EXAMINING THE DEITY OF CHRIST

More specifically, responding to the disinformation presented by one Ali A.

Introduction:
A common cry amongst nonbelievers is the statement, "Jesus never claimed to be God..."

Is this so?

Ali uses this as one of his arguments against the Deity of God. He uses several other well-worn Mohammedian arguments to bolster his case, which we shall examine here.

First Things First
Perhaps the first thing to point out is that some background is necessary. Mohammedian apologists -- along with Russelite, Mormon, and liberal "Christian" apologists -- fall into the classic trap of oversimplification. It's like insisting that if something's wet it has to be due to the presence of water (alchohols and other substances can also saturate materials and cause them to be "wet" without the presence of water of any kind). The argument goes something like this: "If Jesus is a Man, then He cannot also be God." This is known as the fallacy of the excluded middle. The Word of God declares that Jesus is the Eternal God (John 1:1-3; John 1:18 NIV; Colossians 2:9; Philippians 2:5-7; etc.) Who took upon Himself full and perfect Humanity in the Incarnation (John 1:14). This was necessary to fulfill the requirements of the Go'el, the Kinsman Redeemer. He had to be:

A blood relative (and therefore Human)
Possessing the necessary resources (i.e., able to redeem, and therefore God)
Willing to buy ("...for God is not willing that any should perish..." II Peter 3:9; "For God so loved the world..." John 3:16-17)

Thus Jesus is said to be God and Man, without confusion of Natures yet with absolute integrity of Person. Being the Pre-existent One (John 8:58), the Immutable God, He became a Man in order to righteously show mercy on rebellious man. The Word of God declares that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22). But [as previously stated] God is not willing that any should perish (II Peter 3:9). Being absolutely just and holy, He cannot absolve our sin-debt by simple fiat; so He became flesh to pay the penalty of sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3). He became Man to die for men that if we accept Him as our Go'el we are eternally and irrevocably absolved from our sins (Romans 8:1, 38-39) and can then be granted eternal life (John 3:16-17).

The reality of Jesus' Two Natures is a matter of much contemplation amongst believers, and is truly a deep mystery. And although it goes beyond the scope of this short rebuttal to delve into the mysteries of the Hypostatic Union, you may click here if you like to read an excellent summary of the issues. For the purposes of this response, suffice it to say that the Word of God declares that Jesus is Eternal God and Perfect Man at the same time without confusion of Natures or substance yet with absolute integrity of Person.

Ali's First Claim: God is All-Knowing, but Jesus was not
Keeping in mind the Scriptural concept of the Hypostatic Union, we discover that it is important to identify from which Nature Jesus is speaking from when examining any given statement. This is usually fairly simple to do. In John 8:58, one of the many places Jesus claims Deity, He says, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM." The absolute emphatic declaration Ego Eimi is a quote from Exodus 3:14, where YHWH reveals His Covenant Name to Moses. Jesus is here equating Himself with YHWH and declaring pre-existence and eternality (YHWH is a conjugation of the Hebrew verb 'hayah, "to be" {infinitive}, and can be dynamically rendered "The Eternal One," or "The Uncontingent One"). Jesus in His Humanity definitely did not pre-exist Moses; yet in His Deity He was the Creator, Sustainer, Deliverer, and God of Israel.

In the cited verses by Ali to "prove" the non-Deity of God [Mark 13:32, Matthew 24:36], Jesus is speaking from His Humanity. It becomes readily apparent, however, that Jesus is in fact omniscient as touching His Deity. Even during His pre-crucifixion Incarnation He occasionally displayed this Attribute of Deity (John 1:48, 2:25; Matthew 12:25, etc.).

And, as concerning His imminent Return, it is glaringly apparent that when speaking from His Deity, He knows the precise Day (Matthew 24, etc.); indeed, the believer's most cherished prayer is that to his God -- Jesus -- asking Him to "Come, Lord!" ("Maranatha"). That we direct this cry to Him indicates He is the Determiner of the Time (Indeed, this is the unified cry of Scripture throughout the Word of God).

Ali's Second Claim: God is All-Powerful, but Jesus is not
Ali points out that Jesus states very plainly that He does the will of the Father. He then jumps to the unwarranted conclusion that this negates His Deity. That is very much like my saying that my wife submits to me and does my will (when I'm not being silly), and therefore she is less than me. By arbitrarily rejecting the Scriptural doctrine of the Triunity, Ali -- and all other Islamist apologists -- then demand that there is only one remaining option: That Jesus is not God.

Again, it goes well beyond the scope of this short rebuttal to explain the doctrine of the Triunity. However, there are several resources available for anyone interested [we recommend the following: "Oneness Pentecostals & the Trinity" by Gregory A. Boyd; "The Rock of the Ages, or Three Persons but One God" by Edward Henry Bickersteth; "When Skeptics Ask" by Dr. Norman Geisler -- he does a phenomenal job of pointing out the logic of the Triunity and demolishing the more common straw men erected against it; and "Answers to Tough Questions" by Josh McDowell -- he points out, among other things, that the entire universe displays Triunity, down to subatomic particles; pwl, and all that]. Suffice it to say that the Word of God declares that there is only One God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 43:10, etc.), yet Three Persons are Each referred to as this One True God. Within the economy of the Godhead, the Persons are absolutely equal in Ontology, Nature, Being, and Substance, yet willingly function in such a way as to further the purpose of God. The Son willingly submits Himself to the will of the Father; likewise, the Spirit willingly submits Himself to the will of both the Father and the Son, and does not testify of Himself but of the Son, etc.

The typical unbelievers' response is that "1+1+1><1" That is, the Word of God is irrational because it declares that one equals three and three equals one. (Variants of the argument are "How can you say that God is one person and three persons at the same time?" or "one god and three gods" or "one being and three beings?") That is not the Word's declaration. It is, in fact, a gross misrepresentation of God's revelation. Rather, The Word of God declares that there is only One God Who exists in Three Persons, with absolute Unity of Nature, Being, and Ontology, yet without confusion of Person. The equation would instead be, "1x1x1=1".

Now, seeing as how Jesus shares the same Being as the Father, it in no way implies inferiority that He willfully submits to the Father's will, any more than it is proper to state that my wife -- who shares the same kind of being as I do -- is inferior because she willfully submits to my leadership.

The essence of the argument remains, however, the query of "What is Truth?" The Word of God declares unapologetically that Jesus is God, that God exists in Triunity, and that the Son willfully submits to the Father.

That all authority is resident in Jesus (since He is God) is evident in the following verses:

Matthew 28:18
Philippians 3:20
Colossians 1:17
I Timothy 6:16
Hebrews 1:3
Hebrews 7:25 [as a side note, this is one of the many verses which obliterates Arminianism...]
Revelation 1:8
Revelation 3:7
Revelation 5:12
etc.

In fact, the very term used to describe Jesus' position, kurios, is reserved for one in authority. Also note the New Testament use of the term despotes.

Ali's Third Claim: God does not have a God, but Jesus had a God
Again, Ali betrays a singular lack of willingness to face the Scriptural witness that Jesus is both God and Man in Hypostatic Union. As Man He is able to call His Father His God. As God He is able to say, "I and My Father are One" [John 10:30]. He is also able to say, "And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was." [John 17:5], even though God says He will not give His glory to another [Isaiah 42:8]. The weight of the evidence demands that Jesus, quite simply, is God.

Ali's Fouth Claim: According to the Bible God is an invisible Spirit, but Jesus was flesh and blood
First, to be Scripturally accurate, that "was" should be changed to "is." Jesus is flesh-and-blood, as He has been raised bodily.

God is, indeed, invisible in His unveiled Being (Colossians 1:15; I Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 11:27). However, this does not prevent God from revealing Himself in ways visibly comprehendable by His creatures. In the Old Testament He usually appeared in Theophany, or "a visible manifestation of the invisible glory, power, and Being of God." (Exodus 33:17-23; Genesis 16:7-13, for example).

Hebrews 1:1-3 tells us that -- along with salvation -- one of the reasons for the Incarnation was to finally and fully declare God's Nature to His creatures in such a way as can be understood. Indeed, in the previously cited verse (Colossians 1:15), the word "image" is eikon, denoting an exact representation.

Jesus Christ is the final Theophany. Jesus Christ is Very God.

Ali's Fifth Claim: No One is Greater than God and No One can Direct Him
See rebuttal to Ali's Second Claim. In the economy of the Godhead, the Son willfully submits to the will of the Father; yet the Son is Eternal God, the Only God there is.

Ali's Conclusion
Ali concludes that the Word of God is our primary (we would state it sole, objective) source of knowledge about God. In that he does well. However, it plummets from there. "But since the Bible makes it clear that Jesus is not the Supreme Being and the Supreme Being is not Jesus, upon what basis have you come to believe otherwise?" As stated previously, the Word of God makes it painfully clear that Jesus is the Supreme Being, and the Supreme Being is Jesus. Upon what basis does any rational creature build atheism -- the rejection of Jesus?

Ali then continues with, "God is one, not three. He is a perfect unity." Yes, as we have noted, He is a perfect unity. And He is One God, not three gods; One Being, not three beings; One LORD, not three lords. But the Word of God also declares Three distinct Persons as this One God while emphasizing the differentiation in the hypostases. As Josh McDowell points out, this is very much like what particle physicists talk about when dealing with subatomic particles. An electron -- for instance -- is at the same time a particle, a waveform, and a quanta, though the three "hypostases" are vastly different. A particle has mass, and a waveform does not, etc. Yet it is improper to say that there are three electrons, or that a particle is 1/3 of an electron, a waveform is another 1/3, etc. Each "hypostasis" of the electron is in and of itself the fulness of the electron, without there being three electrons and without confusion of "hypostases". According to Romans 1:20, the natural order itself is fully complimentary to the Word of God in revealing God's invisible attributes, "even His eternal power and Godhead." It should not surprise us to discover, then, that God has given us a model of His Nature in building triunity into His creation; for as the electron, so too to some degree the Holy Trinity. The Word declares that there is but One God; the Father is called God, the Son is called God, and the Spirit is called God. Yet the Father is not the Son Who in turn is not the Spirit. One Eternal God in absolute Unity of Ontology, Nature, and Being, yet Three Persons without any confusion of hypostases whatsoever.

This is the clear, uniform declaration of the Word of God.

Ali then closes by quoting some of the Suras. However, in comparing the Suras with the Bible, we find that there is a distinct disparity between the Qu'ran and the Word of God. The Word of God declares Jesus to be the Eternal Son (John 1:1, 18); the Word of God declares Jesus to be God (in fact, the very term "Son of God" is a Divine Title, since it deals not with generation but position and authority; God cannot be "generated" because there can never be a time when God is not); and the Word of God declares that Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross, died to take away the penalty of sins for those who would believe, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

All praise be to God, our God, the LORD Jesus Christ.