Is Jesus God, Or Not?
A basic premise of Islam, modern communism, and today's secular humanism is that Jesus was a myth, or merely a good man, a great moral teacher, or perhaps even a prophet, but not God Incarnate. Islam teaches that He was a prophet, even born of a virgin, but a fundamental confession of Islam is "Allah is one, and he has no son," thus denying the Trinity and the deity of Jesus Christ.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Where did this idea or ideology come from? It came from the pit of hell: the Apostle John's first letter states – "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit who does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already" (1 John 4:1-3).
Thus we should understand that the Antichrist ideology is not necessarily against morality, against religion, or even against Jesus so much as it is against the fact that He is "God Incarnate, born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man" as we confess in the Nicene Creed. Thus, it is a central doctrine of genuine Christianity. As the Apostle John wrote – "many false prophets have gone out into the world." Many pseudo-Christians, starting with the heretic Arius and continuing with Islam (a direct descendant of Arianism), Theism, Deism, and cults such as Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses all deny the unique deity of Christ. Leaving behind the religious factor, we are faced with the secular state – separation of church and state – and thus allowing Christ-denying secular ideologies to take control of the educational systems all around the world. This programs the next generation to not believe in Christ's deity.
The result is that if you search the Internet for the phrase "Is Jesus God, Or Not?" – you will find an overwhelming majority of sources claiming that Jesus was a myth or a mere man, even some claiming He was married to Mary Magdaline and fathered two children, or "theologians" such as Bart Ehrman who wrote How Man Became God. What does being the majority opinion prove? We have come to believe that the majority is more correct, truer, or better than the minority. But actually, it only proves that the majority is bigger than the minority, that's all.
Another aspect of secularism is the notion that all religions teach basically the same thing: a morality that is rewarded by some kind of deity, sometimes with an eternity in heaven, at other times with health and happiness on earth. This is relativism, that all religions are equally true. After all, we have freedom of religion, don't we? Not quite: the Apostle Paul wrote – "And indeed, there must be differences among you to show which of you are approved" (1 Corinthians 11:19). In other words, allowing for differences in doctrines should be so that the teachers of true doctrines will be approved. The goal of religious freedom is not relativism, but the search for truth.
All humans are created in the image and likeness of God and in that sense we are "of God" and God is the Father. But Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of the Father. Scripture texts that state we are children of God are clarified by other Bible texts that state we are adopted children of God, sons and daughters of Abraham by adoption. Only Jesus Christ was begotten of the Father before all time.
"Freedom of belief" has today morphed into "freedom of choice" – a woman is free to choose whether to have an abortion or not, a man can freely choose to marry another man, or "become a woman" through hormone therapy or surgery (even though every cell in his body still has an "X" and a "Y" chromosome, making him a male), or a woman "become a man." But stangely, the notion of being free to choose doesn't apply to homosexuals who claim they were "born that way" having no choice in the matter, they are predestined to be that way.
Where does this idea of predestination come from? In the early Church there was much debate over predestination versus freedom of the will. St. Augustine accepted St. Jerome's translation of the New Testament from Greek into Latin as "the Gospel truth." But there was one little problem, one little pronoun that was mistranslated: Romans 5:12 in the Latin Vulgate reads: "Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, [for] in him all sinned." The word "for" is a supplied word, not in the original Greek text, but it was supplied in order to make sense, in Jereome's thinking, to link Adam's sin to all mankind's sinful nature, in other words, "Because sin entered the world through Adam, therefore all are condemned to be sinners and deserving God's wrathful judgment." From this viewpoint, Augustine developed his doctrine of man's inherited guilt and total depravity, predestination by God's sovereign will, and Christ's limited atonement of only "the elect."
That "one little pronoun" was "that" – mistranslated as "him" – just two letters in Greek that indicates it is the neuter pronoun "that" and not the male pronoun "him" – but Jerome didn't know the difference and Augustine knew even less Greek than Jerome. Romans 5:12 should read – "Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, in that all sinned." So this verse connects the penalty of Adam's sin, death, not sin itself, as what was passed on to all men "in that" or because we all have sinned. This shifts the responsibility from Adam (or from God Who created Adam) or the devil ("the devil made me do it") to each and every one of us. We have moral freedom and with this freedom comes moral responsibility. We are not predestined to sin, God is not some judgmental ogre in heaven that willy-nilly chooses "the elect," a few to go to heaven and the rest – the vast majority of humanity – to be damned to eternal hell fire.
No, God is love, He is all-loving and all-merciful. "God so loved the whole world that He sent His only-begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him might be saved and have everlasting life" (John 3:16). He "wants all mankind to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4). "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people" (Titus 2:11). We all have freedom of the will, we must choose to receive Him. With freedom comes the responsibility to make right choices. "Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River... But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15).
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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