07/04/2021 – Saturday Apologetics Series – a few weeks covering the Divinity of Christ.
Apologies for being a day late on the Saturday Apologetics Series. The “Divinity of Christ” is in chapter 8 in the book I have largely been quoting from in this series: “Pocket Handbook of Christian Apologetics” by Peter Kreeft and Ronald K Tacelli. I may branch out for a brief period but I will parenthetically note: “Jimmy note:” to highlight that fact, if that becomes the case.
- After a review, we will cover the following sections: “Importance of the Issue” and, “Some Clues to the Possibility of the Issue”. Then next week we will proceed on to : “Arguments for Christ’s Divinity” (a logical perspective) , before concluding with “Motives for Unbelief”.
Ok, let’s jump in!:
“The problem of Jesus’ identity emerges from the data. The data are the four gospels , which informs us abouv the claims he made about himself and the claims others made about him. In all four gospels the claim is shockingly strong.
Jesus called himself the “Son of God” — that is the same nature as God. A sons is the same nature, the same species, the same essence, as his father. Jesus called God his Father: ‘The father and I are one.’ (John 10:30) and Whoever has seen me has seen the Father’ (John 14:9).” (Jimmy note: As Christians , we believe that Jesus was co-equal and co-eternal with the father as well. Arianist heresy believers such as Mormons and Jehovah’s Witness, do not hold this belief. I hope to cover the biblical support for our position here as well down the road.)
“He also claimed to be sinless: ‘Which of you convicts me of sin?’ (Jn 8:46) He claimed to forgive sins — all sins, against everyone. The Jews protested: ‘Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ (Luke 5:21). The only one who has the right to forgive all sins is the only one who is offended in all sins, namely, God. I have a right to forgive you for your sins against me, but not for your sins against others.
Jesus claimed to save us from sin and death. He said, ‘ I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live’ (John 11:25). He said he had come from heaven , not just earth, and that he would return again from heaven at the end of the world to judge everyone (Matthew 25:31-46). Meanwhile, he gave us his flesh and said that this would give us eternal life (John 6:51).
Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter (John 1:42). For a Jew changing names was something only God could do, for your name was not just a human, arbitrary level, but your real identity, which was given to you by God alone. In the Old Testament, only God changed names – and destinies; Abram became Abraham, Sarai became Sarah, Jacob became Israel. An orthodox Jew who got his name legally changed was excommunicated.
Jesus kept pointing people to himself, saying, ‘Come to me’ (Matthew 11:28). Buddha said, ‘Look not to me, look to my dharma (doctrine).’ Buddha also said, ‘Be ye lamps unto yourselves.’ Jesus said, ‘I am the light of the world (John 8:12). Lao Tzu taught the way (tao), Jesus said:, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ (John 14:6)
Buddha, Confucious, Muhammad and other religions founders fulfilled no prophecies, performed no miracles and did not rise from the dead, Jesus did.
Most clearly and shockingly of all, he invited crucifixion (or stoning) by saying: ‘Very truly, I tell you [i.e. – I am not exaggerating or speaking symbolically here; take this in all its force], before Abraham was, I AM’ (John 8:58). He spoke and claimed the sacred name that God revealed to Moses, the name God used to name himself (Exodus 13:14). If he was not God, no one in history ever said anything more blasphemous than this; by Jewish law, no one ever deserved to be crucified more than Jesus.”
The importance of the issue:
“The issue is crucially important for at least two reasons.
- The divinity of Christ is the most distinctively Christian doctrine of all. A Christian is most essentially defined as one who believes this. (Jimmy note: And as Paul wrote: We Christians are either right or the most pathetic creatures that ever walked the planet. It is one or the other, we cannot say: “All religions are basically the same.”)
- The doctrine works like a skeleton key, unlocking all the other doctrinal doors of Christianity. Christians believe each of their many doctines not because they have reasoned their own way to them as conclusions of a theological inquiry or as a resuls of some mystical experiences, but on the divine authority of the One who taught them, as recorded in the Bible and transmitted by the church.
If Christ was only human, he could have made mistakes. Thus anyone, who wants to dissent from any of Christ’s unpopular teachings will want to deny his divinity. And there are bound to be things in his teachings that each of us finds offensive if we look at the totality of those teachings rather than confining ourselves to comfortable and familiar ones.” (Jimmy note: “As I have noted before, both God’s power and His love are humanly unfathomable. If we can fully comprehend God, our god is too small!”)
Some Clues to the Possibility of the Doctrine
(I think for now, I will only cover two of the six clues noted here before we move onto “Arguments for Christ Divinity” next week.)
-“.. how do you, the critic, who says the Incarnation is impossible, know so much that you can tell God what he can or cannot do? The skeptic should be more skeptical of himself and less skeptical of God.”
‘”… the fact that it is possible for one person to have two opposite natures can be seen (as we saw above) in the most familiar of all things: yourself. You are one person, yet you both are and are not spatially measurable. The gap between our physical and spiritual natures, between a few million electrons zapping across the synapses of Einstein’s brain and his discovery that E=mc squared , is hardly less startling than the gap between the two natures of Christ. (Note – This is not meant to imply that Christ’s divinity and humanity are to be identified with his sould and body, or that they are related in just the same way as our sould and our body. ” (Jimmy note: Just as “global warming” cannot be explained and proved by leftist elitists that do not have any more science education than I have. Climate metrics remain just too complicated for man to be making definitive claims the earth is going to cease to exist in a decade , let alone a century if drastic changes are not made immediately. Again, go the PragerU and listen to some scientists who have dedicated the life to studying climate, summarized in short informative five minute clips illustrating just how ridiculous these claims are from a logical perspective, not a “feelings” perspective. It doesn’t take long to expose the folly if our brains are put into play.
Soli Deo Gloria!