THE DEITY OF CHRIST

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by: Joe Daniels

There is no single topic as important as the doctrine of the deity of Christ! Get this one important fact wrong, and your doomed for all eternity! It has always been my main emphasis of study and focus when looking into the word of God throughout my study of scripture! Lately this focal point has been questioned, challenged, and denied even within the preterist community! What a shame and disappointment! To my dismay, some preterist's who I have held in great esteem have become an utter disappointment in this area! You would think that in the application of sound hermeneutics, this truth would not need to be challenged, but to my chagrin, it has proven to be a stumbling block for many who I at one time considered to be wise in their knowledge of scripture! These teachers have denied Christ, preach another false gospel, left the faith, and unfortunately have led many others into a faith that has become shipwrecked, and devoid of truth!

“Professing to be wise, they became fools.” Rom.1:22

I remember many, many years ago, standing in opposition against many in the student center at college debating so called Christians and church groups who denied the deity of Christ! As the president of the campus Protestant Club, I was shocked at how many times this topic came into question and even ended up in heated debates! Fortunately, I was very successful in those debates in my defense. I never in my wildest imagination thought that I would see the day that I would have to defend this simple and basic tenant of our faith as much as I have in the last ten to fifteen years! Sad to say, many Christian brothers and sisters who once held to the Deity of Christ have denied this truth in view of their eschatology! Eschatology does not need to redefine all areas of our faith! We have new cults springing up all the time, and the one thing that they all have in common which defines them as a a cult, is that the leaders all deny the deity of Christ. The same is true of the Israel Only cult! Am I shocked by that fact? No! I would actually expect it, and this should be a tip off to anyone who is interested in their erroneous teachings to stay clear of them!

In this article I want to cover some basics about the deity of Christ. They are fundamental basics which is the core of our Christianity. These are basics that are either missing, or denied by the leaders of the Israel Only cult.

Let me begin by first stating that historically speaking the deity of Jesus was never even challenged in the Christian church until about the year A.D. 190 when a Byzantine leather merchant (Shoemaker / tanner ) named Theodotus denied it! Of course the Judiazers and unbelievers challenged it from the beginning. But I’m speaking of members of the primitive church, those who professed to be Christian and were members of the church of the first couple of centuries. Of such we have both Oriegn of Alexandria Egypt (A.D. 185 -254) and Arius of Alexandria Egypt (AD.250-336) these are the most profound heretics of the early church! It is their repackaged teachings about the person and their anti-deity of Christ concepts that you get lectured on when visited by these so called Christian cults like the JW's who come knocking on your door! It’s not new, it’s old and just the same old heresy the Christian church had to purge itself from at the end of the second and into the third centuries. It has since reared its ugly head many times being repackaged, renamed, retooled, and unfortunately, re-taught to those unable to discern the truth! The new Johnny-come-lately claiming to be both Christian, and preterist is the Israel Only cult.

The first step we need to take in getting to the bottom of this conflict, is that we need to know what Christ said of Himself. Likewise, Jesus even said that He through the giving of the Holy Spirit, would even later enlighten His Apostles with more knowledge of Him that at that time, they were not ready to hear. Even the Apostle Paul would come to revelations of the identity of the person of Jesus and His deity! The Apostles, and Paul both preached and wrote about it!

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” Jn.16:12-14 (NKJV)

So what in fact did Christ say of Himself pertaining to this topic? Did He say that belief in His deity was or is essential to salvation? Yes He did, and I think He made it abundantly clear!

“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” Jn. 8:24

εἶπον οὖν ὑμῖν ὅτι ἀποθανεῖσθε

I said therefore to you that you will die

ἐν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν

in the sins of you

ἐὰν γὰρ μὴ πιστεύσητε ὅτι

if for not you believe that

ἐγώ εἰμι ἀποθανεῖσθε ἐν

I AM you will die in

ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν

the sins of you

Later in that very same chapter Jesus said:

Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ

Truly, truly I say to you before Abraham

γενέσθαι ἐγὼ εἰμί

was born I Am (Jn. 8:58)

Now what was the IMMEDIATE RESPONSE? (See Jn. 8:59)

ἦραν οὖν λίθους ἵνα βάλωσιν ἐπ᾽ αὐτόν

Took up therefore stones that to throw upon Him

Why would they want to kill Him by stoning! Why? It’s because He claimed to be God! He literally claimed to be the “I Am” Who was, Who is, and Who always will be! In other words, Jesus said to them that when God spoke to Moses – it was actually Him at the burning bush in Exodus3:14!

Let's look at what the Apostle John wrote as enlightened, and inspired by the Holy Spirit:

Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος καὶ ὁ λόγος

In beginning was the Word and the Word

ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.

was with the God and God was the Word. Jn.1:1

In the beginning we see that Jesus and the Father were both God! Meaning that as the Father existed eternally, Jesus existed with or towards (πρὸς) the Father as well. This is clearly brought out in the second verse of John’s Gospel.

οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν

This one was in beginning towards the God. Jn.1:2

The Greek word πρὸς which means “toward” or “with” denotes direction as in being positionally towards something, looking to, moving to, relating to, showing that another personage is in view. And yet this other one is also called God! The Apostle John never borrowed any of his terminology like “The Word” from Greek paganism, Greek thought, mythology, or philosophy! He used a term found right in his own Bible and the Targums! (Jn.1:1b.) This word πρὸς shows us separation between the Word and another, namely God the Father, all the while both being the one God!

This is just a basic bare bones primer article showing that Jesus is God! He didn't have the title given to Him by man at some church council in AD 325, heck His deity wasn't even questioned for about a 150 years after His death! No the council of Nicaea only confirmed what the primitive church already believed!

I used Jn. 8:24 because I have heard many say that believing in the deity of Christ was never needed for salvation … that is nonsense, and Jesus Himself in that verse says that if you don't believe that He is God you die in your sins! So far as Jn. 1:1 is concerned, this is exactly how John starts his gospel message, and I believe all of us should do the same, preaching Jesus as God who became flesh and dwelt among us. (Jn. 1:14) The problem is that there is never a lack of people who hate Christ Jesus, and the Israel Only cult is just a new group who attack this basic tenant of the faith! They preach another Christ who can't even save anyone anymore! May they as the apostle Paul said of those who preach another Jesus … As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed (ἀνάθεμα). (Gal. 1:9)