| “[People] are saved by faith in the
work of Jesus on the cross. But faith in itself is not enough. Faith
is not a substance you can put in a jar. It is belief in something.
Faith is only as good as who it is placed in. If you put your faith
in a false God, you are lost because a false god cannot save anyone.
This is why God says in Exodus 20:3, ‘You shall
have no other gods before Me.’ Faith is not what
saves, but faith in the true God is what saves” (http://www.carm.org/heresy/heresy_intro.htm).
The Bible warns you to beware of people teaching a false gospel
and a false Christ:
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the
one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to
a different gospel-which is really no gospel at all. Evidently
some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to
pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from
heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached
to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said,
so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel
other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!”
(Galatians 1:6-9).
“But
I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s
cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere
and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and
preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you
receive a different spirit from the one you accepted, you put
up with it easily enough…For such men are false apostles,
deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no
wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants
of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve”
(2Corinthians 11:3-4, 2Corinthians 11:13-15).
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Because salvation can only be obtained through Jesus Christ, it
is important to know and understand who Christ is. As stated above,
salvation cannot be obtained through any other god or another Jesus
other than the one the Bible speaks of. The following information
was taken from the Christian Apologetic & Research Ministry,
(www.carm.org/doctrine/2natures.htm),
and is helpful in understanding who Jesus is:
THE HYPOSTATATIC UNION:
Jesus Christ is 100% God AND 100%Man
Jesus is God in human flesh. He is not half God and half man. He
is fully divine and fully man. That is, Jesus has two distinct natures:
divine and human. Jesus is the Word who was God and was with God
and was made flesh, (John
1:1,14). This means that in the single person of Jesus is both
a human and divine nature. The divine nature was not changed. It
was not altered. He is not merely a man who "had God within
Him" nor is he a man who "manifested the God principle."
He is God, second person of the Trinity. "The Son is the
radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being,
sustaining all things by his powerful word," (Heb. 1:3,
NIV). Jesus' two natures are not "mixed together," nor
are they combined into a new God-man nature. They are separate yet
act as a unit in the one person of Jesus. This is called the Hypostatic
Union.
The following chart should help you see the two natures of Jesus
"in action":
| God |
Man |
He is worshiped
(Matt. 2:2,11; 14:33). |
He
worshiped the Father
(John 17). |
He was called God
(John 20:28; Heb. 1:8) |
He
was called man
(Mark 15:39; John 19:5). |
He was called Son of God
(Mark 1:1) |
He
was called Son of Man (John 9:35-37) |
He is prayed to
(Acts 7:59). |
He
prayed to the Father
(John 17). |
He is sinless
(1 Pet. 2:22; Heb. 4:15). |
He
was tempted
(Matt. 4:1). |
He knows all things
(John 21:17). |
He
grew in wisdom
(Luke 2:52). |
He gives eternal life
(John 10:28). |
He
died
(Rom. 5:8). |
All the fullness of deity dwells in Him
(Col. 2:9). |
He
has a body of flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). |
The Communicatio Idiomatum
A doctrine that is related to the Hypostatic Union is the communicatio
idiomatum (Latin for "communication of properties"). It
is the teaching that the attributes of both the divine and human
natures are ascribed to the one person of Jesus. This means that
the man Jesus could lay claim to the glory He had with the Father
before the world was made (John 17:5), claim that He descended from
heaven, (John 3:13), and also claim omnipresence, (Matt. 28:20).
All of these are divine qualities that are laid claim to by Jesus;
therefore, the attributes of the divine properties were claimed
by the person of Jesus.
Mistakes Cultists Make
One of the most common errors that non-Christian cults make is not
understanding the two natures of Christ. For example, the Jehovah's
Witnesses focus on Jesus' humanity and ignore His divinity. They
repeatedly quote verses dealing with Jesus as a man and try and
set them against scripture showing that Jesus is also divine. On
the other hand, the Christian Scientists do the reverse. They focus
on the scriptures showing Jesus' divinity to the extent of denying
His true humanity. |
For
a proper understanding of Jesus and, therefore, all other doctrines
that relate to Him, His two natures must be properly understood
and defined. Jesus is one person with two natures. This is why He
would grow in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52) yet know all things
(John 21:17). He is the Divine Word that became flesh (John 1:1,14).
The Bible is about Jesus (John 5:39). The prophets prophesied about
Him (Acts 10:43). The Father bore witness of Him (John 5:37; 8:18).
The Holy Spirit bore witness of Him (John 15:26). The works Jesus
did bore witness of Him (John 5:36; 10:25). The multitudes bore
witness of Him (John 12:17). And, Jesus bore witness of Himself
(John 14:6; 18:6).
Other verses to consider when examining His deity are John 10:30-33;
20:28; Col. 2:9; Phil. 2:5-8; Heb. 1:6-8; and 2 Pet. 1:1.
1 Tim. 2:5 says, "For there is one God, and one mediator
also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." Right
now, there is a man in heaven on the throne of God. He is our advocate
with the Father (1 John 2:1). He is our Savior (Titus 2:13). He
is our Lord (Rom. 10:9-10). He is Jesus.
The Son of Man & The Son of God
The following message was taken from the Christian Research Institute
(www.equip.org/free/CP1204.pdf)
and will be helpful in understanding these two terms in their proper
context:
Looking at the Bible, we find that Jesus referred to Himself as
the Son of Man no less than 82 times. This title comes from Daniel
7 which speaks of the coming Messiah who will rule over the nations
of the earth for all time. In that passage, we read that the Son
of Man “was given authority, glory and even sovereign power”
– things which God alone can hold and exercise – the
One who said, “I will not give my glory to another”
(Isaiah 42:8,48:11).
Furthermore, we find that “all peoples, and all nations and
men of every language will worship” the Son of Man, which
would only make sense if the Son of Man is none other than God Himself.
God sternly forbids the worship of anyone or anything other than
Himself. We can thereby conclude that Jesus, in calling Himself
the Son of Man, was indeed claiming to be God.
Jesus reinforces this conclusion each time He claims to be utterly
unique, the Son of God, the only One Who knows God the Father. Consider
this: if God’s depth of knowledge and understanding is infinite,
who but God alone can fully grasp it? Yet Jesus says He knows.
The Jews tried stoning Him because in “calling God His own
Father, Jesus was making Himself equal with God” (John 5:18).
To this charge, Jesus merely replied that “All are to honor
the Son just as they honor the Father.” In other words, Jesus
claimed the honor due Him is equivalent to the honor due God. Such
a statement is sheer blasphemy unless Jesus was, in fact, God.
In addition to the above, the following is a chart I created showing
more specifically where Jesus claimed to be God. Keep in mind that
in Exodus 3:13-15, God told Moses that His name was I AM and
THE LORD, “This is my name forever, the name by which
I am to be remembered from generation to generation”, and
Yahweh is the Hebrew word for LORD. Nothing else was to
be worshiped or served (Exodus 20:5), and His name and glory were
not to be given to another (Isaiah 42:8).
| The
LORD / Yahweh:
Old Testament |
JESUS:
New Testament |
The LORD is my shepherd
(Psalm 23:1) |
I
am the good shepherd
(John 10:11) |
I will judge nations
(Joel 3:12) |
Has
authority to judge
(John 5:27) |
I won’t give my glory to another
(Isaiah 42:8) |
Glorify
me with the glory I had with you (John 17:5) |
The Bridegroom
(Isaiah 62:5, Hosea 2:16) |
The
Bridegroom
(Matthew 25:1) |
The LORD is my light
(Psalm 27:1) |
I’m
the light of the world (John 8:12) |
The strongest claim that Jesus made to be God is when he was talking
to the Jews in John 8:56-58:
| “Your
father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he
saw it and was glad. ‘You are not yet fifty years
old,’ the Jews said to him, ‘and you have seen
Abraham!’ ‘I tell you the
truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘before
Abraham was born, I am!”. |
Remember, in Exodus 3:13-14, God told Moses to tell the Israelites
that I AM has sent me to you and that this is my name forever, the
name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.
This is not a mere coincidence but an obvious direct claim to be
God. So, of course Jesus existed before Abraham, since he is God.
In closing, I pray that you take the time to study the above scriptures
and evidence I’ve laid before you. The concept of Jesus Christ
being God is not something that is easy to grasp for many, but it
is central to our belief as Christians, therefore we must study
to show ourselves approved.
DJ Lady Grace<>< - Yuinon Local 617
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