Jesus was not the God or Son of God

A) You claim that “The only sources we have of Jesus is the Bible and other texts which didn't make it into the Bible” This is false. There are many non Biblical sources that mention Jesus.1. Tacitus, a Roman historian wrote this in AD 64 [2] “Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome. ” . . . This mentions Christ (Christus), and Christians (named after Christus), and tells how he was crucified (the extreme penalty as stated elsewhere in Tacitus). It mentions Pontius Pilate and Tiberius, and tells how Christianity developed in Judea and in Rome. It is quite telling that the death of Jesus only briefly checked the growth of Christianity, as it tells in the NT.2. Pliny was the Roman governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor. In a letter to Trajan, he asks advice about the appropriate way to conduct legal proceedings against those accused of being Christians. [3] “He describes what these Christians did as follows. “They stated that the sum of their guilt or error amounted to this, that they used to gather on a stated day before dawn and sing to Christ as if he were a god, and that they took an oath not to involve themselves in villainy, but rather to commit no theft, no fraud, no adultery; not to break faith, nor to deny money placed with them in trust. Once these things were done, it was their custom to part and return later to eat a meal together, innocently, although they stopped this after my edict, in which I, following your mandate, forbade all secret societies. All the more I believed it necessary to find out what was the truth from two servant maids, which were called deaconesses, by means of torture. Nothing more did I find than a disgusting, fanatical superstition. ”3. Josephus, was a first century Jewish historian. Twice he mentions Jesus in Jewish Antiquities [4]; he says “ he assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others,; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned: . . . ” Josephus also says [5]“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day. ”These are the most ancient,(Before 150 AD) non Biblical mentions of Jesus and the ways Christians worshiped Him as God. Jewish rabbinical writings collected between 70 AD and 500 AD called the Babylonian Talmud says “On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged” (Yeshu or Yeshua is a Hebrew form of Jesus name). The reason they give for Jesus’ crucifixion is because “because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy” [6]Lucian of Samosata, a second century Greek satirist, wrote this of Christians [7] “It was now that he came across the priests and scribes of the Christians, in Palestine, and picked up their queer creed. I can tell you, he pretty soon convinced them of his superiority; prophet, elder, ruler of the Synagogue--he was everything at once; expounded their books, commented on them, wrote books himself. They took him for a God, accepted his laws, and declared him their president. The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day,--the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account. ”Space is limited, I must move on. B) You say “Jesus ever claims, ‘I am God worship me. ’” There are some problem with your argument. 1. Jesus never claims “I am only a prophet, don’t worship me. ” Wanting Jesus to use your words is silly. He was fully obedient to the Father. If God did not tell him to use those exact words, he did not. He did and said exactly what his Father wanted. You need to look at the words and actions of Jesus to get a better picture of who he is. 2. Even holy angels refuse worship,[Rev 19:10, 22:9] as do decent people. [Acts 10:25, 14:15] Jesus allowed people to worship him [. Mat 14:33, John 9:38, Mat 28:9,17; Luke 24:52, If he were not claiming to be God, his own teachings would forbid this. [Matt. 8:2; 9:18; 15:25; Mark 5:6; Heb. 1:6; John 20:28,29] For sources outside the Bible look at those cited above. Those writers were not close associates of Jesus, and got their information second hand but Pliny still understood that they “sing to Christ as if he were a god”. Josephus calls Him Christ (Messiah) and comes as close to calling Him divine as he can without losing his position or possibly even his life. For exact quotes of Jesus’ words lets go to the NT. Jesus asks the disciples “who do you say that I am? ” and Peter answers “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. ” - Jesus could have refuted this, but he tells Peter that this was revealed to him by “my Father in heaven” (affirming his status as Son of God and Messiah)Matthew 16:15-17 (Similar passages are found in Mark 8:27 and Luke 9:18)15 “But what about you? ” he asked. “Who do you say I am? ”16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. ”17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. Another event in Jesus’ life is recorded in Matthew 17:1–9, Mark 9:2–8, and Luke 9:28–36 Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain and God spoke from heaven - “Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: ‘This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him! ’”This voice from heaven affirms Jesus as Son of God. It is also at Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3:16-17 - “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. ’”Isaiah 44:6 says - ““This is what the Lord says— Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God” Surah 57:3 refers to Allah as “the First and the Last, the Most High and the Most Near. ” When Jesus gives John the revelation we read [Rev 1:17-18] “ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. ”Jesus claims to be “the first and the last”. He says “ I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever ” Blessings! [1] . http://carm.org...[2] Tacitus, Annals 15.44 from . http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu...[3] Pliny to Emperor Trajan from . http://www.tyrannus.com...[4] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities XX - . http://www.ccel.org...[5] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities XVIII . http://www.ccel.org...[6] . http://www.hebrew-streams.org...[7] Lucian of Samosata - . http://www.sacred-texts.com...