The Bible Teaches Jesus is God

The God of the Bible is not a person, he is a family. He is a plural being, existing as three person as one being - three persons in one God. This means that within the one being we call God, there are three minds, that of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Proof: Isa 44:24 tells us that Yahweh made all things, streached out the heavens alone, spread out the earth by himself; yet Scripture reveals the Father as creator (Isa 64:8), and the Son (Col 1:16-17; Heb 1:2, 8-10), and the Holy Spirit (Ps 104:30; Job 26:13; 33:4) Combine this with the plural pronouns "us" and "our" in Genesis 1:16 and the trinitarian has an airtight case. If Jesus and the Holy Spirit are not one God with the Father, then God the Father had help and did not create all things alone, by himself, as he said he did in Isaiah 44:24. If the trinity is true, harmony comes to the texts. If the trinity is false, then the Father lied when he said he created alone and had no help, for Scripture testifies that the Son and the Holy Spirit shared in creation. Not only did all three person do what only God did (create the universe), but all three of them possess the attributes that only God possesses: The Father is eternal (Ps 90:2), and the Son (Isa 9:6; Mic 5:2), and the Holy Spirit (Heb 9:14) The Father is omniscient (1 John 3:20), and the Son (John 16:30; 21:17), and the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 2:10-11) The Father is omnipresent (1 Kings 8:27; Ps 137:8-18), and the Son (Matt 18:20), and the Holy Spirit. (Ps 137:7) The Father is omnipotent (Dan 4:35), and the Son (Matt 28:18; John 17:10), and the Holy Spirit (Isa 40:13-18) When the Bible says that Jesus is God, it is saying that he by nature has all the attributes that makes someone God, such as the four attributes I listed above which only the Father, Son and Holy Spirit share. The word God isn't always used as a reference to one of the persons of God, but also to their nature. This is why Galatians 4:8 refers to idol statutes as them "which by nature are no gods." They aren't gods BY NATURE, but Jesus is. So when we call Jesus God this doesn't mean he is the Father, but that he has the same nature of the Father, the nature which only the one God has, making him part of that divine being. But Jesus also became human when the Word was made flesh (John 1:14), so he has two natures. He is both man, and God, and experiences the fullness of both natures. This is crucial, because we cannot deny his divinity just by focusing on his humanity as Con is doing. Proving that he is fully man doesn't prove that he is not also fully God. So when Con says Jesus had limited knowledge, of course he did (only in his humanity) for he must experience full human nature. But in his divinity he also knows all things, just as his apostles said: "Now are we SURE that thou KNOWEST ALL THINGS." (John 16:30) "Lord, thou KNOWEST ALL THINGS." (John 21:17) So Jesus knew all things according to the apostles, and I'll take their word over Con's. Is this a contradiction? No, because unlike us mere men, God is a being who can occupy two radically different positions at the same time. This is why he was both child in a manger and yet Mighty God according to Isaiah 9:6. The trinity allows me to accept both Biblical statements that Jesus didn't know some things, yet knew all things; but Con has to deny one of these statements to uphold his interpretation. He has to argue that when the Bible says Jesus knew all things, it doesn't really mean that. He cites John 5:30 when Jesus says "I can do nothing myself...but the will of my Father," but that also proves he is God, because if he were not God, but just another created being, he would be able to disobey, and do his own thing, incurring God's wrath like the rest of this sinful world. But God wouldn't create a plan of salvation which had a possibility of failing; so he came in the person of the Son who, because he is one God with the Father, CANNOT, not just would not, but CANNOT do anything but the will of God. Because Jesus is part of the trinity he can't do anything himself, but is always working in conjunction with the Father and Holy Spirit. I he were a separate being with the free will to do otherwise, he COULD do things by himself. Con argues even though other writers call Jesus God, Jesus himself never said "I am God," therefore he isn't God. Well, though other writers said God is love, God himself didn't say "I am love," does that mean God isn't love? The rules of this debate said that both parties agree the Bible is the word of God, so all those verses I gave where Bible writers call Jesus God must be taken as the word of God. So I'll ask Con, do you accept God's word when he himself calls his Son "O God" in Hebrews 1:8? The Father calling Jesus God should be even greater proof than if the man Jesus makes the claim himself. In John 10:30-33 the Jews understood that Jesus was claiming to be God, and in John 5:30 the apostle John who wrote the book of John understood Jesus to be making himself equal to God; so Jesus did claim to be God. This is how those early eyewitnesses understood his claims, and I'll take their interpretation over Con's. Con uses Numbers 23:9 to show that God is not a man, but that verse also says God does not repent; does he? In Genesis 6:7 God said of mankind "it REPENTETH me that I have made them." "And the Lord REPENTED of the evil which he thought to do unto his people." (Exo 32:14) "The Lord REPENTED for this." (Amos 7:3, 6) So just as God repented though Numbers 23:9 says he doesn't repent, so too, he was a man even though Numbers 23:9 says he wasn't. In fact, Exodus 15:3 says "the Lord is a MAN of war," and we have him appearing as a man to the Old Testament saints. (Gen 18:1-3, 22; 32:30; Jud 13:22) Numbers 23:9 wasn't not even trying to say that God isn't a man, but rather, that he wasn't a SINFUL man so that he should lie, or that he should repent OF SIN...This qualification makes all the difference and removes any contradiction between that verse and all the others where God does appear as a man and does repent. Con claims that Jesus never instructed people to worship him. Well, I have a question for Con. Is prayer a part of worship? Should we pray to anyone else but God? The fact that Jesus receives prayer proves he is God. John 14:14 says in the New American Standard Bible: "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it." Not only does Jesus encourage believers to pray to Him by saying, "ask Me anything," but He is the One who answers the prayer when He promises, "I will do it." While this Scripture is a strong support of prayer being rendered to Jesus, it is complicated by the fact that some translations omits the "me" in the phrase "ask Me anything" in John 14:14. But the Greek text itself states: "If ever anything you should ask me in the name of me this I shall do." The reason that certain Bible versions leave out the "me" is due to a textual variant in the manuscripts of the Greek text of this verse. The Majority text (most dating from around the 9th century) split on this issue with some containing the "me" and others dropping the "me." But in recent years, scholars have uncovered manuscripts of the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament) that date as far back as the second and third centuries. The oldest manuscripts we have available today of this verse in the Gospel of John are Papyrus 66, written in 125 A.D., and Papyrus 75, written sometime between 175-225 A.D. Both of these papyrus fragments contain the "me" in this passage. Not only do the oldest fragments of John that we possess today contain the "me," but two of the oldest ancient complete copies of the entire Bible in Greek, the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus written around the 4th century, both agree with the papyrus' renderings of "ask me" in John 14:14. Since Desiderius Erasmus complied and published the Greek text (Textus Receptus) of the King James Bible version in the 1500's, he did not have access to the older Greek manuscripts that we have today. Thus, the King James Bible version and other Bible versions based upon the Textus Receptus or the Majority text do not contain the "me" in John 14:14. Indeed, John 14:14 is a strong testimony to Jesus' approval of the early Christian practice of directing their prayers to Jesus Christ. So by commanding us to pray to him Jesus is indeed telling us to worship him. We also have the apostle John commanding Christians to pray to Jesus in 1 John 5:12-16, and we have examples of Christians praying to Jesus in Acts 7:59 and 2 Corinthians 12:8, 9. And Jesus accepted worship from the disciples: "And when they saw him, they WORSHIPPED HIM." (Matthew 28:17) Further, when Thomas calls him "my God" in John 20:28, 29, Jesus doesn't rebuke him for blasphemy. Jesus blessing him for his confession of faith. Finally, Con wants to know if Jesus was praying to himself. The answer is no. God the Son was praying to God the Father. So none of Con's arguments show that Jesus cannot be God. Jesus said: "with God ALL THINGS are possible." (Matt 19:26) So let me ask Con, can God take human form? Yes or No? If not, then why not? If he can take human form, do you believe he must stop being God in order to do so? If so, then why? Far be it from us to limit God! If God's word presents him as both God and man, by faith, I believe him. I look forward to Con's rebuttal to my opening arguments for the deity of Christ. I'll be looking most of all for the answer to this: if there is only one true God (John 17:3), do you agree all other gods are false? If so, is Jesus a true God, or a false god? Let's see if Con will answer or evade this question.