Jesus is God

However as we shall see my opponent has made some crucial errors. ## Unaddressed arguments ## * Jesus' claims to divinity in John 10:30,8:58 and Revelations 1:8. * God the Father calls Jesus God in Hebrews 1:8. *Jesus is called God in Philippians 2:6. *Prophecy in Isaiah 9:6 calls Messiah "Mighty God". * Jesus bears the name of God in Philippians 2:6. *God has a Son in Proverbs 30:4. * Jesus( Messiah) is "God with us" as. Stated in Isaiah 7:14. I am compelled to the belief that my opponent concedes to these arguments as proof of the Bible's claims to Jesus' divinity. REBUTTALS : 1- My opponent uses the argument that since in Micah 5:4 it says messiah has God, this means that he is not God. Jesus DOES have a God, this is true. But remember Jesus has two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. Jesus is fully God and fully man. At the point of incarnation Jesus attained a second nature alongside his divine nature. He attained a human nature. As a result of this new human nature he inherited all the constraints of being human such as needing to sleep,eat,breath, pray and have a God (He was also jewish). He had a God because as a human he was subordinate to God. Jesus took upon the Father as his God at the point of incarnation. Psalm 22:10 sums this up the best , "From birth I was cast upon you, from my mothers womb you have been my God". As christians we believe Jesus was fully God and fully man. Hence as God he was equal with the Father but as a man he was beneath God and hence the Father became his God as Micah 5:4 says. 2- My opponent tries to use the argument that Jesus being "Son of God" is nothing special as there are many other sons of God in the bible and thus Jesus is not divine (God). He states that Melchizedek is one of these sons of God and he uses Hebrews 7:3 as 'proof' of this. What does hebrews 7:3 say? Let us see , "Without father or mother,without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever". We see that the scripture says he is LIKE the Son of God. It does NOT say he was the Son of God. Hebrews 7:3 does not even try to hint at the idea of Melchizedek being the Son of God or anything like this. It simply lets the reader know that Melchizedek remains a priest forever like the Son of God who too remains a priest forever. It is saying Melchizedek is like Son of God ONLY in the respect of being and remaining a priest forever. The preceding verse, Hebrew 6:20 makes this clear as it says, " where Jesus, who went before us on our behalf. He has become high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek". We see Jesus became high priest in the order of Melchizedek hence this is the only relation that Melchizedek has to Jesus. Melchizedek is a prime case of typology. Typology is a theological term used to refer to an Old Testament picture ( person, animal, object etc) of the person and work of Jesus Christ. A case of typology is the lifted up brazen serpent that provided healing to Israelites. This serpent was a picture of Christ as stated in John 3:14-15 , " Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, and those who look on him in faith shall be healed from sin". Melchizedek too is a case of typology. Melchizedek was a picture of Christ as the eternal high priest. Melchizedek was merely a picture of the Son of God but NOT the Son of God. Melchizedek was a holy man and priest but was not the Son of God and hence is not greater than Christ who is the begotten Son of God. My opponent then goes on with the argument of "many sons of God". My opponent tries to use Psalm 2:7 against me by stating that it is talking about David and that David is one who is being begotten by God as in the psalm. The psalm however is in fact a messianic psalm talking about messiah. This is affirmed by both christian and jewish authorities . The psalm can only be applied to David in that it will be fulfilled in the messiah, David's heir and descendant. The psalm talks about a king who will be the begotten Son of God and will rule over all the nations. David however only was king of Israel and did not rule over all the nations as the psalm says this mystery king will. The characteristic of this individual ruling over the nations is a characteristic of the messiah. This individual who is the messiah as stated earlier will also be the begotten Son of God . This is what God says concerning the heir of David, the messiah mentioned in psalm 2:7 ; 2 Samuel 7:4 " I will be his father, and he shall be a son to me". Hence Jesus the messiah is the begotten Son of God mentioned in psalm 2:7. My opponent then goes onto say that Adam, the angels and humanity are too called the sons of God which is true. My opponent disappointingly fails to mention the difference between Jesus' sonship and the sonship of Adam, the angels and humanity. Adam, the angels and humanity are the ADOPTED sons of God of god hence even christians and jews today still call each other sons and daughters of God. However Jesus is the only BEGOTTEN Son of God meaning he is consubstantial with God the Father. This is a very basic christian and theological teaching. Hence Jesus being Son of God is proof of his divinity as he is Consubstantial with God the Father. 3- my opponent says Jesus was not present, like the other sons of God, when the universe was created an thus Jesus is not the Son of God. This is a HUGE mistake made by my opponent as the bible firmly teaches that Jesus is the creator and thus created the universe. As we know Jesus is the Word( logos) of God. Look at what John 1:1-3 says about the Word of God, " in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made, without him nothing was made". Jesus ( the Word) was present at the creation of the universe because HE CREATED the universe as seen in John 1: 1-3! 4- My opponent then proceeds to argue that simply being called Lord and God does not make Jesus God . This is absurd as you shall see. My opponent correctly states that there are many 'Lords' in the bible such as land lords, kings and masters etc. However he fails to mention a crucial point. The phrase "the Lord" or "adonai" in hebrew, is also used in the bible as a substitution for the name of God , Yahweh/Jehovah. Christians and jewish scribes have done this in respect of the name of God. One example of this is the messianic prophecy of Jeremiah 23:6 which normally reads "in his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called : The Lord our Righteousness". The verse should actually and originally reads as follows , ". .. This is the name he will be called : Yahweh our Righteousness". As seen messiah will have the Name of God and only God has the name of God, hence messiah is God. 5- My opponent admits that Jesus is called God in the bible, but then he a claims that satan allegedly is also called God in the bible. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. Satan is called a god not God. Many beings are called gods in the bible e. g. The angels ( Psalm 8:5) , Holy men/ Judges ( Psalm 82:1) and satan ( 2 Corinthians 4:4) . However my opponent makes a false quotation by capitalizing the "g" in god in 2 Cor 4:4 when in face the verse simply reads, " the god of the world", god with a small "g" connoting a false deity. The english bible does a brilliant job of distinguishing and establishing the difference between God and god. The term God is used to refer to the creator Yahweh/Jehovah , the Judeo-Christian God. The term god Is used to refer to holy beings ( angels and holy men) as well as false deities ( satan , baal and other pagan deities). We see however that the term " God" ( Yahweh the creator) is applied to Jesus ( John 1:1 , Revelation 1:8, Hebrews 1:8, Philippians 2:6 etc) hence letting the reader I know that Jesus IS God the creator Yahweh/Jehovah. Simple research can explain this. ## My opponent then goes on the offense ## He says 1 Corinthians 3:23 shows that God( The Father) is greater than Christ an that the trinitarian formula. Of Christ and God( The Father) being co-equal is not biblical. The Father is in truth greater than Jesus. But how is he greater? The Father is greater exclusively in position. Here is an analogy : Your father is greater than you. With my opponent's logic this means that your father is more human than you are because he is greater than you. .. This is absurd . In reality your father is only greater than you because of his position as you father and you as his son but yet you are both co-equal in your humanity. In the same way The Father is greater than Jesus in position only simply because Jesus is Son and God The Father is his Father. Hence The Father is Jesus' head. However this now does not mean Jesus is less divine than the Father. Jesus is in fact as much God as The Father is God hence they are co-equal in their divinity but not equal in position. This is a basic trinitarian doctrine. As seen God the Father even calls Jesus God in Hebrews 1:8. The Bible DOES teach that Jesus is co-equal with God ( The Father) as seen in Philippians 2:5-6, "Your attitude should be the same as the of Christ Jesus : Who (Jesus) , being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God( The Father) something to be grasped" 1- My opponent also uses the argument the God is not a man as stated in scripture to discredit the divinity of Jesus. This is a very weak argument. Jesus as known pre-existed as God in the for of the Son but eventually manifested himself in the form of a man to fulfill the role of messiah and die on the cross. We even see in the Old Testament that God manifests himself in the form of a man. Two instances are in the garden of eden ( genesis 3:8) and when God visits an dines with Abraham ( genesis 18) while his two angels go destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Now in my opponents logic this means that in these two instances, since God temporarily became a man, God seized being God. But this is extremely false and absurd. God as we know CAN DO ANYTHING and as seen in genesis 3:8 and chapter 18 , God can manifest himself in the form of a man. This shows that Jesus was and Is God as. God truly is not a man but can and did manifest himself in the forma man , twice in the Old Testament and once in the New Testament in the person Jesus. This is once again supported by Philippians 2: 6-8 which reads " Who ( Jesus),being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, Being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient - even to death on a cross! " 2- My opponent argues that all the glory ( worship, honor, power, sovereignty, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence. Etc) given to Jesus by the Father discredits Jesus' divinity simply because his glory was given to him. But first we need to ask, when was this glory given to him? As we see in scripture, John 17:5, Jesus ALWAYS had glory as the verse reads , "And now Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began". As we can see Jesus had the glory of God BEFORE the world began. However as John 1:1-14 and Philippians 2:6-8 say, Jesus became a man and made himself a little lower than the angels thus surrendering all his glory to become a man. After his crucifixion and resurrection Jesus was glorified after his resurrection which answers the question posed earlier. But in order for Jesus to get back his former glory (as stated in John 17:5) , God the Father had to GIVE it back to Jesus. So this whole argument does falls on the wayside as opponent displays his lack of biblical knowledge concerning the person Jesus. His argument actually supports the biblical teaching of Jesus' divinity. Consequently my position still stands that Jesus is God ## References : * www. truthnet. org/TheMessiah/12_Messiah_Objections_Psalms_2_22/ *www. gty. org/resources/Sermons/1616 *www. washingtonubf. org/BibleMaterials/Genesis/MSG9. html