Jesus is God

Jesus is God

John’s gospel records this incident between Jesus and the Jewish leaders of his day,
“The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?” 
“I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me.  
I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.  
I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” 
At this the Jews exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death.  
Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?” 
Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.  
Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.  
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!”  
At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.”John 8:48-59. 
Here we have a what one pastor I know said was “a rather heated discussion between Jesus and the Jewish leadership.
The Jewish leadership here claims Jesus to be a Samaritan, a group of people whom the Jews believed to be heretics and would have nothing to do with. They also said Jesus was demon possessed. To which Jesus replies,
“I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me.  
I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.  
I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” John 8:49-51.
The Jews however took exception to what Jesus said. They didn’t understand what Jesus was saying. He didn’t say he would stop physical death. But rather that He is offering eternal life to all who would believe in Him.
They asked Jesus if he was greater than Abraham and the prophets who died a physical death. To which Jesus replied,
Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.  
Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.  
Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad. John 8:54-56.
This it seems made the Jewish leadership more upset. Jesus had accused them of not knowing God and saying that He himself was the Son of God. Not only that Jesus went on to make one other important statement, The apostle John recording,
“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!” John 8:57-58.
Jesus uses the phrase “I am”
 This statement goes back to the Septuagint, ( the Greek Old Testament) where it translates Exodus 3:6,14 in which God identifies Himself as “I AM WHO I AM” 
In using this phrase Jesus is saying He is God.
Upon hearing this John records,
“At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.”John 8:59.
Here yet again is a place in the New Testament that shows both sides of the argument for Jesus. It also shows how dangerous it was for Jesus to claim he was the Son of God the Saviour of mankind.
As C. S. Lewis puts it in his book Mere Christianity,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
Thus the choice is yours. Is Jesus demon possessed, a lunatic, or is He God incarnate, the Saviour of Mankind?
The Choice is yours.
Please think about it.

A Lunatic or The Son of God

A Lunatic or The Son of God?
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
C. S. Lewis makes a good point. The Bible quotes Jesus as making some interesting claims.
John’s gospel records,
“The Jews gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 
Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.  
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.  
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.  
I and the Father are one.” 
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” John 10:24-32.
Note Jesus claimed to be one with God the Father something that outraged the Jews around him, to the point where they wanted to stone him.
Jesus speaking to the apostle Thomas said,
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6.
Again this is a strong statement. Jesus implying He was the way to heaven.
Matthew records this conversation between Peter and Jesus,
“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” Matthew 16:13-17.
Note Jesus said it was His Heavenly Father that showed Peter who Jesus was. Again claiming to be the Son of God.
Jesus speaking to Martha said,
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;  and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Yes Lord” she told Him, “I believe you are the Christ the Son of God, who was to come into the world,” John 11:25,26,27. 
For Jesus to make the claim that He is the Christ the Son of God in the day and age he lived in. In the Jewish society in which He lived was potentially dangerous.
Equating one’s self with God was a blasphemous belief punishable by death. Yet Jesus did not back down from saying He was The Son of God.
What I would ask you the reader is, who do you think Jesus is? Take time to read the New Testament for yourself and see what it says about Jesus. Don’t rely on what others say. Read for yourself what Christians believe and then decide for yourself.
Please think about it.

Jesus is,

Jesus, is 
The one thing about Jesus is there are a lot of things said about him here are what some very well educated people, both Non-Christian, and Christian, have said about him.
I put them here that you may decide for yourself who Jesus is.
 Albert Einstein stated, 
“No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.… No man can deny the fact that Jesus existed, nor that his sayings are beautiful.”
                                                             Albert Einstein 
Flavius Josephus born 34AD, was a Jewish historian, who  became a Pharisee at 19. He later commander, of the Jewish forces in Galilee. Captured by Romans and attached to their headquarter. He Wrote,
“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first, did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day.”
                                                                                        Flavius Josephus,
Carnegie Simpson wrote,
“Jesus is not one of the group of world’s great. Talk about Alexander the Great and Charles the Great and Napoleon the Great if you will…Jesus is apart. He is not the Great – He is the only.”
                                                                                                                                    Carnegie Simpson
Napoleon Bonaparte said,
"You speak of Caesar, of Alexander, of their conquests and of the enthusiasm which they enkindled in the hearts of their soldiers; but can you conceive of a dead man making conquests, with an army faithful and entirely devoted to his memory? My armies have forgotten me even while living, as the Carthaginian army forgot Hannibal. Such is our power.”
“I know men and I tell you, Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour, millions would die for him.”
“I search in vain history to find similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel.  Neither history nor humanity, nor ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.”
                                                                              Napoleon Bonaparte,
H. G. Wells, British writer, (1866-1946)  When asked which person left the most permanent impression on history, he replied
“That judging a person’s greatness by historical standards:
By this test, Jesus stands first.”
I am a historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very centre of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.”
“Christ is the most unique person of history. No man can write a history of the human race without giving first and foremost place to the penniless teacher of Nazareth.”
                                                                                                               H. G. Wells
Kenneth Scott Latourette, former President of American Historic Society
In A History of Christianity:
“It is evidence of His importance, of the effect that He has had upon history and presumably, of the baffling mystery of His being that no other life ever lived on this planet has evoked so huge a volume of literature among so many people and languages, and that, far from ebbing, the flood continues to mount.”
“As the centuries pass by, the evidence is accumulating that measured by its effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet. The influence appears to be mounting.”
“No other life lived on this planet has so widely and deeply affected mankind.”
William Durant, popular American modern historian and philosopher (1885-1981) When asked what he felt the apex of history was: 
“the three years that Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth.”
                                                                                              Kenneth Scott Latourette
C. S. Lewis wrote,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” 
                             C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
The Apostle John records the following,
The Jews gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 
Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.  
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.  
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.  
I and the Father are one.” 
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” 
                                                                                                            John 10:24-32.
Later in his Gospel John records
"Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  
If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” 
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  
Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.  
Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.  
                                                     John 14:5-11.
Please think about it.

A Lunatic

A lunatic?

C. S. Lewis wrote,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” 
                                                                                         C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
There are many in the world today who would dismiss Jesus as simply a man. There are some that even say Jesus is a myth. These people are mistaken. Jesus is a real person who lived on this earth. A turning point in human history.
C. S. Lewis in the above statement from his book Mere Christianity, makes a valid point. For Jesus to say what he did, at the time he did it, in the culture he was living in meant would be crazy. No sain man would have done it.
Kenneth Scott Latourette, former President of American Historic Society
In A History of Christianity wrote,
“It is evidence of His importance, of the effect that He has had upon history and presumably, of the baffling mystery of His being that no other life ever lived on this planet has evoked so huge a volume of literature among so many people and languages, and that, far from ebbing, the flood continues to mount.”
“As the centuries pass by, the evidence is accumulating that measured by its effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet. The influence appears to be mounting.”
“No other life lived on this planet has so widely and deeply affected mankind.”
                                                                                                    Kenneth Scott Latourette
Napoleon Bonaparte said,
"You speak of Caesar, of Alexander, of their conquests and of the enthusiasm which they enkindled in the hearts of their soldiers; but can you conceive of a dead man making conquests, with an army faithful and entirely devoted to his memory? My armies have forgotten me even while living, as the Carthaginian army forgot Hannibal. Such is our power.”
“I know men and I tell you, Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour, millions would die for him.”
“I search in vain history to find similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel.  Neither history nor humanity, nor ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.”
                                                                                      Napoleon Bonaparte,
Jesus is no man he is God incarnate, God in the flesh.
Jesus said of Himself,
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 
John 14:6 
Quite a bold statement. Saying that He is the only way to heaven.
The gospel of John states,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men....
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” 
                                                                                                   John 1:1-4, 12-14 
Again quite the claim John stating Jesus is the creator of the world. AND that he came into the world He created.
If even this claim is wrong then people have nothing to fear. If however the claims of Jesus are correct people everywhere have at the very least something to think carefully about.
Please think about it.