.1-7, esp. 6; and from the NT: John 10.28-ff • Col. 1.16-19.

I will try to expound on this more later. But in the meantime, it would be fair to say that if the Bible is correct, and I believe it is, Christ is the Son of God. But if Christ be not the Son of God, because the Scripture shows that he is not, then the Scripture is full of error, because it also shows that he is, so cast off your foolhardy faith before this ship goes down. Consider the foolishness, darkness and fundamental flaw of this heresy, in the end, his name is Immanuel/Emmanuel, or “God with us.” Even the Pharisees understood that he ‘made himself like God (John 10.33).’ How much more plain must it be?