The Bible Teaches Jesus is God

Rules: Both parties will accept the 66 books of the Bible as the Word of God. In round 1 Con will present his case why he does not believe Jesus is God before he responds to my case for Jesus as God. He may respond to my opening argument in round 1 if he has enough space left to begin a response, or he may choose to wait till round 2 to reply to my opening argument. Its all up to him. (1) The Bible says that Jesus is God himself: The Bible says there is one and only one God in all of existence. (Deu 4:35; Isa 43:10-11; 44:6, 8; 45:5-6, 14, 21-22; 46:9; Mal 2:10; Rom 3:30; 1 Cor 8:6; Eph 4:6; Jam 2:19) It also says that there is only one true God. (John 17:3; 1 John 5:20) This means all other gods are false. The Bible certainly doesn't present Jesus as a fase god. Jesus approved when Thomas called him "my God" (John 20:28-29), and expressiong used only of the true God in the rest of the Bible. Isaiah 9:6 also identifies him as "the Mighty God," another title of Yahweh (Isaiah 10:21; Jeremiah 32:18). The term "mighty God" is in itself indicative of Jehovah since not only is He the only God (Isaiah 43:10"11), and there cannot be two mighty Gods for there is only one true and mighty God (Isaiah 45:22). The Granville Sharp rule of Greek grammar states that when there are 2 nouns that are both singular which describe a person, and these nouns are connected by the word "and," the first noun having the article, the second noun not having the article then they refer to the SAME PERSON. (*the nouns cannot be personal names*) There is absolutely no exception to this rule in all of the Greek New Testament. Here are two verses which unequivocally qualify Jesus as both God and Savior. Titus 2:13 - while we wait for the blessed hope"the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, (NIV) 2Peter 1:1 - Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: (NIV) Notice in both verses the noun "God" (theou) has the article (tou) and is connected to the second noun "Savior" (soteros) which does not have an article, by the word "and" (kai). Thus "God and Savior" both refer to the Person of Jesus. Grammatically this is irrefutable. So not only is Jesus Savior, He is God! Jesus is further identified as God at Hebrews 1:8, Acts 20:28, John 1:18 where the oldest Greek manuscripts call him monogenes Theos - onlybegotten God; and John 1:1-3, 14 where the Word was God and became flesh as the man Jesus. In fact, Jesus is called "the True God" in 1 John 5:20. (2) The Bible says Jesus does acts only God can do, or did things only God did: "For thou (God), even thou ONLY, knowest the hearts of all the children of men." (1 Kings 8:39 KJV; also Jeremiah 17:9-10) Here it says God is the only one who can know or read the heart, which is the very thing Jesus does in Mark 2:6-8; John 2:24-25 and Revelation 2:18, 23. 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 Son as creator. (Col 1:16-17; Heb 1:2, 8-10; John 1:1-3, 10) This is why God said "let US make man in OUR image," for God was a plural being, the Father and Son being included in this one God. If Jesus isn't God, it means that God had help and did not create all things alone, by himself, as he said in Isaiah 44:24. The fact that Jesus created all things shows he is not a created being, and hence is God. At Isaiah 43:11 Yahweh declares, "I myself am Yahweh and besides me there is no Saviour." (WEB) Scripture tells us palinly that Jesus is the Saviour, therefore Jesus is God. (Matt 1:21; Lu 2:11; Acts 4:12; 2 Tim 1:10; Tit 1:4; 2 Pet 1:11, etc) Acts 4:12 says of Jesus, that "there is no salvation in anyone else." Now, if Jesus is not God, then there can be no salvation in God, for there is no salvation in anyone else but Jesus. Othewise, the Bible is saying that Jesus is God. (3) The Bible says Jesus possesses the attributes of God: God is eternal (Ps 90:2), so is the Son (Isa 9:6; Mic 5:2) God is omniscient (1 John 3:20), so is the Son (John 16:30; 21:17) God omnipresent (1 Kings 8:27; Ps 137:8-18), so is the Son (Matt 18:20) God's nature does not change, he is immutable (Malachi 3:6), so is Jesus. (Hebrews 13:8) The Bible says that Jesus existed in "the form of God," a clear reference to his having God's nature. (Philippians 2:6) (4) The Bible says Jesus is equal to God and that he is the Yahweh of the Old Testament: John says Jesus is equal with God. (John 5:18) Exodus 34:14 says: "For thou shalt worship no other god." All true believers refuse worship (Acts 10:25-26; 14:13-14; Revelation 19:10; 22:9), but not Jesus. (Matt 14:33; 28:9, 17; Luke 24:52) He accepts worship which only beongs to God. Hebrews 1:6 says of Jesus "And let all the angels of God WORSHIP him." Paul is here quoting under inspiration from the Septuagint translation of Deuteronomy 32:43 which says of Yahweh "Be glad, O heavens, together with him, and let all the angels of God WORSHIP him." (Septuagint, with an English translation by Sir I Brenton, S. Bagster & Sons, 1851) Deuteronomy 32:43 was talking about Yahweh (Dec 32:36-39), so the Yahweh of Deuteronomy 32:43 is Jesus. Yet, worship only belongs to God. (Matthew 4:10) At John 17:5 Jesus says he shared glory with the Father before the world was, yet, God doesn't share his glory with others, hence, Jesus is not another beside God, he is God. (Isaiah 42:8; 48:11) Romans 10:9-13 says of Jesus that all who call on his name will be saved, yet, this is quoting from Joel 2:32 where the "name" one had to call on was that of Yahweh. Hence, the name of Yahweh Christians were calling on in the 1st centuy C.E. was the name of Jesus. (1 Corinthians 1:1-2) Hebrews 1:8-12 specifically says it was talking about "the Son" when is says he created the heaven and earth, yet, this was quoting Psalm 102:24-27 where the Psalmist was talking about Yahweh. So again, Jesus is the Yahweh of the Old Testament, the God of Israel. Yahweh is the First and the Last (Isaiah 41:4; 44:6; 48:2), but so is Jesus. (Revelation 1:17-18; 2:8; 22:12-13) Can there be more than one "first" and "last"? In fact, Jesus says that the Father gave him all authority in heaven and earth, that surely makes him God. (Matthew 28:18) It is clear from the foregoing texts that the Bible writers and even disciples in the accounts, i.e. Thomas (John 20:28), believed Jesus was God. If they didn't, then these monotheistic Jews would not have worshiped him. (Matthew 28:9, 17)