Christianity - Son of God, Jesus

It if first critical to note that the Ten Commandments (of the Old Testament) are absolutely and entirely supported by Christian Theology. Nothing that Jesus Taught ever challenged any one of them! Of those Ten Commandments, virtually everyone agrees that the First is the most important. It states (paraphrased): "There is One, True God, and I am Him." One God. One God! One God? Many Christians seem to forget this important First Commandment!

It seems appropriate to now present a rough "history" as most Christian scholars understand it today.

• (1) God / YHWH / Jehovah Existed. If we chose, we could actually refer to Him as any of those Names or, equally, as Jesus or as the Holy Spirit. There was one God, with dozens of other possible Names, although these last two would have had no meaning to people until much later. See Names of God

• (2) God Created the Universe and everything in it, including us. He interacted with Adam and Eve, and much later with Abraham, and later still with Moses, and a few other humans along the way. No one else had Personally interacted with God, as far as anyone knows, and no one since about that time, 3300 years ago.

• (3) The Bible tells us that the Spirit of God affected human events and communicated with some humans from time to time. Was that a SECOND God? No! It was the Spirit, which is simply a different Form in which God can choose to be.

• (4) After many different attempts at guiding the Jews in this way, all of which wound up with human weaknesses not being up to the necessary tasks, God apparently decided that He needed to PERSONALLY interact with humans on a more extended basis than just simple conversations and Miracles.

• (5) God had the choice of entering human society in a spectacular manner or in a quiet manner. He clearly realized that if He first appeared in a public Miracle, there would be people who would forever follow Him around hoping for Miracles regarding their personal problems. Further, people would behave in unnatural ways, in the Presence of God Himself. Imagine how YOU would act in the presence of the Queen of England or the President of the United States. Therefore, God chose to enter human society in as "normal" a way as was possible, to be "Born" of a human woman.

• (6) Mary was chosen for this function. Keep in mind the extremely important fact that Jesus had already existed! He Was and Is, God. Jesus did Creation, but by the Name of YHWH or whatever other Name we might wish to apply. Now, God certainly does not normally exist in human form, so Jesus' existence prior to Mary (referred to as the Pre-Existence of Jesus among Christian scholars) was not in human Form. Mary therefore became pregnant, while still a virgin, and she had a Baby, Jesus.

  I realize that few modern Christians will believe any of this, although ALL Biblical Scholars and Theologians do completely! There is a way to aid in this understanding. YOU can recite the Nicene Creed, which describes the basics of Christian beliefs. But the MODERN wording of the Nicene Creed is significantly different than the ORIGINAL WORDING of it! Here is the ACTUAL original wording as recorded during the Nicene Council of 325 AD.:

  The Creed, as set forth at Nicaea, a.d. 325.

  We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things, visible and invisible:

  And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only begotten, that is, of the substance of the Father;

  God of God; Light of light; very God of very God; begotten, not made; being of one substance with the Father,

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  By whom all things were made, both things in heaven and things in earth:

  Who for us men and for our salvation came down, and was incarnate, and was made man:

  He suffered, and rose again the third day:

  And ascended into heaven:

  And shall come again to judge the quick and the dead.

  By the Council in 381 AD, there were FIFTEEN changes made in that text, all of which were additions, which then fairly closely resemble the Nicene Creed as we know it today.

  But when we look at the ORIGINAL wording, in 325 AD, notice that there is NO reference to the Virgin Mary or of the Holy Spirit being involved, but equally important, ALL wordings of the Nicene Creed include the phrase "came down". That not only meant that Jesus came down from Heaven, but that HE ALREADY EXISTED!

• (7) Note that the Baby Jesus was therefore THE God of the Universe! The ONE God of the Universe! NOT actually the "Son of God" at all, but the One and Only actual God of the Universe!

• (a) Who would watch over the Universe during the 33 years that Jesus lived and walked the Earth? Given that God has infinite power and ability, Christian scholars conclude (actually without any evidence or proof) that God simply decided to "be in two places at the same time!" That enabled God to remain in Heaven, watching out over the Universe (in an existence we call the Father), while the very same One and Only God walked the Earth as Jesus. (You can probably imagine the confusion this caused for many early Christians, who simply knew that there was One, True God!)

  THIS concept had to be very confusing to Jesus. Was He to tell people that He Alone was the One God of the Universe (which was true)? But who would believe such an outrageous statement and no good could come of it anyway. Or should He instead refer to Himself as the SON of God, which seems a lot easier to believe, both for Him and for others. In the Bible, NO ONE ELSE ever referred to Jesus as the SON of God, only Jesus (rarely) did. But such references caused immense confusion in the later Church, which struggled to try to figure out whether Jesus was human or Divine? The popular answer to that is in Monophysitism, where Jesus contained BOTH Personalities in a Composite form, where He was TRULY Human and also TRULY Divine. The reality seems to be that both were true but not in any Composite form. He certainly WAS and IS Divine, since He IS the One True God of the Universe. But in the process of arranging the Bilocation, of being in BOTH Heaven and on Earth simultaneously, He arranged to have a 100% HUMAN lifetime, where He suffered pain as any human would.

• (b) The second complication involved just what Jesus was aware of as a child and a young man. If He actually KNEW that He was God, as a small child, and a friend got seriously injured while playing, wouldn't He have simply done a Miracle and cured him immediately? Of course, word of this would quickly get around, and God would have had the same problem He would have had if He entered human society in a flashy Miracle, hundreds of people would constantly follow Him around, every hour, every minute, in the hopes of Miracles. Therefore (and with some strong inferences from Scripture), it seems that the young Jesus did NOT really understand Who He Was. Around 150 years ago, a concept called Kenotic Theology was developed which seems to make some sense. Kenosis means "emptying". The Bible includes a Verse which mentions this process. The reasoning is that God "emptied" the knowledge of Jesus about His previous Existence, in order that He could experience the most normal childhood and young adulthood as possible. That appeared to be the case. There is only one recorded incident Luke in the Bible, when Jesus was twelve years old and visiting the Rabbis in the Temple at Jerusalem, that He showed some realization that He was "unusual".

  That text, in Luke, presents an important statement. Jesus told His parents that He had been involved with the "work of His Father". This comment seems to suggest that Jesus didn't realize that He was God but that He was somehow a Son of God. This concept and theme was often repeated later in life when Jesus began His public Ministry, "Son of God". If Kenotic Theology is valid, such comments were due to an incomplete realization on Jesus' part. He did not yet realize that He WAS God, but close, that He was a Son of God.

We happen to have a relatively similar situation with the BELIEVE web-site. With five million visitors each year, we get immense amounts of e-mail. So far, there have been well over 900 different individuals who have each "announced" to us that he was Jesus, having Returned! We never like to insult anyone, but we DO often respond by telling them that at least 899 of these people MUST be wrong! So we tend to now be especially skeptical each time a new person makes this announcement to us. The point is, if someone came up to YOU and told you that he was God, what would be your reaction? Whatever it might be, it seems likely that it would NOT involve you actually believing such a claim. Now "Son of God", hmmmm, it might be possible to believe such a claim. The point here is that God probably knew from the start that it would be foolish for Jesus to ever say that He IS the One True God, the God that Abraham worshipped. It seems reasonable to me that Jesus saying "Son of God", and therefore referring to "the Father" makes a lot of sense.

Please note that Jews were outraged at the statement "King of the Jews" applied to Jesus. Imagine if the claim was "Creator of the Universe"! In combination with the Kenotic Theology concept, therefore it seems reasonable that the Bible contains regular references to "Son of God" and not "God Himself".

We humans are an odd lot. While on the Cross, Jesus was taunted to do a Miracle and Save Himself. Imagine what sort of requests would have been made of God by the people around. Make my crop bountiful. Give me six sons. Make me powerful. Make me wealthy. Etc, etc. It would seem that the way God brought Jesus (or Himself) into human culture, was beautifully well thought through! Also for His Life and even His Death on the Cross.

Now consider another thing: God could easily have provided ABSOLUTE evidence and absolute proofs of everything related to Jesus. He chose not to. As a result, we do not have a "mathematical equation" that defines how one can become Saved. No, it entirely rests on each person deciding whether to have Faith or not. The whole point of NOT providing any proofs is to REQUIRE each person to either have Faith that certain things are true, or to not have such Faith. Isn't that a beautiful thing? God arranged things so that we necessarily participated, and in a really exquisite way! What a God!

The point of this Essay is to try to clarify that Christianity absolutely believes in One True God, the God of Abraham, the God specified as the Only God in the First Commandment. As soon as Christians start describing Jesus as the "Son of God" then anyone listening counts one-two, two Gods, a direct and sacrilegious contradiction of the First Commandment. Christians don't seem to realize that that is the PRIMARY reason why Muslims immediately dismiss Christianity as worthless, because they understand Christians to worship at least TWO distinct Gods (Father and Jesus). If that were a correct assessment, the Muslims would be absolutely correct in severely criticizing Christians. The Muslims worship the very same One True God Whom Abraham worshipped, and they absolutely know what we call the First Commandment. In fact, every Muslim Prayer begins with the statement that there is One True God (the God of Abraham). There is massive confusion on both sides, but the reality is that both Christians and Muslims believe that the God of Abraham is the One True God.

If Christians would ever clear this issue up (and this Essay is meant as a part of such an effort), then most of the reason why both Muslims and Jews consider Christianity to be "heretical" would disappear, and maybe calm discussion might be possible!

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C Johnson, Pastor
A Christ Walk Church