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Does the Bible teach that Jesus is God? The gospels make it clear that Yahweh caused Mary to conceive, and that Jesus was the literal son of God, who is perfect. (Matthew 5:48). Whatever is born of a perfect thing (God), must likewise be perfect, and therefore equal to the perfect God, and thus God himself. Essentially, God’s impregnating Mary is an act of cloning a God incarnate. That’s one way of arguing that Jesus is God, but by itself it is not going to convince a skeptic. Other evidence that the Bible writers wanted us to know that Jesus was God is found in John 20:28, where Thomas addresses Jesus: kurious mou kai theos mou, meaning, “my lord and my God.” The writer of John doesn’t have Jesus admonish Thomas against calling Jesus “my God,” so he seems to be inviting his audience to accept Jesus as the almighty God.
Some have argued that John was just having Thomas express his opinion—a false one—that Jesus was God, but if that were the case, it would have been easy enough for John to explain that Thomas was under the wrong impression, or was just stating his opinion. The fact that John did neither is strong evidence that he wanted his audience to believe that Jesus was Yahweh. Other evidence that John meant for us to understand that Jesus was Yahweh is found in the other seven occurrences of “mou theos” (my God) in the New Testament. In all of these, the reference is clearly to the almighty God.
References to “mou theos”:
If the writer of John 20:28 believed that Jesus was the God Almighty, it might have been because he thought that Jesus was the messiah spoken of in the following verse: "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will raise up [in David's line]…a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety…he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness (Jehovah tsidqenuw) (Jeremiah 23:5-6)
One argument against Jesus being God is based on Mark 10:17-18 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked Jesus seems to be denying he is good, and therefore not God, they say, but this does not necessarily show that Jesus was denying he was God. Mark could have been having Jesus deflect questions about his divinity to enable him to travel the countryside and work his miracles before his identity became known. Recall that Jesus admonished the demoniac for declaring him to be "Lord," ("Be quiet!" Mark 1:25) and Jesus warned the leper not to tell anyone of the miracle of his cure ("See that you don't tell this to anyone." Mark 1:44) Both of these admonishments were consistent with the behavior of a man who wished to conceal his true identity. Yet another passage clearly indicates that Jesus could not possibly have been God, else why would he have been praying to himself in the passage below—addressing himself as "Father," and asking himself to remove his burden (take his "cup'')? They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch." Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." (mark 14:32-36)
Thus, John 20:28 ("my lord, my God") clearly has the Bible teaching that Jesus is Yahweh, the God Almighty, but Mark 14:32-36 clearly has God as Jesus praying to himself, if God is really Jesus. It's evident that the Mark author didn't know that Jesus was God, but this contradicts what the John author evidently believed. This means the Bible is in error. |
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