Jesus is God

Once again he has made some errors. 1- Concerning John 10:30 " I and my Father are one" My opponent incorrectly states that the greek word for "one" used in this passage and others that he quoted to support his argument is "heis" ( means singularity, number 1, only, alone etc) but this is incorrect. He displays his lack of knowledge of the greek texts of the gospels. The greek word used is actually "hen" ( means unity) and its hebrew equivalent is "echad". God uses "hen"/ "echad" in Deuteronomy 6:4 which reads, " hear o Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one" or in Hebrew it reads " schema Yisrael , adonai elohinu, adonai ECHAD". God defines himself as a unity/ united personality rather than a singularity/ exclusive singular personality. This affirms the Trinity doctrine of God being a tri-unity of persons or in simple a trinity. In 1st century Israel capital punishment ( stoning to death) was only for serious sins like blasphemy, adultery etc. It is evident that claiming pre-existence was not a problem but when claiming equality with God, this was blasphemy. Now in both John 8:58 and John 10:30-33 we see the jews become so infuriated by what Jesus says that they want to kill him right there and then. In John8:58 they give no reason for their actions but their actions are explained for both John 8:58 and 10:30-33 in John 10-30-33. Their reason was , " you , a mere man, are claiming to be God". If Jesus was not claiming deity, what would get the jews so "pissed off" , in what jesus said, that they would consider him to be blaspheming and thus try to kill him immediately? Note that in Jewish theology claiming to be the Son of God ( begotten) was seen as claiming equality with God. This was the very reason Jesus was crucified, for claiming to equality with God by claiming to be his Son. Jesus astonishingly doe NOT deny these accusations against him but in fact affirms them at his trial! Caiaphas the high priest asks Jesus point blank in Mathew 26:63 " tell us if you are Christ( messiah) the Son of God". Jesus knew very well what this charge implied ( claiming equality with God), but yet he astonishingly affirms the charge as he says in Mathew 26:64 , " YES IT IS AS YOU SAY. .. " Or as stated Mark 14 :62 " I AM". The high in total shock tears his own robes and cries "blasphemy! You have all heard it! ". As a result Jesus condemned himself to death by crucifixion under the charge of blasphemy ( claiming equality with God). Need I say more? I think we can all agree the passage speaks for itself about Jesus' claims to divinity. Let us see what the scholars have to say concerning the claims of deity in John 10:30 This is what Albert Barnes had to say in his commentary of John 10:30 "I and my Father are one - The word "hen" translated "one" is not in the masculine, but in the neuter gender. It expresses union, but not the precise nature of union. It may express any union, and the particular kind intended is to be inferred from the connection. In the previous verse he [Jesus] had said that he and his Father were united in the same object that is, in redeeming and preserving his people. It was this that gave occasion for this remark. Many interpreters have understood this as referring to union of design and of plan. The words may bear this construction. In this way they were understood by Erasmus, Calvin, Bucer and others. Most of the christian fathers understood them, however as referring to the oneness or unity of nature between the Father and the Son; and that this was the design of Christ appears. Probable from the following considerations : - The question in debate was not about his [Jesus] being united with the Father in plan and counsel, but in power. He affirmed that he was able to rescue and keep his people from all enemies, or that he had power superior to men and devils that is , that he had supreme power over all creation. He affirmed the same is of his Father. In this case, therefore, they were united. But this was an attribute only of God, and they [jews] thus understood him as claiming equality to God in regard to omnipotence. - the jews understood him as affirming his equality with God, for they took up stones to punish him for blasphemy , John 10:31 and 10:33, and they said to him that they understood him as affirming that he was God, John 10:33. - Jesus did not deny that it was his intention to be so understood. - He immediately made another declaration implying the same thing, leaving the same impression, and which they [jews] attempted to punish in the same manner, John 10:37-39. If Jesus had not intended so to be understood, it cannot be easily reconciled with moral honesty that he did not distinctly disavow that such was his intention. The jews were well acquainted with their own language. They understood him in this manner, and he left this impression on their minds . " 2- John 17:21 " that they may also be one in us" My opponent states: "This is Jesus praying for his disciples, is my opponent willing to concede that he should be worshiping fifteen gods , not three. " First of all christians are monotheist meaning we worship ONE God, not three as my opponent says. This is deeply offensive and displays his lack of understanding of the Trinity doctrine. He accused me of reading bible ( John 10:30) literally. This is incorrect. If I were to read John 10:30 literally, the text would imply then that Jesus and the Father are the same person . This is a Unitarian belief NOT Trinitarian. I am a Trinitarian as orthodox christianity teaches. Hence we as trinitarians explore the text more insightfuly to find an accurate and true meaning for it is a fact that Jesus is not the Father. *Note: The word "one" in the greek text is "hen" meaning unity. Now the word "one" , which means unity, is so broad in connotations that ANY connotation can be applied to any particular verse. However scholars and scribes understood that CONTEXT is best to determine what the word "one" connoted. Hence "one" in John 10:30 is not connoting the type of unity as the "one" in 1 Corinthians 6:6 and Ephesians 5:31. The oneness or unity between the man and wife is not literal unity ( my opponent mocks the scripture by making an example of him and his wife not literally being one flesh) , rather it is figurative. My opponent has displayed an ignorance of christian interpretation of the bible. However let us again see what some the authorities, biblical scholar John Gill had to say about John 17:21 " That they also may be one in us : there is a union of all the elect to God and Christ, which is already complete, and not to be prayed for; they are all loved by God with an everlasting love, by which they are inseperably one with him; they are all chosen in Christ, as members in their head [Father an Jesus] , and are federally united to him as their mediator,surety and representative; in consequence of which he has assumed their nature, stood in their place and stead, and brought them nigh to God. There is a manifestation of union in conversion, when persons openly appear to be in Christ; and as a fruit and effect of everlasting love, are with loving kindness drawn unto him; and which will be more gloriously seen, when all the elect shall be brought in, and God shall be all in all, and is what Christ prayed for here in John 17:21" Evidently John 17:21 is not telling us to worship 15 gods or anything ludicrous like that. It is simply showing Jesus' desire for his Church to be to be united with God in spirit and in the love of God. 3- Capital "G" and lower case "g" As I stated in Round 3, the english bible does a brilliant job of distinguishing and establishing a difference between God ( capital "g") meaning the creator Yahweh, and god (small "g") meaning holy mean, angels and false deities. However my opponent makes a good point in stating that this situation is absent from the Greek manuscripts. However he then states that christian scholars just pick and chose to capitalize the "g" in "god" wherever they like. This is a false representation of how the capital "g" or small "g" is applied to "god" in the english bible form greek manuscripts. Here is. How the process works: At the time the New Testament was written, greek Manuscripts were written in all capital letters. The upper and lower case letters were not blended as we do today. Thus the distinction that we make today between "God" and "god" could not be made. The CONTEXT became judge in determining to whom THEOS ( greek term for god) referred to (God or god). An example of this is John 1:1 It reads ". .. The word was with God and the word was God". Now how to establish which god( creator or false deity) is in context. We see from the whole chapter, John is talking about the Creator Yahweh after a simple read. I think even my opponent can agree that this easy to establish just reading the whole 1st chapter. Hence the term god is capitalized to be shown as God ( meaning the creator). Some argue that this is incorrect. The confusion lies in " the word was God" phrase. Some argue that in the greek manuscripts, the word "theos" lacks a definite article in front of itself and thus the phrase should read, " the word was a god". However this is incorrect for one reason; the greek language does not have an indefinite article ( a or an) hence translators are left with no other option but to translate the text correctly as it is. They are left with only one conclusion on how to translate the phrase. The translation is " the word was God". MY FINAL OFFENSE: Jesus' makes several claims to divinity in various passages : - He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father ( John 5:23) - He who beholds me, beholds the One who sent me ( John 12:45) - If you had known me, you would have known my Father also ( John 8:19) - Whatever the Father does, the Son also does likewise ( John 5:19) - No one knows the Father except the Son ( Mathew 11:27) - He who has seen me , has seen the Father ( John 14:9) - You believe in God, believe in me also ( John 14:1) - All that belongs to the Father is mine ( John 16:15) Further proof that Jesus is God is the Old Testament titles of God that are applied to Jesus. I will show them in a list with the attribute of God being stated. Then I will list the OT passage that applied it to God, then I will say ATJ ( applied to Jesus) and list the NT passage that applies the same attribute to Jesus: 1. The first and the Last - Isaiah 41:4,44:6,48:12 ATJ Rev 2:8 2. I AM ( Name of God) - exodus 3:14 ATJ John 8:58,13:19 3. Author of eternal words - Isaiah 40:8, psalm 119:89 ATJ Mathew 24:35, John 6:68 4. Light - psalm 27:1 ATJ John 1:4-9,1:8-12, 1 John 1:5 5. Rock - Deut 32:31, psalm 18:2,92:15, Isaiah 8:14 ATJ 1 Peter 2:6-8, 1 Col 10:4 6. Bridegroom - Isaiah 62:5, Hosea 2:16 ATJ Mark 2:19, Rev 21:2 7. Shepard - Psalm 23:1 ATJ John 10:11, Hebrews 13:20 8. Redeemer - Hosea 13:14, Psalm 130:7 ATJ Titus 2:13-14, Rev 5:9 9. Savior - Isaiah 43:3, Hosea 13:4 ATJ 2 Peter 1:1 10. The Lord of Glory _ Isaiah 42 :8 ATJ John 17: 1-5, 1 Cor 2:8 11 Judge of the world - Joel 3:12 ATJ Mathew 25: 31-46 12. The second coming God - Zechariah 14:5 ATJ Mathew 16:27,24:29-31 13. The first coming God - Isaiah 40:3 ATJ Mathew 3:3 14. King of Glory - Psalm24:7,24:10 ATJ 1 Cor 2:8, John 17:5 15. Yahweh our Righteousness : Jeremiah 23:5-6 ATJ 1 Cor 1:30 16. Yahweh above all - Psalm 97:9 ATJ John 3:33 17. Yahweh first and last - Isaiah 44:6,48:12-16 ATJ Rev 1:8, 1:17, 22:13 18. Yahweh's fellow and equal - Zechariah 13:7 ATJ Philippians 2:6 19. The Lord Almighty - Isaiah 6:1-3,8:13-14 ATJ John 12:41. 1 Peter 2:8 20. Yahweh - Psalm 110:1 ATJ Mathew 22:42-45 21. Yahweh the shepherd - Isaiah 40:11 ATJ Hebrews 13:20 22. Yahweh, for who's all glory, all things were created - Proverbs 16:4 ATJ Colossians 1:16 23. Yahweh the messenger of the Covenant - Malachi 3:1 ATJ Luke 7:27 24. Invoked as Yahweh - Joel 2:32, Isaiah 45;22 ATJ 1 Cor 1:2 25. The eternal God and Creator - Psalm 102:24-27 ATJ Hebrews 1:8,1;10-12 26. The great God and saviour - Isaiah 43:11-12 ATJ Titus 1:3-4,2:10,3:4-6 27. God the Judge - Eclesiastes 12:14 ATJ 1 Cor 4:5, 2 Cor 5;10, 2 Timothy 4:1 28. Immanuel ( God with us) - Isaiah 7:14 ATJ Mathew 1:23 30. The Holy One - 1 Samuel 2:2 ATJ Acts 3:14 31. Lord of all - 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 ATJ Acts 10:36, Romans 10:11-13 32. Creator of all things - Isaiah 40:28, Psalm 148:1-5 ATJ John 1:3, Col 1:16 33. Supporter, preserver of all things - Nehemiah 9:6 ATJ Clossians 34. Stumbling rock of offense - Isaiah 8:13-14 ATJ Romans 9:32-33, 1 Peter 2:8 35. Confess that He is Lord - Isaiah 45:23 ( Yahweh) ATJ Philippians 2:11 (Jesus) 36. The judge of all men - Psalm 98:6 ATJ Acts 17:31 37. Raiser of the dead - 1 Samuel 2:6 , Psalm 119 ( 11 times) ATJ John 11:25,5:21 38. Co-sender of the Holy Spirit - John 14:1 ( The Father sends) ATJ John 15:26 ( Jesus sends) 39. Led captivity captive - Psalm 68:18 ATJ Ephesians 4:7-8 40. Seen by Isaiah - Isaiah 6:1 ATJ John 12:41 41. Judge of the nations - Joel 3:2 ATJ Mathew 25:31-41 42. Salvation by calling His name - Joel 2:32 ATJ Romans 10:13 And there are still MANY more Other human beings affirm Jesus' deity or accuse him of blasphemy( claiming equality with God) : #Thomas his disciple - " My Lord and my God" ( John 20:28) # Peter his disciple _ " The Son of the Living God" ( Mathew 16:16, John 5:18)- to a jew this made him God's equal # John his disciple - " making himself [Jesus] equal with God" ( John 5:18) # The jews - " You, a mere man, are claiming to be God" ( John 10:33) # The jewish high priest - " you have heard the blasphemy" ( Mark 14:61-64) 4- I'll conclude with the comments of one of the most esteemed NT scholars, C. S. Lewis, on the deity of Christ Jesus : " People often say about him [Jesus] : "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God". That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic- on a level of man who says he is a poached egg- or else he would be the devil of hell. " " You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God : But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. " " One part of the claim tends to slip past us unnoticed because we have heard it so often that we no longer see what it amounts to. I mean the claim to forgive sins : any sins. Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic. We can all understand how a man forgives offenses against himself. You tread on my toe and I forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man, himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on other men's toes and stealing other men's money? Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did! He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if he was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offenses. This makes sense only if He really was God. These words [ if Jesus was not God]. Would imply what I can only regard as silliness and conceit unrivaled by any other character in history. " CONCLUSION : I thank my opponent for this interesting and most memorable debate, and I hope to debate him again soon. It has been an honor. PLEASE VOTE PRO ! PLEASE VOTE PRO! References : *www. bible. cc/john/17-21. htm *www. johnankerberg. org/Articles/editors-choice/EC1202W2. htm *www. exegeticalstudent. blogspot. com/2007/10/lewis-on-deity-of-christ. html *www. garyhabermas. com/qa/qa_index. htm